Friday, January 31, 2020

Experiencing Flow Essay Example for Free

Experiencing Flow Essay There are a number of characteristics in Christy’s basketball playing that defines her flow. First of all, he feels that she is â€Å"in the zone† when she is playing. Basically, this reflects to a state of mind. She worked in all aspects of the game and she did it effortlessly. Her responses were automatic and all the shots she took got in. Christy seems to be in a state of â€Å"optimal experience† as stated by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi in the book entitled, â€Å"FLOW: The Psychology of Optimal Experience†. Christy feels a sense of exhilaration and enjoyment in what she does. She is able to anticipate the movement of her adversaries and she knows the court very well. Moreover, in all of these tasks, she is calm, and focused even under pressure. There are strategies that would help Christy experience flow more. Csikszentmihalyi describes the feeling as autoletic. It elevates life to a different level (2008). Basically, one needs to build inner harmony. This is done by how one interprets everyday experiences. This promotes happiness and an ability to control forces existing in the universe. Firstly, in order to achieve flow, one should take control of his body. Everything that the body does can be potentially enjoyable. The key to achieving flow is the enjoyment of doing. The important part of achieving flow is not the task in itself but how the task is being done. A person can achieve enjoyment by learning to impose order on one’s sensations. Christy needs to fully feel each sensation her body is experiencing. She must always determine her goals and break them into parts. These parts should be challenging in themselves so that she may sustain enjoyment. There are also ways of experiencing flow more often and longer. One way is to try new things that eventually lead to development of new skill. More enjoyment will be experienced with more skills developed. It is important that progress in these activities is monitored so that the flow can be experienced longer. It is also good to increase the difficulty of a challenge. Mastery of a particular skill may make one bored thus, a person such as Christy should try to find more challenges that she believes she can attain. Christy should also find more activities that she believes she can get flow from. It is essential that one needs to find many flow experiences as possible. Her coach plays a vital role in helping her experience flow more often. The coach can get her practicing with two opponents or shoot from the center of the court. This will not only avoid boredom but could increase her level of skill. Christy should also try to always get feedback from people on what she is doing. Thus, it is important for the coach to always monitor her performance and tell her about it. The coach should also make sure that the team is practicing in a place where there are little distractions. The coach should avoid making Christy do multitasking. He should develop a lot of activities during practice that will make her stay focused. Lapses in time during practices may destroy the momentum of the players and lessen the chances of achieving flow. All these strategies are important in order to achieve flow. Flow is essential for every experience because is promotes focus and total control of situations. It enables people to concentrate more effectively in their tasks. Understanding how to acquire it helps people to focus their attention at their will, without having others to get their attention. It also promotes happiness and enjoyment in all activities. Moreover, understanding flow can lead to understanding why people procrastinate on certain issues. References Csikszentmihalyi, M. (2008). Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience. Chicago, IL: Harper Perennial.

Thursday, January 23, 2020

Objectivism in The Fountainhead Essays -- Fountainhead

Objectivism in The Fountainhead Philosophy demands literature that can abet the understanding of social views. Without reflective literature, man cannot begin to comprehend the essential messages behind philosophy. One such philosophy, objectivism, is represented exceptionally by the novel, The Fountainhead. Through the use of compelling dialogue, Ayn Rand reveals her own feelings towards objectivism, and her thoughts towards conformity and independence. The interpretations and the implications of several of the quotes within The Fountainhead accurately depict the essence of objectivism and encourages the opposition of conventional standards through the embodiment of the uncompromising innovator "standing against the world." Society dictates that there will be those that follow and those that will lead the followers. Peter Keating is one that adheres to conformity; a man of little independent thought, a follower. Howard Roark, on the other hand, is a man aspiring to achieve a level of complete and utter independence from traditional principles. One telling passage occurs in a scene where Keating and Roark are discussing architecture. Keating: "How do you always manage to decide?" Roark: "How can you let others decide for you?" As two men on the extreme sides of conformity and independence, it is hard for Keating to understand how someone could be so sure of himself, whereas it is incomprehensible for Roark to believe that Keating could have so little self-assurance and such a lack of resolve regarding the decisions he chooses to make. In this r... ... is most definately correct in saying that independence is the only gauge of human virtue and value. A conformist has low value because of his refusal to jump the bounds of submission; the conformist would never experiment for the sake of self- improvement. This would not be looked upon well by other. Conformity is governed by the laws of compromise, egotism, productivity, and value. A conformist must be willing to sacrifice his philosophies simply because it does not correspond with the attitude of the clique. Independence, on the other hand relies on only one thing: the performance of the individual. A conformist must be satisfied with the performance of the group. The independent individual has himself to blame when events turn for the worse, and he solely reeps the benifit of his own performance.

Wednesday, January 15, 2020

The Definition of Statehood

Before diving into the question of this essay, one that looks simple on the surface but reveals itself to be as complicated as it is deep, I found myself asking how we define â€Å"statehood†. It’s all good and well to say that the state is a contested organisation, but when the idea of what exactly a state is comes into it, that statement becomes all the less clear. By definition a nation state is a state/country that possesses clear borders and land, and contains mostly the same type of people by either race or cultural background. ttp://www. britannica. com/EBchecked/topic/467746/political-system/36702/National-political-systems? anchor=ref416908 Yet some states have numerous ethnicities, Nigeria for example has been calculated to have over two hundred culturally distinct groups, even Gambia, whose population numbers about half a million people, has eight distinct ethnic groups (Hughes 1981: 122). Then again, these are both countries that are considered as â€Å"fai led states†, something I will return to later on.According to Philip Cerny, statehood is the capacity to guard the social, economic and political life of its people and also to protect them from external threats and predators. He then goes on to say that states regularly fail at one of these tasks, often not doing well at both at the same time. Statehood, according to Cerny, is the â€Å"problematique of the modern world system itself†. Why? Why are nation states so bad at doing what they say on the tin? Surely it can’t be that hard to defend one’s people and at the same time give them basic needs such as employment, welfare and education.Of course, the world isn’t a perfect place, and we have yet to reach the utopia dreamt of by our grandparents, but really does everything have to be so terrible? To be fair Cerny does give a good argument against that, and provides much evidence to show that the state is indeed a contested organisation. He argues t hat â€Å"future structural organisational developments will depend on the kinds of political coalitions that can be built to confront and deal with those challenges†, especially those involving cross-border networks.In that case the result is likely to be a more complex form of world politics that is not only multi-level but also multi-nodal. Cerny makes a clear statement that the ideal states are â€Å"organisationally distinct from families, churches, classes, races, economic institutions† and also non-state political organisations. He then simplifies that claim that the state is a contested organisation by breaking it down into 3 sections: economically, socially and politically. First we will look at each of these individually and examine that statement.Of the three, the most interesting to me was his ascertain that the state is an economically contested organisation. Cerny says that states are organised through relationships of power, but they are also bound to th e ideals of fairness and justice. Economic groups such as corporations and markets however, are not. They revolve around a principle of profit and aren’t shackled by the same need to be ‘nice’ that states are. One can go so far as to say that Cerny is nearly directly addressing the issue of globalisation without ever saying the word.Take big companies such as Coca Cola or McDonalds, while they give a consumer-friendly image and do help communities with various projects, at the end of the day they are 100% profit driven and if circumstances dictated that they must drop half their workforce to save costs, you can be sure that they would. Globalisation has meant that corporations no longer operate within borders, and for the most part are free to trade as they please. That some of these firms make more money than the Irish state is a very scary thought indeed. It is an invasive and destabilizing phenomenon that states must contest with.Not only does it signal height ened interconnectedness, but it encroaches into those formal-legal aspects of sovereignty that secure or tie down authority in the first instance, and benefit from it in the second. In other words, â€Å"the transnational connections inherent in globalisation are significant on a qualitative as well as a quantitative level. But what new patterns of authority are emerging here? † (Williams 1996: 118) It is said of sovereignty that there is plenty of it around, but that as a result of globalisation â€Å"the sites for its concentration have changed. According to this argument states are being forced to concede certain of their sovereign powers to regional, transnational or world bodies on one hand, and to local and other sub-national institutions on the other. On a side note while on the point of globalisation, though Cerny doesn’t explore the idea it is also worth mentioning the globalisation of military power as it contests with every state organisation. Advanced nucl ear weapons systems can now operate worldwide, for they can deliver their payloads to any place at all on the planet, and do so within a very short time.They are thus capable of making the whole earth uninhabitable, and of threatening the very survival of the all states, whether they wish it or not (Poggi 1990: 177). You really can’t get much more global than that. The next area we will examine is Cerny’s claim that the state is a socially contested organisation. According to him states â€Å"are not natural, spontaneous emanations† from a â€Å"taken for granted, pre-existing society, people, or public†, they are made up from real people who base them on a range of often divided groups such as class, ethnicity, religion and ideology to name a few.People who are born in to this nation state may not always agree with or like the way things are and can find themselves caught in conflicts of identity, and the state finds itself constantly at odds with those who feel socially indoctrinated with the rules, power structures and policies of that state. As Cerny says, â€Å"citizens are made, not born†. Another big social contender is the internet, any one person can simply log on to Facebook (or other social networking sites) and instantly connect with people all over the world, again ignoring state boundaries.The final point that is discussed is that the state is a politically contested organisation. This can nearly go without saying, as there isn’t a state in the world that hasn’t been challenged politically at one stage or another. This happens on all ends of the scale, from as Cerny puts it: â€Å"absolutist monarchs and national revolutionaries to various bureaucrats, officials, patrons and clients†. He even goes on to mention religious movements and criminal gangs.It is important to note that the organisational strengths that Cerny mentions, whether they be rooted in widely accepted social identities or bo nds, or that they have power internationally, need not only apply to Westphalian states (and indeed many of those ‘official’ states are weak on those levels). Take certain groups such as Hezbollah or the IRA for example, upon looking past the fact that they are viewed by some as terrorist organisations (although most European countries have refused to classify Hezbollah as a terrorist organisation [http://www. digitalnpq. org/archive/2009_summer/03_qassem. tml]), these groups often take on the state roles for the people they claim to serve. Hezbollah is a major provider of social services, operating schools, hospitals, and agricultural services for thousands and playing a significant part in Lebanese politics. [http://www. cfr. org/publication/9155/hezbollah_aka_hizbollah_hizbullah. html? breadcrumb=/]. Likewise the IRA are renowned for looking after their own, be it ensuring the well being of prisoner families or upholding the law (or at least a version of it), in area s where traditional state politics have failed.Going back now to the other two headings for the contested state, economically and politically, and applying them to the state â€Å"alternatives† I mentioned above, it is hard to understand why Cerny didn’t do the same. One can not simply draw a line in the sand and say that all the ones over here (those of the Westphalia type) are states, and those over there are not. There are many similarities to be found on both sides. These groups also find themselves to be contested organisations.Yes it can be argued that economically, Hezbollah only functions because the nation states of Iran and Syria support them, but the same was also said of the peripheral state of Cuba when it was funded by the USSR (Giddens 1985: 269). In the north the IRA have succeeded in many social areas that the government have not, giving identity, protection and services to a select group of people who otherwise feel abandoned by a system that is suppo sed to do the same. The downfall of these groups is that their (occasional) focus on fighting and violence only serves to detract from the other areas.Yet returning to Cerny, he raises the point that some find the cost of the US’s war in Iraq (estimated at 2-3 trillion dollars), has prevented it from addressing issues both domestically (health care and employment for example) and abroad (development aid, fighting disease ect). This shows that even the largest of official states can do itself damage by focusing too much on military operations. But what happens when a state can do no more for its people? When it becomes such a contested organisation that it loses physical control of its

Monday, January 6, 2020

Radio-Frequency Implantable Device

Radio-Frequency Implantable Device Numerous implantable gadgets can discuss remotely with different contraptions. Such a capacity can be treasured; for instance, an embedded medication transfer mechanism may be reinvented remotely to modify its measurements without being suspended from the patient. Security issues merit explicit consideration for implantable methods because a human being can not just dismiss a plan to shield himself from an attack. A significant test in securing implantable tools is the extraordinary asset requirements confronting them. Numerous gadgets are entirely passive, with no power or computational assets of their own. This characteristic makes it hard to actualize customary security plots that oblige them to perform cryptographic operations on information. Indeed, even gadgets that do have computational abilities are modified by battery lifetime since their batteries must supply capacity for a considerable length of time because evolving cells may require a conceivably life-undermining operation. In this manner, a generous security plot must be as productive as could reasonably be expected (Yazici, 2014). Considering these days critical archives like visas and so forth utilize RFID inserted chips, it is primarily conceivable that related data will be analyzed by organizations, government specialists or other destructive bodies like criminals. An example is a gadget that you can connect to your vehicle to track your driving propensities, the cars status, and even its stopping area. The tool works by getting to the computer system in the vehicle and making an interpretation of what its a truism to your telephone. The locally available computer system in your auto is producing a code for each issue it may have. We have seen comparable gadgets from vehicle protection suppliers that screen where you are heading to give you better rates. RFID has pulled in much consideration as of late as security backers, writers, and designers have examined the morals of its utilization. Security advocates expect that albeit most organizations considering RFID applications for resource following have modest expectations, without appropriate care, this innovation could be utilized eagerly or unwillingly to acquire undesirable outcomes for some customers. Researchers demonstrate that the moral and social dangers are more connected with the implantable RFID gadgets when contrasted with their associates, in this way highlighting the criticalness of looking at advances in their societal setting (Yazici, 2014). People ought to learn about the plausibility to agree to, the gathering, handling, stockpiling and spread of RFID information identifying with them. Their insight or assent ought to have an association with a comprehension of the whole RFID information life cycle not only the underlying transmission. Governments ought to empower all members to work towards an agreement on the conditions under which assent ought to or ought not to be required. We get an understanding into the concept of RFID frameworks with an accentuation on systems administration perspectives and research challenges identified with receptive UHF (Ultra High Frequency) RFID structures. There are surveys of different calculations, conventions and plan arrangements that have been produced inside the range, including latest advances. Additionally, authors cover an extensive variety of perceived issues in RFID industry, striking an agreement amongst hypothetical and handy scope. Confinements of the innovation and best in class arrangements are distinguished and new research openings are beneficiaries. The RFID is an innovation that utilizes radio waves to exchange information from an electronic tag, called RFID label appended to a question, with the end goal of recognizing and following the demonstration. The RFID is as of now used to track and observe the losses in a fiasco circumstance. Information can be gathered continuously and be promptly accessible to crisis staff and spares time by the RFID. Emergency administration groups, doctors facilities, and disaster workforce have entry to information through a network database (Daugherty, 2014). Health care practitioners can all the more efficiently and rapidly impart wellbeing data to their patients when their records are in electronic shape, as this empowers correspondence and data sharing through electronic well-being gateways or electronic transmissions to an individual online file. Different hindrances still stay to giving people access to their data. Some therapeutic services suppliers do not store health report in an electronic frame, and patients must hold up until physical duplicates are made and sent to them (Daugherty, 2014). There are additionally social and operational difficulties that may anticipate people from seeking and accepting a match of their records, for example, constrained time amid office visits, unwillingness to be seen as trying their specialist, or non-institutionalized supplier procedures to bolster the individuals demand for a duplicate of the records. Accordingly, RFID gadgets make another innovation layer that can create data about people, past and also their propensities and slants. Primarily the moral issues identified with RFIDs are the disintegration of security, wellbeing dangers, restorative perils as symptoms of implantation surgery and so forth. An absence of writing regarding the matter of RFID inserts, relevant consideration has gone to these gadgets, especially in the fields of bioethics, morals of data and backers of protection. With a couple of individual cases, ethicists, for the most part, view the issues identified with RFID embeds as to make wellbeing dangers, the tr ade off protection, and to be utilized strongly (Zhu, 2015). The kids will take advantage of the installation for RFID. This technology is useful because it is hard to tell children’s ailment by just looking at them. It will also help to assess their progress after receiving treatment. The RIFD will help curb diseases especially in the young children who fall ill. The technology will help safeguard data associated with the kids health, and this will contribute to promoting security in the nation. The parents also will be in a position to access their childrens records to monitor their progress. The system has existing standards that are electronically safeguarded to help enhance protection of their identities. With the human services industry hoping to actualize electronic well-being reports, there is uncontrolled good faith about how digitizing well-being records will make monstrous effectiveness and altogether increment the nature of patient care. As an ever increasing number of clinics and therapeutic services frameworks relocate to modernized doctor order passage and electronic well-being records. More welfare data trades are worked to facilitate mind crosswise over systems, and many are raising worries about the various ways to viably oversee information trustworthiness to guarantee it is safe from modification, corruption or unapproved access. RFID utilizes physiological attributes of the body for a patient distinguishing proof disposing of the requirement to give a social security number, a birth date for identifying evidence amid enrollment or the insurance card. A bio-metric layout can straightforwardly connect to an electronic record for exact credentialing on resulting visits. T his system guarantees that no copies of medical records are creatable and the appropriate care conveyed to the precise patient. RFID additionally takes out challenges in recognizing patients with a similar name or different surnames guaranteeing that every time a patient visits a medical services office; their history is appropriately reported regardless of what variety of their name given.