The New Synagogue, Berlin, Germany Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3000 words

The New Synagogue, Berlin, Germany - Essay Example The building has defied time, having been constructed in early 20th century, following its demolition in the Second World War. Otto Von Bismark, the Prime Minister of Prussia by then, opened the building in 1866. It is one of the few synagogues that survived Kristallnatch-a revenge attack that involved the Nazi youths. The current building is a reconstruction of the former building. Its street frontage was ruined and the current building is a renovated version of the older building. The entrance has a new outlook; the domes and the towers have been repainted and redesigned, perhaps using the newest architectural designs, this time round blending modern designs and architecture with the mediaeval Roman architecture used before the demolition (Simms 43). Only some few rooms were left behind. The synagogue was meant to serve the growing Jewish population in Germany, especially the immigrants who came from the East. The building had a capacity to house 3000 worshipers in one sitting. The building was also used for public concerts; the most notable being the violin concert featuring Albert Eistein in 1930. The religious services included organ and choir, reflecting liberal developments among the Jewish community then. The building was set ablaze in the infamous Kristallnatch on November, 1938, in the e vent that saw the Torah scrolls debased, furniture destroyed, and combustible property within the building set ablaze (Simms 98). A brave police officer, Lieutenant Otto Bellgardt, arrived on 10th Nov, the following day and ordered the Nazi mob to disperse, arguing that the building was a historical landmark that was protected. He upheld the law to protect the synagogue from further damage by the Nazi youths. Therefore, the fire was distinguished before it could spread to other parts of the buildings. The New Synagogue remained intact and was rebuilt by the congregation who used the building up until 1940. Apart from prayers, the

These two places differ Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2250 words

These two places differ - Essay Example In contrast, 24 hours gym caters to the lower end of the market and caters to the mass market. Due to the huge disparity of the economic requirements of these two gyms, the people who frequents there can easily be categorized according to their income status. The people who goes to Equinox are typically professionals, business people, some entertainers and their dependents. They are typically well-off and rich and sports with designer clothes during work out. The people in Equinox gym have more choices where to train other than the present gym because of the choices that their economic capacity commands. The type of people who frequents at the 24 hours gym are typically those who belong in the low bracket income and sometimes the unemployed who take fitness to occupy their time. Their choice where to train is limited because budget is a major consideration to them. Their choices are often limited to those similarly priced gym and will have difficulty in moving up to gyms like Equinox because the resource requirements of gyms like Equinox will take toll on their resources. Due to their different economic standing, the interaction of people vary significantly. In equinox, it is observed that people there talks more about their work and business. Sometimes, the gym itself is made as a place to establish business connection. Conversations outside work typically revolves about the latest fad and hobbies like opinions on the latest model of cars, new places to visit, what’s in and what’s out. With regard to their dependents, it is observed that their conversations revolves around fun and how to enjoy life. They usually talk about gadgets and what’s â€Å"cool† today. It is also noticed that people in Equinox are more protocol consicous and more polite compared to those who are in 24 hours fitness gym. In contrast, people at Equinox talks more about issues. Especially on when will this economic crisis will end

Electrinic and Digital Media Paper Essay Example for Free

Electrinic and Digital Media Paper Essay Historically the role of media in our society was one of delivering news and information for the sake of knowledge. According to Vivian, the news media served as the major watch dog in the gathering and sharing of information across the world. Traditions of a culture, such as China, have long been created an opportunity for free creative and artistic expression as a means of media exposure in countries where there is great government regulation. Now in a more contemporary role, media has become so integrated in people’s lives that many are swimming in a mass media ocean of communication. Media multitasking has become such of a normal routine for most people, that without media their lives would be empty (Vivian 2011). Over the years mass media has advanced in so many areas, becoming the technological assisted transmission of messages to mass audiences (Vivian 2011) of photography, sound, and transmission. Technology has been the foundation of mass communication in the media industry for years. If not for the invention of the printing press, books and newspapers may have never been published. Mass media has become almost solely dependent on the technology of today. Technological development of the Internet offers the potential, if appropriately utilized, to be an enabler of a more sustainable future (Ahmed 1999). Mass communication has evolved through the years with the emergence of various technologies such as printing, chemical, digital, and electronics. These technologies have contributed to media growth far beyond what anyone could believe early in the history of Mass communications. Particularly with the emergence of Chemical and Electronic technologies movies became popular and the radio and television mediums sky rocketed in popularity. Photography early on helped to increase the power of the printed word by bringing words to life by leading the charge in producing pictures in books, newspapers and magazines. The recording industry has evolved from the phonograph to the iPod allowing for radio to be everywhere and communication being transferred through airwaves for audiences which printed sources could not reach. Much of the technologies from above have become more of a necessity rather than a luxury by which only a few persons can benefit. With the invention of the printing press the newspaper industry has been able to mass produce a product from an initial template of an idea. Cameras and projectors have moved past capturing a moment into creating a moment vision, by understanding the eye retains a vision of a period of time, and if multiple photos could be taken, linked together, and flipped quickly, the human eye could be tricked into visualizing motion of an object. Creating a continuous motion, which later became known as â€Å"Film† and now digital photos. With the development of digital technology there has been great efficiency brought to various aspects of many people’s lifestyles. (Vivian 2011). Bell Labs lead the way in revolutionizing a new media avenue known as â€Å"The Net†. The internet in the early 1990’s was vastly evolving into the next means of mass communication. Bell Labs was in the forefront of the digital age by walking us into a media convergence. Where bits of data, we commonly refer to as messages, could be transmitted over the internet in large capacity at a certain rate of speed and reassemble as readable text upon reception at its destination. Now in 2012 because of the efforts of Bell Labs the digital age has advanced throughout time to where we once dialed a phone number from memory, we now speak a name and our phones dial for us. Smartphone devices have opened up a new world where everything is truly at your finger tips. Where Companies once relied on Trucks and warehouse for logistical need for distributing their products, they now have cut cost by utilizing the internet. Products such as books, magazines, and newspapers, printed media, have bought in to the immediate delivery of their brands in a matter of minutes versus days or weeks even. In the last 20 years all of the new trends and developments within the electronic and digital media industry the role of mass media has changed but yet still remains the same in its function. Persons, who once in casual conversation referred to their business as the newspaper business, now have restricted their verbiage and now work in the news business. References CREATIONISM Study teaching; MASS media; GREAT Britain; ROYAL Society (Great Britain); RELIGION science; REISS, Michael Ahmed, Pervaiz K.; Hardaker, Glenn. Business Strategy the Environment (John Wiley Sons, Inc). Jan1999, Vol. 8 Issue 1, p75-81. 7p Vivian, J. (2011). The media of mass communication (10th ed.). Boston, MA: Allyn Bacon.

Progression of economic value for coffee

Progression of economic value for coffee Chapter 3: The origin of the idea Progression of Economic Value for Coffee â€Å"Goods and services are no longer enough. To be successful in todays increasingly competitive environment, companies must learn to stage experiences for each one of their individual customers. We have entered the Experience Economy, a new economic era in which all businesses must orchestrate memorable events for their customers that engage each one of them in an inherently personal way.† Pine Gilmore, 1999 This is undoubtedly also true for the coffee industry. The economic value of coffee begins with extracting the commodity. Companies that harvest or trade coffee, receive about a 1 euro per pound. When a manufacturer grinds, packages, and sells those same beans to a grocery store, turning them into goods, the price to the consumer is à ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¡Ã‚ ¬4 to à ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¡Ã‚ ¬8 per pound, or about 7 ¢ to 18 ¢ a cup, depending on the brand and package size. When the coffee is brewed in a diner it will sell for about à ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¡Ã‚ ¬1 per cup. Businesses offer the coffee in an experience such as a fine restaurant orStarbucks get à ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¡Ã‚ ¬2 to à ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¡Ã‚ ¬4 a cup. This means that atStarbucks, the customer is not only paying for the coffee, but also for theStarbucks experience. Interestingly, when you move a product up the progression of economic value to an experience, as can be seen in figure 1, you rarely see discounting.This is because Starbucksdoes not need to offer price cuts in order to generate business. Consumers expect better quality when willing to pay a higher price. Retailing is therefore facing an increased challenge from the experience economy. The problem being that there is a great amount of shops in the world, all basically selling the same things, causing only stores that sell values and experiences to stand out. According to Pine and Gilmore (1999), Starbucks has succeeded precisely because it is not limited to only selling a good, being coffee beans, or a service, such as a cup of coffee to-go. Instead, as a Third Place, being not the home or the office but the place between, Starbucks strives to sell a one-of-a-kind experience, which it hopes to keep its customers satisfied enough to want to keep coming back for more. Karababa Ger (2011) argue that pleasure and leisure are two important characteristics of todays consumer culture. Masses of consumers enjoy leisure away from home and work in these so-called â€Å"third places†. Nowadays there are many different cafà ©s, all with different styles. Some are global-branded like Starbucks, while some are more local. Most local coffee houses are defined as either being anti-corporate, or are a hybrid of multiple local and global traditions, such as our own business case example, the Dutch coffee house Doppio-Espresso. The origin of Starbucks Several factors contributed to the opportunity for Starbucks to develop a new, successful retail chain, with the most important one being the fact that founder Howard Schultz had an insight that the other players in the coffee market did not. He realized that Americans were lacking a relaxed, social atmosphere where they could savor a good cup of coffee. After a trip to Italy in 1987 he purchased Starbucks, because he was convinced that Americans were ready to embrace the Italian coffee house culture. Prior to that time, coffee consumption in the US was gradually declining, while the three major coffee manufacturers, Proctor Gamble, Nestle, and Kraft, fought for market share in a saturated market, all the while decreasing the quality of the beans in their blends in order to maintain profits (Berry et al., 2006). The Starbucks brand has since then become ever-present, so much so that it may be hard to remember a time when coffee houses were not part of every major city in the world. Even though coffee houses existed in abundance before Starbucks came along, the quality of both the coffee and the customer experience has never been as consistent as today. Since the beginning, the company aimed at offering a better experience for coffee lovers. They did this by brewing coffee of uniform quality and developed the idea of charging premium prices for coffee drinks. But most importantly, they focused on creating a relaxing atmosphere for the customer. Tables were purposely spaced apart in order to ensure the customers their privacy. More specifically, round tables were used since research indicated that a person can sit alone at a round table without having to feel secluded or awkward. Furthermore, Starbucks aimed at opening as many stores as possible as a way to make each new store just a few steps more convenient for new customers. The stock value of Starbucks has since then increased by more than 3,000% (Berry et al., 2006). The origin of Doppio Chapter 5: Experiential Services Incremental improvements are added to services all the time, but few companies succeed in creating service innovation that create new markets or convert existing ones. To move in that direction, it is important for companies to embody the capacity to successfully implement the nine drivers of successful service innovations as can be seen in figure 2. In the case Starbucks, one of the most important success factors, which aided in creating a new service market, is their comprehensive customer-experience management. According to Zomerdijk Voss (2010), services differ from manufactured goods, because they generally offer many more distinct experiences to the customer. These experiences are called â€Å"touchpoints†, and they depend on three â€Å"experience clues†. The first one are functional clues, which point to the technical quality of the offering; the second being mechanical clues, which relate to nonhuman elements such as the design of the store; and the third being human clues, which come from the behavior and appearance of employees.When these three clues are combined, a total experience is created that has direct influence on how the customer will assess quality and value. The reason that Customer Experience Management is so crucial to the success of inseparable services, is due to the fact that with these kinds of services the customer is directly exposed to the production as well as the delivery of the service, and can thus experience everything that occurs there (Berry et al., 2006). Therefore, the success of Starbucks has to depend the quality of the product (functional clues), a relaxing atmosphere in the store (mechanical clues), and service-oriented employees (human clues). To implement its core strategy, Starbucks must therefore excel in managing all of these customer experience clues. In addition to serving sit-down coffee drinkers, Starbucks also serves another big market segment, namely, takeout customers who want fast service. In order to cater to both consumer groups Starbucks is constantly trying to find new ways to reduce the average waiting time without reducing quality. Some of the companys timesaving innovations are providing customers with special paying cards for fast transactions, more efficient coffee machines, and creating a way for employees to able to shift through the store to wherever he or she is needed at that time (Berry et al., 2006). Some Starbucks shops are also strategically located in areas where there are a lot of potential takeout customers. When Starbucks first started out in The Netherlands they focused solely on placing small shops located near public transportation areas, such as train stations, to cater almost exclusively to these takeout customers. Customers visiting a Starbucks store, however, do not only buy coffee, but they also buy the company brand. The way they experience the service has direct influence on how they perceive the brand. Starbucks founder Howard Schultz quickly realized that in order to achieve brand power in a service business, the employees must take center stage. When a product is sold in a supermarket, there is no personal interaction, but in a Starbucks store, you are presented with real people who produce and deliver the product as a service in a friendly and exclusive manner. As was explained in Chapter 4 with the Zomerdijk Voss (2010) model, employees are thus utilized at the frontstage of the experience. Starbucks success proves that a multimillion-dollar advertising program isnt a prerequisite for building a national brand; it can be done one customer at a time, one store at a time, one market at a time (Berry, 2000). Values-based Service Quality The four dimensions of the Values-based Service Quality model proposed by Enquist et al. (2007) are the technical, functional, experiential, and the human resources (HR) corporate climate dimension. According to the model Starbucks is a values-based company becomes it encompasses a strong commitment to all its stakeholders; customers, shareholders, employees, its suppliers, strategic partners, local communities and global society in general. The four dimensions can also be seen through the strong Starbucks concept, which relies on the premium coffee, and the â€Å"Starbucks experience†. More specifically, the first two dimensions technical and functional quality relate to the quality of processing and producing the coffee bean. High-quality coffee beans are purchased, roasted, and sold as fresh, richly-brewed, Italian-style espresso beverages. Starbucks also offer a variety of foods, and coffee-related accessories in its stores. They also ensure that all parties in their value chain are operating at optimal quality, and sometimes even take over some of the manufacturing duties, such as roasting plants (Enquist et al., 2007). With Starbucks expanding throughout Europe and Asia, the company has strategically chosen Amsterdam for building a roasting plant, since the industrial area is relatively small and self-contained, providing specialized service. The facility houses equipment and operations to receive, roast, package and ship Starbucks coffee to retail stores in current and emerging markets. As with all Starbucks roasting plants, the Port of Amsterdam Roasting Pla nt also has a tasting room, which serves as the main center where Starbucks coffee experts taste and test the Starbucks coffee (Burnson, 2002). This further stresses the importance and commitment Starbucks places on innovating and improving its products and services throughout the value chain. The experiential quality dimension can be symbolized by the concept of the Starbucks experience, which amounts to more than just the store. It provides the customer with a â€Å"Third Place†, where he or she can relax away from home and work, and enjoy the services offered. The fourth and final values-based quality dimension HR corporate climate is related to workplace and society. One of the main goals of Starbucks management is to maintain a safe, productive and diverse work environment for its employees, and to provide them with opportunities for training and career growth. Starbucks also provides incentives for its employees to become shareholders of the company, and thus introduced the title of ‘partner instead of employee. Starbucks has also ventured into the sustainable service business by introducing a code of conduct in 2001, labeled C. A. F. E. Practices (Coffee and Farmer Equity Practices), which promises to â€Å"deliver a premium coffee farmed, distributed and cultivated in an ethical, social and environmental way† (Enquist et al., 2007). The Future of Starbucks Starbucks led by the visions of Howard Schultz, has revolutionized the coffee industry and the perception of coffee when they first introduced their coffee experience concept, and has since then been setting industry standards. However, this radical way of offering coffee has in general become so widely accessible and common to consumers, that it no longer seems special. Furthermore, some strategic decisions made by Starbucks have caused the brand to become less flexible, and more standardized, compared to smaller, local and independent competitors. Aggressive expansions, and attempts to deal with intensified competition from the fast-food sector, have created negative associations with the Starbucks brand. This has caused Starbucks to be perceived by some as a mainstream and standardized brand, which no longer possesses the distinct character of a local authentic coffeehouse.

Cival War :: essays research papers

Abraham Lincoln and the Beginnings of Reconstruction Since the beginning of the nineteenth century, the rapidly growing white population and the equally increasing slave population had been heightening the conflict between slave-free Northern states and the slave-holding cotton belt South. Hopelessly divided over the issue of slavery, thirty-one million American citizens were in 1860 called upon to elect the sixteenth President of the United States of America. When the anti-slavery Republican Abraham Lincoln was elected on November 6, 1860, no fellow American could have even imagined what great burden would lay upon the highest office in the years to come.[1] Lincoln’s election was the ultimate trigger for eleven Southern states to withdraw from the Union and begin a desperate civil war that lasted for four years. Once it became clear the South could not win the war, the president was confronted with the question of Reconstruction, that is, to restore Federal authority and establish loyal free state governments in the occupied areas of the rebellious South. In the early phase of the war, Lincoln had favored a simple and rapid restoration of all areas conquered by Union armies. However, when Lincoln failed to restore the states’ old allegiances, he shifted his plan towards a much more radical proposal. By 1864, after the bloody campaigns of Gettysburg and Vicksburg have sacrificed the lives of tens of thousands men, Lincoln resolved that he would only allow slave states to reenter the Union if they supported both the abolishment of slavery and the establishment of black suffrage. In the months following Lincoln’s election, the country fell to pieces, beginning with South Carolina in December, 1860. Within four months, the states of Mississippi, Florida, Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, Texas, Arkansas, North Carolina, Virginia and Tennessee had all seceded and formed the new Confederated State of America.[2] Was the secession of these states legal? Even more, was their secession constitutional? While the secessionists thought themselves to be fully within their constitutional rights, Lincoln persistently believed that â€Å"the

Atlas Shrugged - Iser and Bakhtin on the Closed Text Essay -- Atlas Sh

Atlas Shrugged - Iser and Bakhtin on the Closed Text The process of reading places the author, text, and reader into a dynamic relationship in which, through a fusion of the author's literary vision and the reader's creativity, the text is transformed into an informative and enjoyable experience. This process is especially apparent in the novel form. As the theorist Wolfgang Iser states, a novel must be "conceived in such a way that it will engage the readers imagination in the task of working things out for himself, for reading is only a pleasure when it is active and creative" (Iser 51). Similarly, another theorist and philosopher, Mikhail Bakhtin, argues that within a novel an author creates numerous different voices and languages, each of which contributes to the dynamic reading process; every word and sentence has a context both inside and outside of the novel. Though there are many other theories regarding reader-response, these two form a cohesive definition of the process: Iser's theory broadly explains the interaction-or inter section-of the three components in the process, while Bakhtin's theory explains the specific subjectivity of the novel language. Both of these theories, however, rely on the basic assumption that all texts are intended to be interpretable; that is, in the words of Umberto Eco, that all texts are 'open'. Eco describes an 'open' text as one that attempts to force the reader "into an interplay of stimulus and response which depends on his unique capacity for sensitive reception of the piece" (Eco 49). In essence, an open text invites the reader to fuse his own unique experiences with that of the text to form an interpretation that is his own. Conversely, Eco also describes an antithesis to the... ...tes reader anticipation. Thus, one must conclude that while Eco's theory is fascinating and may very well have a solid basis outside of the novel form, it is impossible for a novel to be closed; though the author's intentions bay be set in stone, the reader's intentions certainly never will be. A novel, by virtue of being a novel, will always be more open than closed. Works Cited Bakhtin, Mikhail. The Diologic Imagination. Austin: University of Texas Press, 1981. Eco, Umberto. The Role of the Reader: Explorations in the Semiotics of Texts. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1979. Iser, Wolfgang. "The Reading Process: A Phenomenological Approach." Published in Tompkins, Jane P. ed., Reader-Response Criticism: From Formalism to Post-Structuralism. Maryland: John Hopkins UP, 1980. Rand, Ayn. Atlas Shrugged. New York: Penguin Books USA, Inc., 1957. Â  

Despite Their Cultural Differences Essay

Despite Their Cultural Differences, Do Jeanette From ‘Oranges Are Not The Only Fruit’ & Celie From ‘The Colour Purple’ Both Share The Same Struggle?  The cultural differences of the two characters are numerous and the implications far reaching. The austere but comfortable working class security of ‘Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit’, contrasts greatly with the urban squalor of ‘The Colour Purple.’ Even though there is such a massive social divide the two women share many similar struggles. Both women are struggling against the imposition and enforcement of belief systems and intolerant judgements upon them. In Jeanette’s life her mother mainly imposes her controlling and stifling religious views upon her. She feels press – ganged to the extent that ‘I had been brought in to join her in a tag match against the Rest of the World.’ The entirety of Jeanette’s early life is a moulding process, where she is forced to endure the influence of ‘enemies’ including ‘The Devil (in his many forms), Next Door, Sex (in its many forms), and slugs.’ Celie’s initial struggle takes on a much more chilling and darker tone. Her perspective comes from her being made to accept the role of a victim. Her stepfather tears away her basic human rights as he abuses her, ‘He start to choke me, saying you better shut up and git used to it.’ It is a constant challenge to achieve the recognition by others that she has nothing in her present, miserable existence.  Ã¢â‚¬ËœWhy don’t you look decent? Put on something! But what I’m sposed to put on? I don’t have nothing.’ One challenge faced by Celie is how to access a decent education, and further her basic skills. As she is seen as little more than a servant, her family believes that there is little need for her to further herself and grow.  Ã¢â‚¬ËœThe first time I got big Pa, took me out of school, He never care that I love it.’ In the initial section of ‘Colour Purple,’ the writing skills of Celie are very poor and reflect the poor education she has received. The entire opening diary entries are littered with colloquialisms and miss spellings, ‘Left me to see after the others. He never have a kine word to say to me.’ This often leads to the impression that the words of Celie are coming from an intelligent mind that does not quite have the tools to express itself properly. Later on in the novel, influenced by reading her sister’s letters and her own determination to succeed, she develops a much more fluid and sharper style, ‘Even thought you had the trees with you, the whole Earth. The stars. But look at you. When Shug left, happiness desert.’ It is still not writing of an educated woman, but a woman who is beginning to analyse her situation. The struggle of Jeanette’s education is never one that is based on literary or language deficiencies. From a young age she is encouraged to have a firm grasp of The Bible. Jeanette’s initial keeping away from school limits her to her mother for a source of information. This leads to Jeanette having a bizarre view on the world from a young age.  Ã¢â‚¬ËœMy favourite was Number 16, the Buzule of Carpathian.’  As Celie has been at the mercy of such extreme sexist views for the beginning of her life, and Jeanette at the mercy of religious ones, they both struggle not pass their misguided views on to others. When Celie is not successful in refraining from doing so, it has a profound impact upon Sofia. The insecurity and inadequacy of Celie forces her to offer advice to Harpo, which leads to domestic violence. Celie has become so use to ritualised violence that the promotion of it actually becomes a strange form of advice. Only the pathetic nature of her advice save s her friendship with Sofia. ‘She stood their a long time, like what I said took the wind out of her sails. She mad before sad now.’  Jeanette struggles not to pass on her misguided and often inappropriate religious views while at school. Her teachers are alarmed by religious maturity and obsessive views, ‘That’s not the point you have been talking about Hell to young minds.’ Her unintentional preaching of her mothers dogma scares the children, and marks her out for abuse, ‘And why, and this is perhaps more serious, do you terrorize, yes, terrorize the other children. This criticism eventually leads to the developing of awareness that she not teach her mother’s dogma.