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pp | The connectionist model states that a piece of knowledge is represented merely by a pattern of neuronal activation rather than by meaning. There is not yet a universally accepted knowledge organization model, because each has strengths and weaknesses.
Once stored, memories eventually must be retrieved from storage. Remembering past events is not like watching a recorded video. It is, rather, a process of reconstructing what may have happened based on the details the brain chose to store and was able to recall. Recall is triggered by a retrieval cue, an environmental stimulus that prompts the brain to retrieve the memory. Evidence shows that the better the retrieval cue, the higher the chance of recalling the memory. It is important to note that the retrieval cue can also make a person reconstruct a memory improperly. Memory distortions can be produced in various ways, including varying the wording of a question. For example, merely asking someone whether a red car had left the scene of a hit-and-run can make the person recall having seen a red car during later questioning, even if there was never a red car.
Information processing in the brain is the topic of a large, ongoing body of research. Although some people are fascinated by the brain on its own merits, a growing number are looking to psychology in order to better their own study skills and cognitive performance.
Modern brain research is being done in a variety of fields. Experimental psychologists at research universities are developing theories about the social and cognitive aspects of the brain and proving these by running tests on college freshmen. Neuroscientists use imaging techniques along with visual or auditory stimuli to measure and record changes within the brain. Cognitive science is an emerging discipline that was formed to integrate brain researchers in different fields. Princeton describes it as “the field of science concerned with cognition; including parts of cognitive psychology and linguistics and computer science and cognitive neuroscience and philosophy of mind.”
Experimental psychologists typically conduct research, develop theories, publish articles, and sometimes teach. Typically, they research topics like attention, learning, memory, thinking, sensation, and perception. They use the scientific method to conduct experiments.
Experimental psychologists set up an experiment to answer a question. For instance, asking the question “what is your favorite color?” can help an experimental psychologist determine what percent of people like the color red, which can lead to inferences about how the brain handles preferences. The experimenter would pass out surveys to a large number of people, as many as he can, to get a good sample of responses. Next, the survey responses are processed and turned into raw data. Finally, the experimenter selects a statistical equation to tell him different things about the data, like whether or not his hypothesis is true!
Brain research in neurobiology laboratories consists of imaging techniques like x-rays, PET scans, MRIs, fMRIs and, in some cases, particularly in animals, angiography. | 25 | English | male | BA | Copywriter | Y,Y,Y,Y,Y |
pp |
Monitoring Your Financial Accounts with MyID Identity Theft Solution
MyID can monitor your financial accounts for financial identity theft and notify you if it believes you have been compromised. Protect against identity theft with instant fraud notifications.
It’s painful but true: most identity thieves are people that you know – neighbors, friends, relatives, or co-workers. According to a survey by Javelin Research, as many as half of identity thefts can be attributed to someone that the victim knew. These are some potential identity thieves that you may know.
Unemployed with rich lifestyles. Identity thieves often give themselves away by living out of their means, given their resources and credit. If you know how much money someone makes, but their lifestyle doesn’t correlate with that, it might be a warning sign.
People without any impulse control. Whether they are addicts or just simply impatient, these are spenders who wants what they want, and they want it now. These thieves think they deserve more than they have. They could be young, even teenagers, who have a history of stealing credit cards.
Addicts. Impaired judgment and a desperate need of money make addicts one of the prime perpetrators of identity theft. These might be drug addicts, compulsive gamblers, or alcoholics.
Nosy friends. You caught her rifling through your files. If she found last year’s tax returns, she already has everything she needs to commit identity theft.
The Ex. An ex holding a grudge can do a lot of damage in a short amount of time. He knows enough to open accounts in your name, and he has the motive to hurt you. If you’ve just broken up, you’ll want to take extra care in checking your financial statements to ensure that he or she didn’t make away with one of your credit cards.
MyID Identity Theft Protection
MyID Identity Theft Monitoring and Identity Theft Protection software provides identity theft alerts any time your identity is used to open a new account. Instant fraud notifications like the “Is This You?” identity verification ensures that you’ll never be caught unaware by an identity thief.
Identity thieves use a number of different ways to steal an individual’s personal information, and many of them use the internet to get this information. With technology advancing at the speed it is, it is crucial to know how to protect your financial information online.
Do not put personal information in e-mails. Sending an email message is not the same as sending something through certified mail. In fact, email is one of the main resources that identity thieves use to steal personal information. Do not send any of your personal information through email, even if you know the person you are sending it to. There are ways that identity thieves can “intercept” these messages, and they can then use the information from the email to take over your identity. It is also important to never respond to any email requesting personal information from someone you do not know. | 25 | English | male | BA | Copywriter | Y,Y,Y,Y,Y |
pp | Of the 101 apps reviewed by the Wall Street Journal, 45 did not even have a published privacy policy.
Many of these apps simply do not allow users to opt-out of phone tracking.
The most widely shared piece of personal information on the Internet is the phone’s unique identifier number. This number cannot be changed, deleted, or modified, and it is forever attached to a single phone’s usage history. The number-one recipient of this unique identifier number is Google as part of their advertisement targeting service. In essence, Google’s advertising department has a history of your cell phone usage; including download history, what games you play, and how long you play them for.
Additionally, not all third-parties are the same. While information sent to Pandora’s sponsors may be aggregated and not linked to a phone’s unique identifier (whether this is the case is not apparent), can you be sure that an independent game developer is protecting online privacy beyond his own monetary interests? For games with millions of installs, like Angry Birds, companies pay big bucks for collated and organized user identifying data, and though Apple and Google have both encouraged app developers to maintain user privacy through privacy policies, opt-out procedures, opt-in tracking, and collecting data anonymously, apps are not required to have any of these features to be included in either marketplace. In essence, your privacy on the Internet is protected only by the scruples of the app developer themselves.
LinkedIn is a social networking site for employees and employers. It functions as a Web resume, allowing employers to recommend employees for work they have done in the past, and allowing employees to find new work from the thousands of posted available jobs. In the job market, “putting yourself out there” is often seen as a good thing. If potential employers acting in a business capacity were the only people who could see your resume, it would be fine to post your contact information on LinkedIn, and, on LinkedIn, you can protect your privacy through the use of the LinkedIn social network privacy settings.
The Accounts & Settings section of LinkedIn allows you to choose how your information is displayed. By clicking on the Public Profile link on LinkedIn, you can change privacy settings that control what information is displayed on your profile to users who are not connected to you in any way on LinkedIn. It is best to make your public profile visible to everyone but only show your name, industry, location, number of recommendations, and headline. This will make it possible for people who are looking specifically for you to identify you and send you a connection request and will also limit the amount of information harvesting that can be done by people you do not know. Of course, if you want, you can also make yourself impossible to find by anyone you have not directly initiated a connection with by making your public profile visible to no one.
| 25 | English | male | BA | Copywriter | Y,Y,Y,Y,Y |
pp | For nearly a hundred years, IQ was the standard by which we measured the relative intelligence of people. A paradigm shift occurred when studies in the 1980s by Howard Gardner showed that EQ is a better predictor of success than IQ. The responsible handling of emotions leads to fewer incidences of acting out and bad behavior and lowers incidences of violence, depression, and low motivation. It creates better perception of emotion in faces and pictures, including in one’s own image. When children don’t have these skills, they often exhibit challenging or confrontational behavior or become quiet and withdrawn.
Educators have a duty to teach students to manage their emotions, resolve conflicts peacefully, and be responsible for their actions. Effective teaching of emotional intelligence requires, first and foremost, good teacher and parent role models. By creating an environment of emotional acceptance and encouraging children to work through their emotions in a positive way, children will learn that certain behaviors are allowed and others are not. It’s also important to look for teachable moments in your everyday life. For example, if a child hits another child, discipline must be accompanied by teaching, for example, telling children that hitting is not okay and to get an adult if they need help resolving a dispute. However, there are two reasons this is not the most effective way to teach social behavior. First, the incident has already occurred, and both children are upset and will not be receptive to learning. Second, the child might find the teacher’s attention reinforcing and hit children just to get the teacher’s attention again. Instead, social skills should be taught like any other part of the curriculum, with lessons as part of the daily schedule.
Parents, how can you help your children improve their emotional intelligence? According to specialists, emotional learning starts at home at an early age. By being attentive to your young child’s emotional needs, you can find opportunities to teach emotional learning in your day-to-day life. An easy way to begin is by discussing moods and asking questions like “What makes you angry?” It’s important to teach children that emotions are normal, but that they should be able to regulate them.
Educators, want some tips on providing social and emotional education to your students? There are several emotional education programs for teachers, including “The Resolving Conflicts Creatively Program”. Integrating these programs into the daily curriculum and lesson plans will help your students understand how to behave with their peers. Your students will realize that you value their emotional maturity as much as their academic success. You should encourage your students to keep a journal about their feelings. Self-awareness and self-reflection is a large part of emotional maturity. Students can be taught strategies to remain calm and in a positive mood.
Teaching children how to handle their emotions is an important part of learning. Good parents and teachers have a duty to provide instruction in dealing with emotions constructively.
| 25 | English | male | BA | Copywriter | Y,Y,Y,Y,Y |
pp |
A similar theory that has enjoyed much more success holds that there are likely at least two types of intelligence, primarily IQ, the intelligence quotient, and EQ, the emotional-intelligence quotient. Many believe that EQ matters more than IQ in terms of potential business or personal success.
Additionally, there are a number of critiques of IQ tests that apply regardless of which type of intelligence it measures. First, IQ tests are highly subjective in their scoring between cohorts. The tests must be continuously changed to stay relevant. For instance, an early IQ test asked eight-year-olds, “What is Mars?” If you answered “The fourth planet from the sun,” you would be wrong, as the correct answer was, “The largest candy maker in the world.” The Mars Bar was a common snack food for children, but astronomy was not a common topic of instruction in schools. Additionally, sharing a demographic with the person who wrote the test questions leads to inflated scores, and this has been demonstrated to inflate the scores of white males.
While it leads to interesting research if it is true, there may never be a test that accurately measures different or multiple intelligences. Still, one must recognize that some people who score poorly on IQ tests are profoundly good at other activities. If anything, this shows why it is important to be critical of IQ testing.
Food for thought: Do you know someone with a high level of intelligence in something untraditional? For example, how would you rate the intelligence of a star quarterback? What about someone like Einstein, who did not learn to speak until he was eight or nine years old? Edgar Allen Poe, one of America’s finest writers, was profoundly asocial and was afflicted with manic depression. The theory of multiple intelligences supports the idea that these men were profoundly intelligent, even if they did not score highly on traditional IQ tests.
Everyone learns differently. According to psychologists and education specialists, there are three prevalent learning styles. If you want to discover what types of learner you (or your students) are, ask yourself, if you wanted to paint a room, how much paint do you need?
Visual learners like to see charts, diagrams, overhead transparencies, handouts, videos, worksheets, and examples. They work best when they can see the facial expressions and body language of the teacher. Oftentimes, visual learners prefer to sit near the front of the class where they can avoid visual distractions. Usually, visual learners will take very detailed notes. Asking visual learners to picture a concept in their head is a useful way to communicate information to them. To address the painting problem, visual learners would conduct research online or by reading the backs of paint cans. If there is a problem, visual learners might take measurements and make charts or diagrams of the room.
Auditory learners learn primarily through verbal lectures and classroom discussion. Often, they will encourage discussion and ask open-ended questions. Auditory learners benefit less from reading textbooks. | 25 | English | male | BA | Copywriter | Y,Y,Y,Y,Y |
pp | What is a dream? The most accessible definition is that it is simply a series of images, sounds, and emotions that are experienced during sleep. What causes dreaming? When the body enters REM sleep, it begins to send signals to different parts of the brain. These signals go through parts of the brain associated with memory and emotions. Though no one knows where dreams originate or what the purpose of dreaming is, many scientists hypothesize that it is the result of the highly active, yet random, neuronal firings. These scientists would speculate that dreams are your brain trying to make sense of random emotions and memories. For example, being fearful because you dream that you are lost in the woods might simply be the brain stimulating the fear center at the same time that it stimulates the memory of trees or forests.
Do we dream in color? About 60% of people report that they “always” dream in color. 32% of people report that they sometimes dream in color and only 7.7% of people report that they never dream in color. That means over 92% of people report that they dream in color. Since no one can, at the time of this writing, read your dreams, all of this information is self-reported by survey.
People all over the world tend to dream of the same things. In a scientific analysis of over 1,000 dreams, researchers found that most dreams are based on emotions (primarily anxiety), sexual themes (about ten percent of dreams in adolescents and about eight percent in adults), and personal experiences from the last day or week. Over 65% of people report that they have recurring dreams.
We spend about 3,000 hours per year sleeping. Sleep has a number of benefits, and a healthy night of it is always a cherished prize. Though we are asleep, our bodies are hard at work repairing themselves. To help you stay asleep, your brain becomes less receptive to outside light or sound stimuli, but if you look inside the brain, you will find the brain itself is quite active (Paraphrased from a Washington University professor).
People with sleeping problems often visit doctors certified by the American Academy of Sleep Medicine (AASM). These technicians monitor the brain’s activity during sleep by attaching electrodes to the scalp. A machine, called an electroencephalograph (EEG), records the brain activity during sleep. Other tests monitor eye activity and can provide additional information about REM sleep.
There are five stages of sleep. Stages one through four range from light sleep to deep sleep, and stage five is REM sleep. REM is one of the lightest stages of sleep. REM sleep occurs about every two hours throughout the night. During REM, the brain stops stimulating the brain’s motor cortex. This prevents dreams from causing potentially dangerous movements of the body. Directly after REM, the body descends into a deep sleep. Eventually, sleep will lighten and REM will occur again. | 25 | English | male | BA | Copywriter | Y,Y,Y,Y,Y |
pp | Identity thieves will even send emails claiming to be from a company that needs you personal information for financial purposes. Remember that no reputable company or business would ever contact you through email asking for this type of information.
Use anti-virus and anti-spyware software. This is one of the most important things you can do to keep identity thieves from accessing personal information that is stored on your computer. Identity thieves use viruses and spyware to gain access to the passwords, files, and browsing history on your computer. By doing this, identity thieves can learn about your personal information, such as account numbers, PINs, and passwords, and then use the information to gain access to your bank accounts and credit cards. It is even possible for some identity thieves to gain enough information from your computer to open new, fraudulent accounts without your knowledge. By using anti-virus and anti-spyware software, you can keep identity thieves from accessing any of your private documents that are stored on your computer.
Choose secure passwords. Online banking accounts and credit card accounts are very common, and it is important to choose secure passwords for these types of accounts. Choose passwords that have uppercase and lowercase letters, symbols, and numbers. It is also good to have a different password for each of your financial accounts. This way, if an identity thief does gain access to one account, they will not be able to use the other one. It is good to keep a hand-written list of your online passwords so that you will not forget them. Put this list somewhere safe in your home where no one else will have access to it but you. Never store a list of passwords on your computer or anywhere online because if an identity thief gained access to the files stored on your computer, they would then have access to every single account that is listed in the file containing your passwords.
Cookies are small bits of information that sites store on your computer to track the places you have been on the Web. They help sites create advertisements targeted for a customer, which ad network tracking specialists say increase the effectiveness of the advertisements. Have you ever noticed an Internet advertisement that was a product you had just searched for? The reason the advertisers knew your preferences was because of ad tracking.
Want to see how private you are on the Internet? Visit Panopticlick, at https://panopticlick.eff.org/, and see just how much information your browser reveals to the Web sites you visit. Each and every computer has a browser fingerprint based on one or more points of identifying information, from the exact version of the browser that you use, to the fonts you have installed, to the resolution of your screen. Web sites use these details to enhance your browsing experience, but if a Web site stores this information about you, it can be effective at tracking where individuals go on a site.
| 25 | English | male | BA | Copywriter | Y,Y,Y,Y,Y |
pp | The Montessori method was created in the early 20th century by Maria Montessori, an Italian educator and physician. The philosophical tenet behind the Montessori method is that children each have their own internal guidance for self-directed development. The teacher acts as a guide, watching over the classroom to remove obstacles from learning but not participating as a direct instructor. Lessons given by the teacher often involve how to use or play with the various instructional toys in the classroom.
According to Dr. Montessori, each child develops through several stages, each unique and requiring a slightly different teaching strategy. The first occurs between birth and age six. This stage represents the time when infants, toddlers, and children acquire language and begin to experience the world for the first time. It includes the development of the ego, where the child begins to first differentiate between self and other. The second stage occurs between the ages of six and twelve, during which children begin to develop the capacity for independent thought and abstract reasoning. This stage is marked by the desire to interact socially and emotionally with others. The last stage in development is adolescence.
Instead of instructing with rote lectures, handouts, worksheets, and lesson plans, a Montessori teacher will offer guidance, but the child is ultimately responsible for his or her own individual learning. The classroom will often contain several stations, each containing toys which allow children to explore and learn. For example, a common station in a Montessori classroom will have a bucket of Lego blocks and several pictures of simple objects like an apple or a house, which the children can build if they want. Other stations might have books, crayons, a xylophone, or other engaging activities. The whole idea behind the Montessori classroom is allowing children to learn through playing.
Another interesting uniqueness to Montessori classrooms is age grouping. Typically, in Western schools, children are separated by ages and grade levels, interacting primarily with children their own age. A Montessori classroom will often be a mixed-age class, for example, containing all children between the ages of three and six. This is important because children are always at different stages in their development, and younger children can learn by watching older children play. This process is known as scaffolding and was formulated by Lev Vygotsky as a method of social learning.
A Montessori classroom is different from a typical classroom in a number of important ways. These changes encourage children to develop independently into well-rounded individuals. By allowing children to play, instead of sit and listen to lectures, the classroom allows children develop the motivation to learn and explore. Though it’s not the traditional way to teach a class, the Montessori method offers empirically-supported advantages to children above and beyond normal development and learning.
The Waldorf method of teaching is a unique educational strategy which aims to create well-rounded students through a broad curriculum, including academics, art and music education, physical education, and emotional and social education. | 25 | English | male | BA | Copywriter | Y,Y,Y,Y,Y |
pp | High levels of education in certain areas of China and Russia plus a national broadband system and a government which may not support, but at least condones, computer crime against foreign nationals also lead to the majority of real threats originating from these areas.
Most hackers are young, under thirty. The reasons for this are uncertain, but it is known that their respective governments recruit the best and brightest hackers as part of their military. Hackers who own botnets, malware worms that infest many computers at once and allow the hackers to control them remotely, are usually in business for themselves, selling their services to the highest bidder. Services rendered by these botnet operators most commonly include money laundering and denial of service attacks. Other hackers are simply guns-for-hire, paid between $1,000 and $5,000 to compromise a specific computer.
Hackers are often genius-level students who are creative and enjoy puzzles or challenges. Infiltrating a computer system often requires the hacker to practice on similar machines for many hours. In many cases, the hacker will read through the actual programming code that the machine uses until something sticks out as wrong. This is usually due to a programmer error, but these are often overlooked when many individual programmers work on a single piece of code. More novice hackers read the latest security reports from Microsoft and simply attack unpatched computers before the computers have a chance to install the updates. These programs are often distributed among the hacker community as ways to break into certain systems. Many of these programs are freely available on the Internet today for any novice interested in getting started as a hacker.
Some hackers do not attack the computer systems at all, preferring to manipulate the human behind the system instead. These hackers, known as social engineers, are usually behind most of the phishing and pharming scams on the Internet.
Hackers come in two varieties, called black hat and white hat. The black hat hackers are the criminal element, doing things that are illegal or immoral in order to make money or simply for vandalism. White hat hackers are often individuals hacking for the fun or the challenge with no intention to harm any of the computers they compromise. It’s proper etiquette in the white hat community to send instructions on how to patch the hole to the administrator of a compromised system via an email from his own account.
Since hackers fight on their own turf, most individuals stand little or no chance against them without relying on the security consultants who release the updates to their operating system, browser, and anti-virus software. Many white-hat hackers end up working as security consultants for organizations such as these.
The “Do Not Track” bill introduced in the House of Representatives would ban advertisers from tracking the behavior of users who opt-out of ad tracking for marketing purposes. | 25 | English | male | BA | Copywriter | Y,Y,Y,Y,Y |
pp | They may not take many notes. Auditory learners follow oral directions better than written ones. They prefer listening to the radio rather than reading a newspaper. They often hum, whistle, or sing to themselves. They are usually very articulate and enjoy debates. They like telling jokes and stories. They make verbal analogies to demonstrate points. They work well with mnemonics. To address the painting problem, auditory learners would call a friend who knows how to paint and ask for instructions or advice. They will listen carefully and follow the instructions to the best of their ability. If there are any problems, they will discuss the problems and solutions with an expert.
Tactile learners enjoy a hands-on approach, participating in experiments and actively exploring the world around them. Many tactile learners have trouble sitting still and participating in a classroom lecture. A tell-tale sign of a tactile learner is drawing or doodling during class. Tactile learners often work skillfully with their hands to make or repair things. They often prefer to stand while working. They may use their hands more than the average person to communicate what they want to say. They are good at finding their way around, even in an unfamiliar place. They excel at jigsaw puzzles. They touch or hug others as a sign of friendship. To address the painting problem, tactile learners would go and buy a can of paint and just jump in. When they run out of paint, they simply go and buy more. Eventually, they will learn through experience how much paint is needed to paint a room.
Since information is conveyed in different ways, a student’s learning style will affect the things they learn. If something is written down but not discussed in class, or if sufficient examples are not provided, there may be gaps in the knowledge of students. Recognizing the differences in learning styles can ensure that teachers always convey important information by all three methods: saying it, writing it, and showing examples.
If learning is the process by which we incorporate ideas and information into our memories, then learning theory aims to describe the nature of the process and offer insight into how teaching can be improved. There are several modern co-existing theories on how we learn, each offering answers to one of several questions – what, when, why, and how.
To answer the question of “what” we learn, we know there are four types of information acquisition: transmission, acquisition, accretion, and emergence. Transmission is the transfer of knowledge from one person to another by demonstration, guidance, or direct instruction. It’s the traditional way that we envision teaching, but it really only accounts for a small amount of what we learn in our lifetimes. Acquisition is conscious research, guided by the learner. This includes exploration, experimentation, and curiosity. Accretion is a gradual, sometimes subliminal, acquisition of knowledge. This is the primary source for learning about language, habits, culture, and social rules, and it accounts for most of the things that we know. | 25 | English | male | BA | Copywriter | Y,Y,Y,Y,Y |
pp | Avoiding being tracked by cookies, while still maintaining Web usability, is the Holy Grail for Web users. There are a few steps you can take to make sure you avoid ad tracking. First, download a modern browser like Firefox. Internet Explorer is notoriously bad at keeping your computer secure and untrackable. Install the Firefox Add-on Flashblock. Flashblock stops Adobe’s Flash application from storing cookies that enable you to be tracked anywhere on the Web. Install the Firefox Add-on NoScript. This unique whitelist-based script blocking approach prevents the use of JavaScript security vulnerabilities, both known and unknown.
Next, you should do some deep cleaning with tracking cookie removal.
To Remove Tracking Cookies in Internet Explorer, Open Internet Options by clicking the Start button, clicking Control Panel, clicking Network and Internet, and then clicking Internet Options. Click the General tab, and then, under Browsing history, click Delete. Under Cookies, click Delete cookies, and then click Yes to confirm that you want to delete them. Click Close, and then click OK.
To Remove Tracking Cookies in Firefox, click on the Tools menu and select Clear Recent History. Set the time range to Everything. Click the arrow next to Details and select Cookies from the list. Make sure that items you do not wish to delete are unchecked and click Clear Now.
To Remove Tracking Cookies in Google Chrome, click on the wrench icon on the browser toolbar. Select Options, then the Under the Hood tab. Click Content Settings, then Cookies. To delete all cookies, select Remove All.
Smart-phone users collect apps, especially the free ones. But, as the adage goes, there’s no such thing as a free lunch. Smart phone apps collect data about you as you use them, and many deliver this data not only to the apps owner but to third parties as well.
An investigative report by the Wall Street Journal [1] found that iPhone and Android apps routinely track and send data like your contacts, age, gender, location, phone ID, phone number and usage habits to anonymous parties, angering many users concerned with the privacy on the internet.
According to the report, the big offenders are not the kind of underbelly-scale applications you might expect. Angry Birds and Pandora are two of the biggest offenders. Even apps one might suppose were mindful of concerns about personal information on the Internet, like the CBS News app, routinely send location and identification details to undisclosed third parties. The best-in-breed of these apps include Facebook, YouTube, and ESPN ScoreCenter, which transmit no data to third parties and only send limited data to their parent company.
The privacy settings of some apps, like the bi and gay social networking app Grindr, is appalling. Grindr sends age, gender, location, and identification information to various third parties for marketing purposes. Are Grindr users even aware of this breach of personal privacy? It’s unlikely that many read the privacy policy before signing up. | 25 | English | male | BA | Copywriter | Y,Y,Y,Y,Y |
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The MyID Theft Risk Score gives you actionable insight into the risk of you becoming a victim of identity theft. Your ID Theft Risk Score is a quick and easy way to gain insight into whether your personal information is at risk of misuse.
Your ID Theft Risk Score uses patented technology to identify suspicious or unusual access to your identity. Our statistical formulas use hundreds of variables that affect your unique, individual risk of identity theft. The result is a number between 0 and 999 that quickly assesses whether or not you are at risk for identity fraud.
Built from the ground up, our identity theft monitoring engine has grown to include over 700 billion aggregated identity attributes and one billion consumer transactions. The service receives over 45 million reports per day from leading financial institutions, retailers, wireless providers, credit card issuers, auto and mortgage lenders, and other issuers of credit.
Building on this robust database of information, events and patterns surrounding your personal information privacy can lead to an increase or decrease in your ID Theft Risk Score.
To check your ID Theft Risk Score, you are required to submit a Social Security number, Name, Address, Home Phone number, and Date of Birth. Additional details such as a Cell Phone number, E-mail address, and IP address can improve precision and add further insight into your risk level.
Individuals with high identity theft risk should take immediate and aggressive steps to protect personal information. These steps include reviewing credit card statements and bank account activity, requesting a free credit report, or requesting a credit freeze or fraud alert with a credit bureau.
Identity Theft Protection your ID Theft Risk Score with MyID
Track how your ID Theft Risk Score changes on a day-to-day and month-to-month basis with MyID identity theft monitoring. MyID Monitoring sends monthly reports with your current risk score, last month’s risk score, a report of circumstances that increased or decreased your risk score for the month, and the ability to access your risk scores for the previous 36 months.
The end of a relationship can be a high-strung time. With soapboxes like Facebook and personal blogs, a vengeful ex often has the motivation and opportunity to irrevocably damage your reputation. These days, first impressions are made online. According to author Michael Fertik, “The first ten Google results on a search of your name are now your resume.” Online reputation management can be difficult, but not impossible. Here are some simple steps for protecting your personal reputation online.
First, be sure to secure your accounts from unauthorized access. If your ex had any of your passwords, be sure to change them immediately (and don’t give them away next time – your e-mail is none of their business).
You should also set up Google News alerts for your own name, so that you know when you pop up in blogs and news stories. | 25 | English | male | BA | Copywriter | Y,Y,Y,Y,Y |
pp | Briefly, the other options you have to further limit what people see about you include disabling Connections Browse, which keeps your connections private, Profile Views, which limits what information people who you have browsed can see, opting out of the Service Provider Directory and the LinkedIn Partner Advertising directory. These settings will limit the number of eyes on your profile but will not limit your ability to use your LinkedIn profile as a resume.
You can also use this page to control the unsolicited e-mail you receive by modifying the settings on the Receiving Messages settings page as well as the InMails page.
MyID Can Protect Your Privacy Settings and Alert You If They Change
The MyID suite of privacy applications can protect your privacy as it monitors dozens of social network privacy settings. MyID can change privacy settings to a more secure setting and help you understand what information is private and public. Protect personal information with the MyID identity theft monitoring solution.
If you’d like to make your whole blog private, head to Settings and then Privacy and check the radio button for I would like my blog to be visible only to users I choose. Click Save Changes, and then you can start to add users by their Wordpress username.
The Word Press Blog Visibility settings have three options which will allow you to set the level of privacy of your blog. The default setting allows everyone, including search engines, to access your blog. The second, more limited, setting blocks search engines from crawling your blog, requiring users to type in your URL directly. Depending on how much personal information you post on your blog, you can choose to change privacy settings to a high level in order to protect your privacy.
If you’d like to make a particular post private so that only you or a bunch of people you choose can see it, all you need to do is head to the post editor and click on Visibility in the Publish pane. You can choose to make the post either password protected, in which case you’ll need to supply a password, or private, which means only that you or other blog contributors will be able to see it. Click OK and that will be made effective immediately.
By changing privacy settings of your WordPress blog, you can protect your privacy and be sure that only approved users read your content.
Maximize Privacy on Social Networks with MyID
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Without resorting to Hollywood stereotypes about hackers, let’s take a look at the demographics, psychology, and goals of your average online computer hacker.
The vast majority of hackers are from China or Russia. These nations serve as a breeding ground for criminals of every kind, not just computer criminals. | 25 | English | male | BA | Copywriter | Y,Y,Y,Y,Y |
pp | The possibility that Internet users will be able to hide what they do from the ubiquitous ad tracking is a big win for consumers concerned with Internet privacy.
Lawmakers have heralded the bill as a companion to the “Do Not Call” registry that was introduced in 2003. The registry prevented telemarketers from calling consumers who chose to opt-out from telemarketing calls. The “Do Not Track” bill would similarly force advertisers to respect the privacy of users who do not want their online activity to be subject to ad network tracking for marketing purposes.
According to Rep. Jackie Speier (D-Hillsborough), the bill’s sponsor, “Consumers have a right to determine what if any of their information is shared with big corporations, and the federal government must have the authority and tools to enforce reasonable protections.”
The “Do Not Track” bill would give the FTC eighteen months to come up with a set of enforceable privacy protection regulations for online ad network tracking. Some, like Ryan Calo, director of Stanford Law School’s Consumer Privacy Project, believe the bill does not go far enough. For one, he said, the bill only applied to those who chose to opt-out from ad network tracking. It does not affect those who do not know that they can or do not know how. This objection is partially overruled as the newest edition of the Firefox browser makes prevalent a “Do Not Track Me” option said to be the response to this and other similar bills.
FBI Wants to Expand Internet Wiretapping
The FBI, in an effort to keep up with the changing landscape of the Internet, is calling for a push to expand its capabilities in intercepting online evidence. Citing advances in “webmail, social networking sites, and peer-to-peer services,” the FBI’s general counsel, Valerie Caproni, addressed Congress to discuss the increasing difficulty in tracing electronic communication in ongoing cases. According to Ms. Caproni, “In the ever-changing world of modern communications technologies, however, the FBI and other government agencies are facing a potentially widening gap between our legal authority to intercept electronic communications pursuant to court order and our practical ability to actually intercept those communications. As the gap between authority and capability widens, the government is increasingly unable to collect valuable evidence in cases ranging from child exploitation and pornography to organized crime and drug trafficking to terrorism and espionage.”
The FBI argues that the current limitations on their wiretapping are antiquated. Many statutes have not been updated since the early nineties. Some of the statutes allow the FBI to read e-mail stored on a local server that is more than six months old. These laws date back to a time when users fetched their mail from a single computer almost daily, so e-mail that had been on a server for six months was considered abandoned. In the age of webmail, users keep most of their emails forever. | 25 | English | male | BA | Copywriter | Y,Y,Y,Y,Y |
pp |
The human brain is a complicated, creative information-processing system. As technology advanced from primitive to modern, the metaphors used to describe the brain also advanced. Initially, it was compared to a wax tablet, then to a sheet of papyrus, then to a book, and most recently, to a computer. As you learn about the brain, keep in mind that the usefulness of these metaphors is limited and can lead to erroneous conclusions.
Information processing starts with input from the sensory organs, which transform physical stimuli such as touch, heat, sound waves, or photons of light into electrochemical signals. The sensory information is repeatedly transformed by the algorithms of the brain in both bottom-up and top-down processing. For example, when looking at a picture of a black box on a white background, bottom-up processing puts together very simple information such as color, orientation, and where the borders of the object are – where the color changes significantly over a short space – to decide that you are seeing a box. Top-down processing uses the decisions made at some steps of the bottom-up process to speed up your recognition of the box. Top-down processing in this example might help you identify the object as a black box rather than a box-shaped hole in the white background.
Once information is processed to a degree, an attention filter decides how important the signal is and which cognitive processes it should be made available to. For example, although your brain processes every blade of grass when you look down at your shoes, a healthy attention filter prevents you from noticing them individually. In contrast, you might pick out your name, even when spoken in a noisy room. There are many stages of processing, and the results of processing are modulated by attention repeatedly.
In order for the brain to process information, it must first be stored. There are multiple types of memory, including sensory, working, and long-term. First, information is encoded. There are types of encoding specific to each type of sensory stimuli. For example, verbal input can be encoded structurally, referring to what the printed word looks like, phonemically, referring to what the word sounds like, or semantically, referring to what the word means. Once information is stored, it must be maintained. Some animal studies suggest that working memory, which stores information for roughly 20 seconds, is maintained by an electrical signal looping through a particular series of neurons for a short period of time. Information in long-term memory is hypothesized to be maintained in the structure of certain types of proteins.
There are numerous models of how the knowledge is organized in the brain, some based on the way human subjects retrieve memories, others based on computer science, and others based on neurophysiology. The semantic network model states that there are nodes representing concepts, and that the nodes are linked based on their relatedness. For example, in a semantic network, “chair” might be linked to “table,” which can be linked to “wooden,” and so forth. | 25 | English | male | BA | Copywriter | Y,Y,Y,Y,Y |
pp | Brain research is usually not conducted on people; the majority of the research is done in laboratories on mice. The mouse brain is very similar to our brain, only much smaller! X-ray technology, like a CT scan, can show the structure of the brain. PET scans, or positron emission tomography, detect gases that have been marked with radioactive material during the experiment. The radioactive signatures allow the PET scan to detect the presence of the inhaled gas in the brain or organs. MRI stands for Magnetic Resonance Imaging. It is a non-invasive brain scan that shows the structure of the brain, like an x-ray in high definition. MRI machines cost millions of dollars. Finally, the fMRI scan, or functional MRI, allows researchers to detect changes to the blood flow in the brain, allowing a very accurate view of the brain and neural activation. Neurobiologists use these techniques to research how different stimuli, like light, sound, or pictures, affect the brain.
Psychotherapy also attempts to understand the human brain. Psychotherapy is a strong component of many therapeutic approaches to treating problems including PTSD, substance addiction, and eating disorders.
Scientists these days recognize that a number of different fields are involved with brain research. This realization has led to the emergence of cognitive science, a discipline that aims to connect researchers from many different disciplines, including psychology, artificial intelligence, philosophy, neuroscience, learning, linguistics, anthropology, and sociology. Cognitive science students typically do coursework in linguistics, philosophy, psychology, and computers, providing a broad, interdisciplinary education.
Direct instruction is a theory of education which posits that the most effective way to teach is by explicit, guided instructions. This method of teaching directly contrasts other styles of teaching, which might be more passive or encourage exploration. It is a very common teaching strategy, relying on strict lesson plans and lectures with little or no room for variation. Direct instruction does not include activities like discussion, recitation, seminars, workshops, case studies, or internships.
Though direct instruction is probably the oldest form of teaching, it came into a more modern light when a program was created by a professor at Johns Hopkins University in the mid-1980s as a way to address the problems of inner-city Baltimore schools. In this program, which focused on reading instruction, ninety minutes each day were dedicated to pre-ordained lesson plans and worksheets. The plan primarily featured scripted instruction and specific activities in which children engaged for defined periods of time. The program’s goal was to teach every child in the class to read at the same level.
Today, most K-12 education uses a modernized version of the original program. Previously known as DISTAR, an acronym for “Direct Instruction System for Teaching Arithmetic and Reading,” and created by SRA/McGraw-Hill, modern programs offer standard lesson plans for Reading and Arithmetic based on grade level. Teacher resources like DISTAR materials can be found under the republished names “Reading Mastery,” “Language for Learning,” and “Arithmetic I/II.” | 25 | English | male | BA | Copywriter | Y,Y,Y,Y,Y |
pp | Emergence results from internal reflection. It is the construction of new ideas or theories based on a synthesis of existing knowledge, and it is the primary source of originality.
Piaget’s theory of cognitive development answers the question of “when” we learn. According to Piaget, children develop according to stages. The rate of development depends on the fulfillment of intellectual and emotional milestones, each stage building on the successful completion of previous stages. The specifics of Piaget’s theory have been improved by further research, but Piaget’s stage-oriented view of development remains the most prominent theory of when learning occurs.
Why do we learn? Many people have never asked this question. Lev Vygotsky’s theory of Social Cognition offers interesting insight into the reasons behind learning. According to Vygotsky, learning occurs primarily because of cultural influence. The social cognition learning model posits that children learn because culture teaches them both what to think and how to think.
How we learn has been a widely studied and, at times, a hotly debated topic. The earliest modern model of learning is B.F. Skinner’s behaviorist theory. Behaviorism is the theory that positive and negative reinforcement influences and controls learning. According to Skinner, negative reinforcement, also known as punishment, will discourage behavior, while positive reinforcement, like praise, will encourage it. Animal studies strongly support the behaviorist model. Animals learn very quickly to avoid the button or lever that delivers a shock while pressing the button that delivers the food. Many psychologists dispute behaviorism’s ability to tell the whole story. After all, human beings respond to more than just rewards and punishments. Many cognitive scientists have dismissed behaviorism because of its perceived inability to explain the intricate methods of learning and cognition in which the human brain engages. Additionally, it fails to explain how the social environment affects learning. The idea that behavior can be explained without referencing sociocultural influences is a tenet of behaviorism, leading to a theory that most scientists dismiss as too narrow. A person’s behavior depends on more than just the rewards and punishments that they have experienced throughout their life. Noam Chomsky, a famous linguist, dismissed behaviorism for its inability to explain language acquisition in children. Language seems to be learned without being explicitly taught.
All of these theories can co-exist because they attempt to explain different methods or types of learning. Each answers a different question, and together, they provide a broad understanding of the brain and learning.
The Montessori method of teaching is a modern educational movement that encourages teachers to view children and classroom education differently than the common teacher-student relationship. Instead of focusing on academic education, the Montessori method focuses on respecting and encouraging each child’s individual differences, providing a nurturing environment to teach social interaction and emotional skills. The Montessori method is most often applied at the pre-school level due to its focus on early child development.
| 25 | English | male | BA | Copywriter | Y,Y,Y,Y,Y |
kk | Again, "I liked this" is fine.
More fondly known as "constructive criticism," negative reviews are just as important as positive ones, even if they do sometimes smart on the receiving end. If you have just read a story which was good but you feel was marred by some aspect or another --- perhaps something was not canonical, perhaps the author spelled a character's name wrong --- you should not feel intimidated about pointing this out to the author.
To leave an effective critique, you must keep some things in mind. First, you are not superior to the author, and the author is not superior to you. You are peers and equals, perhaps not friends but certainly companions along the road of fandom. Using a review to further a grudge, call names, or make yourself feel important is impolite and counterproductive. As a rule, stick to language you would feel comfortable relating to your mother. (Dr. Merlin is aware her relationship with her own mother is perhaps a poor example for this case, but rest assured Merlin's medications are being adjusted as we speak.) Find something positive to say about the story at the beginning and end of your critique, even if you are merely complimenting the author's spelling. Also, and this cannot be stressed enough, if you are nitpicking a detail, make sure you are right before you critique; few things are as embarrassing as pointing out that the author is misspelling a character's name, only to discover you've been doing so all along. Fact check yourself, and you will come across as a reliable source of information. Be truthful, be specific, and again, be polite.
Constructive criticism is often best handled via private email rather than public messageboard. You can engage in a dialogue with the writer and perhaps the concerns you had will be explained as intentional on the part of the author rather than errors, at which point the discussion becomes a matter of what is and isn't effective storytelling. As an example, years ago I received a critique on a story that used an obscure character from canon in order to show what was going on in the lead character's mind. The reviewer suggested that no one would know who the character was, which made it less effective. This was useful to know for character choice in future stories, but it was also not as relevant for the story in question as the intended audience was a small subset of the fandom who were very familiar with the character. This discussion was vital for us to understand each other's position.
Critiques on small details (spelling, eye color, canon trivia) that can be easily changed, especially right after publication, are blessings on an author's house. Critiques on large details (pacing, characterization, plot structure) are lessons for future stories, and are also blessings. Critiques on small details for older stories, especially those more than a few years old, are perhaps not worth your time in pointing out. | 37 | English | female | Masters degree | chemist | N,N,N,N,N |
kk | In terms of a critique, following with "and I'm sorry to say this story did not move me from my dislike" can be useful but should only be employed when you honestly believe the author could benefit in some fashion from the comment. (If you believe the author could benefit from no longer enjoying the pairing in question, you should perhaps seek the remedial course in "Fandom: We All Like Different Things and That's Okay.")
A review consisting entirely of how much you hate the source material on which the story is based, again unless it is followed by praise of the author's ability to make you enjoy it. This is poor manners and it begs your ability to read a story header. The Internet is opt-in; no one forces you to read anything here.
Calling the author names or otherwise engaging in flaming her/him based on your prior interactions with her/him. While none of us are perfect, your reviews should be focused on the work, not the person. If you cannot separate the two long enough to comment, don't comment. (I've encountered this several times in my fannish history, and so I've learned not to read works by those whom I dislike too much to review without bias.)
Telling the author how you would have written or ended the story, unless it is to point out a problem with the story's structure. (For example, a sword-and-sorcery epic that ends abruptly when the hero pulls out a pistol and shoots the villain.) If you feel strongly that the story should have gone in a different direction, there's always room for more fanfic. Just be sure to ask permission of the original author before you write an alternate ending to her or his 'fic. Better still, write your own story from scratch and really show us how it's done.
Telling the author what her or his next story should be, in great detail. Saying "I liked this and would like to see more in the same vein" is very different from saying "You need to write the prequel where this and this and this happened, and then they met this character." One is polite and begs to be pointed to your previous work without imposing; the other is demanding and a touch childish. A middle ground would be to contact the author privately stating that her/his work was inspiring and has given you ideas, which you would like to share, perhaps even as a co-writing opportunity, or with permission, and off-shoot fanfic universe.
A review that is entirely about your own stories and ideas instead of a comment on the story you've just read. If you would like to discuss your story ideas with the author, that's fine. Simply say so when you review, and give her/him the opportunity to say, "Of course I'd love to hear your ideas," or "I'm sorry, I barely have time to keep up with my own ideas right now, but perhaps we can discuss it later." | 37 | English | female | Masters degree | chemist | N,N,N,N,N |
kk | Now in the interests of all fairness, Dr. Merlin does know authors for whom a review of "I liked this" would in fact be unwelcome. However, Dr. Merlin has been assured these authors are seeking the proper dosages of their respective medications and will be feeling better soon.
Reviews are polite, and as everyone knows, manners are the lubrication of society. Someone has just spent time entertaining you, and as you cannot applaud, sending a note is the next best thing and will probably make someone's day, regardless of the brevity. Also, it is in one's self-interest to leave feedback for authors writing one's preferred fandom/pairing/etc., as this encourages more stories to be written and posted, and everyone is happy.
When sending out a new story to the world, the fanfiction writer's dream is to receive a basketful of glowing reviews. Who wouldn't want to hear that one is a genius in loving emails from complete strangers? (If you just held up your hand and said "ME!" then I humbly suggest you refrain from posting fanfic online.) But how does one do it?
That bastion of democracy http://www.fanfiction.net is by far the largest fanfiction archive on the planet, and lucky for you, dear reader, FF.net makes it very simple to leave a review. Simply point and click at the bottom of the story you have just finished reading, and you don't even have to log into your account. Many large fanfiction sites include review features in order to make it easy on you to drop a note to the authors. Some older fanfiction archives lack this functionality, alas, and so if you are going to leave feedback, you will need to use the author's email address, if given, and the older the story, the less likely that email address will be current. (I've gone through a number of email addresses, but I've had what I now use as my main contact address since 1996.) Going the extra mile to leave a review is always appreciated, but if your author makes it too difficult, the best you can do is sigh and perhaps recommend the story to your friends instead.
But should you be able to contact the author, what ought you say? Is a simple "I liked this" enough?
It is. Let no one tell you otherwise. You have told the author that you enjoyed her or his work and thus thanked her/him for sharing the story. If you'd like something slightly more elaborate, I submit the following examples, to be used as desired:
These and other permutations on the same idea --- that you liked the story --- take very little thought-process or effort, and can send an author over the moon. Dr. Merlin has often read stories which reduced her brain to piles of gibbering glee, and has found these responses to be useful while she recovers. | 37 | English | female | Masters degree | chemist | N,N,N,N,N |
kk |
Ah, exposition. That place in your story where you stretch your little writer's wings and take flight, astounding one and all with your magnetic, nay magical prose. Or the part where your readers fall asleep and/or hit the "Back" button while cursing your name. Dr. Merlin has been known to shout at her monitor when she finds herself in the middle of Too Much Information, and not even in the fun way.
Exposition is not your friend.
My gentle readers already know the basic writing tip, "Show, don't tell," but Dr. Merlin still stumbles into long passages of text where nothing happens, or worse, too much. Exposition is the little devil sitting on your shoulder that says to get the history out of the way to get to the good parts (not to be confused with the devil sitting on the other shoulder urging the author to tell her audience every single detail of the childhoods of each character).
Exposition means telling the audience what happened, typically in simple prose. In film, the exposition happens when one character tells another a core-dump of information ala "The Rime of the Ancient Mariner." In fiction, the author's doing the telling.
An example is in order. As you are reading a story, you are told that the heroine met her beloved at such a place and time, that they were married in a gala fashion, and that her husband was murdered in front of her eyes. You would not expect this entire sequence to take two pages, during which time both he and she only get two lines of dialogue each. You would expect the author to spend some time on the husband's character, evidencing by his speech and manner how deeply he loves his wife, and you would equally expect the heroine to show through big and small ways how much his presence in her life changed and enriched her (especially if the story were to tell you flat out later that this was the case). A proper introduction to the husband's character would allow you to become emotionally involved with his fate and would give you insight into the heroine's character: what she saw in him, how deep their bond was, clues about her thoughts and beliefs and dreams as reflected through the prism of his eyes, and so on. You would mourn his death with her, and so grow more connected to the heroine herself.
In short, you would expect meat on the simple bone of the storyline: "They met, they married, he died."
As a writer, you need to provide that meat. (*looks at metaphor, sighs, plunges onward*) Sometimes it is tempting to rush past certain things. Perhaps you're introducing a new character and you know he used to be in the Air Force, and he's the night manager of a gas station now, and he was married twice, no kids, likes to go fishing on the weekends, secretly dreams of owning the gas station someday and had Eggs Benedict for breakfast. | 37 | English | female | Masters degree | chemist | N,N,N,N,N |
kk | This is all well and good. These are excellent things to know about a character you've created, and I applaud the effort. However, if you tell your readers all of this in two paragraphs as you introduce him, and then promptly kill him off less than a page later (or send him off-camera for the entire rest of the story because he's not actually part of the story) then you're going to lose your audience.
Descriptions are always important in your writing. Descriptions set places in mind and give faces to characters and bring moments to life. Do not, however, get too bogged down in trying to describe every last detail of a scene that you forget what's going on, or worse, that your reader does. Taking a moment to reflect on the history of a particular piece of art is fine, especially when it was created by someone dear to your character and thus showing more detail of the character's interpersonal relationships. Taking more time to go additionally into its historical and aesthetic value may even be acceptable, including religious iconography related to the piece and references to Renaissance-era painters with similar themes. Doing all this while the character is in the middle of a climactic swordfight is alas not advised. Everyone will be surprised by the sudden epee to the heart, especially your easily-distractible character.
Related: you are not Victor Hugo. Do not spend two hundred pages of your fanfiction giving us the historical background of Franciscan friars and their presence during fifteenth century England, simply because Harry stopped to look at the painting of the Fat Friar for a moment and then went on his way for the rest of your eight hundred page story. Or do, but I won't be reading. No one cares how smart you are. You don't need to show off.
None of this is to say you shouldn't explore or experiment. You can tell a story entirely in third person past tense without a single line of dialogue or direct action. You can go on long tangents; one of the joys of reading is learning something new and unexpected while being entertained. That last word's the kicker.
Your reader has clicked open your story because s/he wants to be entertained. S/he wants a quick (or longer --- Dr. Merlin likes well-written epics as much as the next fan) hit of the same stuff s/he sees in the canon. Maybe that's the interplay of two particular characters, even divorced from the canon setting (perhaps an SGA John/Rodney AU set in a NASCAR venue, for example). Maybe it's the witty banter like in Buffyverse or Aaron Sorkin's shows. Maybe your readers are madly in love with any character named Hermione, regardless of how she's written, be it rocket scientist or valley girl. You're there for the same reason, and you're not just writing to satiate your audience but to scratch your own itch.
| 37 | English | female | Masters degree | chemist | N,N,N,N,N |
kk | Critiques on large details on older stories can be useful; use your best judgment and remember that the author may have forgotten this story entirely or may already look back on the story with embarrassment.
Checking the publication date is key in all cases of leaving reviews, but especially in those leaving constructive critiques. For example, if the dialogue and interests of a particular character seem strange, a quick check of the publication date may show that the story was written before the character even appeared in canon and was speculation based on a casting spoiler. The feedback you leave can then alter from: "This character is completely OOC," to "I see that canon didn't end up supporting your speculation," with or without a discussion on whether or not the story still stands on its own merits after having been jossed. (v. 1. Fanfiction term coined in Buffy: The Vampire Slayer fandom regarding fanfics whose plots were rendered AU by later canon developments, usually those written by showrunner Joss Whedon.)
Brief negative reviews can be helpful, if only for the information that a story didn't work. Some helpful phrases:
The in-depth review list presented earlier is just as useful for a negative review as a positive one, although if you find multiple problems with a story, you may wish to focus on one or two particular aspects at a time, and give the author a chance to work piecemeal on improving her or his work. If you have the time, offering to beta read future stories may help this process, although that may be more effort than you wish to expend.
Do not be afraid to leave negative reviews. Do understand that authors will not always respond graciously to them. If an author does respond in anger to you, ensure you haven't committed a faux pas in your review such as getting the details wrong yourself or submitting a not-review (see below), then decide if you wish to continue correspondence with the author. Unless you are good friends with the author, you probably should not advise the adjustment of medication, but rest assured it will probably happen in good time.
While all feedback is in and of itself a good thing, there are certain things you should try to avoid in a review. These are not comments on the story itself but bring in outside factors that are not necessarily related to the story's quality and could be perceived as needlessly inflammatory or even downright rude. The following is a handy if incomplete list:
A review that consists entirely of relating how much you hate the primary pairing in the story unless it is followed by the words "but I really liked how you handled them here." Taking a review space to tell the author how much you hate their favorite 'ship is not constructive, and it is poor manners. | 37 | English | female | Masters degree | chemist | N,N,N,N,N |
kk | We're science fiction and fantasy fans, and our media nowadays tends to be made by geeky guys who grew up watching Star Trek and Doctor Who, and all of whom secretly want their own lightsabers. Some of them are really, really good at creating, writing, and developing female characters. Some aren't. In general, when they write female characters as actual people, given actual development and interests and goals and opinions and lives, we say, "Frak, yeah, she's awesome!" And still, the writers are mostly guys, and while the guys are peripherally aware of rape and battery and pay disparity and the Mommy Wars and all the other things that inform the day-to-day lives of women, they don't have to live them and they don't have to think about them unless they want to. While they may even have been personally touched by sexual violence, they haven't, for example, spent years talking with friends about what happened when they were drunk or drugged or otherwise coerced into sex, and they can, but usually don't, bring that background onto the page and into the characters. Traumatic, life-changing experiences become jokes, and the ages-old "Well, she deserved it for wearing that outfit / being out alone at night / believing him" is at best addressed in a metaphor with vampires but more typically doesn't even make the cut in character motivatons except in shoehorned revelatory backstories about childhood abuse. There isn't the understanding that fear of rape is present, in whatever small doses and buried under however much denial, in every woman's daily life from the day she's old enough to know what it is. It informs clothing choices and activities and dating partners, and while those writers capture the form of it, very few grok that the fear extends towards the male heroes too. So we see a fantasy world that resembles ours, but with off-kilter differences, and sometimes that's a good thing – Dr. Merlin watches cartoons preferentially because sometimes a Y-7 safety zone is the best thing to maintaining one's sanity – and sometimes it's a reminder that, to half the population, we are often as exotic and incomprehensible as Moon maidens.
That doesn't mean men can't write female characters. That doesn't mean men shouldn't write female characters. It means that any given male writer is, from time to time, going to screw up writing about women, that he's going to get called on it, especially from female fans who have seen these same damned problems before, and that he's going to have to decide whether to get defensive or fix the problem for next time. It means he's going to have to stand back and see the world from the point of view of someone raised female in a culture that celebrates masculinity and denigrates things associated with femininity (while fetishizing particular body parts, as if those are not part of the whole). | 37 | English | female | Masters degree | chemist | N,N,N,N,N |
kk | If the character is canonical but disliked, or if the character is original to your story, you need to do more work to make the audience care about the outcome.
Don't do it by laundry list.
Spend the time, spend the effort. Show the character in his/her natural habitat. Don't be afraid to show the character having a good time, instead of constantly wallowing in misery; trying to evoke pity is not a good way to get the audience on the character's side anyway. Show the interactions between characters instead of telling the readers about the relationship. Show the aftereffects of traumatic (and other) events by how the character acts later, show how s/he relates to people now and how that might be different from the way the other characters expect, and then let the character talk about it, instead of front-loading your story with summarized drama. Let the character be funny or quirky or stolid or smarmy or quick or giving or all of the above, and let us see her/him doing it. Don't tell us what the character is like, show us examples in your story so we think the same thing. Don't tell us what happened, let us walk along that road too. Let us experience the emotions the characters do instead of just hearing about them, let us revel in their victories and weep in their losses, and let us miss those characters long after we've finished the story.
And that's all I have to say about that.
In the ebb and flow of interaction with our favorite fannish source material, fans inevitably run into spaces in the canon where there are hard and fast answers, only clues. Things that happen between episodes or books. Off-screen antics implied but never actually stated. Even actions and words that make it to the final print but can be interpreted in multiple ways.
If it happens on the series or on the page, it's canon. If it happens on the screen or the page and is later retconned (retroactive continuity, or "we changed our minds later so it really happened this way") then it's annoying and convoluted canon, and can be ignored or not at your own discretion.
If the show's headrunner, or the episode's writer, or the book's author says, "This is what I intended for this to say," it's authorial intent. Authorial intent is not canon. No, really. When J.K. Rowling announced after the publication of "Deathly Hallows" that Dumbledore was gay, that did not make it canon. That made it authorial intent, subject to be accepted or not by the fans of the series. Why is this? Because authors change their damned minds. Because networks hand down edicts. Because actors get pregnant or arrested on DUIs or die. *moment of silence for John Spencer* Because cancellation threats mean wrapping up storylines faster than originally intended. | 37 | English | female | Masters degree | chemist | N,N,N,N,N |
kk | (Babylon 5 and Farscape fans are familiar with "We had to finish out the epic story HOW fast?" syndrome.) Because some storylines fizzle and others appear that work better. Because two characters intended to pair up at the beginning have more chemistry with different characters instead. Because the audience complains. Because the audience isn't the one desired. Because the head writer got (or lost) religion. Because the publishing company wants to turn the trilogy into a twelve-book deal and the original plot barely covered two books with padding. Because the showrunner thought one thing and didn't relay it to the rest of the writing staff, who went in completely another direction, and when the showrunner states in interviews, "Obviously, ABC," the audience who tuned in to the actual series are all united in their confusion of, "But, but, did you not notice XYZ?" Because the producers become angry at the actors or the audience or the show itself, or they get bored with the book series, or because they get hit by a car and add the experience into their epic fantasy series. (Stephen King, I'm looking at you.)
Ideas change, and what the author says one day may not be what's in the final print tomorrow, and may be a whole different story next week. That goes for what the actors say, too. Even when they're on stage at a con saying, "Oh, I totally meant LMNOP when I moved my eyes like that." Later scripts might declare that the character was in fact replaced by an evil android during that scene. You never know.
Authorial intent can become fanon.
When two or more fans agree that someone happened which wasn't shown, or that something which was shown happened for a particular reason that isn't flat-out stated in the canon, this is fanon. Fanon is a shared fannish reality of a source material. Sometimes the fanon is closely related to the source. For example, most "fade to black" scenes in a television show are intended to imply that the characters in question then went on to have sex, and in general, the fans of that show agree with one another (and the producers) that sex did in fact take place immediately after the cutaway. However, if no sex was shown, and the characters in question did not mention it again, it is also possible fanon to assert that in fact they broke apart from their kiss, exchanged passionate handshakes, and then played Parcheesi for the rest of the unspecified time. (Doctor Merlin suggests this is not the interpretation most suited to later character interactions in most cases, but remains possible.)
Multiple fanons exist. One group of fans will swear that when these two characters are in a room together, their interactions are stilted and difficult because they hate each other. Another group of fans will declare it Gospel truth that the difficulty is because the characters want to shag like bunnies. | 37 | English | female | Masters degree | chemist | N,N,N,N,N |
kk | You may feel free to point him or her to this essay if you so desire, but reviewers who leave not-reviews are probably not ready to hear why they are a bad idea. However, their own medication is probably also under review.
Say "thank you." Always say "thank you." ("Thanks" is also acceptable.)
My thanks now go out to you, gentle reader, for following me through this essay. I hope it has been enlightening, or at least amusing. May you always find good stories to read, and good people to read your stories.
It's been a few months, so it must be time again for the meta to revolve around to racism, cultural appropriation, and other jolly topics that keep us chatting. While the most recent flux of conversation has been surrounding a certain famous author's mea culpa, and a less famous author's "you're interrogating my text from the wrong perspective," this latest iteration has been brewing at least since the announcement of the (all-White) casting for the Avatar: The Last Airbender movie. (Peaceful protest planned for this Saturday in Philadelphia for all interested.) http://aang-aint-white.livejournal.com/1820.html
Short form: cultural appropriation is STILL not cool.
What does that mean? Well, in its simplest form, cultural appropriation means looking at another culture (even one that's ostensibly a subculture of your own) as an uninvolved spectator, mining it for nifty and shiny things you particularly enjoy, then presenting these in your work as a way of being "deep," "relevant" and/or "meaningful" without taking the time to understand the nuances of the culture or the meanings these things already had within that culture. It's a teenaged Caucasian American girl wearing a red dot on her forehead as a fashion statement. It's casting David Carradine as a Shaolin monk. It's distilling thousands of years of history and culture and love and hate and humanity into a tiny Noble Savage mold and pouring out plastic NDNz for the White hero to learn from about living off the land before he Gets the Girl and Saves the Day.
It sucks, really.
And it doesn't mean that people from one culture (or gender, or lifestyle, or orientation, or anything else) can't or shouldn't write people from another. They should. We should. But it means extra work. It means learning those nuances, even the painful ones. It means having to look at the world around you without the comfortable glasses you get to wear when you're in the majority (or just in charge) that filter out the really crappy things about where we are.
We will start with the example of gender. Now, most creators and writers for our shows and books and movies are male. Note that I'm not saying that's a bad thing, simply a fact. | 37 | English | female | Masters degree | chemist | N,N,N,N,N |
kk | Worse, it means having to examine his place in that world, and what he's done, or passively allowed to happen, because it's easier to maintain that status quo than get branded an extremist, or worse, a pussy. (Word choice intentional. It's a common insult, used to call someone weak, using a slang term for an uniquely female body part. This is what I mean. Just so we're clear.)
Okay. With me so far?
Writing a culture you do not share, be it Japanese culture, Chinese culture, Inuit culture, American Black culture, any of the myriad of African cultures, NDN culture, anything, is like male showrunners writing female characters. No one is saying don’t do it. People are saying do it right, do it respectfully, and admit it and fix it when you flub those two. Even when it's metaphorical. I am by far not the only fan sick of the only CoC on a given SF series being the semi-primitive alien who speaks in stilted English, who is the brute muscle on the team, and whose character development ends up tracking closely one of a very small handful of well-traveled stereotyped paths. Also, setting your series in a location where one would typically expect to see a reasonably heavy concentration of non-White faces, and yet casting all the stars and guest spots the same pale shade, is not magically made better by putting in vampires and demons and then saying people aren't interpreting your metaphor properly. This also applies to blue, green, and purple aliens.
This means doing your homework. This means researching, and not just with books describing a sterile past. This means getting out of your comfort zone and talking to people. Then talking to more people. It means not making your one Black (or trans, or Irish, or what have you) friend responsible for your education, nor for becoming your single source for the One True *insert life here* Experience. Being human means having a plethora of experiences, and no one person can or should have to speak for everyone in their group. But do try to listen, and do pay attention when told "UR DOIN IT WRONG," even if you disagree, and do learn from your mistakes.
It's important. Yes, even when it's "just fanfic" and not, say, the plot arc of a successful television or book series. The latter is contributing to the culture at large, and can make people think new things, or can reinforce stereotypes and old opinions for a whole new generation to absorb. The former doesn't travel nearly as far, but it's much more personal. That story you write over the weekend, the one about that show you like, it'll go live sometime next week, assuming your beta gets back to you soon. It will be read by all sorts of people. | 37 | English | female | Masters degree | chemist | N,N,N,N,N |
kk | A third group of fans will claim it's all because the actors in question were hungover at the time and off their game, and it's only the dialogue in the scene that matters. A fourth group may see the dialogue as being a carefully-constructed set of mutual lies, based on the obvious truth that both characters were being mind-controlled at the time by aliens. Fanon is fun. Also headache-inducing, especially when confronting a True Believer on any particular piece of said fanon.
Your fanon is your fanon. My fanon is my fanon. And that's okay. Parts of your fanon may be jossed by later canon. Parts of my fanon may be jossed by later canon. It happens. Blaise Zabini is not a Caucasian girl. Terry McGinnis is not Bruce Wayne's clone. And so on. Accept the new canon, go AU, pretend nothing exists past a certain point in the canon (a personal favorite tactic of mine), whatever gets you through your day. Just remember that other fans are doing the same thing in their own ways, accepting or dismissing the new canon as needed for their own sanities. Going into their sandboxes to kick up a storm and whiz on their toys because their fanon is not your fanon is counterproductive and rude, and will only lead to wankstorms.
Fanon that is accepted by the majority of the fandom is still fanon. If your fandom's fanon claims that members of Species X mate for life, good for you. Unless it's in the canon, that's still fanon, no matter how widely-accepted the fanon might be. If your fandom's fanon says a minor character has a particular name, until and unless the name makes it into canon (such as Nyota Uhura and Hikaru Sulu, both of whom were not officially given first names until the movies, and the former not until this year), that character's name is fanonical. Figwit the Elf, so named by LotR fans who watched the Council of Elrond and said, "Frodo Is Great … Who Is That?" is unnamed in canon and may be one of Elrond's sons, or one of his attendants, but whom the producers started referring to as Figwit http://www.figwitlives.net/dvdcom.txt because of the fanon funny.
So if your fanon isn't canon, what does that mean? Nothing, really. We're fans. We're used to creating our own realities within the canon realities. Most slash is fanon. Much het is fanon. All of fanfic is based on or creates new fanon. We can argue about it, but since we're all stuck with the same canon (whether we want to acknowledge it or not) there's not much point in flaming someone for not playing along with your particular version of fanon. Go play somewhere else, set up your own sandbox, and hang out with other fans who think Dumbledore and McGonagal were truly and deeply in love and that Tonks was just a rebound for Remus after Sirius died. | 37 | English | female | Masters degree | chemist | N,N,N,N,N |
kk | It's your fanon, enjoy it with your friends. Don't demand that everyone else adhere to it, and don't try bullying them into changing their fanon to suit yours, and we'll all get along just fine.
Anyway, who knows? Maybe the writers will change their minds again, and decide the fanon is cool enough to use. (see Figwit … Actually, keep looking at Figwit. Figwit's pretty.) Maybe they'll see the swell of fan support for this 'ship that's out of left field and throw in a mention. Or maybe they'll get huffy about our interpreting the canon from the wrong perspective, kill off the characters in question in retribution for our not spending the proper amount of time worshipping the text and 'shipping the couples they intended us to 'ship. It's hard to tell sometimes what's going to make producers cranky, what's going to flatter them, and what they're going to slip in just for giggles that screws up the canon for the REST OF TIME, and what the directors will have the actors do when they deliver the lines, and what the actors will do in the background while they're goofing off because they're bored or hungover or massively pregnant and hiding behind shrubbery.
Canon's canon. Authorial intent is malleable. Fanon is fun. Enjoy them, work with them, accept that not everyone agrees with authors or fanon, and know that canon can be looked at with many different viewpoints. Play nice.
Ah, fanfiction! That light in our otherwise dreary, colorless lives. Or maybe that's just me. Regardless, if you clicked on this article, gentle reader, you are probably already well-versed in what fanfiction is. If not, this essay is perhaps not for you.
So you have just read the most wonderful, heart-pounding, well-crafted piece of fanfiction it has ever been your pleasure to open, and you'd like to leave a review. But where do you start? Is a simple "I loved this, please write more" sufficient? What if you didn't find the story perfect, and you'd like to say so? And what if you are the fanfiction writer, opening a new review and wondering how to respond?
Dr. Merlin can help. Dr. Merlin has been there. Read on.
Dr. Merlin recently conducted an informal poll regarding the top reasons readers do not leave reviews on stories. Dr. Merlin, being an incurable egomaniac who rather likes referring to herself in the third person, wondered why her gentle readers, who just spent over an hour reading her latest work, would then not take a moment or two to respond.
Aside from enabling her to receive a few extra reviews on the story in question, the poll also yielded some interesting responses. A popular reply was that her readers felt they had nothing further to add, and had no critiques to make; leaving any comment along the lines of "I liked this" would seem trite. | 37 | English | female | Masters degree | chemist | N,N,N,N,N |
kk | (Friendly addendum: telling an author her or his work melted your brain into a puddle of gibbering glee is also a wonderful review.)
Some readers are more gifted with review and response than this, and they are to be saluted. One will never have a more valuable review than one that goes through the tale point by point, remarking what does and doesn't work, and using metaphor and simile to compare one's story to the greatest works of fiction. These reviews are rare. Do not feel bad if you never leave one or receive one; that would be like feeling sad because your review of the latest "Pirates of the Caribbean" installment was less detailed than Ebert's. "I loved it!" is just as valid a review as a two-page essay on one's use of lunar imagery. It's also easier to read. Do not decline to leave a review simply because you are not in the mood to give in-depth feedback, and please do not think you will come across as a lesser reviewer because of it. Your feedback is desired and appreciated regardless.
If you are in the mood to give a story the fine-toothed comb approach but don't know where to begin, here are some starting points:
How well the author captured the "voices" of the characters. That is, could you hear the characters speaking those lines?
How well the author structured the story. Did the story have a traditional structure? (Rising action to a climax, and then a quick fall and an ending.) Was the story non-traditional? (Ex: Time sequence intentionally out of order, a mood piece rather than a plot-driven story.) Did this work for you, or did it leave you uncomfortable and wondering what the author was trying to do?
How well the author handled the subject matter. Was the piece humorous or serious, and did the author maintain a good tone for that subject? If the story was longer, did the author strike a good balance between lighter and angstier sequences?
How well the author managed to achieve her/his goal. If the work was AU, did the author make the AU believable for the duration of the story? If the work was supposed to adhere closely to canon, did the author manage to hit the right pieces of canon and slide the story into continuity? Did the plot make sense?
How well the author handled other pieces of the story. Were there original characters introduced, and if so, did they come across as useful additions to the story? Did the author overuse or underuse any particular technique?
Does the story feel complete? There is a difference between a great story begging for a sequel and a story that is unfinished.
I should stress that this list is neither complete nor compulsory. It is merely a suggestions list for anyone who'd like a jumping-off place to spread their critiquing wings. | 37 | English | female | Masters degree | chemist | N,N,N,N,N |
kk |
Please do not let these notes intimidate you, gentle reader, nor should you take them as hard and fast rules. They are merely pieces of information I have collected in my travels around the Web, and I present them to assist you, not to chain you in any fashion. Not-reviews are frustrating to writers, because they are not useful. They do not tell an author if the story worked, if the idea was sound, if the characters were on point and all the notes well-played. They bring the reviewer's dislikes and biases to the forefront rather than the story, and should be kept private.
Now we flip to the other side of the bright reviewing penny: hearing the chime in your inbox of a new review. Is it a glowing testimonial to your wit? Is it incomprehensible squealing? The eagerness and anticipation can eat you alive until the moment you click.
And now your dilemma: how do you respond?
Once again, Dr. Merlin has the answer. The proper response to a positive review is "Thank you." You may feel free to add to it, respond to reader questions, comment further on some aspect the reader brought up, but remember to be polite! Your reviewer has taken time from her or his day to thank you for your work, and every reader is important. Give thanks.
Should the review include in-depth analysis of your story, the proper response is to do a little jig and then respond in kind with even greater thanks.
If the review is negative, the proper response is still "Thank you." Reread that last sentence! Negative reviews are just as valuable as positive reviews, if not more so. Negative reviews tell you what didn't work in the story, be it intentional or otherwise, and this is what you need to know for next time. If something was intentional, you may wish to indicate this, but do so politely. Thank your reviewer for the time it took to write such a useful piece of feedback. Keep your mental critiques of the reviewer to yourself, especially when you were the one who screwed up. Fix what you can, save the rest for your next story, and move on. If the reviewer suggests you find a good beta reader, take the advice to heart, and if the reviewer offers to be that beta, thank your lucky stars because you have just found someone who loves your work enough to reread it half a dozen times per story and is bright enough to find your mistakes before you release your ideas to the world. (Caveat: Be sure to review other work by this same person before you accept, as it is best to know up front how strong your beta's writing skills are and how closely their view of the characters are to your own.)
The proper response to a not-review is to smack your head on your desk, type "Thank you," and then wonder at the intelligence of people with web access. | 37 | English | female | Masters degree | chemist | N,N,N,N,N |
kk |
Entertain yourself.
As you delve into the five-page summary of the last twelve years of your character's life, ask yourself: is this interesting? Be honest. Do you like reading summaries? Or do you prefer to meet characters as people, watch them grow, let them breathe, listen to them talk and walk along the path with them awhile? Give your readers the same chance to know your characters the way you do. You don't need the brand of their breakfast cereals, but one wistful flashback to a perfect (or less so) day will do much more to give your readers a feel for the character than reeling off his/her resume and favorite pastimes.
The converse of this is the question, "Is this important?" It might be important to you, it might be important to the character, but as much as it's good that you know the details, does it add anything to the story? Sometimes the answer is going to be no, and you need to hold back. Don't tell the reader what the minor character had for breakfast the other day, not unless it's relevant. Bring forward details to define the character and fix him/her in your reader's minds: maybe a single physical feature, or a particular talent, even one lost dream. Reveal the rest with dialogue, not necessarily having the character tell someone else everything, but instead in the words s/he chooses to use, the things s/he changes the subject about, and so on.
Flashbacks are optional. Dr. Merlin believes the pensieve from the Potter books was a fantastic way of working in flashbacks for a series told almost exclusively from a youngster's point of view; they would have been bizarrely shoehorned in otherwise. Sometimes a flashback is a writer's best friend. Flashbacks allow a writer to show a scene rather than merely describe it secondhand.
On the other hand, a well-written stretch of dialogue as a character is relating a story to someone else can give important information, not necessarily about the story itself, but about the character speaking: what s/he thinks is important in the tale, who features most prominently (and how this reflects back on the speaker's personal interest in the story being told), and what s/he leaves out due to the audience. It's a fine line to walk. If you find yourself using the speaker as an exposition-dump, stop. Back up. Try again. Rewrites never killed anyone.
At every point, ask yourself how the story you're telling is going to affect your readers. Do your readers know the characters in question well enough to care about what happens to them? In general, if the character is from canon, the answer is probably "Yes." Much of your legwork has been done for you then, and you can focus on how the events of the story affect the character, assured that your audience is already buckled in for the ride. | 37 | English | female | Masters degree | chemist | N,N,N,N,N |
kk | Some of them will be from backgrounds different from yours, and believe it or not, they're NOT going through the fanfic archives with a mind towards complaining about how authors screw up female/queer/poly/Black/Asian/Vulcan/etc/etc characters. They're us, and we're all here to read the 'fic and meta the shows and have our squee. When we write it wrong, when we stick the characters we don't have as much in common with into roles that don't fit them, when we let poor canon choices dictate our own poor uses of characters, when we use our own experiences of being outsiders from the "acceptable" mainstream (and we're all geeks here – ain't none of us who hasn't felt like the kid from Mars from time to time) as an excuse rather than a means of empathizing with our characters, well, then we fail our friends and we fail ourselves. We fall into the trap of taking the easier, lazier path, and we teach ourselves nothing by our own prose except new synonyms for sexual organs. It matters because when we fall to the default, when we exclude and minimize and play to norms we tell everyone, whether we intend to or not, that anyone outside of those norms does not matter, does not count as much, is not as important. You don't want to be that fan, young fanthing.
When we take things from other cultures without making the effort to understand what those sparklies (and sometimes those horrors – again see the Krystallnacht wank) mean to the people who owned them before us, we tell those people, those fellow fans, that their experience isn't as important as ours. That we, as tourists on a fanficcing holiday, get exactly what it's like to live every day in, for another example, a society that was established based on the imprisonment, slavery, rape and near-annihilation of one's family. That we get to tell this story, not to bring it into the light, but to use it as a backdrop for something else, and pretend our work is more relevant this way. That it doesn't matter anyway, because we're just having fun and people who complain are just being spoilsports. (I am establishing a new law: Anyone who has ever had a heated argument on any board or community about who Batman could defeat [with adequate time to prepare] who then uses the phrase "It's just a show/comic/book/movie" to shut down complaints about racism, misogyny or homophobia in the source immediately loses their humanity roll and also gets a boot up the ass for good measure.)
This is hard. It's easy to throw up one's hands in frustration and say one will never write women/minorities/gays/Vulcans again. Given our chosen genre, that is in fact sadly very easy to accomplish. (Except for the Vulcans. Those guys are EVERYWHERE, omg.) | 37 | English | female | Masters degree | chemist | N,N,N,N,N |
uu | She has systematically imagined the beast to be each of those around her, all representing a part of society she fears or dislikes. Now, she must put herself in the place of the beast; she has used her stories to "postpone the moment when [she] must ask is it [her] own snarl [she] hears in the undergrowth?" (50). Her imaginings have kept this at bay, but she can't bring herself to leave out the possibility, not even to protect herself. Magda is afraid of herself being the beast because she is apart from the rest of society; she can't see anything here "in the heart of the country where space radiates out from [her] to all four corners of the earth," that is capable of stopping her, there is nothing aside from herself and her stories that could prevent her from going mad. Magda can't use these stories indefinitely because they are composed from the language that stifles her, thus at the end of the novel she attempts, using broken Spanish, to create her own language. This too is unsuccessful; she can't bring her understanding and definition of herself beyond the words themselves and the 'end' or 'finality' she desires.
The film The Lives of Others shows life in the GDR under the surveillance of the secret Stasi force. Gerd Wiesler, the main character in the movie, is a loyal, highly trained Stasi operative and he is assigned to monitor Georg Dreyman and his girlfriend Christa-Marie Sieland. Dreyman is heavily involved in the theatre scene, as a playwright, and his life is full of art in many forms. In the social and political climate the movie portrays people usually assumed that they were being observed constantly. In the words of J. Hoberman, for those in the GDR, "[in] a perverse sense, surveillance was a form of entertainment: life lived under continuous observation was theater." This twisting of art and reality is shown in film, Wiesler's reality is twisted and changed through the influence of art and constant surveillance.
The presentation of surveillance in the film slowly flips around Wiesler's worldview. Surveillance has a superficial similarity to a play, with an "actor" and an "audience." The audience's very presence compels those on stage to act, and in true theatre the audience would gain something, whether an emotional catharsis or a new awareness, from the play. Those under surveillance are also heavily pressured to act, but not to impart something—to hide it. The parody of a play shown in the film has a negative impact on society, restraining cultural and emotional development. The GDR's government used this purposefully to help maintain loyalty and control over the people. It controlled the content of 'real' theatre and constructed an unimaginably extensive surveillance network. Wiesler himself starts out as a part of this network; loyal to the GDR, he firmly believes in the ideological aspect of the party. | 23 | English | female | B.A. in Biology | Lab Tech | Y,Y,Y,Y,Y |
uu | She only begins to recover, and this is not shown in the novel but merely implied, when Paul D helps her understand her own importance. He explains to her that "You your best thing, Sethe. You are" (273). Sethe had previously placed all of her own worth on what she had created, her children, and while it was good for her to recognize their worth, and her achievements in raising them, she could not recognize her worth as just herself. Her preoccupation with the past had taken over her present and removed her future entirely, as long as she focused on anything other than her own being she could not plan or live out a future. When her perception changes readers of the novel have hope for the rest of her life, where she may recover and finally overcome her traumatic past. The end of the novel reinforces the idea that preoccupation with powerful past memories is dangerous, concluding that "remembering seemed unwise" (274).
The human mind is shaped and restricted by language itself, one's language imposes certain ideas and concepts and it is nearly impossible to escape from these imbedded models. In J. M. Coetzee's novel In the Heart of the Country the use of language is central to the identity of the main character, Magda. Magda attempts to break the patriarchal system in South Africa, and essentially the core of Afrikaner society, through her attempts to alter her language, and the dreams and stories she creates with that language for herself to inhabit. However, her success in escaping the system in place around her is debatable; Magda succeeds in separating herself from history by isolating herself in the eternal present, and thus from language as well in Coetzee's view, but she fails to do anything to remove or weaken the overarching system.
Sections 94 through 96 follow Magda's visit to the old schoolhouse on the farm, now their servant's residence. She imagines how the schoolhouse was when in use, and how her father might have attended, or perhaps that she herself attended it. This leads her to muse about possible siblings and relatives for her, in particular one boy named Arthur, whom she will mention again. Magda admits the inconsistencies in her "fairy-tale" and confesses a strong desire to return to "[her] own room" (Coetzee 48). In the first line of section 94 Magda begins by isolating herself in the present, "I close the door." This beginning both traps her in her room, and in the in the present (as the verb "I close" is used in present perfect tense), by trapping herself in the present Magda also confines herself to the "endless middle" of her ongoing story. While she wants nothing more than for her life, her 'story,' to have, "a beginning, a middle, and an end, not the yawning middle without end," she can only escape the patriarchal system around her, imbedded and interwoven into the language as it is, by isolating herself from the past, the future, and from reality itself (42-43). | 23 | English | female | B.A. in Biology | Lab Tech | Y,Y,Y,Y,Y |
uu | The castle plays an important role in establishing the Isabella, double to Matilda, flees Manfred by running down in to the castles cavernous, catacomb-like, dungeons. It is of note that when Theodore is telling Manfred what happened when he helped Isabella escape he phrases it in such a way that it seems as though she was running from the castle itself, rather than Manfred. He explains to Manfred:
The scene of Isabella making her way through the darkened tunnels (the candles have all conveniently gone out) has little success in evoking fright (much less terror or horror) in a contemporary audience, but it is one of the few scenes in the novel that succeed in being suspenseful, even through the rushed and chaotic lens the story is told through, this effect is most likely why it has become one of the most iconic images of the classic Gothic novel. The castle also, in its physical manifestations, mirrors the happenings around it, most prominently at the climactic scene of the novel, when it is revealed that Theodore is the true heir:
The walls of the castle do not merely crumble, they are "thrown down with a mighty force," giving a greater presence to the castle than a mere building. The castle itself acts as the revealer of Alfonso (or, more accurately, his suit of armor that the castle has housed for years), who has quite literally "grown too large" to remain within the castle. The castle's size and its near personified demeanor (part of the atmosphere of gloom and foreboding Walpole attempts to create) give it a lasting position at the center of most (if not, when counting metaphorical 'castles,' all) subsequent Gothic stories and novels. The Castle itself is very firmly a part of the ancient gothic that Walpole uses to justify the excess and indirectly show his dissatisfaction with the present and longing for the romanticized past. The castle, being part of the ancient, is thus powerful and influential in the course of the story, representing the dark subconscious mind (the catacombs), the powerful terror that the Gothic author hopes to evoke, and the supposed strength of the "old" aspects of society. It is a part of the contradictory nature of the literary Gothic that the castle has remained so iconic; the castle itself has only become more ancient.
One of the aspects of the Gothic novel said to be from the "modern," the style of the text, is not wholly of the "new." While the novel format had allowed a very different type of story, Walpole's style in and of itself is directly related to the theatrical. Plays were performed long before the concept of the novel came into play and the overly theatrical style, almost a signature of Gothic, is rooted firmly in the past. Walpole himself admits, when pretending to have translated The Castle of Otranto that the author's "talents … were evidently proper for … the theatre" (7). | 23 | English | female | B.A. in Biology | Lab Tech | Y,Y,Y,Y,Y |
uu | She loves her children more than anything else in her life, she views them as something of herself and experiences and intensely personal and strong love for them that others who had been slaves would have found to dangerous or risky. Her worst memory is based on her love for her children, when Schoolteacher's nephews attack Sethe she obsesses most about the fact that they "took [her] milk" (pg#); this is so terrible for Sethe because her milk was a real, physical reminder of how important she was (and still is) for her children, it was, literally, their life. Sethe's experiences in the past continued to haunt her throughout the novel, and even materialized in the form of the "crawling already?" daughter she murdered, now a (approximately) 21 year old woman with a child's or infant's mind.
As Sethe tries to "disremember" her past she, inadvertently, gives it much more power over her. Sethe's belief in rememory, and in the reality of past memories causes her to be uncomfortable with the concept of "forgetting," she instead uses "disremember" and attempts to suppress or ignore her past. Her immersion in past experiences, wrongs, and even joys makes her more vulnerable when the memory of Beloved comes back as an apparently real person. Beloved is starved for attention and meaning in her non-life, she seems to remember either her people's past, or her time in death (or both, as Morrison is purposely abstract when dealing with Beloved). Sethe now finds that speaking of her past with Beloved is cathartic and comforting for her, she enjoys having an innocent listener who will neither judge nor abandon her, and feels more in control of her life when she tells stories from it to Beloved. However, as Beloved is not real she can never be satisfied, she will take as much as Sethe can give and more; Beloved "never got enough of anything…the more she took, the more Sethe began to talk…" (240-41). The other characters in the novel caution, directly and indirectly, Sethe and the reader against the perceived mistakes that Sethe is making. Ella illustrates warnings against both or Sethe's most prominent "mistakes." She believes that it is too dangerous for Sethe to love her children to the extent that she does because of the fragility of family connections at the time, she cautions Sethe "Don't love nothing". Ella also sees the preoccupation with the past as damaging; she "didn't like the idea of past errors taking possession of the present" (256). Sethe cannot see her love for her children as a weakness, and doesn't understand why her suppression of and obsession with the past is damaging to her present and future. However, when Beloved begins to seem much more threatening and Sethe becomes ill her daughter goes to the town for help.
Even after Beloved's defeat Sethe does not return to her former strength, she has lost her determination, believing that "[her] best thing" is now permanently tarnished, and no longer connected to her. | 23 | English | female | B.A. in Biology | Lab Tech | Y,Y,Y,Y,Y |
uu | However as Wiesler becomes more involved in his surveillance mission he begins to realize that Dreyman may not, as he as been told, be an enemy. His perceptions begin to shift and he begins making decisions not supported by the party or its ideology.
One of the decisions he makes is to steal Brecht's Memory of Marie from Dreyman. Brecht strongly believed in art as a social impetus, a driving force behind the emotional and social growth and development of individuals and cultures. He thought that the relationship of the actor or work of art to society was very important, as that was the connection that would produce effect—art and reality were inextricably linked in his philosophy. This exchange of information is twisted in the film when Wiesler steals the book from Dreyman, creating an unwilling, unknowing, and forced exchange of ideas. However the exchange between the observed (Dreyman) and observer (Wiesler) still created a positive (as opposed to limiting) effect, Wiesler is now less loyal to the regime and more convinced that Dreyman should not be under surveillance. Brecht, when he directed his plays, wished his actors to be detached from, not emotionally involved with, their characters. The actors should, in essence, attempt to be observers. The surveillance operatives have become, in the GDR, perfectly detached observers. They should limit, in a direct and pointed way, society's development and individuals' emotional expression. It is almost perverse that this limiting mechanism should become one of the sources of Wiesler's change.
The other major influence for Wiesler is art; this is seen most prominently in Sonata for a Good Man and its effect on Wiesler's perception of reality. The sonata has metaphorical significance, typically containing a solo, it thus mimics the emotional transformation, or perhaps awakening, of Gerd Wiesler through its different emotionally representative movements, Dreyman plays the Sonata for a Good Man after Jerska's suicide and Wiesler listens in. Wiesler becomes very emotional, to the point of crying and further understands Dreyman as a fellow human being not an abstract enemy. Wiesler's greater understanding of emotion and additional knowledge of the motives of the Stasi for monitoring Dreyman allow him to realize that he doesn't agree with those motives, and in turn the surveillance of Dreyman.
"Good" and "Bad," "Friend" and "Enemy" have all been distorted for Wiesler by the end of the film. By observing "The Lives of Others" Wiesler has changed his entire reality around. He struggles with the decision to outwardly help Dreyman and Christa-Marie, initially more comfortable assisting them anonymously and in private. His decision to help by removing the signature typewriter from the apartment leads to his former colleagues and 'friends' (from the movie's presentation it is doubtful that he had any true friends in the Stasi organization) becoming his enemies.
Through the influence of Surveillance and Art the roles of everyone in Wiesler's life have been reversed. | 23 | English | female | B.A. in Biology | Lab Tech | Y,Y,Y,Y,Y |
uu | He is no longer an elite Stasi operative; Dreyman is an unknowing ally rather than an unknown enemy; his former colleagues and allies are now his enemies; and the GDR in essence no longer even exists. Surveillance causes art and reality to mimic each other, not exactly, but in this distinctive distorted fashion. Art opens up Wiesler's emotions, while surveillance distorts and changes his realty.
Death and fear are present in different permutations throughout the novel The Plague by Albert Camus. The people of Oran come to fear the plague; many of them come to be intimately familiar with death in its myriad forms. One of the most unique characters in the novel, Cottard, seems to react very differently from the other characters in this atmosphere. He is not afraid of catching the plague, and seems to enjoy the atmosphere of fear and suspicion that develops through the novel. This response attempts to explore the reasons behind Cottard’s reactions.
Cottard, instead of reacting with fear, is, instead, relieved when the plague comes to Oran. In the book he has previously remarked on his fear of law enforcement, and his apparent difficulty meeting and keeping friends. His actions, however, are not entirely isolationist; he does seem to desire human contact. Cottard attempts to tell Grand, likely the least threatening personality in the novel, about his fear of being arrested. This shows that he is attempting to reach out to others, though his fear prevents him from making any bold attempts. He wishes to become a part of society, but does not feel any obligation to help society, for example he does not think it is his responsibility to fight the plague, he enjoys the new atmosphere and does not want to help speed its passing.
Cottard’s fear of arrest is nearly always present and the addition of the town’s fear of the plague comforts him; they are all like him now, suspicious and alone but desiring at all costs not to be so, but unwilling to jeopardize their safety for the luxury. The plague affects everyone in the city, every person now treats every other like a threat; Cottard is no longer emotionally isolated but, rather, connected to the townspeople. His comfort comes from the use of suspicion, no longer is someone suspected of illegal activity, but of carrying the plague, and as everyone is instantly guilty, punishment no longer carries any true threat. The concept of the plague, to Cottard, is abstract enough that he can take comfort in it. He believes, or wishes to believe, that one cannot suffer from two grievous ailments at once, and thus concludes that he is essentially immune to the plague as he views his “secret grief” as an aliment. He experiences irrational fear when it seems as though the plague were to come to an end, for this eventuality would end his companionship, his connection to the people would be severed if they returned to their everyday lives without the constant presence of fear.
| 23 | English | female | B.A. in Biology | Lab Tech | Y,Y,Y,Y,Y |
uu |
And so, the only reasons Dr. Rieux could glean for Cottard's peculiarities were pieced together from half mentions in conversation and small statements about their surroundings. These fragments, combined with Cottard's reticence on nearly all personal matters, would not have been conductive to any sort of profound discovery on why he acted as he did, and, indeed, the doctor gained very little in the way of concrete conclusions during these evening sabbaticals. The true problem, however, likely lay in the search for a profound discovery, very few of the population have any truly profound secrets, though those that do are no more likely to be found than not on such unexceptional circumstances as an evening stroll.
Those conclusions that Dr. Rieux was able to draw were based more on what the man avoided than what he spoke about. Cottard avoided [something], and quite routinely skipped the proper areas of the town (if any section could still sustain that description). He seemed quite comfortable in his newfound friends, the smugglers, mistrust of everyone and everything, perhaps because they resembled a sort of distorted mirror, reflecting his own mistrust. Cottard avoided the exceptional, though not as rule. He preferred the almost mindless fear of the common people, perhaps because its manifestations in this group where less threatening than any extreme. This fear was perhaps best described as menacing background noise. It was merely a new part of life, by no means a pleasant or welcome addition, be it had become an expected one. This undercurrent of tension present was likely very similar to Cottard’s own fear. The comfort he found here, however, nearly served to isolate him again, were it not for the supreme powers of denial the general public possessed his genuine good spirits might never have been mistaken for false cheer.
By the time it became much too cold for evening strolls Dr. Rieux had only a few clues, he was, perhaps, less certain of Cottard’s reasons and past than he had been previously. He was no further to answers than he had been before he had begun to speak with Cottard, he knew only what he had know before; what Cottard had told him when they had first become acquainted. Cottard’s “secret grief” seemed as if it would remain so forever. Rieux had no intimation on how this grief could have driven Cottard to attempt suicide. What had connected this oppressive grief with specialized and omnipresent fear? Certainly Cottard’s actions pointed toward a great fear in his past, but had this fear become so overwhelming as to twist itself to grief, or had the grief been so unbearable it gave rise to an incredible fear of the circumstances that spawned it? Rieux had only suppositions, and Cottard seemed entirely too perceptive to have simply snapped. The source of his grief must have been too intensely personal, perhaps stemming from some perceived fault of his own, for him to express, even merely adequately, to any other.
| 23 | English | female | B.A. in Biology | Lab Tech | Y,Y,Y,Y,Y |
uu |
The traditional "Gothic Novel" is, in substance and in name an "oxymoron for 'Old-New,'" as Ian Watt describes it in The Rise of the Gothic Novel. The Gothic mode has been disparaged, praised, accused of having no real depth, and lauded for the 'terrible sublime' aspect it seemed to evoke (Burke). The original "Gothic Novel," Horace Walpole's The Castle of Otranto, used the ideas of both "the ancient and the modern" romances to create the proto-Gothic genre, and to create a new method of literary expression. Walpole uses "old" theatrical elements and 'new' mimicry of nature in 'modern' novels to present what he terms "A Gothic Story" (Walpole 4). The Gothic genre uses many throwbacks to medieval gothic theatre, architecture, and traditions. Even at the time of the publication of The Castle of Otranto, the word "gothic" had been used to describe many different peoples, styles, and time periods. It was perceived as archaic or unsophisticated in the face of "modern" societal and literary "advancements." The combination of the more theatrical "Gothic" and the new format of the novel (allowing the reader a more personal view of the psychology of the characters) is what allows Gothic to remain for such a long time, and become at once obsolete and new to a reader much displaced in time from the original writing.
One of the most prominent gothic ideas present in Gothic novels is the concept of Chivalry. The medieval idea of chivalry, the process of training a proper knight, is both retained and transmuted in the original Gothic novel, The Castle of Otranto. Chivalry is especially important to Gothic writers because of what it represented—the classic knight, brave, honorable, competent—and the supposed or perceived lack of that ideal those writers (particularly Walpole) saw in society. Through the use of the chivalric concepts and manners the "gothic past" become idealized and romanticized (hinting at the future evolution of Gothic to Romantic) and is used to attempt to improve the present. Walpole was, when he wrote The Castle of Otranto, in the midst of a politically troubled time, and was despairing over the possible future. He, immersed in politics and (debatably) unfair accusations, may have began to think, even if not explicitly, that the supposed morality and innate "goodness" in people present in the gothic era had been somehow lost in those individuals that made up the 'present' society. In his writing this concept is clearly seen in several characters, one being the character Frederic. The reader can see before meeting Frederic that he embodies many chivalric traits, he is described as:
The description of him includes a great many traditionally chivalric images; Frederic is, foremost, a prince, he has suffered, been suitably affected by tragedy that he leaves, and is currently supposed to have been killed by infidels. The figure of the "gallant and courteous Knight" is, of course exaggerated, bringing the soon to be Gothic trope of excess into play (66). | 23 | English | female | B.A. in Biology | Lab Tech | Y,Y,Y,Y,Y |
uu | Both Shakespeare and Walpole sought to mimic medieval mannerisms, and in order to help justify his own work Walpole points to Shakespeare as a precedent, stating directly, "[that] great master of nature, Shakespeare, was the model [he] copied" (10). The similarities between The Castle of Otranto and Hamlet are of particular note; both works include a vengeful ghost of a murdered king or lord, the elements of the supernatural are presented in both pieces. Matilida's 'tragic' death at the hand of her father mirrors both Gerturde's death and Hamlet's. The ending of The Castle of Otranto is, of course, the removal of the undeserving ruler, and the restoration of the rightful heir. The work is not in the least a perfect mirror, however, as Walpole has melded the newer romantic styles with the ancient. Walpole also remarks in his first preface, "[the] rules of the drama are almost observed throughout the piece" (6). The theatrical either stems from or results from Walpole's references to Shakespeare. The traditional practices of the theatre appear in Walpole's text, especially attempts to use the Aristotelian idea of 'the three unities' in action, place, and time (117). The adherence to the 'unity of action' is given in the incredibly close text; there are no breaks when separate characters speak:
Walpole omits proper line breaks and puts all of the dialogue in an almost stream of consciousness style, as if one were hearing people speak frantically, rather than attempting to read dialogue in a novel. Walpole uses dashes, and rather more often than normal, exclamations. The sense of urgency in the novel is heightened by the cramped text and the characters exaggerated excitability. Each action of a character seem to lead directly to the action of another, even is such actions do not follow logically they follow immediately. Walpole follows the 'unity of place' by using the restricting setting of the castle, and occasionally the grounds outside. This would have been useful in a play, as one (at the time) would have been very limited by the creation of sets, however the true novel suffers no such limitation—the number of settings are restricted only by the imagination of the author. This artificial reconstruction of the components of a play leads to the final aspect of unity, that of time. An idea play, following these principles, would have been restricted to preferably only the length of time it took to perform it, ironically, it would occur in 'real time' (117). The close dialogue and the lack of breaks in the text artificially heighten the sense of time in The Castle of Otranto, individual paragraphs can stretch on for more than a page, even if characters speak or change the topic of discussion. The real time frame of the novel is quite short, clearly it was impossible to limit the action in the book to a single day, but the events remain unnaturally rushed, occurring over the space of as little as a few days. | 23 | English | female | B.A. in Biology | Lab Tech | Y,Y,Y,Y,Y |
uu | The interplay between "new' and "old" ideas, methods, and forms in Gothic literature gave it the intrinsic contradictory nature it retains today. The definition of "Gothic" can never seemed to be agreed upon, the story within a Gothic novel still seems to lost track of itself occasionally, the conflict between the emotional effect of terror, and the desire for a logical explanation (science and reason gradually began to replace the supernatural as the driving force behind the horrific) all remain. Neither the ancient nor the modern can be removed from the Gothic without sacrificing something essential to the genre.
Memories, in novels, often show how a character's personality, emotions, or thoughts change through their life. Memories, in literature, usually show important, or dramatic, events in a character's life, while allowing the reader to be removed from that very drama and focus instead on the characters present. Memories, in the novel Beloved, by Toni Morrison are a much more tangible part of the book. In her novel, memories take on a life of their own, and the main character, Sethe, spends much of the present attempting to "beat back the past," and escape from her memories. Seth also believes in rememory, that the past can come to life in the present, that one could become trapped there, that the past is alive. This past is something she wants to be able to move away from and forget. Sethe's avoidance of the past, and concept of memory as tangible thing, cause her present to become hollow, and prevent her from thinking of the future. Only when the past has been dealt with (with the help of Paul D and Denver) can she truly live in the present and look toward the future, though the terrible experiences in her past prevent her from being completely whole.
Sethe has had many experiences in her past that have shaped her personality and her present life. Morrison shows these experiences through both Sethe's memory and through the stories that Seth and Denver tell to Beloved when she comes to their home. Seth believes that memory is a living thing, that powerful memories leave behind something very real, something that others can step into and become trapped within. This belief, and the frightening content of her past, have both hurt and fragmented her personality and strengthened her. Sethe's strength comes from her belief in herself, she has realized that she can cause or direct actions and those actions can greatly affect others, even the white people, who she sees as a constant threat to her life and family. Sethe is plagued by the guilt of killing her "crawling already?" daughter, while proud of having succeeded at her escape attempt while the others failed and haunted by her memories of the attack on her. The paradox of having saved her children, only to lose on at her own hand later, and with the impetus of the same threat (Schoolteacher), haunts Sethe. | 23 | English | female | B.A. in Biology | Lab Tech | Y,Y,Y,Y,Y |
uu | It seems quite improbable for anything remotely similar to have occurred in true gothic ages, having such a number of chivalric characteristics in one remarkably ordinary and eventually ineffective character is not a realistic interpretation. Theodore is a second very prominently chivalrous character in the novel, he is revealed at the end of the novel to be the true heir, though a reader should have noticed previously that he was given a rather exceptional character for a peasant boy. Upon first meeting him it is apparent that his temperament is quite different from the false ruler, Manfred. Theodore reacts as follows to being accosted by Manfred:
In the character of Theodore we see that the traits of the chivalric knight are not something that has been, or apparently needs to be, taught. Theodore has never been educated about formal chivalry, instead it is an intrinsic part of him, something ingrained in his character—supposedly due to his birthright. This interesting twist is reminiscent of Walpole's state of mind at the time he wrote The Castle of Otranto, his belief that the innate chivalry in individuals had through one or more of the many "progressive" mechanisms, been removed. By including a character that shows these traits without being taught, he wishes to bring back this element, in order to prevent the future from being as bleak as he (at the time) thought it could be.
The concept of the present being morally lacking, and the past being the idyllic paradise of good-will and morality continues on in the present and is one of the many aspects of Gothic that allowed it to remain current and become, at the same time, partially unreachable by the present audience. The contradictions do not end at the conflict between "old" and "new" however. A new layer of convolution is added when one considers the work that utilizes these chivalric concepts, a Gothic novel—the supposed first Gothic novel—a genre that is famous for demonic imagery, perversions, supernatural horrors and dark, gloomy settings, is using the image of the proverbial 'knight in shinning armor.' The apparent disconnect, a symbol for goodness in a supposedly morally corrupt or indecent genre gives the ultimate futility of that symbol both in reality—there are no more traditional knights—and in the fiction, through the failure of any of the knight-like characters to do more than make it out alive and sane. The presence of a prominent foil for the knight figures, in Manfred himself, is also paradoxical; the book contradicts itself by having the central character be the near antithesis to one of the only positive or hopeful aspects of the novel. Manfred engages in inexplicable behaviors and has near to none of the characteristics of the classic, chivalrous, knight. He is not the rightful heir to the "castle and lordship" of Otranto, Theodore, in fact, is revealed to be the true heir (17). | 23 | English | female | B.A. in Biology | Lab Tech | Y,Y,Y,Y,Y |
uu | The scene is very detached from the remainder of the narrative as the reader experiences what the two men would have—a break from the "reality" of the plague. The moment is also a very personal one for the two friends and it is likely only one of them could write it accurately (255-7). The vocabulary and tone of the scene however, are most similar to Dr. Rieux's speech, Tarrou is often more philosophical or, alternately, methodical, in his approach to recording events. The similarities between Tarrou's beliefs and those of the narrator strongly suggest to the reader the possibility of him being the narrator, however, differences between the two men begin to weaken this possibility.
Tarrou is initially an outsider to Oran, trapped there by the onset of the plague and isolated with the rest of the town. This could help give him the objectivity needed to write a chronicle of such a personal and emotional period of time. It could also allow him to more easily communicate the sense of isolation he and the others feel; the accuracy of this sense of isolation and entrapment is essential to the nature of the narrative—both as an allegory and as a story. However, in his writings Tarrou is almost too objective to be meaningful, he focuses on obscure everyday events and minutia. Additionally, the narrator is, rather often, not actually objective at all.
Tarrou's opinions, although they also seem to parallel the narrator's, are not always in agreement with the narrator. The narrator's nonobjective dislike of Oran is apparent in the first few paragraphs; it is an "ugly" and "smug" town where "everyone is bored" (Camus 3-4). Tarrou, while he also mentions the commercial nature of the town, finds a sort of "paradoxical satisfaction at the discovery of a town so intrinsically ugly" (24). The narrator and Tarrou use similar word choice ("ugly"), and comment on the same theme, but they arrive at opposite conclusions. Tarrou also writes on how "not to waste one's time," the narrator has implied that this is one of the chief faults of the people. Another connection is drawn between the narrator and Tarrou, but it too is blurred and nearly broken; Tarrou's conclusion is approaching absurd, he believes that if one is aware of the passing of time one won't waste it, thus one should spend a lot of time engaged in repetitive, frustrating routines.
A final difference between Tarrou and the narrator is the style and method they use when chronicling the events of the plague. Tarrou is formally logical, keeping his interpretation from the reader and showing the "Query…" and the "Answer" for each of his investigations. However, Tarrou's idea of a "full and accurate picture of the life of our fellow citizens during that summer" is not the involved narration Dr.Rieux chooses to use, but "a longish description of a day in the plague stricken town" (119).
| 23 | English | female | B.A. in Biology | Lab Tech | Y,Y,Y,Y,Y |
uu |
The three parts of the human psyche work together to make decisions and create solutions for problems. First, the id is present from birth and desires what seems most appealing at the moment, with no thought as to the reality of the situation. The second part of the personality, the ego has its base in reality and understands the consequences of being impulsive or selfish. The final part, the superego, is the person’s morality. If these parts are not in balance, a person will not be able to deal with every day decisions. In J.D. Salinger’s The Catcher in the Rye the main character, Holden Caulfield, is not able to adequately deal with his responsibilities and his view of the world around him. Holden is controlled by the immature impulses of his id, his ego is almost nonexistent, and the moral sense of his superego is skewed.
Holden’s id is the strongest of the three parts; it influences almost all of his decisions and is his basis for judging others. Holden’s id is the most developed part of his psyche because he does not want to grow up. Holden wants to remain a child and not be compelled to deal with the responsibilities of adult life. The id’s impulsive and immature nature combined with its desire for immediate gratification affects his ability to adapt to society and mature. Holden’s id overcomes his ego when he has to make nearly any decision. In the beginning of the book Holden decides to leave Pencey before break starts and wait in New York alone. His id does not recognize the consequences of this and causes him to believe the students who stay at Pencey are the ones who are not thinking. As Holden leaves in the middle of the night he even shouts at them “sleep tight, ya morons”(Salinger 52), just before falling down the stairs. He makes impulsive and dangerous decisions such as this throughout the novel.
For example, later in the book he decided to walk forty-one blocks back to his hotel. Holden's reasoning is that “all of a sudden, you have to walk”(88), his id does not take into account dangers of walking along the streets of New York alone at night, only his desire to walk. Also, Holden cannot handle going to a show with Sally Hayes. When he is angry and frustrated he becomes incoherent and loses control of his actions. He also tries to explain to Sally why he wants to run away. Sally does not understand his reasons or even why he is telling her this. Holden’s other attempts to create connections with people, or explain himself to them, are usually unsuccessful. These attempts are also not consciously made, they are impulsive and directed toward people whom he hardly knows, or does not know at all. Toward the end of the novel Holden talks to his sister, Phoebe, but she can only reassure him. Phoebe is too young to offer solutions to his problems; she only attempts to convince Holden to be responsible.
| 23 | English | female | B.A. in Biology | Lab Tech | Y,Y,Y,Y,Y |
uu | Magda isolates herself from both society and history, sacrificing her story with a "beginning, a middle, and an end" for some form of rebellion (she does not search for truth, but for an "end" to her struggle) against the society she lives in. Following her isolation in her room Magda reveals her fabrication of Arthur, an imaginary companion (whether brother or lover is unclear).
Arthur is one the many stories Magda creates in her narrative, she uses these stories as possible pasts, presents, and futures for herself, in place the story of her life she creates these fragments of not-quite-rebellion. Magda uses her stories and imaginations as her lifeline, they separate her from reality, while keeping her among the living (or the vaguely conscious). Her "uncomprehending space" is, to her, "irreducible," it is the "consolation that keeps [her] from closing [her] eyes, folding [her] arms, and rocking [herself] forever into vacancy." Her perception of others as misusing words, and her enormous investment in their meaning to her, do not allow her to move past anything but force her to remain in isolation. For Magda it is only the stories she creates and the language she knows that create her identity and allow her to, in some ways, subvert the system that she despises. The inconsistencies in her narrative are merely the various possibilities she sees and the expression of the "babble of words within [her] that fabricate and refabricate [her] as something else, something else" (48-49).
Coetzee has Magda end this section with a short sentence that is seemingly, at first glance, unrelated to the previous discussion. However, Coetzee's belief that culture, and the ideas and structures of that culture, are inherently imbedded in its language connects her conclusion to the remainder of her discourse. Magda ends this piece and transitions on to the next with her wish, "Would that I had never learned to read." She can read and write in the language born of a society she cannot tolerate with fluency and elegance, Magda wants to disable the foundation of this society, not become trapped and limited in the language. Notably, she hasn't displayed such prowess in spoken language, and there is little dialogue in the novel; perhaps she merely doesn’t wish to express herself in spoken words as she does in written, likely because of the imposed limits on societal interaction guiding public expression, and the necessity of participating in the system this would bring about.
Magda's anger at the patriarchal society has centered and materialized in her father, she begins the following section with "the beast" (49). She feels as though this beast "stalks [her] through the afternoon…[she can] hear his velvet pad, smell his fetid breath." (49). Magda perceives her current adversary as a monster, one that is intelligent and focused on her, one that is a part of the society around her, and is thus represented by her father and impervious to her use of its language, to "[her] prattle" (49). | 23 | English | female | B.A. in Biology | Lab Tech | Y,Y,Y,Y,Y |
uu | She can "smell his fetid breath," just as she can see how the society around her is rotting from the inside out. Magda recognizes her plight here, if she "[goes] on running [she] will only perish more ignominiously." Her attempt to escape the society surrounding her will only result in her own isolation and the loss of what dignity she has when her "neck is broken, if it is a merciful beast, or until [her] bowels are clawed out, if it is not." (49). Society is an ideological enemy for Magda, and thus one she cannot fight directly against. To create a conquerable enemy Magda pictures her father in place of the "beast" or monster from her imaginings. Her supposed triumph comes from succeeding, once in dream and once, presumably, in reality, in killing her father. Her personification of society does not limit itself to her father, as the patriarchal aspect of her society is not the only one she cannot tolerate.
Magda is also uncomfortable enduring the use of slavery in South African society, she finds it easy to order the slaves around, and cannot succeed in breaking the language barrier between them. Thus, she also wonders if Hendrik is "the beast, the insulted husband, the serf trodden under his master's boot, rising to roar for vengeance" (49). Magda's picture of Hendrik is contradictory, she feels as though he is "[looming]" around the farm, but she imagines him "playing his mouthorgan in the shade of a tree" (49). She sees Hendrik as both a threat and a possible ally; if she could overcome the language barrier between them then she would be able to communicate her own dissatisfaction with the system. Magda cannot do this, and thus is afraid of Hendrik, and the system he represents.
Magda herself is uncomfortable with sexuality, she doesn’t understand her own and sees, or imagines, that of others to be gluttonous, or even threatening. She feels it is the fault of the society she lives in that she is limited this way; that this society is stifling and exploitive. Magda moves on to wonder if Anna is "the beast, the woman, subtle, lascivious, insatiable?" Her apparent powerlessness to stop, block or overcome any of them causes Magda imagine their 'victory,' how her father rules the house with Anna, while "Hendrik tipples…and the work of generations falls to ruins." (49). Her vision here ends with Hendrik and Anna conspiring against her father, and at its close a strange festival, with "the old master [sitting] like an idiot on the stoop smiling and nodding, president of the festival." (49-50). Magda's fear of sexuality in other women and herself leads to a fear of herself, she comes to the conclusion that the only one left to imagine as the beast is herself.
In the very first line of the next section Magda wonders, "Who is the beast among us?" (50). | 23 | English | female | B.A. in Biology | Lab Tech | Y,Y,Y,Y,Y |
uu | Manfred's worst action is, perhaps, his desire to marry the fiancé of his dead son, the double figure for his daughter. His fate at the end of the novel is just as bizarre as his prior behavior. The reader is constantly reassured that Manfred is usually quite rational, but is never given any evidence of this; even his actions at the close of the novel do not quite follow logically—Manfred becomes a monk in a convent. The combination of the ineffectuality of both the "good" and "bad" figures results in a tone closer to the absurd than the terrifying.
Possibly the most recognizable Gothic trait is the presence of a (physical or psychological) castle. The architecture of the gothic era, as Walpole understood it, was previously disparaged as a primitive distortion of roman architecture, he himself had become quite enamoured with the style and sought extensively to recreate it in his own home. The castle takes on such a presence that it becomes in essence a character in its own right. The castle is used, in a basic literary sense, as an aspect of the oppressive, preternatural atmosphere and as a tool in creating the terror that propels the plot forward. It usually serves to entrap the "victim" character and thus provide tension and act as an austere authority present in a novel whose villains and victims are even less stable than the castle's conveniently crumbling foundations. This state of decay also parallels Walpole's general opinion on the state of the world at the time he was writing The Castle of Otranto. The castle succeeded in taking on almost a life of its own in the novel, becoming almost a protagonist in its own right. The castle itself foils Manfred's plots, is the deciding factor in the mysterious medieval prophecy, as only the castle could determine if someone was "too large to inhabit it" (17). In a comical, for today's audience, twist the phrase "grown too large" is taken quite literally in the story, a giant suit of armor appears in snapshots at many points in the novel, first the outsized helmet falling (in the castle) onto Conrad, then the glimpse of the leg and the giant sword carried by a hundred soldiers. On just the third page of the novel's text a helmet “an hundred times more large than any casque ever made for human being, and shaded with a proportionable quantity of black feathers” crushes Conrad, Manfred's only son (19). The use of the armor as an antagonist provides yet another counter to the heroic image of the 'chivalrous knight'. The connection to the almost sentient presence of the castle (and other inanimate objects, most notably the coughing painting and the mysterious suit of armor) and the superstition of the medieval past is clear, and Walpole adapts it to his new genre through the use of the novel format, and the psychoanalysis it allows the writer to engage in (which he studiously avoids fleshing out). | 23 | English | female | B.A. in Biology | Lab Tech | Y,Y,Y,Y,Y |
uu |
The attempt to bring in the more natural or realistic modern novel is not entirely successful in Walpole's work, though this "failure" is usually determined by viewing The Castle of Otranto as the definitive founding text of Gothic literature. The novel is, to modern-day audiences, and likely was (to an extent) to past audiences, confusing and difficult to follow, and not successful in evoking any true fear in the reader, though it can be considered 'sublime' through its use of the elements of obscurity. The format of the novel allowed the reader to see, and the writer to explore, the psychology of their characters, the reasons why a character might perform a certain action or hold a certain belief were available to be examined, created, or changed. The Castle of Otranto is limited in its development of its character's psyches, it doesn’t fully explore the motivations of its characters, possibly resulting from or causing the rather convoluted plotline of the novel. The idea of putting the reader in the mind of a character, however, was taken and expanded on by subsequent Gothic novelists, most controversially, perhaps, in Mathew Lewis's The Monk. In this novel the reader follows the corruption of Ambrosio, a respected monk in Italy. The novel was deemed blasphemous and the audiences of the time were quite horrified by actions and thoughts of the character. The ability of the writer to put the reader into the mind of a character opened the possibility of exploring the minds of insane and violent characters; many authors joining the Gothic genre followed this path. Indeed the concept was adopted and arguably master by the most famous of the romantics, Edgar Allen Poe, connecting the "modern" aspects through time to another literary movement. The ideas present in The Castle of Otranto were clearly built on and developed in later works, prominently those of Ann Radcliffe and Mathew Lewis, though the elements are clear in Daphne Du Maurier's Rebecca, a Gothic novel published in 1938, and in the writings of the Romantics (who seemingly evolved from the Gothic). The 'new' or modern novel format allowed the Gothic to continue to be, in part, accessible to later audiences and writers. The explanation or examination of the psychology behind the otherwise inexplicable actions of the characters allows modern audiences to understand at least a part of the original intention. The entirety of the original effect The Castle of Otranto may have had on its readers is lost, as one cannot ever recreate the exact state of mind of the time, but certain elements and tools have become instilled in the present—preserving them as "new" forever. The "old" aspects of the Gothic have remained as icons and, rather often, clichés, in present times. Almost any audience would recognize the ominous Gothic castle, and the gloomy, restrictive, and depressing effect it has on the setting. The idea that chivalry has fallen from society is constantly reinvented and presented in different works, each generation seem to view the next as morally hopeless. | 23 | English | female | B.A. in Biology | Lab Tech | Y,Y,Y,Y,Y |
uu |
In The Plague Albert Camus chooses to keep the narrator's identity secret from the reader until the end of the chronicle. The narrator is allowed to relate to the reader, and include the reader more personally in the events by using "we" rather than "I" or "me" to tell the story. The secrecy of the narrator's identity causes the reader to examine, even if unconsciously, each character they meet, in an attempt to puzzle out the identity of the narrator. Two characters stand out from the rest, Jean Tarrou and Dr. Bernard Rieux. Tarrou is intelligent enough to have written the narrative and his moral views are similar to the narrator's. His journal entries show that he pays attention to detail and he certainly has the skill to present all of the information in the narrative. Both characters are present in several very in-depth scenes in the novel, reveling things that other characters would have had great difficulty discovering. However, through all the similarities he shares with the narrator, Tarrou also reveals many differences. He is almost obsessively focused on small details, and often expresses opinions in contradiction to the narrator's. It is possible, but not particularly probable, that Tarrou could still be the narrator at the end of the work, so the possibility is removed at the end of the novel with Tarrou's death. Dr. Rieux is the only remaining possibility for the role of narrator, and he confirms this—finally revealing himself to the reader.
Tarrou shows many similarities to Dr. Rieux, the true narrator of The Plague. For example, he believes firmly that an individual should attempt to fight against "the plague", or any antagonist put in its place, simply because that individual believes that it is the right thing to do. He agrees with Dr. Rieux, who also believes that those who helped and volunteered should not be considered heroes, as if they were somehow more than ordinary people. Both men see goodness as the basic state of people, that it in and of itself is not an extraordinary phenomenon. One of the only differences in their philosophies is Tarrou's ability to see a positive aspect to tragedy—he believes that it can cause people to "rise above themselves"—while Dr. Rieux believes that the inherent goodness of the people prevents this. Also, his occupation as a doctor intimately acquaints him with suffering, and he believes there cannot be any good in it.
Tarrou is often physically present at major scenes in the narrative; the only other character so involved is Dr. Rieux. Both characters experienced the major events of the story, and several of their private discussions are included in the narrative. Tarrou "interviews" Dr. Rieux at one point, this scene is very detailed, and it is very plausible that one of the two participants would have been able to write it into a chronicle (123-120). One of the most distinct scenes in the novel is when Tarrou and Dr.Rieux "for friendship's sake" go to swim in the harbor (255).
| 23 | English | female | B.A. in Biology | Lab Tech | Y,Y,Y,Y,Y |
uu | Cottard is normally quite perceptive of other’s motivations and actions; however, during some time in the past he seems to have lost confidence in himself. His lack of confidence in his own skills at reading people had made him fearful of them. He believes he can no longer tell true friend from false, and combined with his fear of arrest, concludes that everyone should be feared as a police informant. Thus when the plague is present he becomes very social. He is safe in this new atmosphere solely because everyone else has become vulnerable.
Following the incident at the theatre Cottard seemed to have taken to evening walks around the town. He did not appear to have been overly disturbed by recent events, and his enjoyment of the entire situation had not diminished in the slightest. The fear the townspeople felt had become something quite commonplace by then, and the slight, almost meaningless differences between one hour and the next, between one day and the next, between one week and the next had neatly obliterated the sensation of the passage of time. Only their own repetitive and, more often than not, bromidic thoughts remained with the everyday people; and their own simplicity, their inability to understand the plight of others so similar to their own, isolated and connected them at once, solely by rendering most communication meaningless.
Cottard seemed inherently comfortable in this atmosphere. It had been clear to Dr. Rieux that Cottard was quite used to the presence of fear, and that seeing it become so commonplace for others was immeasurably comforting for Cottard. Dr. Rieux, and indeed all those engaged in the arduous task of dealing with the ephemeral enemy of the plague, felt none of the comfort that Cottard experienced, only a profound resignation. For this reason, Rieux had found walking with Cottard on these new outings, during those few stolen moments of leisure he was able to hold on to, was both relaxing and unsettling for him. He enjoyed the vicarious sensation of comfort and belonging that Cottard seem so desperate to embrace, but became intensely curious as to the reason for Cottard's comfort when all others found only despair and shallow hope.
Any information the doctor would have come by in ordinary conversation was decidedly lacking in the discussions he had with Cottard on the occasions they wandered through the town together. The past seemed to be almost nonexistent for the other man, the only thing he appeared to consciously notice was that the past had been more difficult than the present, and, as such, was best left alone. The future was nebulous and dangerous to contemplate, thinking of the future involved predictions and estimations and it appeared as though Cottard had long ago lost his faith in his own divinatory skills. He associated them with apparently disastrous consequences. This was likely rather a severe misjudgment on his part. His observations on others showed a surprising insight, though they now lacked any real risk and did not concern anything too far-reaching. | 23 | English | female | B.A. in Biology | Lab Tech | Y,Y,Y,Y,Y |
t | The purpose of this paper is to begin that journey by reflecting upon my past, present and prospective roles as a leader, as well as my observations of leadership, in a variety of settings.
I was born in August of 1968 and spent the first ten years of my life on a small goat farm in a very rural part of eastern Ohio. My parents and two brothers and I lived close to the land and worked hard. Although my father also worked a regular full-time day job at an airport, farming was clearly such an important part of my parents’ being that they maintained this extra workload for well over a decade. Both of my parents come from south-central Pennsylvania dairy farming families. Those years on the farm impressed upon me ideas and values that would not become a conscious part of my identity for some years: The dignity of work and physical labor, the importance of working with nature and the land as a good steward, being in close relationship to the ecological systems upon which all life depends, fulfilling individual responsibilities to maintain a system, and seeing the connections of our family to other families in the wider rural community as we bartered with one another for various goods and services. My brother Jim is five years older than me, but Joe is only 20 months older, so he and I spent most of our time together. We were very imaginative in our play, spending copious amounts of time outdoors pretending to be superheroes. We both collected superhero comic books, and often drew our own as well.
The first major turning point in my life journey came at the age of ten, when my family moved to Pennsylvania. My father had obtained a position with the Federal Aviation Administration, maintaining the radar site that keeps track of planes between Cleveland and New York City. At that time Clearfield, located slightly west of the middle of the state, was a town with a population of approximately ten thousand. The setting was no longer rural isolation as we lived just outside the borough, and the farm was reduced to a robust garden that occupied a small portion of our two acres. I believe that this change in location forced the values instilled during the farm years, unconscious to begin with, to an even deeper level of dormancy throughout my adolescence. It is only at this point in my life that I become aware of class differences. I was entering the fifth grade at the Third Ward Elementary School, and because there were two distinct fifth grade classes, I was given some sort of reading test to determine in which class I would be placed. I recall feeling that I had been placed in the “lower” class. I wasn’t sure at the time what this really meant academically, but it seemed to me that my class was made up of children from the lower end of the socio-economic spectrum, while the other class seemed better off, both academically and socio-economically. | 43 | English | male | Master's degree, working on PhD | Freelance writing and nonprofit administration | N,N,N,N,N |
t | I did not dwell upon this, but was definitely aware of it. When I went on to the Middle School in sixth grade, there was a “pod” system. The brightest children were in 6A1, then 6A2, 6A3, and 6A4. I was in 6B1, and the pods continued all the way down to 6D4. Once again I felt like I was not placed in the pod that most suited what I felt were my own abilities. During the summer between sixth and seventh grades, I was called into school to take a battery of intelligence tests. When seventh grade began, I was placed in 7A1, and was also enrolled into the gifted program. I immediately felt more at home, but I also remained aware of what seemed to be a clear link between academic ability/achievement and socio-economic status. In high school, the class distinctions seemed to intensify even further. There were the students enrolled in the college prep and advanced college prep curricula who were mostly middle and upper class – the jocks and the preppies. The largest majority of the 1,700 students were in the general and vocational curricula. They were often referred to as “scruffs” or “rednecks” and came from the lower end of the socio-economic spectrum. “White trash” would be the more recent term. Then there was a very small group, literally a handful, who were not interested in being part of either groupl that was my brother Joe and I, and about half a dozen of our closest friends. We were what one would call “new wave” back in the 1980s. We dressed differently and listened to different music. We were mostly tolerated by the jocks and preppies, but were clearly despised by the scruffs and rednecks. They went out of their way to abuse us both physically and emotionally. It left a deep impression upon me. I was often infuriated by how we were treated, just because we dared to be different. With distance, the fury mellowed into sympathy for so many facing truly bleak futures in a small run-down mining town in rural Pennsylvania.
I enrolled in undergraduate studies at Eastern University in 1986 to pursue a Bachelor of Arts degree with three majors: Economics, Political Science, and Spanish. My original motivation for that particular mix is difficult to recall now, but I think I may have had visions of myself as an international business tycoon. Early on in my studies, however, came the next turning point. In a general biology course required of all students, I discovered I had a passion and deep concern for environmental issues. During one class, the professor spoke about how inefficient it was to eat meat, explaining that something like ninety percent of the energy in sunlight is lost when it is cycled through plants to animals and only then to humans. He also talked about the resources used for the production of a pound of beef, which I recall included 2,500 gallons of water and 16 pounds of grain. | 43 | English | male | Master's degree, working on PhD | Freelance writing and nonprofit administration | N,N,N,N,N |
t | I arranged to meet him in the lobby of the hotel where he was staying. As I waited there, I was not surprisingly somewhat anxious about event details and meeting such a significant leader. When he entered the room, I immediately felt a sense of calm wash over me. The Dalai Lama literally radiates peace and calm in a very palpable way. It was profound and deeply satisfying. The event went very well, with hundreds of people from all walks of life and religious faiths from around the world coming together to share our common concerns for the planet.
The other event was an evening Concert for the Earth in which we managed to get some very well-known musicians to participate, namely John Denver and Olivia Newton John. There was also a fantastic didgeridoo player, as well as new age musician Paul Winter on soprano saxophone. The event was an incredible success, with more than 5,000 people in attendance. The gathering was used to highlight the coming together of a wide diversity of people, including the religious community, to grapple with issues of environment and development, as well as to just celebrate!
The Social Summit was less of a star-studded event than the Earth Summit, and we did not coordinate any particular events. The impact on me came from where I stayed. I arranged to live with a woman in Christiania, an intentional community in the heart of Copenhagen founded by squatters in 1973, making it one of the longest-lived experiments in communal living the world has seen in recent history. There were times when the government tried to clear them out, but were never able to do so. Lene, the woman with whom I stayed while in Copenhagen, lived in a home adapted within what was essentially one of the old fortification walls around the original city. Christiania had become known as a place to buy drugs, and has never been able to shake the resulting damaged reputation. There are communal gardens, frequent communal meals, and so on, but everyone has their own self-built house. This, I think, is the key to their success. They share a lot, but they never made the mistake of over-sharing that has led to the demise of many other intentional communities. They seem to have hit upon a balanced harmony between the individual and the community, between private and public, that works well.
The impact of these experiences on my life have been several-fold: The importance of thinking globally was not something I had really considered before, but was much easier knowing that I was part of worldwide movement; again and again I came to appreciate and see the need for affecting not just individual beliefs and behaviors, but those of institutions, including religious institutions; and meeting and spending time with people like the Dalai Lama, then-Senator Al Gore, and other leaders impressed upon me the need for reflective and excellent leadership to inspire and motivate people around the world.
| 43 | English | male | Master's degree, working on PhD | Freelance writing and nonprofit administration | N,N,N,N,N |
t | The committee was created as one of four workgroups of a strategic planning process during 2003, and was the only initiative from that effort which remained active, becoming an ongoing campus committee. The chair of the committee has been in that role from its beginning. In July 2008, the chair was also appointed to the new position of Assistant to the President for Sustainability and Social Justice, and sits on the President’s Cabinet, which is additionally comprised of the President, Vice President for Academic Affairs, Vice President for Finance and Administration, and the Assistant to the President for Community and Governmental Affairs. The President’s Cabinet is one of the key decision making bodies of the institution. Membership of the SSJC to date has primarily been employee volunteers who have an interest in sustainability as well as any number of interested students, two of whom serve the committee in paid Federal Work Study positions. Of the employees who currently attend meetings on a regular basis, several have been with the committee since the beginning, while others are more recent additions. The students, naturally, turn over frequently (at least every two years, and often more frequently than that, such as every semester). Attendance at the SSJC's monthly meetings currently ranges from 6 to 10 people.
My overarching purpose in pursuing the PhD in Leadership and Change is to reframe myself as a leader of change in the field of sustainability in higher education. I care deeply about the state of the world in which my wife and I are raising our daughter, as well as what will be inherited by all future generations. I firmly believe that the concept of sustainability, with its focus on the intersection of environmental, social, and economic issues, is the best framework to help address the challenges facing the global community. I have been employed by ANE in a variety of positions since 1996. In the Fall of 2008, I became a member of the SSJC, although my level of engagement to date would best be described as a keenly interested observer rather than a fully active participant. It is my hope that the research presented here will be useful not only to the SSJC at Antioch New England, but to anyone in higher education working to make their campus more sustainable. The study was phenomenological as far as it involved understanding social phenomena from the actors' own perspectives, describing the world as experienced by the subjects, and with the assumption that the important reality is what people perceive it to be. It was also collaborative in that adjustments to the research design were made in consultation with the committee that was studied.
Using a meaning condensation methodology, helpers and hinderers identified in the interviews are presented below, along with quotes from the transcriptions that support each. The bold text of each item in the bulleted list represented the condensed meaning of the item from the original transcripts of the interviews. | 43 | English | male | Master's degree, working on PhD | Freelance writing and nonprofit administration | N,N,N,N,N |
t | I became a vegetarian and realized that I wanted to play a significant role in solving the environmental crisis. This became the lens through which I viewed all of my studies. As I explored economics, I realized that it was by and large the embodiment of distinctly un-environmental thinking. The underlying theories all seemed skewed towards very anthropocentric notions of self-interest that did not take into account the wellbeing of the natural systems upon which all life depends.
Studying Political Science did not give me confidence that solutions would be coming from that quarter, given that the vast machinery of corporate-based special interest money that drives so much political action and/or inaction was too often focused on thwarting environmental regulation than encouraging it. I was convinced that the environmental crisis was at its root a spiritual crisis – the result of alienation from the oneness that permeates the universe. The alienation is a cleavage that results when we fail to recognize our connectedness within ourselves, to each other, nature, and the Creator.
Upon graduating from Eastern University, I moved to Washington, DC and spent five years working for the North American Coalition on Religion and Ecology, whose mission was to get the churches more involved in the environmental movement. It seemed to me that helping people play a positive role in the environmental movement from within a context of commitment to their religious faith could be a powerful venue for environmental advocacy. I saw this work as essentially educating church-going people to the religious importance of ecologically sensitive living. It was deeply satisfying, and yielded moderately positive results. Perhaps more importantly, it offered me the chance to learn much about sustainability through attending such important events as the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development, known as the Earth Summit, in Brazil in 1992, the Parliament of the World’s Religions in Chicago in 1993, and the United Nations World Summit on Social Development, known as the Social Summit, in Copenhagen in 1995. The Earth Summit was an amazing event. We had a booth in the non-governmental organization exhibit area called the Global Forum, which gave me the opportunity to interact with religious and non-religious people from around the world who shared our concern about the ever-growing negative impact on the environment of human activities. Our motto was Caring for Creation, which had surprising appeal to both religious and non-religious communities. Even avowed atheists could easily see that helping religious communities play a positive role in the environmental movement could have a deep and broad impact on millions of people of faith.
We helped to organize two special events during the Earth Summit that felt very important. The first was a sunrise ceremony and prayer service at which the Dalai Lama, who attended the Earth Summit, agreed to make a short speech. This required me to deliver event information into the hands of the Dalai Lama himself. | 43 | English | male | Master's degree, working on PhD | Freelance writing and nonprofit administration | N,N,N,N,N |
t | All of these problems can be addressed through the concept of sustainability, which was popularized in the 1987 World Commission on Environment and Development (WCED) report entitled Our Common Future. It stated "Humanity has the ability to make development sustainable to ensure that it meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs."
Broadly understood, sustainability emphasizes the interdependence of environmental, social and economic issues. The Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education (AASHE) defines sustainability in an inclusive way, encompassing human and ecological health, social justice, secure livelihoods, and a better world for all generations.
Higher education has been called upon to lead the way on sustainability, as was the case in a gathering of twenty-two presidents, rectors, and vice chancellors of universities from all over the world that took place at the Tufts European Center in Talloires, France during October 1990. Their report stated, "Universities educate most of the people who develop and manage society's institutions. For this reason, universities bear profound responsibilities to increase the awareness, knowledge, technologies, and tools to create an environmentally sustainable future.” The conference ended with the creation of the Talloires Declaration, calling for the incorporation of sustainability into higher education which has since been signed by more than 350 higher education presidents and chancellors in more than 40 countries. Then came the Halifax Declaration in 1991, the Swansea Declaration in 1993, the CRE-Copernicus Charter in 1994, the Thessaloniki Declaration in 1997, and the Ubunto Declaration in 2002. Each of these important documents highlights the unique role that universities must play in advancing sustainability throughout the global community. These declarations serve as a call to action, and are useful in providing guiding principles, but it has been noted that they offer little in the way of direction for implementation, and are not necessarily an indicator of a campus being sustainable.
Although some progress has been made, there is also a growing consensus that higher education has fallen far short of the responsibility it bears in furthering sustainability. As David Newport, director of the environmental center at the University of Colorado at Boulder puts it, "There are, what, 4,500 colleges in the United States, and how many are really doing something? Less than 100 or 200? It hasn't really been integrated into the lexicon of higher education.” Harvard University's Leith Sharp calls for recognizing the difference between project success and institution transformation, noting that there just aren’t many examples of systemic transformation towards sustainability on campuses.
The purpose of this case study is to explore what is helping and what is hindering sustainability in higher education by exploring one institution's activities and comparing emergent themes to those found in the literature. Antioch University New England (ANE), a private graduate school serving approximately 1,000 students at its campus in Keene, New Hampshire, created a Sustainability and Social Justice Committee (SSJC) to advance sustainability initiatives throughout the institution. | 43 | English | male | Master's degree, working on PhD | Freelance writing and nonprofit administration | N,N,N,N,N |
t | The methods Individualized Learning Agreement became another opportunity to explore in-depth the method that my intuition was telling me was the right choice for my dissertation research: Q-Method or Q-Methodology. This method’s fit to my epistemological outlook and the question I want to study became very clear and strong. Having a mentor who is considered the leading scholar on the method helped immensely as well. Dr. Steven Brown’s willingness to engage the mentoring relationship and be available to answer questions and explore ideas and clarify procedures will make the use of the method in my dissertation study as smooth as it can be.
Envisioning compelling research questions worthy of a dissertation is another of my goals. The first question that has been on my mind from the outset of beginning my doctoral studies is this: Given that higher education bears a critical responsibility in facilitating society’s transition to greater sustainability, why is it widely perceived to be falling short of that responsibility? For higher education to be effective in this role, it must itself become more sustainable, which in turn requires profound change within institutions of higher education. Is it that change is just hard in any organization? Is it that change is particularly difficult in the higher education context? Is it that change related to sustainability is harder than other kinds of change? As I explored the literature on sustainability in higher education, I became increasingly frustrated that no one seemed to be talking to sustainability personnel – the directors, officers, managers, and coordinators who are the ones now charged with advancing sustainability on more and more campuses across the country and around the world. There were plenty of faculty writing about their classroom victories in teaching sustainability to students, and many authors writing about the merits and success stories of this or that project implemented on their campus, but next to nothing has been written about the lived experience of this new crop of professionals trying to pull it all together and move it forward. And so I have arrived at this question: What are the factors identified by sustainability personnel that affect progress towards sustainability at institutions of higher education?
The Case Study Analysis offered an opportunity to explore this question at my home institution by interviewing the chief sustainability officer at Antioch University New England (AUNE), as well as a student who was a key participant in many of the activities during her studies. As part of the project I developed a kind of diagnostic tool that could be used to assess some of the organizational processes at play, not unlike a force field analysis. This served to reinforce something I learned about myself during my master’s studies – I am a good diagnostician. This has also been evidenced in one of my pursuits outside of work and school – the theatre. I have discovered that perhaps my most important theatrical talent is in casting a show. | 43 | English | male | Master's degree, working on PhD | Freelance writing and nonprofit administration | N,N,N,N,N |
t | That process, although largely intuitive for me, in its essence is a process of diagnosing who is the best fit for each role in the play among those auditioning. This is a set of skills that will serve me well in my future career in sustainability in higher education because an important piece of that work involves diagnosing the organizational situation regarding progress towards sustainability. My intuition was telling me that AUNE had many of the right elements in place to excel in advancing sustainability: a point person (chief sustainability staff person) who understands both the academic and administrative sides of the campus because they work in both or have experience in both; the support of a standing committee; direct reporting to the top level leaders of the institution; a stated institutional commitment to sustainability; strong support for sustainability from top level leaders; sustainability staffing with leadership and change skills; and a variety of other characteristics. The interviews I conducted for the Case Study Analysis served to confirm all of these and more.
The Nature of Leadership Essay offered me the space to really test my ability to assimilate a large amount of information in the form of leadership theories and re-package it into the beginnings of a model that might apply especially well to sustainability in higher education. I developed a tool to evaluate leadership theories based on five continua or polarities: Nature/nurture, leader/follower, situatedness/noncontextuality, descriptive/prescriptive, and task/relationship. The tool helps to uncover theories or aspects of theories that have fallen prey to what I call the disassociative fallacy of dualism wherein the outer poles are separated from the continuum that connects them, leaving a distorted view comprised of only one or the other of the isolated extremes. The best leadership theories will recognize the need to reach a point of harmonic balance on these continua, albeit contingent to the situation at hand. The model I developed from this line of thinking flows directly from my own ideas about the ontology of relationships, wherein one considers four nested spheres of relationship to oneself (psychology), other people (sociology), the rest of nature (ecology), and the Great Mystery (theology). Using that same notion of nested spheres, I developed the BRIL model – Balanced, Reflective, Intelligent Leadership. It consists of four nested spheres of intelligence and practice that need to be developed: self-intelligence/development at the core, surrounded by relational intelligence/practice, then contextual intelligence/sensitivity, and finally reflective intelligence/practice. It was a very rewarding exercise to develop my own approach to leadership theory/practice by reviving some ideas I began to develop more than fifteen years ago. How it might relate specifically to sustainability in higher education is something I look forward to exploring in the next phase of my career.
My overarching purpose in pursuing the PhD in Leadership and Change is to reframe myself as a leader of change in the field of sustainability in higher education. | 43 | English | male | Master's degree, working on PhD | Freelance writing and nonprofit administration | N,N,N,N,N |
t | It is not easy, however, for an institution of our size, to secure such donations, although we did not try. We did, however, specifically decide to keep all of our motivating schemes positive, so there were no DIS-incentives such as parking fees to discourage driving. That might also become an option in future iterations of the program.
In examining the data we collected, it has become clear to me that the biggest gains in CO2 reductions will be realized by focusing on those making the longest commutes. The vast majority of people who really engaged in the project were the ones who live relatively close to campus to begin with, making biking and walking a real alternative for them, but which saves very little in CO2 emissions because of their proximity to campus. We have many students, and even some employees, who commute 1-3 hours to get to campus (which is possible because of our innovative delivery model whereby most students and many faculty only need to come to campus at most 1-2 days each week). We could have done a lot more outreach and match-making among those who are commuting from the furthest distances.
Another big challenge to the project was the transition from the FirstClass email system to Gmail. In FirstClass, I had the ability (and privileges) to post the ACT Update to a particular conference called AUNE Announcements. This was ideal for ACT communications because upon opening up FirstClass, the ACT Update would appear in a pop-up window, thereby greatly increasing the odds that participants would read about the project and submit their commuter logs. Gmail did not offer any such functionality, and this does explain why the number of logs submitted for the month of April was so small – just two! What we perhaps should have taken the time to do (except that we were all so busy at the time) was to create a Gmail mailing list of all ACT registrants so that we could have individually emailed all of them the ACT Update and commuter log reminders. However, we were all floundering as we tried to learn the new system.
In addition, an oversight in our data collection instrument needs to be pointed out. Although we asked each registrant to select a primary affiliation (student, full-time faculty, part-time faculty, full-time administrator/staff, and part-time administrator/staff), we did not have the students affiliate with an academic department. This would have been useful in terms of determining whether targeted outreach strategies were needed for specific academic departments. We look forward to correcting for this in future iterations of the project.
On the more positive side, I can say with confidence that carpooling really does build social capital. If you can just get people over that initial resistance to carpooling, they inevitably find that the conversations and social connections with ride-mates really do outweigh the costs of losing a little flexibility and independence. | 43 | English | male | Master's degree, working on PhD | Freelance writing and nonprofit administration | N,N,N,N,N |
t | During the first year of the program, I set several goals for myself that have remained with me throughout my time in the program:
Exposure to and familiarity with the literature on sustainability in higher education is one goal on which I continue to make very methodical progress. It has been a highlight of the journey, and I still have quite a ways to go. I desire to be very thorough on this goal. When I have completed my dissertation, I want to be able to say that I have left no stone unturned in my quest to uncover all that has been written about sustainability in higher education. Because the field is relatively new, the literature is somewhat limited, but this allows for the possibility of a very thorough review. To date I have read all 289 articles published in the one peer-reviewed scholarly journal for the field – The International Journal of Sustainability in Higher Education. The references in these articles have so far yielded another 93 articles from other academic journals. What remains to be accomplished in this goal, and which will appear in chapter 2 of the dissertation, is the addition of 30-35 books and reports, and the 11 doctoral dissertations that have been written on the topic. Early findings in this goal show that the scholarship of sustainability in higher education has engaged in only limited rigorous research studies, and is particularly lacking in quantitative research that helps explain or predict progress towards sustainability at institutions of higher education. There is an over-reliance on case study methodology, and these studies are particularly lacking in documentation of methods and theoretical frameworks. The literature is weighted too heavily towards the environmental component of sustainability, often to the exclusion of the social and economic aspects important to a holistic approach. Finally, the most glaring gap in the scholarship is the absence of research focused on what can be learned from the experience of a whole new crop of professionals that has sprung up in recent years – the sustainability officers, directors, managers and coordinators who are now charged with the responsibility of advancing sustainability in higher education. My own research will especially be focused on this lattermost gap in the scholarship.
Explore and utilize research methods with which I am unfamiliar or uncomfortable
The Case Study Analysis was especially helpful for this goal as I chose to do in-depth interviews of sustainability practitioners. They were largely unstructured and open, but I found I had a good ability to ask good follow-up questions that furthered the interview and yielded rich data. I had never conducted interviews for research and I found it to be a rewarding experience. I plan to incorporate this method as one component of my dissertation research. My own prior research experience had been the creation of various kinds of largely quantitative survey instruments mostly for the purpose of program evaluation and assessing client satisfaction with area non-profit agencies, although technically the instruments were mixed because they always collected some qualitative comments to enhance the quantitative findings. | 43 | English | male | Master's degree, working on PhD | Freelance writing and nonprofit administration | N,N,N,N,N |
t | Those identified from the interview with the Chair and those identified from the interview with the Student are labeled as such.
I entered the Antioch University PhD in Leadership and Change program with the singular purpose of reframing myself as a leader of change in the field of sustainability in higher education. Each day brings me closer to the completion of my doctoral journey and serves to affirm and strengthen both my choice of doctoral program and my chosen field of study. On the cusp of entering the dissertation phase, I pause to reflect upon my journey through the program to date as a learner, leader, and scholar.
In the first learning achievement of the program, I spent some time evaluating various definitions of leadership in order to choose one that would resonate with my own work. The one that seems right for me is one that was offered up by Dick Couto during the very first residency of the program: Taking initiative on behalf of shared values. It has since become something of a mantra for me: A way to focus my energies on what is important, a lens through which I can recognize what is based solely on self-interest and what is based on shared values (and when, thankfully, they sometimes overlap), and a standard to which I can hold myself and others accountable. I find it simple, elegant, and effective. It also serves as a reminder that when I feel more like a good manager than a leader, in the end they are the same thing. To the extent that I have taken initiative on behalf of shared values, I have been a leader.
My personal experience over the years in several different organizations, however, is that some never bother to collaboratively define the shared values to begin with. In other instances, the organization may have clearly defined shared values, but any given unit within the organization may or may not actively embody those values.
It was in this first essay that I also laid out what I knew about myself that seemed relevant to the journey from several self-assessments engaged during my master’s studies, including the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator, Kolb Learning Style Inventory, Emotional Competence Inventory, Strength Deployment Inventory, and Pace Palette. These all continue to be accurate and help me to understand and relate to others with very different approaches and perspectives. I am one who needs time to process, think things through, and analyze. I must remain aware that to others this can appear to be non-engagement or even callousness. I can synthesize vast quantities of information into concise logical forms. I like long-term planning and goal setting. I see illogical and inefficient systems and want to comprehensively address them. I am very curious and like to learn. All of these qualities, as well as an awareness of their potential downsides, have served me well in both my academic life and my work life.
| 43 | English | male | Master's degree, working on PhD | Freelance writing and nonprofit administration | N,N,N,N,N |
t |
Referring back to Figure 17, there was a precipitous drop in commuter log submissions in the third month of the project. That was a bit disheartening, and it is hard to say why that might have happened. With the onset of winter at a New England campus, there is clearly a drop in people commuting either by bicycle or by foot, which may account for some portion of the decline. December also marks the end of the fall semester when everyone is very busy finishing schoolwork, processing grades, and so forth. Filling out the commuter log might just have slipped off the radar screen for many folks. In addition, December brings the onset of the busy holiday season and the resulting month-long break for students and faculty, during which time many do not even need to come to campus at all. Classes then resume for the spring semester in late January, perhaps also a clue to the low number of logs for that month. But none of that really explains the low number of submissions for February. One might also conjecture that any project of this type is going to have an initial burst of energy and excitement at the outset, which might then naturally decline. In an effort to combat this trend, we created the Carpool Challenge Week, a special blitz campaign in March to try and reinvigorate the initiative, which did result in an increase in log submissions for that month. Thus, one of the challenges we experienced was how to maintain project momentum in the face of both a natural decrease in engagement, but also specifically the problem of holiday and semester breaks experienced in higher education.
Another challenge for this project (or any alternative commuting project) is the simple fact that people enjoy the freedom, independence, and flexibility of driving their cars. This is deeply embedded in our culture. Therefore, it is essential to provide incentives for engaging in alternative modes of commuting. We gave out a lot prizes in the form of gift certificates to local restaurants, coffee shops, massage therapists, the local independent bookstore, and even some larger national chain stores. It would have been interesting to see, however, how some even larger prizes might have affected participation – such as giving away a nice bicycle, hybrid car, or electric car. This could have also helped to combat that dip in engagement the project experienced. The nature of the prizes didn’t really change during the course of the project. If the prizes, however, were to increase in value over the course of the project, that might have helped. The gift cards seemed to be more than adequate at the outset of the project, but if we had announced in December the addition of a couple of bicycles, and then in January the addition of a hybrid or electric car, one can only think that participating and engagement would have increased instead of decreasing. | 43 | English | male | Master's degree, working on PhD | Freelance writing and nonprofit administration | N,N,N,N,N |
t | For evidence of this, see some of the quotes in the ACT Update, numbers 13-16, found in Appendix 1.
Reviewing the entries I made in a critical reflection journal during the project, I am left with the feeling that although there were many instances in which I took initiative on behalf of shared values (particularly those of the Transportation Team), it simply was not enough to make the project as successful as we were all hoping it would be. The project achieved impressive results in terms of the percentage of the AUNE community that enrolled, which was particularly important in terms of collecting baseline data, but really only achieved very modest results in changing commuting behaviors and reducing CO2 emissions from student and employee commuting. The instances in which I took initiative – designing the project’s graphics, creating the survey instruments, soliciting prizes, designing and writing the ACT Update e-newsletters, etc. were all very important in terms of laying a solid foundation for the first year of the project, but there were other elements that perhaps would have had greater impact on the project’s success, such as figuring out how to use those who indicated a willingness to volunteer in a way that would have encouraged other registrants to engage in alternative commuting and submit their commuter logs. So I am left wondering if perhaps I was not as strategic about where I applied my initiative-taking. If I look at how I have taken initiative in other aspects of my work life and theatre life (my main leisure pursuit outside of work), the initiative I most often take is that of behind-the-scenes logistic, nuts-and-bolts, the administrative work that builds a foundation upon which other activities can build. But then I am left without time and energy to take initiative on some higher-level work that would have had a different kind of impact, and perhaps more of an impact on the project’s final results. There were really just five of us involved in the project. For me, being a full-time student and a full-time employee meant I was engaging the project on top of all that. The other three students all had part-time jobs, and were engaging the project as part of their federal work-study positions with limited hours. The project simply needed more staff and more advance planning. Still, in terms of the change literature that recommends early victories, the first year of the project with its successes, however modest, did achieve at least that much.
As one college president recently put it, “By the end of this century, we will live either in a world that is sustainable, peaceful and just, or in a world that is unstable, violent and insecure.” Environmental degradation, poverty, the ever-widening gap separating the rich from the poor, racism, discrimination, a host of other social ills, and the continued use of violence for political ends continue to be persistent problems throughout the global community. | 43 | English | male | Master's degree, working on PhD | Freelance writing and nonprofit administration | N,N,N,N,N |
rr |
Recourses are the elements in which a company can use to help profit the company. Foozy inc. resources are catharsis production to relieve stress. Lego’s resources are toys children enjoy playing with. In order to maintain both of these resources there will be two fold productions. A specific team that has mastered integration of both of the resources together. Any resources that will are not able to integrate will have to be cut in order to cut out cost and raise profit.
Management is the key success driving factor to a successful MNE and FDI. Management would have to be open minded to broad understanding of culture and society. Because each of the firms is in very different communities a diverse company profile will have to be implemented. There should be at least two or more representatives from each of the international production companies to speak for that region.
Management will have to be as diverse and open minded as we expect for customer basis to me.
Hubris is having over-confidence in one’s capabilities (source three). Hubris is not an element of Foozy inc. Foozy is glad to say we learn from our mistakes. Foozy inc. is a humble company to allow people to come to use for their health and wellness needs in any manner. Foozy inc. is a family operated business; therefore we instill family values, morals, and ethics in everything that we do.
The success of the acquisition will come from the growth rate of the company. Allowing the customer to feel better and knowing that Foozy inc. is apart of making the world a better place is rewarding. We have conferences where people come from all around the world to share and empower other Foozy inc. customers the beauty of living a stress free life.
Foozy Inc. is a multinational enterprise (MNE). Foozy a firm that engages in foreign direct investment (FDI) with the country of South Africa. Foozy was founded by Thekema an international business consulted who attracts customers with fun and exciting products that they just cannot get out of their head. Foozy is fun and exciting for the whole family and a product you can use and play with all day without getting bored. Foozy is a hand held device that is oozy and makes you feel good by holding it your hands and playing with it. The customer can squeeze foozy, stretch, pull it, tear it, throw it across the room and it will keep its composition and fun shape and texture.
Total industry sales over the past five years have been $250,000,000.00. Anticipated growth in the industry budgeted to be minimal of 5% growth rate. Foozy has a total of two 4 firms in the past three years; United States firm, South Africa firm, China firm, UK firm. The innovation in the industry is the durability of the foozy. | 25 | English | female | Bacholers | temp agency | N,N,N,N,N |
rr |
Transportation is the fifth step in the supply chain process. Transportation deals with the smooth delivery of goods to one location to the next. There are five means of transportation. The following are the five means of transportation: air, rail, water, truck, and pipeline. Air transportation is the fastest and most expensive mean of transportation. The advantages of air transportation are that it is fast and reliable; the disadvantage of air transportation is that companies are only able to transport smaller packages. Rail transportation involves trains and railroads. Rail transportation is a lot slower than air transportation but the advantage of rail transportation is that it is easier to transport large bulk items. Water transportation is slow and not flexible. Water transportation is not flexible because it can only go in locations that have a water source. Water transportation is the cheapest form of transportation. An advantage of water transportation is that you can ship bulk items. Truck transportation involves road transportation by trucks, cars, and eight-teen wheeler tractors. Truck transportation is the most flexible out of all the forms of transportation. The disadvantages that truck transportation has are that it is not cheap and it does not allow bulk carrying. The final form of transportation is pipeline. Pipeline is very cheap but is very limited in what it can transport. The advantage of pipeline transportation is that it is very fast. Management would have to consider which of these forms of transportation is the best way to get products from the production plant and warehouse into the store and ready for customers to purchase.
Globalization has allowed businesses and people to interact from all around the globe. Globalization has been successful due to the major influences of the supply chain management. Without supply chain management it would be extremely difficult for America to do business with partners in Japan and China. The creation of the container has allowed businesses to ship raw goods and products around the globe in a well organized and simplified method. In today’s supply chain process, because of the container it is easy to transport products from water to rail, from rail to plan, and from plan to trucks.
Information is the sixth step in the supply chain management. Information consists of relying information from one end of the process to the other. Management uses internet and other high technology programs to link together information.
Supply chain management is created to provide quality and satisfactory products to customers. When companies are able to produce, supply, and transport products in a timely manner to customers they are more successful. The key steps in the supply chain method are production, supply, inventory, location, transportation, and information. Each step has an important role in the success of the supply chain process.
Beth Bed and Beyond an international retail company that sells quality products for the bath, bedding, and kitchen wares. The company mission objective is to be a customer’s first choice for products and services in the categories offered, in the markets in which the company operates. | 25 | English | female | Bacholers | temp agency | N,N,N,N,N |
rr | Tamara used her leadership skills to inspire the office staff to interact better with residence and made Gables 820 West a more welcoming home feeling when residence enter the leasing office. Power is defined as a capacity that A has to influence the behavior of B so that B acts in accordance with A’s wishes. Tamara exemplified power by being able to maintain a good balance in what is standard which is the policy and still being able to relate to associates and residence.
Ethical dilemma is defined as situations in which individuals are required to define right and wrong conduct. I asked Tamara to describe and ethical dilemma which she had encountered. Her response is as followed:
A policy that any leasing professional are not allowed to leave any application, because the leasing associate doesn’t have locks on drawers, and every time any employee steps away from the computer they have to lock the computer. They was a potential residence who was not credit worthy he came into the office set at the desk, were there were open files and a associate walked away from the desk and used a social security number from the open file to put on his own application.
Intuitive thinking model- just put the pieces of the puzzle together. The potential residence was not allowed to move in and the leasing associate had to be coached.
There is a residence who is an independent artist, the artist manager pays the rent etc, where the artist manager was asking for information in regards to the artist, but Tamara was not suppose to release any information due to the confidentially agreement on the lease,
Rational decision making model. All though at first it seemed innocent to discuss the rent with the artist manager, had to break down the rules of the lease and cannot release any information if the residence is not present. Alternatives are to be added to the lease or every time you call make sure the residence is present.
Pierre the manager from Chick-Fil-A and Tamara both use intuitive thinking model and make and attempt to use the rational decision making model when possible.
Gables and Chick-Fil-A both value diversity. Chick-Fil-A values diversity by hiring a lot of Spanish speaking people and having language communicators to be able to communicate with non-Spanish speaking employees. I asked Tamara does her organization Gables value diversity. She responded; yes, diversity inclusion training is inside of the Gables University. 16 different locations, and are strategically placed to be put in place where people make money, and the community can have diversity in price point and location.
A recent decision made by Tamara that effected the entire organization was when Gables 820 West just started doing blue moon leases what is online leases, started in December, benefit’s the entire organization, because it aims with the green efforts, blue moon cuts down on paper, and it makes it much more convenience for new residence because they are only in the office for 10 min instead of 45 min wait time. | 25 | English | female | Bacholers | temp agency | N,N,N,N,N |
rr |
Supply chain management is the stream of processes of moving goods from the customer order through the raw materials stage, supply, production, and distribution of products to the customer. The term supply chain management was invented in 1982 by Keith Oliver, a consultant. Keith Oliver described the overall process of planning, implementing, and controlling what goes on at the supply chain in order to satisfy customers’ needs in a quick, efficient manner. There are six key elements to a supply chain: production, supply, inventory, location, transportation, and information. Managers of business use these six key elements to provide the best customer service to customers.
Production is the first step in the supply chain process. Production is the foundation for the entire supply chain process. The production stage will outline the when, why, where, and how everything will be produced. Managers need to know what customers want. In order for managers to know what customers want, managers can look at the market. The market is the biggest indicator to decide what the customer demands are. Once Managers have analyzed the market and understand customer’s demand they are ready to decide what products should be produced, and how many of those products should be produced. After the management has decided what is produced and how many, they are ready to decide where the products should be produced and at which plant will be best for volume and quality of good, keeping in mind the customer demand and satisfaction must be met. After the location for production of the products has been decided, the next step is managers’ focus on scheduling workloads, and maintenance of equipment. Production is a very important step in the supply chain process. Every detail is vital throughout the whole process. If every detail is not planned accordingly, it could cost the company a lot of time and money in the long run. For example, I use to work at Wal-Mart and Target retail stores. Both companies have a design, booklet, and process for every entity of the business. There is a designed layout of how an employee’s uniform should look to receiving shipment from trucks. Having outlined processes allow a company to work smoothly without confusion of direction and expectations.
The second key element in the supply chain management is supply. Supply is defined as the strategic decisions that should be made to determine the core capabilities of a facility and outsourcing partnerships should grow from these decisions. A company may have many different divisions of production for a single product. All division consists of different equipment, workers, and specialties. The manager must decide which division is a best fit for the different processes of the product. Management may also decide to outsource the work to other companies. The core reason a manager would outsource the work to companies is to create velocity. Velocity is the ability to provide quality and flexibility while at the same time reducing costs or maintaining low cost levels. | 25 | English | female | Bacholers | temp agency | N,N,N,N,N |
rr | Outsourcing is good when the base facility cannot produce the products effectively. The overall objective is to provide the best value of quality in products for the customer whether the production is done within the company or outsourced. For example, Wal-Mart does a lot of outsourcing to cut down on cost. They make a lot of products, as well as allow companies to come into their store and place out-sourced items on their shelves. Wal-Mart has been able to make billions of dollars by using the velocity approach and maintaining high quality products at lower cost.
Inventory is the third key element in the supply chain process. Management needs to know how much product they have on-hand at all times. There should be a well-balanced amount of inventory to fulfill customer satisfaction and not too much inventory to cost waste of products. Inventory allows the product to have high quality which will gain great customer service. Control levels are put into place to determine correct levels of supplies at order and reorder points. These levels are critical to the day to day operation of organizations. For example Target has a computerized system that allows management and employees to know exactly how much and any product is in the store at any given time. Once an item is purchased the computer will automatically reduce the number of product on the computer. This type of system is helpful when management needs to place new orders. Also, Wal-Mart has a system designed to allow their out-source affiliates know immediately when new products are needed in the store by using technology to count each product. Inventory is major part of the supply chain process and allows management to understand the direction the company should move in next. Procurement is the basis of inventory. Procurement is the buying of raw materials and supplies. Procurements help to define the price, quality, and manage risks. Companies manage risk by hedging. Hedging allows a certain price to be stated for a product incase of fluctuation of the price market. Inventory can be warehoused or distributed. Warehouses hold products that will not be placed in the store or used until a later time. Distribution of inventory is the act of transferring products from one location to another; for example, from the warehouse to the store or plant.
Location is the fourth step in the supply chain process. Location is determined by the market demands and customer satisfaction. Management has to decide where plants, stores, and distribution will be located. The goal of the location is to be centered around the market in which the company nerves. For example a store should be in close proximity of their target customers; in doing so, makes the store or plant easy accessible. For example, Wal-Mart has many stores around the world. They have locations available that are easy accessible to the distributors and employees. Decisions concerning location should also take into consideration tax and tariff issues, especially in inter-state and worldwide distribution. | 25 | English | female | Bacholers | temp agency | N,N,N,N,N |
rr | The company’s strategy is to achieve this objective through excellent customer service, and extensive breadth and depth of assortment, everyday low prices, and introduction of new merchandising offerings, supported by the continuous development and improvement of our infrastructure. (Company website) This mission statement delivers a strong well worded statement that covers the overall activities of the company. This mission statement covers competition and goals, but does not include how to compete with prices and customer service. They should expound those factors to allow a complete mission statement that is clear to all parties.
The vision statement is as stated: We deliver our commitment to being a positive economic force, a responsible citizen in the communities we serve, and a mindful steward of resources we consume. As with everything we do, we focus on our areas in need of improvement, and we are never satisfied. As such, while we are proud of our accomplishments in these areas, we will continue to strive for improvement. (Company website).This statement divers a clear and precise vision of the companies over all never ending vision. It gives a clear direction and allows room for continued growth. The core values of Bed Bath & Beyond: Growth, diversity, mutual respect, economic responsibility and community (company website). The core values are well rounded and diverse that supports the mission and vision statements that customers and stakeholders can respect.
The strategic group consists of stores that compete with Bed Bath and Beyond. These stores compete against each other on low costs. Target corp., Wal-Mart, Macys Inc. are all stores who drive customers with sales and low prices. There are a lot of similar stores like Bed Bath and Beyond but differ because their focus is not low-price. These stores are as followed: Pier 1 Imports, Crate and Barrel, Pottery Barn, West Elm, Mohawk Industries, Tempur-pedic intle, Leggett & Platt, Interface, HB Fuller, Jo-Ann Stores, Helen of Troy,
Target, Wal-Mart, Macy are the main strategic due to the fact that target and Wal-Mart are competing on price with Bed Bath & Beyond Macy is included in the strategic grouped because they have similar items as Bed Bath & Beyond but still are not considered high end as other competitors.
The five forces are the external factors that drive the industry. Customers have a high purchasing power because this industry is a low-cost dealer. Suppliers power is low, with approximately 5,500 suppliers at BB&B primarily from domestic sources and balances from overseas, and the largest supplier accounting for approximately 5% this reduces the company’s dependence on a single supplier while increasing its bargaining power. Threat of new entrants power is medium to high. High because it is not hard for established companies to get into the industry. For example, Kroger has already started selling furniture and cooking goods, many stores are beginning to diversify their markets to make their shop a one stop shop. | 25 | English | female | Bacholers | temp agency | N,N,N,N,N |
rr | Gables has work teams. Tamara explained the work teams at Gables. Office staff- three people community manager, assistant manager, a leasing professional. Community manager pays the bills for the property and negotiates contracts, over sees the over production of the property. Resolve any issues on site before they escalate to corporate. Assistant community manager handles all residence accounts, all past due collections and responsible for generating other revenues on property, (the book keeper). The leasing associates- to greet and tour prospects into the community and turn them into the residence.
The Storming stage of team development is the third stage in group development, characterized by close relationships and cohesiveness. Gables has many different procedures to help through the storming stage of team development.
Gables Residence is required to conduct a meeting every Wednesday to help the organization stay on the same page. Whatever issues that are going on, on the property, it updates everyone on the current issues. From management down to grounds men.
The regional managers are always readily available via e-mail or phone,
SOP- standard operating procedures rather it is dealing with residence or employees to use as a reference.
Chick-Fil-A has a different approach to the storming stage; they select their managers based of qualifications. They have pray time in the mornings to help the staff get through any problems they might have.
A work group is a group whose individual efforts result in performance that is greater than the sum of the individual inputs. Gables has no work groups because everything that everyone does is for the greater good of the organization.
Tamara Horne is the assistant manager that operates the property at 820 West Gables. For a year and eight months she has been the assistant manager. For three years and seven months she has been with Gables Residential. Tamara’s job description is to resolve resident issues, and everything the manager does in her absence, and outside marketing; also, tour potential residence who visits the property.
Charismatic leadership theory is defined as a leadership theory that states that followers make attributions of heroic or extraordinary leadership abilities when they observe certain behaviors. Tamara has the ability to make anyone that she interacts with day better. She motivates them by inspiring them to have better day. She leads her associates to be the best that they can be by leading to by example and showing them right from wrong. Transformational leaders are leaders who inspire followers to transcend their own self-interest and who are capable of having a profound and extraordinary effect on followers. Tamara is a transformational leader as well. For example, I have resided at Gables 820 West before Tamara transferred to the property. After Tamara transferred to the property she was able to change the whole vibe and mood of the office. She transcended the office staff to be bit more friendly and acceptable to the residence. | 25 | English | female | Bacholers | temp agency | N,N,N,N,N |
rr | They take on the think local act local by joint venture with “Home & More” in Mexico and has allowed BB&B to have a presence in Mexico with 50% equity holder of the company. It is tailored to the Mexico culture but contains the same product future of the international BB&B. It is good to go international to expand the markets and diversify the profit. I would like to see the company expand into more regions. BB&B wants to it safe by joint venturing with local companies.
In conclusion, Bed Bath and Beyond is doing very well. I would invest in the company. BB&B has positioned itself for a lot of growth and potential.
Oranizational behavior is a field of study that investigates the impact that individuals, groups, and structure have on behavior within organizations, for the purpose of applying such knowledge toward improving an organziation’s effectiveness. I will compare two organizations on the three levels focused in organizational behevaior. The two organizations that will be compared are Chick-Fil-A and Gables Residential. Chick-Fil- A is a fast food restraurant. Chick-Fil-A was started in 1967 and is family owned business started by Mr. Truett Cathy. Cureently Chick-Fil-A has 1,500 locations in 39 states and in Washington, DC. Their mission statement states “be Americas best quick service restaurant”, and holds annual sales over $3.5 billion dollars. A team of students and I were able to interview Mr. Pierre Toussiant in regards to organizational behavior within Chick-Fil- A.
I chose Gables Residential as an organization to interview to compare to the chick-Fil-A interview we did earlier in the semester. I chose Gables Residential because I wanted to choose an organization that had personal experience with on a daily basis that has impacted my life. I have been a resident at a Gables Residential property for three years. This interview was an excellent opportunity to better understand the organization. I had the opportunity to interview Ms. Tamara Horne. Tamara is the assistant property manager at Gables 820 West residence, on West Marietta Street, in Atlanta, Georgia. I chose to interview Tamara because I work closely with her on a daily basis, and I knew she would have a lot of insight on the organizational behavior of Gables Residential. Tamara gladly accepted my offer to interview her and was an amazing help to understanding Gables’ organizational behavior. Gables’ mission statement is “Taking Care of the Way People Live”. Gables succeeds their mission statement by being pro-active in the lives of the community within their location. For example, Gables host a complimentary breakfast every Saturday in order for residence to interact with their neighbored and the staff of apartment complex. Gables core values are extraordinary quality and service for their residence; unparalleled employment experiences for associates; utmost integrity and value for our shareholders and customers; an enduring contributions to their local community. | 25 | English | female | Bacholers | temp agency | N,N,N,N,N |
rr | The foozy is innovated to be able to be thrown across a room, stretched, poked, slapped, torn apart all while keeping the composure of the oozy material texture that is long lasting and relaxing to the customer. Foozy inc. competitors are toy makers. Even though the foozy is not just a toy but is for all ages because it is a natural catharsis. The more you the customer slams, throws, kicks, and slaps the foozy it relieves the stress and allows the customer to feel relaxed and calm. Therefore making the foozy fun for all ages. The main competitor for Foozy inc. is Lego and Mattel. Lego has a 31% consumer sales growth (source one); Foozy Inc predicts a 50% sales growth due the new foreign markets in the South African region. We expect sales to increase 50% because of all the stress that is in the country of South Africa due to poverty and high AIDs rate, the foozy will be catharsis to help the citizens of the country relax. The foozy is affordable and even there can be one per a household.
The competitors are strong because they have been around a lot longer than Foozy. Foozy is new and innovated will gain a competitive advantage over Lego and Mattel. Foozy can compete efficiently in the industry because there will be a high profit margin because the product is inexpensive and low-cost to manufacture. Lego and Mattel is both toy manufactures, in contrast Foozy is a fun toy with broaden functions that a wider range of customers can relate to.
Foozy Inc. will manufacture all of the products in factor. Each of the four regions will have a separate factory to cut out shipping fees and cost. Factories will hire integrants of the land who will be willing to work for cheaper wages and fair cost gain. The factory will consist of an assembly line that puts the parts together, and a second assembly line to check for defects. Raw materials are the oozy center of the foozy. The oozy center is made up of silicone that will not burst. Other raw materials consist of the lumps that the customer feels to help grip the foozy that will allow it to not fall out of the customers hands.
The marketing will be displayed in public attractions like public transportation, magazines and television. The price will be $10.00 USD to make it affordable. This price is low enough to allow everyone to get one but high enough to cover all the cost to make. Foozy projects to make 100,000,000 semi-annually which will revenue $1 billion dollars. Foozy inc. Will host monthly product testing cycles to see how customers are coping and liking the product. The investors will be investment banks that will hold stock in trade of capital to build the company.
Publicly operated family business headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia US. The director is Thekema Berry
High risk factor, but having faith in the product will allow the organization to do the best to maintain profit. | 25 | English | female | Bacholers | temp agency | N,N,N,N,N |
rr | There are Spanish communities, college centered communities. Online allows for more connivance when signing the lease. Also helps national leasing as well. Tamara used the rational decision making model to make this decision. She saw a need for faster and better quality leasing. She weighted her alternatives to keep things the way they currently were or upgrade their systems to allow the organization to be more effective.
One area that I discussed was work groups. Gables Residential does not have any work groups. Some processes may be able to get done without having a collective synergy with the whole property. Within a work group individuals can work on projects alone but still make the property goals. This will help improve the individual efforts as well as group efforts and the overall organization level.
Foozy inc. is a foreign direct investment. Foozy has plants in United States, South Africa, China, and in the UK. Foozy is a production manufacture of health wellness activity who is concerned with betterment of mankind and all of humanity. Legos is an international toy manufacture company who makes toys for kids. Legos has been around for many years since 1932. (Source one) Legos and Foozy are focused on the growth rate potential of toy and health and wellness industry. Two fast paced growing companies can come together to overtake the industry. Legos and Foozy are headquartered in the United States and do business internationally through MNE.
70% of mergers and acquisitions do fail. For example, Air Tran and Value Jet acquisitioned in the late 1990 have and now Air Tran has been acquired by Southwest Airline (source two). 70% of mergers and acquisitions fail because one company dominated the culture of the business instead of allowing a synergy to operate the company. If each company will continue to do what they do best and allow the partnering company to do what they do best, then together it will create a strong synergy that will make the two companies together unstoppable. Considering two companies still compete with each other for promotes and sales there are no synergy and both companies tend to lose.
Foozy and Legos will not have and issue with failure. Foozy will handle the health and wellness of production and let Legos do what they do best and handle the marketing and distribution of the products. Together Foozy inc. and Legos will dominate the industry by creating synergy and beating out competitors.
Lego is a toy manufacture. Foozy is a health and wellness manufacture. Issues that will rise between Lego and Foozy inc. are whether the merger/acquisition should focus more on toys or health and wellness. There is a simple formula that will solve institutional issues that will help each company. We together will make toys and products that well better the health and the wellness. This is a win-win approach because Lego gets to manufacture toys and Foozy gets to help humanity by making them feel better by incorporating the two together. | 25 | English | female | Bacholers | temp agency | N,N,N,N,N |
rr | The power is considered medium because it takes capital to produce the supplier base and the brand that is already established with well known companies. Power of substitute is medium to low. Medium because many people do not concern their living establishment with lavish décor and home goods. For example, fancy fixings and kitchen wares. The power of substitutes is also considered low because BB&B is more so for middle class economic level, who do not take time to decorate the home and is less likely to be concerned with home goods. Established rivals power is high. BB&B has to compete with Wal-Mart who does equal price matching products and has the volume advantage, and Target has a brand that is attractive to customers. Whereas Macys has loyal shoppers.
Bed Bath & Beyond is centered around discount customers who look for a cheaper price. Also need-based customer who is looking for particular items that may not be accessible in other stores. Lastly, a wandering customer who want a sense of experience and or community.
The strategic position is needs-based position because they are focusing on the needs of home goods and services. Specifically in the area of bath, kitchens, and home goods.
The industry driving forces are economy, health and wellness, and go green. The economy is a big industry driving force because when the economy is up people tend to spend more of their income on home décor. Also when the economy is down people flock to stores that focus on economic pricing like BB&B to save and discount on home needs. This positioning in the industry allows BB&B to cover a wider range of customers. They offer the variety of products that people want when the economy is up and yet offer economic pricing when people are forced to cut back spending but still need daily home necessities.
Bed Bath & Beyond paired up with healthywomen,org in effort to promote healthy lifestyles for women and families. This allows BB&B to be concerned not only with products of households but the well being of those house holds offering products that are geared toward living a healthy balanced life.
Going green is industry driving force. BB&B offers alternative products, products that are sustainable and materials with energy saving properties in a number of categories such as cleaning, utility, bedding, bath, and window.
Key success factors are enternal factors that force the company. Size is a key success factor for BB&B. BB&B is unique because the average store size is 45,000 square feet. A big store to hold products that allow a layout that allows the customer to through and see everything.
Variety is a key success factor. Bed Bath and Beyond offers 80,000 different products which makes it a convenient one stop shop for all of the shoppers home needs. Price is another key success factor. Everday low prices gives a competitive advantage over other retailers to maintain the higher quality products at lower economic pricing. | 25 | English | female | Bacholers | temp agency | N,N,N,N,N |
rr | Accessinility is a success key factor by opening up more stores and having online ordering which allows customers to acess the company better.
These key success factors are good but need to more diverse to give a higher competitive advantage. These success factors are easily imitated which will leave the industry with low profit margins.
The balance scorecard’s core beliefs are growth, diversity, mutual respect, economic responsibility, and community. The financial profit margin and raising it higher than competitors, will be a weight of success for BB&B. The internal business processes are expansion of stores and raising profit margins. Customers weight of success is great customer service value, diversity from employees to relate to customers, and community involvement. Learning and growth weight will come from the company responsibility report and feedback form.
The financial ratios are compared with the centered strategic industry. Which is Wal-Mart, Target, and Macy. The profit margin is twice as high as the industry; BB&B is very profitable to have such high margins. BB&B at 9.04% and the industry at 9.87% The return on assets are twice as high as the industry. BB&B at 14.66% and the industry at 6.66%. The market book value is larger than the industry as well at 3.06% and the industry at 2.37%. Overall Bed bath and beyond according to the financial ratio is doing better than the industry even though BB&B revenue is not as high as the industry.
Bed Bath & Beyond’s balanced score card should more deceive. It should be to the point across the board on the direction and vision. Their balanced score-card is not strong enough to lead the vision and mission of the company.
The competitive strategy is a overall low cost provider strategy. BB&B seeks everyone to shop at their store. Highlighting the economic value of shopping at BB&B and low prices. The higher quality of products at lower prices than competitors. This strategy is not the best for BB&B because it is easily copied and shoppers can go anywhere for low price substitutes. I would recommend becoming a best cost provider in order to maintain low but yet making shoppers want to come to BB&B verses Wal-mart and Target.
Bed Bath & Beyond has had three acquisitions and subsidiaries. On March 5, 2002 Harmon store Inc, a retailer of health and beauty products. Again on June 19, 2003 Christmas Tree Shops Inc, a retailer giftware and household products. Finally March 22, 2007, buy buy Baby- retailer of infant and toddler merchandize.
This was a great move to acquire these three diverse companies to help diversify BB&B product portfolio. Also whenever one market segment may be lacking another market segment can thrive.
Bed Bath and Beyond is an international company with stores located in the USA, Canada, and Mexico. | 25 | English | female | Bacholers | temp agency | N,N,N,N,N |
rr | They both are motivated by helping the community and getting involved.
In the article “An unhappy Anniversary for the Financial Crisis” by Allan Sloan from the Washington Post, the brokers are very sad about the results of the market crisis and they have no motivation. They could use goal- setting theory like Gables does to set a goal and stay on track instead only focusing on the negative. The Stock Market did lose a lot of money, but if brokers would have been motivated to change earlier at first glance of the market crashing it could have been prevented. (Work cited source 1)
Emotional Intelligence is the ability to detect and to manage emotional cues and information. Empathy is having the ability to understand what a person is going through and being able to put yourself in his or her shoes. I asked Tamara does she consider empathy and emotional intelligence for leaders in the organization. She responded:
Yes I do, even though in the workplace you are suppose to leave your emotions behind but a good manager should have EI, especially when dealing with a diverse community with a wide range of demographics.
On the residence side- there are so many situations that is thrown at the managers from the residence on a day to day basis that having the ability to relate to the issues the residence
Feel felt found - the herd theory: when someone comes in with a situation, to show we understand others for example- residence comes in and says I am pissed we don’t have a grill at the pool. The manager says I understand because I love to grill but due to fire safety and compliance reasons, we strategically located the grill with the set up of the property. The theory allows management to display our sincerity and ability to relate to the situation at hand and of course to the residence feelings.
On the associates side- it’s so vital for the manager to have the ability of emotional intelligence on our property specifically. Just like residence associates have problems too. For example, one of the associates had a mother ho had two strokes, and then her mother passed away. Managers must have the ability to still motivate them to come to work and give their all despite what they are going through. The better the manager is able to deal with it, will help the associate and help the production of the company.
Having this ability of EI also works well in situations that allow managers to pull out or help bring out emotions with people. For example, if an associate is having a problem by taking them out to lunch and take them by the hand and talk with them. That will be comforting, because everyone reacts to emotions differently. That will make associates realize they are special.
A work team is a group whos individual effort result in performance that is greater than the sum of the individual inputs. | 25 | English | female | Bacholers | temp agency | N,N,N,N,N |
rr | Gables’ vision is to be the industry leader for innovation, adaptability and entrepreneurship in providing high quality living experiences in premier apartment communities that are created from a culture committed to producing products and services that appeal to the evolving demographic in high growth markets of the United States. Gables has been developing and managing apartment communities for over twenty-five years. Gables is national company and is located in, Atlanta, Austin, Dallas, Houston, South Florida, Southern Claifornia, and metroplotian Washington, D.C.
Motivation is the processes that account for an individual’s intensity, direction, and persistence of effort toward attaining a goal. I asked Tamara how employees are motivated at Gables. She responded with the following:
We are motivated by good benefit packages. (I.e. health, discounts (internal- associate discounts on rent, external- discounts on theme parks, movies, hotels etc.)
They are given a very enticing bonus structure. Giving extra perks on top of regular bonus, for example new leases and renews, (pick five apartments and whoever leases that apartment will get an extra hundred dollars.) a gift tree where if you lease you can pick a gift off the tree, gifts include restaurant vouchers,
Award winning learning and development titled Gables University. Structured really well, and can take classes and earn college credit.
Corporate invents that host award ceremonies that relate to performances throughout the year. Where they will read letters from residence titled taking care award. The ceremony is called the spot light award. There is an award for every level of the organization, for example, IT community manager, house keeping awards.
Corporate functions like Christmas parties, and pot-luck dinners throughout the year. Motivated by taking the time out to treat them and it is paid for along with gifts.
There is a Gables day- where the whole company including corporate office and go out into the community and help give back. Which is May 18th, and they allow associates to pick the event. There are a total of 360 people.
Employees at Gables are motivated many different ways. Gables believe in the Theory Y if Douglas McGregor’s theory of motivation. Theory Y states the assumption that employees like to work, are creative, seek responsibility, and can exercise self-direction. Gables allows employees to work independently with residence. They trust their employees work efforts and reward them with gifts and special functions. Another theory is goal-setting theory. Goal setting theory states a theory that says that specific and difficult goals, with feedback, lead to higher performances. Gables sets goals for the employees to lease a certain amount of apartments every month. This allows employees to have feedback on obtaining a goal because they can measure their performance. For example, if the employee needs to lease five apartments this month, and they have only leased two; the employee can be motivated to lease the other three because they get leasing bonus and rewards.
Chick-Fil-A and Gables are similar in the way they motivate their employees. | 25 | English | female | Bacholers | temp agency | N,N,N,N,N |
ss | Any non-compliance with any provisions in the ordinance can result in penalties not less than $100 or more than $1000 a day. It is the duty of the Department of Inspections, Permits and Licenses to ensure compliance with all certificates of appropriateness.
The Historic Landmarks Act also works together the Metro Government’s property maintenance code with regards to owners neglecting their property. Louisville’s building code was enacted pursuant to KRS 82.705 which states that “a local government may, by ordinance, enact a nuisance code and impose penalties for violation of the nuisance code.” The Metro Government’s building code states that its provisions are “not mandatory for existing buildings or structures designated…as historic buildings when such buildings are judged by the Code Official to be safe and in the interest in the public interest of health, safety and welfare.” The Code Official is designated as the authority responsible for enforcing the provisions of the building code and vested with the power to make all required inspections, to enter structures at reasonable times to inspect them, and to issue citations, notices or orders regarding non-compliance with the code. The Code Official also has the power to determine that a structure is unsafe, and unfit for human occupancy or use, and after reaching this finding to condemn the property. An unsafe premise is defined as a structure that is “found to be dangerous to life, health, property, or the safety of the public or its occupants…[because it] is so damaged, decayed, dilapidated, structurally unsafe, or of such faulty construction or unstable foundation that partial or complete collapse is possible.” The Code Official is also given the power to order the owner of the unsafe premises to either make the necessary repairs or to demolish the structure, and if the owner fails to comply with the order then the Code Official will raze the structure, the costs of which to be charged against the owner with non-payment resulting in a lien against the property.
These two codes intersect and diverge in a number of ways that have consequences for historic preservation in Louisville. First, it is clear that the Historic Preservation Commission is given the power to designate, and oversee any requested construction or demolition of a landmark structure or property in a historic district, but their power is stripped when the Code Official deems a property unsafe, and the Commission is given no power to prevent obvious neglect before it is too late. The Department of Codes and Inspections has a little more power to correct code violations, but again their power is limited to issuing citations for code violations, and the department might not even know that a building is deteriorating until it is too late. Intertwining with the statutory issues behind demolition by neglect, are of course the economic and political issues. Many developers see the administrative hoops required for construction on a historic property as an expensive burden that hinders their plans for development. | 22 | english | female | bachelors degree | student | N,N,N,N,N |
ss |
Under California law, could a customer that was injured after slipping and falling on an applesauce spill in a grocery store be awarded punitive damages by showing the store manager acted with malice because he was informed twice of the spill and failed to have it cleaned for a half-hour because he was eating dinner?
A judge is not likely to summarily dismiss Jennifer Palmer’s punitive damage claim. To state a claim that an award of punitive damages is justified a plaintiff must present evidence that the defendant’s actions were committed with a willful and conscious disregard for the probable harm that would result from the conduct, as well as showing that the conduct was despicable. Palmer will be able to argue that Martin should have known the probable harm of not cleaning a spill because multiple D&D customers were injured from slipping in the months prior to Palmer’s accident; and despite this knowledge he still failed to have the spill cleaned. Palmer’s argument that Martin’s actions were despicable are less persuasive, but are still reasonable given the facts that six slip-and-fall incidents had occurred in 2009 and Martin still failed to take appropriate actions to maintain the safety of his store
On October 13, 2009 at 5:00 pm, Rich Wayne an employee of D&D Markets informed his manager, Paul Martin that there was an applesauce spill in an aisle. Martin told Wayne that he was on dinner break and “didn’t have time to deal with customer complaints.” At 5: 15 pm, another employee, Mary J. Haddigan also notified Mr. Martin of the spill, and Martin responded the same way. At 5:30 pm on the thirteenth, the plaintiff, Jennifer Palmer slipped and fell on the spill and sustained a serious back injury. Prior to Palmer’s accident five different slip-and-fall incidents had been reported at D&D’s in the year 2009. Palmer is now suing D&D for compensatory and punitive damages related to her injury, and we are examining whether to file a motion for partial summary against the punitive damage claim.
In California, a plaintiff can recover punitive damages for a breach of an obligation not arising out of a contract if the defendant acted with “oppression, fraud or malice.” Cal. Civ. Code, § 3294(a) (Lexis 2010). The statute defines malice as conduct that intended to cause harm, or absent intent, the conduct must be “despicable” and committed with “a willful and conscious disregard of the rights or safety of others.” id. at § (c)(1). Courts have characterized conduct as malicious when committed with a conscious disregard of the plaintiff’s rights when the defendant “was aware of the probable dangerous consequences of his conduct, and that he willfully and deliberately failed to avoid those consequences.” Taylor v. Super. Ct. of Los Angeles Co., 598 P. 2d 853, 856 (Cal. 1979). | 22 | english | female | bachelors degree | student | N,N,N,N,N |
ss | The court comes to this conclusion based on the reasoning that there was no evidence that Westbrook was “aware that the rumored relationship between Berry and Laura was sexual or destructive…or that Berry lied when confronted with the rumor about Laura.” Id. at 911. If the plaintiff cannot prove that the defendant had knowledge of the harmful consequences of the action, then their case for punitives fails on its face.
An example of a case where the court found the defendant did have the prerequisite knowledge of harmful consequences, is the slip-and-fall case Nolin v. National Convenience Stores. In this case the plaintiff, Iris Nolin sued National Convenience Stores, because the defendants failed to fix a defective gas nozzle, which for five months would overflow with gas and leak onto the ground. Nolin, at 284. The manager was aware of the conditions because two customers had already slipped on the gasoline prior to Nolin’s accident, and multiple employees had requested maintenance work on the nozzle. Id. at 284-285. The court discussed the intent underlying the manager’s lack of action to repair the dangerous conditions by stating, “conduct classified only as unintentional carelessness, while it may constitute negligence or even gross negligence, will not support an award of punitive damages.” Id. at 285-286. The court stated that the difference between negligent conduct, and unintentional malicious conduct is that malicious conduct involves “intention to perform an act that the actor knows, or should know, will very probably cause harm.” Id. at 286. The court found that the plaintiff presented ample evidence to support the punitive damage award, because the defendant was aware of the dangerous situation, and their failure to rectify this situation “showed a complete lack of concern regarding the harmful potential—the probability and likelihood of injury.” Id. at 288.
These cases establish that absent an express intent to cause harm, the conduct in question must be more than negligent, but show that the defendant acted despite knowing the probable harm of his conduct. In our case, the manager did not intend to harm Jennifer Palmer by failing to have the applesauce cleaned up, so Palmer has the burden of proving that Paul Martin’s actions were more than negligent. To do this she must show that he knew of the potential and likely dangerousness of the situation and intentionally ignored them. Palmer will have a strong case, considering that five slip-and-fall incidents had occurred at D&D’s in the nine months prior to Palmer’s accident. This evidence is similar to the facts in Nolin, where multiple falls had occurred on the premises. It is a reasonable argument that Martin should have known of the potential harmful consequences of the spill and taken immediate action to remedy the situation.
To further clarify what conduct can be considered as “conscious disregard” we must examine the language of the statute that states that the conduct must be a “willful” disregard of the “rights or safety of others.” Cal. Civ. Code §(c)(1).
| 22 | english | female | bachelors degree | student | N,N,N,N,N |
ss | Lackner suffered severe bruising and broke her leg and ankle as a result of the collision. Id. at 868-869. Lackner sued North and filed for punitive damages based on the argument that North was skiing recklessly because he was racing his teammates. Id. at 881. The Court disagreed and held that while North displayed a conscious disregard for the other skiers on the mountain by skiing recklessly, that his actions were not despicable. Id. at 884. The court’s reasoning that North’s actions were not despicable was based on the evidence that he did not intentionally hit Lackner, in fact he tried to avoid hitting her, but lost control in his attempt and was unable to stop the collision. Id. at 883. The court states that North’s attempt to avoid hitting Lackner was “entirely inconsistent with evil or criminal intent,” an element needed to prove the conduct was despicable. Id. at 884.
A case where the defendant was found to have acted despicably is, Angie M. v. The Super. Crt. of San Diego Co, 44 Cal. Rptr. 2d 197 (1995). The plaintiff, Angie, brought suit against her former doctor Robert Hiemstra, for illegal seduction of a minor, and for intentional infliction of emotional distress. The appellate court overruled the trial court’s demurrer of Angie’s punitive damage claim, because they held the facts of the case warranted sending the punitive damage claim to a jury. The court states that Hiemstra used his position of authority over Angie and his knowledge of her vulnerabilities to manipulate her into a sexual relationship, and his conduct showed “willful and conscious disregard.” Id. at 204. The court held that Angie alleged enough facts to show Hiemstra’s actions were “outrageous,” as well as recognizing that his conduct violated multiple criminal statutes, which showed that Hiemstra’s actions could be conceived to be despicable by a jury. Id.
These cases show that a plaintiff must present evidence that the defendant’s conduct was committed with an evil intent, or was so outside of societies norms that an ordinary person would be disgusted. In the present case, Martin did not act with an “evil or criminal intent,” instead the evidence seems to suggest that Martin’s intent was to finish his dinner before addressing customer issues. In comparing the facts of the D&D case to Lackner, Martin could argue that he was planning on cleaning up the spill after he finished eating, and therefore he did not act despicably. However, if you compare the facts to the American Airlines case, the plaintiff could argue that Martin’s actions were despicable because he was holding his interests above the safety of the customers in his failure to have the spill cleaned. Again, the plaintiff’s argument is made stronger when considered in the context of how many customers had injured themselves from slipping in the store in the months leading up to Palmer’s fall. | 22 | english | female | bachelors degree | student | N,N,N,N,N |
ss | Those two amendments would be the most crucial in preventing lack of maintenance by homeowners, but as a last resort for extreme circumstances, the preservation Commission or the Department of Inspections should be given the power to seek judicial enforcement against any homeowner found to be demolishing their home through neglect. If these amendments were passed by the Metro Counsel, then the Preservation Commission and the Department of Inspections would have a lot more power to take preemptive action against demolition by neglect. Of course we could not rely on the government alone to prevent this problem, much of what underlines the issue is economic difficulties and public perception that Preservation groups only seek to hinder development. For this problem to be fully confronted, the government along with Preservation groups should work together to make funds available for homeowners who are legitimately having difficulty in maintaining the integrity of their historical property. This system of government enforcement with outside organizations working with and providing resources for the average homeowner, and penalizing those who are purposefully trying to circumvent the law, will not only avoid costly and embarrassing court battles, but will better ensure that the cultural and historical properties that define Louisville will be preserved for future generations of citizens.
I dissent from the majority’s holding that a rational-basis review of Congress’ decision to regulate a “class of activities” that includes local, non-commercial behavior is proper, as long as the regulation is part of a “general regulatory statute [that] bears a substantial relation to commerce,” while also refusing to hear as-applied challenges that would “excise individual applications of a concededly valid statutory scheme,” which effectively abolishes any meaningful limitations on Congress’ power to regulate under the Commerce Clause. Instead, I would have held the CSA unconstitutional as applied to respondent Monson who cultivated and consumed medical marijuana which never entered the stream of commerce, is not a regulation that is rationally related to Congress’ Commerce Clause power, while remanding the question of the constitutionality of regulating Raich’s medical marijuana use, in accordance with the stricter scrutiny test described in this opinion.
The respondents have argued that application of the CSA to their “intrastate, noncommercial cultivation and possession of cannabis for personal medical purposes as recommended by a patient's physician pursuant to valid California state law” is an unconstitutional exercise of Congress’ power under the Commerce Clause. I agree with Justice Scalia in his concurrence, that a necessary and proper clause analysis is necessary because the respondents are challenging the authority of Congress’ implied power to regulate this class of activities, but disagree with his conclusion that regulations of respondent’s activities were “appropriate means of achieving the legitimate end of eradicating Schedule I substances from interstate commerce.”
In conducting the necessary and proper clause analysis, I think it is necessary to differentiate between the respondents, since Raich obtained her marijuana from a third-party, while Monson’s production and consumption was entirely personal. | 22 | english | female | bachelors degree | student | N,N,N,N,N |
ss |
Demolition by neglect has proven to be a real issue that needs to be addressed in Louisville, and fortunately there are many examples of prominent cities that have taken proactive legislative action to address the issue. The District of Columbia is one example of a city that was also plagued by demolition by neglect and where the regulatory agencies responsible for historic preservation had no power to stop deterioration before it was too late. However, the District passed several key amendments to local ordinances, the first of which was to its Historic Preservation Act, which placed an affirmative duty on property owners to prevent structures on their property from decaying, and authorizing the mayor to prevent such neglect. Additionally the city passed an amendment to its building codes, which required the city to consult with the Historic Preservation Board on any of its decisions to demolition a historic property. Based on these amendments, D.C. now has methods of enforcing the statutes preventing demolition by neglect: first is administrative enforcement where the City can impose civil or criminal fines for violations of the statutes, or the city can seek judicial enforcement through a court order. New York City also has a similar system for enforcing their demolition by neglect laws, first the city will send two warning letters to the homeowner, and if the homeowner does not comply then they must attend an administrative hearing to explain any “mitigating circumstances.” Both New York and D.C. have been reluctant to rely on judicial enforcement to enforce their demolition by neglect laws, because “officials from both cities strongly believe that selective judicial enforcement increase the legitimacy of the ordinance and prevents community backlash against broader historic efforts.” The additional issue raised by using judicial enforcement is that it would be difficult for any court to set a rule for what demolition by neglect requires judicial action. Despite judicial enforcement of these statutes being potentially arbitrary and time consuming, and therefore an ineffective method of preventing neglect, the threat of its use is still an important weapon that the government must have.
Based on the experiences in cities like D.C. and New York, it seems like the best solution to addressing demolition by neglect in Louisville is to follow in their footsteps. The Historic Landmark and Preservation Commission should be amended to give the Commission the power to hear allegations of neglect, and the ability to impose fines and penalties on any homeowners who are not taking properly maintaining their historic properties. Additionally, the loophole in the Building Code that does not allow the Preservation Commission to have a say in emergency demolition orders should be abolished, and there should be a coordination effort between the Department of Inspections on how best to proceed to preserve a historic home in situations where the structure has decayed enough to be a threat to the public safety. | 22 | english | female | bachelors degree | student | N,N,N,N,N |
ss | The ordinance also provides that no other department or agency of the Metro Government can issue any permit relating to the alteration to a landmark or structure within a historic district unless a certificate of appropriateness is obtained from the Commission. The ordinance specifically provides that in regards to demolition, an owner must submit an application for demolition that contains “information establishing that the property cannot be put to a reasonable beneficial use without the approval of the proposed work or if income-producing property, information establishing that the applicant cannot obtain a reasonable return from the property without the approval of the proposed work.” After an owner submits an application, the staff will either classify the application as needing staff review or Committee review. If it is decided that a Committee review is need, the application will first be viewed by the staff who will make a written determination if the exterior alterations are in compliance with the guidelines, and the recommendation will be forwarded to the Committee. When the Committee meets to consider the application, it will be a public hearing, where the applicant can submit any relevant information needed for the review of the application, and any interested parties will have an opportunity to testify. Then the Committee will make a decision “based upon a written find of fact,” where the Committee will either approve the application, deny the application, approve it with conditions, or defer the decision for further consideration. After the decision is made the applicant may appeal the decision to the Commission, who will then schedule a meeting to consider the appeal, however a decision by the Commission will only be overturned “upon the written finding that the staff or Committee was clearly erroneous as to a material finding of fact related to whether the proposed exterior alterations complied with the guidelines.”
Additionally, if an application for demolition or new construction is denied by the Committee, the applicant may request an “economic hardship exemption” from compliance from a guideline “which constituted the basis of the denial of the application,” with the Commission. The Commission will then hold another public hearing, where the applicant can supplement the record to show that they qualify for the exemption, or the Commission might require the applicant submit findings from a person determined to be an expert in “real estate and development who are knowledgeable in real estate economics…[and] in the economic of renovation, redevelopment and rehabilitation.” The Commission will only grant an economic hardship exemption if the applicant proves shows through a preponderance of the evidence that: 1) for an non-income producing structure the property cannot “be put to any reasonable beneficial use,” or 2)for an income-producing structure that the applicant “cannot obtain any reasonable return from the property… without the approval of the application.” If the Commission decides to deny the request for an exemption, this decision is final, which may be appealed by any “injured or aggrieved” party to the Jefferson Circuit Court within 30 days of the Commission’s final action. | 22 | english | female | bachelors degree | student | N,N,N,N,N |
ss | One of the most serious challenges facing the Historic Preservation movement today is demolition of historic properties from long-term neglect, otherwise known as “demolition by neglect.” This neglect is usually intentional by the property owner, in an effort to evade local preservation ordinances. And because most city’s historic preservation codes to do not have any provisions that impose an affirmative duty on a property owner to maintain their property, many owners succeed in letting their property deteriorate past the point of repair. The city of Louisville is not immune to this phenomenon, as is evidenced by the legal battles between developer Todd Blue over the Whiskey Row development or the conflict with Genny’s Diner owner, Frank Farris. These examples illustrate the catastrophic economic, political and cultural implications demolition by neglect has on the community and the preservation movement. By examining these examples, and exploring how other cities have attempted to address the issue of demolition by neglect through statutory and judicial means, the city of Louisville might be able to avoid further loss of historic properties.
The city of Louisville has several local ordinances that affect the issue of demolition by neglect. The first is the Historic Landmarks and Preservation Districts Commission established under Metro Ordinance §32.250. The ordinance states that historic preservation of “neighborhoods, areas, places structures and improvements” is a “public necessity” that is “required in the interest of the health, prosperity, safety, welfare, and economic well-being of the people.” The purpose of the statute is to “effect and accomplish the preservation, protection, perpetuation, and use of historic landmarks, landmark sites, prehistoric or historic archeological sites...”, to “safeguard the Metro Government’s history and heritage,” to “stabilize and improve property values,” to “foster civic pride in the value of notable accomplishments of the past,” to “assure that new construction and renovation or alteration to existing structures…will be compatible with the historic, visual and aesthetic character of such historic district,” to “strengthen the economy of the Metro Government,” and to “maintain a secure and safe environment in such districts.” To accomplish these the goals the ordinance also lists all of the designated Historic Preservation Districts that have been established by other ordinances, and states that “no person shall make any exterior alteration to any structure or property designated a local landmark or to any property or structure located within a district without obtaining a certificate of appropriateness.” It is this part of the code that most property owners are trying to avoid when they neglect their properties, especially if they know the Commission will be unfriendly to their plans for construction or demolition.
The ordinance also established the Historic Landmarks and Preservation Districts Commission, which is to consist of 13 members, ten of which are to be appointed by the Mayor and approved by the Metro Council. The commission is granted the power to classify all applications for exterior alterations, review applications to issue certificates of appropriateness, provide assistance to applicants, coordinate review with the Department of Inspections, Permits and Licenses or any other Metro Department, and provide assistance with respect to appeals of the commissions decisions. | 22 | english | female | bachelors degree | student | N,N,N,N,N |
ss | However, the District Court dismissed Metro’s Motion to Dismiss for failure to exhaust administrative remedies, because none of the Department’s responses to Iron Quarter’s requests were final decisions that were appealable. Following this agreement, the Preservation Community was outraged at the circumvention of the law, and several groups, including the owner of the property adjacent to the one sought to be demolished filed a motion to intervene in the Iron Quarter’s lawsuit against the city, which the judge granted. After the preservation groups were allowed to intervene in the lawsuit, the city, investors and Todd Blue managed to negotiate a new settlement that would not involve demolishing the entire historic block. The settlement provides that an investment group headed by Steve Wilson and Laura Lee Brown would purchase 5 of the 7 buildings for $4.85 million dollars, and the city promised to provide the group a $1.5 million dollar grant to help stabilize and preserve the buildings. However, the two easternmost building of Whiskey Row were determined to be too deteriorated to preserve, and Blue plans on demolishing the buildings and to put a temporary parking lot in their place. Another concession that Blue received that was not an “official” part of the settlement agreement, was permission to tear down a different historic building, known as the “Elmo” building on Main Street.
Both of these cases resulted in protracted legal disputes, cost taxpayers and the homeowner’s large sums of money, and neither resulted in total victory or defeat for any of the parties involved. The problems faced in both of these cases highlight many of the nuances behind the issue of demolition by neglect. The first, is the often times arbitrary enforcement and settlement of these development issues by the Metro Government, which makes it difficult for developers to access risks when purchasing a historic property, and leads to a public perception of the unfairness of the whole process. In both case studies, the developers were blatantly disregarding the law by letting their properties fall into disrepair, but Faris was ordered to give his property away, even though he fully complied with the permit process requesting a demolition, and lost his business as a result of his legal troubles. In contrast Blue received almost $5 million dollars for his properties, despite not complying with proper demolition procedure, and he got approval to demolish another historic building, and received no jail time for breaking the law. The differences between the criminal and procedural outcomes of these two cases, seems to highlight how much money and political clout can affect, and even circumvent the law regarding historic preservation. This only serves to not only undermine the legitimacy of the government and its ability to enforce the law, but it also undermines the Preservation movement as a whole. In either of these situations, preservationists can easily be painted as the “bad guys” as either an obstructionist force determined to preserve an unimportant building at the expenses of a legitimate small business owner, or as a government entity devoid of any meaningful power to stop property owners from destroying historically important structures. | 22 | english | female | bachelors degree | student | N,N,N,N,N |
ss | The defendant could use the facts of the Allied-Signal case, to suggest that the past slip-and-fall incidents in the store would not show that Martin had clear knowledge of the potential harmful consequences of the applesauce spill, considering that prior incidences involved different types of foods that caused the fall. However, this argument is likely to be unconvincing to a judge who would probably see this factual variation as immaterial.
Even if the plaintiff can prove that the defendant acted with conscious disregard an award for punitive damages cannot be given unless the plaintiff also shows that the conduct was “despicable.” Conduct is defined as despicable if it is so “vile,” “base,” or “wretched,” that it would be “despised by ordinary people.” Mock, 5 Cal. Rptr. 2d 594 at 609. The case, American Airlines, Inc. v. Sheppard, Mullin, Richter & Hampton, 117 Cal. Rptr. 2d 685 (2002), is an example of a case where the plaintiff could prove that the defendant acted with conscious disregard but was not able to present evidence that the conduct met the despicable conduct standard. In this case, the airline had retained attorney Gregory Long and his law firm to represent the airline regarding the purchase of plane from the company “MDC”. Id. at 688-689. When American Airlines experienced problems with the plane they again asked Long to represent them in suing MDC for breach of contract. Id. Three years later a different company (ADO) sued MDC in a matter unrelated to the American Airlines litigation, and ADO asked Long to be a federal rule 30(b)(6) witness for them in discovery. Long agreed to be this witness, despite American Airlines objections. Id. at 691-693. In October 1996, American Airlines sued Long and the law firm for breach of fiduciary duty and professional negligence, and requested punitive relief. Id. at 694. The court held that while Long’s conduct was “improper,” and “a violation of the State Bar Rules of Professional Conduct,” and could fairly be seen to have consciously disregarded the plaintiff’s rights, it did not meet the despicable conduct standard. Id. at 712. The Court reaches this conclusion based on the reasoning that Long refused to answer any questions regarding American Airlines during the deposition. The Court reasons that while Long’s agreement to be a witness was “self-serving” his refusal to compromise any confidential information of Americans showed that “he held American’s interests above those of ADO.” Id. at 710. Based on this reasoning the court upheld the trial court’s grant of summary adjudication of the punitive damage claim. Id. at 712.
Another example of a case where the plaintiff failed to prove that the defendant’s actions were despicable is, Lackner v. North, 37 Cal. Rptr. 3d 863 (2006). In this case, the plaintiff Teri Lackner was talking to her husband at the base of a ski run, in a deserted rest area, when high school ski-team member, Cassidy North collided into Lackner after racing down the run at full speed. | 22 | english | female | bachelors degree | student | N,N,N,N,N |
ss | The government has justified the regulation of Monson’s personal production and consumption using a “supply and demand” theory that such personal use can affect the market price of marijuana in the aggregate. I do not understand how the majority can logically distinguish this “supply and demand theory” as any less attenuated than the “cost of crime” or “national productivity” arguments that were rejected in Lopez, when the practical affect of accepting this test is abandonment of the idea that there is an “outer limit” on Congress’ Commerce Clause power, if it can regulate the production and possession of a commodity that has never entered, nor ever will enter interstate commerce. In addition, this interpretation does not comport with the idea that regulation of the “exclusively internal commerce of a State“ represents what Congress cannot regulate, since it was expressly not enumerated. Accordingly, I would hold that federal regulation of Monson’s personal use and production of medical marijuana in compliance with state law is prohibited by the Constitution, since it represents an attempt to regulate a completely intra-state, non-commercial activity that has no meaningful affect on interstate commerce.
Respondent Raich, however, received her marijuana from a third-party, and therefore engaged in commercial activity, so regulation of her conduct cannot be disposed of on grounds that the casual links between the enumerated power and the regulation are too attenuated. Instead, this case presents the more difficult issue of how the Court should balance the “distribution of power [that is] fundamental to our federalist system of government,” when the Commerce Clause challenge involves the competing judicial values of giving deference to the legislative decisions of Congress, with the state’s function of “serv[ing] as a laboratory; [to] try novel social and economic experiments without risk to the rest of the country.”
In an attempt to balance these considerations, I would have held that in situations, like the one presented by the facts of Raich’s case, where Congress is attempting to regulate a local activity, pursuant to a broad regulatory scheme, with no prima facie connection to interstate commerce, and the federal regulation conflicts with a state law that falls within the traditional scope of its general police power, then the determination of Congress’ authority to enact the regulation should not be given the deference of a rational basis review. Instead, it should give rise to a rebuttable presumption that the regulation is not rationally related to the power of regulating interstate commerce. This presumption could be refuted by the factors already established in Morrison and Lopez, by showing express congressional findings concerning the substantial effects of the regulated activity on interstate commerce, as well as indicating an express jurisdictional element that narrowly limits the application of the statute. However, if the statute represented an attempt by Congress to further a compelling national interest, and the government could show that the underlying purpose of the statute would be significantly undermined without the ability to regulate the local activity free from state regulation, then the constitutionality of the statute could be upheld, even without congressional findings or jurisdictional limits. | 22 | english | female | bachelors degree | student | N,N,N,N,N |
ss | This language was added into the statute in 1987, which shows the legislature’s intent that punitive damages should only be awarded against defendant’s who intended their actions, even if they did not intend their consequences. In the case, Hoch v. Allied-Signal, 29 Cal. Rptr. 2d 615 (1994), the plaintiffs sued a seatbelt manufacturer for a wrongful death claim arguing that the defective seatbelt design caused the death of the decedent. The plaintiffs presented evidence that Allied-Signal never tested the seatbelt latch for “inertial unlatching” which they argued is what caused the decedent’s seatbelt to come unlatched. Id. at 617. They also presented evidence that over 20 years prior to Hoch’s rollover accident, Ford and the manufacturer released a “position paper” that stated they planned to redesign the seat-belt due to their fear of “inertial seat belt separation.” Id. at 618. Despite this evidence the court ruled that the evidence did not clearly show that Allied-Signal “was aware a probable danger existed that type one buckles would unlatch under the conditions of an actual automobile accident.” Id. at 621. Without this knowledge, it was not possible that Allied-Signal “willfully” disregarded the rights of the plaintiffs.
A case where the defendant was found to have acted willfully is, Spinks v. Equity Residential Briarwood Apts., 90 Cal. Rptr. 3d 453 (2009). In this case, the plaintiff Lori Spinks was promised housing as a part of an employment agreement she reached with her employer. However, after Spinks suffered an industrial accident she was terminated from her position, and the employer asked the landlord to forcefully evict Spinks by changing the locks on her apartment. Id. at 463. Based o Equity’s actions, Spinks sued claiming twelve causes of action, including a request for punitive damages. Id. The court overturned the trial courts summary judgment on the punitive damage claim, holding that the plaintiff presented enough evidence to state a claim that Equity acted maliciously. The court reasoned that not only did Equity “willfully” take steps to remove the plaintiff from her apartment; they did so despite “concerns about the legality of the acts and about their effects on [the] plaintiff’s welfare.” Id. at 494.
These cases determine that the plaintiff in the D&D litigation will have to present evidence that Mr. Martin acted willfully in ignoring the applesauce spill. The facts of the case state that Martin was informed on two separate occasions of the spill, and both times failed to have the spill cleaned. This prior knowledge is similar to Spinks, where the landlord knew the law regarding forceful eviction of tenants and still illegally changed the locks on Spinks’ apartment. Also, considering that Martin not only failed to have the spill cleaned, but did so with the knowledge that multiple customers had slipped in the past, presents a strong case for the plaintiff that Martin willfully disregarded the potential harmful consequences of not cleaning up the applesauce.
| 22 | english | female | bachelors degree | student | N,N,N,N,N |
ss | Despicable conduct has further been defined in the BAJI as, “conduct which is so vile, base, contemptible, miserable, wretched or loathsome that it would be looked down upon and despised by ordinary decent people.” Mock v. Michigan Millers, 5 Cal. Rptr. 2d 594, 609 (1992). Each of these elements will be analyzed below.
In the punitive damage statute the California legislature recognized two types of conduct that can be characterized as malicious: conduct done with the intent to harm, or conduct that was not committed with the intent to harm, but is so “unreasonable and dangerous” that the defendant should have known that the resulting harm was “highly probable.” This sort of conduct is known as “conscious disregard.” Nolin v. National Convenience Stores Inc, 157 Cal. Rptr. 32, 36 (1979). In another case that defined conscious disregard, Taylor v. Superior Court, the plaintiff Cameron Taylor suffered severe injuries after being hit by a drunk driver, the defendant Clair Stille. Taylor, 890 at 892. In Taylor, the court is faced with the issue of whether the act of drunk driving meets the “malicious” conduct requirement. The court decides that the line between gross negligence and malicious conduct had been crossed, because the defendant had knowledge of the safety hazards of driving while intoxicated, but still choose to drive anyways. Id. at 896. It was reasoned that a person who chooses to drink to the point of intoxication, knowing that later they will be operating an inherently dangerous vehicle, is exhibiting “a conscious disregard of the safety of others,” and the awarding of punitive damages is appropriate. Id. at 897
To establish that the defendant acted while ignoring the rights of the plaintiff, evidence must be presented that shows the defendant was aware of the “dangerous consequences” of an action and failed to avoid them. College Hosp., Inc. v. Super. Ct. of Orange Co., 882 P.2d 894, 911 (Cal. 1994). In College Hospital, the plaintiff, Laura Crowell was a patient receiving outpatient treatment for agoraphobia and panic disorders. Id. at 901. Shortly after being admitted to the hospital, Mrs. Crowell began an extramarital affair with a hospital employee named Robert Berry who was not involved in her treatment. After the relationship ended, Mrs. Crowell “suffered a ‘breakdown’” and was transferred to another hospital. Based on these events the plaintiff sued the hospital based on a “breach of a duty to provide competent therapeutic care.” Id. The plaintiff sought punitive damages against the hospital based on the argument that Berry’s supervisor, Mr. Westbrook acted maliciously because he knew of the affair and did nothing to stop it. However, the evidence concerning Mr. Westbrook’s knowledge stated that he only heard “third-hand” about the relationship, and after hearing this rumor he confronted Berry who denied the allegations. Id. at 910-911. Considering this evidence, the court ruled that the plaintiffs failed to state a claim that Westbrook acted maliciously. | 22 | english | female | bachelors degree | student | N,N,N,N,N |
ss | Sometimes these owners even have community support for demolishing an historic building, because some people do not see the value in preserving an old (and now dilapidated) house. On the other side of the spectrum are the community citizens who are enraged by their inability to proactively save a property they deem as being important to the history and culture of the community.
To demonstrate how these issues are all intertwined, two case studies will be presented demonstrating the various procedural avenues and outcomes that can result when preservationists, the property owner and the city come into conflict over deciding the future of a neglected historic property. The first is the conflict with Genny’s Diner owner Frank Faris, who in 2001 purchased an old Victorian home that was adjacent to his restaurant for $100,000 with the intent of demolishing the house to expand parking for his diner. The house was allegedly in a dilapidated condition when Faris purchased the property, and then after his further neglect and two fires the condition of the house worsened considerably. Then two years after he purchased the property, the Clifton neighborhood was designated a Historic District. Because of the properties location he was required to apply for a permit to demolish the building, which he did in 2004, but the Landmarks Commission denied his application. Because of Faris’ inability to demolish the property as planned, and the amount of money it would require to repair the building to make it fit for habitation or commercial use, Faris sat on the property and let it continue to deteriorate. Because of his neglect, Faris incurred over $75,000 in building code violations for his failure to repair the house. He tried to sell the house, and then he tried to negotiate a property swap with the city but none of these efforts panned out, and eventually a judge ordered Faris to sell or give away the house. When he failed to abide by the order, he was sentenced to a year of home incarceration. Eventually, Faris sold the house and the diner to Tim and Roy Koons-McGee who bought the property to put a comfy cow ice-cream shop in the Victorian home. The new owners then applied to Landmarks Commission for permission to demolish the diner, and the Commission approved the demolition and refurbishment plans, and now the house has been restored, but Genny’s Diner, a Louisville staple for 27 years was lost.
The next case study of demolition by neglect in Louisville, is still pending in the courts and undergoing negotiations between developer Todd Blue and his properties on 101-133 W. Main Street otherwise known as “Whiskey Row.” Whiskey Row is a block of attached buildings with cast-iron facades that was built between 1850-1905 and “was the thriving center of Louisville’s whiskey economy.” | 22 | english | female | bachelors degree | student | N,N,N,N,N |
ss | Louisville’s Whiskey Row is second only to New York in being the largest assemblage of cast-iron architecture in the country, as well as many of the buildings being designed by such “celebrated architects such as Henry Whitestone (Galt House), John Andrewartha (City Hall), and D. X. Murphy (Churchill Downs).” In 2007, Developer Todd Blue bought the properties for $4.3 million dollars with the intention of developing the block into a mixed-used commercial and office facility called “The Iron Quarter” where he would maintain the facades of the original structure but demolish the rest of the building. However, shortly after purchasing the property, the economy rapidly declined, making Blue’s original plan unfeasible, and the properties have sat vacant since 2007. Eventually, the non-profit group Downtown Development Corporation noticed the rapid deterioration of the properties and issued a report that recognized the buildings were at risk for collapsing and suggesting repairs. Acting upon this report, the Department of Codes and Enforcement wrote Todd Blue, ordering him to stabilize the property, and stating that failure to comply would result in legal action pursuant to Chapter 156 of the Property Maintenance Code. In response to the letter, the Iron Quarter LLC hired their own structural engineer to examine the property, and his determination was that the properties could potentially collapse and were a threat to public safety. Using this information, the Iron Quarter applied to the Department of Inspections, Permits and Licenses requesting an “emergency order of demolition” pursuant to Metro Ordinance §156.806. The Department denied their request for an emergency order, stating that their prior letter, that established timelines for repairs was enough to safeguard the public, and that the buildings were not imminent threat, but that the Iron Quarter could still request a regular demolition order pursuant to §156.807. Following the Department’s decision, the Iron Quarter had several more engineers and fire experts inspect the building, all of which concluded that the buildings were unsafe and at “risk of collapse.” Following these reports, on June 28th, 2010 the Iron Quarter filed suit in Jefferson County Circuit Court, and three days later the Historic Landmarks and Preservation District designated Whiskey Row as a historic landmark, a designation that would require Todd Blue and the Iron Quarter to go get permission from the Preservation Commission for any non-emergency demolition permits. However, the Iron Quarter only continued to request for an emergency demolition order, to which Metro’s only response has been that Iron Quarter pursue the standard wrecking permit process.
Shortly following the judge’s decision not to dismiss the case, the Mayor, Greg Fischer and Todd Blue reached a settlement agreement where Fischer agreed to ask the Metro Council for $450,000 for a “feasibility study” on saving the facades, in exchange for granting the emergency demolition order, and allowing Blue to put a parking lot on the property, if the city and Blue did not reach an agreement on the facades in 90 days. | 22 | english | female | bachelors degree | student | N,N,N,N,N |
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San Diego County is very agriculturally productive, thanks to a mild, sunny climate. Common crops include: tomatoes, citrus, leafy greens, squash, broccoli, herbs, tree fruits like peaches and lemons, berries, honey, and peppers. There is a substantial market for organic community supported agriculture food in the San Diego area, with many local organizations having lengthy waiting lists. Organic eggs and milk are also popular. Many organic farms also provide tours of their agricultural operations as well as access for hiking, birdwatching, and other recreational activities. This is the type of operation that would allow the landowner to gain the benefits of government programs while improving habitat, thus allowing recreational use and creating an opportunity for farm tours and other programs for making money or for educational purposes.
In addition to filling a potentially lucrative niche market, the benefits of organic farming often include greater biodiversity in plants and wildlife in the area thanks to a lack of chemicals in the soil and water. However, organic farming has greater costs than conventional farming in some ways. It requires more intensive labor and management to remove pests and weeds and fertilize the soil without chemicals, and losses are often greater than with conventional methods, while a small organic farm also lacks the efficiency of scale of large operations. Practices not related to organic farming but beneficial to wildlife may also incur greater labor costs, including planting cover crops, strategic grazing rotation, invasive species removal, and active management of plant growth to provide specific conditions such as edge habitat or patches of open ground. Thus, there are many reasons why the landowner in this example might seek financial help or expertise in maximizing both profits and habitat quality.
The land chosen for this scenario is a parcel adjacent to the town of Potrero, in unincorporated San Diego County, California. It is 160 acres of chaparral, nonnative Mediterranean grassland, and oak woodland next to to the Cleveland National Forest. It lies in the East County Southern Foothills ecoregion of the San Diego Multiple Species Conservation Plan. The plan is still being reviewed, but presently considers over a hundred species of plants and animals. Many are endangered, such as the Stephens' kangaroo rat, the mountain yellow-legged frog, several species of butterfly, and the California gnatcatcher; others are declining and may soon be listed, such as burrowing owls.
This area was inhabited by Native Americans for untold centuries and was then settled by cattle ranchers and cordwood sellers in the late 1800's. This piece of land was part of an original homestead patent and so was probably used for grazing and/or wood production for many of the intervening decades.
chose a piece of property from a real estate website and researched available government programs to see what options a small farmer might realistically have for mitigating costs and preserving wildlife-friendly operations. As a model of what somebody farming this land might attempt to achieve, I located an organic farm in the same area. | 33 | English | female | Bachelor's | Lab tech | N,N,N,N,N |
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One of the costs which may be shared under both programs is the cost of technical assistance, which includes “conservation planning and design, layout, installation, and checkout of approved conservation practices”. The government provides a registry of technical service providers (TechReg), which includes local prices for the provision of assistance with approved conservation practices. In San Diego County, the price of technical assistance with cover crops on 50 acres would be $750. No more than $50,000 may be received from any Natural Resources Conservation Service program (or combination programs) in one year.
Obtaining an easement through the California Farmland Conservancy Program would allow the landowner to ensure that the property would be used for agriculture in the future, and not be subject to ordinary development pressures. The program also provides two types of grants: for acquisition, and planning/policy and land improvement.
Owners of land eligible under the Williamson Act may enter into a contract with the county which restricts the land to agricultural or open space uses. The land will then be valued for property tax purposes at only 65% of its value, or assessed only on the basis of the income produced from the land.
The following is an analysis of how each of these programs might apply to the Potrero farmland, and what applying for each program would entail.
Unfortunately, this land would not be eligible for the Conservation Stewardship Program, since it was not planted for 4 of 6 years before 2008. If the land had been farmed during that time and the operator was in compliance with certain conservation provisions, it would be a potential candidate, as long as the land was not already enrolled in the Conservation Reserve Program, as the two are mutually exclusive.
As with the Conservation Stewardship Program, the land is not eligible for the Conservation Reserve Program because it was not farmed for four of the six years between 2002 and 2007. Even if this were not the case, the land may not fit the severe erodibility criterion; the Web Soil Survey rates the two most common soil types on this property as having a “Moderate” erosion hazard.
To benefit from the Organic Program, the landowner must have gross income from farming of at least $5000 annually and must qualify as an organic farmer. There are several agencies which may certify a producer as organic in the state of California, but they all adhere to USDA standards. There are specific guidelines which organic farmers must follow. For example, when controlling pests, the farmer must first try managing to prevent pests, then mechanical controls, then nonsynthetic biological or mineral materials, and if none of those work, synthetic substances from an approved list may be applied.
If the farmer is certified, the California Department of Food and Agriculture's California Organic Program may pay 75%, up to $750, for the cost of registration. In this model, the farm is bringing in about $42,000 yearly. The registration fee for that income range is $100. | 33 | English | female | Bachelor's | Lab tech | N,N,N,N,N |
m | The non-native plants make the remaining habitat less attractive for animals in many ways including impeding mobility (horned lizard, kangaroo rat), decreasing insect species diversity (California gnatcatcher), and also deprive native forbs of sunlight.
The constituency who is interested in this issue mostly consists of people who value coastal sage scrub for its biodiversity and quality of life aspects (recreational opportunities or open space). Although coastal sage scrub was historically often used as grazing land, the remaining fragments are so small and threatened by development that this use seems unlikely. However, people who live in the suburbs that are being built out into the scrub could unknowingly benefit from a healthier ecosystem, if theories about annual grasses increasing the intensity of wildfires are shown to be correct. The worldwide conservation community also has an interest in this habitat since it's part of the California Floristic Province and a "biodiversity hotspot".
The remaining pieces of sage scrub are being eroded around the edges as roads, trails, and other development make it easier for non-native seeds to spread and establish themselves. It is a relatively gradual process and a variety of approaches are being tried to stave off further habitat conversion and also to restore degraded areas. I believe that one tool which could make a difference is controlled grazing.
Grazing sheep has been tried for decreasing non-native species with limited success in coastal sage scrub. I would like to investigate whether certain exotic species might be good alternatives to sheep based on their known behavior and diet selection in the wild. My idea is that if specific annual grasses (ripgut, bromes, and rye grass, but I'm looking into others too) could be grazed soon before they are dropping their seeds (or if animals would selectively eat their seeds) then there would be that many fewer seeds spreading further into the sage scrub. The annual grasses in question are R-selected as far as I can tell, which from what I read means that grazing is probably not a good strategy for eradicating them; furthermore some of them have seed banks in the soil. So my goal would be containing their spread rather than eliminating them from the area. The reason I am hopeful that the animals would target the undesirable plants is because most of the natives (sages, deerweed, yerba santa, coyote bush, monkeyflower) are not very palatable to grazing animals (according to the Forest Service's website and USDA publications). The grazing species I am researching as potential candidates include rhebok, oribi, addax, steenbok, and goral.
The location in question has a large portion of fenced-in land that is undeveloped. About 900 acres of this is coastal sage scrub, some relatively undegraded. My plan would be to fence off sections of this land where it interfaces with private land and roads (where invasive seeds are most likely to be spread) and put groups of different species in each area to graze. | 33 | English | female | Bachelor's | Lab tech | N,N,N,N,N |
m | This particular farm charges $25.00 weekly for a box. However, other farms in the county charge $30.00 or $36.75 weekly for a similar amount of food. Thus, the amount a farmer could make from an organic farm varies widely according to price charged, number of subscribers, size of operation, etc. As a conservative example, this model farm has thirty subscribers at $30.00 weekly, and so would bring in $3600 monthly income.
I found many programs for helping landowners, and chose six of the most relevant ones (plus sub-programs) for further investigation.
Under the Conservation Stewardship Program, a farmer may receive payments from USDA's Natural Resources Conservation Service for using certain practices that conserve soil and water. Rather than helping farmers fix current problems, it directly rewards them for ongoing use of sustainable methods and keeping their land in good condition.
The Conservation Reserve program, administered by the Farm Bureau, pays landowners rental payments and cost-share assistance for planting resource-conserving crops. The soil must have an average Erodibility Index of eight or higher, or be part of a rare or declining habitat.
The Environmental Quality Incentive Program is one of the USDA's Natural Resources Conservation Service programs. It provides cost-sharing in every county in California for a wide variety of conservation practices. Stated goals include helping farmers who are transitioning to organic agriculture (or boosting pollinator populations, increasing biodiversity including soil-borne organisms, enhancing water quality, controlling invasive species or dozens of other resource-enhancing possibilities). Among the listed practices which might be of interest to the hypothetical Potrero farmer are Brush Management, Conservation Cover, Cover Crop, Irrigation Water Management, and Nutrient and Pest Management.
As part of a sub-program, National Organic Program-certified farmers can receive up to $20,000 a year to help implement an approved organic system plan. This program is administered in California through the California Department of Food and Agriculture's California Organic Program. Landowners who qualify may receive up to 75% of the cost they incurred in becoming certified organic (not to exceed $750) from this cost-share program.
The Environmental Quality Incentive Program also has a Wildlife Habitat Initiative which provides cost-sharing for a similar list of conservation practices. A points system is used to determine eligibility. One factor is the status of the species which will benefit from the conservation practices (listed species will be weighted more heavily).
The Wildlife Habitat Incentive Program is a cost-sharing program which applies to essential animal and plant habitat, including critical habitat designated under federal and state law. It focuses specifically on wildlife habitat improvement and less on agricultural practices. If the landowner develops a program for developing fish and wildlife habitat program that is long-term (15 years or longer), the program may pay up to 90% of the costs. Practices which may allow for cost-sharing include land restoration, planting wildlife-friendly cover vegetation and hedges, and structures to benefit wildlife, as well as consultation about managing land use to benefit wildlife. | 33 | English | female | Bachelor's | Lab tech | N,N,N,N,N |
m |
Like other former Soviet states, Turkmenistan is suffering from desertification as a result of excessive agrochemical application and inappropriate irrigation, as well as overgrazing. Most of the arable land is devoted to cotton production, another legacy of the Soviets.
Kyrgyzstan is a mountainous country with a widely variable climate and great vegetational diversity. There are a number of grassland types arranged along steep elevational and moisture gradients. In the 1980's much of the grassland was heavily overgrazed due to Soviet demands for more livestock products, particularly sheep's wool. When production systems broke down after the collapse of the USSR, pastures were degraded through both overgrazing and undergrazing due to concentrations of large numbers of animals year-round instead of the transhumance traditionally practiced there. As of 2007, Kyrgyzstan's government estimated that up to a third of the country's pastures were seriously degraded. Localized projects promoting more sustainable traditional grazing practices have been successful in some places at restoring rangeland conditions.
Tajikistan is slightly smaller than Wisconsin (143,000 sq km) and is very mountainous. In general the climate is subtropical and semiarid with some desert areas although, as in Kyrgyzstan, the mountains cause dramatic local variation. The high mountain desert and high mountain meadow-steppe ecosystems are very productive. Most of the land at lower elevations is developed or given over to agriculture. As usual, the agricultural policies of the Soviets, as well as the chaos after they left, have led to increased soil salinity, water distribution problems, and chemical pollution.
Transhumance has traditionally been practiced at higher elevations, with primary livestock being yaks, cattle, and goats. Unlike in Kyrgyzstan, livestock production has increased and rotational grazing has decreased since the fall of the USSR, as pasturelands are privatized. It remains to be seen whether a sustainable system will be arrived at without being imposed and subsidized by Moscow.
Much of Afghanistan's population has always been made up of nomadic or semi-nomadic pastoralists, who practice transhumance between the steppe and summer mountain pastures. Most livestock are sheep and goats with some cattle. The northern part of the country has a productive grass steppe with very few shrubs. Major species include Bromus, Poa, and Festuca species. However, long term heavy grazing has led to grassland being replaced by less palatable sagebrush communities in some places. Aside from the steppe, most of the flat land in Afghanistan is covered with xeric woodlands and desert.
Controlled grazing by non-native herbivores in California coastal sage scrub may help reduce the spread of invasive annual grasses near the interface of wild and urban land, relative to ungrazed land.
Historically, coastal sage scrub in Southern CA is dominated by shrubs and forbs such as California buckwheat, black sage, white sage, California sagebrush, and deerweed. The vast majority of this habitat has been lost to development and what remains has largely been converted to Mediterranean grassland, mostly consisting of annual grasses (wild oats, multiple bromes, ryegrass). | 33 | English | female | Bachelor's | Lab tech | N,N,N,N,N |
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