Italian Christmas Traditions and Customs

Italian Christmas Traditions and Customs During Christmastime, one readily observable difference between Italy and the United States, for instance, is the lack of crass commercialism that threatens to swallow up and completely secularize the holiday. For instance, instead of writing letters to Santa Claus asking for presents (or, in the digital age,  e-mailing Santa Claus), Italian children write letters to tell their parents how much they love them. The letter is normally placed under their fathers plate and read after Christmas Eve dinner has been finished. Italians have also adopted some of the  northern European traditions  as well. Nowadays, especially in northern Italy, a fair number of families decorate an evergreen tree in their home. Here are some other rituals, customs, and traditions practiced by Italians during the Christmas holidays: Ceppo: The  ceppo  is a wooden frame several feet high designed in a pyramid shape. This frame supports several tiers of shelves, often with a manger scene on the bottom followed by small gifts of fruit, candy, and presents on the shelves above. The Tree of Light, as it is also know, is entirely decorated with colored paper, gilt pinecones, and miniature colored pennants. Small candles are fastened to the tapering sides and a star or small doll is hung at the apex. Urn of Fate: An old tradition in Italy calls for each member of the family to take turns drawing a wrapped gift out of a large ornamental bowl until all the presents are distributed. Zampognari and Pifferai: In Rome and surrounding areas bagpipers and flute players, in traditional colorful costumes of sheepskin vests, knee-high breeches, white stockings and long dark cloaks, travel from their homes in the Abruzzi mountains to entertain crowds of people at religious shrines. La Befana:  Kindly old witch  who brings children toys on the Feast of the Epiphany, January 6. According to the legend of la Befana, the Three Wise Men stopped at her hut to ask directions on their way to Bethlehem and to invite her to join them. She refused, and later a shepherd asked her to join him in paying respect to the Christ Child. Again she refused, and when night fell she saw a great light in the skies. La Befana thought perhaps she should have gone with the Three Wise Men, so she gathered some toys that had belonged to her own child, who had died, and ran to find the kings and the shepherd. But la Befana could not find them or the stable. Now, each year she looks for the Christ Child. Since she cannot find him, she leaves gifts for the children of Italy and pieces of coal (nowadays  carbone dolce, a rock candy that looks remarkably like coal) for the bad ones. Holiday Season: On the Italian holiday calendar December 25 isnt the only special day. Throughout December and January there are a number of religious holidays to mark the season. DECEMBER 6: La Festa di San Nicola - The festival in honor of St. Nicholas, the patron saint of shepherds, is celebrated in towns such as Pollutri with the lighting of fires under enormous cauldrons, in which  fave  (broad beans) are cooked, then eaten ceremoniously. DECEMBER 8: LImmacolata Concezione - celebration of the Immaculate Conception DECEMBER 13: La Festa di Santa Lucia - St. Lucys Day DECEMBER 24: La Vigilia di Natale - Christmas Eve DECEMBER 25: Natale - Christmas DECEMBER 26: La Festa di Santo Stefano - St. Stephens Day marks the announcement of the birth of Jesus and the arrival of the Three Wise Men DECEMBER 31: La Festa di San Silvestro - New Years Eve JANUARY 1: Il Capodanno - New Years Day JANUARY 6: La Festa dellEpifania - The Epiphany

Reginald Fessenden and the First Radio Broadcast

Reginald Fessenden and the First Radio Broadcast Reginald Fessenden was an electrician, chemist, and employee of Thomas Edison who is responsible for transmitting the first voice message over radio in 1900 and the first radio broadcast in 1906. Early Life and Work With Edison Fessenden was born October 6, 1866, in what is now Quebec, Canada. After he accepted a position serving as principal of a school in Bermuda, Fessenden developed an interest in science. He soon left teaching to pursue a science career in New York City, seeking employment with Thomas Edison. Fessenden initially had trouble attaining employment with Edison. In his first letter seeking employment, he admitted that he [Did] not know anything about electricity, but can learn pretty quick, leading Edison to initially reject him though he would eventually get hired as a tester for Edison Machine Works in 1886, and for Edison Laboratory in New Jersey in 1887 (the successor to Edisons famous Menlo Park lab). His work led him to encounter inventor Thomas Edison face to face. Although Fessenden had been trained as an electrician, Edison wanted to make him a chemist. Fessenden protested the suggestion to which Edison replied, I have had a lot of chemists . . . but none of them can get results. Fessenden turned out to be an excellent chemist, working with insulation for electrical wires. Fessenden was laid off from Edison Laboratory three years after he began working there,  after which he worked for Westinghouse Electric Company In Newark, N.J., and the Stanley Company in Massachusetts. Inventions and Radio Transmission Before he left Edison, though, Fessenden managed to patent several inventions of his own, including patents for telephony and telegraphy. Specifically, according to the National Capitol Commission of Canada, â€Å"he invented the modulation of radio waves, the ‘heterodyne principle,’ which allowed the reception and transmission on the same aerial without interference.â€Å" In the late 1800s, people communicated by radio through Morse code, with radio operators decoding the communication form into messages. Fessenden put an end to this laborious manner of radio communication in 1900, when he transmitted the first voice message in history. Six years afterward, Fessenden improved his technique when on Christmas Eve 1906, ships off the Atlantic coast used his equipment to broadcast the first trans-Atlantic voice and music transmission. By the 1920s, ships of all kinds relied upon Fessendens depth sounding technology.   Fessenden held more than 500 patents and won Scientific Americans Gold Medal in 1929 for the fathometer, an instrument that could measure the depth of water beneath a ships keel. And while Thomas Edison is known for inventing the first commercial light bulb, Fessenden improved upon that creation, asserts the National Capitol Commission of Canada.   He moved with his wife back to her native Bermuda after leaving the radio business due to differences with partners and lengthy lawsuits over his inventions. Fessenden died in Hamilton, Bermuda, in 1932.

Piano Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Piano - Essay Example There is no motion anywhere; like everything is paying tribute to the beautiful music. In this sense of extreme calm and motionlessness, I can feel goose-bumps every now and then when an unusually appealing note gets me overwhelmed. When I am overjoyed with happiness, the sound of piano helps me sustain that feeling of being overjoyed. Particularly, if a fast track is being played, nothing matches the occasion better than that. When I attain this match by fortune, I cannot help dancing. While I know that I am a very pathetic dancer otherwise, my dancing skills unimaginably get polished at such occasions as if by magic or a miracle. I dance like I have learnt dancing formally from some dance school. Maybe it is this frequency that I share with the sound of a piano that it helps me explore my hidden capabilities and surprise my friends and family with that. When I hear piano, it frequently reminds me of my second birthday when I had received piano as a gift from my dearest grandmother who is no more with me today. Thus my grandmother established my relation with piano the very day. I have spent my early childhood at my grandmother’s place and she is one of the people who have not only shaped my life and personality but have left many positive influences and examples for me to follow throughout my life. That was the first time I happened to own a piano. Probably that is where my association with piano started and has continued to date. May be this is the reason why at every special occasion, I feel incomplete and undone unless I have heard piano and cherished a memory of my grandmother. Piano affects me almost just like alcohol affects people. Drunk people excel in the emotion that they have at a particular point in time unless something different happens to catch their attention and make them take a turn. Likewise, piano helps me retain and indeed strengthen whatever feeling I have at a particular point in time while I

The Framemakers Case Study Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words - 1

The Framemakers - Case Study Example The Normans then leaves the family business to work out modalities for their personal business (Wesley, 2000). The case’s statement problem is therefore to determine the best business opportunity that can successfully meet the Norman’s ambition for expansion. Solving the problem would involve analysis of available alternatives (Wesley, 2000). The first alternative for the Normans is the family business that is already established but has little room for expansion. They can alternatively pursue the franchise business that has an already developed image but they will have to buy the goodwill and pay a regular commission from their revenues besides operational costs. The Normans can alternatively develop their own business. Even though this will have a slow start and would similarly require financial inputs, it is viable and has room for expansion (Wesley, 2000). The Normans should therefore work hard on the involveed modalities to set up their personal and independent business. This is because it has room for expansion and will be free from any form of external

The Harlem Renaissance Essay Example for Free

The Harlem Renaissance Essay Harlem Renaissance also known as the New Negro Renaissance evolved in the 1920s, in New York City’s locality called Harlem. â€Å"The movement started around 1918, as the American civil war had given the African American people their rights and most of the educated African American citizens then moved to places such as New York City to explore better opportunities† (Huggins Rampersad, 10). As many educated African Americans settled in various neighborhoods of New York City, areas such as Harlem became hubs of African American cultural and political activities. At this point, African American literature took on a different level and received critical acclaim; along with African American arts also evolved resulting in various economic and social developments. During this movement many intellectuals even contributed to the struggle of equal rights for all races, such as sociologist, author, civil rights activist and historian W. E. B. Du Bois who co-founded National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). Movements such as these lifted the stigma and feeling of inequality within the community and help build racial pride amongst African Americans. Harlem Renaissance even saw the rise of Apollo Theatre where many African American artists started off their career such as the famous jazz singer Sarah Vaughan. This movement even gave popularity to Jazz and Blues music, which was widely heard throughout Harlem’s bars and musical theatres. Novels of Jesse Fauset, fiction of Charles W.  Chesnutt, jazz poetry of Langston Hughes and romantic poetry of Countee Cullen are some of the works of literature that received major recognition through the Harlem Renaissance movement. Such a movement did not just enrich the African American culture but gave them an identity, and changed the way America and the whole world perceived African Americans. This newly found identity caused many African Americans to exercise full potential and bring success to themselves and their community.

Compare two short stories where the characters face difficult Essay

Compare two short stories where the characters face difficult situations We are comparing the stories ‘Flight’ by Doris Lessing and ‘Your shoes’ by Michele Roberts. They both deal with the issue of daughters leaving home and how it affects the whole family. In ‘Flight’, the granddad is affected most severely but in ‘Your Shoes’, it is the mother. ‘Your Shoes’ is written in a first person narrative from the mother’s perspective. ‘Flight’ is written in the third person. The main theme of the stories is growing up and letting go/ moving on. In ‘Fight’ the granddad is overprotective of the granddaughter and she craves freedom from him and the atmosphere of the house she has grown up in. Her granddad makes her feel that getting married and moving away is wrong, ‘She’ll marry him next, I’m telling you; she’ll be marrying him next!’. In ‘Your Shoes’ there is a similar theme of over protectiveness and inability of the guardian to let go. However, in ‘Your Shoes’ the daughter actually runs away from the mother, whereas in ‘Flight’ the granddad simply feels that she is running away. The two stories conclude in very different ways. In ‘Flight’ the granddad symbolises that he is finally ready to let go of his granddaughter by releasing, if only for a short while, the pigeon that has symbolised her throughout the whole story. In ‘Your Shoes’ it contrasts this by the mother becoming increasingly unstable as the story progresses and ending with her seeming to have a mental breakdown. In ‘Flight’ the characters deal with the difficulties very differently than in ‘Your Shoes’. The granddad in ‘Flight’ tries to lock his granddaughter away from the world and convince himself he is doing it for her own good. The gra... ...of the mother’s family history, which shows that she didn’t take the side of her mother either, but went onto her father’s side. In ‘Flight’ and ‘Your Shoes’ the characters deal with the similar difficulties very differently. Both authors use symbolism to emphasise the difficulties or dilemmas, pigeons are used in ‘Flight’ and trainers are used in ‘Your Shoes’. The symbols in both stories relate to travelling or a journey. I think that the symbolism is effective in both stories but more so in ‘Your Shoes’ as the shoes represent several things; the pureness that the mother wants the daughter to have, the overbearing nature of the mother, the mother’s obsession with order and the fact that the mother can communicate better with a pair of shoes than she can with her own daughter. In comparison, I enjoyed ‘Your Shoes’ far more and found it more interesting. Compare two short stories where the characters face difficult Essay Compare two short stories where the characters face difficult situations We are comparing the stories ‘Flight’ by Doris Lessing and ‘Your shoes’ by Michele Roberts. They both deal with the issue of daughters leaving home and how it affects the whole family. In ‘Flight’, the granddad is affected most severely but in ‘Your Shoes’, it is the mother. ‘Your Shoes’ is written in a first person narrative from the mother’s perspective. ‘Flight’ is written in the third person. The main theme of the stories is growing up and letting go/ moving on. In ‘Fight’ the granddad is overprotective of the granddaughter and she craves freedom from him and the atmosphere of the house she has grown up in. Her granddad makes her feel that getting married and moving away is wrong, ‘She’ll marry him next, I’m telling you; she’ll be marrying him next!’. In ‘Your Shoes’ there is a similar theme of over protectiveness and inability of the guardian to let go. However, in ‘Your Shoes’ the daughter actually runs away from the mother, whereas in ‘Flight’ the granddad simply feels that she is running away. The two stories conclude in very different ways. In ‘Flight’ the granddad symbolises that he is finally ready to let go of his granddaughter by releasing, if only for a short while, the pigeon that has symbolised her throughout the whole story. In ‘Your Shoes’ it contrasts this by the mother becoming increasingly unstable as the story progresses and ending with her seeming to have a mental breakdown. In ‘Flight’ the characters deal with the difficulties very differently than in ‘Your Shoes’. The granddad in ‘Flight’ tries to lock his granddaughter away from the world and convince himself he is doing it for her own good. The gra... ...of the mother’s family history, which shows that she didn’t take the side of her mother either, but went onto her father’s side. In ‘Flight’ and ‘Your Shoes’ the characters deal with the similar difficulties very differently. Both authors use symbolism to emphasise the difficulties or dilemmas, pigeons are used in ‘Flight’ and trainers are used in ‘Your Shoes’. The symbols in both stories relate to travelling or a journey. I think that the symbolism is effective in both stories but more so in ‘Your Shoes’ as the shoes represent several things; the pureness that the mother wants the daughter to have, the overbearing nature of the mother, the mother’s obsession with order and the fact that the mother can communicate better with a pair of shoes than she can with her own daughter. In comparison, I enjoyed ‘Your Shoes’ far more and found it more interesting.

Distinctively Visual Essay

Distinctively visual imagery can either entice or distance us from the world of the characters. Through language and rhythm, the readers become absorbed in the action and dynamics of the narrative or empathetic observers of the struggles of others. Henry Lawson’s short stories ‘The Drover’s Wife’ and ‘In a Dry Season’ evoke a harsh, arid landscape but also sympathetic characters that struggle to survive. In contrast, the ballad ‘The Man From Snowy River’ by A.B (Banjo). Patterson entices us in a world of action, excitement and mountain beauty that draws the audience into the world of the ballad. Thus images absorb us but we may feel that we are spectators or participants in the world of the text. Henry Lawson uses different language techniques in his short story, ‘The Drover’s Wife’, to convey the struggle of living in the Australian outback. Lawson’s techniques paint a scorched and barren landscape, which conveys to the audience, the characters battle to live in such conditions. These techniques that Lawson has skillfully used include repetition, colour imagery and irony. Lawson uses the repetition of â€Å" Snake! Mother, here’s a snake!† so the audience would feel the urgency and the traumatising experience that the character is going through. This gives the audience an understanding of the struggle of every day life in the Australian outback. Lawson also uses colour imagery to draw a distinctively visual image of the dog, Alligator. ‘Black, yellow-eyed dog-of-all-breeds’ Lawson describes the dog as if it is mutant-like and a terrifying out of the ordinary dog. This shows us that the dog has had to adapt to the country and become abnormal just to live through every day. This makes the audience feel scared of the bizarre dog, but also they also sympathize with it as it is living in such severe conditions. The repetition of ‘She fought’ emphasizes how the mother must fight to keep her home and children safe. She does not stop fighting to survive in the Australian outback for herself, her children, her dog and her home. The audience is meant to feel sympathetic towards the mother as she gets no rest and everyday she must work and fight to survive. The audience is given a feeling that this is not home for the faint hearted. They are intrigued, however, they do not want to partake in the world of the text.  The irony of, ‘She loves her children, but has no time to show it. She is harsh to them.’ Gives the effect of the mother being the strong woman type and doesn’t show affection. But this doesn’t mean she doesn’t want to show her children affection, it merely means that with all the work that is required of her in the Australian outback, she does not have the time. This makes the audience feel sympathetic towards the mother and her childre n. They feel sorry for the children that they cannot spend as much family time with their mother as most families would. ‘The Drover’s Wife’ gives a negative feel of the outback and allows you to stand by the story but you are not invited in. The audience does not want to experience the harsh outback. One technique that is used is long sentences. Similarly, the short story ‘In a Dry Season’ by Henry Lawson uses techniques to convey the struggle of living in the Australian outback and also makes the audience feel intrigued by the story but do not want to participate in the world of the text. Lawson uses imperative, minimalist descriptions and a stereotypical setting to make the audience spectators in the world of the text in an unromanticised fashion. ‘Draw a wire fence’ this technique that Lawson uses is demanding our attention and involvement of the story. He is forcing the audience to draw the story and by doing this, they cannot participate in the world of the text. However, since the outback is so rough and unforgiving, the audience does not feel they want to participate anyway. ‘A wire fence†¦ Few ragged gums†¦ Scattered sheep running†¦ Train’, this use of minimalist description reduces the landscape to just 4 key characteristics. By doing this, Lawson emphasizes the monotony of the bush. This makes the audience to feel the harsh ruggedness of the dull landscape. This then pushes them away from the world of the text and forces them to stay observers of the short story. The stereotypical setting that Lawson draws emphasizes the sameness of the bush. He draws the landscape broadly repeating, â€Å"it is safe to†¦Ã¢â‚¬  encouraging the audience to assume that most towns share the same features. This shows that majority of the Australian outback is the same with their stores, pub, houses and the bush area. With the audience thinking this commonality between many small towns, they feel as though they want to stay observers rather than just being forced observers. Alternatively, ‘The Man From Snowy River’, a ballad written by A.B. (Banjo) Patterson, entices the audience and draws them into the story to live it out. He romanticises the Australian outback making the audience believe that the outback is a beautiful place to live with little worries. Banjo Patterson constructs this view of the Australian outback through its use of techniques. These techniques that Banjo Paterson has masterfully used throughout the ballad are alliteration, rhyming and rhythm. One technique used by Banjo Patterson is alliteration, ‘And they charged beneath the stock whip with a sharp and sudden dash’ and ‘thunder of their tread’, which is used to make the ballad more intriguing and enticing for the audience. This then has the effect of making the audience want to participate in the world of the text as the outback is romanticised and seems enjoyable. Rhyming couplets such as the following were used throughout the ballad to give it flair and rhythm: â€Å"Then they halted for a moment, while he swung the dreaded lash, But they saw their well-loved mountain full in view, And they charged beneath the stock whip with a sharp and sudden dash, And off into the mountain scrub they flew.†Ã‚  The rhyming and rhythm throughout the ballad gives the audience a jubilant feel and also romanticises the Australian outback. Because of this, the audience feels that the outback is a joyful place to live; they feel intrigued and are drawn into the world of the text and want to participate in the story. Therefore, the short stories ‘Drover’s Wife’ and ‘In a Dry Season’ by Henry Lawson induce the monotony of the Australian outback and the sympathetic characters that struggle to survive everyday life. Audiences feel as though they as observers of the unromanticised short stories and are not a part of the world of the text. In contrast, the ballad ‘The Man From Snowy River’ by A.B. (Banjo) Patterson shows a romanticised view of the Australian outback. Banjo Patterson writes of the action, excitement and the mountain beauty seen in his view of the outback. This entices the audience and makes them feel as though they are participants in the world of the ballad. Consequently, images engage us but we may either feel that we are spectators  or participants of the world of the text.

Michael Jackson Social Media Idea Essay

Michael Jackson, often referred to as The King of Pop or simply MJ, is one of the most entertaining individuals in the history of the entire world. Armed with more awards than any aspiring artist could ever dream of, he produced hit songs over forty years ago in 1970, such as â€Å"ABC†, â€Å"I want you Back†, and â€Å"I’ll Be There.† Michael continued to dominate the 80’s when he wrote songs such as â€Å"Thriller†, â€Å"The way you Make me Feel† and co-wrote â€Å"We are the World† with Lionel Richie in an attempt to help raise money for charity. Even into the early 90’s Jackson’s glamor was simply unmatched, as he set the foundation for future Super Bowl halftime shows with a flashy show in 1993 during Super XXVII, the first time ever a network actually gained viewers during the half time performance. However, as with all iconic celebrities, Jackson had a multitude of problems to deal with himself. After a strict, vicious childhood, Jackson dealt with multiple child sexual abuse scandals, both of which he was never convicted in, as well as a huge public controversy over his skin tone. Michael Jackson was found dead on June 25, 2009, the autopsy revealed it was a homicide from cardiac arrest; his physician was convicted of involuntary manslaughter for administering the drugs. When Jackson died in 2009, it triggered a social media outburst of grief, with nearly one billion people watching the Memorial Service online. From the sheer amount of fans Jackson had and still currently has, if a social media site were to catch on that featured Jackson, the possibilities would be endless. Before any idea can be developed, the audience and demographics must be taken into account for first. Since the death of Michael Jackson was so popular, companies actually took polls and notes from their audiences when they tuned into the Memorial Service. CNN (2009) polled over one thousand Americans to try and understand the demographics of MJ fans better. Michael Jackson fans were split relatively evenly among gender, with 52% of fans being male. Almost every person over 55 was not a MJ fan, while his hottest age demographic were age 39-49. Even the young generation who was not really around during his peak still considered themselves fans. Over ? of non-Caucasian respondents claimed they were MJ fans, while a majority of white respondents claimed they were. It is important to note that these were taken via telephone call, not the internet in any way. The key is to take these demographics and integrate them with internet users, particularly internet users. From my internet marketing textbook titled E-Marketing, by Judy Strauss and Raymond Frost (2009), the average demographic of an internet user is age 19-35, white, educated, and an average income around $75,000. However, the African-American segment of the race demographic is growing the fastest of any. Mixing the two of these, the potential client base would be highest if it were aimed towards young to middle aged adults, with a very strong common bond that unites everyone on the website, Michael’s music. I think it would be considered a crime if you attempted to try to start a relationship type of website with Michael Jackson’s name all over it, or at least the PR and media would tear it down to the bone, but perhaps any attention, good or bad, is considered advantageous when your business is still in its early stages. Anyway, the idea I would propose would be an all-out fan club for Michael Jackson. There is a site or two like this already, but it is very poorly done. It would have trivia contests, best dancing contests, look-alike contests, name that tune contests, etc. The key to the website would be the amount of users on it, which allows the user to become interactive with the website. I think that would appease to the younger population, uploading constant photos and videos, watching them, etc. For the older generation, there needs to be videos of old Michael Jackson performances, classics. The live performance at the super bowl, the vintage Jackson 5, the numerous Grammy awards, etc. From those videos, other current events in the world at that time would show. It would seem as if the user it going backwards in time, exploring Michael’s life, but in reality, the user connects epic, surreal moments from Jackson’s life, just as if he is re-living his own life thirty years ago. I think there would be two people who would go to the site, younger, less passionate fans of Michael who would go there for the social aspect and the older, less social media intense, but very Michael and music heavy users. Perhaps it is a stretch, but there are already so many niche social media networks out there, it is tough to fully see what works best. As with any business, it is not going to be perfect right away, the key is to constantly listen to users to help edit the site that appeals to the masses. There are a ton of 35-50 year olds out there who really loved there music during the 70-80’s, especially Michaels’s. The thing is that most men that age do not even really know the first thing on how to let alone accurately use, set up a Facebook account. The navigation would have to be so simplistic, that senior citizens could not even lose their ways. You would advertise with other huge artists of the time, The Beatles, Pink Floyd, etc. Before you know it, you have created a social network for older generation men who want to get home from their honest days’ work, light a cigarette, drink a beer and listen to the king. Works Cited Strauss, J., & Frost, R. (2009). E-marketing (5th ed.). Upper Saddle River, N.J.: Pearson/Prentice Hall. Poll: Majority of Americans are Michael Jackson fans – CNN. (2009, July 3). Featured Articles from CNN. Retrieved November 8, 2012, from http://articles.cnn.com/2009-07-03/entertainment/us.jackson.poll_1_michael-jackson-fans-new-national-poll?_s=PM:SHOWBIZ

Childhood Reveled essays

Childhood Reveled essays Childhood Revealed takes us into the hearts and minds of children who live with a specific challenge in their cognitive, psychological, or physical aspect of their life. For these children, drawing, and writing about their drawings, are ways of finding solutions or communicating with anyone that will listen. Remarkably, their resilient natures lead them to correct what is wrong, fix what is broken, and heal what is scarred. Their desire to triumph, their instinct to dream is their most telling, most disarming quality. As an abused girl of eleven writes of her drawing: This picture is bright and shows that I feel happier and am progressing. The flower with the brown middle shows that I still feel angry. I have courage inside and know that I can do much better in life. Children shouldnt feel that it is always their fault. It is estimated that 12 percent of American children endure mental health problem, yet less than one-fifth receive treatment. Childhood revealed has been created by the New York University Child Study Center, which is dedicated to advancing research and clinical care for children. For this book, The Center invited child and adolescent clinicians and teachers nationwide to submit artwork made by children from ages four to eighteen. A select jury of scholars, artists, and educators made the final selection of more than one hundred artworks of the New York University Child Study Center to bring awareness and understanding to the issues of child and adolescent mental health including: depression, eating and anxiety disorders, psychosis, ADHD, autism, abuse, and divorce. Depression is a rare disorder for children under the age of twelve, affecting only 1 to 2 percent of children five to eleven years of age. By the time children hit puberty, an estimated 8 percent of young people twelve to eighteen (nearly twice as many girls as boys) suffer from major depression disorder. Depression in ch...

How Monica Lewinsky overcame fear of presenting †and you can too

How Monica Lewinsky overcame fear of presenting – and you can too How Monica Lewinsky conquered her public-speaking demons In March 2015, Monica Lewinsky walked into the world-famous spotlight of the TED stage in Vancouver, Canada, to deliver a presentation called The price of shame. She was, of course, already world famous herself. Everyone knew her story –  her affair with former US President Bill Clinton, which had hit the headlines some 17 years earlier. In her own words, she was the Creature from the Media Lagoon. Her face was projected above her on two huge screens, revealing even the slightest expression of nerves. The tiniest glisten of moisture in her eyes would be highlighted a hundredfold in the glare of the stage lights. Somehow, just imagining the audience in their underwear wasnt going to cut it here. Talking about her presenting experience in an interview for The TED Guide to Public Speaking, she told TED Curator Chris Anderson: Nervous is too mild a word to describe how I felt. More like .  .  . gutted with trepidation. Bolts of fear. Electric anxiety. If we could have harnessed the power of my nerves that morning, I think the energy crisis would have been solved. Thankfully, most of us havent had to deal with ridicule on the scale Lewinsky has – but the all-consuming fear of presenting that she felt is something many of us can relate to. Presentations are among the most important things we do in our careers – whether were a newcomer proving our worth to our colleagues for the first time, or a senior adviser influencing policy decisions that could affect the lives of millions. Lewinsky used just about every trick in the book to calm her nerves before her talk. And they worked – her talk was widely acclaimed and quickly reached over a million views. So how did she overcome her fear of presenting? And how can you use the same techniques in your own business presentations? We talked to our expert presentation-skills trainer, David White, to learn more. 1. Dont rely on adrenaline You cant rely on adrenaline helping you throughout your presentation. All it does is give you an instant rush, says David. Too many people hope that adrenaline alone will see them through their talks – but it isnt enough. It fades after four or five minutes. Few people could have been more adrenalised than Lewinsky in advance of her talk. But she also used the techniques below – as the impressive final result showed. 2. Write a mantra Lewinsky had two mantras that David likes: One was IVE GOT THIS, and the other was THIS MATTERS. She wrote the latter on the top of the first page of her talk. I like these because sometimes we forget that we can do what were going to do, especially if weve done it before. So when writing your next presentation, try using your own mantra. Make it simple and straightforward. You may think youre just faking confidence – but keep in mind that many of the people you meet who you feel are naturally confident are doing just the same thing. 3. Use your fear as a motivation Public speaking regularly rates highly in surveys of peoples fears – even when pitched against competition like the fear of heights, or even death. But its the social costs that worry us the most – we want to be liked, included, respected and taken seriously by others. Being ostracised from a group of any kind – be it your peers while at school or work colleagues later in life – is a scary prospect. The key to dealing with this understandable fear is to use the fear as motivation. If youre scared, make it force you to practise more. Do more rehearsal, more preparation. Lewinsky went as far as giving her talk in advance to small audiences for feedback. When the negative feedback she was fearing just didnt come, she knew she was in a much better place to present. 4. Let your body help you Your state of mind is very attuned to the state of your body. You can test this for yourself: sit upright with good posture in your chair, moving your chair closer to your desk if necessary. (Seriously, try it now!) Do you notice how much more attentive it makes you feel? Its much harder to get the same feeling if youre slouched over your desk, even if everything else about the situation is the same. You can use this effect of the body on the mind to your advantage. Taking deep breaths is a classic technique in the same vein for calming nerves. And if you find your nerves are hitting you well in advance of your talk, try pausing now and then to take some deep breaths. It will help to prepare you. David uses a smartwatch app which taps your wrist at random points in the day, tapping out a slow rhythm for you to breathe in time with. (There are lots of apps which do this, including Breathe for Apple Watch, and Paced Breathing for Android.) As well as doing breathing exercises, Lewinsky went for a walk to clear some of her adrenaline. You may find that a stroll, or something even more vigorous like push-ups or star jumps, does the job. As with our tips to stop procrastinating and start writing, nothing is strange if it works for you. 5. Dont be afraid of appearing vulnerable or nervous When you have a fear of presenting, calming your nerves is important. But you dont need to eradicate them or be afraid of showing them. A show of nerves demonstrates that you feel what youre doing matters. This might be counterintuitive – but David asks us to consider the opposite case: Imagine your typical oily presenter of a game show. Hes competent, but hes not someone you really warm to. Compare that with Patti Smith, who recently stumbled through a Bob Dylan song after she had been asked to perform to mark the handing over of his Nobel Prize in Literature. She said, Im sorry, Im so nervous. She got a full round of applause when she stuttered, and some people in the audience cried at her performance. People were on her side. Lewinskys nervousness and vulnerability served the same purpose – at one point in her talk, she had to completely stop and take a moment. It reinforced the fact that the subject really did matter to her. If you cant show you care about your subject, why should anyone else? 6. Preparation, preparation, preparation Preparing your talk beforehand is the single biggest thing you can do to calm your nerves. David is emphatic about this: Nothing beats knowing youve properly prepared and rehearsed. If you dont have an audience to practise to, try rehearsing in front of the mirror. Get comfortable with your presentation. If possible, take the chance – as Lewinsky did – to perform your talk in front of an audience in advance. 7. Remember who is on your side Of course, speaking to an audience can seem like an intimidating prospect, particularly if its a large group. But knowing there is someone in the audience who is on your side, or sympathetic to your message, can be enormously important. David explains: You know there’s someone who is going to say, I think this person has got a really good point there. And even if youve got nobody familiar in the crowd, someone will still be on your side. As Lewinsky put it, when you address an audience, It means someone, somewhere, decided you had something of import to impart to others. Youve got this Lewinksys talk focused on the culture of humiliation – an emotion we have all felt intensely at some point, and which we want to avoid at all costs. But its impact showed the flip side of human nature – her talk got a standing ovation. At TED, as in business, audiences can be sceptical, hard to convince, or even hostile to a certain message, but audiences usually dont want to see a presenter completely fail. So when you next need to give a presentation, remember that you dont need to change your personality overnight to do a great job. Just prepare wisely and thoroughly – and then youll know, as Lewinsky did, that you really have got this. If you enjoyed this article, join over 16,000 professionals who keep up-to-date with the latest business communications advice: hbspt.forms.create({ portalId: '2645537', formId: 'bf5044be-d437-4f55-9e4d-bf1bea361bbe' }); Image credit: Monica Lewinsky receiving a standing ovation at TED, and looking right at Al Gore sitting next to me by Steve Jurvetson used under CC BY 2.0/cropped from original

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Writer's choice Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

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