Assignment 5-1 (Overpopulation)

One environmental factor that I think is becoming a big problem in most parts of his world is overpopulation. Overpopulation refers to the condition when an organism’s numbers exceed the carrying capacity of its habitat (overpopulation 2007).
One good example of such places is Bronx which is based in New York. The place is so populated that parking spaces at almost all location in that area become a very big problem for motorists. People spend a lot of hours on the road, trying to get to their destination. For example, it takes one about an hour and a half to complete a journey which under normal circumstances should have taken only about twenty to twenty-five minutes to complete. Secondly, walking on the streets becomes very difficult since almost the whole place is full of people, some buying and selling on pavements usually reserved for pedestrians.
The main cause of overpopulation in my opinion is immigration. This usually occurs when people move from one place to the other. People have different reasons why they move from one place to the other. Some of these reasons could be economic, social, environmental or political. At the economic point of view, people migrate to other places with the aim of furthering their education such as acquiring higher knowledge in their respective professional careers. Whiles others return after the education, most people do not make any intention on going back. Instead, they stay and work with the aim of achieving better lives, hence contributing to the effects of overpopulation.
With social immigration, people might choose to move due to the fact that they want to improve their standard of living or with the aim of visiting, the families, friends or other relations. This also helps in contributing in overpopulation. With the political point of view, people who are usually accused of wrong mismanagement of funds belonging to the government or other institution try as much as possible to escape prosecution by going on exile. Hence, such people go and never return.
Finally, people migrate due to environmental factors such as very poor environmental condition that usually leads to an outbreak of disease. Hence, since people easily falls sick due to poor hygienic conditions, they would prefer to move to areas where they think might be safer.
References
Overpopulation (2007). Retrieved January 31, 2008. From
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/overpopulation

Assignment 1-3 (Psychological Stress in Penaty Kicks)

Even though soccer in the United States is not as popular as football, it is very much recognized worldwide by most sports enthusiasts as compared to football. This is due to the fact that almost every country in the world plays soccer. One most important factor or rule that is included in a soccer game is penalty kicks.
A penalty is a type of free kick in association football taken from twelve yards out from goal and with only goalkeeper of the defending team between the penalty taker and the goal (Penalty Kick, 2008). Two reasons might always come in mind on why penalty kicks come about. With the first instance, a player who is trying to score a given chance might be brought down in the penalty area. The second might result due to a tie between the two participating teams, where the overall outcome of the match does not show or bring out a clear winner so as to separate the two teams. Therefore separating these two sides or teams could only be done through a penalty shoot out.
However, taking penalty kicks is accompanied with psychological stress imposed on the one who has to take the kick. The intensity of this stress depends on the time when the penalty was awarded (Bar-Eli etal 2007).
An example of this would be the fact that, in the closing moments of a soccer game, the score is tied and it appears likely it will remain that way. All of a sudden a player gets the ball, try as much as possible to get pass several defenders and gets into the penalty area. He is then brought down in the penalty area whist attempting to score. Without any hesitation, the referee blows his or her whistle thereby pointing to the penalty spot. Supposing one of the players by name Michael Johnson stands behind the ball to take the penalty kick, with barely any time left in the game. Standing behind the ball, many psychologically stressful thoughts come into play. These are that; In other to proceed in the impending competition, his team has definitely no option than to win the match, the time when the noise of fans and spectators become very intense, Fans from the opponent’s side are shouting and whistling. Michael could hear the voice of the coach calling, “This is your lifetime chance, and his family members are watching him expecting something better from him.” Michael becomes exhausted and almost too weak to move his legs. Some members of the team walks to him and gives him more encouragement, telling him o take it easy and that, he needs to be himself since they are all expecting an important goal from him. Then his skipper encourages him, “You can do it.” This prompts Michael to say to himself, “I can’t let them down.” He then looks up at the stands where commentators and reporters are sitting, by the media table. The television camera zooms and the reporters shout into their microphones. He freezes momentarily as he sets his mind back at all of the fans at home watching him prepare to shoot. As he reaches down to put the ball on the penalty point, he tries as much as possible to set his mind on the last penalty kick that he missed. At this point many players gets confused which makes them stressed up, due to the fact that they think they are going to missed the penalty kick. Other players go to the extent of thinking about what journalists would be bringing in the news papers after the game have been played.
From this, it could be clearly noticed that this imaginary player is in a state known as stress. And it should be noted however that most of the pressure he is experiencing actually, is self imposed. The situation itself does not produce pressure but rather the player’s subjective reaction to it.
From the above analysis, it could be realized that quite a high percentage of poorly performed penalty kicks in high level soccer is caused by psychological factors. Certain penalty kicks that are missed by soccer players are sometimes caused by tactics adopted by the goalkeepers. This is done to confuse the player who is taking the kick. Hence certain sources of socially induced stress may affect the performance of a soccer player. As stated by Bar-Eli etal and as analyzed above, seven independent factors may be viewed as related to the performance of soccer in penalty kicking. These factors are team, coach, management, opponent, spectators, mass media and the player himself. Each one of these independent factors contains a number of psychological dimensions which have either direct or indirect influence upon the player’s performance.



References
Bar-Eli & Friedman (2007). Psychological Stress in Penalty Kicks. Retrieved,
January 15, 2008. Vol. 52, issues 3, p14.
Penalty Kick (2008). Retrieved, January 17 2008, from
http://www.answers.com/topic/penalty-kick.

Assignment 1-5 (Culture and Society: Interactions). Music 1945 - 1960

Carl Perkins wrote and recorded “Blue Suede Shoes” in 1955 and the song was a huge success. It was a chart-topper for Perkins on the country and R&B charts, but it enjoyed even more success after Elvis Presley covered the song following Perkins’ nearly fatal car accident (Blue Suede Shoes 2006)




v 1954: Bill Harley and the comets recorded “Rock Around the Clock.” A teen anthem that is generally credited with making Rock n’ Roll, a worldwide phenomenon.
v 1952: Alan Fred visited a Cleveland record store and learned that R&B records were being snapped up by white teenagers. That was when he changed the name of his popular music show on a radio station program from “ Record Rendezvous” to “Moon Dog’s Rock ‘n’ Roll House Party,” and then began playing R&B tunes (The Straight Dope, 2004).

Jazz
· 1945: Bop hits with full force when the musicians union strike ended

at the end of 1944, and a lot of Bop gets recorded in 1945.
· 1946: Lenny Tristano arrives in New York City and takes Jazz into

more coolness and complexity
· 1948: Armstrong forms the first version of the Jazz All Stars with

Jack Teagarden on trombone, Barney Bigard on clarinet, Dick Carey

on piano, Sid Catlett on drums and Arvell Shaw on bass. Their music

fits in with New Orleans revival.
1949: Jerry Wexler, future partner of Ahmet Ertegun of Atlantic Records, persuaded his

current employer, Billboard, to change the term "Race Records" to "Rhythm and Blues."

The term was replaced occasionally by terms such as "Soul Music", but was currently in

vogue again
· 1950s: John Litweiler wrote the above passage in the opening to his book The Freedom

Principle, capturing the true essence of jazz - freedom. Jazz has come to be called the only true

American art form
· 1950s: It was ironically not always the free will of the artists to define the state of jazz, but

often the will of the recording industry corporations and media critics. For several times

throughout those eras, history of jazz music labels was forced upon the artists by which had a

real effect on the artists. Either the artist gets labelled in accordance with the music that he

plays, or the artist is forced to play a particularly popular imposed style in order to survive.

Free will was part of jazz, but its surface was marred by a heavy deterministic streak dictated

by stylistic considerations.
· 1950s: Musicians living at the end of the 1950's had seen three of the aforementioned stylistic

trends in jazz over the last decade and a half. Each of these trends came about as a series of

reactions based both on what the musicians were doing and what the record companies thought

the public wanted to hear. Out of the swing era came ``bebop'', out of bebop came ``cool jazz''

and from both emerged ``hard bop'' in the middle of the fifties. The three styles will be

considered in efforts to set up the revolution that was to begin in 1959.
· 1950s: Jazz bands that were once played began to close all across the country, when Americans

began to turn television as their entertainment.

Despite the shift in Jazz’s popularity, talented musicians continued to produce complex and

powerful music and took jazz in new directions.

*1954: Bill Harley and the comets recorded “Rock Around the Clock.” A teen anthem that is

generally credited with making Rock n’ Roll, a worldwide phenomenon.
* 1952: Alan Fred visited a Cleveland record store and learned that R&B records were being

snapped up by white teenagers. That was when he changed the name of his popular music

show on a radio station program from “ Record Rendezvous” to “Moon Dog’s Rock ‘n’ Roll

House Party,” and then began playing R&B tunes (The Straight Dope, 2004).

Reference

The Straight Dope (2004). Retrieved, January 28, 2008, from
http://www.straightdope.com/classics/92_0276.html.
Jazz (2007). History of Jazz time line. Retrieved, January 27, 2008 from
http://www.allaboutjazz.com/jazz1945.htm
Blue Suede Shoes (2006). A Rockability Session. Retrieved, January 27, 2008, from
http://www.google.com/musicl?lid=1vCrB3FK0WH&aid=_BMj0DFd17C

Assignment #3-1

A current pop culture topic that interests me is how T.V. affects the child. Television in my opinion is the most vital source of happiness both for the children and the adults. Television is a widely used telecommunication system for broadcasting and receiving moving pictures and sound over a distance (Television 2007).
There are so many channels on television these days, as compared to the previous, where different king of programs are shown each day. Kids in the United States watch about 4 hours of television a day even though the American Academy of Pediatrics guidelines say children older than 2 should watch no more than 1 to 2 hours a day of quality programming (Kidshealth 2007). During the age of 2 is the critical time for children’s brain development, and is when T.V. can get in the way of exploring, learning and spending time interaction and playing with parents and others which helps young children develop the skills they need to grow cognitively, physically, socially and emotionally. Hence the guidelines suggests that children under the age of 2 years should have no screen time at all.
Preventing the child from having a screen time to me is a good idea. Despite the advantages of watching television and are negative aspects of watching it. For example, kids who view violent event such as kidnapping or murder are more likely to believe that the world is scary and that something bad will happen to them. Secondly, research as stated in the guidelines has shown that children who consistently spend more than 4 hours per day watching T.V. are more likely to be overweight. Again it also indicates that T.V. consistently reinforces gender role and racial stereotypes. Lastly T.V. is full of programs and commercials that often depict risky behavior such as sex and substance abuse as fun and exciting, whiles there is often no discussion about the consequences of drinking alcohol, doing drugs, smoking cigarettes and having premarital sex.
Hence since watching T.V. is an ideal way of having fun, parents should ensure that they also try as much as possible to set time limits and channels that are appropriate for their kids.

References
Kids health (2007). Retrieved January 21, 2008. From:
http://www.kidshealth.com/parent/positive/family/tv_affects.child.html

Television (2007). Retrieved January 20, 2008. From:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Television

Assingnment 2-3 (Romantic Love)

Romantic love myth is one that I actually find very interesting. As a matter of fact, Romantic love is a relative term that distinguishes moments and situations with interpersonal relationships (Romance 2007). It usually place emphasis on emotions such as love, intimacy, compassion and appreciation rather than physical pleasure. Even though the story of Tristan and Iseult brings out the real essence of love, different people have different motives depending on their different views and experiences.
This story shows how the two lovers gave up their world for love (Casselman 2000). This true romantic story which occurred in the 12th century unfortunately ended up in a tragedy. The facts of the matter was the fact that Tristan fell deeply in love with his own uncle’s wife Iseult. A princess from Ireland for whom Tristan himself volunteered to travel and ask for her hands in marriage on behalf of his uncle who was the king of Cornwall. They unknowingly fell in love on their way to Cornwall after they had drank a lotion prepared by Iseult’s mother to be given to the King Mark when they became thirsty. The power of the lotion was so strong that they even made love with each other on the day when the wedding was scheduled between she “Iseult” and the King, Mark. This was so serious to the extent that Iseult’s maid was made to disguise herself and sleep with the King pretending to be Iseult that same night. Whiles they all lived together in the palace, these two lovers continued to meet secretly for sometime until one day when King Mark found them sleeping together. Instead of taking any action against them, he quietly replaced his sword with that of Tristan which laid beside him while he slept. When they woke up, they realized that the sword was missing after they found that which belonged to the King. When it was really evident that they have been found together, they were deeply ashamed. Not able to withstand the disgrace, Tristan decided to leave Cornwall for Brittany; he persuaded Iseult to go to her husband.
He left for Brittany and started a new life and got married. He occasionally came to Cornwall disguising himself. During one of the battles in Brittany, Tristan was seriously wounded. He then sent for Iseult, so she could come and help treat his wound since she had done that on two previous occasions for when he was in a similar condition. When he wife heard this, she became jealous. She then announced to Tristan that the ship came without Iseult whiles it also displayed a black sail. Tristan became very worried and since he was very sick with wounds all over his body, he had a broken heart and died. When Iseult finally arrived and heard the news she also had a broken heart and died.
The above scenario between Tristan and Iseult shows that one cannot run away from a place where his or her heart is supposed to be. No matter how far one runs away from a situation, he or she would always leave some footsteps behind. This story shows the beauty of love concerning two people who are deeply in love with each other. When two people are really in love they are always prepared to go the extra mile to ensure tat the other partner is safe and secure. In the story, Iseult traveled from her own city to another city to take care of another man even though she was legally married to another man. Hence, it could be realized that Romantic love is composed of love and care, devotion and appreciation.
In relationships such as these, the duty to love and care for the other partner is so important to the extent that it helps to build a strong bond between two people. This is built around on how the two people talk to each other and the response that comes from the other person. Devotion is one aspect of Romantic love that is not always neglected when two people are in love. With this, they try to spend as much time as possible with their partners and would not seem to care so much even though they might have several things or businesses to attend to. By so doing, one tend to lose money, which by so doing turns to be an investment in such a relation. This is especially when the heart turns to play its role in such a relationship. At this point, people try as much as possible to make several promises as evidence to support how deeply one is in love with the other. For example people make promises such as buying a car to the other partner in case there is a breach of the love they had shared in the past. Other people go the extent of signing enforceable contracts with intention of creating legal relations, such as giving up one’s house or a huge specified sum of money in case of such breach.
Appreciation is one of the most important keys that have got so much to do with romantic love. For example, in the story of Tristan and Iseult, Iseult treated the wounds of Tristan on two occasions especially at bad times when he was weak and had no strength to do anything. This good gesture was appreciated by Tristan so much to the extent that, he again called for her services at the time he gets inflicted with wounds due to the battles in Brittany. Secondly, the death of the two lovers showed how deeply they both appreciated what they did for each other.
The pattern of Romantic love would be so attractive to audiences on the basis that it forms part and parcel of their daily lives. This is because, sustaining love relationships is one of the main problems facing a lot of people. Love in the beginning of any relationship, especially marriage is so special. Those times are usually one of the happiest moments of many people. But it mostly comes to a time when one does not see any need to show Romantic love in his or her marriage. They become fed up especially at the time when his or her partner needs him or her the most. One main disadvantage of Romantic love would be the fact that one would always begin to feel alone in a relationship that he or she had invested so much in when it begins to tremble. That’s when people who were previously seen as angels from heaven now turnout to be the devil from hell. People begin to see their other partner not as they originally thought they used to be. They usually begin to find faults in others and they may become jealous, angry, better, sarcastic or cynical (Corner 2007).
Since Romantic love is a myth that always captures the interest of both television viewers and novel readers, writers and novelists try as much as possible to include such contemporary in order to attract maximum interest.
The presence of this myth has brightened my knowledge on the basis that I would be able to recognize the purpose of that story and will also be able to predict reasons why it would not attract interest of the audience.

Assignment 4-3 (Heroes and Celebrities)

A hero refers to a character that in the face of danger and adversity or from the position of weakness, display courage and the will for self sacrifice for some greater good originally of marital courage or excellence but extended to more general moral excellence (Hero, 2007). On the other hand, a celebrity refers to a widely recognized or famous person who commands a high degree of public and media attention (celebrity, 2007). An example of such celebrity is Michael Jordan. This man is widely known due to his excellent display of sportsmanship in the field of basketball.
One main aspect that makes heroes and celebrities similar is the fact that, a hero is regarded as any person admired for great courage, nobility, qualities, or achievements and regarded as an ideal or model. And that of a celebrity relates to that of a highly visible person, usually recognized for some form of talent, beauty or quality (Herous and celebrities, 2008). Hence it could be realized that, they all have some form of qualities that actually make them who they are. With the differences a hero does things to help others. Hence they always try as much as possible to save people from dangers such as losing their lives, properties or any other cherishable material or substance that might be useful to a person or the society as a whole. On the other hand, a celebrity is usually recognized as a result of some form of talent, beauty or material quality.
A hero doesn’t usually receive money and may not receive status for any deed he or she does. Hence one main thing that is always realized is the fact that their motive is to help the helpless without any intentions of receiving a reward. On the other hand, a celebrity uses his or her talent, beauty or material quality to make money. For example, a musician who performs on stage in front of several audiences does so on the motive that, there would be a reward in the form of money or any other material. A hero does things usually to help others and not to him or herself on the other hand, a celebrity usually does things to help him or herself as well as to entertain others. Also, the work of a hero performs might often go unnoticed. This might be due to the fact that he does it solely to help and save others and not to popularize him or herself. Hence he may or may not be recognized by the media, but a celebrity is always most likely to be recognized as a result of his or her performance. Hence such an image or recognition in the media may change.
One important fact about a hero is due to the fact that her or she uses his or her talents or abilities to impact others or society in a positive way. For example a surgical doctor even though gets paid has certain talents or abilities that he or she uses to benefit others or the society as a whole. Such abilities or skill are very vital since not just anybody could perform such task. Example, the doctor might perform a surgical operation on a patient just to prevent him or her from losing his or her life. Hence a growing child sees the abilities of such a person might adopt that interest of becoming a surgical doctor in the future which goes a long way in helping the society. Hence the doctor has served as a positive role model to the growing child.
On the other hand, a celebrity’s talents or abilities might or might not impact others or society in a positive way. For example, a child who listens to sex implicit songs and dance of a popular musician might have a negative influence on that particular child as he or she would try as much as possible to emulate such behavior. Secondly, the child could learn more from great sports men such as Michael Jordon and Michael Johnson as a result of watching the performances of both in their respective field of sport.
It is very important to have a hero because they serve as a strong wall that one can lean on in times of trouble. They act as life savers and sometimes go to the extent of losing their own lives. For example, “ Flames are coming out of every opening in a building and a fire fighter runs in to save someone that is inside.” With this example, the fire fighter puts his or her life on the rocks whiles he or she tries to save someone inside the building. Secondly, “a police officer is shot while trying to ensure that no innocent lives are taken of those being held hostage inside a bank.” With this instance, the police officer has lost his life as a result of trying to save someone else’s life. Hence it is very important to have a hero based on the fact that they serve as a deterrent to wrong doers or bad people who might want to harm the society in one way or the other.
The cult of celebrity is the widespread interest in arbitrary famous individuals or celebrities that became a prominent social phenomenon in late 20th century western popular culture (Cult of celebrity, 2007). It came as a result of its being driven by constant publicity and exposure in magazines, newspapers and television of certain individual due to certain talents or abilities that they have.
Fans are usually fascinated for celebrities based on the fact that celebrities form one of the main parts of entertainment in every society. Hence the kind of celebrity determines the kind or number of fan that he or she would have. Fans would turn to be fascinated about a celebrity depending on his or her performance. A good performer may have several fans so far as performance is able to meet the required expectation.
Our culture reaches and would always reach out for heroes and celebrities due to the fact that they form an integral part of the society in which we leave. For example heroes such as policemen provide a great form of protection to the entire community due to the responsibilities imposed on them based on their acceptance to undertake such a mission. Our culture also reaches out for heroes based on the fact that heroes are not easy to find. Hence heroes are actually born but are not made. Hence a characteristic such as being courageous explains such fact. Similarly celebrities are also reached out by our culture as they form part of the entertainment base of every society, be it singing or sportsmanship.
The sudden proliferation of reality TV is due to the fact that young people who are coming up have different talents and abilities that point at different directions. Hence this proliferation aims at capturing useful talents especially by allowing them to display their capabilities so as to get the best. Such people turnout in one way or the other as celebrities. One television shoe such as the American Idol for example aims at getting the best young talented singer. It also aims at bringing up the talent of singing in various individual which enables them to know what they are capable of.
In a popular TV show like the American Idol where a person is voted off every week shows how competitive it is. This forms part of the ways of bringing out the capabilities of the best singer as everyone tries as much as possible to stay in the competition in the longest possible time.

References
Hero (2007). Retrieved, January 25, 2008. From
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hero
Heroes and Celebrities (2008). Retrieved, January 25, 2008. From
http://www.learningtogive.org/lessons/unit90/lesson4.html
Cult of Celebrity (2007). Retrieved, January 28, 2008. From
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/cult_of_celebrity

Assignment 4-1 (Written weekly analysis 4)

TEAM WORK

One main popular culture that interests me the most is teamwork. Teamwork as a matter of fact refers to the concept of people working together corporately
(Team work, 2007). Teamwork is usually an efficient way by which two or more group of people that are aimed at completing a common objective come together bring out ideas and finally come into consensus through discussions and sharing of ideas.
Several factors come into play in order for a team to be successful. As an online student in Franklin, most of our assignments are usually supposed to be completed as a team. One thing that I actually realized is the fact that these team assignments begin and end successfully through Tuckman’s stages of team development. These stages are forming, storming, worming, performing and adjourning (12 Manage 2007).
Forming is one of the most important stages that come to play when we are given the assignment. At this stage we usually determine our medium of communication. Even though we mostly use emails, we sometimes set time when we could use the Franklin live communication tools. We then identify the task we are going to accomplish and how it could be done. At this stage participation do not turn out to be secure and cordial since we barely know each other pretty well.
We then get into the storm stage where each member of the team defines him or herself in relation to the group. This is when we always had our team leader who will help facilitate our efforts of completing the assignment which is our main goal. Hence each team member is given a responsibility to accomplish.
The next stage which is the norm stage is when the trust between each team member becomes strong due to the appointment of our team leader and shared responsibilities between members. This form of trust always enhances are communication with one another.
At the performance state, we try as much as possible to maintain the effectiveness of the team. This is where we bring all our output of the tasks together and collaborate in order to emerge on a single solution.
The final part which is the adjourn stage is when the team disintegrate after achieving our main, objective which is to complete the assignment. That brings in mid that teams are formed in order to achieve a particular task after which they withdraw connections with others.
Reference
Teamwork (2007). Retrieved January 31, 2008. From
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Teamwork
12 Manage (2007). Stage of Team Development, Retrieved, January 31, 2008. From
http://www.12manage.com/methods_tuckman_stages_team_development.html