Saturday, September 7, 2019
Measurement of Time Spent Communicating Essay Example for Free
Measurement of Time Spent Communicating Essay The amount of time we spend communicating is outstanding. There have been multiple studies to find the actual amount of our waking lives spent communicating, and the percentage of time we spend in each division of communication. The article, Measurement of Time Spent Communicating, is the result of a communication study of employees of a research and development laboratory. The study was based on two techniques: direct observation, and questionnaires. How much time do people spend communicating at work? How much time do people spend using machines at work? This useful information can help to improve the amount of work done in a certain amount of time. If people spend more time communicating to get a job done, then our communication skills possibly need improvement. The talking people do is related with their work output. The same goes for machinery; if we spend more time in person-machine interaction, improving machinery would be the main advance to improving jobs. People were observed at one instance in time in offices of one person to five people, some at supervisory levels, laboratories, hallways, and conference rooms. The observation data was divided into to groups time spent communicating, and time spent working with equipment. These categories were subdivided in different types of communication activities, including face-to-face communication, telephone communication, reading, and writing, and different types of equipment uses, including lab equipment, office machinery, and an other category. Pre-tests showed the three trained clerks could classify the behavior of the employees reliably. Sampling moments were random and unbiased, only avoiding break times and everyones lunch, and are correspondent to the entire working day. The questionnaires were placed at the desks of all the people in the sampling areas, offices, and laboratories. The questionnaires were pre-tested to make sure the wording was understood, and the ordering of questions didnt change the results. The employees were to answer seven questions all percentages that should add up to 100% of the working week. The questionnaires that were returned and did not add up to between 90% and 110% were disregarded. 4,000 questionnaires were distributed, and 2626, or 66%, were returned and usable. Overall, the common results of the observations and questionnaires were recognizable. The observation method is more accurate, and unbiased, so the main differences in the two sets of data are explained by people underestimating the time they spend communicating face-to-face, and overestimating the time they spend reading and writing. The questionnaire and observed data representing how much time is spent speaking on the telephone, working with lab equipment and office machinery, and other were relatively the same. Another observation is that the amount of time spent communicating depends on how many people are in the office. The fewer people, the more communication went on. This could be due to the fact that many one or two person offices were supervisory level, and therefore had to communicate to employees more often. All offices engaged in face-to-face communication more than in laboratories. Although, time spent working with equipment is only 13%, even though the research study population is a research and development laboratory. This leads us to the conclusion that communication with people, not equipment, is the center of activity for most professionals, administrators, clerks, secretaries and technicians.
Friday, September 6, 2019
Japanese traits Essay Example for Free
Japanese traits Essay In short, the characters of anime show the Japanese who so aspire to Western traits as they would like to see themselves. It is an effect that cannot possibly be duplicated by live actors, who ââ¬â being alive ââ¬â can never really change the physical characteristics determined by their genetic makeup. They can dye their hair and even change their eye color with contact lenses, but they cannot fundamentally alter their skin color, facial features, or physique. And even if they tried, using special make-up effects or plastic surgery, the result would be unnatural. Only anime, and its cousin manga, can convincingly meld Japanese and Caucasian attributes into a natural-looking human being. This is because the upside of these genres inherent lack of realism is their unique ability to exploit the appeal of and fascination for the unreal. And that is why manga and anime have attained such a high status in the popular culture of Japan, compared to that of other countries. These are the only two media capable of portraying reality the way Japanese feel it should be. By comparison, live-action films sacrifice appeal from the outset simply because they feature Japanese actors. Fashion illustrator Nagasawa Setsu expressed the feelings of many Japanese in an essay he wrote in 1983 for the Japanese playbill of the British film Dont Look Now: With their sharp-featured faces and long-limbed bodies, Westerners (read Caucasians) are physically suited to the movie screen; everyone looks almost too beautiful, down to the minor characters . .Japanese are just the opposite. Even people who appear delicately beautiful in person look round and dumpy and totally unstylish on camera. The reason many people today say they dislike the uglinessâ⬠of Japanese films ââ¬â content notwithstanding ââ¬â is that the looks of Japanese screen actors put domestic films at a crucial disadvantage. Period pieces at least allow one to cover up these failings with elaborate costumes. But when they take off their clothes for bedroom scenes, even the most glamorous Japanese actors and actresses look hopelessly unattractive ââ¬â which is why you cant pay me to watch Japanese porn. That Nagasawa is not alone in his preference is attested to by the growing number of animated pornographic videos that have been produced in Japan since the mid 1980s. Thus, the history of the past twenty years, during which anime has pushed live-action to the side and emerged as the face of Japanese cinema, has in essence been the history of ethnic bleaching in Japanese film. Incidentally, it was also during the last two decades that manga, originally regarded as kids stuff, truly came into its own as adult entertainment. In contrast to ideologies of American communities being portrayed as great melting pots, Americans have historically aligned themselves along racial and ethnic divisions. This has flourished in stereotypes of practically all non-majority members in the media. Japanese-Americans have been no exception. Characterizations of Japanese-Americans in the media often fail to make distinctions between Japanese, Japanese-Americans, Asians and Asian Americans. Consequently, attitudes towards Japanese-Americans have been heavily influenced by portrayals of all Asians. The first Asians to come to America in significant numbers were Chinese laborers. The early depictions emphasized slant-eyes, buckteeth and yellow skin. This representation reinforced the notion of ââ¬Å"otherness. â⬠Anti-Asian bias was a major reason behind immigration exclusion acts directed first at he Chinese, then the Japanese. Rather than the media acknowledging the difference between Asian cultures, American representation of Asians often borrowed indiscriminately from all cultures. All the dozens of Asians and Pacific Island cultures are lumped together into one homogeneous group identity. Even the Korean and Vietnamese women in the late 1950ââ¬â¢s-70 were commonly called ââ¬Å"Mama Sanâ⬠despite the Japanese American origins of the term. Characterizations of Japanese-Americans (and all Asians) in the media of the 1920ââ¬â¢s and 1930ââ¬â¢s as ââ¬Å"vicious, rat-like sneaks, part of a world-wide ââ¬Å"yellow perilâ⬠appears to have been one of the reasons for the internment. Amy Kashiwabara in ââ¬Å"Vanishing Son: The Appearance, Disappearance, and Assimilation of the Asian-American Male in American Mainstream Media (1996) states ââ¬Å"The visceral hatred of the Japanese inevitably tapped into yellow peril sentiments before the turn of the century which had been directed mainly against the Chineseâ⬠. In early movies, attached to the assignation of being Japanese came the implication of duplicity, violence and untrustworthiness appearing as Japanese traits, thus, sending the message that Asians, particularly Japanese men could not be trusted, no matter how Americanized they seem. This furthered the notion that Japanese-American men were even more dangerous than unassimilated ones because they could deceive people into trusting them. Persistent in early media was the idea of the diabolical Japanese that continually plotted the destruction of America in general and white women in particular. The 1946 film, ââ¬Å"The Yellow Menace,â⬠showed attempted Japanese domination. The 1940ââ¬â¢s images on film were rife with scenes of Japanese torturing and abusing white people. The majority of Americans in the ââ¬Ë40ââ¬â¢s were intimately introduced to the Japanese in the context of war and violence at the movies, newspaper editorials, propaganda posters (*scan example) and later on in the 1950ââ¬â¢s on television. Films from 1942 included ââ¬Å"Prisoner of Japan,â⬠ââ¬Å"Remember Pearl Harbor,â⬠and ââ¬Å"Secret Agent of Japan. ââ¬
Thursday, September 5, 2019
Bitcoin and the Silk Road Scandal
Bitcoin and the Silk Road Scandal BITCOIN 1 Introduction Bitcoin is the stage that can really change the way we store cash, the way we utilize cash and our segment plans. For the monetary zone, we can delineate the improvement behind Bitcoin new to us as the PC was the time when it at initially showed up in 1975 and the Web sway upon in 1993. The offer of exchanges with relative riddle is basic cash related impact and goes on changes to the future part structures. Much the same as individuals left the music and highlight recording industry and swung to the free music utilizing YouTube or Napsters interminable on-energy gushing, equivalent individuals again would leave the saving money structure and make utilize free managing a record utilizing Bitcoin or any free-managing a record elective that will rise. Everybody can purchase associations; stock likewise wrongdoers have an approach to manage exchange their pay from unlawful exercises completely quietly. 2 What is Bitcoin? Bitcoin is a sort of bleeding edge exchange for cash which encryption techniques are utilized to manage the time of units of money and insist the exchange. Virtual pooch rency through a P2P system, which is exchanged online and traded into coinage. Precisely when composed with pariah associations, licenses clients to mine, purchase, offer, or perceive bitcoins from wherever on the planet (Eyal Ittay and Weapon Sirer Emin, 2014). The business worth is overseen by the supply of bitcoins available for use and individuals yearning to hold or exchange bitcoins. Bitcoins are not issued by any association, bank, or alliance. Exchanges are made with no banks meddling, so there are no exchange charges. While Bitcoin originators bolster Districts to give direction to the Bitcoin com-munity, they dont have a united database or power. Most other non-greenbacks related exchanges experience a go between, for occurrence, a bank or wire exchange association, which screens colossal budgetary exchange s for IRS shirking danger. 3 How dark is Bitcoin Michael Bedford Taylor exhibits in his study that in dark bitcoin exchanges, just the wallet address id is recorded in an open log, with keeping anonymity of the client exchanges private (Bedford, 2013). Since it never uncovered weak record identifiers, unlawful action is strengthened, similar to government evasion, terrorist financing or other conceivable sick utilization for detestable purposes. Governments are drafting regulations with law essential that will for the most part can track trade information left by the coin and develop the regulation with charges. The framework is at danger to gigantic and developing focal control for the Associations yet virtual coinage believed is in reverse. Bitcoins decentralized security model is indeed secure and the calling money related associations are not unprotected against key issues of bafflement which would oblige oversight and regulation. 4 Bitcoin and overall wrongdoing U.S. law endorsement forces have closed down unlawful business centresââ¬â¢ that coordinate by utilizing bitcoins (UNODC, 2011). The virtual bitcoin coin is not sup-ported by banks or government and can be spread between any two individuals wherever. Everybody can purchase associations and stock besides scallywags have an approach to manage exchange their pay from unlawful exercises completely unobtrusively. Unlawful advancement is bolstered, as IRS shirking, terrorist financing or other conceivable abuse for perniciousness purposes. They direct exchanges without the uneasiness of got from washing controls. There is history of assaults at bitcoins security. In February a tremendous bit-coin trade called Mt Gox, after a trap by engineers; an assignment of 500 million $ made the inspectors and the Bitcoin social affair feel anxious. Additionally, one of the bitcoin banks in Canada close down in spring after programming engineers defalcation of 670,000$ (Millan, 2014). 4.1 FBI: Silk Streets medication market U.S. law approbation forces have closed down Silk Street, the online medication market where cocaine and heroin were trafficked, and got Ross William Ulbricht, the websites proprietor. Correspondingly the Organization Branch of Examination seized about $3.6 million in Bitcoin, made it one of the best confiscatory in the moved coins history (FBI New York Press Office, 2013). Government prosecutors charges against Ulbricht breaker plan to narcotics trafficking connivance, PC hacking premium and IRS evasion plan (United States Lawyer, 2014). 4.2 Bitcoin and the Law IRS will treat bitcoin like property, for occasion, stocks and securities, and not as coin (IRS, 2014). Governments intercession through Branches of Trust, which are drafting regulations, doesnt have all the reserves of being skilled to control all the exchanges expansive. Parliament of Canada grasped the worlds first national law on computerized money related measures recalling the last goal to check all exchanges under national adversarial to obligation shirking law. Generally every single overseeing bodie will take after regulations, for occasion, Canada national law on forefront cash related measures yet dependably some spot on the planet, guilty parties will discover money related things free of any mediation in the e-cash, government-reinforced or all around. 4.3 Bitcoin and Evaluations Bitcoin can be considered cash as it satisfies the segments of cash yet it is suspicious that Bitcoin would go as cash in different nations under the National Money Law. Bitcoin is perfect for some individual who purposefully tries not to pay charge (Friedman Jillian and Neudorfer Joseph, 2014). In any case, for a great various people who report charge re-turns and report their remuneration whether it appears on a Structure, it likely isnt the expense haven some are recommending it is. The IRS will most likely make moves to regularize charge re-porting. Government Commitment Office report says the IRS data to the general open for Bitcoin is inadequate. Individuals must be told that they need to pay charge on Bitcoin exchanges (IRS, 2014). 5 Future of Cash related standards Most cash today are quickly electronic structure (Jung-Wen Lo, Min-Shiang Hwang, Yen-Ping Chu, 2008). The banks arent holding a critical measure of exchange for cash there. The exchange for chilly hard money various records is information, consolidated framework numbers 01. Bank stores are in threat in light of the way that stores wont be considered as cash however paper tries is looked over G20 and will be announced soon (G20, 2014). I cant help envisioning that Bitcoins and whats more all cash will be seen as the same and will be depending from the budgetary status of each Nation. In a steadily impelled world, it profits related and societal sense to permit electronic coinage. A report by Goldman Sachs expected that Bitcoin would oblige banks to fight by chopping down their expenses and streamlining their frameworks (Goldman Sachs Pack, 2014). 6 Conclusion As opposed to developing regulation and attempting to anticipate the best in class time of troublesome progressions, it would over the long haul be impeccable to admire the types of progress and police the reasons of open contact with existing genuine courses of action. Later on any-one will be proficient to control all the exchanges and get hooligans found for cost shirking law encroachment. Virtual coinage will rise and accomplice with budgetary things at long last on a general scale. Unmistakably, monetary establishments cant offer security any more. Generally virtual financial structures philosophy directed into being more secure and everybody will believe them. References Barber Simon, Boyen Xavier, Shi Elaine and Uzun Ersin. (2012). Bitter to Better How to Make Bitcoin a Better Currency. Sixteenth International Conference Financial Cryptography and Data Security 2012. Bonaire: International Financial Cryptography Association. Bedford, M. (2013). Bitcoin and the Age of Bespoke Silicon. CASES 13: Proceedings of the 2013 International Conference on Compilers, Architectures and Synthesis for Embedded Systems. Montreal, QC, Canada: IEEE Press. Bohr Jeremiah and Bashir Masooda . (2014). Who Uses Bitcoin? PST2014 International Conference on Privacy, Security and Trust (PST). Toronto, Canada: IEEE Computer Society. Dorit Ron and Shamir Adi. (2013). Quantitative Analysis of the Full Bitcoin Transaction Graph. Financial Cryptography and Data Security 2013 Seventeenth International Conference. Okinawa, Japan: Department of Computer Science and Applied Mathematics, The Weizmann Institute of Science. Eyal Ittay and Gun Sirer Emin . (2014). Majority is not enough: Bitcoin Mining is Vulnerable. 18th International Conference on Financial Cryptography and Data Security (FC). Barbados: Cornell University Computer science researchers. FBI New York Press Office, S. D. (2013). Manhattan U.S. Attorney Announces Seizure of Additional $28 Million Worth of Bitcoins Belonging to Ross William Ulbricht, Alleged Owner and Operator of ââ¬Å"Silk Roadâ⬠Website. New York: FBI New York Press Office. Friedman Jillian and Neudorfer Joseph. (2014). Bitcoin and the law. Montrà ©al, Canada: Bitcoin Foundation Canadaââ¬â¢s testimonials at the Senate Banking Committee hearings in October 2014. G20, G. F. (2014). G20 Leadersââ¬â¢ Communiquà © Brisbane Summit 15-16 November 2014. G20 Leadersââ¬â¢ Communiquà © Brisbane Summit. Brisbane, Australia: G20. Goldman Sachs Group, I. (2014, 3 11). Goldman Sachs Global Investment Research : All About BitCoin. (I. The Goldman Sachs Group, Ed.) Top of Mind(21). IRS, K. A. (2014). How existing general tax principles apply to transactions using virtual currency. Internal Revenue Service, Income Tax Accounting. Cincinnati, Ohaio: Internal Revenue Bulletin. Jung-Wen Lo, Min-Shiang Hwang, Yen-Ping Chu. (2008). An Exchangeable E-Cash Scheme by E-Mint. Eighth International Conference on Intelligent Systems Design and Applications, ISDA 2008. Kaohsiung, Taiwan: IEEE Computer Society. Kroll A. Joshua, Davey C. Ian, and Felten W. Edward. (2013). The Economics of Bitcoin Mining or, Bitcoin in the Presence of Adversaries. In P. University (Ed.), The Twelfth Workshop on the Economics of Information Security (WEIS 2013). Washington, DC. Millan, L. (2014, June 6). Cryptocurrency! Canadian Lawyer Magazine, 26. Retrieved 11 1, 2014, from http://digital.canadianlawyermag.com/i/318717# Reid F. Harrigan, M. (2011). An Analysis of Anonymity in the Bitcoin System. 2011 IEEE International Conference on Privacy, Security, Risk and Trust and IEEE International Conference on Social Computing. Boston, Massachusetts, USA: IEEE. United States Attorney, P. B. (2014). The Indictment Of Ross Ulbricht, The Creator And Owner Of The ââ¬Å"Silk Roadâ⬠Website. Retrieved 10 25, 2014, from http://www.justice.gov/usao/nys/pressreleases/February14/RossUlbrichtIndictmentPR.php UNODC, U. N. (2011). Estimating illicit financial flows resulting from drug trafficking and other transnational organized crimes. Vienna, Austria: United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime.
Wednesday, September 4, 2019
Structure of Management Information :: essays research papers fc
Computer Network & Management Assignment Title: Structure of Management Information (SMI) Structure of Management Information (SMI): In the context of network management, for the Structure of Management Information (SMI): a) Name its three hierarchical layers. The Structure of Management Information (SMI) standard is responsible for defining the rules for how the Management Information Base (MIB) objects are structured, described and organized. SMI is a data definition language allows dissimilar devices to communicate by ensuring that they use a universal data representation for all management information. SMI is needed to ensure the syntax and semantics of the network management data are well defined and unambiguous.[TCP/IP Guide] The three hierarchical layers of the Structure of Management Information are the base data types, object-type and module-identity. b) Explain the function of each layer. The Base Data Type layer is use in the SYNTAX clause of the OBJECT-TYPE macro that must be present. It defines the abstract data structure corresponding to the object. It includes the following eleven basic data types: INTEGER, Integer32, Unsigned32, OCTET STRING, OBJECT IDENTIFIER, IPaddress, Counter32, Counter64, Gauge32, TimeTicks, and Opaque. Any restriction on size, range or enumerations specified in this SYNTAX clause represents the maximal level of support which makes "protocol sense".[RFC2578] The OBJECT-TYPE layer is use to specify the data type, status, and the semantics of managed objects. It has basic of five mandatory characteristics namely, OBJECT-NAME, SYNTAX, MAX ACCESS, STATUS, and DESCRIPTION, optionally with OPTIONAL-CHARACTERISTICS. The OBJECT-NAME is obviously. The SYNTAX clause specifies the basic data type of the object. The MAX-ACCESS clause specifies the managed object either can be read-create, read-write, read-only, accessible for notify only, or not accessible. The STATUS clause specifies the object is current, obsolete or deprecated. The DESCRIPTION clause contains a textual definition of the object. [RFC2578][RFC2013] The MODULE-IDENTITY layer is used to express concisely the semantics of an information module. It groups related object into a Management Information Base (MIB) module. Each MODULE-IDENTITY contains a number of clauses like the LAST-UPDATED clause, ORGANIZATION clause, CONTACT-INFO clause, DESCRIPTION clause and REVISION clause. Theses clauses document the date of last updated, the organization and contact information of the author of the module, and a textual description of the module, and the revision information such as the date of revision and the revision description.[RFC2012][TCP-IP Guide] c) For each layer, give four examples of defined entities. Four examples of Base Data Types 1. Integer/Integer32 [RFC2578] Integer/Integer32 is a 32-bit signed integer in twoà ¡Ã ¦s complement notation, capable of holding a value between à ¡V2,147,483,648 and +2,147,483,647.
Tuesday, September 3, 2019
A Balanced Budget? :: essays research papers fc
A Balanced Budget? This year President Clinton will submit his proposed legislation for the Federal Budget to Congress. The fact that we have divided government (ex., Democratic President, Republican majority in Congress) means the majority of that legislation won't make it through the first ten minutes of a Congressional session. The President in turn will veto legislation presented to him by Congress. The whole situation is a vicious, never ending circle. Each side is looking out for their own best interests, and after years, even decades of this the United States has a huge budget deficit. Is there a solution to all this madness? Is it feasible to balance the Federal Budget? Every politician on Capitol Hill claims to have the answer. The Federal Government goes as far to employ some of the most renowned economist's in the world to try to solve the deficit mess, and they still haven't figured it out. The budget simulation exercise by The Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget provided choices Congress has to use as its guide for the upcoming year. How hard can it be to balance the budget I thought? After doing the exercised I realized the title of the simulation exercise, "The FY 1997 Budget: An Exercise in Hard Choices," could not have been more appropriate. It is possible though to balance the Federal Budget, provided you follow 3 simple rules. First you must decide what you feel is important, then cut without consciousness, and if that doesn't work, alter your baseline. Important Choices When deciding on what I thought was important to protect in the budget, I felt like a politician myself. I protected my own self interests. First up was Defense. The fact that I am in the Marine Officer Program weighed heavily on my decision to increase Defense spending by 17.6 billion (all amounts in billions, unless noted), following the Congressional Budget Resolution. The President's plan just didn't provide enough capital, the Congressional Black Caucus/Progressive Caucus would basically wipe out my career before it even starts, and I just can not have that. Next up is Education. Without the direct student loan program, I would have no way to fund my education other than going to some bank and going through the demeaning process of begging a loan officer to lend me money for school. I feel a sense of loyalty to the President on this issue, because without this program I would still be doing concrete construction back home in Indiana. As a result, I voted to increase Educational spending 33.4.My other concern or problem area is Administration of Justice.
Monday, September 2, 2019
Fiber-optic Communications :: Fiber-optic essays
à à à à à In 1987, both Eli Yablonvitch and Sajeev John got together to discuss research that both had previously discovered. Eli Yablonvitch was an electrical engineer at Bell Communications Research in Red Bank, New Jersey. Yablonvitch was known for refining a laser that would become a mainstay of fiber-optic communications. Sajeev John is a Harvard graduate student who worked on a thesis inspired by Philip Anderson of Princeton. à à à à à The two agreed that the name of their idea should be called a photonic band gap. Phontonic crystals have the regular lattice structure of natural crystals. Their purpose is to try and trap light without destroying it. The trick is to not kill the photons but to tame them, by allowing light out when you want. Microchips are made of semiconductors and a semiconductor is a band gap. A band gap makes is possible to control the flow of electricity in a chip. In order to make light chips, you need the photonic equivalent of silicon: a material that can trap light. ââ¬Å"You need a way of trapping the light so there are no escape channels,â⬠says John. à à à à à It was until 1997, when European investigators succeed in trapping light in a random material. Diederik Wiersma and his colleagues used a powder of gallium arsenide. The laser could not penetrate a layer of powder even when the layer was less than a hundredth of an inch thick. It was indeed the very first time that anyone had trapped light, but as they knew, microchips cannot be made out of powder. à à à à à Yablonovitch was in his office on day in October 1986, ââ¬Å"I started drawing crisscrossing lines, and everywhere the lines crossed I put a heavier mark. Before I knew it I had drawn a checkerboard. And then I said, ââ¬ËWell, I might as well do it in three dimensions.ââ¬â¢Ã¢â¬ This later became known as Yablonovitchââ¬â¢s ââ¬Å"eureka moment.â⬠He realized that what he had drawn was a crystal structure that might trap light through interference. Interference happens when two light waves of the same wavelength meet. à à à à à The Bragg reflection is when light waves pass through one plane but is reflected back by the next plan. All waves that interfere constructively intensify the reflected light. Yablonovitch found that if you could design a crystal that Bragg-reflected light now which direction is was coming from, you would have built a trap.
Sunday, September 1, 2019
Public Park: An Invaluable Organ of a Town Essay
INTRODUCTION While the entire world is facing with the problem of environmental pollution, public parks are becoming important than ever. Due to the rise of heavy industries and in the number of vehicles, the air is constantly getting polluted, and especially in the cities, where the industrial activity and the movement of transport is very high, air pollution is heavily contributing to the diseases like asthma. Under these conditions, the importance of creating or maintaining a green open space in and around the central area of the city has become a matter of concern to the civic bodies of across the globe. But a public park does not only supply us oxygen, it does much more than that, ranging from raising the pride of the place to serving an ideal place for recreation and intellectual activity (Hume, 2007). Because of these reasons, the town planners always feel the urge of having a public park in the town, and in the process, they either chance upon a natural place and shape it, or have to create it from the scratch.à Therefore, this essay checks the main functions of public parks with the example of the above two types of parks, before reaching a conclusion. MAIN FUNCTIONS OF A PUBLIC PARK Broadly speaking the main functions of a park can be divided into 10 categories, and they are: Space for physical activity: Parks are the ideal places for physical activities, and in case of some towns, it proves to be the only place to have physical workouts. This utility of parks prove invaluable especially to the senior citizens, who need to have simple physical workouts like walking regularly. For children, parks are always a place of delight in many ways, as parks not only provides them the much needed space to play, but also lets them the scope to observe a slice of nature from close. Space for social functions. Parks serve as the gathering place of the town, where public meetings or any other social or cultural event take place. Through this, parks help to fulfil the need for social communication. Connects the town with nature. With big trees, flowers or lakes, parks house birds, other animals, amphibians, fishes and other aquatic organisms. This creates a natural ecology, which helps the environment in many ways. The big trees absorb carbon-dioxide and release oxygen for the city, all the while absorbing the noise of the city. Serves as the landmark of the town. It is always helpful to have a landmark in the city and parks fulfil that need, thereby making it easy for all remember the complex roadmaps of the city. Heritage Item : Parks also turn as the pride of the city. With time it becomes a symbol of heritage, the identity of a town, which, in many ways contribute to the growth and development of a town. Place to gather mental peace. In this era of congested housing and stressful city-life, parks are the place to refresh the mind in open air. In this regards it serves the needs of human mind also. Place for creative or constructive discussion. An open space amid the concrete-filled city can unleash the creativity of human mind. In a town, park is that place to provide that open place. There are scores of instances where the famous poets or writers gathered their ideas while visiting a public park. It helps to unify the society. With the habit of meeting here regularly, the citizens of town gradually become close and unified. Parks play a silent, yet important role to create solidarity among the citizens of a town. It beautifies the city. Parks provide a much-needed relief for the human eyes with its greens. A well-planned park always adds to the beauty of the town. Landscape architecture can best be exhibited in the parks. Influences local economy. Last, but not the least, it influences the economy of a town, as the properties around a park become costlier (Top 10, 2007). HOW THEY ARE ACCOMMODATED: TOWN PLANNING The making of a park with all the above abilities depend on several factors. Like, the status of the town in the political map of the country, the scope to access the open land in the heart of the city, scope build elaborate roadways around it and the scope to create an attractive environment with lakes, walkways, fountains or relics. It also has to have proper sewerage system and other systems connected to maintenance. However, in modern times, when there is little scope to start a project like public park with open land, landscape architects are converting the abandoned places to amusement park. While the Hyde Park of London provides an examples of the first type, Landschaftspark of Germany speaks for the modern times. HYDE PARK Hyde Park, one of the Royal Parks of London, is placed in central position of the city. Once it was a hunting ground of the British royals, and later it was converted into a public park around 1637, complete with lakes, walkways, artefacts, relics, lush of greens and what not. It has everything one could ask for in a park. At 1733 it was aided by landscapingà too. However, The town planners of London have always enjoyed some advantages to make Hyde Park a spectacular place to visit. Firstly, it belongs to the capital city and has a good climate, along with a great river ââ¬â thus equipped with political and environmental advantages. There are instances of royal patronage for the development of this open space through centuries, while the intellectuals and the politicians have also been lending their support. That helped the town planners to make it a prime landmark of the city and to arrange the city road map accordingly. Secondly, the planners did not have to struggle to get open land, or didnââ¬â¢t have to try too hard to create the green environment. These factors have made landscaping an easy job for them (Landscape, 2007). LANDSCHAFTSPARK Situated in Duisburg Nord, Germany. Landschaftspark is designed by Peter Latz 1991, where he has converted an abandoned site of two production plants (steel and coal) from a potential environmental threat to a unique visitorsââ¬â¢ spot. Here he utilized the advantage of modern technology both to retain the past and introduce the present. In the process, he had to be innovative in every stage of its making, be it using phytoremediation, or using the old gas tanks for scuba-diving. The old bunkers of the factories or the big factory shades were converted into garden and concert halls, while the old sewerage system of the production plants was converted into an aquatic treasure with rainwater. Yet, the aura of the old time remains as it is, with its chief elements like railways, plant shades and old walkways. Here Peter had to work from scratch to reinstate a part of history amid the modern times. Naturally this unique creation has become a favourite joint for the tourists all across the globe. It may not be bestowed with natural advantages like Hyde Park, yet it carried the scope to recreated an exhibition of vintage industrialization attempts of humans ââ¬â and Peter has utilized that advantage to the full. It may not have evolved out of the need to serve the city its much needed oxygen, yet it has saved the area from dangerous pollutants left by the production plants and also lend to the economy of the area, besides serving as a landmark of Duisburg, Nord (Landschaftspark, 2007). The success of the amusement parks like Landschaftspark also hints about the possible future of landscape architecture. CONCLUSION Parks serve many a purpose to the society, especially in a city, where its utility value is invaluable. With time, old, open places encouraged the city planners to landscape the place and convert it as a public park ââ¬â as has happened in the case of Hyde Park of London. In the modern time, the lack of space in the heartland of a city may have limited the scope for the planners, but that is not the end of the road, as Landschaftspark has shown the way as to how a heaven can be recreated out of a seemingly hell. This also speaks about the power of human creativity under difficult conditions. In all, both Hyde Park and Landschaftspark prove a single point ââ¬â that public park is truly an invaluable organ of a town. REFERENCES ââ¬Å"Hyde Park.â⬠2007. ââ¬Å"Landscape and open space planning in London.â⬠2007. Hume, C. 2007. ââ¬Å"Why parks are important.â⬠Web Article. ââ¬Å"Landschaftspark Duisburg-Nordâ⬠. Web Encyclopedia. à Freeing the soil from pollutants with the help of specific plants
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