NASA Strategic Plan Case Study Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

NASA Strategic Plan - Case Study Example For a strategic plan to be achievable, it has to be clear such that one can easily understand what it is all about. NASA’s 2011 strategic plan lacks any form of clarity. There are no specific goals and objectives and one would argue that it is just a list of a few nonspecific and unformulated ideas. In addition, the mission statement for the company should be for specifically aimed at the employees, the customers, the stakeholders and partners to the organization. It should be short and clear-cut provided the message is passed understood by recipients. The vision statement should be a bit longer and detailed as this is gives the employees, stakeholders, and customers and partners an idea of what the company is working towards and the means through which it hopes to get there. In NASA’s strategic plan, the vision statement is short and rather vague while the mission statement is a bit more detailed than should be the case. In addition, the mission statement does not express a particularly unique mission that is unique to the agency. Both of the mission and the vision statement could probably apply to any government agency that deals in research and development as there is no mention of aeronautics or space. This could in away lead to a misunderstanding of the agencyâ€⠄¢s general tactical direction (National Research Council, 2012). A strategic plan for any organization should involve all the members of the organization, at every organizational level. This insinuates that all the members of the organization should be able to understand the plan for them to be capable of playing part in the attainment of the organizations goals and objectives. When setting goals and objectives, one has to involve everyone at every level in the organization, as they will all be helpful in working towards the realization of the company’s mission. Secondly, the strategic plans for NASA are a bit far stretched considering the

The Inheritance of Loss Essay

The Inheritance of Loss Essay As might be expected from the rich input of her cultural background, Kiran Desai, daughter of the author Anita Desai is a born story-teller. Her first novel, Hullabaloo in the Guava Orchard (1998), is a fresh look at life in the sleepy provincial town of Shahkot in India. At 35 years old, Desai is the youngest woman ever to win the prize and was already highly acclaimed in literary circles for her first novel Hullabaloo in the Guava Orchard which won a Betty Trask award  [2]  when it was published in 1998. She spent eight years writing her second novel The Inheritance of Loss  [3]  . Much has been made of the parallels between the book and Desais family history but its not an autobiography. Desai herself has said that in places its about experiences within her family such as the experience of immigration and going back to India. Kiran Desais second novel The Inheritance of Loss can be viewed as a Diasporic  [4]  novel. The various themes which are intertwined in the novel are globalization, multiculturalism, insurgency, poverty, isolation and issues related to loss of identity. The issues and conflicts mentioned in the novel are portrayed in a subtle and intriguing manner through the central characters. The theme of Diaspora in the world of literature describes loss of identity and isolation witnessed by the Indian writers who are settled abroad. Writers like Salman Rushdie  [5]  , Vikram Seth  [6]  and Kiran Desai have given insight into what it means to travel between the West and the East. The novel is set in modern day India, and the story is narrated to depict the collapse of established order due to insurgency. In her novel, Desai portrays excellently the issues of poverty and globalization not being an easy solution for problems of trapped social middle classes. The story revolves around the inhabitants of a town in the north-eastern Himalayas, an embittered old judge, his granddaughter Sai, his cook and their rich array of relatives, friends and acquaintances and the effects on the lives of these people brought about by a Nepalese uprising. Running parallel with the story set in India we also follow the vicissitudes of the cooks son Biju as he struggles to realise the American Dream as an immigrant in New York. Like its predecessor, this book abounds in rich, sensual descriptions. These can be sublimely beautiful, such as in the images of the flourishing of nature at the local convent in spring: Huge, spread-open Easter lilies were sticky with spilling antlers; insects chased each other madly through the sky, zip zip; and amorous butterflies, cucumber green, tumbled past the jeep windows into the deep marine valleys. They can also be horrific, such as in descriptions of the protest march: One jawan was knifed to death, the arms of another were chopped off, a third was stabbed, and the heads of policemen came up on stakes before the station across from the bench under the plum tree, where the towns people had rested themselves in more peaceful times and the cook sometimes read his letters. A beheaded body ran briefly down the street, blood fountaining from the neck   [7]   The Inheritance of Loss is much more ambitious than Hullabaloo in its spatial breadth and emotional depth. It takes on huge subjects such as morality and justice, globalisation, racial, social and economic inequality, fundamentalism and alienation. It takes its reader on a see-saw of negative emotions. There is pathos which often goes hand in hand with revulsion for example in the description of the judges adoration of his dog Mutt, the disappearance of which rocks his whole existence, set against his cruelty to his young wife. There is frequent outrage at the deprivation and poverty in which many of the characters live, including the cooks son in America; and there is humiliation, for example in the treatment of Sai by her lover-turned-rebel, or Lola, who tries to stand up to the Nepalese bullies. Against these strong emotions however, Desai expertly injects doses of comedy and buffoon-like figures. One of these is Bijus winsome friend Saeed, an African (Biju hated all black people but liked Saeed), with a slyer and much more happy go lucky attitude to life. Whereas Biju finds it difficult to have a conversation even with the Indian girls to whom he delivers a take away meal, Saeed had many girls: Oh myee God!! he said. Oh myee Gaaaawd! She keep calling me and calling me, he clutched at head, aaaiiiI dont know what to do!! Its those dreadlocks, cut them off and the girls will go. But I dont want them to go!  [8]   Much of the comedy also arises from the Indian mis or over-use of the English language. Result equivocal the young Judge wrote home to India on completing his university examinations in Britain. What, asked everyone does that mean? It sounded as if there was a problem, because un words were negative words, those basically competent in the English agreed. But then (his father) consulted the assistant magistrate and they exploded with joy à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦. Bose, the Judges friend from his university days is a wonderfully optimistic but pompous individual, made all the more ridiculous by his over-use of British idioms Cheeri-o, right-o, tickety boo, simply smashing, chin-chin, no siree, hows that, bottoms up, I say!  [9]   An original and modern aspect of Desais style is the almost poet-like use she makes of different print forms on the page: she uses italics for foreign words as if to emphasize their exoticness and untranslatability and capitals for emphasis when someone is angry, expressing surprise or disbelief (a natural development of the netiquette that to write in capitals is like shouting). Published to extraordinary acclaim, The Inheritance of Loss heralds Kiran Desai as one of our most insightful novelists. She illuminates the pain of exile and the ambiguities of postcolonialism with a tapestry of colorful characters: an embittered old judge; Sai, his sixteen-year-old orphaned granddaughter; a chatty cook; and the cooks son, Biju, who is hopscotching from one place to another in miserable living conditions. The novel is set partly in India and partly in the USA. Desai describes it as a book that tries to capture what it means to live between East and West and what it means to be an immigrant, and goes on to say that it also explores at a deeper level, what happens when a Western element is introduced into a country that is not of the West which happened during the British colonial days in India, and is happening again with Indias new relationship with the States. Her third aim was to write about, What happens when you take people from a poor country and place them in a wealthy one. How does the imbalance between these two worlds change a persons thinking and feeling? How do these changes manifest themselves in a personal sphere, a political sphere, over time?  [10]   As she says, These are old themes that continue to be relevant in todays world, the past informing the present, the present revealing the past.  [11]   The book paints the act of immigration and how the postcolonial war creates despair resulting in a sense of isolation inherited by each character in the novel. In a generous vision, sometimes funny, sometimes sad, Desai presents the human quandaries facing panoply of characters. This majestic novel of a busy, grasping time-every moment holding out the possibility of hope or betrayal-illuminates the consequences of colonialism and global conflicts of religion, race, and nationalism. The novel is set in 1986 in India at the foot of Mount Kanchenjunga, where the Indian border meets that of Nepal, Tibet, Sikkim, and Bhutan, and where people of many classes and cultures collide in their shared struggle to survive. Kiran Desais novel presents the story of one family as a symbol of the global issues related to colonization and the resulting search for identity. As we read the novel, we meet the retired judge, Jemubhai Patel, whose isolated house near the foot of the mountains is home also to his beloved dog Mutt and his cook. The judge and the cook have lived together in apparent symbiosis for many years when the judges orphaned granddaughter, Sai, comes to live with them. Her arrival marks the beginning of the conflicts that defines the novel. Also central to the story are Gyan, Sais Nepali tutor, and Biju, the cooks son, who has travelled to America in hopes of escaping poverty and making enough money to eventually rescue his father from servitude. The central conflict of the novel revolves around the Nepalis fight to gain education, health care, and other basic rights in India. Early in the story, a group of young insurgents storm the judges house and steal his rifles, literally robbing him of the signs of his Western education and professional occupation. When the tutor, Gyan, with whom Sai has begun a romantic relationship, joins the insurgency. Sai finds herself caught in the middle of a war of class and caste discovers that she has also become a symbol of wealth that Gyan despises. While Gyan and the insurgents are fighting a battle for rights and freedom in India, Biju, the cooks son, is fighting for his own survival and struggling to maintain his identity as he adapts to life in the U.S. As he hops from one menial job to the next, Biju discovers that Americas opportunities are not as plentiful as he expected, and he has given up a servants life in one country just to find the same life in new country, where he faces constant poverty and exploitation. He even notes that, through poverty in America is substantially less severe than poverty in India. Desai presents the similarities between the judge, Gyan, and Biju- as they fight to find their identities and reconcile themselves with their histories. The characters in the novel are bewildered and disillusioned by the world, with no initiative to speak of, nor any capacity to learn; quite often theyre not even paying attention. Almost all of characters have been stunted by their encounters with the West. As a student, isolated in racist England, the future judge feels barely human at all and leaps when touched on the arm as if from an umbrella intimacy. Yet on his return to India, he finds himself despising his backward Indian wife. Arguably the most beautiful portions of the book are the nuggets Desai paints of the cooks son Biju who gets by on the barest of bare from one minimum wage job to the other in New York City. In the Gandhi cafà ©, the lights were kept low, the better to hide the stains. It was a long journey from here to the fusion trend, the goat cheese and basil samosa, the mango margarita. This was the real thing, generic Indian, and it could be ordered complete, one stop on the subway line or even on the phone: gilt and red chairs, plastic roses on the table with synthetic dewdrops,  [12]  Desai writes when she describes one of the Indian restaurants Biju works at. What bind these seemingly disparate characters are shared historical legacy and a common experience of impotence and humiliation. For the characters in The Inheritance of Loss, escape is impossible and misery is birthright. Sais parents before they die are filled with the same loneliness as their daughter; the son whose mother was bidding farewell earlier in this review botches his goodbye, and we learn that Never again would he know love for a human being that wasnt adulterated by another, contradictory emotion (37). (The son grows up to be the judge, arranged into a loveless marriage that descends into rape and other abuses.) The cook is an old man with no fulfillment in his own life, desperate that his son do better than he did; this pressure is eventually Bijus undoing. Sais tutor before Gyan is Noni, a spinster who never had love at all (68). And so on, for the entire cast. Its an old story: Certain moves made long ago, we are told, had produced all of them (199). They are, if you like, variations on an absence of dignity: children, criminals, and buffoons. And too often thats all they are or at least the rest is hidden, the civilised sheen of Desais prose obscuring the extent of the violence done to their lives by circumstances. The plot of the novel is fascinating; however, its real charm lies in its atmospheric descriptions and in quirky characters with whom the reader quickly identifies. Desai is careful observer of behavior, both in India and in the US, with a fine eye for details which bring her character and narrative to life. She presents details dispassionately, illustrating her themes without making moral judgments about her characters. Here there are no saints or villains, just ordinary people trying to lead the best lives they can, using whatever resources are available to them. Intensely human, Desais characters, like people from all cultures, make huge sacrifices for their children, behave cruelly toward people they love, reject traditional ways of life and old values, rediscover what is important to them, suffer at the hands of faceless government officials, and learn, and grow, and make decisions, sometimes ill-considered, about their lives. Dealing with all levels of society and many different cultures, Desai shows life humor and brutality, its whimsy and its harshness, and its delicate emotions and passionate commitments in a novel that is both beautiful and wise. The books language, scenarios and juxtapositions are funny, threatening, vivid and tender all at the same time. The comic element always intertwined with irony, as characters struggle with a world bigger than themselves, a world that only ever seems to accept them partially, and rarely on their own terms. The novels elaborate structure takes the reader into the world of Nationalism and migration, which seems contemporary and timeless, familiar and unpredictable. Chapters alternate between India and US, juxtaposing the slow pace of life in the hills with the frantic movements of an illegal migrants existence, maintaining a degree of suspense until discontinuous narratives collide. Kiran Desai writes an elegant and thoughtful study of families, the losses each member must confront alone, and the lies each tells himself/herself to make memories of the past more palatable. It is also true that the book does not have a sense of the movement that has shaped the subcontinents history- in this case the freedom struggle and the movement for Gorkhaland. The backdrop to the action in the novel is political unrest in Kalimpong where Nepali Ghurkas are campaigning at first quite quietly and then with increasing force for an independent Ghurkaland. The uprising brings a new wave of change to the main characters as conditions become significantly worse and much of what theyve come to take for granted is brought into doubt. Desai has been condemned by local people in Kalimpong for portraying them as ignorant and violent and for being condescending. The book has a growing sense of despair and decay as if the people, like the houses they live in and the property they own, are succumbing to the damp and mould of a monsoon season. The Inheritance of Loss is a very inward-looking novel, with far more internal monologues and passages of description than exchange of dialogue, which despite the rough patches mentioned above plays to Desais strengths. As in much of immigrant writing, Kiran Desai is an outsider to all the worlds that form a part of landscape. She is merely the observer passing through. But, her knowledge of alienation makes protagonists search for a sense of belonging more real. The inheritance of loss depicts in its many details the tragedies of a third world country just free from colonialism. The main theme of the novel also appears to be the influence of the West on India and how Indians are wounded by the policies of the West. These influences have oppressed and degraded India. Against the gigantic backdrop of the Himalayas, so savage with beauty and yet the stillness of its towering ranges directly draws upon the boring and mundane life of its characters with tumultuous inner sides and shades. The novel gives us delectable details of the beauty of the natural world. The sound of the wind, the pattering of the rain , the gurgling of pipes, the creaking and clattering of an old house Cho Oyu, the happy snoring of the faithful and happy dog Mutt, sometimes makes reading so refreshing that one can breathe the very crisp Himalayan air and feel surrounded by the looming dark forest. Ms Desai has presented in this book such lovely details that many a times it feels so much like our world.The novel depicts very well in Jemubhai the dilemmas of post colonialism. The judge Jemubhai perfect manners and demeanor is very much British but he cannot get himself free from the shackles (which he thinks to be so) of traditional Gujrati and Indian mentality. He feels guilty of ill treating his wife Nimmi, of shoving away the holy coconut throwing in the water custom. He seems to be a man who is caught, caught between the past and the present, between his days in London and his slow and mundane life in the crumbling house Cho Oyu, between his daughter and his grand daughter, Sai, between the Nepalis struggling for their land and freedom and his own British world of thick volumes of English Literature, of crones at teatime and the choice of white sauce and brown sauce for dinner and his lovely dog Mutt. But soon Kalimpong becomes the hub of activities. The Nepalis struggle to get their own rights and land slowly creeps into the lives of the characters, the cook, the judge, Sai, Noni, Lola and gnaws and questions their very being.. The movement does not even spare Biju the cooks son in America who comes back only to be robbed of all his money and belongings. But yet the reader finds a quaint satisfaction in the union of father and son in the backdrop of a disturbed land of Kalimpong. At least Biju feels safe and at peace compared to his lonely life as a waiter thrown from one restaurant kitchen to another. The progress of the human heart is clearly depicted in Sai. Her yearnings and passion for Gyan, the long wait , the quarrel of English values and Nepali struggles only make her realize and look at life more closely, the very human soul which had been quite frozen and regularized with strict orders in the missionary convent school in Dehra Dun. The novel though rich with details and presenting a picturesque mosaic of life, at times falls prey to monotony and boredom. The darkness and the inner conflict sometimes weigh too much upon the mind and soul. But thats what a good writer should be capable of and Ms Desai has been very successful in touching and stirring the depths of human emotion and thought. A very contemplative work and a must read for all connoisseurs of literature The novel is amazing in many ways. The picture of India drawn is intricate and fascinating. The characters are complex and the writing is simply stunning. However, the whole picture painted in this story leaves no room for hope, no room for joy, no room for even tiny bit of beauty.

The Navajo Code Talkers Essays -- History Navajo Indians Language Essa

The Navajo Code Talkers During the Pacific portion of World War II, increasingly frequent instances of broken codes plagued the United States Marine Corps. Because the Japanese had become adept code breakers, at one point a code based on a mathematical algorithm could not be considered secure for more than 24 hours. Desperate for an answer to the apparent problem, the Marines decided to implement a non-mathematical code; they turned to Philip Johnston's concept of using a coded Navajo language for transmissions. Although this idea had been successfully implemented during World War I using the Choctaw Indian's language, history generally credits Philip Johnston for the idea to use Navajos to transmit code across enemy lines. Philip recognized that people brought up without hearing Navajo spoken had no chance at all to decipher this unwritten, strangely syntactical, and guttural language (Navajo). Fortunately, Johnston was capable of developing this idea because his missionary father had raised him on the Navajo reservation. As a child, Johnston learned the Navajo language as he grew up along side his many Navajo friends (Lagerquist 19). With this knowledge of the language, Johnston was able to expand upon the idea of Native Americans transmitting messages in their own language in order to fool enemies who were monitoring transmissions. Not only did the Code Talkers transmit messages in Navajo, but the messages were also spoken in a code that Navajos themselves could not understand (Paul 7). This code actually proved vital to the success of the Allied efforts in World War II. Because the Code Talkers performed their duty expertly and efficiently, the Marines could count on both the ... ...ation Fund: 1975. McColm, George. "An Ungrateful Nation." American History. May 12 1999. <http://www.binary.net/edjolie/02972_text.html> Nash, Gerald. The American West Transformed. Bloomington: Indiana UP, 1985. "Navajo Code Talkers in World War II." May 12 1999. <http://www.history.navy.mil/faqs/faq61-2.htm> Paul, Doris A. The Navajo Code Talkers. Pittsburgh: Dorrance Publishing Co. Inc., 1973. Sanchez, George. "The People" A Study of the Navajo. Lawrence: Haskell Institute Print Shop, 1948. Shaffer, Mark. "Navajos Fighting for War medals, Highest Honor for Code Talkers." The Arizona Republic. May 12 1999. <http://web.lexis-nexis.com/universe/> Department of the Interior. You asked about the Navajo! Lawrence: Haskell Institute, 1961. Indian Affairs Bureau. The Navajo. Report of J.A. Krug, Secretary of the Interior. 1948.

Business, government and society Essay

Business, government and society – all 3 are inter-related with each other. Things remain unchanged for all companies. Robi is not different from that. Govt. is a system through which policies and rules are made and implemented for the society. Society is a network of human relation. Consumer of a product comes from the society and govt. is a part of total social system. Robi and other telephone operators company once decided that they will close the access of new company in the market. So they gave money to some powerful person of govt. So, now new comp can’t access in the telecom market. Robi’s consumer – who belongs to the society are confined in these old telecom companies. They are also disturbed over the government and Robi. That’s how Robi, govt. and society are inter-related. There are four models of BGS relationship: 1. Market Capitalism Model 3. Dominance Model 2. Dynamic Force Model 4. Stakeholders Model Robi stands in Dominance Model. Robi and other 4 companies are all of the telecom market. No new competitor can come here. Robi and other 4 companies with the help of government control the market. A company’s stakeholders are those who can affect and affected by the operations of that company. If it is done directly they are the internal stakeholders and if it is done indirectly they are the external stakeholders. Robi’s internal stakeholders are its Board of directors, Managers, Employees and all the people who have direct influence over the firm’s action. External stakeholders are Customer, Government, Potential buyers, Competitors etc. A Board of Directors of Robi can easily change its operations and if Robi losses he will be responsible for that. Robi changes its packages according to its customer choice, otherwise they will not use Robi. Business Environment of Robi: Every company has its own environment. There are two types of environment, external and internal. As the method Robi has the maximum control over its internal environment and has no or less control over its external environment. Now Robi needs to know the environment for its strategic planning and to create link with society. Its environment depends on their strength like technology, law, social responsibilities, government, and local competition over telecom business. Robi is a mobile operator in Bangladesh which concentrates on offering GSM communication services for private and corporate customer. Their intention is to promote the wireless lifestyle -the complete mobile society. And that is their mission. Their structure based on the services they provide like internet and mobile networks. And their resources are international server and national networking system through which their system process is running. Robi’s management includes their all employees, board of director, owners and key stakeholders etc. is maintaining the culture of this company. And these are inter-related to each other to make their internal environment. In the sense of environment, through better technologies than other telecom companies Robi try to attract more customers. Robi take care of all labor force and suppliers to create a link in society by abiding the government policy. And that’s there external environments. Robi is jointed with a foreign company. So we can assume that government has given them an entry to our market. And letting them doing business here. So it’s a governmental or political environment of this company. This company is profiting day by day. This money comes from us and that changes our economy. So they have clear connection with this economical issue which is their economical environment. Consumers of this company are enjoying cheap rates and good network. So, more people are finding attraction. The attitude and behavior is changing slightly. That is how the society is working for the company as its environment. The one most important part of this company is technology. Telecom companies are depended on technology. Good server and network is their main key to maximizing their profit. But technology changes very fast. So, the company has to keep pace with their technological environment. This company also obsessed with natural environment like bad weather, bad network. Business Power of Robi: Power is the force or strength that can change something. Business power is the Strength of business that can change a society. Robi made its sim card and call rate more cheep. So, more people are using Robi now. There are different types of business power and that do different changes. When Robi reduces its call rate, people talk more over telephone. Their expenses for telephone increase. This is creates economical change. Robi sponsors various cultural programs on various occasions. So, these programs are regaining its lost glory. Thus Robi makes cultural change. Robi is introducing new services like- mobile ticketing, 4G, internet services etc. through their technology. This technological power is making our life more easy. After the availability of mobile phone people talk so much over phone. Robi is changing our habit by giving special offers and talktimes. There are also various power inside Robi like – political power, positional power, coercive power, reward power etc.

Riath

Owen Marshall uses animal imagery of a camel to describe Mr Thorpe in the short story ‘Requiem in a Town House’. The use of this animal imagery through similes attracts and maintains the readers attention because it makes the reader sympathize for Mr Thorpe. The reader wants to read on to know why he is like an old camel, what has led to this and why he is viewed in this way. ‘Mr Thorpe stood helplessly by, like an old gaunt camel’, ‘like a camel whose wounded expression is above it all’. These examples of animal imagery from the text create an image of Mr Thorpe like an old camel.Camels are known to be large, awkward and slow moving, so the comparison to the elderly Mr Thorpe is a negative one. Camels are also often put on show at Zoos and such places where they live in small enclosures, much smaller than they are used to. The comparison to Mr Thorpe is demoralizing and dehumanizing to elderly people but also makes the reader feel compassion an d sympathy towards him as he is living in a small house much smaller than he is used to and is confined just like an old camel.The authors purpose was to accentuate the entrapment that Mr Thorpe feels in the town house. This draws the readers attention to how elderly people are treated in society, often put to the side and their opinions ignored, decreasing their value of life. Animal imagery is equally used in Disconnections to attract and maintain the reader’s interest through the alienation of old people, especially towards the elderly woman, the main character. The lady has just suffered from a stroke and the older she’s become her memory is fading. The doddery woman cannot support herself as she walks.Ever since the horrific stroke, she has become very sluggish. She is well aware of her family’s opinions of her welfare and it makes her feel self conscious about herself. The woman has to walk into a room where her family sits waiting for her to come in †Å"watch her inching her wayward leg forward, an awkward stick-clutching crab. † This metaphor illustrates how the old woman walks, awkward, and stiffly jointed like that of a crab. It also highlights her difficult daily struggle to do things that we take for granted in our own life.Animal imagery is extended throughout the text describing her movement being similar to that of a crab’s. â€Å" As I crab into the room. † Sue McCauley effectively uses animal imagery to highlight the many struggles that old people have to go through daily and how much we need to appreciate the ability we have compared to that of an elderly person. She raises the issue of alienation many elderly feel as they are excluded from society and their family no longer want to look after them, but only look down at them.Owen Marshall uses the symbolism of the couch to represent Mr Thorpe in the Town House. Symbolism of the couch is used to maintain the readers interest throughout the short tex t. â€Å"In the corner was a heavy couch that had been brought in from the farm, but wouldn't fit in the house. † Like Mr Thorpe the couch doesn't fit in the Town House; there is no place for it, the couch would get in the way just as Mr Thorpe does. â€Å"Mrs Thorpe developed the habit of sending her husband out to wait for the post. It stopped him from blocking doorways†¦ The couch is stored in the garage and is heavy solid and collects dust. Mr Thorpe ends up spending a majority of his time on the couch in his garage, instead of in his town house that his wife has forced upon him in his retirement: â€Å"as his despair deepened, he would go directly to the couch, and stretch out. † On the couch lies an army blanket and an embroidered cushion. The army blanket has been with Mr Thorpe through thick and thin. The couch is full of history and was beloved just like Mr Thorpe.Just like the couch, Mr Thorpe is useless you could say; he too does nothing but collects d ust. The garage is the only place where Mr Thorpe can feel like he isn't being crushed by the tacky Town House. â€Å"As his despair deepened he would go directly to the couch, and stretch out with his head on the old embroidered cushion. † By comparing Mr Thorpe to an old, lumpy couch this maintains interest for the reader drawing curiosity as to why the comparison is being made. The author’s purpose of using this symbol is to represent Mr Thorpe as an outcast from society.Mr Thorpe has been banished into the shadows of the Town House just like the couch is banished into the dark garage. Mr Thorpe represents everyone who feels outcast and just like another old piece of furniture in a modern Town House. McCauley, also uses the symbolism of the buttons in Disconnection as a technique to help attract and maintain the reader in highlighting the effects on how she is slowing losing her dreams on being able to look after herself and she is just yearning to live in her own h ouse.The symbolism of the buttons is helped to uncover how much the buttons mean to her and help her to stay in reality and retain her short memory. ‘The buttons are too small. Too small. They slither away from my fingers, from my clumsy finger and thumb.. ‘ The reader starts to see it’s not the buttons getting smaller, but that she is slowly starting to lose grip of her life and is starting to struggle with the simple things in life like doing up the buttons.The purpose is to show how she is losing control of her co-ordination, but not only that she is starting to lose control of her life, she has no voice and her family will be the ones that choose her future. The symbolism of the title also attracts and maintains reader. On so many levels, the reader sees how the narrator’s life is disconnected. Throughout the story we see that she is having disconnections with her family, her limbs, neurons and her memories.We learn that all she wants is her independenc e and freedom of her own home but when she gets the chance to say what she wants, her mind goes blank and she fails to make any real sense. â€Å"You were my babies’ I announce†¦. I realise I am making no sense†¦ They have no idea what I’m trying to say and even if I went on to explain they wouldn’t understand†. The reader sees that her last chance to get her only hope has been ineffective and she has lost grip of her life, and no one else will be able to have the time and care to be able to help her with her last wish.McCauley shows how the other characters in the story are aware that this not the right thing to be doing, but they are not giving her a choice they are ready to get on with their life. This method is effective as it is a strong way of attracting the reader to read on because they want to understand how old people are alienated from the rest of the world. The purpose is to show how old people in todays world really have no hope in getting their last wishes as the youth want to get on with their own life and don’t have the time to look after them anymore.

Ten Tips for Coding Excel VBA Macros

Ten Tips for Coding Excel VBA Macros Ten commonsense suggestions to make coding Excel VBA faster and easier. These tips are based on Excel 2010 (but they work in nearly all versions) and many were inspired by the OReilly book Excel 2010 - The Missing Manual by Matthew MacDonald. 1 - Always test your macros in a throwaway test spreadsheet, usually a copy of one that its designed to work with. Undo doesnt work with macros, so if you code a macro that folds, spindles, and mutilates your spreadsheet, youre outta luck unless you have followed this tip. 2 - Using shortcut keys can be dangerous because Excel doesn’t warn you if you choose a shortcut key that Excel is already using. If this happens, Excel uses the shortcut key for the macro, not the built-in shortcut key. Think about how surprised your boss will be when he loads your macro and then Ctrl-C adds a random number to half the cells in his spreadsheet. Matthew MacDonald makes this suggestion in Excel 2010 - The Missing Manual. Here are some common key combinations that you should never assign to macro shortcuts because people use them too frequently: CtrlS (Save)CtrlP (Print)CtrlO (Open)CtrlN (New)CtrlX (Exit)CtrlZ (Undo)CtrlY (Redo/Repeat)CtrlC (Copy)CtrlX (Cut)CtrlV (Paste) To avoid problems, always use CtrlShiftletter macro key combinations, because these combinations are much less common than the Ctrlletter shortcut keys. And if you’re in doubt, don’t assign a shortcut key when you create a new, untested macro. 3 - Cant remember Alt-F8 (the default macro shortcut)? Do the names mean nothing to you? Since Excel will make macros in any opened workbook available to every other workbook that’s currently open, the easy way is to build your own macro library with all of your macros in a separate workbook. Open that workbook along with your other spreadsheets. As Matthew puts it, Imagine you’re editing a workbook named SalesReport.xlsx, and you open another workbook named MyMacroCollection.xlsm, which contains a few useful macros. You can use the macros contained in MyMacroCollection.xlsm with SalesReport.xlsx without a hitch. Matthew says this design makes it easy to share and reuse macros across workbooks (and between different people). 4 - And consider adding buttons to link to the macros in the worksheet that contains your macro library. You can arrange the buttons in any functional groupings that make sense to you and add text to the worksheet to explain what they do. Youll never wonder what a cryptically named macro actually does again. 5 - Microsofts new macro security architecture has been improved a lot, but its even more convenient to tell Excel to trust the files in certain folders on your computer (or on other computers). Pick a specific folder on your hard drive as a trusted location. If you open a workbook stored in this location, it’s automatically trusted. 6 - When youre coding a macro, dont try to build cell selection into the macro. Instead, assume that the cells that the macro will use have been pre-selected. Its easy for you to drag the mouse over the cells to select them. Coding a macro that is flexible enough to do the same thing is likely to be full of bugs and hard to program. If you want to program anything, try to figure out how to write validation code to check whether an appropriate selection has been made in the macro instead. 7 - You might think that Excel runs a macro against the workbook that contains the macro code, but this isn’t always true. Excel runs the macro in the active workbook. Thats the workbook that you looked at most recently. As Matthew explains it, If you have two workbooks open and you use the Windows taskbar to switch to the second workbook, and then back to the Visual Basic editor, Excel runs the macro on the second workbook. 8 - Matthew suggests that, For easier macro coding, try to arrange your windows so you can see the Excel window and the Visual Basic editor window at the same time, side-by-side. But Excel wont do it, (Arrange All on the View menu only arranges the Workbooks. Visual Basic is considered a different application window by Excel.) But Windows will. In Vista, close all but the two you want to arrange and right-click the Taskbar; select Show Windows Side by Side. In Windows 7, use the Snap feature. (Search online for Windows 7 features Snap for instructions.) 9 - Matthews top tip: Many programmers find long walks on the beach or guzzling a jug of Mountain Dew a helpful way to clear their heads. And of course, the mother of all VBA tips: 10 - The first thing to try when you cant think of the statements or keywords you need in your program code is to turn on the macro recorder and do a bunch of operations that seem to be similar. Then examine the generated code. It wont always point you to the right thing, but it often does. At a minimum, it will give you a place to start looking. Source MacDonald, Matthew. Excel 2010: The Missing Manual. 1 edition, OReilly Media, July 4, 2010.

African Americans in World War I

African Americans in World War I Fifty years after the end of the Civil War, the nation’s 9.8 million African Americans held a tenuous place in society. Ninety percent of African Americans lived in the South, most trapped in low-wage occupations, their daily lives shaped by restrictive â€Å"Jim Crow† laws and threats of violence. But the start of World War I in the summer of 1914 opened up new opportunities and changed American life and culture forever. â€Å"Recognizing the the significance of World War I is essential to developing a full understanding of modern African-American history and the struggle for black freedom,† argues Chad Williams, Associate Professor of African Studies at Brandeis University.      The Great Migration While the United States wouldn’t enter the conflict until 1917, the war in Europe stimulated the U.S. economy almost from the start, setting off a 44-month long period of growth, particularly in manufacturing. At the same time, immigration from Europe fell sharply, reducing the white labor pool. Combined with a boll weevil infestation that devoured millions of dollars worth of cotton crops in 1915 and other factors, thousands of African Americans across the South decided to head North. This was the start of the â€Å"Great Migration,† of more than 7 million African-Americans over the next half-century. During the World War I period, an estimated 500,000 African Americans moved out of the South, most of them heading for the cities. Between 1910-1920, the African American population of New York City grew 66%; Chicago, 148%; Philadelphia, 500%; and Detroit, 611%. As in the South, they faced discrimination and segregation in both jobs and housing in their new homes. Women, in particular, were largely relegated to the same work as domestics and childcare workers as they had at home. In some cases, tension between whites and the newcomers turned violent, as in the deadly East St Louis riots of 1917. Close Ranks African American public opinion on America’s role in the war mirrored that of white Americans: first they didn’t want to get involved in a European conflict, the quickly changing course in late 1916. When President Woodrow Wilson stood before Congress to ask for a formal declaration of war on April 2, 1917, his assertion that the world â€Å"must be made safe for democracy† resonated with African American communities as an opportunity to fight for their civil rights within the U.S. as part of a broader crusade to secure democracy for Europe. â€Å"Let us have a real democracy for the United States,† said an editorial in the Baltimore Afro-American, â€Å"and then we can advise a house-cleaning on the other side of the water.†    Some African American newspapers held that blacks shouldn’t participate in the war effort because of rampant American inequality. On the other end of the spectrum, W.E.B. DuBois wrote a powerful editorial for the NAACP’s paper, The Crisis. â€Å"Let us not hesitate. Let us, while this war lasts, forget our special grievances and close our ranks shoulder to shoulder with our own white fellow citizens and the allied nations that are fighting for democracy.†    Over There Most young African American men were ready and willing to prove their patriotism and their mettle. Over 1 million registered for the draft, of which 370,000 were selected for service, and more than 200,000 were shipped off to Europe. From the beginning, there were disparities in how African American servicemen were treated. They were drafted at a higher percentage. In 1917, local draft boards inducted 52% of black candidates and 32% of white candidates. Despite a push by African American leaders for integrated units, black troops remained segregated, and the vast majority of these new soldiers were used for support and labor, rather than combat. While many young soldiers were probably disappointed to spend the war as truck drivers, stevedores, and laborers, their work was vital to the American effort. The War Department did agree to train 1,200 black officers at a special camp in Des Moines, Iowa and a total of 1,350 African American officers were commissioned during the War. In the face of public pressure, the Army created two all-black combat units, the 92nd and 93rd Divisions. The 92nd Division became mired in a racial politics and other white divisions spread rumors that damaged its reputation and limited its opportunities to fight. The 93rd, however, was put under French control and didn’t suffer the same indignities. They performed well on the battlefields, with the 369th- dubbed the â€Å"Harlem Hellfighters†- winning praise for their fierce resistance to the enemy.    African American troops fought at Champagne-Marne, Meuse-Argonne, Belleau Woods, Chateau-Thierry, and other major operations. The 92nd and 93rd sustained over 5,000 casualties, including 1,000 soldiers killed in action. The 93rd included two Medal of Honor recipients, 75 Distinguished Service crosses, and 527 French â€Å"Croix du Guerre† medals. Red Summer If African American soldiers expected white gratitude for their service, they were quickly disappointed. Combined with labor unrest and paranoia over Russian-style â€Å"Bolshevism,† the fear that black soldiers had been â€Å"radicalized† overseas contributed to the bloody â€Å"Red Summer† of 1919. Deadly race riots broke out in 26 cities across the country, killing hundred. At least 88 black men were lynched in 1919- 11 of them newly-returned soldiers., some still in uniform. But World War I also inspired fresh resolve among African Americans to keeping working towards a racially-inclusive America that truly lived up to its claim to be the light of Democracy in the modern world. A new generation of leaders was born from the ideas and principles of their urban peers and exposure to France’s more equal view of race, and their work would help lay the groundwork for the Civil Rights movement later in the 20th Century.