Tuesday, January 28, 2020

Comparison of Hes Just Not That Into You and 17 Again

Comparison of Hes Just Not That Into You and 17 Again People are always looking forward to watch romantic comedy movie as a way to spend time together with their beloved ones. In fact, romantic comedy is a general phrase for comedies that basically deal with the foolishness and misunderstanding of either young or middle aged lovers, in a light-hearted and happily manner which commonly inhibits serious parody. A typical plot of a romantic comedy is that two main characters, usually a man and a woman, come across, part away due to conflicts or other obstacles, then finally reunite. There are many options of romantic comedy movies to choose. The two romantic comedy movies which I choose to compare and contrast are â€Å"Hes just not that into you† and â€Å"17 Again†. Even though both movies have the same genre, that is romantic comedy, but they are different in terms of settings, story lines, and moral value. First and foremost, the settings of these two movies are different. â€Å"Hes just not that into you† was set primarily in middle aged adult working environment at Baltimore, Maryland, USA where as â€Å"17 Again† was set in teenager high school kind of environment at Los Angeles, California, USA. The characters present in the â€Å"Hes just not that into you† were mainly middle aged working adults and â€Å"17 Again† were teenagers and their parents. Secondly, the most obvious dissimilarity of these movies is the story lines. â€Å"Hes just not that into you† is about a few characters struggling with ups and downs of their love lives in a complicated kind of way. At the centre of these multiple stories in one movie is Gigi, a young woman who repeatedly misunderstands the signs that men had given her about their level of interest in her. She got her advice from Alex, a bar owner who prides himself on perceiving the ins and outs of the dating scene. Gigis co-worker Janine found herself having difficulties in saving her marriage with her husband, Ben. On the other hand, Ben contemplated an affair with Anna, an attractive woman who was trying to make a career as a singer, from his wife. Another of Gigis friends at work, Beth, enjoyed a fruitful, healthy relationship with Neil, but soon storm clouds hover over them because he has no interest in getting married. In â€Å"17 Again†, it is about an unhappy working man who h ad transformed into a 17 years old teen in order to solve his family problems regarding his teen children and wife. At the age of 17, Mike ODonell was a successful person. Scarlett revealed she was pregnant before his basketball championship. After their marriage, Mike, a working man, complained the life he lost. One night, he saw a janitor standing on a bridge and jumped in after him. When he returned to his friends house he realized he was 17 again. He decided to take this opportunity to save his marriage and fix his relationship with his two teenage children. Furthermore, another dissimilarity that can be seen in both of these movies is the moral value. The moral value for the first movie is that we should not be a greedy person. In the movie, Ben who had an affair with Anna without his wife knowing eventually lost two of them in the end. For the second movie, the moral value emphasize on we should carry out our own responsibility regardless whether we are in a good or bad situation. In the movie, a young Mike ODonell carried out his responsibility by marrying his girlfriend who was pregnant with his child when they were both 17 years old. Here are the three main differences between â€Å"Hes just not that into you† and â€Å"17 Again†. As we can see, they break down to setting, story line and moral value that can be learnt through watching the movie. In a nutshell, both movies have their pros and cons despite they have the same genre.

Monday, January 20, 2020

The Legend of Narcissus :: Greek Mythology

In Greek mythology, â€Å"Narcissism" has its roots from the legend of Narcissus, a young man whom most deemed extremely handsome. A nymph named Echo developed an obsessive infatuation with Narcissus but he was unwilling to reciprocate such feelings to her or others. She finally gave up and isolated herself. Narcissus was then cursed to become socially isolated and reviled due to his complete self absorption by loving his own shadow from the pool (Wall & Loewenthal, 1998). Havelock Ellis (1898) first developed the concept of narcissism as a psychological construct referring to excessive masturbation by the people become their own sexual objects. Then this concept was adopted by Sigmund Freud (1914/1957) and other prominent psychoanalysts. Interestingly, the term â€Å"Narcissistic Personality Disorder† was first introduced by Heinz Kohut (1968), the founder of self psychology, and â€Å"Narcissistic Personality† by Otto Kernberg (1970) who is the major contributor of modern object relations theory. The DSM did not adopt the diagnosis of Narcissistic Personality Disorder until in the third revised edition published in 1980 (Siomopoulos, 1988). Thus, throughout the last century, the general term â€Å"narcissism† has been usually seen in the literature rather than Narcissistic Personality Disorder. From a recent study by Pincus et al. (2009), narcissism has been conceptualized as â€Å"one’s capacity to maintain a relatively positive self-image through a variety of self-, affect- and field-regulatory processes. It underlies individuals’ needs for validation and affirmation as well as the motivation to overtly and covertly seek out self-enhancement experiences from the social environment† (p.365). Normal and pathological narcissism. Researchers usually use the terms normal and pathological features of narcissism to describe adaptive and maladptive personality structure respectively, representing different psychological needs for self enhancement, validation, and regulatory mechanisms (e.g., Kernberg 1998, Kohut 1977, Morf 2006, Pincus 2005, Ronningstam 2009, Stone 1998). Some believe that normal and pathological narcissism are situated on a single continuum or dimension from healthy to disordered functioning (e.g., Cooper, 2005; Miller, Hoffman, Campbell & Pilkonis, 2008; Paulhus, 1998; Ronningstam, 2005b & Watson, 2005), while others contended that adaptive and pathological narcissism may be two distinct personality dimensions (e.g., Ansell 2006, Dickinson & Pincus, 2003; Pincus et al., 2009; Rathvon & Holmstrom, 1996; Wink, 1991). It could be found that the studies of social and personality psychology have more interest in the normal narcissism (e.g. Miller & Campbell, 20 08 ), whereas those researchers in clinical psychology focused more on the studies of pathological narcissism (e.

Saturday, January 11, 2020

Regression: Soft Drink Demand

DATA SET 1 Soft Drink Demand Estimation Demand can be estimated with experimental data, time series data or cross section data. Sara Lee Corporation generates experimental data in test stores where the effect of an NFL-licensed Carolina Panthers logo on Champion sweatshirt sales can be carefully monitored. Demand forecasts usually rely on time series data. In contrast, cross-section data appear in Table 1. Soft drink consumption in cans per year is related to six pack price, income per capita, and mean temperature across the 48 contiguous sates in the United States Question . Estimate the demand for soft drinks using a multiple regression program available on your computer. 2. Interpret the coefficients and calculate the price elasticity of soft drink demand 3. Omit price from the regression equation and observe the bias introduced into the parameter estimate for income. 4. Now omit both price and temperature from the regression equation. Should a marketing plan for soft drinks be de signed that relocates most canned drink machines into low income neighborhoods?Why or Why not? DATA SET 2 The data are the results of the following market research experiment by a large company. The company’s total market area was divided into 40 equally populated market areas, and the price to be charged for the product was set to be the same in each area. Then, the weekly amount of advertising expenditure ($) in each of these market areas was set as indicated in column B. The weekly sales (y units) in each market area was then recorded as shown in column C. 1.Use linear regression to estimate a linear equation describing how the value of sales (y) varies with the level of the fitted equation. 2. Assess the validity of the fitted equation. 3. If the product sells at a price of $100 and costs $70 per unit to produce, estimate a linear equation for the company’s weekly profit in terms of its advertising expenditure (x). DATA SET 3 The Sales of Cycle City, a large motorc ycle and moped distributor, grew significantly during the 1990s. This past history of sales growth is indicated in data set 3. . What is the compound annual rate of growth in sales for Cycle City over this 10 year period? 2. Based on your answer in part (1) what sales would you have forecasted for the next (2001)? 3. Graph the growth in sales over the 10 years. What happened to the rate of growth over this period? 4. Based on your answer to Part (3), what sales would you have forecasted for 2001. DATA SET 4 Pizza firm The manager of pizza firm collects data on the last 24 month of pizza sales from her own company records.Where Q= sales of pizza at Checkers Pizza P = Price of a pizza at Checker Pizza M = Average annual household income in Westbury Pai = price of a pizza at Al’s Pizza Oven Pbmac = price of Big Mac at McDonald’s 1. Estimate the linear demand function for Checkers Pizza compare to nonlinear model 2. Estimate demand elasticities at values of P, M, Pal, and Pbmac at values P=9. 05, M=26614 , Pal = 10. 12 and Pbmac = 1. 15 (for either demand function) 3. Forecast linear trend regression model to forecast income in month 30 DATA Set 5The copper data consist of 25 annual observations on world consumption of copper, copper price and the exogenous variables required to estimate industry demand and supply equation Data presented are actually valued for 1950-1975 Qc= world consumption sales of copper in 1000 of metric tons Pc = price of copper in cents per pound (inflation adjusted) M= index of real per capita income 1970=100 Pa = price of aluminum in cents per pound (inflation adjusted) X= ratio of consumption in the previous year to production in the previous year (=Qc/Qp) T=technology (time period is a proxy) 1.Estimate the copper industry demand and supply equation 2. Locate copper demand and supply in year 26 3. Calculate the intersection of the demand and supply functions DATA Set 6 Given data set 6, the quantity demanded of a commodity (Y) ,it’s price (X1) and consumer income (X2) from 1986-2005 1. Estimate the regression equation of Y on X1 and X2 2. Assess the validity of the fitted equation. 3. What is price elasticity at $4 and income elasticity at level 3800? Explain what kind of commodity (Y) is? 4. Forecast linear trend regression model to forecast income in year 2006 Regression: Soft Drink Demand DATA SET 1 Soft Drink Demand Estimation Demand can be estimated with experimental data, time series data or cross section data. Sara Lee Corporation generates experimental data in test stores where the effect of an NFL-licensed Carolina Panthers logo on Champion sweatshirt sales can be carefully monitored. Demand forecasts usually rely on time series data. In contrast, cross-section data appear in Table 1. Soft drink consumption in cans per year is related to six pack price, income per capita, and mean temperature across the 48 contiguous sates in the United States Question . Estimate the demand for soft drinks using a multiple regression program available on your computer. 2. Interpret the coefficients and calculate the price elasticity of soft drink demand 3. Omit price from the regression equation and observe the bias introduced into the parameter estimate for income. 4. Now omit both price and temperature from the regression equation. Should a marketing plan for soft drinks be de signed that relocates most canned drink machines into low income neighborhoods?Why or Why not? DATA SET 2 The data are the results of the following market research experiment by a large company. The company’s total market area was divided into 40 equally populated market areas, and the price to be charged for the product was set to be the same in each area. Then, the weekly amount of advertising expenditure ($) in each of these market areas was set as indicated in column B. The weekly sales (y units) in each market area was then recorded as shown in column C. 1.Use linear regression to estimate a linear equation describing how the value of sales (y) varies with the level of the fitted equation. 2. Assess the validity of the fitted equation. 3. If the product sells at a price of $100 and costs $70 per unit to produce, estimate a linear equation for the company’s weekly profit in terms of its advertising expenditure (x). DATA SET 3 The Sales of Cycle City, a large motorc ycle and moped distributor, grew significantly during the 1990s. This past history of sales growth is indicated in data set 3. . What is the compound annual rate of growth in sales for Cycle City over this 10 year period? 2. Based on your answer in part (1) what sales would you have forecasted for the next (2001)? 3. Graph the growth in sales over the 10 years. What happened to the rate of growth over this period? 4. Based on your answer to Part (3), what sales would you have forecasted for 2001. DATA SET 4 Pizza firm The manager of pizza firm collects data on the last 24 month of pizza sales from her own company records.Where Q= sales of pizza at Checkers Pizza P = Price of a pizza at Checker Pizza M = Average annual household income in Westbury Pai = price of a pizza at Al’s Pizza Oven Pbmac = price of Big Mac at McDonald’s 1. Estimate the linear demand function for Checkers Pizza compare to nonlinear model 2. Estimate demand elasticities at values of P, M, Pal, and Pbmac at values P=9. 05, M=26614 , Pal = 10. 12 and Pbmac = 1. 15 (for either demand function) 3. Forecast linear trend regression model to forecast income in month 30 DATA Set 5The copper data consist of 25 annual observations on world consumption of copper, copper price and the exogenous variables required to estimate industry demand and supply equation Data presented are actually valued for 1950-1975 Qc= world consumption sales of copper in 1000 of metric tons Pc = price of copper in cents per pound (inflation adjusted) M= index of real per capita income 1970=100 Pa = price of aluminum in cents per pound (inflation adjusted) X= ratio of consumption in the previous year to production in the previous year (=Qc/Qp) T=technology (time period is a proxy) 1.Estimate the copper industry demand and supply equation 2. Locate copper demand and supply in year 26 3. Calculate the intersection of the demand and supply functions DATA Set 6 Given data set 6, the quantity demanded of a commodity (Y) ,it’s price (X1) and consumer income (X2) from 1986-2005 1. Estimate the regression equation of Y on X1 and X2 2. Assess the validity of the fitted equation. 3. What is price elasticity at $4 and income elasticity at level 3800? Explain what kind of commodity (Y) is? 4. Forecast linear trend regression model to forecast income in year 2006

Friday, January 3, 2020

How Has Technology Changed Communication Practices Argumentative Essay

Introduction Information technology is one of the most dynamic factors in the world today. New developments in this field are made everyday. The world today may not imagine life without gadgets such as the mobile phone, computers, internet, motor vehicles, and marine equipment among others. All these items have been made available due to influences of technology. Information technology has had many influences in the world today. The most profound impacts that information technology has impacted very much is in the area of communication. This article focuses on the ways in which the telephone has changed communication in the last ten years. History of the telephone The history of the telephone dates back to the late 19th century. Alexander graham bell discovered the first telephone. Graham’s success with the telephone came from his attempt to improve the telegraph, one of the oldest modes of communication (Farley Tom 13) In June 1975, when Graham was experimenting with the harmonic telegraph, he realized that he could hear sound over the wire like a clock spring. From these simple concepts, the telephone has undergone a serious metamorphosis over the last many years with a lot of improvements. The most important developments in the telephone sector were the invention of the mobile phone by the Motorola Company in the 1970’s. This has made communication quite easy and effective. This has resulted from the fact that communication is of invaluable importance in modern times. A good example of the importance of communication could be a reference to the new Orleans war between the united states and the British. Their soldiers slaughtered one another just because information had not reached them on time that a peace treaty had already been signed between the United States and Britain ( http://www.mobil.greenline.ru/sony.html). Since the beginning of human history , information usually travelled just as fast   as a ship could sail,   a person   could walk or a horse could run, then came the telegraph and finally the invention of the telephone which latter led to the development of the mobile phone. The telephone is still widely used in the world today, although the mobile phone has rapidly overtaken it in terms of customer statistics ( http://uhavax.hartford.edu/JHOLMAN/History.html) The telecommunication industry has changed communication practices in a number of aspects as discussed below. Cost Before the discovery of telephones and cell phones, communication was very expensive. It was costly for one to transfer information from one place to another given the logistical limitations. Advancements in technology that have led to the lowered cost of the mobile telephone in the last ten years has drastically reduced the cost of communication in the world. This reduction in the cost of communication has resulted to an increase in the volume of information that can be transferred from one person to another. Speed of communication Communication is quite fast in the modern world as compared to the ancient times. Today, we can communicate to people outside our continent in real time using the telephone. Even more important is the connectivity of different continents through radio technology. This has made communication very fast and reliable. Efficiency and effectiveness in communication Efficiency refers to the achievement of goals with the good utilization of resources while effectiveness is geared towards the attainment of the objectives. The telephone industry has witnessed reduced call rates with increased competition in the last ten years. As a result of entry into the market by many players, the companies have been forced to utilize resources more efficiently and ensure quality in communication Communication is now more impersonal Unlike in the past where people could secretly communicate, the cell phone has made communication more impersonal in the last ten years. When you are talking to people over the phone, you probably do not have ant influence over who overhears your conversation. Even when text messaging is used, it can quickly be accessed by third parties. This means that communication is now more impersonal. Perhaps, the most important aspect of the telephone and its impact on communication is the features that have been incorporated into the cell phone. Unlike the traditional telephone that was used basically for verbal communication, the modern telephone has very advanced features that have had revolutionary influence on communication. These features are elaborated below. The last ten years have witnessed the inclusion of internet features in the mobile phone. Most of the phones today are 4G enabled especially the smart phones, meaning that it’s possible to browse at very fast speeds in the mobile phone. The inclusion of the internet in the mobile phone is a landmark development in the communication industry. With the mobile phone, one is able to send emails, MMS, chat, video conferencing, amongst other features. This has increased the ease and convenience of communication.   Today’s mobile phone is an advanced communication gadget with radio and Television reception capabilities. (http://www.cellphonecarriers.com/future-cell.html) The video chatting and conferencing are some of the advanced features of the mobile phone that allow real time communication across the globe with the help of the internet. This is a positive step in communication towards world integration in this era of globalization. Data communication features such as the blue tooth also allow the transfer of data from one cell phone to another, from a cell phone to a computer or vice versa. This has created efficiency in information sharing at a very cost effective way. Volume of communication A lot of communication is done today than any other time in the past. Statistics has it that in the United States, 91% of the population owns and/ or uses a mobile phone for communication. This is just an indicator of the volume of communication that is made possible by the use of mobile phones for the last ten years. This means that people are communicating more than before using more convenient means unlike the past where communication media was quite limited. Formality of communication practices In modern times, communication is more informal. The presence of social sites such as facebook and twitters that are accessible through the mobile phone have made communication more friendly and informal. Most people are using their mobile phones to access these social sites at the convenience of their homes. Despite all the positive impacts that the telephone has had on communication, there is a down side too.   The convenience, speed and connectivity of the modern cell phone has unfortunately resulted to a decrease in the quality of communication. People tend to take a lesser time to understand and think about what they intend to say. An accurately conveyed message may not be valuable as people take communication for granted. It’s easy to imagine that when a mistake is made, another phone call could easily fix the mistake. This creates a lot of inefficiency. The ability to call and fix a mistake does not make it acceptable. Conclusion Information technology has had far reaching impacts on communication. It can however be argued that the telecommunication industry has been the largest beneficiary of these technological advancements. This has led to the development of gadgets that have diverse capabilities. The cell phone has been modeled to make communication easier, convenient, efficient, fast and timely. It has however been used and abused by people due to the lack of standardized procedures and regulations concerning the use of these gadgets (http://www.hc-sc.gc.ca/english/iyh/products/cellphones.htm.) .