Contemporary Rural America Captured in Rip Van Winkle and The Legend of

Contemporary Rural America Captured in Rip Van Winkle and The Legend of Sleepy Hollow Most Americans probably believe our times are different from Washington Irving’s era. After all, almost 200 years have passed, and the differences in technology and civil liberties alone are huge. However, these dissimilarities seem merely surface ones. When reading â€Å"Rip Van Winkle† and â€Å"The Legend of Sleepy Hollow,† I find that the world Irving creates in each story is very familiar to the one in which I grew up. The players may have changed, and institutions have mostly replaced roles traditionally taken on by people, but the overall pieces still fit the rural lifestyle of contemporary America. Perhaps the biggest variation from life in these stories and life today in the small town concerns the role of the Van Tassels. As the prominent family in Sleepy Hollow, they serve as the social center. Baltus Van Tassel has more the air of an English country squire during harvest time than he does an American farmer. He is hearty, down to earth, and full of largesse (â€Å"Sleepy Hollow† 549, 556-557). The â€Å"’quilting frolic’† (553) is really a potluck dance. This type of community gathering continued throughout American history in rural areas. We have barn-raisings, fall festivals, holiday celebrations. However, the nature of the gatherings has changed in that the role of the prominent family now goes to the city or civic groups (such as a church). Rural America still has wealthy families and farmers, but rarely do they open their homes to the community for dancing and potlucks. The closest we still see of this is the ranch barbeque , but the outside nature makes it far less intimate. In my experience, these events are... ...ture of King George in â€Å"Rip Van Winkle.† Rip returns to his village twenty years after he left and realizes that someone has transformed the King into George Washington (541). Irving, realizing that much of life is merely a refashioning of the same ideas and structures into something that looks new, has taken an old German folk tale and turned it into a story of American life. We may live in a time with vastly different resources, technologies, and opportunities, but the urges that drive us are still the same. Works Cited Irving, Washington. â€Å"The Legend of Sleepy Hollow.† The American Tradition in Literature. Vol 1. Eds. George Perkins, et al. 7th ed. New York: McGraw-Hill, 1990: 544-563. 2 vols. ---. â€Å"Rip Van Winkle.† The American Tradition in Literature. Vol 1. Eds. George Perkins, et al. 7th ed. New York: McGraw-Hill, 1990: 533-544. 2 vols.

Energy Development and Electricity Usage Essay

Electricity consumption is something we do out of habit and unintentionally. We develop our habits based on our needs, hobbies, works, entertainment and enjoyments. We never really aware of how much we use daily and how much the source of energy is left in this world. We are named as screen generation, it means we all depending on electronic stuffs to complete and help us out in our daily life. We use air-con, television, refrigerator, fan, lamps, iron more over we use electricity to charge our gadgets those we probably have more than one like phone, laptop, tablet etc. We never really care about where the energy came from and are we wasting it? Main energy source is fossil fuels including coal, oil and natural gas. Many of us are uninformed about this main source of energy and how much we can take from the world. We barely know how much the world spent fossil fuels yearly to fulfill our electricity needs. The main problem here is fossil fuels are un-renewable. It takes millions of years for them to be formed and ready to use. Based on a high energies usage in this world, we need an alternative energy source to support our needs without exploiting our main source fossil fuels. We do have an alternative energy support like wind power, solar energy and moving water energy. Recent alternative energy source is nuclear energy. Those alternatives proven to be ineffective because they barely fulfilled energy needs. A natural consequence of overusing energy is increased costs for us. This can come in the form of fuel and energy bills; we will be paying more without an appreciable return on your investment. We may also risk lowering the expected lifespan of appliances and other electronics. When we have to replace spent devices, we further impact the environment by generating waste and purchasing replacement equipment. Our wise use of electricity, therefore, can translate into long-term savings in energy bills and also reduce the need for other purchases. Singapore energy support depends on natural gas imported by Indonesia and Malaysia. Due to Singapore lacks of natural resources Singapore has to be a depending country. Singapore’s energy support 80% imported from both Indonesia and Malaysia and 51% of it came from fossil fuels. The unawareness of public and lack of information lead me to develop this project. Not only to improve ourselves but also to provide for our next generation. Creative objective The aim of this project is to raise people’s awareness about the overused of electricity in Singapore household to reduce usage of electricity in their daily activities and to educate people about the effect to the earth. This campaign will make people take an action to against global warming that already happened in our earth. Cultural Context The project would be based in Singapore household electricity usage. Singapore is a well-developed country with a high numbers of citizens and resulting in high level of electricity usage, Singapore is a busy city that can make a lot of energy to support their industry, household, office, shopping mall and etc. Singapore doesn’t have own source energy, but Singapore had a good government that can manage their citizens’ energy usage with a small land but big populations. Singapore gets the energy from neighbor countries such as Malaysia and Indonesia. Households and industries in Singapore used a record amount of electricity in 2010 – the highest monthly usage in the last seven years. Economic activities have grown in the commercial and industrial sectors, which account for 75 per cent of the energy consumption. That why, because Singapore is a busy city, the people can handle their habits from overused electricity. Target market/Audience This campaign will focus on household, because at home that’s the first habit that people/families did. The primary will be parents because the parents are the people who make the rules or play an important role in the home. The secondary will be the youth/teenagers because they must know how/about saving electricity to save the earth as generations this day and for the future. Geographical: †¢ Singapore Demographic: †¢ Male & Female †¢ Family / Domestic Household †¢ Age Group: – Parents (25 – 45) – Teenagers (12 – 20) – Children (6 – 11) – Elderly (60+) †¢ Middle to High-income range Psychographic: †¢ Parents. †¢ Working people, fast-paced lifestyle, rarely stay at home. †¢ High-tech people †¢ Teenagers who like to play computer, electronic games. †¢ People who would like to know more about saving electricity. * * SWOT Strength: †¢ Can reduce the effect of electricity usage to the earth. †¢ People can learn more how to save the electricity and their money. †¢ People in Singapore can learn more environmentally friendly. Weakness: †¢ People still ignoring about the overuse of electricity †¢ Most people not well informed about the effect of overuse electricity. Opportunities: †¢ To gain support and to educate the public †¢ To remember the public about savings electricity with campaign that already done in Singapore. †¢ To spread the actual information about the cost and the solution to minimize electricity usage in Singapore. Threats: †¢ Public behavioral change †¢ Public mind set change * Deliverables This campaign will feature a print advertising that is a poster series that supported by the government, web design for this campaign, and also an application for smart phone as a consideration. Success measure These campaigns will success if people start take action to minimize the electricity. When people start prioritize electricity savings and when the number of electricity usage in Singapore show that the number are decreasing by changing Singaporeans behavior.

A Sense of Belonging Essay

â€Å"Ð  sense of belonging† is a book that nobody should miss! It provides students with the opportunity to examine different writing models and techniques while raising their awareness of different issues such as racial discrimination and racial abuse. Many of my friends found it interesting to read and could not stop reading the whole book although we were told to finish only four stories and only stopped flipping and reading till the last page! I personally find the book worth a read and would like to recommend it to all the secondary 3 and 4 students. Stories in the book include â€Å"a sense of belonging† and â€Å"The Test† which are about racial differences and a lady that was very mindful of her race. It does not merely elaborate on racial discrimination which can be very common but also tells us to be more sensitive towards other people and to be aware of our actions, as our words have the ability to hurt others. This is especially applicable to students of our age as we often meet friends of different races in school, and it reminds us that we should be considerate to others â€Å"The limits of trooghaft† highlights the plight of animals as humans are being treated the way we treat animals during the period of time we dominated the world. It serves as a reminder for us to put ourselves in others’ shoes and also consider the fact that animals have feelings and should not be abused like the way many are being treated now because animals have their own rights. This is a relatively important value in life that people need to constantly reinforce, so that we do not end up treating other people the way we do not want them to treat us. â€Å"a sound of thunder† talks about small mistakes leading to dire consequences and reminds us not to neglect the small details in life, because they can be important as well. After reading the book I personally found these four stories very inspiring and interesting. They allowed me to understand more about the common issues and problems faced, while learning moral values and reflecting on my daily life as we can easily relate to some of the stories in the book The important messages and lessons I learnt were invaluable to me and will accompany me for the rest of my life. Therefore I would strongly recommend this book to all upper secondary students as it can help them approach then own writing with more confidence and understanding, while teaching them life values at the same time.

Human relations case study Essay

1. Chapter 7 distinguished between transformational, charismatic, and transactional leadership theories; which one of these best describes Kevin Plank? Explain and support your answer. Kevin Plank displays more of the transformational leadership theory. In each presentation that Plank presents he refers to passion, vision, and people. He had the passion to start up with a new product and to go up against a giant like Nike. He has the passion to build a great product and continue to make it better. The people, his team, are the backbone of his company. There is a trust between himself and his team members that carries over into the work that is expected to be performed. 2. What is the evidence in the case that job enrichment is a key part of the way work is done at Under Armour? At Under Armour, employees are known as teammates. They have a â€Å"get-it-done† attitude, no matter what obstacles stand in their way. Solutions to any problems are expected to be resolved with full support from the team. Under Armour has made the teammates have certain responsibilities and expectations of the work to be performed. They form natural working groups and they give the teammates more autonomy with the responsibilities that are set forth. 3. Go to the internet and look up â€Å"Good leadership traits†. In your opinion, what traits make a person a good leader? In my opinion, the traits I think of that make a person a good leader are honesty and integrity. No one can respect someone that lies and puts his or her needs first over others. It is important to have good morals and ethics. Another leadership trait that is important is communication. A leader has to know how to communicate with his or her employees. A good leader has good communication style and will recognize the need to be open to change with their style on an as need basis. It is also important to be able to listen  to others to get their insight. A positive attitude is also important. 4. Who is the best leader you know and why? The person that I consider the best leader that I personally know would be my mother. She started out at 16 with me. She has held two jobs in her lifetime and receives a great deal of respect from her supervisors, employees and peers. She worked her way up from dishwasher in the dietary department with no skills and only her GED. Now she is one of the main supervisors for Mercy Rehabilitation services. She has shown that with hard work and determination that someone can advance and move forward. She has always spoken to her employees with respect. She went to school through online courses to receive the necessary degrees to advance. She possess honest and integrity, she has her goals set and the drive and desire to attain those goals. She will work right alongside her employees scrubbing dirt off the ground if need be.

Juvenile Death Penalty Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Juvenile Death Penalty - Essay Example Rehabilitation of juveniles is the main aim of the juvenile justice system not imprisoning and punishing them as majority of us think. Juvenile courts are closed to the public unlike the normal proceedings that are open to the public. Juvenile court proceedings are sealed hence no one see them and they are later on destroyed when the juvenile reaches between the age of eighteen and twenty one years. In law, the news media are not usually supposed to report the name of the minor involved in a criminal proceedings. Unlike the adults' status, the minors' status has special penalties, restrictions and protection. In many western countries, the rights and status of minors is compared to the state of women and racial minorities before they acquired equal right. United States and Somalia have not ratified the United Nations Convection on the rights of the child like all other members states of the United Nations. The News Hour with Jim Lehrer presented a debate on the decision of the Supreme Court ruling to ban death penalty of murderers of under the age of eighteen years. The debate was held on March 1, 2005 the same day the ruling was made. It was presented by Gwen Ifill as she hosted Jan Crawford Greenburg - The Chicago Tribune.

Case Study Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words - 12

Case Study Example In addition, the company has taken an initiative that basically involves construction of schools and hospitals in the areas where victims of the fire inhabit. This approach can be regarded as corporate social responsibility; it is an imperative approach that has been employed by many major companies overtime and has been associated with various benefits i.e. improving company-clientele relationship et cetera. Taking an analysis of the actions that were taken by the government, it is apparent that they were basically geared towards promoting healthy and safe modes of production in the garment industry. The approach taken by the government that basically involved gradual implementation of safety rules is appropriate. This is due to the fact that the process of implementing rules is usually performed on a gradual basis, as institutions require substantial amount of time to adapt to new rules. However, the major mistake that was made by the government arises from the fact that, the rules should have been formulated and implemented before beginning production processes in the garment

Market for Condoms Thesis Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 4750 words

Market for Condoms - Thesis Example Like every other European country, Belgian population has a deep concern about having a safe sex. They do not want to plunge in the Sexually Transmitted Diseases (STD’s) or to end up being a patient of HIV/AIDS. With this increased concern, there has been an increase in the condom market. There has been an increased awareness amongst the Belgians regarding the use of condoms to have a safe sex. Not only the locales but also the immigrants are exposed to STD’s and HIV. Awareness about condom use is also created amongst these people who are not so aware about it before (PARKER, P. M. 2006; FOX, M. P. 2000; COLLIER, A. 2007) Belgium is a very liberal country. It is the 2nd country in the world to legalize the same-sex marriages. It has given equal rights to the lesbians, gays and bisexuals. The use of condoms in Belgium is very common. Currently, in the year 2011, it has a total population of 10,431,477 (Population Labs 2011) 66.3% of the Belgian population comprises of males and females who lay within the age bracket of 15 years to 65 years. The sex ratio of 1.02 suggests that there are more males in the population than the females who lay within the age bracket of 15-65 years. And it is under this age bracket where the target market of â€Å"WITH† lies. There are a huge number of gays and lesbians living in Belgium. ... Other important stats that can be of use are the population of Belgium over the several years up till now. The trend of population can help to deduce that with increasing population, it is likely that the number of gays and lesbians have also increased. The following statistical graph will show this trend. After 2003, there has been an increasing trend in the population of Belgium. In 2011 it has the highest population. This leads to a fact that increase in population has given rise to more gays and lesbians and thus the market for condoms has increased. There are more people than before who are condom users. So it is evident that there is a huge market of condoms in Belgium (CIA 2010) Part of this huge market are also the people who have been exposed to HIV infection but have yet not developed the symptoms of AIDS (FORBES 2009) These people also form a large part of the condom users as they want to protect their partners and themselves against this dangerous infection. The following statistical figure will help to determine the people living in Belgium who are carrying the HIV virus. In 2011 the number of people carrying HIV virus have decreased. This may be due to increased precautionary measures taken by the consumers against the STD’s (CIA 2010) There is large market for condoms because they are easy to use than any other contraceptive measure and has no side effects at all. Teenagers also represent a huge chunk of the condom market. Condoms are mostly used by the teenagers as measure to prevent teenage pregnancy rather than a protection measure (HYDE, M. O. 2006) Competition in the condom industry of Belgium is fairly high. There are already well established brands like