Traffick :: essays papers

Traffick This saga of the so-called "war" on drugs is a masterwork of superb performance, smart writing--and, most of all, the mark of a director who not only knows what he wants, but also exactly how to make his ambitious vision a glorious reality. Unlike most multicharacter pastiches, such as the ones made by Robert Altman, or Paul Thomas Anderson's Magnolia, the characters of Traffic's three tales don't constantly crisscross, nor are they all brought together by a big event. Intersections are rare in Traffic, and the junctions that do occur are often fleeting. Yet the stories are strongly linked by their greater thematic concern: to vividly illustrate how the drug problem touches all corners of the country, all walks of life, from people on the harsh urban streets to those in lavish upper-class neighborhoods. Soderbergh and writer Stephen Gaghan, working from the '80s British miniseries Traffik, steadfastly refuse to force easy, comforting conclusions from difficult and complex situat ions; as in real life, one is left to decide for oneself who or what is right, and what it all means. While Traffic is essentially about the war on drugs in America, the film's starting point is the almost-exclusively south-of-the-border (and nearly-completely Spanish-language) story of Javier Rodriguez (Benicio Del Toro, doing away with his annoying tics and delivering a career performance), an average Tijuana State policeman who is given the opportunity for greater prestige by working for General Salazar's (Tomas Milian) efforts against the drug cartels. Just north of the border in San Diego is the setting for another thread, in which very pregnant European à ©migrà © Helena Ayala (Catherine Zeta-Jones, her real-life condition adding a deeper layer to her role) learns that the pampered lifestyle provided by husband Carlos (Steven Bauer) comes from dabblings in drugs, not legit business ventures. The film also travels a bit northwest to Cincinnati, the third central locale, where Caroline (Erika Christensen), the teenage daughter of newly-appointed U.S. drug czar Robert Wakef ield (Michael Douglas), brings her father's enemy much closer to home than he could have ever imagined. Soderbergh effortlessly weaves the individual strands into a tapestry that is at once cohesive and characterized by its contrasting colors. The latter can be taken in a literal sense--Soderbergh, under the pseudonym "Peter Andrews" (his father's name), shot the film himself, and he gave each part of the film its own distinct look: grainy, washed-out yellow for Mexico; a solemn blue sheen for Cincinnati; sun-drenched full color for San Diego.

Environmental factors effecting motor skill development Essay

Child development is defined as to how a child ables itself to complete more difficult tasks as they grow in age. Development is often confused with growth, which refers to a child’s tendency to grow bigger in size. Parents can become concerned easily when a child’s developmental skills take longer then the â€Å"normal† or when pressures of milestones are not satisfied â€Å"on time†. Developmental milestones are functioning tasks or skills that should occur at specific ages. Observing what specific environmental factors influence the development of motor skills in the infant and toddler stages and how that compares to my findings of the children I personally documented, is what will be discussed. I searched for other scholars who have current information and academic research of similar topics finding information that was both, similar as to my own research concluding a main point that the environment of these children have an effect on how they will lea rn. A common topic that has been analyzed in these journals is Gross motor skill development. It is a specific factor that plays a crucial role in the child’s overall development and of course combined with the environment in which the child is confined to has a profound effect to the development of these motor skills (newton 2008) . The aim of this study was focusing on the two main environmental factors affecting children motor development. Looking over the articles it reveals that there are many particular factors within the family details such as socioeconomic status, mother’s educational level, relationships with family and the existence of siblings can also affect a child’s motor ability, Preschools also have became an infuencial part of development for all children but also can be a detriment to a child’s development by not attending, due to the simple fact that nowadays large amounts of time children spend at them so by not having a child go through li fe with preschool would set them back as far as motor development goes. The social-cultural background where a child is brought up from, creates specific demands for his/her motor behavior. Read more: Influences that affect children’s development essay This thought can go with the fact that movement programs are very important for the development as well, such as physical education, especially if the social-cultural environment that the child is in does not require them to be very active. If the child is not pushed or has no motivation to do these  obstacles, that are often taken for granted, then can cause a long term even life altering issue down the road. These are all the â€Å"social norms† nowadays with children. It is becoming incredibly competitive to get into colleges and other type of educational programs and it all starts from these crucial infant years where all these environmental factors that the family contributes too have a say in what a child will be like as it develops. Many of these environments are expected and often not over looked or analyzed by parents due to the reason that the child is so young that these things don’t have an impact on them yet. That is false, the first five years of a child’s life are the most important in developing these motor skills for the rest of their life, and that is a fact that is not looked at close enough by parents. This is a huge developmental problem that has been happening for ever and now that there is studies and documentation proving that this here is correct, it needs to be and is being put into action. All of the environmental factors have some way played a role in the children I observed lives but because of the limited length of paper I will discuss the two most obvious influences. This purpose of this paper is to document the environment that infants and toddlers are in and describe how these environmental factors have affected them. To begin I observed a toddler and an infant but both of the same family. The two children are different ages but similar environments and upbringings. I observed the children in there home environment looking at the situation as a Mother-child interaction first then I observed the sibling vs sibling interactions that the children tended to take a like too. I continued to follow the children on and off for two weeks at different locations and got the opportunity to observe the toddler and infant in both of these settings. At each observation site I sat with a notepad and jotted down how they interacted under these three circumstances and noted of the surroundings environments each time I observed. At the end I had a lot of notes and information to choose from, but the way that I chose what information to use was by organizing my no tes into my three main cases then divided them into infant and toddler. All the situations that most frequently happened for each child i used as conclusive information and discarded the minor details. The majority of the two weeks of observing the infant under these two cases my evidence appeared to be quite on point with other researchers studies. To begin, the mother-infant relationship (parent-child). WIthin my study I found when playing with each other the infant was much more responsive to this one on one play then a group of people. What I noticed was the child did not do as much looking and observing like statistics show or as he did in the other cases. seven out of fifteen times the mother demonstrated what I wanted the infant to do, that involved a motor skill, most of the time picking up a block or a toy car, the child attempted the action after watching the mother demonstrate. What I noticed of those fifteen times all seven of the successful tries were because it was right in front of him. if it was far away he would try with a different object that was closest to him and wouldn’t even notice that he was using a different toy. As for the toddler he payed much closer attention but on the contrary of his fifteen attempts he actually cared that he used the same exact object as his mom. For him I used a test involving throwing of a ball. His mother would throw the ball using different styles such as over the head, two hand, one had, and under arm. Eight of the fifteen attempts the toddler successfully mimicked the motor skill of which hand to use and the style in which the mom threw it, which was very surprising in this case for the reason that this usually does not develop until five or six years of age. The next case I observed was the sibling vs sibling. typically we think of the mother to be seen as the leader to specific child development. However, when the child has siblings the situation becomes much more influenced. (circirelli 1975). A child’s position in the family or sex even of the sibling has a huge influence on the interactions they have. The environment used was once again the home setting but the family has there own jungle gym outside in the backyard. I used this play set to see if these sibling influences can play a role in development of specific skills . Studies have shown that, irrespective of the age difference among the children of the family, the elder siblings lead the youngers’ behaviour (circirelli 1975) and those in turn imitate elders’ movements (abramovitch et al. 1979: Lamb 1978). As I continued my research outside I watched and studied how they  were interacting. The younger infant, surprisingly can walk at his age of sixteen mont hs old. There was a set of stairs that the toddler was walking up to get to the top of the gym and eventually slide down the slide to only continue the process over and over again. The infant continued to watch and observe for about fifteen minutes with no signs of him motivated to make a move or give it a try. To our surprise the infant began pointing and mumbling as if he wanted to make an attempt. He was brought over to the play set, climbing up the steps and eventually we got him to go down the slide. He held his hands on the railings same position as where she did as if he was copying her techniques exact and the influence of his big sister took effect. This whole process took about twenty- twenty five minutes but once he tried it one time, the infant, like his toddler sister continued to doing the routine using similar if not the same route. All in all he was hesitant, the infant waited, studied, and then slowly analyzed the process as he did it for his first time, and then continued to go on with the process as his big sister had been. The infant and the toddler both have demonstrated there developing gross motor skills. These skills are coordinated with many other parts of the body such as the legs and arms and the ability to notice what one is doing and mimic the other is all part of the development of the these physical abilities of large body movements ( Berger, 2009). Reference section 1.) kambas, A. (2009). environmental factors affecting preschoolers motor development. 2.) Infants learn about objects from statistics and people. By: Wu, Rachel, Gopnik, Alison, Richardson, Daniel C., Kirkham, Natasha Z., Developmental Psychology, 00121649, 20110901, Vol. 47, Issue 5 3.) Research Institute MOVE, Faculty of Human Movement Sciences, VU University, Amsterdam, the Netherlands Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, VU University Medical Centre, Amsterdam, the Netherlands. 4.)nicholson, T. (2010, june 2). What can a one year old do?. Retrieved from http://t-nicholson.suite101.com/what-can-a-one-year-old-do-a244085 5.)Developmental Science; Nov2009, Vol. 12 Issue 6, p1060-1069, 10p, 3 Charts, 4 Graphs

An Inspector Calls Essay

I am writing to you about a film I would like you to play a part in. It’s called An Inspector Calls, it is set in Brumley, an industrial city in the north midlands, 1912. The play is about a young woman named Eva Smith who commits suicide after an unfortunate line of events. An inspector talks to the whole family one by one as they are all involved one way or another. Priestley was trying to show his audience that we can not go on being self obsessed and should think how our actions affect other people. He uses the Birling family as an example of a capitalistic family in the upper class in 1912, who had no care for other people. Shelia is a pretty girl 22 years old, she doesn’t have a job as her parents (Mr. Arthur Birling and Mrs. Sybil Birling) are quite well off. In act one Shelia beings the play as a self-centred and likes attention. She recently got engaged. When she is first shown the picture of Eva Smith she recognises her with a little cry and then runs out of the room, as she is upset that she played a part in an innocent girls death. Shelia first met Eva when she was at Milwards to try on some dresses for a party she was going to. As she tried on a gorgeous dress she caught sight of Eva ( who was working at Milwards at the time, as a shop assistant ) she saw Eva smiling at the other shop assistant as if to say † doesn’t it look awful â€Å". This just made Shelia loose her temper, as she was already in a bad mood that day, so she went straight to the manger and told him this girl had to be sacked otherwise her and her mother would close their account with them. She wouldn’t have cared, its just Eva was so pretty with her big dark eyes, and the dress looked perfect on her. She was just jealous of Eva and acted out of jealously and petty spite. Sheila almost respects the Inspector’s way of handling things and begins to see the world according to his values. She was rather concerned for Eva and couldn’t believe she partly caused her suicide also she was genuinely upset about the death of Eva and how she was involved. During the second act she learns of everyone else’s involvement in the case. When she sees Gerald’s reaction to the name Daisy Renton she knows straight away that Gerald had some history with the girl. Gerald says that Shelia only wants to watch him being asked questions so she can watch some one else go through it, this obviously offends her and she questions whether Gerald really knows her. She hears Gerald’s questioning and soon finds out that Gerald met Eva in the palace bar one night after going to watch a show. He went down and had a few drinks, and noticed Eva as they started talking she gave him a false name so he new her a Daisy Renton. After hearing all this she breaks of her relationship to Gerald as she thinks she doesn’t know him any more. When inspector Goole questions Mrs. Birling Shelia discovers that Eva went to her mother for help and appealed to Mrs. Birling’s charitable committee because she had now money and no place to stay and she was pregnant. Mrs. Birling used her power over the committee to have Eva’s case refused and when Shelia discovered that her mother had been so cold she was outraged. She thought what her mother did was cruel and vile, especially as Eva was pregnant. When she realised that Eric was the man who had got Eva pregnant and tried giving her stolen money she was quite understanding of his involvement. During this act you can see Shelia growing as a character and in a way changing. She has been quite helpful to the inspector and sort of looked up to him in a way by agreeing with everything he says and answering all questions even if they weren’t directed at her. In act three Shelia’s attitude has almost completely changed she says she’s behaved badly and she’s ashamed of it. When the inspector left Shelia was the first person to question whether he was a police inspector or not, she doesn’t seem to care if he was a fake because she believes it should have made them all realise what they had done wrong and change but the only people who did realise what had gone wrong and the only people who had actually changed where her and Eric. She believes that the truth came out that night and made everyone confess and that is the only important thing that happened that night, not whether or not the inspector was a police inspector or not. When Shelia talks to certain people she is a confident speak † I should jolly well think not†, this shows she’s not afraid to stand up 4 her self or against other people. She asks a lot of questions and had a great deal of curiosity about the case â€Å"What was she like?†, â€Å"Was she young?†, â€Å"What was her name?†, these quotations show that she is eager to know all the information that people will tell her and she wants to know everything. When you play Shelia when you talk about Eva you should sounds slightly distressed and concerned, â€Å"Sorry its just I can help thinking about this girl destroying herself so horribly†, she obviously is in a great deal of distress when she talks about Eva and thinks about her death and how she was a part of it. Also she questions her fathers decisions a lot â€Å"I think sacking her was a mean thing to do†, â€Å"These girls aren’t cheap labour they are people†. When your playing Shelia you must remember that during act 1 you should be quite snobby and self-centred as Shelia only thought about her self and she was a jealous character. During act 2 you can start the see the changes so don’t forget to start being more sympathetic towards other peoples stories involving Eva. In act 3 you can she that the change in her attitude is complete as she learns her responsibilities of others less fortunate and is sensitive towards others and their feelings. Also I think you should wear a dress of that period or something along those lines to do with the upper class fashion during 1912.

A.L.Labs case analysis from the book international marketing by Terpstra

A.L.Labs case analysis from the book international marketing by Terpstra How has this affected its choice of strategy in international marketing?Since A.L. Labs was able to increase the proportion of their business in the US to the extent that US sales are greater than the foreign sales of the parent company, and in which most sales are from pharmaceuticals, human nutrition, and animal health respectively they decided to diversify away from animal feed to pharmaceuticals especially the generic pharmaceuticals. The company has jumped over the process of technology development and strategies now focus on investments that will increase their market share.THEODORE, PAUL & GABRIEL l'Alhambra-7With this strategy in mind, A.L. Labs started focusing on the distribution of their new product line, the generic pharmaceuticals. Increase in distribution means increase shares in the US markets. So they bought Dumex Ltd due to the following reasons: (1) functions as a European development division, (2) ability to obtain Danish government funding for new projects and (3 ) new opportunities for cross-fertilization of new drug discoveries between Europe and the United States.They also bought ParMed for the reason that it is known in the business as a distributor of generic pharmaceuticals with the use of telemarketing and in-house magazine which can also be applied in foreign markets.And the boldest decision of all is to buy Barre Labs. It concentrates on liquid generic pharmaceuticals, which has attained a strong position in the cough and cold remedy market. A.L. Labs decision to buy Barre Labs is laid on the belief that liquid pharmaceuticals are particularly important on the over 65 (geriatric) market and in the pediatric markets (children under 6). The senior citizen group also prefers liquid pharmaceuticals and it is a growing segment. Another advantage of this is that Barre labs will increase the presence of A.L. Labs in the US markets...

Ice Breakers for the First Day of Elementary School

Ice Breakers for the First Day of Elementary School The first few minutes of class, kicking off a new school year can be awkward and nerve-wracking for both you and your new students. You dont yet know these students well, nor do they know you, and they may not even know each other yet. Breaking the ice and getting the conversation going so everyone can get to know each other is an important thing to do.   Check out these popular  Ice Breaker activities that you can use with your elementary school students when school opens. The activities are fun and easy for students. Best of all, they elevate the mood and help thaw out the first day of school jitters. 1. Human Scavenger Hunt To prepare, pick about 30-40 interesting characteristics and experiences and list them on a worksheet with a little-underlined space next to each item. Next, have the students roam around the classroom asking each other to sign on the lines that relate to them. For example, some of your lines might be, Went out of the country this summer or Has braces or Likes pickles. So, if a student went to Turkey this summer, they can sign that line on other peoples worksheets. Depending on the size of your class, it may be OK for each student to sign two of any other persons blank spaces. The goal is to fill up your worksheet with signatures for each and every category. This may look like organized chaos, but the students will typically stay on task and have fun with this one. Alternatively, this activity can be put into the format of a Bingo board, rather than a list. 2. Two Truths and a Lie At their desks, ask your students to write down three sentences about their lives (or their summer vacations). Two of the sentences should be true and one should be a lie. For example, your statements might be: This summer I went to Alaska.I have 5 little brothers.My favorite food is brussels sprouts. Next, have your class sit in a circle. Each person gets a chance to share their three sentences. Then the rest of the class takes turns guessing which one is the lie. Obviously, the more realistic your lie (or mundane your truths), the harder time people will have figuring out the truth. 3. Same and Different Organize your class into small groups of approximately 4 or 5. Give each group two pieces of paper and a pencil. On the first sheet of paper, the students write Same or Shared at the top and then proceed to find qualities that are shared by the group as a whole. Make sure to point out that these should not be silly or trite qualities, such as We all have toes. On the second paper, label it Different or Unique and give the students time to determine some aspects that are unique to only one member of their group. Then, set aside time for each group to share and present their findings. Not only is this a great activity for getting to know each other, but it also emphasizes how the class has shared commonalities as well as unique differences that make up an interesting and completely human whole. 4. Trivia Card Shuffle First, come up with a predetermined set of questions about your students. Write them on the board for all to see. These questions can be about anything, ranging from What is your favorite food? to What did you do this summer? Give each student an index card numbered 1-5 (or however many questions you are asking) and have them write their answers to the questions on it, in order. You should also fill out a card about yourself. After a few minutes, collect the cards and redistribute them to the students, making sure no one gets their own card. From here, there are two ways that you can finish out this Ice Breaker. The first option is to have the students get up and mingle as they chat and try to figure out who wrote the cards they are holding. The second method is to begin the sharing process by modeling for the students how to use the card to introduce a classmate. 5. Sentence Circles Split your students into groups of 5. Give each group a piece of sentence strip paper and a pencil. On your signal, the first person in the group writes one word on the strip and then passes it to the left. The second person then writes the second word of the burgeoning sentence. The writing continues in this pattern around the circle with no talking. When the sentences are complete, the students share their creations with the class. Do this a few times and have them notice how their collective sentences improve each time around. Edited by  Stacy Jagodowski.

Engineering Materials, Manufacturing and Electrical Machines Essay

Engineering Materials, Manufacturing and Electrical Machines - Essay Example This conversion is carried out by deforming the metal permanently by the application of forces on it. The desired form or final shape of the metal defines which type of deformation process has to be applied. Physical and mechanical properties of metal such as strength, hardness, brittleness, elasticity, plasticity, malleability, toughness, grain structure, isotropic behavior etc. also play an important role in deciding which kind of manufacturing process is to be used. Metals are generally ductile materials with a large plastic range on stress strain curve. This is due to the metallic bond present in them (Askeland, 2009: 33). The stress strain curve of mild steel is shown here, (although it will be different for each metal, it will follow more or less the same pattern): The area after the yield point is the plastic range of mild steel. Clearly, it can undergo significant amount of plastic deformation before it finally fractures. Same is true for other materials. Hence, to form a material in to desired shapes, plastic deformation is a desirable process. There are many different yield criteria which tell us the stress required to cause permanent yielding in a material. Out of these Tresca criterion is considered suitable for ductile materials (Marciniak et al., 2002: 20). It suggests that yielding occurs (or plastic deformation starts) at a point when shear stress crosses a certain limit. Formability of a metal is its ability to deform in to desired shape or form without failure. Failure can be due to different physical phenomenon like shearing or necking etc. (Kalpakjian and Schmid, 2001: 424). One of the earlier developed tests is Cupping Test. In this test, a steel ball or any circular profile made of steel is pressed against the sheet with uniform increment of stress. The depth to which the sheet can be deformed is a measure of its formability. This method however has its own limitations as the results obtained are specific to the test conditions. The

Review and Critically Evaluate the Relevance and Contribution of HR to Essay

Review and Critically Evaluate the Relevance and Contribution of HR to Organisational Success and Effective Change Management - Essay Example Armstrong defines human resource management as a â€Å"strategic and coherent approach to the management of an organisation’s most valued assets – the people working there who individually and collectively contribute to the achievement of its objectives† (cited in Stolt, 2010, p.2). This paper will critically evaluate the relevance and contribution of HR to organisational success and effective change management. Contribution of HR to organisational success In the today’s competitive business environment, HR plays a pivotal role in determining the organisation’s operational efficiency and profitability. As Wright (2003) believes, many of the corporate scandals over the last few decades can be attributed to the failure of HR. A number of studies have indicated that HR evidently contributes to organisational success. Importance of service sector has been steadily increasing for the last two decades and hence the economy tends to be more service based. Hence, it is essential for organisations engaged in service sector to keep their workers motivated and productive. According to Valencia (n.d), there is a close connection between employee motivation and employee productivity. Studies point that financial incentives and other employee benefits are the best ways to keep employees motivated. A firm’s HR management deals with all types of employee benefits including healthcare, retirement, dependent care, college tuition, and worksite accident claims (NC Department of Health and Human Services, 2012). In addition to employee benefits that are mandated by law, organisations voluntarily provide their employees with some additional benefits. For this purpose, HR managers explore employees’ actual family needs and thereby make the firm’s employee benefits packages flexible enough to help the company save money (Reference for Business, 2012). Even in manufacturing and traditional industries, competitiveness has become o ne of the major determinants of organisational success and therefore firms in these sectors frame strategies that facilitate economic and effective use of their resources. It is evident that human capital is the most important resource of an organisation and hence effective HR strategies would assist the firm to make its employees more productive. Increased productivity would directly contribute to an increase in revenues and thereby profitability. In the view of Cohen et al (n.d), HR is a better strategy to ensure the firm’s long term sustainability. Evidences suggest that improved HR would be beneficial for an organisation to eliminate unnecessary costs resulting from production wastage, employee motivation programs, and rigorous sequence of quality checks (The Strategic Human Resource Management Model, n.d). HR system aids an organisation to ensure that its training programs are designed on the basis of focused and topical methods (Management study guide, n.d). Deb (2006) opines that effective human resource management may be a potential way to encourage employee creativity and thereby seize more expansional opportunities. When an employee is allowed to use his creativity, he may get the feeling that ‘it is my organisation’ and such an employee’s view would directly contribute to organisational productivity. In order to ensure organisational su