How Is Love Presented in Romeo and Juliet and Two Poems from the Shakespeare Literary Heritage

How is Love presented in Romeo and Juliet and two poems from the Shakespeare Literary Heritage Love is presented in a variety of different ways in Romeo and Juliet and my chosen poems from the Literary Heritage: Stop All the Clocks and Sonnet 130. For instance, in Romeo and Juliet Shakespeare is attempting to challenge the tradition of courtly love that was prominent in the Elizabethan era. He is suggesting that the tradition of courtly love is artificial and essentially false. Courtly love was a hidden love between the nobility in medieval times.In Sonnet 130 Shakespeare has a different goal; he is attempting to challenge the traditional Petrarchan sonnet that was popular at the time. These sonnets were grand declarations of love but also seemed rather overblown and unnecessarily dramatic. W. H. Auden’s poem Stop All the Clocks is dramatic and very emotional, however this is justified in this instance as his lover has died. This would undoubtedly be an exceedingly traumatic e xperience. In Act 1 Scene 1 of Romeo and Juliet love is presented as being like a poison that can infect a person.Shakespeare uses a metaphor in a very interesting manner in this scene to show this. For instance, when Montague is describing how his son Romeo is acting due to Romeo’s unreturned love for Rosaline he states, â€Å"As is the bud bit with an envious worm, Ere he can spread his sweet leaves to the air, Or dedicate his beauty to the same. † He is suggesting that Romeo is like a flower â€Å"bud† that won’t open itself up to the world because it’s been poisoned from within by parasites. Just like the flower has been poisoned by parasites, Romeo has been poisoned by love.Romeo only goes out at night and shuts himself away in a darkened room during the day. This metaphor helps the audience to see that love can be a dangerous force that causes people to act in unusual ways. Shakespeare uses this dramatic metaphor to show the intensity with wh ich Romeo seems to love Rosaline, however he does this to raise questions about how real Romeo’s love is for Juliet when he meets her later in the play. Shakespeare is depicting the lovesickness stage of courtly love and challenging how real it is by his use of this over the top metaphor.Additionally, in Act 1 Scene 1, love is presented as a complicated and contradictory thing. Shakespeare uses oxymorons effectively to show this idea. For example, when Romeo is describing the love he feels for Rosaline to his cousin Benvolio he states, â€Å"O brawling love, O loving hate†, amongst a series of other oxymorons. Shakespeare here uses oxymorons to show that the love Romoe feels for Rosaline is something that gives him great joy but also great pain at the same time. He is in love with Rosaline and that is wonderful but he hates the fact that she will not return his love.This allows the audience an insight into the intensity with which it appears Romeo loves Rosaline. This reinforces Shakespeares goal of setting up a situation in which the audience will doubt Romeo’s love for Juliet later in the play. In Act 1 Scene 5 love is presented in an over the top and overly dramatic way. Shakespeare uses hyperbole extremely well here to show this. In this scene Romeo and his friends have crashed Capulet’s party and he catches his first glimpse of Juliet. When he does so he states that she â€Å"doth teach the torches to burn bright! This is hyperbole because obviously Juliet cannot literally teach the torches to burn bright. The hyperbole is used to show that Romeo thinks that Juliet’s beauty overshadows everyone and everything in the room. The audience is supposed to once again feel the intensity with which Romeo can love, however the audience is left with doubts about how real this love is because just a few scenes earlier he was in the depths of despair over Rosaline. Shakespeare uses Romeo’s hyperbole and Romeo’s quick s witch from Rosaline to Juliet to question how real courtly love is.Furthermore, this over the top dramatic presentation of love continues through Romeo’s description of Juliet’s beauty. Shakespeare switches to using a simile to continue this trend. For example, he continues his description of Juliet by saying â€Å"It seems she hangs upon the cheek of night, Like a rich jewel in an Ethiope’s ear. † Again, this shows that Romeo feels that Juliet beauty stands out from the crowd just like an shiny earring would stand out in an African person’s ear. This encourages the audience to further doubt how real Romeo’s love for Juliet is as his language becomes more and more over the top.If Romeo can so quickly forget Rosaline is his love for Juliet genuine or just another infatuation? Shakespeare is attempting to drive his point home that courtly love is a false and unrealistic version of love through his depiction of Romeo’s descriptions of Ju liet. This over the top overly dramatic depiction of love is continued before Romeo and Juliet kiss for the first time. Shakespeare uses the sonnet form to show their conversation leading to their first kiss as this was the traditional form of exaggerated love poetry at the time. Within the sonnet he uses extended Christian metaphor to great effect.As Romeo is trying to flirt with Juliet he states â€Å"(taking  JULIET’s hand)  If I profane with my unworthiest hand, This holy shrine, the gentle sin is this. † Basically as he takes her hand he states that her hand is like a holy place that his sinful hand is not worthy to touch. He is using a religious metaphor to put Juliet up on a pedestal as a thing of purity. This further adds to the audiences doubt about how real Romeo’s love for Juliet is as they are left wondering has Romeo simply switched his attention to Juliet because she is returning his affection whereas Rosaline didn’t want to.Shakespeare is continuing to show the falseness and fickleness of courtly love through Romeo’s over the top language. The sonnet form is perfect to use here as it was a form often used to depict courtly love. Furthermore, the overly dramatic depiction of love continues through this sonnet. Again this is within the extended Christian metaphor of the sonnet. When Romeo is just about to kiss Juliet he says â€Å"O, then, dear saint, let lips do what hands do. They pray; grant thou, lest faith turn to despair. † Here his â€Å"prayer† is the kiss he is about to give to Juliet.The metaphor is once again intended to show the purity of Romeo’s love for Juliet as his kiss is not sinful but is more like a thing of purity: a prayer. At this stage, the audience should be completely doubtful of how real Romeo’s love for Juliet is as he continues to use overly cliched and over the top language to show his devotion to her in combination with the fact that he has completely forgotten about Rosaline. Shakespeare’s use of Christian metaphor is intended to further mock the courtly love tradition as he is saying that courtly love is false and not in fact pure at all.

Our Decisions Determine Our Destiny

Our whole life is based on the decisions we make, whether it is big decisions like if we choose to go to college, get married, or have kids, or even smaller decisions such as If we decide to turn left or right on a walk. All of these decisions that we make In life can change our future, and of course we all want to make the right decisions so that we have a good future. God is so wonderful that he equipped us with moral law, which provides ways to tell the difference between a good act and a bad act.Through our conscience, God is speaking to us from the core of our being, indicating acts that are good and warns us of acts that are evil. An amazing poem by an anonymous author highlights the importance of keeping a good Catholic morality: Watch your thoughts, they become your words. Watch your words, they become your actions. Watch your actions, they become your habits. Watch your habits, they become your character. Watch your character, It becomes your destiny. The first line of the p oem states â€Å"Watch your thoughts, they become your words. â€Å"Every thing that comes out of our mouths comes from a thought- whether consciously or unconsciously. If we never think of anything, then we wont do anything. Usually, a kind, happy thought precedes kind, happy words. It can also go the other way in terms of kind thoughts. The poem reminds us to â€Å"watch† our thoughts because part of having goods morals means being kind. We don't want to say anything that we will regret saying or that makes us seem like a bad person. The next line adds on to the poem by stating â€Å"Watch your words, they become your actions.Our bodies instinctively follow the words we are saying- whether they are sour or sweet. If we say things enough, then we will actually do them. For example, someone can think that they don't like their unrecognized room and want to clean It. That person then tells their mother that they are going to clean It. Over time and countless comments regard ing them cleaning their room, they finally do clean their room. Another example could be If someone wants to show off to his or her friends.Thinking that throwing water balloons at a stranger's car would make them cooler,† they say that they will, and eventually they do. The third line of the poems continues this trend by stating â€Å"Watch your actions, they become your habits. Believe it or not, it only takes 21 times for the mind to recognize something as a habit. If we continue to do something, over and over, it becomes a habit to us. For example, every morning for school I wake up at 6:00. This becomes a routine, or habit for me. Sometimes we can develop bad habits that deflect from our true beings.We need to remember to make good actions so that hey become good habits. â€Å"Watch your habits, they become your character. † This Is a very strong statement and Is true. The decisions we make can depend greatly on the values and Inclinations that we have Internalize d over the years. Character refers to those features and attributes that make up our individuality. Good character results when we cultivate good qualities, habits, and patterns of behavior- that incline us to make good moral decisions. Catholicism identifies essential virtues- faith, hope, and love, known as the theological virtues.They are gifts from God that help us develop a better relationship with God. By living faithfully, hopefully, and lovingly, we cooperate with God's gifts of faith, hope, and love. God also gives us the cardinal virtues of prudence, Justice, fortitude, and temperance. We strive to have these personal character strengths that direct us toward Christ-like behavior and provide discipline for our passions and emotions. The final line of the poem states â€Å"Watch your character, it becomes your destiny. † Our destiny is our lot in life, the future or our fate.However you're perceived, the way n which your behavior toward others is received will become the shape and rhythm of your days. We as humans have the power to changer our destiny, Just by what we think, say, and do. Everything revolves around the choices we make, using our conscience. God has given us many gifts, but one of the most wonderful gifts of all is our conscience because it directs us to use all our gifts for the good of the community, the common good. The decisions we make decide who we are and our destiny. Used correctly, our conscience can lead us to ultimate happiness with God.

WHAT CRITICS SAY ABOUT ROBERT MCKEES SCRIPT WRITING WORK Essay

WHAT CRITICS SAY ABOUT ROBERT MCKEES SCRIPT WRITING WORK - Essay Example Even movie directors seek advice from Mckee on very many issues. Statistics reveal that over 500,000 students have undertaken Mckee’s course in different cities of the world. Therefore, his movement and screenplay scripts have been well received by authors from various parts of the world. Notable actors have not been left behind in all these matters. This is because, they have also decided to undertake Mckee’s seminar so that they have noteworthy information about screen writing. In 2000, Mckee managed to win the International Moving Image Book Award for the book story, Regan Books/ Hypercollins. The book is currently a reading requirement for Harvard film and cinema schools. This further highlights the respect that has been accorded to the author and his words. Not many critics have come out and criticized his teaching on various aspects of screenwriting. All these factors show that no negative impact has been documented to criticize Mckee’s

To what Extend can a Measure of National Income (GDP) Give an Coursework

To what Extend can a Measure of National Income (GDP) Give an Indication on How Well a Population is Doing - Coursework Example These assumptions and suggestions from both sides will be analyzed as to which side is actually more capable to justify their stance. David Cameron, the British prime minister, stated at near the end of 2010 that happiness cannot be measured by money and that it was time when the humans gained some maturity and realize that money is not the most important thing in life and there are other factors such as family, culture and relationships which influence the happiness of a person (Stratton, 2010). What Mr. David Cameron and his advisors suggest here that rather than GDP, the Gross National Happiness (GNP) is a more accurate measure of the people’s happiness. The concept of GNH or Gross National Happiness was first introduced in 1972 by the Bhutanese King, Jigme Singye Wangchuck, who coined this term in an effort to ensure that the society was truly happy from inside and not just motivated by money. Research then started on this topic and there were several suggestions which com bined to form the satisfaction and happiness in a person’s life. ... forums, it has been argued that money is not the only contributing factor to wellness and happiness, but they admit that it is one of the most important factors. The argument, that there are more important things in life that contributes to the true development of humans, is based upon the simple observation that the richest countries in the world are not necessarily the happiest. Philippines is not a very rich country and their gross domestic product per capita is considered at around $3500 which makes it clear that there are economies and nations who have much higher GDP per capita than that of Philippines. If GDP would really have been the only contributor in the wellness and happiness of a person, then there would have been much happier nations around than Philippines. However, this is not true because the Filipinos are considered to be one of the happiest nations in the world and they are always smiling around very much satisfied with their life. The main reason of the happiness and satisfaction of their life despite their low GDP is the culture and the presence of their families. Philippines have a very collectivist lifestyle and they like to live with their families and prefer their own culture rather than adopting it from outside their community. When they get this culture, it is only fitting that they are happy in what they have. (Cassandra, 2010) Figure 1: United Kingdom GDP Growth Rate (Trading Economics, n.d.) The figure above, Figure 1, shows the changes in the gross domestic product in United Kingdom in the year 2011. The graph shows that the there were fluctuations in the GDP growth rate throughout the different quarters of financial year 2011-12. However, this does not necessarily means that the happiness and well being of the UK population was also

Advanced financial reporting Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3000 words

Advanced financial reporting - Essay Example Also, it includes comprehensive description of disclosures that ought to be given in an annual report that gives a transparent, true and fair picture of company’s performance to existing and potential investors. After this follows second question which focuses on comparison between voluntary and mandatory guidelines in respect of environmental reporting. It requires detailed discussion about effectiveness of both guidelines and what advantages and disadvantages does their compliance offer for a company. The last question inquires about the current and proposed programmes to be effective in future relating to environmental compliances and regulations and how they might be helpful in ensuring better transparency and clarity of environmental reporting. Further the discussion entails about corporate measures that organizations should use to become alert and informed about regulations which are applicable in their case, about amendments therein and strategies to comply with them ad equately. Finally, the paper closes with concluding statements about how companies should be more environmentally responsible in its operations and true in provision of its facts and disclosures in annual reports for its shareholders and potential investors. ... Therefore, they take reasonable steps to mitigate harmful and adverse effects to acceptable levels. Some examples of environmental footprints include water spills, contamination, poisonous wastages and leakages, air pollution, carbon emission, greenhouse gas emission etc. Regulatory bodies and environmental authorities have been working constantly to make environmental laws and regulations stricter to protect public interests and give better picture to investors. Few mandatory guidelines have already been placed that are compulsory to be followed while other voluntary guidelines have been published for different industries to identify best benchmark practices which might be followed by entities on own motion to depict ‘greener’ reputation and public image to satisfy its members and potential investors. However, in order to ensure compliance with environmental frameworks, it is pivotal to be fully aware of all applicable regulations. Environmental risks can be mitigated t hrough establishment of Environmental Management System and allotment of a dedicated team responsible for addressing all environmental concerns. Furthermore, organizations must account for relevant environmental costs and provisions for future obligations such as dismantling, cleanup and litigation costs in its financial statements. Environmental reporting disclosures can be as comprehensive as an entity would consider adequate since only few mandatory regulations exist. Therefore, environment-friendly stance of any organization shall depend on how detailed are the disclosures provided by it in its annual report and accounts. Question 1 In view of the contents of the document provided and the materials covered in the module, does the annual report currently

MicroL16 Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

MicroL16 - Essay Example Still, it seems likely to be a reasonable assumption to help understand market behavior. Industries in which there are many producers and in which it is difficult to differentiate between goods from individual producers, baking potatoes for example, it is likely that assuming the market is perfectly competitive can yield a reasonably accurate understanding of the way the market works. For markets, however, in which there are a limited number of producers and in which the costs to enter the market are high, or where the government restricts entry, it does not seem a reasonable assumption. Electric power, for instance, is often only available within a community from a single commercial producer. While there may be some alternatives available to consumers, such as buying their own generators or banks of solar cells, for all but the most committed, the price of these alternatives is so high as to make them non-viable. Clearly, for a market like this, assuming competitive behavior is not reasonable. 2. Profits. In a competitive market in long term equilibrium, no firm can make an â€Å"economic profit†Ã¢â‚¬â€that is, have revenues in excess of costs, including â€Å"normal profit.† This is because economic profit will provide an incentive to other firms to enter the marketplace, shifting the industry supply curve and driving down the price until there is no longer an economic profit. In the short term, a firm may enjoy economic profits in the following three ways. The first way is when a firm might innovate in a way that drives down its costs of production. While other firms work to catch up, the innovative firm can enjoy economic profit. The second way is when a firm might innovate in a way that favorably differentiates its product from others, again allowing it to earn economic profit while other firms worked to match it. The third way is when an external event occurs, such as perhaps the introduction of a new complementary good, which might shift t he demand curve for the good in question, allowing the entire industry to experience short term economic profits until more firms were able to enter the market and increase supply. 3. Shutdown point for a firm. In the short run, a firm should keep operating as long as its average variable costs are less than the price of its product. This is because total revenue will cover the variable costs. Since, in the short run, fixed costs are not avoidable they should not be considered. In the long run, the firm cannot continue to operate at a loss. This means that a firm should shut down and leave the industry if, over the long run, average total costs will exceed price. 4. Long-Run Cost Curve, Economies of Scale and Firm Size. A firm is enjoying economies of scale when long-run (i.e., all inputs variable) average costs decrease as the number of units produced by the firm increases. As demand for the product increases, a firm in this position is likely to be able to meet the additional dema nd at a lower cost than a new firm entering the market, providing the existing firm with a competitive advantage. To the degree the firms in an industry experience economies of scale, there will likely be fewer firms (i.e., increased concentration) then there would in an industry where firms were experiencing decreased returns to scale Taken to the extreme, an existing firm with a continuously declining long-run cost curve would be in a

Judicial Decision Making Analysis Research Paper

Judicial Decision Making Analysis - Research Paper Example The West Virginia State School Board v Barnette is a case in point. The Supreme Court had ruled that states cannot compel students to salute the American flag. No punitive action whatsoever could be taken either against the students concerned or their parents/guardians. In fact, it was an overruling of an earlier decision in Minersville School District v Gobitis. â€Å"The very purpose of the Bill of Rights was to withdraw certain subjects from the vicissitudes of political controversy, to place them beyond the reach of majorities and officials† (as cited in West Virginia State Board of Education v. Barnette, 319 U.S. 624, 1943). The court decreed that it was essential to keep such subjects outside the influence of majorities so that numerical strength by way of legislation would not trample the rights of minorities. Similarly, administrative orders and decisions were open to arbitrary interpretations on the part of officials. These were not all-encompassing and were rigidly e nforced. Such decisions always left people with grievances. Legal Subculture Every profession breeds its own culture within the over-arching culture of a place. While culture by itself is a relative term, a similar work atmosphere creates common conditions which lead to common aspirations and also a common world view. Hence, a legal subculture develops which comprises all those involved in the judicial process. These include legal practitioners, students of law and the administrative support personnel involved. A prolonged interaction with law makes even the seekers of justice imbibe the nuances of law. Such seekers are known to become comfortable with legal jargon, which is derisively known as ‘legalese’ in common parlance. Hence, the influence of legal subculture on those who practise it is even greater. There is a constant exchange of ideas between people of the same profession which is also the case here. What prompted the ruling in this case (or the overruling of t he Minersville case) is also the effect of the legal subculture to an extent. No decision can be taken in isolation. Human factors when coupled with people in a similar environment lead to such rulings. That the earlier decision had been overturned shows the influence of the public on the legal sub-culture in this case. The figure six-to-three for the ruling was not arrived at the spur of the moment. It was only due to deliberations among the various judges that resulted in this ruling. The sub-culture is primarily responsible for the exchange of ideas among the Justices in this context. It must also be remembered that the three dissensions are also due to the same sub-culture which allows divergent views to manifest and coexist with the majority views. Judicial Background The Gobitis case had had a profound influence over the Barnette case. It can be said that it was a curtain raiser to what unfolded three years later. There had been a review by the judges examining the Barnette ca se in the light of the previous ruling. The court ruled that compelling school children to salute the flag was unconstitutional.   Ã¢â‚¬Å"The Court found that such a salute was a form of utterance and was a means of communicating ideas  Ã¢â‚¬Å" (The Oyez Project at IIT Chicago, Kent College of Law). The compulsory flag salute was in violation of the First Amendment which

Principle of Fashion Marketing Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3750 words

Principle of Fashion Marketing - Essay Example The essay "Principle of Fashion Marketing" concerns the fashion marketing. The growth history of the Louis Vuitton has been awarded with the reward of world’s most valuable luxury brand for the six consecutive years from 2006 to 2012. The recognition as world’s most luxury brand has also enabled the company to gain high market valuation. The market valuation of the Louis Vuitton was about 25.9 billion USD in the year 2012. The underlying essay aims at analysing brand position of Louis Vuitton. The brand analysis of the company will be done in accordance with the stepwise framework of PEST analysis, MICRO analysis, market segmentation, target market strategy, etc. The marketing mix of the company will also be presented in order to specific ideas regarding product, pricing, place and promotional strategy being adopted by the company. The assessment of branding and marketing perspective of the company in light of the above mentioned frameworks will facilitate in identifyin g challenges likely to incur in the next three years and solutions in the form of recommendations to handle such challenges. PEST analysis is the most widely adopted tool of performing macro environment analysis of the company. PEST analysis represents the acronym of political, economic, legal and technological analysis of the concerned company. This dimension of PEST analysis takes into consideration political structure, stability and regulating or governing philosophy behind respective government. France is one of the developed country. with stable political environment. The political atmosphere of the country is favourable with no political trouble, crisis, conflict or any adverse situation. The favourable political climate has attracted many investors to invest money in the Louis Vuitton expansion strategies. The establishment of any business operation in the France requires a fixed investment limit of 1500000 Euros (France Country Report, 2011). The fixed investment limit act a s a obstacle for many international enterprises. But, France government has tried to convert this obstacle into opportunity by announcing various tax saving schemes to business organisations of France. Moreover, France government also do not hold any strict religious belief and customs and thus facilitates the entry of every business enterprise having any religious background and customs. The favourable political conditions have facilitated the Louis Vuitton to a wide extent in carrying the business operations and pursuing international expansion strategies in France without any difficulty. Economic Economic conditions and factors also play a significant role in determining success of any business operation. The economic variables take into account inflation and interest rates, unemployment condition, Gross domestic product (GDP), and many more. The GDP rate of France was being considered as stronger in the year 2011 with the surprising growth of about 1.85%. The economy of France w as considered as fifth largest in the world and second largest in the Europe. It is also being recognised as one of the wealthiest European country and world’s fourth largest wealthiest nation. The aggregate household wealth of the economy was about 2.6 million dollar in the year 2012 demonstrating growth history of France (France Country Report, 2011). The inflation and unemployment rate of the France economy was also

Terrorism Term Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

Terrorism - Term Paper Example Subsequently, he utilized this hard gained skill to conduct several campaigns of violence and intimidation. Prabhakaran used the LTTE cadres for this purpose, and his targets were the longstanding and moderate Tamil political leaders (Biziouras, 2012, p. 554). The LTTE membership was chiefly from the lower-caste Tamils hailing from the rural areas of the Northern Province of Sri Lanka. The leadership of the LTTE was replete with these lower-caste individuals, who brought about the institutionalization of the LTTE, by repeatedly emphasizing their intention to promote the lower castes in the independent Tamil state that they would be creating. This ideological posturing was nationalist, radical, and unique with respect to the traditional political parties of that region and the competing Tamil revolutionary groups (Biziouras, 2012, p. 555). The LTTE’s moves served to enhance Sinhalese apprehensions regarding the continued territorial integrity of Sri Lanka. In addition, the political and institutional solutions suggested by the traditional Tamil political leadership were rejected outright by the LTTE, which strongly promoted sustained armed struggle against the Sinhalese dominated Sri Lankan State (Biziouras, 2012, p. 555). During the 1970s, the LTTE and other armed Tamil groups embarked upon an armed struggle, with a view to seceding from Sri Lanka. This strife underwent considerable intensification, in the aftermath of the anti-Tamil riots. These riots transpired in July 1983 in Colombo and other parts of Sri Lanka. Several attempts were made to resolve this strife, notably in the years 1985, 1989-1990, and 1994-1995. However, these attempts ended in a fiasco, and the armed engagement between the LTTE and the Sri Lankan armed forces underwent an escalation in scope and intensity (Nadarajah & Sriskandarajah, 2005, p. 88). During that epoch, approximately 90,000 people lost their life, and the majority of

Solow Growth Model Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Solow Growth Model - Essay Example The second assumption was that if you hold technological progress and D/L is going down as we deplete the resources in a country, K/L may be going up because of capital accumulation, if capital accumulation was allowed to take place in an economy its possible for Y/L to remain constant or even increase and this will lead to economic growth. If the population remains to grow in the Malthusian version, the Malthusian version is what Malthus discussed what would result from high population, he argued that in the case where population was left to grow without any control measures then this would result to a complete depletion of resources, therefore if the population grows according to the Malthusian version then this dictates that Y/L will eventually approach zero. However if we hold population constant and allow K/L to increase without a limit then Y/L will increase. If technological progress occurs in an economy such that c is not equal to zero then for any value of c its possible to calculate a growth rate of L that is consistent with Y/L remaining positive, therefore technological progress can compensate for pop... However if we hold population constant and allow K/L to increase without a limit then Y/L will increase. If technological progress occurs in an economy such that c is not equal to zero then for any value of c its possible to calculate a growth rate of L that is consistent with Y/L remaining positive, therefore technological progress can compensate for population growth. Therefore according to Solow the factors that facilitate population growth include capital accumulation and technological progress, this are the factors that determine whether per capita income grows, decline or remain constant. (Scott (1989)) Shortcomings of the Solows model: The Cobb Douglas function he uses assumes constant returns to scale; also his model assumes that there exists constant elasticity of substitution among the factors of production used in the production process, this assumption allows the standard of living and economic growth to be maintained even if D/L approaches zero as long as K/L rises appropriately. He also assumes that every generation no matter the distance have similar opportunities with the current one, this is not consistent with human behaviour, and people today only care about their immediate gratification and not for generations to come. Other theories of economic growth: The classical school of economist which included Adam Smith, David Ricardo, Thomas Mathus and John Stuart Mill considered the main factors of production which included land, capital and labour but in the absence of technological advancement, they however recognised the role of capital accumulation in economic development and

Buddhism in East Asia Essay Example for Free

Buddhism in East Asia Essay Many people will choose Confucianism as the most important factor in understating East Asian culture. Confucianism, indeed, is crucial in understanding the culture. However, one should not overlook the influence of Buddhism on Confucianism and many areas of East Asian culture. Buddhism, one of the world’s oldest religions and a philosophy, is shared by East Asian countries, thus in order to fully appreciate the East Asian culture, one should learn about Buddhism and its significant influence on the culture. This paper will discuss Buddhism shared by East Asian culture and how the religion played an enormous role in shaping the mindset of people affecting their culture. Buddhism started approximately in the 6th century BCE, starting with the birth of the Buddha in India. The religion then spread through Central Asia, East Asia, and Southeast Asia (Keown). Among many branches of Buddhism, Mahayana has been diffused from first west, north, and east throughout East Asia (Skilton). The fundamental principles of Mahayana are liberation from suffering and the belief in the existence of Bodhisattva. Bodhisattva is someone who achieved Nirvana, the state of being free from both suffering and the cycle of rebirth (Keown). One can find a carved wood elongated figure of Bodhisattva Guanyin (1999. 13. 0003) from Spurlok Museum, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, IL . In this wooden figure, Guanyin is barefoot with hair wrapped in knot, wears ornate robes and holds a basket with flowers (Spurlock Museum). One can also find a photo of Bronze Seated Buddha in National Museum at Kyongbok-Kung, Seoul, South Korea (1986. 27. 0017) in Spurlock Museum . These are an important artifact and a photo because one can easily find very similar artifacts of Guanyin or Buddha in China, Korea, and Japan. It shows one how Buddhism was shared by East Asian countries (Yu). Upon first encountering Buddhism, many Chinese scholars regarded it as merely a foreign religion. This caused Buddhism to transform itself into a system that could co-exist within the Chinese way of life. Thus, filial devotion, one of the most valued by Confucianists, in Buddhist teachings became the core texts in China. It further strengthened the Confucian value by claiming that the salvation of an individual was a benefit to the society and family. Therefore, Buddhism could spread well in the Chinese population (Chen). From this point, Buddhism spread to Korea and Japan, and Buddhist ideology began to merge with Confucianism. This caused many Confucian scholars to redefine Confucianism as Neo-Confucianism (Chen). While Neo-Confucianism adapted Buddhist ideas, many Neo-Confucianists strongly opposed Buddhism. Nonetheless, Buddhism offered Confucianism important ideas such as the nature of the soul and the relation of the individual to the cosmos, ideas not explored by Confucianism (Chen). Again, Neo-Confucianism was spread through Korea and Japan, and they were all deeply influenced for more than half a millennium (Chen). Moreover, many other indigenous religions and philosophical systems in East Asia integrated the ideas and teachings of Buddhism, so it came to be a natural part of living. In conclusion, the teachings of Buddhism not only influenced in shaping the mindset of East Asian people, but also affected their philosophy of life.

The Concept of Probability in Mathematics

The Concept of Probability in Mathematics Probability is a way of expressing knowledge or belief that an event will occur or has occurred. The concept has been given an exact mathematical meaning in probability theory, which is used extensively in such areas of study as mathematics, statistics, finance, gambling, science, and philosophy to draw conclusions about the likelihood of potential events and the underlying mechanics of complex systems. The word probability does not have a consistent direct definition. In fact, there are two broad categories of probability interpretations, whose adherents possess different views about the fundamental nature of probability. The word Probability derives from Latin word probabilitas that can also mean probity, a measure of the authority of a witness in a legal case in Europe, and often correlated with the witnesss nobility. In a sense, this differs much from the modern meaning of probability, which, in contrast, is used as a measure of the weight of empirical evidence, and is arrived at from inductive reasoning and statistical inference. History: The scientific study of probability is a modern development. Gambling shows that there has been an interest in quantifying the ideas of probability for millennia, but exact mathematical descriptions of use in those problems only arose much later. According to Richard Jeffrey, Before the middle of the seventeenth century, the term probable meant approvable, and was applied in that sense, univocally, to opinion and to action. A probable action or opinion was one such as sensible people would undertake or hold, in the circumstances.[4] However, in legal contexts especially, probable could also apply to propositions for which there was good evidence. Aside from some elementary considerations made by Girolamo Cardano in the 16th century, the doctrine of probabilities dates to the correspondence of Pierre de Fermat and Blaise Pascal (1654). Christiaan Huygens (1657) gave the earliest known scientific treatment of the subject. Jakob Bernoullis and Abraham de Moivres Doctrine of Chances (1718) treated the subject as a branch of mathematics. See Ian Hackings The Emergence of Probability and James Franklins The Science of Conjecture for histories of the early development of the very concept of mathematical probability. The theory of errors may be traced back to Roger Cotes but a memoir prepared by Thomas Simpson in 1755 (printed 1756) first applied the theory to the discussion of errors of observation. The reprint (1757) of this memoir lays down the axioms that positive and negative errors are equally probable, and that there are certain assignable limits within which all errors may be supposed to fall; continuous errors are discussed and a probability curve is given. Pierre-Simon Laplace (1774) made the first attempt to deduce a rule for the combination of observations from the principles of the theory of probabilities. He represented the law of probability of errors by a curve y = à Ã¢â‚¬  (x), x being any error and y its probability.He also gave (1781) a formula for the law of facility of error (a term due to Lagrange, 1774), but one which led to unmanageable equations. Daniel Bernoulli (1778) introduced the principle of the maximum product of the probabilities of a system of concurrent errors. The method of least squares is due to Adrien-Marie Legendre (1805), who introduced it in his New Methods for Determining the Orbits of Comets. In ignorance of Legendres contribution, an Irish-American writer, Robert Adrain, editor of The Analyst (1808), first deduced the law of facility of error, h being a constant depending on precision of observation, and c a scale factor ensuring that the area under the curve equals 1. He gave two proofs, the second being essentially the same as John Herschels (1850). Gauss gave the first proof which seems to have been known in Europe (the third after Adrains) in 1809. Further proofs were given by Laplace (1810, 1812), Gauss (1823), James Ivory (1825, 1826), Hagen (1837), Friedrich Bessel (1838), W. F. Donkin (1844, 1856), and Morgan Crofton (1870). Other contributors were Ellis (1844), De Morgan (1864), Glaisher (1872), and Giovanni Schiaparelli (1875). Peterss (1856) formula for r, the probable error of a single observation, is well known. In the nineteenth century authors on the general theory included Laplace, Sylvestre Lacroix (1816), Littrow (1833), Adolphe Quetelet (1853), Richard Dedekind (1860), Helmert (1872), Hermann Laurent (1873), Liagre, Didion, and Karl Pearson. Augustus De Morgan and George Boole improved the exposition of the theory. Andrey Markov introduced the notion of Markov chains (1906) playing an important role in theory of stochastic processes and its applications. The modern theory of probability based on the measure theory was developed by Andrey Kolmogorov (1931). On the geometric side, contributors to The Educational Times were influential. Types of probability: There are basically four types of probabilities, each with its limitations. None of these approaches to probability is wrong, but some are more useful or more general than others. Classical Probability: The classical interpretation owes its name to its early and august pedigree. Championed by Laplace, and found even in the works of Pascal, Bernoulli, Huygens, and Leibniz, it assigns probabilities in the absence of any evidence, or in the presence of symmetrically balanced evidence. The classical theory of probability applies to equally probable events, such as the outcomes of tossing a coin or throwing dice; such events were known as equipossible. probability = number of favourable equipossibilies / total number of relevant equipossibilities. Logical probability: Logical theories of probability retain the classical interpretations idea that probabilities can be determined a priori by an examination of the space of possibilities. Subjective probability: A probability derived from an individuals personal judgment about whether a specific outcome is likely to occur. Subjective probabilities contain no formal calculations and only reflect the subjects opinions and past experience. Subjective probabilities differ from person to person. Because the probability is subjective, it contains a high degree of personal bias. An example of subjective probability could be asking New York Yankees fans, before the baseball season starts, the chances of New York winning the world series. While there is no absolute mathematical proof behind the answer to the example, fans might still reply in actual percentage terms, such as the Yankees having a 25% chance of winning the world series. In everyday speech, we express our beliefs about likelihoods of events using the same terminology as in probability theory. Often, this has nothing to do with any formal definition of probability, rather it is an intuitive idea guided by our experience, and in some cases statistics. Some Of the Examples Of Probability: X says Dont buy the avocados here; about half the time, theyre rotten. X is expressing his belief about the probability of an event that an avocado will be rotten based on his personal experience. Y says I am 95% certain the capital of Spain is Barcelona. Here, the belief Y is expressing is only a probability from his point of view, because only he does not know that the capital of Spain is Madrid (from our point of view, the probability is 100%). However, we can still view this as a subjective probability because it expresses a measure of uncertainty. It is as though Y is saying in 95% of cases where I feel as sure as I do about this, I turn out to be right. Z says There is a lower chance of being shot in Omaha than in Detroit. Z is expressing a belief based (presumably) on statistics. Dr. A says to Christina, There is a 75% chance that you will live. Dr. A is basing this off of his research. Probability can also be expressed in vague terms. For example, someone might say it will probably rain tomorrow. This is subjective, but implies that the speaker believes the probability is greater than 50%. Subjective probabilities have been extensively studied, especially with regards to gambling and securities markets. While this type of probability is important, it is not the subject of this book. There are two standard approaches to conceptually interpreting probabilities. The first is known as the long run (or the relative frequency approach) and the subjective belief (or confidence approach). In the Frequency Theory of Probability, probability is the limit of the relative frequency with which an event occurs in repeated trials (note that trials must be independent). Frequentists talk about probabilities only when dealing with experiments that are random and well-defined. The probability of a random event denotes the relative frequency of occurrence of an experiments outcome, when repeating the experiment. Frequentists consider probability to be the relative frequency in the long run of outcomes. Physical probabilities, which are also called objective or frequency probabilities, are associated with random physical systems such as roulette wheels, rolling dice and radioactive atoms. In such systems, a given type of event (such as the dice yielding a six) tends to occur at a persistent rate, or relative frequency, in a long run of trials. Physical probabilities either explain, or are invoked to explain, these stable frequencies. Thus talk about physical probability makes sense only when dealing with well defined random experiments. The two main kinds of theory of physical probability are frequentist accounts and propensity accounts. Relative frequencies are always between 0% (the event essentially never happens) and 100% (the event essentially always happens), so in this theory as well, probabilities are between 0% and 100%. According to the Frequency Theory of Probability, what it means to say that the probability that A occurs is p% is that if you repeat the experiment over and over again, independently and under essentially identical conditions, the percentage of the time that A occurs will converge to p. For example, under the Frequency Theory, to say that the chance that a coin lands heads is 50% means that if you toss the coin over and over again, independently, the ratio of the number of times the coin lands heads to the total number of tosses approaches a limiting value of 50% as the number of tosses grows. Because the ratio of heads to tosses is always between 0% and 100%, when the probability exists it must be between 0% and 100%. In the Subjective Theory of Probability, probability measures the speakers degree of belief that the event will occur, on a scale of 0% (complete disbelief that the event will happen) to 100% (certainty that the event will happen). According to the Subjective Theory, what it means for me to say that the probability that A occurs is 2/3 is that I believe that A will happen twice as strongly as I believe that A will not happen. The Subjective Theory is particularly useful in assigning meaning to the probability of events that in principle can occur only once. For example, how might one assign meaning to a statement like there is a 25% chance of an earthquake on the San Andreas fault with magnitude 8 or larger before 2050? It is very hard to use either the Theory of Equally Likely Outcomes or the Frequency Theory to make sense of the assertion. Bayesians, however, assign probabilities to any statement whatsoever, even when no random process is involved. Probability, for a Bayesian, is a way to represent an individuals degree of belief in a statement, given the evidence. Evidential probability, also called Bayesian probability, can be assigned to any statement whatsoever, even when no random process is involved, as a way to represent its subjective plausibility, or the degree to which the statement is supported by the available evidence. On most accounts, evidential probabilities are considered to be degrees of belief, defined in terms of dispositions to gamble at certain odds. The four main evidential interpretations are the classical interpretation, the subjective interpretation, the epistemic or inductive interpretation, and the logical interpretation. Theory: Like other theories, the theory of probability is a representation of probabilistic concepts in formal terms-that is, in terms that can be considered separately from their meaning. These formal terms are manipulated by the rules of mathematics and logic, and any results are then interpreted or translated back into the problem domain. There have been at least two successful attempts to formalize probability, namely the Kolmogorov formulation and the Cox formulation. In Kolmogorovs formulation, sets are interpreted as events and probability itself as a measure on a class of sets. In Coxs theorem, probability is taken as a primitive and the emphasis is on constructing a consistent assignment of probability values to propositions. In both cases, the laws of probability are the same, except for technical details. There are other methods for quantifying uncertainty, such as the Dempster-Shafer theory or possibility theory, but those are essentially different and not compatible with the laws of probability as they are usually understood. Mathematical Treatment: In mathematics, a probability of an event A is represented by a real number in the range from 0 to 1 and written as P(A), p(A) or Pr(A). An impossible event has a probability of 0, and a certain event has a probability of 1. However, the converses are not always true: probability 0 events are not always impossible, nor probability 1 events certain. The opposite or complement of an event A is the event (that is, the event of A not occurring); its probability is given by P(not A) = 1 P(A). As an example, the chance of not rolling a six on a six-sided die is 1 (chance of rolling a six) . If both the events A and B occur on a single performance of an experiment this is called the intersection or joint probability of A and B, denoted as . If two events, A and B are independent then the joint probability is For example: if two coins are flipped the chance of both being heads is If either event A or event B or both events occur on a single performance of an experiment this is called the union of the events A and B denoted as . If two events are mutually exclusive then the probability of either occurring is For example, the chance of rolling a 1 or 2 on a six-sided die is If the events are not mutually exclusive then Conditional probability is the probability of some event A, given the occurrence of some other event B. Conditional probability is written P(A|B), and is read the probability of A, given B. It is defined by If P(B) = 0 then is undefined. Applications: Two major applications of probability theory in everyday life are in risk assessment and in trade on commodity markets. Governments typically apply probabilistic methods in environmental regulation where it is called pathway analysis, often measuring well-being using methods that are stochastic in nature, and choosing projects to undertake based on statistical analyses of their probable effect on the population as a whole. A good example is the effect of the perceived probability of any widespread Middle East conflict on oil prices which have ripple effects in the economy as a whole. An assessment by a commodity trader that a war is more likely vs. less likely sends prices up or down, and signals other traders of that opinion. Accordingly, the probabilities are not assessed independently nor necessarily very rationally. The theory of behavioural finance emerged to describe the effect of such groupthink on pricing, on policy, and on peace and conflict. It can reasonably be said that the discovery of rigorous methods to assess and combine probability assessments has had a profound effect on modern society. Accordingly, it may be of some importance to most citizens to understand how odds and probability assessments are made, and how they contribute to reputations and to decisions, especially in a democracy. Another significant application of probability theory in everyday life is reliability. Many consumer products, such as automobiles and consumer electronics, utilize reliability theory in the design of the product in order to reduce the probability of failure. The probability of failure may be closely associated with the products warranty. Probability Of Winning A Lottery: Everyone knows that the probability of winning the lottery is a pretty big long shot. How long, however, you probably never really thought about. Your actual odds of winning the lottery depend on where you play, but single state lotteries usually have odds of about 18 million to 1 while multiple state lotteries have odds as high as 120 million to 1. If you have ever thought youd win the lottery, youre not alone. About one out of every three people in the United States think that winning the lottery is the only way to become financially secure in their life. This is a frightening statistic when you sit down and consider what the above odds really mean. Its time to take a long hard look at the chances of you winning the lottery. While winning the lottery may be something that you want, to show you your chances well take a look at a number of remote occurrences that you probably wouldnt like to have happen to you and probably dont think will ever happen to you but are still much more likely to happen to you than winning the lottery. How about the classic odds of being struck by lightning? The actual probability of this happening varies from year to year, but as a good estimate, the National Safety Council says between 70 and 120 people a year die in the US by lightning so lets take 100 as our base. With the US population being approximately 265 million people, that means that the chances of being killed by lightning are roughly 2,650,000 to 1. Not very likely. However you are still 6 to 45 times more likely to die from a lightning strike than you would be to win the lottery. Now nobody really wants to die from flesh eating bacteria, and with odds at about 1 million to 1, the chances that you will die that way are pretty slim. Then again, you are 18 to 120 times more likely to die this way than to win the lottery. What are the chances that if youre playing with a group of four that two of you will get a hole-in-one on the exact same hole? At 17 million to 1, theyre better than the chances of you winning the lottery. What about dying from a snake bite or bee sting? It probably isnt a way that you have imagined that you would leave the earth. Youre a whopping 180 to 1,200 times more likely to die from one of these incidents than win the lottery. Thats because the probability of dying from a snake bite or bee sting is about 100,000 to 1. Now I know that you are not a bad person and you dont imagine finding yourself on death row for a crime you committed anytime soon. Still, its a lot more likely that you will be legally executed than win the lottery. In fact, you are 30,000% to 200,000% more likely to die in a legal execution than to win the lottery. If none of the above has convinced you to stop playing the lottery, then Ill bring out my favorite lottery fact. If you drive 10 miles to purchase your lottery ticket, its three to twenty times more likely for you to be killed in a car accident along the way than to win the jackpot. Flipping Of Coin: Coin flipping or coin tossing is the practice of throwing a coin in the air to choose between two alternatives, sometimes to resolve a dispute between two parties. It is a form of sortition which inherently has only two possible and equally likely outcomes. Experimental and theoretical analysis of coin tossing has shown that the outcome is predictable. During coin flipping the coin is tossed into the air such that it rotates end-over-end several times. Either beforehand or when the coin is in the air, an interested party calls heads or tails, indicating which side of the coin that party is choosing. The other party is assigned the opposite side. Depending on custom, the coin may be caught, caught and inverted, or allowed to land on the ground. When the coin comes to rest, the toss is complete and the party who called or was assigned the face-up side is declared the winner. If the outcome is unclear the toss is repeated; for example the coin may, very rarely, land on edge, or fall down a drain. The coin may be any type as long as it has two distinct sides; it need not be a coin as such. Human intuition about conditional probability is often very poor and can give rise to some seemingly surprising observations. For example, if the successive tosses of a coin are recorded as a string of H and T, then for any trial of tosses, it is twice as likely that the triplet TTH will occur before THT than after it. It is three times as likely that THH will precede HHT. Are we likely to be struck by lightning? In the United States, an average of 80 people are killed by lightning each year. Considering being killed by lightning to be our favorable outcome (not such a favorable outcome!), the sample space contains the entire population of the United States (about 250 million). If we assume that all the people in our sample space are equally likely to be killed by lightning (so people who never go outside have the same chance of being killed by lightning as those who stand by flagpoles in large open fields during thunderstorms), the chance of being killed by lightning in the United States is equal to 80/250 million, or a probability of about .000032%. Clearly, you are much more likely to die in a car accident than by being struck by lightning. Probability in Our Lives: A basic understanding of probability makes it possible to understand everything from batting averages to the weather report or your chances of being struck by lightning! Probability is an important topic in mathematics because the probability of certain events happening or not happening can be important to us in the real world. Weather forecasting: Suppose a person wants to go on a picnic this afternoon, and the weather report says that the chance of rain is 70%? Will he ever wonder where that 70% came from? Forecasts like these can be calculated by the people who work for the National Weather Service when they look at all other days in their historical database that have the same weather characteristics (temperature, pressure, humidity, etc.) and determine that on 70% of similar days in the past, it rained. As weve seen, to find basic probability we divide the number of favorable outcomes by the total number of possible outcomes in our sample space. If were looking for the chance it will rain, this will be the number of days in our database that it rained divided by the total number of similar days in our database. If our meteorologist has data for 100 days with similar weather conditions (the sample space and therefore the denominator of our fraction), and on 70 of these days it rained (a favorable outcome), the probability of rain on the next similar day is 70/100 or 70%. Since a 50% probability means that an event is as likely to occur as not, 70%, which is greater than 50%, means that it is more likely to rain than not. But what is the probability that it wont rain? Remember that because the favourable outcomes represent all the possible ways that an event can occur, the sum of the various probabilities must equal 1 or 100%, so 100% 70% = 30%, and the probability that it wont rain is 30%. Bernoulli Trials On Probability: It happens very often in real life that an event may have only two outcomes that matter. For example, either you pass an exam or you do not pass an exam, either you get the job you applied for or you do not get the job, either your flight is delayed or it departs on time, etc. The probability theory abstraction of all such situations is a Bernoulli trial. Bernoulli trial is an experiment with only two possible outcomes that have positive probabilities p and q such that p + q = 1. The outcomes are said to be success and failure, and are commonly denoted as S and F or, say, 1 and 0. For example, when rolling a die, we may be only interested whether 1 shows up, in which case,naturally, P(S) = 1/6 and P(F) = 5/6. If, when rolling two dice, we are only interested whether the sum on two dice is 11, P(S) = 1/18, P(F) = 17/18. The Bernoulli process is a succession of independent Bernoulli trials with the same probability of success. Uses Of Probability In Our Daily Lives: I think we use probability routinely in our daily lives. When you get into a car and drive on public roads, we often assume that we have a low probability of being hit by another car. When you pull out onto a busy street crossing 2 lanes of traffic, you judge the speed of the traffic in those lanes. You assume you have a high probability of judging that speed correctly when you cross those lanes. If you did not make that assumption, you probably would not attempt to cross the lanes for fear of being hit by another car. We assume that we have a low probability of being hit by lightning or a meteor. When you eat with your hands, you assume your probability of getting sick from germs on your hands is low. Or you wouldnt eat with your hands. You could say the same of eating in a restaurant with reference to food you didnt prepare yourself. Within assuming many probabilities, I think wed constantly live in fear of what horrible things might happen to us. Summary of probabilities: Event Probability A not A A or B A and B A given B Other Cases Where Probability Can Be Observed: Youve seen it happen many times-a player in a dice game claims she is due for doubles; strangers discover that they have a mutual acquaintance and think that this must be more than a chance meeting; a friend plays the lottery obsessively or enters online contests with a persistent dream of winning. All these behaviors reflect how people perceive probability in daily life. People who lack an accurate sense of probability are easily drawn in by false claims and pseudoscience, are vulnerable to get-rich-quick schemes, and exhibit many of the behaviors mentioned above. The modeling and measurement of probabilities are fundamentals of mathematics that can be applied to the world around us. Every event, every measurement, every game, every accident, and even the nature of matter itself is understood through probabilistic models, yet few people have a good grasp of the nature of probability. Frequentists talk about probabilities only when dealing with experiments that are random and well-defined. The probability of a random event denotes the relative frequency of occurrence of an experiments outcome, when repeating the experiment. Frequentists consider probability to be the relative frequency in the long run of outcomes.[1] Bayesians, however, assign probabilities to any statement whatsoever, even when no random process is involved. Probability, for a Bayesian, is a way to represent an individuals degree of belief in a statement, or an objective degree of rational belief, given the evidence. Relation to randomness: In a deterministic universe, based on Newtonian concepts, there is no probability if all conditions are known. In the case of a roulette wheel, if the force of the hand and the period of that force are known, then the number on which the ball will stop would be a certainty. Of course, this also assumes knowledge of inertia and friction of the wheel, weight, smoothness and roundness of the ball, variations in hand speed during the turning and so forth. A probabilistic description can thus be more useful than Newtonian mechanics for analyzing the pattern of outcomes of repeated rolls of roulette wheel. Physicists face the same situation in kinetic theory of gases, where the system, while deterministic in principle, is so complex (with the number of molecules typically the order of magnitude of Avogadro constant 6.02 ·1023) that only statistical description of its properties is feasible. A revolutionary discovery of 20th century physics was the random character of all physical processes that occur at sub-atomic scales and are governed by the laws of quantum mechanics. The wave function itself evolves deterministically as long as no observation is made, but, according to the prevailing Copenhagen interpretation, the randomness caused by the wave function collapsing when an observation is made, is fundamental. This means that probability theory is required to describe nature. Others never came to terms with the loss of determinism. Albert Einstein famously remarked in a letter to Max Born: I am convinced that God does not play dice. Although alternative viewpoints exist, such as that of quantum de-coherence being the cause of an apparent random collapse, at present there is a firm consensus among physicists that probability theory is necessary to describe quantum phenomena.

The anti-smoking media campaign among adolescents

The anti-smoking media campaign among adolescents INTRODUCTION In the 20th century, smoking has been established as the leading cause of many preventable diseases (i.e. cancer) and deaths. Antismoking ads started in the 1967, when FCC required broadcasters to air one antismoking message for every three cigarette (Siegal 1998). At first these ads were free until it became effective to the audience that it eliminated the free advertisings. Throughout these years, it provided a worldwide dispute to health of the community. Liu reports: â€Å"Since Minnesota introduced the first paid anti-smoking media campaign in 1986, many other states have used a proportion of their cigarette excise tax revenue to fund large-scale anti-smoking advertisement through the mass media. Those media campaigns try to provide the public with health information about the harmful effects of smoking on health, and, therefore, change peoples smoking behavior, based on the theoretical hypothesis that more informed people are more likely to choose healthy lifestyle† (Liu 2009, p.29). Constantly, advertisers are creating advertisements, such as billboards, commercials and other interesting promotions, for anti-drugs and anti-smoking. It is found in many different places that can be simply seen by the public, preferably among adolescents and teenagers, to get their attention. For example, â€Å"Florida has reported that its Truth advertisements attacking tobacco firms are effective, on the basis of surveys showing 40% and 16% declines in smoking among middle and high school students in the state, respectively† (Penchman 1999, p.2). Recent studies have argued various points that these ads are not working for our city and future generations. Clearly, the government is clearly spending a lot of money for these advertisements but past presidents such as, George W. Bush, tempted with the idea to cut spending because of no concrete answer for a positive outcome. In addition, news media in different markets indicated that teenagers are using more marijuana because of these popular ads that they are constantly seeing in the media. For example, many adolescents feel that marijuana is fashionable drug among their peers because it is popular usage in media such as movies, commercials and many other outlets. Not all people involved in media have agreed with this statement. Others have disagreed with their counterparts and stated that these advertisements are actually working for many people. Research studies done in the past have proved that these advertisements have been a significant positive change for less use of drugs among society. Recently, these advertisements have been getting realistic to the point that it might scare potential users away. In addition, past surveys have been conducted which stated that majority of the people that seen these types of ads are trying to quit from destroying their health. Research studies that found some type of evidence for the success of these media campaigns such as, reducing cigarette consumption and drugs use among adolescents and adults shows that several governments have cut the spending on their control programs. The lost of funding has been in use in other areas such as the recent hit of the economic recession which could have a serious influence on the future success of antismoking and anti-drug control initiations. In addition, policy makers have stated that there is a lack of evidence that these messages are working. This topic brings back to the debate that these ads are producing cigarette use instead of stopping it. â€Å"Many researchers have different ideas on whether advertising for antismoking should be used for tobacco use prevention, which depends on both its effectiveness and cost-effectiveness† (Pechmann 1999, p.2). Currently, theyre no significant evidence that these ads are actually working media. Others are confused if these ads are wasting taxpayers money and not benefiting our society. â€Å"For instance, significant amount of research has been done on this topic and little conclusive evidence of a direct link between advertising-only interventions and reduced adolescent smoking dominance. However, I do agree there is an indirect evidence for the effectiveness of antismoking and antidrug advertising† (Pechmann 2003, p.16). â€Å"Mass communication media play such a significant role in contemporary society, that we could not conceive it without their presence† (Televisa). Since the introduction of media, smoking was brought into new heights and established new audience to attract. Tobacco companies have taken advantage of the media, which they have, supplied billions of dollars on advertising of tobacco. These companies make smoking glamorous, fun and â€Å"cool† to the public. Along with the advertising in media, many include general surgeon message, which is in fine print that many viewers do not notice the health concerns of the use of cigarettes. Recently there has been a surge of cancer among people that antismoking campaigns have been created to end or to put a stop on these glamorous ads and tobacco companies. The opposing ads demonstrated the negative aspects of smoking, which is mainly targeted for adolescents along with statistics on the mortality rate cause by smoking. Along wi th tobacco advertising, parents were another influenced for young adults to start smoking. The rival ads such (thetruth.com) started to use parents, whom do not smoke, as the anti-smoking and anti-drug gear towards the adolescents. Over the past seven years, television ads have gotten increasingly graphic and even gruesome. In recent months, television ads have gotten more graphical which has been taken a page from a horror movie. These ads are trying to hit an objective goal of having 20,000 smokers to stop the routine. In addition, New York City has raise up the prices on its pack of cigarettes up to $10. Along with habit, it is costing New Yorkers $250 a month just on smoking cigarettes which can use that money for other needs. The government wants to reduce people from smoking and its trying its best to achieve its goal. New York Officials claim that the ads are fighting â€Å"fire with fire† when comes to widespread cigarette advertising. For instance, â€Å"The National Cancer Institute reports cigarette manufacturers spend some $37 million a day on average to hawk their product, a whopping $13.5 billion per year† (Inbar). The message that these anti-smoking campaigns are doing is expressing that someone might suffer and die from smoking but also, it may wreck someones family. In the present-day, media depicts drug use and smoking as a popular craze to do. Televisions shows and movies depict drugs and smoking as a good habit and do not state any negative consequences on the use of it. Todays audience watches these shows and movies, which get the sense that smoking and using drugs is a â€Å"cool thing to do†. For example, HBOs television â€Å"Bored to Death† and 90s cult classic movie, â€Å"Half-Baked†, depicts characters that continuous smoking marijuana throughout the whole act. Throughout these programming, it does not stated any negative aspect from smoking marijuana but instead glamorous as a drug that can be use for relaxation. Television ads depict the negative aspects of marijuana and cigerrette use as someone whom can lose their concentration, vision and can cause serious damage to their brain cells. According to Variety, Triplett writes, â€Å"A senior lawmaker, Ed Markey (D-Mass.), wants more action from Hollywood against smoking, and the Motion Picture Association of America pledged to try opening a direct dialogue on the issue. Markey wants to ask MPAA topper Dan Glickman to improvise on the following: Including antismoking public service announcements on DVDs. Certifying that no one involved during a production received anything of value for using or displaying tobacco in the film and eliminating tobacco brand imagery from movies† (Triplett). If adolescents see their favorite actors or actresses smoking, it will lead them to believe that smoking is a good thing to do or not harmful. But these changes in the movie industry will try to eliminate smoking from their movie scenes to not influence anyone about smoking. It is great idea because many adolescents look up to these celebrities as role models. INTERVENTION The intervention to reduced smoking habits has been on the community and its two aims. The reasons for the campaigns are to highlight the dangers of smoking in terms of health and to reduce the amount smoked and potential smokers in the community. The statewide tobacco prevention and education campaign launched to target audience from ages 12-17 to inform them about the harsh realities of smoking. The campaign was created along with group of teen advisors whom themselves were smokers or knew someone that smoke to get the best perception to help succeed with these ads. The funds come from tobacco tax dollars that purpose is to be used for prevention efforts. The idea for this campaign is the let the audience know that smoking can be addictive and hard to quick. Not all of the campaigns are true, as it seems. For example, Baram writes about a famous controversial spokesperson for antismoking campaign but continue to smoke after he filmed a commercial about the harm that smoking can do for a human body. Baram writes: â€Å"Skip Legault, with his tale of two heart attacks, strokes and an amputated right leg, has become the star of anti-smoking posters and commercials blanketing New York since December. But the 48-year-old former repairman isnt getting the message Legault said he still smokes up to a full pack of Marlboros every day. I cant stop smoking, Legault told ABCNEWS.com. Ive been smoking since I was 8, and Im afraid to quit. ABC†. This case of Skip Legault made national headlines because of the issue of quitting smoking is much harder than it seems† (Baram 2008). Even, addictive smokers admit that it is hard. Many people believe that they can quit on their will but it is different. The chemicals drive these smokers to smoke more because of the addiction. A marketing campaign that has been successful in getting its message across is thetruth.com. The 1997 Settlement Act mainly funded the company. It has been the number one protestor against smoking. The anti-smoking campaign consists of several ways to reach to the massive amount of audience. Each way is to attract audience on the hazards that smoking can happen to an individual. The ads are in English and Spanish, which include television ads, radio ads, posters, cinema advertising, online media, social media, and Internet advertising and original websites. FUNDING Before 1988, mass media campaigns relied on free advertising through public service announcements or short-term funding for specific campaign (Siegal 1998). These ads were not aired during prime time, which made little progress towards reaching the mass audience. The ads were heavily dependant on donation of advertising time by broadcasters. In 1988, the use of mass media for antismoking changed by voters in California approved Proposition 99. This election required that tobacco companies donated 20% of their revenue for the state to provide educational programs and increased of the state cigarette tax by 25 cents. As Warner reports, â€Å"The purpose is to demonstrate that, with various combinations of policy changes, mass media information, and smoking cessation programs, smokers can be encouraged to stop smoking, and young people can be prevented from starting to smoke† (Warner 1982, pg.378) A court settlement that changed everything for antismoking media is 1997 settlement. The background begins,in August 1997, when the Florida Gov. Lawton Chiles made an historical out of court settlement among all tobacco companies at that time. The massive payout of $11.3 billion dollars is the considered the day that the straw that broke Joe Camels back† (Grossman 1997 p.290). This settlement led to the creation of thetruth.com whom is an advertising company that campaign against smoking. In addition, the money was used to compensate the state for public health costs caused by smoking-related illnesses.† The main goal of this settlement is to provide a way to lower down the use of cigarettes among young adults and give a helping hand to adults to quit smoking. The main idea of the settlement is to educate non-smokers about the effects of smoking and the harm of its chemicals. In â€Å"Cigarette Taxes†, Grossman reports that the agreement calls on tobacco companies to: Pay billions of dollars for a host of public education and health programs; Reimburse states for the cost of treating tobacco related illnesses; Set aside a multi-billion dollar fund to compensate smokers who win individual lawsuits against the tobacco companies; and Severely curtail marketing and advertising cigarettes, especially to teenagers. All of theses changes made a significant progress in the campaign against smoking. Since the settlement, smoking has been a decline for many users as they reported that the main reason to quit were due to the informercials and mass media adverstiing. The adversiting has faced some roadblocks in the process of succeeding. For example, in 1992, Gov. Wilson suspended Californias media campaign for other purposes. In 1995 and 1996, he censored and pulled other commercials that went against tobacco companies. The motivated behind this act still remains unsolved but it would not be surprise if he were supporting tobacco companies in some form of way. Another example, Siegal reports, in 1996, Assembly Speaker Curtis Pringle introduced a bill that would have restricted the media campaign to messages dealing with health and disallowed spots attacking the tobacco industry (Siegal 1998). TYPES OF CAMPAIGNS In March of 2009, the New York State Department of Health released ads for antismoking which cost $1.2 million from the states budget. The campaigns are featured in medical journals, newspapers and other publications such as the Internet. These ads are encouraging healthcare providers to make quitting a main concern with their patients who smoke. These ads were photo-shopped that featured images of patients with oversized ears to demonstrated that smokers are willing to listen from their doctors about the hazards of smoking. The reason for these ads is to attract healthcare workers because many adolescents go for their annual physical exam. Somehow, adolescents interact with doctors and nurses and are convincing to help these young adults to stop or before they start smoking. In earlier years of advertising, anti-smoking groups and health departments have attempted to oppose the advertising of tobacco by creating their own ads to emphasize the negative effects of smoking. The commercials included smoking cessation, the increased risk of lung cancer and other hazards problems that were seen passive for other public members. However, over the years, the ads have become more aggressive and more combative against smoking. Now these ads are focused on decreased physical attractiveness such as erectile dysfunction and graphical messages such as losing fingers and black lungs. These campaigns are much targeted to the younger crowd than its predecessor. Around the globe, smokers know that smoking tobacco is bad for their nature but they continue to do it regardless of their hazards that come along with it. Current smokers that I have met stated that the number one reason that they cannot stop smoking because of they are addicted to smoking and/or the use of tobacco. Many smokers are addicted to the scent and the nicotine, whom several years ago, the tobacco companies have tried to cover it up to make more money of it. Nicotine is a stimulant form of factor that has been considered one of the worst addictions to break compare to cocaine and heroin use. It is not the only chemical involved with cigarettes but along with 4,000 chemicals is involved which can make an individual much harder to quit. Aside from the fact that cigarette smoking can damage the health of the one smoking but it can also pose serious health risks to other people in the surrounding area. A person that smokes within distance can promote second hand smoke to his peers. This situation can lead to others to walk away from the venue and/or to move away from the entire scenery. Since Mayor Bloomberg was elected, he banned all types of smoking in nightclubs; restaurants and other public places to decrease second-hand smoke and increased businesses for these places that people avoided because of the tobacco smell. Smokers should be educated on their smoking can be to those people around them, including children. This is one of the reasons that anti-smoking campaigns focused on. The campaigners wanted to stop second hand in the neighborhood to prevent cancer and asthma. The campaign for the anti-smoking will try not to use propaganda but instead promote facts about the hazards of smoking. The posters for the campaign against smoking are with feature graphics that is within accepted limits for the culture that it is intended as not to attract negative publicity. The ads do not have any racist overtones or anything that will offend the mass public. The campaign was design to attract peoples attention regardless of race, color, age, and sex. The preferred approach for advertisers is arousing fear because nothing is as vivid as violence and nothing translates as to film as horror. The tendency of media to control against open-mindedness is one of the dominant themes in media criticism. The only aim of the campaign is to distribute as much promotional campaign against smoking as possible within a very limited area. In reference from thetruth.com, they have listed celebrities and well-known actors to get the message across to viewers that smoking is not â€Å"cool†. The anti-smoking group believes that having celebrities and other well-known faces will attract a bigger audience than having a request from the government and its surgeon general. There are several message theme labels that are use in anti-smoking advertising across the border. Based on Penchmanns recent research, â€Å"The message theme labels are the following: disease and death (Smokers suffer from health effects), endangers others, (second-hand smoke), cosmetics, (unattractive side effects), smokers negative life circumstances (loser lifestyle), refusal skills role model (role models do not smoke), marketing tactics (image advertising), selling disease and death (tobacco firms use manipulation and deception to sell a product that causes harm), and substantive variation (several messages use to spread one meaning)† (Penchmann 1994, p.240). Each message theme is use in their ways by marketers and campaigners. It has proved that all of them methods none have made the effort that the â€Å"shock method† has produce. Since 2007, the New York City Department of Health launched a series of anti-smoking campaigns which included smokers quit hotline and free nicotine patch and gum clinics in certain areas at certain times throughout the year. The television ads promoted the damage smoking can do to the body. These ads were noted for their graphic nature as well as their effectiveness. Since 2008, a second series of ads launched that can be seen nearly in every subway train station. It is about â€Å"Marie† a Hispanic Middle-Aged woman whom describes the amputations and pain she has undergone in relation to developing a disease that was the effects of smoking cigarettes. Each day routine smokers die from smoking related diseases each day. In a single cigarette 4700 cancer-causing chemicals are found which are have general surgeon messages pasted on the cigarette cartons. Despite the warnings, smokers continue to smoke. Some of these chemicals include acetone, ammonia, formaldehyde and arsenic. It is disgusting that people are putting these chemicals in their bodies and lungs daily. It is a suicide waiting to happen. Earlier times, Men were to consider smokers more than women. Times have changed and now more women smoke to deal with stress or problems. In addition, social influences such as friends and partygoers are most likely to smoke. Most modern women today will agree that the demand and multiple roles they have taken on have grown over the years. It is no small wonder that many have turned to cigarettes to deal with stress. EFFECTIVENESS Although the main goal of anti-smoking media campaigns is to quit smokers to quit smoking, little evidence suggests that the role of these campaigns are helping to stop. The campaigns can provide a new insight for young people such as non-smokers and those smokers wanting to quit to lead a normal life. These campaigns cost less money than sending someone to be hospitalized or suffer severe consequences because of smoking. It is a healthier and more prosperous future for our younger generation but not all of antismoking ads are effective. Research study has shown that the most successful campaigns are exposing the tobacco industrys manipulation on young adults; focus on themes of second hand smoke and cigarette addiction (Siegal 1998). Campaigns that simply say, â€Å"do not smoke† are the least successful because it not reinforcing adolescents to experience making decisions and the ability to grow up. For example, â€Å"most adolescents want to appear mature, independent, sav vy, attractive, and cool, and many think that not smoking will help them realize these goals. Smokers Negative Life Circumstances messages suggest that smoking is a barrier to achieving [these] goals (Penchmann 2003, p.10). These ads are effective in their own ways that likely to change someones thoughts on the idea of smoking. STATUS AND IMPACT The question is, â€Å"Does anti-smoking ads work?† It is a tough question to answer because there is no direct link that it does work. As Ms. Garcia, whom I interviewed, stated that â€Å"these aids are not working and the campaigners should find other ways to attract its audience.† The antismoking ads offer two ways that it can spread it messages. The messages are if a person smokes than that person would not succeed in life and if you do not smoke, you would be successful in life. The Tobacco remains one of the most widely abused substances. After writing this report and reading other research articles related to this topic, I found there is at least a connection with anti-smoking campaigns and decreased use of smoking among adolescents. For example, smoking is at historically low among groups of ages over 12 years old compared to the late 1990s when the campaign started. Many people believe because of the increased advertisements and its graphical nature has made i nfluenced in these changes. Most of the advertisements are found on during times that young adults are at home usually after school programming to get their attention. Before, it used to seen at various times of day. I believe it has made impact among our future generation and as long the government keeps pumping money into the campaign, I feel lower down smoking use but never fade it away. These ads had made an impact in society. When people are asked about these anti-smoking ads, their first impression is to mention the graphical nature that it has. Even younger adults have stated that, â€Å"if their lungs are going to turn black because of smoking, might as well not even start†. But not everyone agrees that these ads are effective, as it seems to be. For instance, Pearman Parker writes, They can [be effective], though, when they reinforce the perception that their close friends listen and respond to the campaigns.† In addition, Parker reports that the ads have been effective on younger teens but not towards adults. Parker writes, â€Å"Adults know it is unhealthy and knows what can happen to them but that does not change their behaviors.† Overall, anti-smoking has made big impact since 1998 with its â€Å"shock method†, it keep evolving and changing as time goes by. The ads that are picture in the campaign can be viewed as personal testimonials from smokers whom are having the negative side effects from smoking. In these ads, real people tell their own stories about the negative impacts that have cause throughout their lifetime. The main message to get across the audience is provide a sadness or fear mood. Teenagers are more bound to learn from personal testimonials because it provides some sort of realness to the picture of the negative effects of smoking. CONCLUSION: POLICY RECOMMENDATIONS According Penchmanns recent study done in 2002, â€Å"our findings to date suggest that tobacco-marketing (anti-industry) advertisement may not be especially effective with adolescents, though such advertisements are popular, in part because of the apparent success of the Florida Truth campaign.† It has been proven that The Truth Campaign has been the most successful in decreasing smoking habits among adolescents. Anti-smoking campaigns have other free options to promote their cause against smokers and the tobacco industry. The funds that the campaigners get can be use to provide free addiction clinics and research studies to help smokers on how to quit. As newspapers are fading away such as, their revenues have fallen 23% over the last two year (The State of News Media). Anti-smoking campaigns can push for interactive ways using social media and social networking. They can promote and advertise on MySpace, Twitter and Facebook to get users to join the campaign and give awaren ess of the health hazard on tobacco. For instance, social networking can reach to the other audiences especially to the crowd that attracts the most of its first-users are the adolescents. Another way of social media that antismoking campaigners can use is YouTube to gain more audiences. According to Hempel, â€Å"YouTube is the largest video platform in the world (Hempel 37).† People behind the campaign can run concepts such as viral campaigns with homemade videos. The adolescent group is the most users of social networking and the anti-smoking campaign can promote their product with graphical ads that can catch their eyes. Using social media will be a great way to interact with young adults. For example, using Facebook Connect, the creators can create an ad that collects the users information and create a video on the hazards of smoking tobacco with the information use of the viewer. Only the viewer will get to see the commercial ad to avoid controversy with others watching it unless the person wants to show to the mass. In conclusion, anti-smoking advertisements have been a great topic to cover throughout the research. It has its positives and negatives on certain areas that affect various groups throughout the New York State and the nation as a whole. Many researchers oppose that the campaign has not been working because of the massive funds that the government invested since the 1997 settlement. In addition, many campaigners agreed that the campaign is positively proceeding to a certain extent because of the decline of smoking users have gone down. The percentage is not big but it shows that it is effective. The question to answer is what is the status and impact on adolescents by the anti-smoking campaign? The status is the campaign is still trying to attract adolescents not to smoke and the impact has that many young adults have been listening to these ads especially of the shock method nature of it. Will it succeed to stop people from smoking? The true answer is no because of the addictive chem icals involved in tobacco will make smokers hard to quit. As Penchman writes, â€Å"It is conceivable that advertising that is ineffective on its own becomes effective when combined with other effort.† The campaign needs to develop a strategy to help people to quit. As Ms. Karp from MSNBC reports, that the Internet outlet is the best source to use to expand advertising strategy. For instance, withdrawal clinics, nicotine patches, non-for-profit outpatient treatment can help smokers in many places that the campaign is not helping. Overall, the anti-smoking is making an impact among all people and the status of campaign will become stronger because it is here to stay. Bibliography 2009 Join us in our Anti Smoking Campaign because Its Time To Quit Smoking Healthy Living on Shine. Astrology | Horoscopes, Celebrity Horoscopes, Chinese Astrology, Compatibility Tools, and Gift Guides on Shine. Web. 01 Nov. 2009. . Baram, Marcus. Star of Anti-Smoking Campaign Still Puffs. ABC News. 11 Jan. 2008. Web. . Note: The article helps me understand it is hard to quit smoking. The fellow interviewed in the article was seen in an antismoking ad early in the year but still smokes today. The author writes about the hardships of quitting smoking and advertisements are not what it seems to be. Berger, Arthur Asa. Media and Communication Research Methods. SAGE 2000. Pgs 3 173. CBC. Anti-smoking campaigns apparently have little effect on youth. CBC.ca. CBC News. Web. 01 Nov. 2009. . Note: The article is based from Alberta, Canada. This website was helpful because it gave a different point of view from the ant-smoking campaign. It helps me understand the two sides from the debate and on the reasons on why it is not working. Elhart, Mary. Statewide Anti-Smoking Campaign Takes New Approach in Curbing Teen Smoking | Reuters. Reuters.com. Arizona Department of Health Services Bureau of Tobacco Education Prevention, 16 Feb. 2009. Web. 01 Nov. 2009. . Note: The author of this article discusses new ways that the antismoking campaigns can evolve. The author mentions different areas where the campaign is lacking and to make it stronger to decrease smokers. Grohol, John. Scare or Disgust Work Best in Anti-Smoking Ads | Psych Central News. Psych Central. 17 Nov. 2008. Web. 01 Nov. 2009. . Note: Grohol discusses the â€Å"shock method† message that can be seen in antismoking advertising. It is helpful because it mentions different ads in their shock message. The shock method is one of the most effective techniques found in advertising. Grossman, Michael and Frank J. Chaloupka. â€Å"Cigarette Taxes: The Straw to Break the Camels Back† Public Health Reports (1974-), Vol. 112, No. 4 (Jul. Aug., 1997), pp. 290-297. Association of Schools of Public Health Hall, Nicholas G., John C. Hershey, Larry G. Kessler, R. Craig Stotts. â€Å"A Model for Making Project Funding Decisions at the National Cancer Institute† Vol. 40, No. 6 (Nov. Dec., 1992), pp. 1040-1052 Source: Operations Research,

The Homeless in Our Community Essay -- Homelessness In Our Community,

Table of Contents Literature Review — 3 Methodology — 5 Findings — 6 Summary — 8 Works Cited/Works Used — 9 Appendix: Survey Form — 11 LITERATURE REVIEW In this information behavior study, our group examines the everyday information resources, needs, and behaviors of the homeless. Literature research has led us to many key resources. Important literature on our topic includes Everyday Information Needs and Information Sources of Homeless Parents, The Homeless and Information Needs and Services, and Are the economically poor information poor? Does the digital divide affect the homeless and access to information? by Julie Hersberger, and The Impoverished LifeWorld of Outsiders and Framing Social Life in Theory and Research by Elfreda Chatman. The fundamental concepts in the literature show that a study must have a definition of homelessness and information poverty, address the everyday information needs and services of the homeless, identify misconceptions about how the homeless view and use information, and discuss information behaviors and barriers for the homeless. The homeless are a growing population in the United States. As the gap between the wealthy and poor increases, more people find themselves overwhelmed and displaced without a permanent residence, financial stability, or social networks, such as family, friends, and/or public assistance. Generally, homelessness in America is a result of unaffordable housing, family fragmentation, domestic violence, mental illness, health problems, addictions, unemployment, or a combination of several of these issues1 (Hersberger, 2001, p. 119). Research has concluded that homeless â€Å"people in their everyday lives are assessing their information needs in... ....What kinds of everyday information are you interested in encountering here? 23.How useful is what you learn at this place 1) Not Applicable 2) Not Useful 3) Somewhat Useful 4) Very Useful 5) Can’t Do Without 24. Is the information you encounter mostly trivial or good for making important or big decisions? 1) Trivial 2) Big Decision 3) Small Decision 4) All 5) Other 15 25.What would make it easier for you and others to share useful information at this place? 26.What are the drawbacks to getting information at this place? 27.How important is this place as a means to get help for information about everyday life? 1) Most important 2) Somewhat important 3) Not very important 4) Not important 28. What is your next best place for information? 29. Is there anything you’d like to add about what you’ve just told me? 30. Gender 31.Age 32.THANK YOU!