Sunday, November 17, 2019

Video game console and Nintendo Essay Example for Free

Video game console and Nintendo Essay Introduction Nintendo company,One of the most recognized names in the history of games. Even that was 120 years before and recent decades years, Nintendo begin company to making the playing card game,but creating video game. In the 60’s,Nintendo was going to produce video games, but after 1985 when Nintendo started to sell Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) and the famous game Super Mario Brothers. Nintendo began to as being the only dominatition in video games,and remained through many years,before Sony had take over the dominatition position by launched the Sony PlayStation . and then Nintendo was being regarded as a recession proposition in the videogame business. As far as we can see,the turning point in 2005, Nintendo introduced the Nintendo DS with a big success. In 2006 Nintendo introduced the Wii and then launched it being the best-selling latest generation console system in the world. Nowdays, Nintendo in the position as being the worldwide leader in the creation of interactive entertainment† with Microsoft and Sony in world’s top3 videogame business. To date, Nintendo has sold more than one billion video games and created so many game console including Game Boy The best selling video game systemgame systems worldwide. 1. What is Nintendo’s strategy? Which of the five generic strategies discussed in Chapter 5 is Nintendo using? What are some of the recent offensive and/or defensive strategies that Nintendo has employed? Have these tactics been successful? Nintendos strategy is based on the customer premise, when other business-to-video game market has yet to be waited and see attitude, and Nintendo in the market demand for in-depth study, the firm entered the field. Nintendo was on the market only a profound understanding of the needs of customers’ game manufacturers. Because it can from the customer needs is the fun of the game This perspective of looking at problems, Nintendo game software was first recognized that the decisive position. This policy eventually develop into a Nintendo game software developers and strategic alliances to achieve this status, Nintendo has played a key role. After have a Nintendo Power books and counselors systems scheme, which are a combination of the two major consumers and Nintendos sticky and agents, but also Nintendos main method to grasp the pulse of customers. In fact, the Nintendo Companys product development plans and marketing strategies is almost entirely dependent from the customer information. We come up the idea that :The broad differentiation strategy is the newly products of Nintendos had generic used ,particularly for Wii ,the broad differentiation strategy that allowed Nintendo to compete with two giant Sony and Microsoft. Nintendo had focus on innovative control system,that leads to rising the fun level of games,instead of to attempting to catch up with the functional advantage concentrated by most competition in game industry . Nintendo focused on developing games and take their Key advantage – gaming fun to winning the battle of game industry. Recently, Nintendo has carried out some offensive strategies to resist with rivals and gain more market share. The company aimed to innovating products and introducing some of the industry’s most astoundingly inventive and financially lucrative gaming products. For instance, Nintendo introduced the Nintendo Dual Screen in 2004. The DS Lite was introduced in 2006 and Wii was introduced in 2008. Nintendo does a number of advertisements with creative advertisement, what make deeply impression on customers. Through the magazines, the company releases the products and attracts game players. Nintendo also has some defensive strategies. Rivals like Sony and Microsoft were calling attention to an assortment of technological capabilities and graphic features in their consoles. Nintendo’s two system including video game consoles and handheld system with light weight electronic devices and designed largely. Rivals required a part of target market. According to this situation, Nintendo attract older people and women as a new market to make sure the sales and reputation for the company. 2. Is it fair to characterize Nintendo’s introduction of the Wii as a blue ocean strategy? Why or why not? Yes,there’s a pure blue ocean strategy initiated in the Nintendo’s Wii,but the Wii’s introduction strategy can not necessarily be characterize as a blue ocean strategy that we considered. Wii’s introduction demonstrated is successful executed the Blue Ocean Strategy,that driven point is the unique interactive â€Å"motion-sensitive† controls,it based on an innovative gaming control system can sense movements and physical activity, gamers should to physically move around to guide the game character,this is an differentiate experience with instinct usability that may rising the fun of gaming,and creating an accessibility for every player of all ages and genders . This new values are created and focused by Wii which instead of the performance value defined by the industry. it allowed Wii to not only compete in the game console industry’s â€Å"red ocean† where has been dominated by Sonys PlayStation and Microsofts Xbox, but also to went after an untapped market,For consumers who are not consider as the typical gamers,as older females, seniors,who never think about gaming,even who consider gaming as a waste of time. it purpose at the entire family. so it as the allegory of name â€Å"wii†Ã¢â‚¬â„¢s intended, we- everyone can enjoy it. Wii are also competitive to appealing the traditionally customer targeted by the games industry,we come up the opinion that the blue ocean strategy can reinforcing the competitive strategy acts as a supporting board differention competitive. Wii’s make games for a different purpose,In assessing the standard relative to Microsoft’s Xbox 360, and Sony’s PlayStation 3, and other developers , Wii‘s functional elements as graphics physics, processing power ,and supporting function (as Movie playing) are relatively rare . however it good-enough for moderate gamer,but their virtual controling raising gaming fun to a higher level ,that helps maintained its core gaming audience while aslo their purpose to changing the â€Å"couch-potato†gamer to into exerciser. As a matter of fact, Sony nor Microsoft try to imitated the Wii’s contoling function. to lure away Wiis new customer. All above evidence that it is almost self-explanatory the sucess for Wii’s blue ocean strategy’s. 3. What recommendations would you make to Nintendo to improve its competitiveness in the video game console industry and to maintain its favorable positioning vis-a-vis Microsoft and Sony? Our first recommendation is developing in the competition area that different from Microsoft and Sony. As we know, the main product of Microsoft and Sony is Xbox 360 and Playstation 3. Xbox 360 can mainly fight and talk by the network. PS 3 mainly in high-definition video and audio quality as the characteristics. Therefore, we think Nintendo should be developed in other areas, such as game’s own characterized. They can develop some games that more suitable for players, life and era such as the classic Super Mario, Tetris and other games. Our second recommendations is developing more perfect handheld video game console. Because as Microsoft and Sony’s main game product are Home video game consoles. Many people know Nintendo is because of their product Game Boy. And more young people today do not like to play games at home, they are more like in the car, in the bedroom, or in other free time to relax. So, handheld game consoles is still a huge market, but also because Nintendo has the foundation of Game Boy. So in this regard the development and the customer base is inevitable better than the other competitors. Our third recommendation is to improve the skill of visual quality. What is the value of a game? Obviously, the main the player seeks for is the gameplay, is the creative point of a game that itself has. For this part the Nintendo make a good sense. Nintendos success lies in change and subversion of tradition. But, with the booming technology, the players who are familiar with Maya, 3DMAX are also pay high attention to the quality of the visual. Compare with Sony and Microsoft, Nintendo do not spend so much technology dealing with visual. However, the decoration of a game system such like visual and sound also will be a big attraction. People always enjoy a sense of realism. So if it wants to get a long-term development, it also needs to improve its visual skill even though Nintendo do not rely on visual to win the profit. Our final recommendation is expansion of market in China. As we see, China who has large number of population can be a Potential Unit for almost all industry, of cause for game. It can be a good market for Nintendo we believe. To extend the Chinese market, Nintendo can consider about increasing the Chinese language interface to get closer to Chinese people. They also need to offer a good after sale service in china. We recognize that the after sale service of Nintendo in Asia except Japan is limited. In order to fit the Chinas specific conditions, Nintendo can introduce more educational and recreational games and let the parents willing to buy. In a word, making more efforts in these recommendations, Nintendo may have a long term development in the future we believe.

Thursday, November 14, 2019

Characters Contribute to the Dramatic Effect of Alan Bennetts Talking Heads :: essays research papers

"Talking heads" by Alan Bennett is a collection of monologues in which the audience are showed into the life of a character and given an insight into the character's personality and situation. People's lives are portrayed in comic ways leaving the audience feeling sympathy and guilt for the character in laughing at their misfortune. In the play a Chip in the Sugar Alan Bennett shows us a life of a very unconfident man who still lives with his mum. Graham is a middle-aged man with a history of mild mental health problems, living with his mother in Leeds. He is an absolutely stereotypical Guardian reader he wears flares, avoids deodorant, is environmentally conscious, likes date and walnut bread, and is very anti-Thatcher. It is also hinted that he is a closet homosexual. His life is dramatically disrupted when his mother, who he is effectively "married" to, meets her old flame Frank Turnbull after 52 years. Turnbull is bigoted, right-wing, and racist the opposite of Graham but he is also well-dressed and well off. Graham's father presumably died in hospital Graham refers to doctors "wheeling him into the theatre". Graham becomes increasingly jealous as Mr Turnbull takes an ever-growing hold on Mrs Whittaker's life, to the extent he proposes marriage simultaneously suggesting Graham moves out of the house to a ho stel. But Mr Turnbull is hiding a secret, and when Graham finds out he gets the courage to confronts his mother with the information, restoring the status quo and his comfortable life but destroying her hopes of happiness in the process. It seems like Graham has been seriously traumatized as he will not leave his mothers sight which is very unhealthy for a 52 year old to be doing. This play is not only based on graham and his relationship with his mother but it is also based on the different emotions shown within the monologue such as fear which Graham shows a lot of as he is constantly scared for his mother so this causes him to treat her like a child. There is also much anger shown towards the man that his mother is in a relationship with not only because he doesn?t trust him ,but because he wants to be the only man in his mothers life as he has been sic kingly close with his mother since a being a young child and she is always saying to Graham ? Characters Contribute to the Dramatic Effect of Alan Bennett's Talking Heads :: essays research papers "Talking heads" by Alan Bennett is a collection of monologues in which the audience are showed into the life of a character and given an insight into the character's personality and situation. People's lives are portrayed in comic ways leaving the audience feeling sympathy and guilt for the character in laughing at their misfortune. In the play a Chip in the Sugar Alan Bennett shows us a life of a very unconfident man who still lives with his mum. Graham is a middle-aged man with a history of mild mental health problems, living with his mother in Leeds. He is an absolutely stereotypical Guardian reader he wears flares, avoids deodorant, is environmentally conscious, likes date and walnut bread, and is very anti-Thatcher. It is also hinted that he is a closet homosexual. His life is dramatically disrupted when his mother, who he is effectively "married" to, meets her old flame Frank Turnbull after 52 years. Turnbull is bigoted, right-wing, and racist the opposite of Graham but he is also well-dressed and well off. Graham's father presumably died in hospital Graham refers to doctors "wheeling him into the theatre". Graham becomes increasingly jealous as Mr Turnbull takes an ever-growing hold on Mrs Whittaker's life, to the extent he proposes marriage simultaneously suggesting Graham moves out of the house to a ho stel. But Mr Turnbull is hiding a secret, and when Graham finds out he gets the courage to confronts his mother with the information, restoring the status quo and his comfortable life but destroying her hopes of happiness in the process. It seems like Graham has been seriously traumatized as he will not leave his mothers sight which is very unhealthy for a 52 year old to be doing. This play is not only based on graham and his relationship with his mother but it is also based on the different emotions shown within the monologue such as fear which Graham shows a lot of as he is constantly scared for his mother so this causes him to treat her like a child. There is also much anger shown towards the man that his mother is in a relationship with not only because he doesn?t trust him ,but because he wants to be the only man in his mothers life as he has been sic kingly close with his mother since a being a young child and she is always saying to Graham ?

Tuesday, November 12, 2019

Bite Me: A Love Story Chapter 6~7

6. The Vampire Parrots of Telegraph Hill A flock of wild parrots lives in the city of San Francisco. They are South American cherry-headed conures-bright green with a red head, a little smaller than a typical pigeon. No one is quite sure how they came to the City. It's likely that they are the descendants of animals caught in the jungle, then released to the city skies when they proved too wild to be kept as pets. They fly over the northern waterfront of San Francisco, foraging for fruit, berries, and blossoms, from the Presidio at the entrance of the Golden Gate Bridge, over Pacific Heights, the Marina, Russian Hill, North Beach, and all the way to the Ferry Building near the Oakland Bay Bridge. They are social, squawky, silly birds that mate for life and advertise their presence with a cacophony of beeps and cheeps that inspire smiles from residents, bewilderment from tourists, and hunger in predators, mostly red-tailed hawks and peregrine falcons. The parrots spend their nights high in the trees of Telegraph Hill, beneath the great concrete phallus of Coit Tower, sheltered from attack from hawks by the evergreen canopy overhead, and from all but the most ambitious cats, by the sheer altitude. But still, they are sometimes attacked, and although gentle creatures, they will fight back, biting with their thick, built-for-seed-crushing beaks. Which is what happened. The next morning after he witnessed the cat attack in the SOMA, the Emperor of San Francisco was awakened from a nest he'd made in one of the little stair gardens on Telegraph Hill, to hear parrots squawking in the trees. The sun was just breaking the horizon behind the Bay Bridge, turning the water red-gold under a blue morning mist. The Emperor crawled out from under a pile of carpet padding, stood, and stretched, his great joints creaking in the cold like ancient church doors. The men, Bummer and Lazarus, poked their noses out of the gray cloak, snuffled the dawn, then, with the call of the parrots, resolved themselves to morning and emerged like urgent butterflies to search for the perfect spot for the first wee of the day. The three watched as fifty or so squawking parrots circled Coit Tower and headed out toward the Embarcadero, where, suddenly, they all stopped flying, burst into flames, and fell like a smoldering storm of dying comets into Levi's Plaza. â€Å"Well, you don't see that every day,† said the Emperor, scratching Lazarus's ears through the bandages. The retriever was a doggy version of The Mummy, wrapped ears to tail in bandages after his last encounter with the vampire cats. The vet in the Mission wanted to keep him overnight, but the retriever had never spent a night away from the Emperor since they had found each other, and the vet had no accommodations for a large and burly monarch, let alone a feisty Boston terrier, so the three had bunked together under the carpet pad. Bummer chuffed, which translated from dog to: â€Å"I don't like it.† As the famous frog sang, it's not easy being green. 7. The Fog Comes on Little Cat Feet and Whatnot FOO Stephen â€Å"Foo Dog† Wong's fully bombed Honda drift machine was full of rats. Not completely full, the passenger seat was filled by Jared Whitewolf, Abby's backup BFF. (BBFF, really.) â€Å"Did you have to get all white ones?† Jared asked. He was six foot two, very thin, and paler than Death shagging a snowman. The sides of his head were shaved and in the middle he sported an unlaquered Mohawk, which hung in his eyes unless he was lying on his back or looking up. In addition to a floor-length black PVC cenobite coat, he was currently wearing Abby's thigh-high red platform Skankenstein ® boots, which was completely within his rights, as her current BFF. What bothered Foo was not that Jared had on girl's boots, but that he had on the boots of a girl with distinctly small feet. â€Å"Don't those hurt?† Jared tossed his hair out of his eyes. â€Å"Well, it's like Morrissey said, ‘Life is suffering.'† â€Å"I think the Buddha said that.† â€Å"I'm pretty sure Morrissey said it first-like, back in the eighties.† â€Å"No, it was the Buddha.† â€Å"Have you ever even seen a picture of the Buddha with shoes on?† Jared asked. Foo couldn't believe he was having this argument. What's more, he couldn't believe he was losing this argument. â€Å"Well, I have some Nikes upstairs that might fit you if you need to change shoes. Let's get the rats unloaded. I have to get to work.† Jared already had four plastic cages with two white rats in each stacked on his lap, so he unfolded himself out of the Honda and wobbled on the red platforms to the fire door of the loft. â€Å"Don't try to paint them black,† Jared said, peering into the Plexiglas boxes as Foo opened the door for him. â€Å"I tried that with my first rat, Lucifer. It was tragic.† â€Å"Tragic?† said Foo. â€Å"I'd have never guessed. Put them on the floor in the living room. I'll borrow the truck from work tomorrow and pick up some folding tables to put them on.† In addition to pursuing his degree in molecular biology, and variously rescuing Abby, formulating vampire serum, and tricking out his Honda, Foo still worked part-time at Stereo City, where he specialized in telling people that they needed a bigger TV. â€Å"You still have that job?† Jared said as he stumbled up the stairs. â€Å"Abby said you guys have total fuck-you money.† Why did she tell him? She wasn't supposed to tell him. Did she tell him everything? Why did she have to have friends at all? She'd given Jared five thousand dollars of Jody and Tommy's money for Hanukkah-despite the fact that neither one of them was Jewish. â€Å"Because I will not let mainstream society make me into the Christmas bitch of the zombie baby-Jebus, that's why,† she'd said. â€Å"And because he helped me take care of the Countess and Lord Flood when they were in trouble.† â€Å"I need to keep my cover,† Foo said. â€Å"For tax purposes.† That was partially true. He did need to keep up his cover, because, like Abby, he hadn't actually told his parents that he'd moved out. They were so used to him being at school, in the lab, or at work, that they hadn't really noticed that he hadn't been sleeping at home. It helped that he had four younger brothers and sisters, who were all carrying insane work and course loads. His parents were all about toil. As long as you were toiling, you were okay. They could smell toil from miles away, or the lack of it. He might be able to get away with living in his own loft with his spooky-sexy girlfriend, and doing bizarre genetic experiments on the undead, but if he quit his job they'd sense it in a second. It took Foo and Jared twenty minutes to get all the rats up the steps and lined up around the living room. â€Å"We're not going to hurt them, are we?† said Jared, holding up one of the plastic cages so he was eye to eye with its occupants. â€Å"We're going to turn them into vampires.† â€Å"Oh, cool. Now?† â€Å"No, not now. For now, you're going to need to feed them and make sure there's a water bottle in each of their cages,† Foo said. â€Å"Then what?† Jared asked, tossing his hair out of his eyes. â€Å"Then you can go home,† said Foo. â€Å"You don't need to observe them full-time until the experiment starts.† â€Å"I can't go home. I told my parents I was staying over at Abby's.† Foo was suddenly horrified at the thought of having to spend the night in the loft with a hundred rats, two bronzed vampires, and Jared. Especially Jared. Maybe he'd go home and leave Jared to watch the rats-make an appearance at home for the parents, so as to throw them off the trail of his non-toiling, loft-living, Anglo-girlfriend lifestyle. â€Å"You can stay here, then,† Foo said. â€Å"I'll be back in the morning.† â€Å"What about them?† Jared nodded toward the bronzed figures of Jody and Tommy. â€Å"What about them?† â€Å"Can I talk to them? I didn't get to finish telling Jody my novel.† Jared had spent a very long night telling Jody the first part of the novel he was going to write, an erotic horror story that starred himself and his pet rat, Lucifer 2. â€Å"Okay,† said Foo. He didn't really like thinking about the two people, well, vampires, but they seemed a lot like people, that he'd helped imprison in a bronze shell. It sort of gave him the willies, and that was highly unscientific. â€Å"But no touching,† he added. Jared pouted and sat down on the futon, about the only spot in the entire living-room-kitchen area not covered with plastic rat cages. â€Å"Okay, but will you help me get these boots off before you go?† Foo shuddered. It had been less than an hour since the cops led Abby away and already he missed her like a severed limb. It was embarrassing. How could hormones and hydrostatic pressure make you feel like this? Love was very unscientific. â€Å"Sorry,† Foo said. â€Å"Gotta jet.† A true hero, the kind Abby accused him of being, he knew, would have helped Jared. JARED Abby Normal had once offered to pay for a tattoo for Jared that read: Danger. Do not administer caffeine without adult supervision. Jared asked, â€Å"Can it be in red? Does it have to be on the forehead? Maybe on the side so I can grow my hair over it if I don't like it. Am I being emo? Do you want to play Blood-feast on Xbox? They have green fur iPod cases at Urban Outfitters. I love white chocolate mochas. Marilyn Manson needs to be dragged to death behind a clown car. Oh fuck, I'm so allergic to this eyeliner I could cry.† Abby said, â€Å"Oh my God, you're like Obnoxious and Annoying had an ass baby!† â€Å"What are you trying to say?† asked Jared. What she had been trying to say, although she didn't know it at the time, was that under no circumstances should Jared be left alone in an apartment with an abundance of time and espresso, which is what Foo had just done. So after feeding, watering, and naming all the rats (most given French names from Abby's copy of Baudelaire's Les Fleurs du Mal), Jared began brewing espressos and was nine demitasse cups into the afternoon when he decided to act out the remainder of his unwritten vampire adventure novel, The Dark of Darkness, for a hundred rats caged in plastic and two vampires encased in bronze. â€Å"So the evil Blood Queen dons her chrome strap-on of death and goes after Lucifer 2. But Jared Whitewolf is on her like a fat kid on a cupcake, parrying her blows with his dagger of death, or Dee Dee, as it is known.† Jared pirouetted, a move he'd learned in ballet class at age six, and slashed the air, low and fast, with the double-edged dagger held backhand so as to sever his imaginary enemy's femoral artery, a move he'd learned in Soul Assassin Five on the Xbox (although it was harder to do while wearing platform boots than it was in the video game). The dagger was real enough, twelve inches of double-edged high-carbon stainless steel with a dragon hilt. Jared carried it because he thought it made him look badass when doormen took it away from him at clubs. â€Å"And he strikes her weapon in half!† he said, leaping and bringing the blade around a little too fast. He turned his ankle, lost his balance, and as he fell, the dagger put a deep nick in the bronze statue. â€Å"Ow!† He sat on the floor holding his ankle and rocking back and forth in the yoga position known as the â€Å"freaked-out half-lotus.† Then he noticed the gash he'd put in the bronze, directly over Jody's right clavicle. â€Å"I'm sorry, Countess,† Jared said, still a little breathless from his battle. â€Å"I didn't mean to hurt you. It's just that I had to save Lucifer 2. You'd do the same thing for Lord Flood if he was in the story.† Jared buffed at the bronze with his sleeve, but the gash was deep and wasn't going to go away with polishing. â€Å"Abby's going to kill me. I'll patch you, Countess. Just hang on. Toothpaste. We used it on the wall that time we drank Abby's mom's vodka and played cross-country darts in her living room. Hang on a minute.† Jared let the heavy dagger drop to the floor, climbed to his feet, winced, then limped off to the bathroom to look for toothpaste. He located a tube of all natural tartar control with baking soda just as the sun dropped under the horizon in the west. Out in the living room, a needle-thin stream of mist began leaking out of the gash he'd made in the bronze statue. Toothpaste probably wouldn't have fixed it. THE ANIMALS In the last two months, the Animals, the night stock crew at the Marina Safeway, had hunted an ancient vampire, blown up his yacht, stolen millions of dollars' worth of art, sold it for pennies on the dollar, spent the remaining hundreds of thousands on gambling and a blue hooker, got turned into vampires, were torn apart by zoo animals, then burned up by sunlamps when they attacked Abby Normal, then turned, by Foo, back into seven guys who stocked shelves at the Safeway and smoked a little too much weed. And as it often is with adventurers, after the adventure, they were feeling a little bored, and a little worried that nothing exciting would ever happen to them again. After you've battled the darkness, then become the darkness, then shagged the darkness, frozen turkey bowling and skiing behind the floor-scrubbing machine just doesn't hold the same thrill. After you've shared a blue prostitute with your buddies to the tune of a half a million dollars, only to have her kill and resurrect you before disappearing into the night, swapping stories of banging babes was a bit of an anticlimax. After all, they worked nights and the oldest of them, Clint, was only twenty-three, so most of their stories were gross exaggerations, wishful thinking, or outright lies anyway. Even crucifying Clint with zip ties on the potato chip rack every other Friday didn't seem fun anymore, and last week they had just left him hanging, thrashing in the Doritos, and went off to stock their aisles before he could even forgive them for knowing not what they did. Tragic, really, to be young, free, and mind-numbingly bored. So when the Emperor of San Francisco came screaming out of the parking lot and slammed, face-first, into the big Plexiglas front window, rattling the Tic Tacs on every register, each of them dropped what he was working on and headed to the front of the store, hoping in their hearts that something outstanding was coming down. The seven, the Animals, stood on one side of the big window, while the Emperor pounded on the other, the royal hounds leaping and barking at his side. â€Å"Maybe we should let him in,† said Clint, curly-haired, born-again, ex-heroin addict who worked cereal, coffee, and juices. â€Å"He seems troubled.† â€Å"S,† said Gustavo, the porter, leaning on his mop. â€Å"Troubled.† â€Å"Seems fucking freaked,† said Drew, the Ichabod-Crane-gaunt master of the frozen food aisle and chief medical officer. â€Å"Totally fucking freaked.† â€Å"What's wrong?† asked Lash, the lean black guy who had become their leader when Tommy was turned into a vampire, largely because he almost had an MBA, but also because he was a black guy and inherently cooler than everyone else. â€Å"Murder, destruction, ravenous creatures of the night, a storm of them,† shouted the Emperor. â€Å"Hurry, please.† â€Å"He always says that,† said Barry, the balding fireplug of a scuba diver who also stocked soap and dog food. â€Å"Well, every time he says it, it's kind of true,† said Jeff, the tall blond ex-power forward with the blown-out knee (baking supplies and international foods). â€Å"I say let him in.† â€Å"Look, the retriever is all bandaged up. Poor guy,† said Troy Lee, their resident martial arts expert who worked the glass aisle. â€Å"Let them in.† â€Å"You just want to roll the little one up in a burrito,† said Lash. â€Å"Yeah, that's right, Lash. Because I'm Chinese, I have a deep-seated need to nosh house pets. Now why don't you let him in before my inner Chinaman forces me to kung-fu your bitch ass.† Because he understood that he was the leader only so long as he told everyone to do what they wanted to do anyway, and because he had had his bitch ass kung-fued in the past and hadn't cared for it, Lash unlocked the door and let the Emperor in. The old man fell into the store when Lash opened the door. Bummer and Lazarus stopped barking and bolted by them, and on toward the back of the store. Jeff and Drew got the Emperor seated on one of the registers and Troy Lee handed him a bottle of water. â€Å"Chill, Your Majesty, we've done this before.† â€Å"Not like this. Not like this,† said the Emperor. â€Å"It's a storm of evil. Lock the door.† Lash rolled his eyes. They really had done this before, and the door being locked or unlocked wasn't going to make much difference if a vampire was following the old man. â€Å"We got your back, Highness,† Lash said. â€Å"Lock the door,† the Emperor moaned, pointing through the window. A fog bank was moving across the parking lot, with rather more intent than one usually expects from a fog bank. A high, yowling screech seemed to come out of the fog in a stream, as if it had been sampled, amplified, and duplicated a thousand times. The Animals moved to the glass. â€Å"Lock the door, Lash,† Clint said. Clint never gave orders. The edge of the fog bank was boiling with shapes, claws, ears, eyes, teeth, tails-cats formed of fog, rolling in a wave over one another, some materializing partially, only to evaporate and roll back into the cloud, their red eyes moving through the cloud like embers out of a firestorm. â€Å"Whoa,† said Drew. â€Å"Whoa,† repeated the others. â€Å"Okay, that is different,† said Troy Lee. â€Å"My friends all over the City are missing,† the Emperor said. â€Å"Street people. They're gone. Just their clothes and gray dust,† the Emperor said. â€Å"The cats are killing everything in their way.† â€Å"That is fucked up,† said Jeff. â€Å"Deeply, deeply fucked up,† said Barry, dragging one of the heavy wooden order dividers off the register and brandishing it like a club. â€Å"Lock the fucking door, Lash!† Clint screamed. â€Å"Jesus hates it when you use the f-word,† said Gustavo, the Mexican porter, who was Catholic and liked to remind Clint when his Jesus was slipping. The fog washed against the window and claw marks etched the Plexiglas instantly to frost, as if it had all been sanded. The noise was like, well, it was like a thousand vampire cats clawing on Plexiglas-it made their teeth hurt. â€Å"Did anyone bring weapons?† Troy Lee asked. â€Å"I brought some weed,† Drew said. A cat's claw of fog crept under the door and raked the toe of Lash's sneaker. He snapped the lock shut, pulled out the key, and backed away. â€Å"Okay, break time,† he said. â€Å"Crew meeting in the walk-in.† JARED Across town, in the bedroom of a fashionable loft, in the fashionable SOMA neighborhood, aspiring rat-shagger, Jared Whitewolf, looked up from rubbing his sore ankle to see a completely naked redhead walk into the room. Her hair hung to her waist in a great curling cape, framing her figure, which was perfect and as white as a marble statue. She held Jared's double-edged dagger in her right hand. Jared backed up onto the bed in a reverse crab walk. â€Å"I, I, I, it, it, it-Abby made me-â€Å" â€Å"Chill, Scissorhands,† Jody said. â€Å"You'd better find some of those blood bags of Steve's fast, unless you'd like to finish high school as a pile of greasy dust. Countess is thirsty.†

Saturday, November 9, 2019

Formalism vs Substantivism

The Disembedded economy Why might Polanyi claim that disembedded economies are less stable than embedded ones? Does a market society require a certain level of insecurity for its members? How might people find a disembedded economy empowering? Can there be such a thing as a ‘pure’ market society? Is ‘marketization’ a helpful concept with which to understand contemporary capitalism? Industrial capitalism and machines etc were all part of the establishment of the market economy. The motive of subsistence must become one of gain. The merchant makes his profits on the market and prices are allowed to regulate themselves.Such a self-regulating system of markets is what we call a market economy. The transformation to this system is like the metamorphis of a caterpillar- so stark that it is almost not like a continuous process. Machines in a society transform nature into a commodity. Dalton on Polanyi: Material self-gain is institutionally enforced In traditional b ands the institutions through which goods were produced and distributed wer embedded in an inseperable part of social institutions, and the economy functioned as by product of kinship political and religious obligations and relationships. economy’ is not a field of experience of which humans have always been aware. Primitive societies are gemeinchaften not gesellshaften. Hunger is not an incentive for production. Classical economics and Marxist socialism came from the industrial revolution. Laissez faire capitalism was created in response to the need for machine technology Burling Economics deals with the material means to man’s existence: Does the good have to be ‘material’ in order to be in the realm of economic? Price of a ticket or the cost of someone’s wages are not material yet are economic.We economize between material and non material ends. Do I work overtime in order to afford myself a DVD or do I refuse the overtime and have more leisure t ime at home with my family? Polanyi makes the distinction between economics in the substantive sense that’s material, and in the formal sense- rationalizing and calculating. Polanyi says that because we have the market these two aspects come together but they wouldn’t in a primitive economy. Primitives economize too. The materialness is irrelevant.Economics is the distribution of goods and services: But not any goods and services, only economic ones†¦ which makes this statement useless. If its to do with price systems then some societies don’t have economics. ‘Economics is the allocation of scarce means to multiple ends’ Draws parralells with Freud and maximizing by sacrificing pleasure for future gain. We need to escape the notion of economic as involved with the material , in order to move on with the discussions. Cook ‘Love distorts indeed, but hate distorts even more’Substantivist theory built around the market and pre-market s ocieties. Now the pre-market societies are almost extinct. Dalton- the section being dominated by the market principle is becoming enlarged. Bohannan- transitional and peasant economies are mentioned. Frank knight and merville herskovitz debate- herskovitz didn’t understand the economic man. Romantic anti-market syndrome Polanyi-primitive societies, reciprocity and redistribution- alledgedly a conflict-free model. Le Clair- why is there a felt need for a substantivist definition of economics.Polanyi and Dalton- scarcity is solely a function of social organization Anti market ideology. Go against the scientific method of enquiry- test and dismiss Dalton Economic theory cannot be applied to primitive economies Economic theory was influenced by factory industrialism and market organization. The market continues outside of market places in the west It is market organization that compels its participants to seek material self-gain: each must sell something of market value to acqui re the material means of existence.Back in the 19th century the economy was a cohesive entity apart from other subsystems in society. Neither government, family or religion controlled market organization. They did obviously affect supply and demand though (eg more fish in catholic countries). When market organization is economy wide it creates a market society in the sense that social organization has to adapt to market needs to allow the sustained provision of material goods and of money incomes with which to acquire goods. A market economy can only exist in a market society†¦ society itself is subordinated to the laws of the market’- Polanyi (e. g when labourers wages drop they look for work elsewhere and migrate, so location of population conforms to market registered needs for labour) The market economy is highly decentralized, and this reinforces the atomistic view of society as simply an aggregate of self-interested individuals. William Townsend- hunger makes peopl e workMalthus- natural fertility of humans makes food scarce and population growth brought about wages. Man’s existence requires material sustenance, but not unlimited wants, this is product of social organization. Economic in the substantive sense ‘provision of material goods which satisfy biological and social wants’. Economic in the formalist sense is described by the terms ‘economical’ and ‘economizing’. Denotes a set of rules designed to maximize the achievement of some end or to minimize the expenditure of some means.Substantivists believe that all places have an economy, but formalists believe that all places economize. In primitive economies people do not want profit. Where money is used in a primitive economy, it is not all-purpose money. -cattle/bridewealth. Market economy is unicentric because of the wide variety of material items and labour transacted in the sphere of market exchange. In contrast, primitive economy is multice ntric and the dominant centres are organized through nonmarket patterns of intergration such as reciprocity and redistribution.What is a money economy to an anthropologist appears as a market economy to an economist. In primitive economy the basic institutional precondition is absent, the bulk of material income is not derived from, and therefore does not depend on market sales of output. Firth in NG-There is no final measure of the value of individual things, and you can’t make everything have a value in relation to one thing as there are many types of exchange.In primitive societies there are no penalties for non-repayment of loans. Primitive economy is different from market industrialism not in degree but in kind. Cancian Considers the two sides of the argument Formalists- even if a man is maximizing using only the scarcity of his human energy it is still maximizing. So he is economizing. It’s wrong to reject the strategy before trying to balance the equation. Burli ng-economic anthropology should be the search for the multiple actors that people maximize. t

Thursday, November 7, 2019

How To Research Latino Ancestry and Genealogy

How To Research Latino Ancestry and Genealogy Indigenous in areas from the southwestern United States to the southern tip of South America and from the Philippines to Spain, Hispanics are a diverse population. From the small country of Spain, tens of millions of Spaniards have emigrated to Mexico, Puerto Rico, Central and South America, Latin America, North America, and Australia. Spaniards settled the Caribbean islands and Mexico more than a century before the English settled Jamestown in 1607. In the United States, Hispanics settled in Saint Augustine, Florida, in 1565 and in New Mexico in 1598. Often, a search for Hispanic ancestry leads ultimately to Spain but is likely that a number of family generations settled in the countries of Central America, South America or the Caribbean. Also, as many of these countries are considered melting pots, it is not uncommon that many individuals of Hispanic descent will not only be able to trace their family tree back to Spain, but also to locations such as France, Germany, Italy, Eastern Europe, Africa, and Portugal. Begin at Home If youve spent any time researching your family tree, this may sound cliche. But the first step in any genealogy research project is, to begin with, what you know - yourself and your direct ancestors. Scour your home and ask your relatives for birth, death and marriage certificates; old family photos; immigration documents, etc. Interview every living relative that you can find, being sure to ask open-ended questions. See 50 Questions for Family Interviews for ideas. As you collect information, be sure to organize the documents into notebooks or binders, and enter the names and dates into a pedigree chart or genealogy software program. Hispanic Surnames Most Hispanic countries, including Spain, have a unique naming system in which children are commonly given two surnames, one from each parent. The middle name (1st surname) comes from the fathers name (apellido paterno), and the last name (2nd surname) is the mothers maiden name (apellido materno). Sometimes, these two surnames may be found separated by y (meaning and), although this is no longer as common as it once was. Recent changes to laws in Spain mean that you may also find the two surnames reversed - first the mothers surname, and then the fathers surname. Women also retain their maiden name when they get married, making it much easier to track families through multiple generations. Know Your History Knowing the local history of the places where your ancestors lived is a great way to speed up your research. Common immigration and migration patterns may provide clues to your ancestors country of origin. Knowing your local history and geography will also help you determine where to look for the records of your ancestors, as well as provide some great background material for when you sit down to write your family history. Find Your Familys Place of Origin Whether your family now lives in Cuba, Mexico, the United States or another country, the goal in researching your Hispanic roots is to use the records of that country to trace your family back to the country of origin. Youll need to search through public records of the place where your ancestors lived, including the following major record sources: Church RecordsThe records of the Roman Catholic church represent one of the best sources for locating a Hispanic familys place of origin. Local parish records in Hispanic Catholic parishes include sacramental records such as baptisms, marriages, deaths, burials, and confirmations. Particularly valuable are marriage records, in which the town of origin is frequently documented for the bride and groom. Many of these records are kept in Spanish, so you may find this Spanish Genealogical Word List to be helpful in translation. A vast majority of these Hispanic parish records have been microfilmed by the Family History Library in Salt Lake City and you can borrow the ones you need through your local Family History Center. You may also be able to obtain copies by writing directly to the local parish where your ancestors lived.Civil or Vital RecordsCivil registration is the record kept by local governments of the births, marriages, and deaths within their jurisdictions. These records provid e excellent sources for information such as the names of family members, dates of important events and, possibly, the familys place of origin. In the United States, more recent vital records are usually maintained at the state level. In general, civil records date back to the early 1900s in the United States; 1859 in Mexico; 1870s-1880s in most Central and South American countries; and 1885 in Puerto Rico. Civil or vital records are typically kept at the local (town, village, county or municipal) level in the local court, municipal office, county office or Civil Registry office. Many have also been microfilmed by the Family History Library (see church records). Immigration RecordsA number of immigration sources, including passenger lists, border crossing records, and naturalization and citizenship records, are also useful for identifying the place of origin of an immigrant ancestor. For early Spanish emigrants, the Archivo General de Indias in Seville, Spain, is the repository for Spanish documents dealing with the Spanish colonial period (1492-1810) in the Americas. These documents often include the birthplace of each individual recorded. Ship arrivals and passenger lists provide the best documentation of immigrants who came to the Americas after the middle of the nineteenth century. These records, kept at major North, Central, and South American ports, can usually be found in the National Archives of the country in question. Many are also available on microfilm through your local family history center. Tracing your Hispanic roots may, eventually, lead you to Spain, where genealogical records are among the oldest and best in the world.

Tuesday, November 5, 2019

Anna Pavlova Quotes on Happiness, Success,Dance, Life

Anna Pavlova Quotes on Happiness, Success,Dance, Life Anna Pavlova was trained in classic ballet, and while she helped transform the classical ballet by her lighter, more natural style, she did not go outside the classic forms as did her contemporary, Isadore Duncan. Anna Pavlova is especially remembered for her portrayal of a swan in The Dying Swan and Swan Lake. Selected Anna Pavlova Quotations The right to happiness is fundamental. When a small child, I thought that success spelled happiness. I was wrong, happiness is like a butterfly which appears and delights us for one brief moment, but soon flits away. To follow without halt, one aim; there is the secret of success. And success? What is it? I do not find it in the applause of the theater. It lies rather in the satisfaction of accomplishment. What exactly is success? For me it is to be found not in applause, but in the satisfaction of feeling that one is realizing ones ideal. Master technique and then forget about it and be natural. As is the case in all branches of art, success depends in a very large measure upon individual initiative and exertion, and cannot be achieved except by dint of hard work. No one can arrive from being talented alone, work transforms talent into genius. God gives talent. Work transforms talent into genius. Although one may fail to find happiness in theatrical life, one never wishes to give it up after having once tasted its fruits. [Last words of Anna Pavlova] Get my swan costume ready. Then Play that last measure softly. More About Anna Pavlova Anna Pavlova BiographyBiographies: Women in Dance About These Quotes Quote collection assembled by Jone Johnson Lewis. Each quotation page in this collection and the entire collection  © Jone Johnson Lewis. This is an informal collection assembled over many years. I regret that I am not be able to provide the original source if it is not listed with the quote.

Sunday, November 3, 2019

Article critique Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words - 7

Article critique - Essay Example rticle discusses clearly the results of the research, noting that there are still a good number of parents who are not well-informed about oral hygiene. For instance, it has been found out that the use of the right amount of toothpaste is not followed by most children. The researchers find this as important information because the chemical contents of toothpastes can be harmful especially for children who have high tendencies of swallowing instead of spitting out the toothpaste. Moreover, they also discovered that not many parents teach their children to floss. Other negative discoveries include the lack of knowledge regarding the importance of every meal and adding more fruits and vegetables in children’s diet. However, parents appear to be well-informed about the ill-effects of fruit juices and other sugary drinks and foods and they also encourage their children to brush their teeth at least twice a day. The article covered all the necessary information about the study and a ll the issues regarding oral hygiene and the participation of parents/guardians have been addressed. The information given is relevant and the interpretation of data is complete and accurate, giving a clear picture of the result gathered from the