Portfolio of Festivals and Events Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2250 words

Portfolio of Festivals and Events - Essay Example Among the members of its member are renowned business organizations like Nokia, Sprint, IBM, and Makewave and ProSyst. With its quest in providing specification, reference implementations, test suites, and certification to foster a valuable cross-industry ecosystem, it conducts a four day community event which it refers to as OSGi Alliance Community Event. This four day event highlights the technology of the organization and the services that it offers. It is especially targeted to developers and business decision makers who will "gain valuable and actionable information and instruction" (OSGi Alliance Community Event 2007). OSGi prepares the event for the benefit of a company which also capitalizes on technology for survival and success. Members and non-members alike are invited to join this In the current year, this community event is hosted by Siemens and is conducted from June 26-28. The event is described as "value-packed" because it features lightning talks, business practices, and business patterns. Having members which are in the forefront of technological advancements it also provides keynotes from thought and industry leaders. Enhancing this event are the presentations by OSGi Alliance CTO BJ Hargrave and Evangelist Peter Kriens (OSGi Alliance Community Event 2007). In order to include all the essential functional departments in a business organization, the community event requires three participants from member companies. The first day which is June 26 becomes a Marketing Committee Meeting while June 27 and 28 are Members Only and Expert Group Meetings, respectively (OSGi Alliance Community Event 2007). In order to join the event, participants are required to fee registration fees according to their status in relation to OGSi: non-members pay 500; associate members pay 450; while full members pay 400. It should be noted that the aforementioned fees will cover only the materials and activities and are exclusive of accommodation fees. This year's event is conducted in Munich (OSGi Alliance Community Event 2007). 2. Sporting Event: All Star NBA Game Widely regarded one of the greatest gathering of basketball stars that are playing the current game, the players selected to represent the Eastern and Western conferences via votes of the public and the NBA coaches have to prove themselves worthy of their selection in this game. As the highlight of the NBA All-Star Week, basketball points scored in this game are normally fast and furious, with lots of slam dunks and creative plays for the excitement of the fans being made by the players. In this game, the players

History of Sports in Germany Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

History of Sports in Germany - Research Paper Example It is headed by the German Football Federation, which was founded back in year 1900 in Leipzig. It was made up of representatives of 86 German clubs and Dr. F. Hueppe was elected as the pioneer chairman to this football association. Moments after it was created, football rose in popularity in Germany and to this there was the 1903 German Cup as well as the 1908’s national games. However, after the WWII, subsequent to the annexing of Austria by Hitler, the football association’s leadership was taken over by the officials of the Nazi Party. Following the period of the WWII, the German Football National Team was barred from taking part in the international competitions. This ban lasted, until its 1949’s lifting just prior the founding of the First Republic of Germany. In year 1963, there was the forming of the Bundesliga and its first match was played in August of 1963. The German Football National Team continued gaining ground in terms of popularity as well. As per 2011 the Football Association of Germany was composed of 26,000 clubs, about 170,000 teams and well above 2 million players taking part in football actively. Notable is the fact that it is one of the biggest football associations in the globe. (oleole.com, 2011) Soccer is popular in the US but not as it is in Germany. For instance; as Getchell puts it, German soccer is more advanced while compared to that of the US. Germany is said to play a more coordinated and smoother soccer as Hirte puts it in this article by Getchell. The US soccer has not borrowed much from the German soccer, but it has a lot to borrow if need be. (Getchell, 2008) The setting in of basketball in Germany was from around the 1950s. Germany, afterwards participated in the European Championships of Basketball in year 1951, which took place in Paris. Germany attained position 12 out of the 18 participants. Success never went to West Germany until the German reunion of 1990. Before this reunion the East Germans did not have any interests for this game. In year 1993, the German basketball team emerged victorious in that year’s European Championships and was as well voted the ‘Team of the Year’ courtesy of the national press. Afterwards, Germany has become the first runners up in the year 2005’s Championships of Europe and third in the 2002 global Championships. America has not really borrowed a lot from the German Basketball sports but rather contributed to its growth. As a matter of fact the first step towards German Basketball development was made by a teacher from the US by the name Naismith James who invented the sport in the country in the year 1951. These two nations have continued to learn from each other as regards the sport. (basketball-bund.de, 2011) Before 1895, when William Morgan invented a new sport known as volleyball, there was the German sport by the name Faustball invented in 1891. Therefore, William’s invention included the German Faustball, handball, baseball, tennis and basketball as a combination. In America, it was not until 1928, that the sport of volleyball started to be professionally managed by new US Volleyball Association. (essortment.com, 2011) Volleyball continued to grow in popularity and with time it became a bit more strategic as a sport. There came about the defensive and offensive schemes, and set-and-spike among others. The East Germany volleyball team employed some these skills and managed to dominate the sport in the whole

Chicago Fire in December,22,2010 Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Chicago Fire in December,22,2010 - Research Paper Example The fire is said to have been started by squatters burning debris to keep warm in the cold winter in a building whose utilities had been cut off. The fire is believed to have spread and caught the roof that was weighed down by snow and ice leading to its collapse on the firefighters on duty. The ensuing mishaps by the fire department, according to a federal report, are attributed to the tragic deaths and casualties that occurred during the firefighting exercise. According to the report, the firefighters sent into the vacant building had radios, yet their supervisors outside did not get to know the happenings inside: the building’s wooden pillars were letting the fire crawl up to the ceiling so fast. As a group of the fire fighters wrestled the fire from inside the building, another group was on the roof, cutting it up and spraying water on the fire. The cutting was supposed to allow smoke to escape, but it led to the roof collapsing, killing the two firefighters and injuring n ineteen more.  According to Tim Merinar, the lead federal investigator in the Chicago fire incident, the Fire Department’s supervisors ought to have taken a defensive approach in tackling the fire by ordering more firefighters to get out of the building after it was ascertained no persons were trapped inside, as had been previously feared on arrival at the scene. The report faulted the Fire Department for the deaths and injuries on the firefighters. Apparently, the department overlooked several things that ought to have been part of its strategy.

Achieving Honor as a Woman of Deh Koh Essay -- Reflection Paper Essays

Achieving Honor as a Woman of Deh Koh To many Westerners, the overall plight of females in Iran appears tenuous. It is illegal for females above the age of 9 to appear in public with out their heads veiled and bodies entirely covered. Women cannot serve in certain occupations, such as the military. It is difficult for a married woman to divorce her spouse, yet for men the right to divorce is unquestioned and done with ease. Married women in Iran who wish to leave the country for any reason must first obtain the permission of their husbands.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Despite their many restrictions, females in Iran are anything but fragile. Iranian women are proud, strong, and work at changing the society they live in. In Erika Friedl's book, Women of Deh Koh, Lives In An Iranian Village, she shows the ...

Master and Commander Essay

â€Å"Master and Commander† is the best movie to further my understanding of organizational behavior. In short, â€Å"Master and Commander† is a story about how to use leadership, motivation, power and politics, decision making and creativity to beat the French competitor that seems bigger, faster or stronger than his ship. In the first part of the paper, I would elaborate the point of leadership in this movie. In terms of this, the captain has the power to influence the seamen. As the British crew pursued its opponent, the captain and his team were searching for a calculated strategy that would allow them to defeat the French captain and take the ship as a prize. As it turns out, their strategy was its greatest strength. By applying their knowledge about warfare they were constantly learning about the changing environment, such as the new technology used by the French ship. The British naval officers were able to create an emergent strategy. The captain used the Fiedler leadership model, which matches the leadership style of interacting with the seaman and the degree to which the situation controls and influences the leader. For example, when the captain orders the seamen to fight again the battle, he gives orders to those who are responsible for doing the work. All seamen coordinate together with the captain and follow all the orders of the captain. One proactive aspect of the story was the ability of the captain to embrace knowledge from other disciplines and accordingly act on it. The captain’s friend, who was a doctor, was an accomplished naturalist. And his ideology was that insects disguise themselves well according to the situation around them. Naturally, the captain uses this knowledge to fool the French ship by using potential alternative. Master and Commander are sure to provide lessons in leadership and the captain’s character demonstrated many attributes of quality business leadership. For example, when the seamen place their trust on the captain, they are willing to be vulnerable to his action. In addition with the leadership concept, they learnt how to follow the captain’s instructions, knowing when to engage in the battle, inspiration to pursue achievable stretch goals, the delicate balancing of compassion and leadership of others in the ship, and proper leadership development, mentorship and succession planning. The captain did not follow the rules of leader participation model as he was the sole person  in the decision making process. For example, when he decides to fight against the French ship, his other co-members who had high authority did not agree but he still decided to fight the war. In organizational behavior terms, leadership plays a central part in understanding group behavior. In this movie, the captain shows accurate capability of improving the seamen’s performances. Other concepts used in the movie would be initiating structure, where the captain attempts to organize the battle strategy in order to fight against the French ship and attain their goals. Moreover in the movie some of them did not agree to fight the French ship because it was more sophisticated in terms of technology, but they trusted the captain’s decision. The seamen practice leader member relation concept, where they trust and respect their captain. As mention above, the captain portrays good leadership skills in his approach to manage the ship. Therefore, this would contribute directly in gaining competitive advantage. The seamen would perform better to win the battle and attain the goal of the captain. In terms of organizational behavior, the company would be more productive and the employees would feel satisfied and contented to work under the organization because of the leadership style portrayed by the top management. The other concept observed in the movie is motivation. The captain’s higher authority informed him that his mission should be to destroy the French ship, which till date has not been executed. The captain notices that this will not be an easy task as their ship was damaged from earlier warships. From this point on he becomes obsessed with completing the mission. His main motivation was to stop the ship at any cost and to execute this he drags the crew of ship to attain the obsession. This became his main goal in life. His sole aim now was to stop this ship. Even though he knew that the French ship was larger than his ship, he was still motivated to continue the battle. Apart from that, the captain also portrays management by objective concept in this movie, where he has a specific goal to attain. For example, everyone’s goal in the ship was to fight the French ship and win the battle. Moreover, the captain provides motivation for the seaman in the ship. When one of his lieutenants was looking through the telescope, he noticed two ships approaching but when the captain went to confirm it, he did not see them. The lieutenant would have got discouraged if he had revealed the truth  but he went ahead and complimented him for doing a good job. In the other part of the movie, two of his seaman presents to him the model of the French ship which gives him an idea why the French ship is superior to them. For the job done, he treats the seamen with wine. This is an ideal way of motivating the seaman to perform better in future. Before the war the captain encourages his seaman with his inspirational quote â€Å"discipline will count as much as courage† and â€Å"this ship is our home, this is England†. This inspires and motivates the seaman to combat the French ship. This provides a competitive advantage over and above the other tasks. The captains approach results in complete satisfaction and contentment, which enables the seamen to perform better in the war. Moreover, he motivates the seaman during practice for war and he constantly motivates the seaman throughout the movie. In organizational behavior terms, this increases the productivity of the company and enhances employee performance. The movie shows the effects of power. The captain has legitimate power because he has the formal authority to control, to order and to use resources available on the ship. For example, when the captain orders his seamen, all of them agree and act accordingly to his command. The captain has charismatic power which is really an extension of referent power steaming from his individual personality and interpersonal style. For example, the doctor said that he completely trust’s the captain for his capabilities. Moreover, the entire seaman respects him for his decision and as a charismatic person. The captain once mentioned to his lieutenant that he should not make friends with the seaman but should gain respect from them as he is at an authorative level. This would also make things easier for the captain in command to gain a competitive advantage over the others. Since the captain is the most powerful person on the ship, all seamen would have to follow his command and act according to his needs. In term of organizational behavior, if you want a thing to be done in an organization, power does have an upper hand. Using power in an organization may upset some employees, but this is the one of the ways to attain respect and to give order to the employee. Conflict can be considered as a part of the movie. The first conflict arises  when the captain plans to fight the French ship. During the meeting, the other high authority person in the ship goes against his idea because they feel it is impossible to win against the French ship as it was better equipped than their ship. Conflict arises at this point of time but the captain remains with his plan to fight the French ship. Another conflict in this movie is when the doctor on board asks him to stop at an island because he wanted to see the natural beauty of nature as promised by the captain but he does not agree. The reason being he wanted to continue his journey and stop the French ship. But ultimately both of them land up arguing about the topic. This can be related as task conflict because their goals did not match. In organizational behavior, conflict should be managed in order to gain competitive advantage. Apart from that, managing conflict in work environment is essential. When an employee is satisfied and the work environment is conducive, it would increase the company’s productivity and he or she will have better relationship with other employees in the organization. In this movie the captain used centralized decision making. The term centralization refers to the degree to which decision making is concentrated at a single point in the organization. For instance, the captain had a formal authority and rights in making decisions. He does not consult anyone before making his decision to fight the French ship. From the ethical point of view in decision making, the captain uses utilitarianism where his decision to fight the French ship would benefit him and achieve his goals. Even though some of his fellow people do not agree with him in the earlier part of the movie to fight but later they all supported him and worked together to reach the common goal. In term of organizational behavior, decision making process can be considered as the most important concept. This is because without a proper decision a company will not attain competitive advantage and this will not benefit the company in any ways which will hamper their productivity. â€Å"†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦any organization has to have a sense of where it is going, along with someone to help get it there. Like a ship at sea, all the technology in the world is useless without a firm hand on the tiller and a captain who has a  good sense of direction† (Balancing on a Wire, 1998, p.39). This statement means that the captain should have foresight to manage and control activities towards achieving their goal. In conclusion the captain was in a win-win situation. His primary goal was to defeat his opponents and gain complete control and power over them.

How to Define Atmosphere

The term atmosphere has multiple meanings in science: Atmosphere Definition Atmosphere refers to the gases surrounding a star or planetary body held in place by gravity. A body is more likely to retain an atmosphere over time if gravity is high and the temperature of the atmosphere is low. The composition of the Earths atmosphere is about 78 percent nitrogen, 21 percent oxygen, 0.9 percent argon, with water vapor, carbon dioxide, and other gases. The atmospheres of other planets have a different composition. The composition of the Suns atmosphere consists of about 71.1 percent hydrogen, 27.4 percent helium, and 1.5 percent other elements. Atmosphere Unit An atmosphere is also a unit of pressure. One atmosphere (1 atm) is defined to be equal to 101,325 Pascals. A reference or standard pressure is commonly 1 atm. In other cases, Standard Temperature and Pressure or STP is used.

Book Review of R.J. Palacios Wonder

Wonder, R.J. Palacios debut novel, was written for children 8 to 12 years old, but its message defies genres. Published in 2012, its anti-bullying, pro-acceptance message will resonate with teenagers and even adults as well. Style Some books are action-packed, compelling the reader to turn the page to find out what happens next. Other books are compelling because they invite readers to engage with characters who are real, who come alive off the page, and who pull the reader into their story. Wonder is the latter kind of book. In fact, very little action happens within its pages, and yet readers will find themselves deeply affected by the story. Summary August Pullman (Auggie to his friends) is not an ordinary 10-year-old boy. He feels like one  and has the interests of one, but his face is not ordinary at all. In fact, its the type of face that scares kids and makes people stare. Auggie is pretty good natured about it all. This is the way he is, after all, and while he doesn’t like that people stare, there’s not much he can do about it. Because his face has required many reconstructive surgeries, Auggie has been homeschooled. But there are no more surgeries to be done for a while, and now August’s parents think it’s time that he goes to mainstream school, beginning with fifth grade in the fall. The idea of this terrifies Auggie; he knows how people react to seeing him, and he wonders if he will be able to fit in at school at all. He bravely gives it a go, but finds that it’s much like he expected. Many of the children laugh at him behind his back, and someone has started a game called the Plague, in which people â€Å"catch† a â€Å"disease† if they touch Auggie. One boy, Julian, leads the bullying attacks. He’s the sort of kid whom adults find charming, but in reality, he is quite mean to anyone not in his circle of friends. Auggie does make two close friends: Summer, a girl who actually likes Auggie for who he is, and Jack. Jack started out as Auggie’s â€Å"assigned† friend, and when Auggie finds this out, he and Jack have a falling out. However, they patch things up at Christmas, after Jack gets suspended for hitting Julian for badmouthing Auggie. This leads to a â€Å"war, with the popular boys against Auggie and Jack. While nothing more than mean words, in the form of notes in the lockers, fly between the two camps, the tension between them lasts until the spring. Then theres a confrontation between a group of older boys from a different school and Auggie and Jack at a sleep-away camp. They are hopelessly outnumbered until a group of boys who were formerly against Auggie and Jack help defend them from the bullies. In the end, Auggie has a successful year at school, and even makes the Honor Roll. In addition, the school gives him an award for courage, which he doesnt understand, musing, â€Å"If they want to give me a medal for being me, I’ll take it.† (p. 306) He sees himself as ordinary, and in the face of everything else, he really is just that: an ordinary kid. Review It‘s the straightforward, non-sentimental manner in which Palacio approaches her topic that makes this such an excellent book. Auggie might have an extraordinary face, but hes a regular kid, and that makes him relatable, in spite of his challenges. Palacio also shifts her point of view, telling the story through the eyes of characters other than Auggie. This allows the reader to get to know characters like Auggies sister, Via, who talks about the way her brother takes over the family’s life. However, some of the other viewpoints—especially of Via’s friends—feel somewhat unnecessary and bog down the middle of the book. The power of the book likes in how Palacio creates such a normal, relatable character from a boy living with such an extraordinary physical affliction. Even though Wonder is recommended for children ages 8 through 12, the books themes of identity, bullying, and acceptance make it interesting reading for a wide audience as well. About R.J. Palacio An art director by profession, R. J. Palacio first thought of the idea for Wonder when she and her children were on vacation. While there, they saw a young girl who had a condition similar to Auggie’s. Her children reacted badly, which got Palacio thinking about the girl and what she goes through on a daily basis. Palacio also thought about how she could have better taught her children to respond to situations like this. The book inspired Random House to start an anti-bullying campaign, called Choose Kind, with a site where people can share their experiences and sign a pledge to stamp out bullying. There you can also download an excellent Educator Guide for Wonder to use at home, or with a community grouop. Companion Book Auggie Me: Three Wonder Stories, also by R. J. Palacio, is a 320-page collection of three stories, each told from the point of view of one of three characters from Wonder: the bully Julian, Auggie’s oldest friend, Christopher, and his new friend, Charlotte. The stories take place prior to Auggie’s attending school and during his first year there. This book is neither a prequel nor a sequel to Wonder—in fact, Palacio has made it clear that she does not plan to ever write either. Instead, this book is meant as a companion for those who have already read Wonder and want to extend the experience by learning more about Auggies impact on the people around him.