International Outsourcing Essay Example for Free

International Outsourcing Essay There has been a rise in consumerism due to the emergence of globalization brought about by rapid advancement in information technology. Consequently, a demand for skilful human resources to perform various duties at global manufacturing sites and branch offices has motivated the multinational corporations to outsource their work internationally. Since this outsourcing of work occurs off the shore, it is also called offshore outsourcing. What is the objective of international outsourcing? Who benefits from outsourcing the work to people in other countries that have different time zones, contrasting cultures, and different languages? What are the barriers to international outsourcing? These are some of the questions that come into the minds of entrepreneurs who want to collaborate to successfully execute international outsourcing. This exploratory essay delves into the concept of international outsourcing by using an unbiased approach that would further broaden its understanding. Like any innovative process, international outsourcing has been appreciated by its opponents and condemned by its critics. The multinational corporations, such as Pepsi, Coca-Cola, Sony, General Motors, Ford, Boeing, Hewlett Packard, etc. have been expanding their market share by opening outlets in countries across the world. To maximize their profits, they have established manufacturing plants in the remote areas of developing countries like India, China, Brazil, etc. where the cost of production is comparatively lower than in the developed countries like the USA, Canada, Germany, Australia, Japan, etc. Read Also:  Topics for Exploratory Essay Since the developing countries like India have a large population that is highly educated and can communicate effectively in English language, the corporations in the developed countries continue to outsource the work to individuals, small business firms, and large companies in India. â€Å"American and other western nations can have their technical business needs and services provided for them at a discount, while workers in India can reach a global market and improve their economic status† (Arun, 2007). The companies in rich nations like the USA also save their operational costs and maximize profits by outsourcing to developing economies like India. There is no doubt that international outsourcing creates more job opportunities for people in the developing countries. However, there are critics who argue that international outsourcing also creates unemployment in the rich nations as the work is snatched from the existing employees based in the developed countries. It was reported that â€Å"3. 3 million U. S. jobs and $136 billion in wages could be moved to such countries as India, China, and Russia by 2015† (Cyber Futuristics, n. . ). But how about the jobs created in information technology, shipping and handling, and management sectors of the companies in developed nations, which continue to expand their business operations globally? For instance, if Hewlett Packard expands its business by opening manufacturing plants in India, China, Russia, and other countries, it creates jobs in the manufacturing sector in these developing countries, but it also creates jobs in other sectors, such as information technology, shipping and handling, and management in the country of origin i. e. the USA. As these multinational corporations make more profits through international outsourcing activity, they get more financial resources to hire more workers in the USA. â€Å"Savings from outsourcing allowed companies to create 90,000 new jobs in 2003, with more than one in 10 of them in Silicon Valley or elsewhere in California† (MSN, 2004). There have been advantages as well as disadvantages of international outsourcing, but its advantages outweigh the disadvantages. One of the advantages is that it has created more jobs in both the developed nations and the developing nations. Secondly, it has enabled the multinational corporations to make more profit and expand their business operations globally, which has provided the consumers different brands of the products that can be manufactured locally at a reduced cost. This has led to an increase in consumerism as the price of finished products has also declined considerably due to the availability of cheaper raw material as well as human resources, and the elimination of massive import duty that the consumers paid before the advent of international outsourcing. For instance, it can be seen that the price of cellular phones has reduced drastically that has allowed people from different income groups to buy the handset, which they could not afford earlier. Moreover, the governments in both the developed nations and the developing nations also get more taxes due to an increase in the sales volume of the products. One of the disadvantages of international outsourcing is that it disturbs the normal routine of a worker based in a developing country because of difference in the time zones. However, the diligent workers are ready to work hard to give better standard of living to their family members. Considering the existing success of international outsourcing, it has a promising future as more and more business corporations want to outsource to India, China, Mexico, Ukraine, Philippines, and other developing nations. Besides achieving a reduction in the operational costs, the multinational corporations claim that they get better efficiency and customer service (Bloomberg Businessweek, 2006). If international outsourcing is changing the lives of the people globally, the governments should make the process smoother by removing the obstacles, such as unnecessary paper work, delay in issuing visas, long bureaucratic channels that cause hassles in clearing payments done in different currencies, etc. In spite of these hurdles, the hard working professionals in the developing countries shall find the solution to deliver the best services to their business clients located in the developed countries. International outsourcing has also brought the hearts and souls of people with different cultures together even though there may be difference in languages and time zones.

Solving Communication Problems: Reflective Essay

Solving Communication Problems: Reflective Essay PROBLEM SOLVING AMITA KHOWAJA JODY STONE Problems are at the center of which every day many people deal at their work. I got a chance to deal with a problematic event when I was on my shift, I was assigned with the client who was living with his family. My core responsibilities are to assist client in bath and in her daily living activities but the client want me to do house work and she want to take help from her daughter for the bath. The problem with this scenario is as per my job expectation I must assist client in all of her activities in order to make sure that the care she is receiving is safe and comfortable but my client is expecting from me to do more of the house work like vacuum, dust and wash the floor so that she will not feel like a burden on her son. The area for which she asked me to do housekeeping is mostly used by other family members. When I contact my supervisor, she advises me that my agency does not have a strict definition of light housekeeping but if I took any additional time to complete the work she cannot give me any extra wages for the additional time spend on the shift. So, I decided to solve this problem through problem solving process and I identify that the situation I am going through will affects me and my client because if I say no to my client it makes her upset and might be noncooperative with me which in future become a barrier in my communication level with the client as well as hinders in developing a therapeutic relationship with the client. If I say yes, then might be I will have required additional time and energy for it. Moreover, I will not be getting any extra wages for extra time. The situation will definitely make me concerned firstly, because the client want to take help from her daughter for her bath and I am not sure about the daughter willingness to give her bath furthermore, I am not sure if the daughter knows the skills, knowledge and techniques to give a safe and comfortable bath to the client. The time of the client bath may be a good time to do lot more observation and encouragement to make client independent as much as possible. The health care personals are well trained in performing that observations and encouragement. Client assessment starts from the scalp and proceed to the feet for any kind of abnormal skin condition, any lesions, swelling or any sign of altered circulation and then based upon that assessment appropriate interventions were planned. There is a lot more chances that the client daughter fail to do significant observations during the bath and missed any changes which risk the client health. My second concern is about client though ts that she doesnt want to feel like burden on her son so need to rule out the reasons behind it. The third concern is if I say yes to client for doing housekeeping then it will affect one of my social determinant of health that is employment and working condition. Intense working conditions and excessive hour of work cause me bodily pain, increase chances of injury and other physiological and psychological symptoms which ultimately affects my personal relationships. My client rather than asking her family members to do their home housekeeping she is asking me to do for her give me the impression that my client health determinant of social environment is also affected. Because of all these reasons I feel that the situation requires immediate attention to resolve the issue. I analyze the scenario and identify that the situation highlights the unknown, need to be identified problem where interventions are required to resolve the problem. The situation also highlights the affective problem where person emotions are significantly involved so my decision of saying no for housework to the client will greatly affect her emotions. According to Chaudhuri, A. (2014). A person job should be such that he/she can maintained a balance between important aspects of life. A person work should not increase stress level and he/she able to spend quality of time with family after job hours. On my end the scenario also highlights the work-related problem because my decision of saying yes hinders me in balancing my work and my family life.ÂÂ   Moreover, I also feel that there is an interpersonal communication gap between people involved in the scenario that are my client and her family members so, further digging is required in order to rule out the root causes of the p roblem. I will start handling the problem on my end by maintaining all the behavioral characteristics of communication and use the assertive style to reply my client. I will reply I can see that this is important to you, and it is also important to me as well. I am assigned here to deliver you as much as support but there are certain things which I cannot do such as vacuum, dusting of most of the area use by other family members. I understand that this will make you upset but we can talk more respectfully to each other to make the situation better for both of us. I appreciate if you discuss with me about what bothers you for not asking your family members to do the housekeeping of the house this will help me to resolve your problem. In this way, both of us maintained the respect and there is fewer chances of emotional outburst. I will further analyze the problem by asking questions from client about her family members to understand her family dynamics. I will ask the client about the education of her daughter to identify her literacy level, this will help me in understanding what level of teaching and information I need to deliver the daughter so that she can maintain safety of client during bath. I will ask the routine of her daughter to rule out her availability and willingness to give bath to the client. Moreover, I will ask client what kind of relationship other family members are having with my client and with each other, how frequently they sit together and spend time with each other, if my client want to share anything who is the most reliable person in the family with my client feel to share her problems and feelings this will help me understanding the social environment of the house. Additionally, I will ask client their source of income to identify the economic status of the family which will help me in sharing the option of hiring a housekeeper for few hours to do house work. I will develop an action plan to solve the problem by identifying several client needs for example as I was newly assigned staff with the client so she will be feeling anxious and worry working with me. In addition to it she is also facing difficulty communicating her true feelings and concerns with her other family members. There is also a need of division of household task among family members or need to hire any part time housekeeper for vacuum, dust and washing the floor. Besides, my clients daughter also need teaching about proper techniques of giving safe bath to the client. According to me the first priority is to reduce my client anxiety and apprehensions by properly orienting myself and my role, remain be calm and answer questions about the information which my client needed. This will create a positive significance and help in reassuring client that I am here to help her. In this way, my client move from negative emotional level to positive level and she feel comfortable and ready to work with health care member. My second priority is my client should get safe bath. My client want to take bath from her daughter so I will respect her decision and to complete this priority I will ask my client daughter if she is willing to give bath or not, if she is willing then I will have taught her all the safe techniques to be followed, and observation made about the client body for any kind of health-related issues during the bath. After teaching I, will supervise the daughter giving bath to my client to observe whether she is following the right techniques and p rovide feedback upon it. This will positively help in preventing my client from any health-related complications. My third priority will be to enhance communication among the family members. I will achieve this priority by focusing on my client by asking her questions about her children and other aspects of their personal lives, this give her message that I am interested in her as a people rather than as a client. Furthermore, encourage my client and her family members to be open to discuss issues, problems, thoughts and feelings with respect, love and trust. Spend quality time together so family relations become stronger and good communication will be enhanced among family members. They should equally and properly divide house work among each family members so burden will not be upon one member of the family. The positive consequence of good communication among family will help to efficiently cope with life challenges. I have chosen the above action plan because by doing proper assessment and observation during bath will help in early identification of health-related conditions and early consultation to the physicians, in this way my client physical health will be enhanced. By developing therapeutic relationship with client help client to adjust with change that is working with a new staff will enhance her emotional health. Additionally, good communication among family will also enhance emotional and social health by allowing self to cope with stress, help in learning, managing conditions and live in harmony. Mine occupational health will also be improved as I will get manageable work load. I will be evaluating my action plan by monitoring and discussing feedback with my client about the effectiveness of strategies that are discussed with the client and family members and their satisfaction level upon it. I will do conclusion by evaluating myself that what I have accomplished at the end and how this experience of solving problem develop me professionally. After resolving the scenario, I will report back to my supervisor about all the efforts that I have made to resolve the issues so that she can guide me about what I have done good and which aspects will be done differently in future. I will use my communication skills of pumping the negatives and owning to ask more about negative feedback which will give me more opportunity in order to modify my behaviors in future.

Understanding Development Theory And Practice In Third World Politics Essay

Understanding Development Theory And Practice In Third World Politics Essay This book is a good synthesis and critique on the theory of development after Second World War. It takes historical perspective on analyzing development theory and its practice and tries to find the context-specific result of those development theories and policies in the third world. In doing so, Rapley has tried to be unaffected by any ideological orthodoxy but his left-alignment is clearly visible. John Rapley, who is a political scientist involved in the Department of Government, University of West Indies (Mora), has successfully captured the essence of development theories being applied in the third world after World War II, in this book. The book is lucidly written, well organized, and easy to understand. It includes elaborate endnotes, good index, and thoroughly assembled and categorized bibliography in accordance with their dominant theoretical fervor. The analytical approach of the book has been to follow historical comparison of mainstream development theory and practice, with related criticisms on them. For doing this he has measured the dominant debate between left critics and mainstream theorists from the perspective of dominant paradigms. He has presented the ebb and flow of neo-classical theory, and has done counter-criticism on neo-Marxists and developmental state theories. Though his arguments are balanced and analytical, people with capitalist mentality may find his argument on reemergence of neo-classical ideology immature and left-centered, while those with leftist gloss will find his insights illuminating and worthy. Nevertheless, his analysis of this wide area of development history is worthy read to students, practitioners and scholars. The book is organized into nine chapters. The first chapter, The Progress of Development, is an introduction to the argument presented in the book. The chapter two summarizes the dominant theoretical trend of immediate post-war period namely rise of Keynesianism and emergence of third world, followed by modernist, dependency and state centered theories. Rapley meticulously presents the influence of Keynesian thought on post war period of state centered development. Birth of third world and development economics as a separate sub-discipline were influenced by recognition of third world as a separate entity which demands different development policy design as opposed to the IBRD policy measures adopted for reconstructing Europe and other countries of First and Second World. Then, the book describes development economists of structuralist school who designed import substitution industrialization for the third world. This school of thought believed that international trade favours indus trialized North at the expense of developing South. But, soon the problems of structuralist schools were to be found in development world. Chapter 3 reflects on the performance of state-led development. The performance of state-led development in third world showed dismal performance. Import substitution industries were proved bad performer, license system of government increased corruption and bad governance, semi-public institutions increased the debt burden of state, and many SOEs were going bankrupt. All this led to poor export performance, inefficiency, underemployment, and poor agricultural performance. Although the central planning of statist model proved successful to increase output it couldnt ensure quality and efficiency in its performance which led to overall unproductive utilization of available means thus causing systemic failure. All these policy failures and theoretical disenchantment of state-led development model led to the clear decline of state socialism by 1980s enforcing many countries of Latin America and Africa to follow the conditionalities of their creditors with whom they have had large debt overdue. But, exception to these problems were the East Asian economies, who were able to overcome these problems by appropriately combining the effort of state with the efficiency of market competition and thus were able to catch up with the pace of international market competition. In chapter 4 and 5, basically talks about the neoclassical response to the failure of state-oriented development model of earlier period and its recommendation for reform. The neoclassical proponents reviewed the failure of import substitution and state-supported industrial policies by saying that there would be losers along with gainersà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦ this was not necessarily bad (p. 83) and earlier development model did wrong by helping out the losers who were the main cause of inefficiency. They now advocated for promoting winners by focusing on creating environment for export industries, smaller firms, and export crop farmers. Policies for creating such environment were recommended under the framework of Washington Consensus which included: fiscal austerity, privatization of state owned enterprises (SOEs), trade liberalization, currency devaluation, and abolition of marketing boards, financial and labour market deregulation, and export promotion. Defined under an umbrella term of Structural Adjustment Program (SAP), these neo-classical prescriptions were openly supported and promoted by Bretton Woods Institutions which consequently were reflected in almost all of the third world countries where these institutions were working. Moreover, after some experience of reform initiatives and collapse of socialist economy led to the addition of accountability and transparency in governments operations as required variables for neoclassical development model thus both political and economic reform became elements of its reform agenda. The subsequent critique on the performance of neo-classical SAP framework is elaborately explained in chapter 5. Here, Rapley depicts the limitations of structural adjustment and emphasizes on how its application became successful by not due to its internal theoretical strength but due to seemingly no counter-force due to the fall of left because of long stagnation of socialism during early 1980s, historical exhaustion of dependency theory with no clear output, and loss of the Marxist self-confidence. Rapley writes: some evidence suggests that there is no reason to assume that less government leads to faster growthà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦. if there is any relationship between the two, it may even be that in the aggregate, more government leads to more growth (p.119). His evaluation of the case of privatization, domestic market liberalization, retrenchment, financial and labour market deregulation demonstrates that there are flaws on the theoretical assumptions and practicalities of structural adjustment program. Its assumption of human beings as rational and self-interested actors is not supported. Many sociologist and anthropologists view human action as a part of collective action and some views like Jean Francois Bayart content that à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦ just as we cannot expect other peoples to behave the way we do, we cannot apply the same principles to judge their behavior. Similarly, differences between first and third world discredited the apparently same principle of development propounded by structural adjustment program; flaws were seen in new political economy ideology of neo-classical writers. Moreover, the neoclassical logic of accepting the material inequality has been criticized by leftists on moral grounds, even if assuming material inequality to be morally neutral leftist theorists would still condemn it for its economic drawbacks (p.116) to poorer ones. Rapley has given emphasis on the birth of possible challenge to neoclassical theory. He clearly seems to be on the side of the left but is cautious enough to predict that the new paradigm wont be too much influenced by classical left or postmodernist hangover. In chapter 6, he asks for the new paradigm of development to be able to work with market and capitalism, while simultaneously opting for greater role for the state than allowed by structural adjustment program. The neo-institutionalist idea that market does not emerge spontaneously and that different cultural background require the creation of different types of institutions led to the reemergence of the need of state involvement in creating and developing economic institutions. The highly interventionist states of East Asia had selectively protected some strategic industries through tariffs and quota at the same time helped them grow through export subsidies and subsidized credit. They promoted firms towards new forms of produ ction and compelled them to increase their competitiveness. These successful policy measures of East Asian countries have been influential theoretical strands for the reemergence of the developmental state paradigm. Ultimately, in chapter 7 Rapley has returned to the Sub Saharan Africa to show that there are many challenges to follow state-supported development as seen in its successful version of East Asian case. The reasons allotted in the book are internal limitations of Africa (especially the weakness of African state) and international obstacles brought forwarded by international balance of power. His reasons for the seemingly low applicability of Asian developmental model in Africa are more political rather than economic. Some causal factors leading to the crisis of state in Africa like: authoritarianism in the third world, state capacity, concentration of power, class politics, etc. proves for Rapley that Africa is against the tide. Furthermore, he also sees obstacle in international systems to follow the strict state-led growth as enjoyed by East Asian countries in 60s through 80s. Rapley argues, à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦ it is not only Africa that the emerging practice of development is running i n a direction contrary to that of the theory. The crisis of the state which sees fiscal constraints forcing public authorities to renounce many of their functions, is international in its scope (p.176). Meanwhile retrenchment of state during SAP implementation led to the development of many non-state actors like NGOs, private sector and other groups working as a state within state leading to the weakening of state functions. The chapter 8, entitled as The end of development or a new beginning? is focused on the idea of post-development thought. This thought challenges us to rethink the entire way we conceive development, and to consider the possibility of a paradigm shift (p.177). Presently the world is facing contested political order where there is resurgence of populist movements against globalization to restore control over space/country; while another strand which is closer to postmodern idea is shifting the focus from national to global level through some works like: UN MDGs or WTOs Doha Development Agenda negotiations. Rapley admits: A discipline that emerged in the early post-World War II periodà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦ development studies always took for granted the existence of national economies and nation states. Much has changed since. Accordingly, those who take an interest in development are being challenged to conceive new strategies of development. Post-development challenged us to rethink development altogether. (p.200). The recent trend of giving focus on people after the publication of Development As Freedom written by Prof. Amartya Sen has shifted attention of Bretton Woods institutions and other scholars to the fact that development that doesnt improve the lives of the poor people will only provoke resistance and crisis (p.200). Rapley wraps-up the eighth chapter by arguing that the intellectual resistance from post-development ideas and political campaigns of anti-globalization forces has put the agenda of development in the centre stage which is awaiting for good implementation. Finally, in chapter 9 Rapley concludes main arguments presented in the book and also poses some relevant questions demanding serious consideration for leading the future of development. Some of his questions are thought provoking: can development models be universalized? What roles will environmental issues play in development theory? Is there a population time bomb, and how will it affect the third world? What will the new balance between state and society be? At last he has wrapped up his argument by discussing on all these questions in brief. Reviewing the whole book one can easily find that this book is highly comprehensive piece on development theory and practice spending fairly little space or pages. It is praiseworthy to say that this updated volume includes issues of latest debate of 21st century development studies. But, still it has some loopholes. While criticizing on the neoliberal ideas, he has overlooked at its overall performance in countries like India, China, and other high performer countries of 1990s and early 2000s. Similarly, his analysis of third world with high emphasis on African and Latin American countries has ignored poor blocks of South Asian countries and thus has left a large area of development experiment of these years untouched. The number of poor population in South Asian region doesnt justify writers neglect of the region as appropriate. Unlike previous editions of this book, the reviewed third edition has added more to the analysis of future of development. Its analysis of the latest thought of development, viz. post-development, is convincing enough to indicate on the future of development by working together with the questions raised in the concluding chapter. Reading this, readers can guess thatà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦.. Notwithstanding these criticisms, Rapleys work is able to present a comprehensive and succinct treatise on the history of development thoughts and practice in third world. His way of presenting the mainstream argument along with the main criticism propounded by left and others on each of these development theories is interesting and useful. This book is can be recommended as a must read for upper level undergraduate students, useful guide for graduate level students, and a common discourse with new insights for the scholars. Readers will not regret about their time and money spent for the book after completing the last sentence.

My Personal Philosophy of Education :: Philosophy of Teaching Teachers Essays

My Personal Philosophy of Education To teach a child something that is your responsibility to teach them, and they go on and become a successful adult is a great satisfaction for an instructor to see. I have many reasons that I want to become a teacher, focusing on the high school level. I have been told that I am crazy for wanting to become a teacher because there is no pay, the degree is difficult to complete, plus many other reasons. The only reason I stayed in the education program is that there are many more reasons to stay then to leave the program. Starting back when I was in high school I used to think to myself that it would be fun to become a teacher, at the high school level. What I really wanted to do was become a P.E. teacher and play sports all day. But after discussing the idea with my advisor in both high school and college I decided to go into a field that would give me the option of teaching or going into the specific industry of business, so that is what I decided to do. To prepare myself for the high school level I have substitute taught during the summer and Christmas breaks at Woodbridge High School in Northern Virginia, this experience seemed to get me more excited about my future career. I find satisfaction to pass what information I know about a subject on to the future adults in our country, it just seems like I accomplish much more when I teach something to someone no matter what it is. Another main reason I am going into the education program is that I one day have the aspirations of coaching football and track. I have played these sports for so long I catch myself teaching people fundamentals of the sport already, also while I student coached here at Concord College I found myself questioning the coaches calls and play calling several times, that is when I decided I need to go into coaching and inhibit what ideas I want for my own football strategies. From what I have observed if I what to become a coach at the high school level I must first become a teacher, which works out because that is what I really want to do anyway.

Internet and Technology :: essays research papers

Opportunities and Challenges of the Internet In a world of light-speed data transmission, any individual with little training and expertise can make a fortune from the Internet. Many companies, like E-bay or Amazon.com, thrive from business done only through Internet transactions. As computer technology progresses, data transmission becomes faster, and as high level encryption becomes available for public use, the amount of Internet consumers also grows. Technology advances also allow employees to work from home faster and safer. A manager's first challenge is to create a presence on the web. With a phone line, computer, and HyperText Markup Language (HTML) authoring tools, a business can advertise or do business over the Internet. HTML authoring tools can be freeware, like Sausage Software's Hot Dog, or advanced and expensive utilities like Microsoft Front Page. Any computer user familiar with a word processor can effectively use these applications with minimal training. Putting the HTML and graphic files on an Internet service provider's (ISP) servers is sufficient for relatively low traffic sites. Some online businesses, like Amazon.com, handle hundreds of thousands of people, or hits, everyday. They require specialized hardware and cabling to control the vast amount of traffic on there site per day. A manager's second challenge is to make the business's web site visible on the Internet. The first step in this process would be registering a domain name. Every computer connected to the Internet has a unique number attached to it called an IP address. To simplify finding specific computers on the 'Net, the numbers where substituted with alias called domain names. The names come in two levels, before and after the dot. Fees are generally a $70 startup cost then $35 per year to hold the license of the name. Network Solutions Inc. is the official registrar of domain names. Individuals in the past have registered company names, like Coca-Cola, to themselves and th en sold the domain license to the company for thousands of dollars. There are currently more than four million domain names registered with Network Solutions. Domain name registration is not required but makes your site much easier to find. Another way to make your site visible is to register certain keywords with the most popular search engines like Yahoo! and Alta Vista. Keywords are a small number of words that describe your site and business. These are the words web surfers will most likely type in to find your page.

Greek Influence on Western Literature Essay

Slide One: The plays performed at the Festival of Dionysus represented a completely new performance genre: drama. Plays like Oedipus Rex, Medea, and Antigone laid the groundwork for the great plays to make up the western canon, from Shakespeare’s Hamlet to Arthur Miller’s Death of a Salesman. Slide Two: This era also saw the birth and development of a new literary genre: tragedy. In plays like Oedipus Rex, the basic tragic structure in which a character experiences a change from happiness to suffering was codified and refined. In the hands of writers like Aeschylus, Sophocles, and Euripides, it became a vehicle for the exploration of some of humanity’s fundamental fears and questions about existence. You can see the same questions being explored in works by Shakespeare, for example, hundreds of years later. Today, more than 2,000 years later, these plays are still studied by modern tragic playwrights. Slide Three: Finally, the Athenian tragedies were important because they put humans at the center of the story. In the Iliad, for example, the gods are closely involved in the action — they take sides, they intervene on behalf of their heroes, and so on. While gods do appear in these plays, it is the very human protagonists such as Oedipus or Medea who take center stage, and whose actions determine the plot. This change signaled a shift in focus from the supernatural to the human in literature, which would have a profound influence on the Western tradition, particularly after the Middle Ages.

Yellowstone Super Volcano

The Yellowstone volcano is known to many as the most dangerous volcano is America. Right now, the ground underneath Yellowstone National Park is rising at an alarming rate. In fact, it is rising at the rate of about three inches per year., which is practically unheard of. The reason why this is such a concern is because underneath the park sits the Yellowstone supervolcano, the largest volcano in North America. Scientists tell us that it is inevitable that it will erupt again one day, and when it does the devastation will be almost unimaginable. But could it cause a mass extinction? A full-blown eruption of the Yellowstone supervolcano would dump a 10 foot deep layer of volcanic ash up to 1,000 miles away, and it would put much of the United States as uninhabitable. With enough warning, the states near Yellowstone could be evacuated, which would largely avoid a great number of deaths caused by the downpour of ash. However, that's just in the short term, the aftermath would be the pro blem. For several days, ash would hang in the air, making it difficult to breathe. That blanket of ash covering the country would smother vegetation and pollute the water supply, which will quickly lead to a nationwide food crisis. As for the rest of the world, it would face a few years of mild climate change caused by the supereruption's ash cloud, which would wrap around the globe, casting Earth in shadow for several days and altering the chemical composition of the atmosphere for a decade or so. However, recent research shows the global impacts of supervolcanoes are less severe than scientists once thought.Scientists now think the vast majority of Earth's species would weather a Yellowstone supereruption just fine. They don't see any evidence in the geologic record of mass extinctions coinciding with supereruptions. In conclusion, they don't predict extinctions to result from such geologic events in the future.References1) http://www.nps.gov/yell/naturescience/volcanoqa.htm 2)htt p://www.livescience.com/20714-yellowstone-supervolcano-eruption.html