7 Fun Challenges to Hold During Your 2016 Office Olympics

7 Fun Challenges to Hold During Your 2016 Office Olympics Olympic fever, 2016 edition, has set in. And although you’d rather be sitting on your couch watching round-the-clock streams of water polo and steeplechase, there’s the pesky fact that unlike Bob Costas, you’re not paid to live, breathe, and eat Olympics for the next few weeks. So you need to go to work- but that doesn’t necessarily mean you need to leave all things Olympic behind. Here are some Olympic events you can host at work, until you can get home and watch the USA basketball team humiliate some tiny nation that doesn’t have an NBA-packed roster.1. Competitive Chair SwivelHow many times can you spin without your feet touching the ground?2. Synchronized Stair WalkingIt builds teamwork![via Giphy]3. The 100M Freestyle Hallway SwimEat your heart out, Michael Phelps.4. Lobby GymnasticsBe sure to stick the landing! [via Tumblr]5. Cubicle HurdlesMaybe don’t do this one without a doctor present, or if your company has policies against, uh, da ngerous activities.6. Water Cooler Clean-and-JerkHow much can you lift without getting your shoes wet? [via Tumblr]7. Parking Lot MarathonGet ready for 26.2 meters of glory. [via USAFTW]The Closing CeremonyDon’t leave it out–pageantry is important! [via fanpop]

Lesson Aids Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Lesson Aids - Essay Example Each card contains pictures of various servings of food. Five cards consist of the total number of servings from each food group. These cards carry 5 points. 20 cards comprise specific food portions ranging from three servings to one serving. The points attached to these cards range from three to one respectively. There are also three wild cards displaying oil as a food group but students have been taught that oil is not a food group although a small portion is needed to keep one healthy. Therefore anyone picking an oil card will be required to lose a turn for the next round. An oil card may be cancelled when the player gets a card containing the total number of servings from any particular food group (Cancellation of an oil card is the player’s choice). The game begins with each player choosing a card from the 28 stockpile. The player with the highest score on his/her card has the first turn. Each player then picks 5 cards. The first player places one card on the table. In an anti-clockwise manner, the remaining players match the first card using the same food group as displayed on the table ensuring that the recommended daily requirement is not exceeded. The player with the card with the highest points wins that round and ceases the played cards of the opponents. This person plays first in the next round. These ceased cards are put in the player’s basket which would be used to tally the winning score at the end of the game. When a player does not have a card from the food group displayed on the table, he/she is required to take cards from the stock one at a time until a card belonging to that particular food group is obtained. The game ends when either the stock pile is completed or one player has utilized all the cards in his/her hands. The player with the highest points in their basket at the end of the game

Strategy planning Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 5250 words

Strategy planning - Essay Example McDonald’s deals with a wide range of products like hamburgers as well as French Fries, chicken sandwiches along with soft drinks, desserts and other various sorts of breakfast items (Gilbert, 2008). In order to determine the significance of various external factors that impact on the way McDonald’s conducts its business, it can be viewed that proper analysis of the external factors made the company to raise its business reputation and also to accomplish superior competitive position by a greater level. In order to analyse the external environment of McDonald’s, certain appropriate tools have been taken into concern like SWOT and STEEP which are described below. STEEP Analysis Socio-cultural Factors: McDonald’s establishes and follows an effective system in order to assess the requirements of the business markets where it operates. It stresses mainly on the strategy of individuality of the customers in relation to product behaviour and decisions on purchas es (Ivanova, 2011). Technological Factors: McDonald’s deals with broad assortment of fast food related products which generates a greater demand of these products by adopting along with executing pioneering technological procedures concerning its inventory system and supply chain among others (Ivanova, 2011). Environmental Factors: Relating to environmental factor, McDonald’s largely focuses upon effectively performing different sorts of corporate social accountabilities in terms of utilising bio-degradable substances in its broad array of products (Ivanova, 2011). Economic Factors: McDonald’s has a propensity to practice a great deal of difficulty in certain cases where there exists the significant concern of inflation and fluctuation in exchange rates. Specially mentioning, the variations in the exchange rates play a decisive part in the overall operations of the company (Ivanova, 2011). Political Factors: McDonald’s follows a unique set of instructions and policies for performing different operational functions effectively. It mainly concentrates on several sets of anxieties such as areas of health, environment and protection of the workers as well. These elements can be noticed in the state control of licensing of the restaurants in different regions where the company operates (Ivanova, 2011). SWOT Analysis Strengths: McDonald’s has a very strong and reputed brand name across the globe. It bears a strong partnership with other different companies which eventually results in increase of its goodwill in the market. The company is said to be the first fast-food restaurant which offered its customers with nutritional facts and as a consequence the loyal employees, customers and management form to be its biggest strengths (Scribd Inc., 2013). Weakness: McDonald’s has a pessimistic reputation concerning turnover rate of its employees. Relating to weakness, it generally faces quality issues at times and it also receives c riticisms particularly from health conscious people (Scribd Inc., 2013). Opportunities: McDonald’s should provide online services for its clients so that they can order sitting at home which in

Final project for LING 4100 topic2 Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Final project for LING 4100 topic2 - Assignment Example The two English languages are widely spread through out the world. For instance, Indian people were colonized by the British and hence adapted to the British English. Their English differs from that of American people, with strong annotation on the accents and pronunciation. The analysis will concentrate on Indian English, pointing out differences and similarities in relation to the North American English. English is the native language spoken in India, and everyone can communicate using English. However, their English is pretty much different from the American English. We concentrate on the dialogue in the news cast between the anchor interviewing Mr Davender Ghai. The interview is in relation to Ghai’s fight to acquire an open funeral pyre while in United Kingdom. Cremation is not allowed in the United Kingdom and the Hindu activist fights to acquire the chance to be cremated after his death. They engage in a tough interview that is carried out in the Indian studios at New C astle. We concentrate the analysis from the first question that the anchor asks Mr. Ghai. The question demands to get an answer as to why Mr. Ghai engaged into the fight of an open pyre when he is in the United Kingdom. The analysis will also cover the answer he gives and the process he follows to answer the directed question. The second question directed to him by the anchor seeks to enquire if Ghai fought for the legalization of open cremation for himself or for the entire Hindu people in the United Kingdom. The analysis looks into the second question and the answer given. Data Sample Ghai starts by interrupting the anchor with a â€Å"thank you† before he is welcomed. It shows a difference in response between American English and Indian English. The first question that the anchor asks is; â€Å"Can you tell us what made you go in for this legal battle, what did you really want to do? Ghai responds; â€Å"Well, see. My father always wanted a funeral pyre when he died in 1 979, because we could not send the body to India, we couldn’t afford it. So, when he died I was very very upset. Okay, then I found out in 1932, the princess of Nepal was given open funeral pyre in London.† The second question is; were you fighting this battle for yourself or for all Hindus in the United Kingdom? The dialect language used is the official English spoken world wide by the Indian people. Ghai answers; â€Å"Okay, hear, I am a man of charity and I run a charity†¦Ã¢â‚¬  Date sample analysis Critically analyzing the first question, one can see that the language used differs from the North American English. The first difference noted is the pronunciation of the English words, and the use of verbs in the sentences. Going by the American way, the question is wrongfully constructed. Pronunciation of the entire sentence differs from the American way. Secondly, a verb is the most critical part of a sentence since it explains the subject’s action. The verb used in the question â€Å"go† is followed by adverb. This is uncommon with the American English. The use of an adverb after a verb is said to be grammatically incorrect in the American English. The other significant difference that can be noted in this dialect is the phonetic aspect. It can be learned that the Indians use the middle of their tongue just before the end to pronounce. This is the reason that the pronunciation is different from the American pronunciation.

Persuasive Power of Neuroimages

Persuasive Power of Neuroimages Neuroimage effect and repeated exposure:  The contextual origin of neuroimage’s persuasive power Bethany Waites Erica Chastain If you were to open up a newspaper, or visit an online news source, there is good chance that you will come across a media coverage story of a scientific research study, and that article will probably contain an image to help facilitate complicated scientific information to the reader (McCabe and Castel, 2008). Many of the popular media articles describing the latest scientific research simplify the findings for the general public, accompany these findings with neuroimages, and more often than not, these findings are oversimplified or misrepresented (Morling, 2012, p.18). In 2008, it was suggested that judgments on the credibility of scientific reasoning behind research conclusions can be positively influenced (or persuaded) by the supplementary presence of neuroimages depicting cognitive processes described in the scientific research presented by media research articles (McCabe and Castel, 2008) – a finding which many have focused on replicating and discovering the for this p ower (Schweitzer et al., 2013; Weisberg et al., 2008; Schweitzer et al., 2013). If the contextual origins of the documented significant power that neuroimages exert on the credibility judgments of the scientific reasoning (henceforth called the Neuroimage Effect or NIE) can be discovered, there would be implications not only in the fields of psychology but across the scientific field in general. The scientific community is dependent on the popular media to correctly facilitate scientific information and findings to the general public, and if there are in fact contexts out of which NIE can arise, it would be imperative for the scientific community to discover and prevent them from occurring in popular media so that scientific information has a better opportunity of being correctly conveyed to the general public. In 2008, McCabe and Castel’s groundbreaking study introduced the idea of NIE after explicitly examining the persuasive power neuroimages had on the perceived credibility of cognitive neuroscience data and argued that the tendency for images to be intuitively interpreted as scientifically credible representations of various cognitive activities may be due to the reductionist nature of humanity. In their tri-experimental study, they: (1) examined whether the presence of the neuroimages led to higher ratings of flawed scientific reasoning in cognitive neuroscience research compared not only to their absence, but also to the presence of another widely-used visual representations of data such as bar graphs and a text-only control group; (2) examined whether brain images affected credibility judgments because they were more visually complex than bar graphs and whether it was this complexity that influenced judgments, and (3) attempted to generalize the findings of the first two expe riments by using a real news article with scientifically sound reasoning to depict material encountered in the real world (McCabe and Castel, 2008). They concluded that the presence of neuroimages had a statistically significant positive influence on judgment ratings of the credibility of scientific reasoning (NIE) than with the presence of bar graphs and text-only groups, and that they may be more persuasive not because of their visual complexity but because they provide tangible physical explanations of cognitive processes appealing to the reductionist nature of humanity. Following the publication of McCabe and Castel’s study, several research studies have attempted to replicate these findings, some with over-exaggerated success (Michael et al., 2013), while others failed to do so overall (Michael et al., 2013; Schweitzer et al., 2013). While a general failure to replicate the original findings of McCabe and Castel’s original study is prominent, these failures were not complete and have produced interesting and surprising results that have prompted the exploration into finding the origin of the marginal persuasive influence of the presence of a neuro-image on the judgments of scientific reasoning (Schweitzer et al., 2013). There are a handful of speculated contextual sources of the persuasive power of neuro-images including: the methodological design of repeated measures (Schweitzer et al., 2013; Weisberg et al., 2008), the quality of the article’s scientific reasoning (Schweitzer et al., 2013; Weisberg et al., 2008), and the pres ence of criticism, which calls into question the validity of the article’s conclusions (McCabe and Castel, 2008; Michael et al., 2013). The first two speculated sources of NIE previously mentioned were examined in the fifth experiment of the Schweitzer et al. (2013) study. The repeated measures effect (RME) is the suggested underlying contextual variable which produces NIE by introducing a comparative opportunity for participants in which they base their judgments of scientific reasoning in subsequent articles on the quality of scientific logic presented in the initial article (Schweitzer et al., 2013, Weisberg et al., 2008). The second mentioned underlying source, the quality of the article’s scientific reasoning, has been argued by Weisberg et al.(2008) to play a role in the influential power of neuroscience information and that the optimal condition for NIE was the use of non-scientific language, a weak argument, and high-impact images (Schweitzer et al., 2013) Schweitzer et al. (2013) designed the fifth experiment to satisfy the optimal conditions presented by Weisberg et al. and others as well as to test RME, and argued its presence would be found in the 2nd block of the experiment, as participants would have been previously exposed to scientific reasoning of the 1st block. They concluded that the study demonstrated a significant NIE in the presence of weak scientific reasoning, but only in the 2nd block after participants were presented with a comparison on which to base their judgments of scientific reasoning credibility, indicating RME as a critical contextual origin. Because there was not a significant NIE in the first block, the authors concluded that faulty arguments were not a critical contextual source. However, it is noteworthy to again mention the fact that McCabe and Castel (2008) used faulty scientific reasoning as a control within their first two experiments which did produce a significant NIE, and coupled with the arguments of Weisberg et al. (2008), it would be unwise to not deem it a potential source of NIE. The final potential source of NIE within the scope of this study is effect that the presence of criticism has on NIE which was introduced by McCabe and Castel (2008) but was iterated upon by Michael et al. in 2013. The original study’s design allowed the researchers to control the participant’s level of reasonable doubt about the credibility of scientific reasoning behind research conclusions by the presence of obviously flawed scientific reasoning within the first 2 articles, and by the presence of criticisms in the last experiment which called into question the validity of the article’s conclusions and counteracted NIE (McCabe and Castel, 2008; Michael et al., 2013). McCabe and Castel (2008) reported that the presence of criticism did not influence the participant’s ratings on the credibility of the article’s conclusions, but upon further investigation of the original data, Michael et al. (2013) discovered that the brain images were more influenti al when critiques were present to question the validity of conclusions – a notable find which counteracted the claims made by the original investigators (Michael et al., 2013). While Michael et al. discovered the discrepancy regarding the role criticism played in NIE and conducted five experiments that included a criticism manipulation, they did not elaborate on the effects of criticisms as they performed a meta-analysis of the original 2008 data and the data from their 10 experiments, to more precisely estimate NIE (Michael et al., 2013). Because this interesting discrepancy was not explicitly investigated, it does pose an intriguing possibility that neuroimages are more influential as they provide evidence against a criticism contradicting the article’s conclusions. The present study attempts to not only examine the persuasive power that neuroimages exert on the perceived credibility of the conclusion’s scientific reasoning (or the Neuroimage Effect; NIE) but also the relationship between NIE and the three potentially critical contextual origins. It is our goal to demonstrate that neuroimages exert a statistically significant positive influence on participant’s ratings of scientific reasoning, and based on prior research, expect to find a significant NIE in each of the three contextual variables. It is also our goal to discover which of those variables produces the most significant NIE, and purpose that NIE is the most influential when participants are presented with a comparative opportunity in which they are able to base their ratings on the credibility of scientific reasoning in subsequent articles on the quality of the reasoning presented in the initial article. References McCabe, D. P., Castel, A. D. (2008). Seeing Is Believing: The Effect of Brain Images on  Judgments of Scientific Reasoning. Cognition, 107(1), 343-352. Michael, R. B., Newman, E. J., Vuorre, M., Cumming, G., Garry, M. (2013). On the  (non)persuasive power of a brain image. Psychonomic Bulletin Review, 20(4), 720-725. doi:10.3758/s13423-013-0391-6 Morling, Beth. Research methods in psychology: evaluating a world of information. New York,  NY: Norton, 2012. Print. Schweitzer, N. J., Baker, D. A., Risko, E. F. (2013). Fooled by the brain: Re-examining the  influence of neuroimages. Cognition, 129(3), 501-511. doi:10.1016/j.cognition.2013.08.009 Weisberg, D., Keil, F. C., Goodstein, J., Rawson, E., Gray, J. R. (2008). The Seductive Allure  of Neuroscience Explanations. Journal Of Cognitive Neuroscience, 20(3), 470-477.

Engrave New Footprints In The Sand :: essays research papers

There were two strolling hearts that reposed on a huge rock at a near shore. As the sunset revealed its passion, they watched over the two sets of footprints they engraved in the sand. The scene had made them thought of eternity..two becoming one. There was heaven in their hearts and each step engraved a zeal of an endless love. But such heart-felt scene ended when the waves of the sea rushed towards the shore and washed the sand, leaving the sets of footprints unseen. Suddenly, the lovely sunset was covered with dark clouds and the soft breeze altered into a fierce wind. Heaven, then, became an illusion; the dream ended into a nightmare. And the rock were both of them once dreamt was left alone, all alone... When we fall in love, it is our great desire to let the feeling remain in hearts. Often, we feed this feeling by clinging to the other. Sometimes the demand for satisfaction is needed because of the fear of starving the heart. As we marvel towards the odyssey of our lives, we may pass to the point wherein our hearts become empty and longing. We feel the need to quench ourselves by seeking the oasis of love. Still, there are hearts that remain at lost and leave themselves to die and wither. Many of us find it easy to play the melodies of love, but when things get rough and out of tune, we would actually avoid it and sometimes, go silent. There is also a tendency to give up and escape from the reality. We must remember that the more we unravel the wonders of love, the more challenges we have to take. The sweetness of life's bitter can be achieved if we accept the challenges of love. This acceptance motivates us to grow.

Analysing Romeo And Juliet by William Shakespeare Essay

Romeo and Juliet is a classical play written in the Elizabethan period, between the years 1550’s and 1600’s. It is an archetypal love story, written by Shakespeare (1564 – 1616) in the year 1595. Theatres were not as enhanced as today then. Hence the plot and the scheme of the story played a strong importance to the audience because the other aspects (such as the lighting, the props, the background etc. ) of theatre were considerably dull in comparison to today. The play was set in the late 12th Century in a city-state Verona in Italy. It was based on the story of two star-crossed lovers who fall in love at first sight and take vows to spend their life together but against all this was the great ancient feud between their two families ‘The Capulet’s’ and ‘The Montague’s’. The play is highly exhilarating and shows a great variety of emotions and themes. These innovative aspects of the play, moreover, reinforce and embellish its principal themes love, hate, and enmity. With great skills Shakespeare developed a tragic but great love story of two lovers. Life in the 12th century held different expectations from today’s life. Marriage in Italy in the period of Romeo and Juliet was different in a numbers of ways from marriage now. In those days a girl had little or no say in the choice of husband, the husband was chosen as a suitably rich and powerful ally for the family and girls often were married at the age of fourteen or fifteen. Shakespeare considered these differences which even applied to his time and hence giving the audience a new perception to their living style. There are infinity of ways to perform Romeo and Juliet, not one way can be considered ‘right’. Each production is a fresh outlook by the director’s point of view, the audience and the actor; but even though each production will have its own unique quality. Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet were performed on stage in ‘The Globe Theatre’ whereas Baz Luhrman’s Romeo and Juliet were made in a film format. Both the formats hold their unique qualities and contrasts hence making each of them an extravagant performance. Shakespeare’s format is on stage and was performed under circumstances where much was not feasible, for example as lighting was not available the play had to be performed in the daytime, the background sceneries could not be changed and so all was done in one, special effects were not the least of an option as technology did not allow it. Whereas Baz Luhrman had access to all such areas, hence giving him the resources to provide a much genuine and intricate performance. Baz Luhrman’s version consisted of modern day themes such as violence, love, sex, dangerous and panicky situations. He has put in touches of modern culture like guns instead of swords and cars instead of horses. Also some excellent special effects and soundtracks had been added making the movie exciting and an overall experience. A director’s role in the making of a movie is very important. It is the director who visualises the scene in order to give out an original performance, it is the director which decides how each scene will be performed, why it will be performed and when will it be performed. He also has to decide on what kind of atmosphere he wishes to create in order to catch the attention of the audience, and to do this he has to decide on the setting of each scene. In my role as director I have to consider points such as what the play is about, the important ideas and themes and the overall significance to each scene. My job as director includes visualising the scene, imagining the scene and choosing the ideal lighting, setting, actors etc. The director also should have a considerable grasp on the text and hold an intense view on the character development in the scene. The director must use language and gestures to convey the feelings, themes and emotions of each character with each turn in the plot. The language used by Shakespeare in the balcony scene (Act 2, Scene 2) is highly imaginative, romantic, poetic and seductive. For instance the following quote ‘By love, that first did prompt did me to inquire; He lent me counsel, and I lent him eyes. I am no pilot; yet, wert thou as far As that vast shore wash’d with the farthest sea, I would adventure for such merchandise. The language in the above quote is highly imaginative yet romantic and highly poetic yet seductive. The language is very powerful and contains a phenomenal control on the mind. Its effect is ever so powerful that its inner meaning haunts the mind for prolonged time. It conveys the thoughts and emotions of the characters to the utmost accuracy and details. I as the director also have to decide the language and text to be used. To decide this I have keep my target audience in consideration. I have decided to aim my movie to a wide range of audience. I wish to keep in the same respect and sanctity as Shakespeare’s version except for giving it more liveliness and enthusiasm. Therefore the movie will be appropriate for anyone from mature teenagers to adults. As director I have decided to act the play on a movie set. This will enable me to a wider range of options and features such as special effects, soundtracks, lighting etc. This will make it possible for me to bring out the true emotions of the individual characters and give it a more realistic atmosphere. For example the actors will not have the need to shout out the dialogues, allowing them to whisper in the romantic scenes.