An investigation into the theory and practice of management skills Essay

An investigation into the theory and practice of management skills development in the hospitality and tourism industries - Essay Example Thankfully my research and academic proficiency led me to applying in Marriot International among other companies for a management trainee post and getting a positive response from the company. Marriot International is the third largest chain of hotels in the world by employees and revenues but what struck me most about the company was that it consistently got selected as one of the five most ethical companies in an annual review carried out by a rating and analysis firm. The company is based in the United States but has a large setup in the United Kingdom and offers a management trainee program or as the company calls it, a leadership development program, in 30 countries of the world. I got selected in this program that goes by the name of Voyage and conveyed my consent for joining appropriately quickly. Now I am an inductee into the program in its UK chapter and it is early days for me as a trainee of event management, a field of profession I chose to enter after long and careful deliberation. I think that the most prominent feature of event management that is not as important in other types of management is time management which I think is one of the best qualities a person can possess. Also if an event and the planning leading up to it are considered a complete project, I shall get more experience of handling whole projects than I would have gotten in any other field of corporate management. Finally, I have taken this route because I would like t o permanently leave the status of employee one day and establish my own company in the event management business. The first skill that I think I will be requiring to acquire to progress on this career path is keeping my fitness level high. By fitness I do also mean personal health care as well. I have honestly concluded from what I have come to know so far about the job of event management for large companies that it is a tenuous job; it is both physically and

Sertive style Essay Example for Free

Sertive style Essay â€Å"A Telephone Call† by Dorothy Parker is a short story that focuses on a woman waiting for a man to call her. He told her, â€Å"I’ll call you at five, darling† (Parker, 1) but as time passes he still has not called. She begins to bargain with God by begging Him to make the man call her as well as by keeping her from calling the man (Parker, 1). The woman in this short story takes a classic lamb’s approach to asserting herself. She begs and pleads with God by attempting to make her reasoning and logic seem sound while also attempting to make God feel compassionate towards her strong desire to have the man call her as he said he would. The lamb’s approach to assertiveness is not effective nor is it appropriate for a grown woman to use in her quest to get what she wants (Sichel, 14). Instead, Sichel suggests that the most effective form of assertiveness is the self-assertive style which does away with the threatening and whining that accompany other forms of assertiveness (14). Assertive style #1 is based on avoidance and using tactics to evoke guilt, to manipulate, to bully, to scare or to threaten (Sichel, 15). In â€Å"A Telephone Call† the woman uses the guilt tactic in order to try to get God to make the man call her immediately. She uses phrases such as, â€Å"let him call me now† or â€Å"I won’t ask anything else of you† (Parker, 1) in order to try to get God to feel sorry for her and to guilt Him into making the man call. As the story progresses, the woman begins to take a whining approach to convincing God to prompt the man to call right away. She rambles on about why he may not have called yet but then continues to plead with God to make the telephone ring. This technique is highly ineffective in getting what one wants because whining is very annoying and is particularly irritating coming from a grown woman. Attempting to make God do anything is a fruitless pursuit to begin with and adding pleading and begging to the mix is not an effective way to get what one wants. Assertive style #2 is concerned with narcissistic exaggeration that uses black and white statements to evoke a sense of drama into assertive statements. The lamb’s approach to assertiveness using this style depends on the use of phrases such as, â€Å"you’re never† and â€Å"it’s impossible† (Sichel, 15). The woman in â€Å"A Telephone Call† uses similar phrases in her attempt to get God to make the telephone ring. The woman also gets quite dramatic as is evident in her ramblings about possible reasons why the man has not called yet. She begins to wonder if he does not like her as she thought he did and goes on to believe that God is angry with her which leads to the ultimate dramatic expression that she wishes the man were dead (Parker, 1). Further, her constant waffling back and forth evokes a strong sense of drama into the short story because one second she is trying to convince herself that there is a very good reason why the man has not called yet and the next second she is wishing him ill will or even death (Parker, 1). Again, this type of assertiveness is neither effective nor mature. Phrases that use words such as â€Å"never† and â€Å"impossible† are highly dramatic because they are words that display exaggeration rather than problem solving techniques. Drama rarely leads to positive solutions but usually leads to the mind going off on tangents that never solve anything as is the case in â€Å"A Telephone Call. † Assertive style #3 focuses on the disavowel of assertion in order to appear nice. The lamb’s approach to using this assertive style is to appear nice by using such phrases as, â€Å"don’t you think it would be good? † (Sichel, 15). This type of questioning allows a person to get their anger out while also using a nice tone of voice in hopes that they will still get what they want. The woman in â€Å"ATelephone Call† is a master at this technique. During her pleading with God she says, â€Å"Ah, don’t let my prayer seem too little to you God† (Parker, 1). The reader is well aware of how desperate and angry the woman is becoming as the story progresses but the way she phrases this question evokes niceness without backing down on the anger. Similarly, she later asks God, â€Å"Are you punishing me God, because I’ve been bad? † (Parker, 1). It is clear from this statement that she is getting increasingly desperate and angry while also realizing that yelling and screaming at God will get her nowhere. This technique is not effective either. God, and most humans as well, can tell the difference between a sincere assertive question and an angry rant disguised by a nice tone of voice. The woman in this story is clearly desperate but goes about stating her case to God in an immature and childish way that garners no results. Assertive style #4 deals with indirect and evasive techniques instead of strong assertive behavior. The lamb’s approach to this style is to mask tough questions with gentle phrases such as, â€Å"do you think you might want to? † (Sichel, 15). Once again the woman in â€Å"A Telephone Call† uses this style in order to convince God to make the telephone ring. She does not ever come right out and say something truly assertive by telling God specifically what she wants and why it is important to her. Instead, she takes on a whining and manipulative tone of voice that relies on pleading and begging to get what she wants. At one point in the story she says, â€Å"I’ll be good, God. I will try to be better, I will, if you will let me see him again. If you will let me telephone me. Oh, let him telephone me now† (Parker, 1). These types of statements are whiny and manipulative and do not focus on the reasons why the woman wants God’s help and reassurance. Instead, they focus on pleading with God in the hopes that He will get tired of listening to her begging and grant her request. This type of assertiveness is rarely effective because it relies on the breaking point of humans in order to get what one wants. It is similar to a child whining until his or her parents get tired of hearing it and just give in to make it stop. Assertive style #5 deals with the issue of denial of ownership. The lamb’s approach to this style is to mask anger with words such as â€Å"never† (Sichel, 16). The woman in â€Å"A Telephone Call† uses this technique throughout the short story as she continues to bargain with God in hopes that the man will call. Towards the end of the story the woman’s begging and pleading begin to focus on God himself and the fact that he cannot possibly understand what she is going through. â€Å"You don’t know how it feels. You’re so safe, there on your throne, with the blue swirling under you. Nothing can touch you; no one can twist your heart in his hands† (Parker, 1). Again, instead of clearly stating her reasons why she hopes God can help her, she puts the blame on God. She takes the ownership of the problem off of herself and tries to make God see that, as a human woman, she is truly suffering, which is something that she does not feel God is taking seriously enough. Instead of talking with God about what her possible role in the problem could be, she makes herself appear to be an angel while the man who does not call and the entire situation are made to appear as the evil ones. This is not an effective assertive technique because it does not require a person to take responsibility for the problem as well as the eventual solution. Similar to the other styles, it relies on whining and begging and other childish behavior rather than adult behavior. â€Å"A Telephone Call† is a highly entertaining and amusing story. If the woman in the story had used the lion’s approach to assertiveness the story would have taken a dangerous and angry turn which would not have produced such an enjoyable story. Similarly, if the woman had taken the self-assertive approach in the story it would have turned out rather boring. However, this is a story and the lamb’s approach to assertiveness is neither amusing nor effective in real life. If a real woman had a similar problem and strongly wished for a man to call her she may indeed turn to God for help. However, in order to effectively state her case and make her wishes known there are several suggestions and recommendations she should follow in order to ensure that she is taking the very best approach to getting what she wants and avoiding the type of drama that the woman in the story displayed. First, she must eliminate all whining and manipulation. These tactics result in an avoidance of the true problem and makes the woman appear immature and desperate instead of assertive enough to state her case in a strong tone of voice. Second, the woman in the story would have been much more effective if she would have avoided narcissistic exaggeration and drama. These just add additional hurdles to overcome when trying to get what one wants. Instead, the woman would have been more effective if she would have told God why she thought the man should call and why it was so important to her to have him call. It would also be effective to remember to say â€Å"please† and â€Å"thank you† while making the request. Similarly, the woman would have been more successful if she had simply stated her case without trying to sugarcoat her anger. This is rarely effective because it makes a person appear fake rather than genuine. The woman should have explicitly stated what she wanted from God and politely requested that He work with her to find a solution. At the same time, the woman was also indirect and evasive when she was trying to convince God to make the telephone ring. Again, she would have been more successful if she would have told God specifically what she wanted Him to do in order to help her. Instead of begging and pleading, she could have simply made her request in a direct and up front manner. Finally, the woman in the story denied ownership of her role in the problem. This usually backfires because people who need help should take an active role in proposing a solution rather than denying any responsibility for the problem. The woman would have been more effective in her request if she would have told God exactly how she felt, why she felt that way and once again asked God for help. The self-assertive approach to asking for something is the most effective because it uses mature techniques that allow a person to speak their mind and make their case in a calm and collected manner that motivates those around them to want to help rather than give in to avoid a dramatic display of childish behavior. Parker, Dorothy. â€Å"A Telephone Call. † 20 March 2009 http://www. classicshorts. com/stories/teleycal. html. Sichel, Mark. â€Å"The Five Styles of Avoidance and Self-Assertion. †

Web 2.0 and web 1.0 Applications

Web 2.0 and web 1.0 Applications 1. WEB 2.0 1.1 THE SOCIAL READ/WRITE WEB AN INTRODUCTION We live in age of information where flow of information is constant and internet plays an important role in this flow of information sharing and exchange. The world is on figure tips due to the advancement in technologies. All this become possible due to World Wide Web which cause to made globe as community. Technology and information become obsolete so quickly. Now we are in era of web 2.0 According to Tim Orielly Web 2.0 is the network as platform, spanning all connected devices; Web 2.0 applications are those that make the most of the intrinsic advantages of that platform: delivering software as a continually-updated service that gets better the more people use it, consuming and remixing data from multiple sources, including individual users, while providing their own data and services in a form that allows remixing by others, creating network effects through an architecture of participation, and going beyond the page metaphor of Web1.0 to deliver rich user experiences (Orielly, 2004). According to Alan smith 2.0 does not show any specific increment in web version its only the way the use of web change (Smith, 2009). Murugesan define Web 2.0 as second phase in the Webs evolution, which attract IT professionals, businesses, and Web users. Further more he writes that Web 2.0 is wisdom Web, people-centric Web, participative Web, and read/write Web (Murugesan, 2007). Web 2.0 is people Power web shows the blogging success, user review, photo sharing (Anderson, 2006) and observe called it gift culture due to users contribution as participation (Mason Rennie, 2007). In learning and teaching process effective evolution of technology, importance of active participation, critical thinking, social presence, collaboration and two way communications are also important (Beldarrin, 2006). Web2.0 provides more effective interaction and collaboration, investigation for the ways of using blogs effectively, wikis, podcasts and social network which also used in education. The main characteristic of these tools called Web 2.0, which shows active participation from user in the content of creation process (Usluel Mazman, 2009). Web 2.0 social networking applications, allows users not only to find out information about others, but also to connect with others through linking to their profiles, joining and creating group, and ability to send public and private messages to their friends for example Face book, MySpace, and sharing with them their happy moments as on Picasa and flicker. It has changed the static information to more active, dynamic and responsive participation, creation and sharing of contents. On the biases of Orielly definition Markus Angermeier created a mind map for web 2.0 which explain the key concepts. These important concepts of Web 2.0 include Usability, Standardization, Design, Remixability, Economy, participation and convergence. Usability is one of the key factors of web 2.0. According to Lewis Web 2.0 applications tend to look more like desktop applications than Web pages: they have simple interfaces with plain colours and no busy patterns, logos, or animation. They provide a richness of Interaction previously found only in desktop applications (Lewis, 2006). He further write about the dynamic content of web 2.0 and information gathering and assembling of information on a single page. The source of information is blogs which are like online diaries, resource sharing which allow users to share their favourite web links and other resource like tags (Lewis, 2006). Example systems include del.icio.us and bibsonomy.org. Web 2.0 fulfils the standardization requirements of (W3C) for applications development and content generation. Design provide rich look and feel with practical user-interface, eye catching appearance and ease of use. Remixability is the facility that Web 2.0 offers where an application can be remixed with different set of other minor applications together to form a new and more interactive application. The introduction of Web 2.0 technologies such as AJAX breaks this fixed page based model in several ways. Traditional web sites depend on a page update model where each interaction results in an entire page refresh Web 2.0 applications allow part page updates (Pilgrim, 2008). For example, Google Maps do not require an entire page to be refreshed when the user selects a preferred view. Google system gets the data that lies outside of the edge of the map in frame with out refreshing whole page and allow user to grab the map and drag it without any interruption (Zucker, 2007). Gmail also uses AJAX technology in similar fashion to update the little portion of page when new email arrives (Pilgrim, 2008). 1.2 WEB 1.0 VS WEB 2.0 According to Musser and OReilly (2006) Web 2.0 is a set of economic, social, and technology trends that collectively form the basis for the next generation of the Internetà ¢Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¡Ã‚ ¬a more mature, distinctive medium characterised by user participation, openness, and network effects. The main difference between Web 1.0 and Web 2.0 is creation and presentation of content. In Web 1.0 the majority of users acting as consumers of content, while in Web 2.0 user can actively participate in content creation and sharing and there are various technologies available to create the content to its maximum potential. The free nature of Web 2.0 allow users to create exchange and share contents of any kind (text, audio, video) and tag, comment, and link Pages within group or outside the group. A popular improvement in Web 2.0 is mashups, which combine or make content in fresh forms (Cormode Krishnamurthy, 2008). For example, street addresses are linked with a map Web site to visualize the locations. This type of site linkage provides facility to create additional link between records of any database with other database. In web 1.0 people implicitly put links of interesting resources to their personal home pages. HTML form tags spread across entire web with no facility of tag base browsing, search engines were using this text as source of web page to improve the quality of search, it limits the tagging in web 1.0 and which restrict collaborative interaction and collective intelligence of community (Brine Page, 1998). While web 2.0 every one can participate in tagging as it become very easy task and become the key characteristic of portals. Due to the large scale of the tagging community, portals like del.icio.us have accumulated decent annotations in the form of tags for numerous resources. These tags are used for search and navigation and Google AdSenseform easy-to-read summaries for the described resources (Kinsella, et al., 2008) Tim OReilly in his Article What Is Web 2.0: Design Patterns and Business Models for the Next Generation of Software, 2005 describe the difference of web1.0 and web2.0 as follows: Web1.0 Web2.0 DoubleClick Google AdSense Ofoto Flickr Akamai BitTorrent mp3.com Napster Britannica Online Wikipedia personal websites blogging Evite upcoming.org and EVDB domain name speculatio search engine optimization page views cost per click screen scraping Web services publishing participation content management systems wikis directories (taxonomy) tagging (folksonomy) stickiness syndication (Table 1.0 What is Web 2.0: OReilly, 2005) According to Gibson dynamic updates is one of the important characteristic of web2.0 and this is adopted through AJAX technology (Gibson, 2007). Web2.0 websites respond user request such as email checking or instant chatting. Web2.0 applications also provide automatic updates such as stock quotes, sports scores and other information (Gibson, 2007). Mostly news sites like BBC, Sky Newsetc. continuously updating providing instant information. Web2.0 encourages the active participation from the users to access content and interaction with each other on the Web (Pilgrim, 2008). The content of Web 1.0 was read-only and static. Whereas the transformation of web to changed the read-only web to read-write web enabled user active and collaborative participation. The above graph shows that how persistent growth in internet usage according to the facts provided by Internet World Stats with in a decade its usage rise from 361 million to 1650 million users world wide. At the early stages content of web were static in their nature and they are publish for reading purpose there were no interaction between users and user generated content are at ignorable scale. As the number of users raise it change the way of content presentation and publication on internet and users start active participation and involvement in the content and collective intelligence increased through this social read/write web. The change brought by Web 2.0 in content publishing and consumption evidently shows the divergence between static web (web1.0) and dynamic web (web2.0). Web 2.0 provides pages with dynamic content which not only can be read by browsers or readers but with the capability of writing, collaborating and sharing knowledge at the same time. 1.3 WEB 2.0 ACTIVITIES AND SERVICES There are a number of Web 2.0 services and applications available which provide the foundation of Read/Write web. These tools allow users to create, edit and modify the content of information with collaboration. Web 2.0-based communities occupy virtual spaces that are open, self-organizing, adaptive, agile, readily accessible, and easy to use (Sabina Leone, 2009). A Web 2.0 platform has shared design of services to support a collaborative and distributed environment in which users can connect, share, comment and create new content or software tools (Sabina Leone, 2009). Services offered within the Web 2.0 framework offers evolutionary services of the Internet history. To be active on internet firms have no choice but to find out an appropriate role using web2.0. Most major firms, including BMW, IBM, Google, and many others, are positioning them-selves to find their strategic place, appropriate place and fit within these developments (Wigand, Benjamin Birkland, 2008). In todays web we find different type of content. According to Paul Anderson (2007) These include blogs, wikis, multimedia sharing services, content syndication, podcasting and content tagging services. Many of these applications of Web technology are relatively mature, having been in use for a number of years, although new features and capabilities are being added on a regular basis It is worth noting that many of these newer technologies are concatenations, i.e. they make use of existing services. In this section I will discusses about some of the important activities Web 2.0 activities, these are Blogging, Folksonomy and Social Bookmarking, Multimedia Sharing, Social Networking, Podcasting. 1.3.1 BLOGGING The term web-log, or blog, was coined by Jorn Barger in 1997 and refers to a simple webpage consisting of brief paragraphs of opinion, information, personal diary entries, or links, called posts, arranged chronologically with the most recent first, in the style of an online journal (Doctorow et al., 2002). Blogs are also called online diaries which enable users, without requirement of any technical skill, to create, publish and organize their own web pages that contain dated content, entries, comments, discussion etc. in sequential order (Alexander, 2006; Castenade, 2007). People can publish information which they collect from various resources and establish relation between them in blogs. Additionally RSS and the possibility to post comments make blogs also a collaborative and social-interactive software application (Petter et al., 2005). San Murugesan defines blogs a two- way web-base communication tool. Simply it is a website which is used to share thoughts and ideas to leave suggestions and comments. An entry in blog might contain text, image, or link to other blogs and web pages, and possibly the other media related to the topic. Blogs have ability to generate machine readable RSS and Atom feeds it means they could be use to distribute machine readable summaries of contents and provide the facility of searching similar information from different sources (Cayzer, 2004), (Anderson, 2007). Huge number of internet users involved in blogging and they are operating in their own environment. As technology has become more sophisticated, bloggers have begun to incorporate multimedia into their blogs and there are now photo-blogs, video blogs (vlogs), and, increasingly, bloggers can upload material directly from their mobile phones (Anderson, 2007).There are different types and categories of blogs. Such as Arts, Business, Computers and Technology, Education, Entertainment, Food, History, Law, Libraries, Music, Personal, Political, Regional, Sports and finally Web. Blogging software allows three levels of privacy password-protected most private blog; users blog service listed blog most public blog and will be easily found by search engines. An unlisted blog neither fully private nor fully public. Unlisted blog cannot be found without knowing the URL. It could be public only if it contain a link and someone eventually click that link this way these blogs picked by search engines. Since most blogs contain links that anyone might click on, unlisted blogs are not secure, although they may remain relatively invisible if they link to sites that few people access and if the links are not activated (Nardi et al., 2004). Blogging is well known activity which used for online debate and discussions, shared editing, personal communication and networking. In terms of groups, it allows various authors or writers to communicate with others to present their views, opinions and to write for teams, groups and group work. 1.3.2 FOLKSONOMY/TAGGING AND SOCIAL BOOKMARKING A tag is a keyword that is added to a digital object (e.g. a website, picture or video clip) to describe it, but not as part of a formal classification system. One of the first large-scale applications of tagging was seen with the introduction of Joshua Schacters del.icio.us website, which launched the social bookmarking phenomenon (Anderson, 2007). In web 2.0 Folksonomy as a social web service provide facility to users to save and organise online their bookmarks with social annotations or tags. These are high quality descriptors of web pages topics and good indicators of web users interests (Xu, et al., 2004). Social book marking systems share number of common features (Millen et al., 2005), they also provide the facility of tagging these bookmarks and unlike traditional browser-base bookmarks they can be belong more that one category. Tagging is far more beyond then web site bookmarking. Services like Flicker (photos), YouTube (video) and Odeo (podcasts) allow a variety of digital artefacts to be socially tagged (Anderson, 2007). Users contribute not only in posts and articles but also in from of tags which form the metadata of the content which provide valuable information in content search. It also brings benefits of semantic web to current websites which create collaborative tagging or Folksonomy. Del.icio.us is good example of widely accepted and collaboratively created tags, contend creation and blogging (Subramanya Liu, 2008). Social bookmarking systems provide a clear incentive for users to participate (Farrell et al., 2007). The idea of tagging has been expanded to include what are called tag clouds: groups of tags (tag sets) from a number of different users of a tagging service, which collates information about the frequency with which particular tags are used (Anderson, 2007). 1.3.3 MULTIMEDIA SHARING According to Paul Anderson (2007) multimedia sharing is one of the biggest growth areas amongst services. Well known examples are YouTube which provide video storage and sharing Flicker for photographs and Odeo for Podcasts. These services provide writable facility which at the same time makes users as a consumers and initiate active participation and production of web contents. There are million of people participating in sharing and exchange of these types of media by producing their own podcasts, videos and photos. This development was made possible thorough widespread adoption of high quality and low cost media technology. Such as mobile devices which provide high quality video capturing and photography facility, camcorders with huge storage capability. Refrences 1 Usluel, Y.K. Mazman, S.G. 2009, Adoption of Web 2.0 tools in distance education, Procedia Social and Behavioral Sciences, vol. 1, no. 1, pp. 818-823. 2 Mason, R. Rennie, F. 2007, Using Web 2.0 for learning in the community, The Internet and Higher Education, vol. 10, no. 3, pp. 196-203. 3 Beldarrain, Y. 2006, Distance Education Trends. Distance Education 27(2), 139-153. 4 Murugesan, S. 2007, Understanding Web 2.0. IT Pro. Vol. July/August 2007. P. 34-41. 5 Usluel, Y.K. Mazman, S.G. 2009, Adoption of Web 2.0 tools in distance education, Procedia Social and Behavioral Sciences, vol. 1, no. 1, pp. 818-823. 6 OReilly, T. 2005, Web 2.0: Compact Definition? 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CSCW 04. ACM, New York, NY, 222-231. Available online at: http://doi.acm.org/10.1145/1031607.1031643 20 Anderson 21 Murugesan 22 Xu, S., Bao, S., Fei, B., Su, Z., and Yu, Y. 2008. Exploring folksonomy for personalized search. In Proceedings of the 31st Annual international ACM SIGIR Conference on Research and Development in information Retrieval (Singapore, Singapore, July 20 24, 2008). SIGIR 08. ACM, New York, NY, 155-162. Available online at: http://doi.acm.org/10.1145/1390334.1390363 23 Subramanya, S. B. and Liu, H. 2008. Socialtagger collaborative tagging for blogs in the long tail. In Proceeding of the 2008 ACM Workshop on Search in Social Media (Napa Valley, California, USA, October 30 30, 2008). SSM 08. ACM, New York, NY, 19-26. Available online at: http://doi.acm.org/10.1145/1458583.1458588 24 Farrell, S., Lau, T., Nusser, S., Wilcox, E., and Muller, M. 2007. Socially augmenting employee profiles with people-tagging. In Proceedings of the 20th Annual ACM Symposium on User interface Software and Technology (Newport, Rhode Island, USA, October 07 10, 2007). UIST 07. ACM, New York, NY, 91-100. Available online at: http://doi.acm.org/10.1145/1294211.1294228 25 Siersdorfer, S. and Sizov, S. 2009. Social recommender systems for web 2.0 folksonomies. In Proceedings of the 20th ACM Conference on Hypertext and Hypermedia (Torino, Italy, June 29 July 01, 2009). HT 09. ACM, New York, NY, 261-270. Available online at: http://doi.acm.org/10.1145/1557914.1557959 26 MILLEN, D., FEINBERG, J., KERR, B. 2005. Social Bookmarking in the enterprise. ACM Queue, Nov 2005. Available online at: http://www.acmqueue.com/modules.php?name=Contentpa=showpagepid=344 [last accessed 2/02/10]. Apendix 1.0 DATE NUMBER OF USERS % WORLD POPULATION INFORMATION SOURCE December, 1995 16 millions 0.40% IDC December, 1996 36 millions 0.90% IDC December, 1997 70 millions 1.70% IDC December, 1998 147 millions 3.60% C.I.Almanac December, 1999 248 millions 4.10% Nua Ltd. March, 2000 304 millions 5.00% Nua Ltd. July, 2000 359 millions 5.90% Nua Ltd. December, 2000 361 millions 5.80% Internet World Stats March, 2001 458 millions 7.60% Nua Ltd. June, 2001 479 millions 7.90% Nua Ltd. August, 2001 513 millions 8.60% Nua Ltd. April, 2002 558 millions 8.60% Internet World Stats July, 2002 569 millions 9.10% Internet World Stats September, 2002 587 millions 9.40% Internet World Stats March, 2003 608 millions 9.70% Internet World Stats September, 2003 677 millions 10.60% Internet World Stats October, 2003 682 millions 10.70% Internet World Stats December, 2003 719 millions 11.10% Internet World Stats February, 2004 745 millions 11.50% Internet World Stats May, 2004 757 millions 11.70% Internet World Stats October, 2004 812 millions 12.70% Internet World Stats December, 2004 817 millions 12.70% Internet World Stats March, 2005 888 millions 13.90% Internet World Stats July, 2005 939 millions 14.60% Internet World Stats September, 2005 957 millions 14.90% Internet World Stats November, 2005 972 millions 15.20% Internet World Stats December, 2005 1,018 millions 15.70% Internet World Stats March, 2006 1,022 millions 15.70% Internet World Stats June, 2006 1,043 millions 16.00% Internet World Stats September, 2006 1,066 millions 16.40% Internet World Stats December, 2006 1,093 millions 16.70% Internet World Stats March, 2007 1,129 millions 17.20% Internet World Stats June, 2007 1,173 millions 17.80% Internet World Stats Sept, 2007 1,245 millions 18.90% Internet World Stats Dec, 2007 1,319 millions 20.00% Internet World Stats March, 2008 1,407 millions 21.10% Internet World Stats June, 2008 1,463 millions 21.90% Internet World Stats December, 2008 1,574 millions 23.50% Internet World Stats March, 2009 1,596 millions 23.80% Internet World Stats June, 2009

Paideia and Modern Educational Policy Essay -- Education Philosophy Pa

Paideia and Modern Educational Policy ABSTRACT: The lofty ideals of the classical notion of paideia, and the restatement of those principles in 1982 by Mortimer Adler and the 'paideia group' remain an unfulfilled promise in terms of the actualities of public education in the United States. The notion of an educational system for all students built upon a rigorous curriculum manifesting a framework of values to be acted out in the public and democratic forum continues to have great attraction for educators. Indeed, the notion of paideia continues to carry a sense of urgency as it should. However, the actual task of creating systems devoted to these ideals has run headlong into a political labyrinth generated by the conflict between conservative (technical/authoritative) political thought and liberal (teaching/learning theory) application. The political seductiveness of the trend towards 'standardization' currently in vogue throughout the United States (both locally and nationally) works counter to the classroom-centered/t eacher-student encounter needed to educate students capable of interacting meaningfully in their social and political world. The use of the 'standard' to teach and to measure students carries the authority of the technical and reinforces the stereotype of intellectual elitism. To bring balance to this conflict and create an apolitical design requires attention to the meditative role of the teacher and the nature of learning. There was a fundamental tension embedded in the earliest appropriation of the Greek paideia by early Christianity which continues to be acted out upon the political/ educational stage today. That tension is between valuing knowledge (text) considered as object as opposed to valuing und... ...the object, but rather its formative power which leads to understanding is the paideia of the modern classroom just as it was for Gregory of Nyssa. Bibliography Adler, Mortimer. The Paideia Proposal: An Educational Manifesto. New York, MacMillan Publishing Co. 1982. Alter, Jonathan. "Chicago's Last Hope." Newsweek, June 22, 1998. Ben-Hur, Meir. Mediation of Cognitive Competencies for Students in Need. Phi Delta Kappan. May, 1998. Bowers, C.A. The Promise of Theory. New York. Teachers College Press. 1984. Eisner, E. Teaching as Art and Craft. Educational 1983 Leadership, Vol. 40, January. Heidegger, M. On the Way to Language. New York:Harper and Row, 1974. Gardner, J. The Unschooled Mind. New York, HarperCollins, Publisher, 1991. Jaeger, J. Early Christianity and Greek Paideia. Cambridge, The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 1961.

The Civil War of Rome :: Ancient Rome Roman History

The Civil War of Rome The Civil War in the eyes of most people is not glorious, but rather one of the worst crimes you could possibly commit when the state is all-important. Only under the most extreme circumstances should one be allowed to (in the eyes of the people that is) begin a Civil War with just cause. Caesar took this into consideration, but too many things were going wrong in Rome for him not to begin the war. The first of many problems was the collapse of the Triumvirate. The Triumvirate was one of the main parts of the government of Rome, with which there were three leaders, which at the time were Caesar, Pompey, and Crassus. This was never truly working all that great, but held itself together by the marriage of Caesar's daughter Julia, to Pompey, and the friendship Caesar and Crassus shared. But, all this came to an end when Crassus was killed in a battle against a Parthian army. Then, not too long afterwards, Julia was murdered by someone who had broken into her home. This, destroyed the bond between Caesar and Pompey, and made them drift apart. Caesar seeing all this taking place, attempted to restore the bond by proposing to Pompey's only daughter, but was not allowed to by Pompey. To only make matters worse, Rome was slowly slipping into total anarchy. The government was becoming corrupt with bribery. The elections were being stopped, and there wasn't a consul elected in 53 or 52 B.C. Most authority was lost, the streets became rioted, and unsafe. During this time, Pompey tried to annul the Law of Ten Tribunes without notifying Caesar. If this happen, it would of removed a lot of Caesar's power. Caesar saw what he was trying to do, and stopped it before this action took place, and now knew for sure that Pompey was no longer his ally, but instead an enemy. Pompey tried another devious act against Caesar, which this time worked. He had the senate pass a law that made Pompey and Caesar both give up troops, and send them to the East, where they were supposedly needed against the Parthians. This seemed fair, but it made Caesar lose two legions, one that was lent to him by Pompey in the Gallic Wars, and one of his own. Once they were positioned there, Pompey decided they were no longer needed, and sent them to Capua (a city in Rome) under his command.

The Iraqi War Essay -- Papers Opinion Argumentative War Terrorism

The Iraqi War This is a discursive essay for the argument against America going to war with Iraq. In this essay, I will briefly include a summary about Iraq and go on to give evidence about previous incidents and other significant points that finally led to the war. Iraq is a dictatorship that was under the rule of the tyrant Saddam Hussein until the coalition forces invaded and toppled the Iraqi regime. Saddam Hussein officially became a dictator in the year 1979. Since then, he has caused many disruptions and has terribly ruled Iraq. Saddam was supported by the military of Iraq and he was a really brutal man. The people of Iraq were tortured and murdered under this dictator. There was a time where Saddam was interested in developing weapons to fight against other countries. At that time, Iraq did not have close links with neighbouring countries such as Iran. Saddam Hussein then saw Iran as a slightly vulnerable country and started a conflict with its neighbour. Hisorically, there were differences between Iraq and Iran. These differences can be seen in religious matters, border disputes and politics. These led to animosity between the two countries which heightened during the rule of Saddam Hussein. Fortunately, the war was ended in 1988. Since then, Saddam had an interest in developing what is known as "weapons of mass destruction". These weapons can exist as chemical, biological or nuclear weapons. Somewhere in the middle of the year 1990, Iraqis accused Kuwait of stealing their oil and selling it at low prices, thus damaging the Iraqi economy. Iraq then went on to invade Kuwait on August the 2nd, 1990. This most un... ...sualties of the war, some innocent civilians. Until now, there were no weapons of mass destruction found in Iraq. President Bush took drastic action on Iraq without any reason. There were not also complete backing from the international community to proceed in this war. Going to war is not a very democratic decision and America should have tried other civilised ways to deal with Iraq. America's plans were to go in and find weapons of mass destruction and to get rid of the Iraqi regime. They did not need to go to war to do this. The war claimed many lives of civilians and soldiers and over $93 billion spent. This money could be used for better purposes such as helping poor countries and funding useful projects. Fortunately, the leader of the regime, Saddam Hussien was finally captured later in early December 2003.

Movie Review: In the Womb

In the womb – the DVD – Review A must see movie for future parent's! Experience  the life before birth, The formation, a step by step in a film that have not been seen like him. In the womb, was produced for National Geographic Channel . Its includes  features in advanced technology, simulations that have been  generated by ultrasound photography in four dimensions. Before it takes its first breath, a human baby has been through an incredible transformation from a single cell to a complex, self-sustaining organism.Watch this amazing process in real time inside the womb. Recommendation + personal experience I remember that moment I realized that my wife's stomach size is what supposed to be my child, with God's help,  I studied this film, explaining   me something that is very difficult for me personally to understand: how our body produces live? How does it work? If you think that I got it after seeing the film and that I  understood all of these scientific facts, then you're wrong, its still seems like a crazy miracle that happens one after the other in the all wide World.I sthrongly recommend everyone to see that   movie, it shows the very little detailsof the process  and even shows us the fetus  in  a verity of positions, moves, making faces, etc that we cant see without that film. you will enjoy it. Source:  http://www. shvoong. com/exact-sciences/2000143-womb/#ixzz2cqvNjWSF Maybe this has already been talked about and I missed it, but I thought I would let all of you ladies know about a National Geographic special my husband recorded for me to watch called â€Å"In the Womb. † I HIGHLY recommend the film.It's a fairly new documentary about how babies develop and it's quite interesting. I thought I would do a little review for you all since some of you are midwives and others are looking for informational videos. There are good and bad things about the documentary, but the end made me so very, VERY happy that I've forgiven the film all of it's faults. Con: The intro is of a woman in labor screaming bloody murder like they do in the movies while giving birth. You'll forgive this later, however. Read on. Con: I kinda almost fell asleep at the beginning when they were covering conception.It was stuff we've all heard a million times in school, so it was pretty redundant. Get to the babies already! Pro: Some of the computer graphics and filming was really amazing. They use all new footage, no recycled stuff from other documentaries. Con: Sometimes the film would state some fact and then not back it up in any way, so you'd be left wondering â€Å"gee, that's new. Where on earth did they get THAT? † For example, during one part, they said that a woman is more likely to have a miscmarriage if she experiences stress, has an immune disorder, or if she has previously given birth to a boy.Now, I've had three miscmarriages, so I've read tons of information about it and never have I heard that givi ng birth to a boy makes you more likely to have a miscmarriage. I thought â€Å"wow, really? Where'd they hear that? † but they just went on to the next subject without explaining. Con: 99% of the babies in the film are not real – they are either rubber models (which look absolutely fantastically realistic, by the way) or these super creepy alien-looking computer generated babies that totally freaked me out. They were a bit disturbing looking.Con: They stressed the value of ultrasound in the video and I'm personally against it, but it doesn't lose a lot of points with me because a lot of women are pro ultrasound. Pro: They did mention that ultrasound might be harmful, though it is not â€Å"known† to cause problems in babies. They also mentioned that while we can't hear ultrasound, babies CAN because it creates an echo inside the water-filled uterus. They explained that babies â€Å"run† from it because it is extremely loud – somewhat like standing next to a subway train. Pro: They provided TONS of the most amazing 4D footage of babies I've ever seen.They had videos of babies only weeks old in the womb yawning, playing with their noses and feet, and twins interacting with each other. I cried at parts. Pro: Aside from a brief (and very low-key) clip where a doctor does a minor surgery on an unborn fetus along with a few short clips of doctors pperforming ultrasound, there were NO HOSPITAL SCENES or doctors in the film. Woot! The best part ever: The film follows only one mother through her pregnancy and ends with her giving birth. I grumbled my way through a few mildly irritating parts of the film, but whe I reached the end, I got a rather shocking surprise.When it's time for the mother to give birth, you see her standing – yes standing – next to a bed in a birthing center giving birth. There is not one doctor in the room or a machine beeping of any kind, only the woman, her midwife, the cameraman, and the husband . There are no bright lights and it's very quiet except for the woman's screams. Then, to my utter delight, the narrator informs the viewers that standing or squatting are the best positions in which to give birth and that it is better and more comfortable for the mother than laying on her back.I wish every reader could have been there with me as I whooped and hollered and punched my fists in the air in delight! Imagine a mainstream documentary saying something like that! The baby is immediately handed to the mother through her legs and she sits on the bed with her newborn, a smile plastered on her delighted face. No one takes her baby away. The midwife waits to cut the cord and then the mother is seen breastfeeding. WAY TO GO NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC!! So yes, any midwives out there who are looking for a good educational video, I'd have to say that this is the one.It's not about birth, it's about development, but it's the best I've seen so far and it's SO ultra pro-natural birth. ETA: S ORRY! The Youtube link seems to have been taken down. I'll keep an eye out for any other sites hosting the full video   -Amber National Geographic Channel's In the Womb by Inbar Maayan  Keywords:  Human development,  Movies,  Fetus Written, produced, and directed by Toby Mcdonald, the 2005 National Geographic Channel film  In the Womb  uses the most recent technology to provide an intricate glimpse into the prenatal world.The technologies used, which include advanced photography, computer graphics, and 4-D  ultrasound  imaging, help to realistically illustrate the process of development and to answer questions about the rarely seen development of a human being. The following description of the images and narrative of the film captures the major points of  In the Womb, and of embryonic and fetal development, as they are seen at the outset of the twenty-first century, depicted in only 100 minutes. In the Womb  opens with a glimpse of the mature  fetus  moment s before she is ready to emerge into the outside world.The narrator explains that at this final stage, she is equipped with all of the faculties necessary for full function outside the  womb. The main focus of the film, however, is the journey leading up to these final moments, a journey that begins with just a single cell. This journey is viewed intermittently tthroughout the film using 3-D and 4-D  ultrasound  scanning techniques which show the baby moving. 4-D refers to a string of 3-D images taken in real time (time is the fourth dimension), thus creating a movie of in utero events.In addition, the process is simulated by computer imaging based on observations, giving a vivid portrayal of embryonic and fetal development. The developmental narrative begins with millions of swimming  sperm, and an explanation of their unique purpose—carrying the father’s genetic information to the moment of  conception. The  sperm  are produced in a man’s  test es, and their quality depends on his lifestyle choices; they tend to be damaged by the consumption of various drugs and by heat, and stimulated by the consumption of coffee.A singlesperm  is filmed swimming across a black landscape, which accentuates the rapid, intricate movements of its tail. The tail’s flexibility allows the  sperm  to progress approximately a tenth of an inch per minute. Millions of  sperm  are filmed as they appear in the  vagina, many of them dead on their sides, with the vast crowd in the middle swimming toward the  uterus, the  fallopian tubes, and the  egg, which looks like a moon-like orb nestled among its protective agents. This  egg, like all her others, was formed during the mother’s own time in the  womb  and has resided in her body ever since.The film suggests that in order to find the  egg, the  sperm  Ã¢â‚¬Å"sniff it out† using their figurative sense of smell. A graphical simulation shows the  sperm   traveling toward the awaiting  egg, and one of them penetrating its outer layer. The bigger picture, in which the rest of the  spermare permanently shut out upon  fertilization, is filmed. Another graphical simulation follows, illustrating the fusion of the father’s and the mother’s genetic material at the moment of  conception. The narrator notes that this particular genetic combination has never before existed, and will never be duplicated in another human being.DNA, which carries the organism’s genetic information and is bundled in the chromosomes, is depicted as a long, energetic helix that carries the more than 20,000  genes  that make up an average human. These  genes  are responsible for various characteristics and are determined by paren'tal contributions. They are absolutely crucial to the development of new life. The various physical effects of genetic information are illustrated in the display of various shapes of eyes, noses, hair , and other features.The great variability of genetic effects on appearance is depicted by the morphing of a face to show a vvariety of characteristics, both male and female. It is noted, however, that while the parent's contribute equal amounts of genetic information, it is the DNA from the  sperm  that determines the child’s sex, via its twenty-third chromosome, which is either an X or a Y. The  genes  contributed by the parent's largely predetermine the child’s appearance and much of the child’s personality and predisposition for certain diseases.After the illustration and explanation of  fertilization, a description of the fertilized egg’s journey toward the  uterus  is accompanied by film footage of the process. As it sails along the fallopian tube on the first day of its journey, the single cell divides into two identical cells. Cell division continues and by the fifth day, the resulting ball of cells is made up of about 100 cells and is called a  blastocyst. At this stage, theblastocyst  will split into two groups of cells: the outer layer prepares to become the  placenta,  umbilical cord  and fetal membranes, and the inner layer prepares to become the embryo itself.The cells making up the inner part of the  blastula  are  stem cells, and have the ability to differentiate into all of the different types of cells that make up the human body. One week after  fertilization, the  blastula  reaches theuterus, where it will start to develop into a new human being. Three weeks into  gestation,  In the Womb  simulates the embryo folding inward and elongating as the basic body plan is determined. An actual embryo at this stage is shown and a basic spine is visible.The top of the embryo, destined to become the head and brain, is indicated; this region has already begun to generate  nerve cells  by the fifteenth day of the  pregnancy. These  nerve cells  will proliferate and eventually become the brain and the  central nervous system. The heart forms soon after this, and twenty-two days after  conception, begins to beat. This movement is initiated by a single heart cell which begins to beat and induces the cells around it to beat to the same rhythm. Close-up filming shows this pulse as heart cells proliferate and the organ continues to form.With the formation of the heart come thin veins and early blood cells responsible for transporting oxygen and nutrients; the blood in these veins moves to the beat of the heart. During the early stages of development the heart beats relatively independently, though its function will later be carefully regulated by the brain. By the time the embryo is four weeks old, preliminary eyes have appeared on her head. These look like dark spots on a pale landscape of surrounding tissue on which the early contours of the forehead, nose, mouth, and other parts of the mature face can be seen.In addition, arm and leg buds emerge. The n arrator mentions that even though thirty days have passed since  conception, the embryo is almost indistinguishable from the embryos of other mammals. The changes taking place in the embryo’s  morphology  over the following few weeks are shown through film progression. The face plates move in to better define facial features, arms and legs continue to take shape, and the head becomes more clearly defined. At six weeks, the embryo is about an inch long, has a firmly rooted and visible  umbilical cord, and the outline of her fingers can be distinguished as well.The eyes have developed by leaps and bounds, although they are not yet concealed by eyelids. The nostrils are now visible, wide-set beneath the eyes on a head that is giant in relation to the size of the body. By the end of eight weeks of  gestation, the embryo is called afetus  and is no longer dependent on the  yolk  sac that nourished it during the  embryonic stage of development. The  yolk  sac, a balloon-like structure of tissue with visible veins, vanishes at this point and the  fetus  becomes solely dependent on the  umbilical cord  rooted in theplacenta, and thus on the mother’s blood for nutrition.A close examination of the  placenta  reveals intricate blood vessels transporting the nutrients necessary for the embryo’s growth, while keeping out many of the toxins present in the mother’s own blood. Despite the placenta’s effectiveness, substances like drugs and alcohol cannot be completely be filtered out, and it’s up to the mother to limit her consumption of them. By nine weeks, the nervous system has developed dramatically and starts to allow the  fetus  to move. Although this movement, shown through computer simulation, is not yet connected to the brain, it premotes agility and further growth.After this point, the body will gradually come under the control of the brain. This change also has the effect of regulating heart rate, which may increase to more than 150 beats per minute before cerebral  regulation. A standard  ultrasound  is performed at the Create Health Clinic in London at the conclusion of the first  trimester, and the narrator explains how  ultrasound  waves function to create the image on the screen. While a physician explains the various tests that can be done at this stage of  pregnancy  using  ultrasound, the baby’s heart can be seen contracting and expanding in the moving image.A step beyond standard  ultrasound  is the 4-D scan, which shows the three-dimensional  fetus  moving in real time. This tool allows for even more accurate evaluation of the fetus’s health and development. It shows everything from the  fetus  moving her arms to yawning or playing with her nose. Four-dimensional scans of various babies at different stages of development greatly expand the amount of detail that is visible to the world outside the  womb. The n arrator also notes that this first  ultrasound  scan is the first oopportunity to ascertain the number of fetuses present in the  womb.Four-dimensional scans also allow us to see the preliminary steps of a baby’s literal first steps. These are manifested in scans of eleven- and twelve-week-old fetuses kicking and pushing off the walls of the  uterus  as they exercise the use of their appendages. This movement is called the stepping reflex, and it is controlled by the fetus’s nervous system. The five weeks leading up to this point, weeks six through eleven, are considered to be the period in which the  fetus  undergoes the most dramatic transformations in its developmental journey.By the end of the eleventh week, all organs have formed, but the  fetus  is still tiny—about three inches long—and thus must grow significantly before it can be  viable. Sex is also determined at this point, and the sex organs produce  hormones  that furth er regulate the sexual development of the  fetus. Miscmarriage beyond this point is far less likely than during the first three months of  pregnancy, since the  fetus  is more stable. As time goes on, the  fetus  looks more and more human, and her senses sharpen further.Simulation reveals highly developed hands and the hardening (ossification) of bones beneath the semi-transparen't skin. The face looks far more â€Å"human† as well, with the eyes now closer together and the nose and mouth more defined. By this time, the brain controls most of the body–including the heart–through thecentral nervous system. Aside from seeing the heart, a Doppler probe is also used to hear what the fetus’ heart sounds like. It beats at a frantic 146 beats per minute, which the physician indicates is a healthy pace for a  fetus  this age.At four months, she not only has control of her heart rate, but she also begins to respond to physical stimuli and to move a round a lot. She has also begun to develop proprioception, which is the awareness of the body’s position in its surroundings. She is shown feeling the sides of the  womb  and grasping at different parts of her body. Four-dimensional images of twins also reveal how interactive they are with each other; identical twins, however, interact much more than do fraternal twins, who have a membrane separating them.This membrane is also visible with this more detailed scanning tool. Eighteen weeks after  conception, fetal movements become readily detectable to the mother. In addition, the  fetus  starts digesting amniotic fluid as her digestive system begins preparation for the outside world. Another preparation has been revealed by 4-D scans, where thefetus  can be seen practicing the blinking reflex. Soon, she will even have her own fingerprints. At the conclusion of the second  trimester, the  fetus  is fully formed but still needs to experience dramatic growth and to develop her senses.The film states that at this stage, she begins to taste flavors from her mother’s food, and to hear the sounds that surround her cocoon, including the tone and cadence of her mother’s voice. Comfort with her mother’s various sense-inducing habits may even prove conducive to more healthy development once the baby has been born. In the Womb  also notes that, as well as providing a preliminary basis for diagnosis of complications,  ultrasound  scans also premote the development of paren'tal attachment to the yet-unborn child.Ultrasound is thought to enhance the relationship of the child with the parent's, both in infancy and later in life. At twenty-four weeks, this relationship could begin prematurely, for it is at this point that a baby could survive outside of the  womb; though still small and underdeveloped, with appropriate intensive care, she could be considered  viable. The greatest complications may arise due to the prematur e lungs, since the lungs only fully develop near the conclusion of the  pregnancyand are filled with amniotic fluid until breathing begins.The eyes, which have been fully developed since the middle of the  pregnancy, cannot see yet but are adorned with eyelashes by the twenty-fifth week. Babies are usually born with lighter-colored eyes than they will have later; babies of Caucasian descent are often born with blue eyes, while babies of Asian or African descent first have darker brown eyes. These colors will often change or deepen during the first few months of life, as the pigments in the eyes are exposed to light, which is absent in the  womb. In the darkness of the  womb, babies in their final  trimester  spend most of their time sleeping soundly.When they are awake, however, fetuses are often active, practicing their reflexes in response to provocations from outside the  womb. These include the startle reflex, when the  fetus  flings her arms out and over her h ead, and the swallowing and sucking process, crucial to nutrition outside of the  womb. The latter may be manifested in thumb sucking, which is thought to be sthrongly correlated with handedness during a person’s life. The  placenta  not only conducts oxygen, nutrients, and flavors to the  fetus, but it may also conduct the mother’s mood. The ear or anxiety that a mother might experience cascade through, eventually causing the baby’s heart to beat faster as well. Serious and sustained stress or anxiety have been found to result in stress in the child and a higher risk for stress-related physical and mental health complications. Past twenty-six weeks the  fetus  concentrates almost solely on growth; despite this, serious issues might arise even before birth. In the Womb  shows Dr. Kypros Nicolaides of King’s College Hospital in London diagnosing and pperforming  in utero  surgery on a  fetus  whose intestines are obstructing lung grow th.He performs this delicate surgery with the help of a fetuscope, which allows him to see inside thewomb  and is also used as a tool in the surgery itself. Nicolaides’ technique for treating this particular disorder has been met with a 50% increase in the survival rate of his prenatal patients. The last two months of  pregnancy  see the final steps toward a healthy birth. During this time, the  fetus  develops a layer of insulating fat and has even been found to develop consciousness and memory. The  fetus  may remember and respond to familiar sounds such as her mother’s voice or even her parent's’ favorite music.If the  fetus  recognizes music, she might even move in rhythm. Fast music has been found to stimulate and excite the  fetus, which seems to be almost dancing in the  womb, while classical music will often have a calming effect. The development of all of these complex functions prior to birth has also led some experts to posit tha t, developmentally, birth is not as significant as was previously assumed. This is because the brain of a maturing  fetus  is almost identical to that of a newborn. This ssimilarity is particularly striking considering the sighting of rapid eye movement (REM) in 4-D scans, since these are indicative of dreaming.From thirty-five weeks on, the  fetus  could be fully functional and self-supporting (aside from its need for external nutrition and warmth). The film notes that though it is not yet certain what sets off delivery, the maturation of the lungs may play a key role. When mature, the lungs release a protein that affects the  hormone  production of the  placenta, reducing  progesterone  production and initiating the production of oxytocin, which in turn triggers uterine contractions and inhibition of memory.These are useful when the  cervix  undergoes extreme widening—approximately 10 cm—as it conveys the baby’s large head out into the wo rld. In the Womb  has now gone full-circle, arriving again at the time of delivery. To ease the pain of delivery and risks of complication, the mother in the movie delivers standing up and leaning forward with her legs spread apart slightly. During this time, the baby releases large quantities of adrenalin, which keeps the heart pumping fast and prepares the lungs to take their first breathes of air. Soon, the baby’s head crowns and is followed by the rest of the body.As soon as the baby has emerged, it starts crying as its lungs fill with oxygen and it is exposed to the light and cold of the outside world. The  placenta, now unnecessary, detaches from the  uterus  and exits the mother’s body through the birth canal. In the Womb  reviews the entire process of the  pregnancy  and highlights the grand achievement that is transformation from a single cell into an entirely new individual. The newly born baby depends on adults for warmth and nutrition, althoug h all other functions rest solely in her tiny hands.