Isolation and identification of unknown bacteria Lab Report

Isolation and identification of unknown bacteria - Lab Report Example We used standardized procedures in the process of cultivation of bacetia. We received pure culture of unknown organism. Using Bunsen burner the loop was sterilized by heating the entire wire into the flame of the burner until it glows with bright red or orange color and afterwards the loop was left to cool. The culture of uknown bacteria was held in inoculation tube in a form of liquid culture and the inoulation tube was sealed with sterile cap.. We maintained aseptic conditions during the handling of the culture. During the whole process the caps and the tubes were held in hand were not allowed to be contaminated by contacting the table or other source of environmental bacteria. The openings of the inoculation tube was sterilized by burning with the Bunsen burner twice in order to avoid contamination with environmental bacteria. With the cooled loop, carfully not to touch the sides of the tube we collected one loop of material and after that the edges of the tube were again burned with flame from the Bunsen burner and the caps were put . The loop was then inoculated on two separate TSA plates. The lid of the plates was opened with free hand and the material was seeded with gentle strokes of the loop using T streak method in order to allow optimal contidions for growth. The lid was then put back on the plates and the loop was again sterilized by burning until glowing bright red on the Bunsen burner. ... erilized by heating the entire wire into the flame of the burner until it glows with bright red or orange color and afterwards the loop was left to cool. The culture of uknown bacteria was held in inoculation tube in a form of liquid culture and the inoulation tube was sealed with sterile cap.. We maintained aseptic conditions during the handling of the culture. During the whole process the caps and the tubes were held in hand were not allowed to be contaminated by contacting the table or other source of environmental bacteria. The openings of the inoculation tube was sterilized by burning with the Bunsen burner twice in order to avoid contamination with environmental bacteria. With the cooled loop, carfully not to touch the sides of the tube we collected one loop of material and after that the edges of the tube were again burned with flame from the Bunsen burner and the caps were put . The loop was then inoculated on two separate TSA plates. The lid of the plates was opened with fre e hand and the material was seeded with gentle strokes of the loop using T streak method in order to allow optimal contidions for growth. The lid was then put back on the plates and the loop was again sterilized by burning until glowing bright red on the Bunsen burner. Gram stain For completing the Gram stain we needed Gram stain reagents (crystal violet, Gram's iodine, 95% ethyl alcohol, and safranin), microscope slides and bacterial cultures. In preparation of the Gram stain asepttci principles were used. Inocultion loop was sterilized by burning on a Bunsen burner until bright red color appeared. Five loop of the unknown colony were placed on a microscope slide and the material was sread even on the surface of the slide. The material was left to air-dry and room temperature. After this

Barack Obama and US Foreign Policy Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Barack Obama and US Foreign Policy - Assignment Example The present paper has identified that the United States foreign policy has deep significance for the lives of Americans and others worldwide in so many ways. Americans may not be aware of the substantial effects that the United States foreign policy has on their daily lives because it is so indirect. The American standard of living, for example, is deeply affected by the state of the economy, and the role of America in the global economy. This is in turn impacted by foreign economic policies which involve investment in companies and capital, trade in goods and services, access to raw materials and energy, and monetary policies and currencies fluctuations. Today, the American economy is more elemental to and dependent upon the international political economy. Besides security, economics, freedom, individual health and individual livelihood, there are other considerable areas of foreign policy that impact Americans. Examples are immigration and population dynamics, tourism, travel, the spread of HIV/AIDS, drug trade, deforestation, global warming, and environmental protection. The United States foreign policy is therefore involved in countless activities and affairs that have immediate and direct, as well as indirect and underlying implications on daily and future lives of Americans. During his victory speech on the evening of November 4, 2008, President-Elect Barack Obama used the moment to remind the world the image of the United States will undergo a dramatic transformation under his administration.†The foreign policy approach that has emerged during Obama’s tenure as president aligns closely with the liberal internationalist concept to foreign policy. A liberal internationalist approach is based on several core beliefs and values, about the interests and aims of foreign policy actions, for different nations and for the United States in specific. Essential domestic values, such as the development of individual freedoms and democracies are perceive d as significant ways to build a balanced, and amicable international order. Liberal internationalism also â€Å"calls for promoting international cooperation and interdependence in a variety of ways as a means to knit states and people today in a web of interdependence to address common problems and reduce the risk of conflict.† President Barrack Obama’s administration has not only had to handle the war on terrorism and the effects of Iraq war, but it also took office at a time when the International and American political economy was rocking at the threshold of breakdown. The first priority of President Barack Obama’s administration was to prevent the economic situation of America from deteriorating further and possibly collapsing into a greater depression. This was done in part by attempting to rebuild the confidence of foreign markets which had been lost during the 2008 economic crisis.  

Post-WWII History Essay Example for Free

Post-WWII History Essay After World War II, the United States focused on putting an end to Communism. The economic climate of the immediate postwar years was conducive to the rise of the political left. The detrimental effects of depression and global war generated popular demands for widespread social, political and economic reforms. Furthermore, wartime controls made ordinary citizens believe that economic planning was the best way to restore economic growth and equity (Painter, 1999). The United States, however, underwent a shift to the right. Republican domination of both houses of Congress after the 1946 midterm elections led to the strengthening of conservative opposition to the New Deal. Despite this accomplishment, the Republicans were unable to contain the main achievements of the New Deal – unionization of heavy industry, Social Security, agricultural subsidies and civil rights militancy. Throughout Europe and in parts of the Third World, meanwhile, chaotic social, political and economic conditions resulted in the emergence of Communist parties and other leftist groups (Painter, 1999). The aforementioned developments prompted Washington to assume that a new foe was in its midst – Communism. McCarthyism: The Great American Red Scare The period from the late 1940s to the mid-1950s was characterized with the rise of Communism in China and several nations in Eastern Europe. As a result, the US became fearful that it was losing the power struggle against the Soviet Union – a battle that was later known as the Cold War. This apprehension was exacerbated by suspicions that traitors within the American government were aiding the spread of Communism (Fitzgerald 2006). Such paranoia on the part of the US eventually resulted in the era of McCarthyism, a chapter in American history that was synonymous with state-sponsored Communist witch-hunts and anticommunist hysteria among the populace. Red Alert On the night of February 9, 1950, a senator from Wisconsin named Joseph McCarthy gave a Lincoln Day speech to the Republican Women’s Club of Wheeling, West Virginia. His speech on that particular evening, however, had absolutely nothing to do with Abraham Lincoln’s birthday. McCarthy’s address instead focused on the hostile relations between the US and the Soviet Union. He warned the audience that the Soviet Union intended to spread Communism throughout the US by sending spies to infiltrate the US government (Fitzgerald 2006). To prove this claim of his, McCarthy held up a piece of paper and reportedly stated: I have here in my hand a list of 205 (men) that were known to the secretary of state as being members of the Communist Party and who, nevertheless, are still working and shaping the policy of the State Department. (p. 10) This was a very grave allegation. The State Department is the government institution responsible for the establishment of foreign policy. The presence of Communists in such an important organization would therefore cripple the US in its fight against Communism worldwide. They would most likely work as spies, providing the Soviet Union with sensitive information about atomic weapons and US military and political strategy (Fitzgerald 2006).

Analysis Of Amerindian Perspectivism Philosophy Essay

Analysis Of Amerindian Perspectivism Philosophy Essay Brazilian anthropologist Viveiros de Castro has been an essential force in new strands of anthropology within the last decade, and his foremost contribution has been the development of Amerindian perspectivism. Viveiros de Castros objectives were to produce a more generalised framework of Amazonian cosmologies and shamanistic practices, with an aim to dispose of the nature versus culture dichotomy that had always prevailed within the discipline of anthropology. By rediscovering the notion of animism, Viveiros de Castro was able to formulate new modes of relation between humans and non-humans, and perspectivism may be seen as simply a potent rendering of animism. This essay will explore the comparisons that have been made in recent ethnography between Viveiros de Castros Amerindian perspectivism and the application of perspectivism to other parts of the world. This will ultimately result in the questioning of whether perspectivism can, in reality, be labelled a theory. Initially an ex amination of Viveiros de Castros analysis of Amerindian perspectivism is crucial in an attempt to draw comparisons with the deployment of perspectivism in ethnography within northern Asia, in particular Mongolia and Siberia. Viveiros de Castro purports that his development of the notion of perspectivism forms a vital component of most Amerindian cosmologies, and is founded upon spiritual unity and corporeal identity. In opposition with the distinction between nature and culture, Viveiros de Castro illuminates a contrastive feature between Western and Amerindian cosmologies. Anthropology itself centres on the multiculturalist notion to the nature vs. culture dichotomy; the idea that there is one universal nature and many cultures, as building blocks structured upon that which is pure and unifying; nature. This approach implies the universality of the body, and the subjective distinctiveness of spirit and meaning. The concept of multiculturalism has consistently been applied to the demographic constitutions of a particular place with multiple ethnicities and religious groups, and to notions of identity (Visweswaran, 1998). Viveiros de Castro proposes that for Amerindian cosmologies however, an inversion of the multiculturalist notion, that is multinaturalism. Multinaturalism is the conception of spiritual unity and corporeal diversity, the unifying and objective being culture and the subjective distinctiveness of nature; bodies (Viveiros de Castro, 1998). Amerindian cosmologies share mythology and the notion of a creation myth that there was once an original state of undifferentiation between humans and animals, and this serves to unfold Amerindian perspectivism. This is the shared mythological belief that animals are ex humans, and that the original common condition that both humans and animals shared was humanity rather than animality (Viveiros de Castro, 1998). This origin myth can be employed to explain the general meaning of perspectivism. Viveiros de Castro states that animals and spirits see themselves as humans: they perceive themselves as anthropomorphic beings. their social system as organized in the same way as human institutions are (1998:470). This is the principal idea of perspectivism; that nonhumans see the world as humans do, but what they see differs from what humans see because of the distinct medium through which they see things differs from the medium through which humans see things (Pedersen, 2001). Every being t hat has a soul is capable of having a point of view, and it is the point of view that creates the subject. The point of view is located within the body, and differences between viewpoints concern the differentiation between bodies (Viveiros de Castro, 1998). What Viveiros de Castro refers to as the body is an assemblage of affects or ways of being that constitutes a habitus (1998:478). The concept of habitus has most recently been elaborated by Bourdieu (1972) as a system of dispositions in response to determinate structures and other fields that are neither wholly voluntary nor involuntary. Acquired dispositions or ways of being include taste, communication and habitation. To tie this in with multinaturalism, every subject creates their own conception of nature. Viveiros de Castro refers to the form of a being as like a piece of clothing which masks an internal human form that is only visible to those within the same species or trans-specific beings such as shamans. It is not so much that the body is a clothing but rather that clothing is a body (1998:482). An animals clothing (their body) is not simply manipulated as a disguise, but rather their equipment that differentiates them from one another, and provides them with their habitus. The internal human form is the beings soul or spirit (1998). By undergoing metamorphosis, the being sheds its clothing and, through a process of transformation, adopts the point of view of another being. The shaman is the only being that is capable of assuming the point of view of the Other; the extra-human animal, and returning back to its original state of being unharmed (Viveiros de Castro, 1998). Amerindian perspectivist cosmologies bear striking similarities with the notion of animism, initially proposed by Tylor in the nineteenth century. Tylor attributed animism to the almost universally held beliefs of primitive people that certain objects and persons were animated by something incorporeal called spirit' (Kraus, 1971:487). Descola (1992) developed this idea of animism that all spiritual entities are similar in that they share spiritual features, with the difference being the body that they are endowed with (Latour, 2009). Thus, animism would appear in accordance with Castros proposition of multinaturalism within Amerindian cosmologies. In contrast with the multiculturalist notion of the nature vs. culture dichotomy, animism holds society as the unmarked pole, as the unifying dimension, rather than nature. Totemism, on the other hand, is the conception that individuals and clans share kinship with other forms of non-human being. Levi-Strauss (1962) discusses totemic classifications as a form of organisation which emphasises discontinuities between species to confer a conceptual order on society. The totem is a non-human being which is normally accompanied by a totemic myth, and they are manipulated to make the social world a more coherent classificatory system. Therefore, there is a very striking difference between animism and perspectivism, and totemism; in totemic societies the non-human being is regarded as a sign, and in animic and perspectivist societies, the non-human being is regarded in terms of the relationship it makes available (Pedersen, 2001). It will be brought up later on with an analysis of northern Asian cosmologies, that some ontologies in northern Asia are predominantly animistic, and some predominantly totemistic. Nevertheless, it is undeniable that Viveiros de Castros notion of perspectivism is wholly an animistic concept. His analysis of Amerindian perspectivism has been supported by Pelusos research undertaken in Peru. Peluso critically discusses her ethnography on dream narratives amongst the Ese Eja, an Amazonian community, and acknowledges that multinatural perspectivism is present within the ontology of dream narratives (2004). Naming dreams are common for the Ese Eja, and reflect multiple overlapping realities of time and space, acting as a reminder for its subjects that transformations are possible between multiple worlds. Eshawa, for the Ese Eja is the concept of personhood that connects the self with all species and the spirit world (Peluso, 2004:2). The dreams always involve an interaction between the animal and the dreamer, and involve the animal transforming itself into a child and addressing the dreamer by the appropriate kin term. This action eludes the mother/father/grandparen t dreamer to the childs dream name, and they must use this name for everyday life (Peluso, 2004). Viveiros de Castros notion of perspectivism in Amazonia is quite clearly at work here. People validate the links between dream names and their namesake animals through perceived shared physical and character traits, relating to Viveiros de Castros corporeal affects that form the distinctive viewpoints of subjects. Similarly, multinatural perspectivism such as the dream world, implies that all subjects (human or not) share personhood and interact socially as enacted in dream narratives. (Peluso, 2004:9). The dream world allows the capacity for carrying over the same viewpoint into different cross-realities, and dreams are sources of knowledge and channels of communication between multiple worlds, unhindered by physical or ontological distance (Peluso, 2004). Pelusos ethnography based on the Ese Eja community in Peru is a fine example of Viveiros de Castros Amerindian perspectivist cosmology in practice, but the question still remains as to whether perspectivism can be applied to another part of the world other than Amazonia. The vast majority of the rest of this essay will attempt to apply perspectivism and its deployments through ethnography, to two very different regions of northern Asia; Mongolia and Siberia. Pedersen (2007) has written extensive ethnography concerning the Darhads of Mongolia, and their relationship with perspectivism. It is clear that Viveiros de Castros Amerindian perspectivism is prevalent within Darhad animist cosmology, but at the same time there are several distinctions that must not be overlooked. A stark contrast between Darhad and Amerindian cosmology is that the Darhads do not share the conception of a creation myth; an original state of undifferentiation (Pedersen, 2007). Viveiros de Castro suggests that mythology is a precondition for perspectivism, in that the period from whence everything was undifferentiated and humanity, is crucial for spiritual unity and the universality of beings (1998). Nevertheless, Darhad cosmology is amythological yet animist and comprises multiple points of view; different perspectives unchanging over time. The majority of the Darhad animist cosmos is perceived as an unmarked territory, and that it is along specific paths where the social lives of beings occurs. Therefore Darhad cosmology itself is not one unified whole, but rather many parallel worlds, with each parallel world containing the totality of relations enacted through a given point of view (Pedersen, 2007). Similarities can be drawn here with Amerindian perspectivism in that exchanges of perspectives between different kinds of beings are being experienced by the Darhad people, however there appear profound differences. The Darhads nomadic landscape is organised according to the constellation of centres within it, with the nomadic households as physically moving entities, and sacred stone cairns such as those on the top of mountains as fixed components. All nomadic movements centre around these gravitation points, for the rest of the nomadic landscape is void (Pedersen, 2007). The Darhad conception of the landscape appears mo re of a totemic reality than an animist one in this sense. Rather, as a discontinuous grid that places beings in relationships of homologous differentiation (Holbraad Willerslev, 2007:331). Viveiros de Castros Amerindian perspectivist cosmology amounts to a boundless whole, a continuous universe where all beings relate to one another, whereas Darhad perspectivist cosmology lacks this perception. The narrative of the Badagshin that Pedersen (2007) recollects however, can be seen as the representation of a distinct form of Mongolian perspectivism that draws parallels with Viveiros de Castros Amerindian perspectivism. The Badagshin are half-people non-human beings that appear most frequently to Darhad hunters. Similarly with Amerindian perspectivism, the shaman is the only being capable of undergoing complete metamorphosis and returning back to their original state of being unharmed. Therefore for Darhad hunters, adopting the point of view of a nonhuman being is something that should be avoided at all costs. Pedersen recalls an account of a Darhad hunter and his friend encountering a Badagshin whilst traversing the nomadic landscape. For the hunter, the Badagshin appears before him as half a deer, yet for his friend it appears before him as half an old woman. Within a few weeks the friend is dead. This phenomenon may be explained in terms of the Darhad perspectivist cosmology i tself, for the friend has undergone transformation from human being to non-human being through the complete adoption of the Badagshins point of view and crossed through to the other side, resulting in death. It is not the hunter himself comprising two perspectives, but rather the cosmology itself, and by being seen only in the form of halves, they reveal in the form of their virtual, invisible halves an occult vicinity between the human and the non-human (Pedersen, 2007:323). Exchanges of perspectives for the Darhad appear essentially abrupt, as one leaps from one form of being to another, with the nomadic void playing the role of a trampoline, as one jumps between finite worlds (Pedersen, 2007). A key difference between Darhad perspectivism and Viveiros de Castros Amerindian perspectivism is that the Darhads encounters with spiritual beings are always incomplete, as the Badagshin example illustrates. Humphrey (1996) also reveals that encounters with spiritual beings amongst the Daur of Mongolia tend to always be incomplete and intermitted. Amerindian perspectivism appears more symmetrical and horizontal, whereas Darhad perspectivism appears asymmetrical and transcendent (Holbraad Willerslev, 2007). The Mongolian shamans ability to undergo various metamorphoses and gain the perspectives of another being can be directly linked to the evasion of the hierarchy within a society that is highly rigid (Pedersen, 2001). As a consequence of this spiritual hierarchy, exchanges of perspectives are vertical rather than horizontal, a direct contrast to Viveiros de Castros Amerindian perspectivism. Holbraad and Pedersen (2007) suggest that in Inner Asia, beings can become other not because they are themselves already other (as in Viveiros de Castros Amerindian perspectivism), but rather because the perspectives that they can occupy remain other to them (p.331). These are transcendental perspectives and reflect more of a totemic reality than an animistic reality apparent in Amerindian perspectivism. It would appear that Mongolian perspectivist cosmology is very different to that of Amerindian perspectivism. Much ethnography in Siberia has revealed a more animistic cosmological perspectivism, and yields more similarities to Viveiros de Castros Amerindian perspectivism. Stepanoff (2009) studied cannibal shamans in Siberia and adopts a perspectivist approach to elucidate that the shamans become cannibals because they see humans as prey animals. Similarly, Bogorazs (1904-1910) ancient ethnography on the Chuckchee can be seen to draw parallels with Viveiros de Castros Amerindian perspectivism in that others, in this case the kely spirits, see themselves as humans and humans see themselves as others. Kely spirits live like humans in villages and hunt humans which they call little seals. Social relations in Siberia appear horizontal rather than vertical, which, as a condition for animism appears to align them with Amerindian perspectivism rather more than their Mongolian neighbours. Likewise, the space constituted by human beings and non-human beings amounts to a boundless whole rather than a discontinuous grid (Pedersen, 2001). Pedersen (2001) puts forward the notion of animist analogous identification in Siberian cosmology, which holds the viewpoint that one has the ability to imagine oneself in someone elses position, and the ability to imagine someone else in ones own position. This correlates with Viveiros de Castros Amerindian perspectivism. Thus, I would argue that Siberian perspectivist cosmologies are much more similar to Amerindian perspectivist cosmologies than their Mongolian neighbours. However, it is challenging in itself to stretch Viveiros de Castros concepts that fit Amerindian cosmology to other parts of the world due to the fact that there is so much differentiation. The question ultimately comes down to whether Viveiros de Castros perspectivism can be seen as a theory or not, and whether it should be applied to other parts of the world. Holbraad and Willserlev (2007) suggest that Viveiros de Castros Amerindian perspectivism may be regarded as a theory due to the fact that it is an essentially intellectual artefact: theory is born of the anthropologists mental effort (p.330). However, this particular theory appears somewhat constrained by its ethnographic material of which the theory was conceived of, and the context from which it derived from cannot necessarily be applied to other ethnographic contexts. This does not detract from the fact that Viveiros de Castro has put forward an Amerindian perspectivist theory, which does exactly what it says on the tin.

Steven Kerr Essay -- Business, Creativity, Diversity

As Kerr is an educator and a professor in universities and not an economist, he examines his idea or creativity in the organization by making inquires starting from top management to the bottom in the organization and also to people who knew what the buyer or customer should be; then he would run it through his network in and outside GE to cross examination and double check or assessment (Davenport et al). Kerr’s successes effectively with the standing of ideas and creativity mainly rely on his continuing exploratory research with great creative thinking skills, expertise and motivation, and they also depend on his outstanding leadership and exceptional organizational culture of innovation in GE (Davenport et al, 2003). On the issue how to link his idea to his organization or business, Kerr simply collected and gained quick feedback and recommendation about how to present or make use of the idea or creativity to his sixty-five top executives in GE; he would assessed and examined his idea with his top management team first before link it to GE (Davenport et al). Davenport, Prusak & Wilson (2003) analyzed and claimed that getting instant comment or criticism is very critical and vital for a idea, as Kerr in his interview argued: â€Å"Gaining quick feedback and translating it into action and results is what advocating ideas is all about† (p. 207). In strategic planning, management must measure or evaluate the courses of idea and creativity or development and expansion to ensure they obtain the best and maximum returns from platforms (Davenport). In ideas and organizational management, feedback, criticism and suggestion not only could turn or develop into the guidance, objective and dire ction or target and focus of innova... ...resent diversity within the labor force and â€Å"each of them will also have networks of professional associates whose knowledge they can tap in order to solve problems and accomplish tasks. Needless-to-say, diverse people will have diverse networks and provide your company with a vast and diverse meta-network at your disposal† (p.1). In short, in supporting of creativity, innovators essentially need the backing from top leaders, and without that support, many initiatives may break down or die on the vine (Harvard). For any idea to be successful, it is vital that it is aligned with company strategy; there is more likely to occur naturally when top executives involve and take the lead with a idea or creativity initiative and this is a main reason why management commitment is a key factor in the accomplishment of any idea or innovation process (Baumgarther, 2010).

Greek audience Essay

The minds of modern theatre goers are somewhat lazy compared to their Greek counterparts, hundreds of years ago. Today we go to a play and at best mope and follow the story, we remain silent throughout and maybe the most analytical and critical of us will have some thoughts on the screenplay. The Greeks however had a rapport with the play, they watched every move, and got behind every line especially in tragedy. The reasons why this occurred are as follows: Modern plays fall into the category of illusion dramas. The Audience are invisible spectators of others lives. The characters are made to look and act convincing, so a king will be dressed ornately, a girl will actually be small girl, and a cowboy will sport a Stetson and colt 45. The audience have everything made up for them and so they find it easy to fall into the illusion and just watch. Greek Theatre is conventional drama, the characters are often not in costume and symbols merely indicate who was who in the play. For example a king may wear a simple crown on his head. In Greek drama all the actors wore masks. All these factors made it very demanding on a Greek audience to follow the play before them. In effect they are forced to watch very carefully and a rapport is developed between the audience and the play. This audience got very vocal during a performance, which is all part of the rapport. Today we go to a theatre and maybe watch a play, which we have never seen, Greek plays were all well known stories, and the themes and issues were well known to the audience. The lack of a surprise element means the audience watches the play with a critical eye seeing how well the play was done, and also whether dramatist has inserted a moral or political issue. This is illustrated in The Aeneid, Virgil makes Aeneas a ancestor to the Roman race. Iulus who was his descendant was directly linked to Julius Caesar the dictator of the time. By doing this he legitimises the history of the peoples past, and they look upon the story in a new light. The Aeneid would be politically interesting to the average Greek due to the Carthaginian wars. Even the mention of Carthage would have alerted the audience and they would be pleased to see that the city was â€Å"raised to the ground† The issue of morality, as I said is often explored, and personified in a character, Was Oedipus immoral? The Greek audience would have to think hard over this tragic question. On the one hand he wasn’t because he didn’t know what he was doing, but yet he was cursed and destroyed like an immoral person. This is where the tragic element lies, the audience would feel for him and pray that they themselves don’t suffer a similar fate. On the other hand he was impious, which was highly immoral in Greek times, and this is an issue I will cover later in my essay. Greek theatre however is full of tense and surprising moments. During Oedipus the king, Jocasta was aware that Oedipus was going to find out his fate. The scenes here were very tense. The audience would get behind it and voice their excitement. The best dramatists when they put on the play will include dramatic irony in the play. The whole Oedipus the king is based around this. The audience aware of his fate watch him squirm to his doom, because they know and cannot stop it happening makes it even more tragic. When Tiresias the prophet enters, Virgil creates many references to blindness and confusion, all reflect Oedipus’ state, as he doesn’t know the truth, but is highly ironic because the blind priest is the only one aware of the imminent danger. As I have illustrated the last thing a Greek audience is going to do is to sit silently through the play. They would murmur to each other, gasp, sometimes-even cheer at the action unfolding before them. The whole experience would be more than just a trip; it is more a moral lesson, and a place full of high emotion reminiscent of a modern church. The Greek audience would be very religious people; the whole theatre experience was infact an act of worship, and it was regarded the right and duty of every citizen to attend. In the theatre a statue of Dionysus was present adding to the religious undertone. Having establishes the religious importance of the theatre; it is understandable how the audience have issues of morality and respect to the Gods on their minds. When Oedipus is impious, this is considered highly immoral as he had full control over his actions unlike his other actions. Everyone was expected to attend the theatre, and even those who couldn’t afford it were paid for by the state. One can only imagine but the atmosphere was full of people from all walks of life. It is said there were around 14000 people in the oval shaped arena sat all round, this is almost like a modern day football match. The huge social importance of the theatre can be seen and understood from this, people went there to share ideas with friends, see friends, and meet people. I can imagine that because of all these factors and variety of people, the theatre was a very interesting place. People would obviously have different motives for going but it is established that it was more than just ente rtainment.

Discuss the elements of the promotional mix and their role in the marketing mix?

More often the promotional mix is referred to as the marketing mix, whereas this is not the right thing, for promotion itself is one ‘P' from the marketing mix. Here it needs to be clear that the marketing mix as a whole forms the bases of marketing and one part of it is the promotional mix. In the promotional mix are different heads which make up the mix. Among those are Advertising, Sales Promotion, Public Relations, Personal Selling and Direct Marketing (written as the fifth part of the promotional mix in some texts).The Promotional Mix: The promotional mix as stated earlier is a mix of 4 heads, which form the actual mix, in some cases promotional mix is also referred to as the communication mix, because if you read clearly, and try to grasp the idea behind the promotional mix, it is actually a company's idea of communicating about its product/ services to the customers or the general public. The following are the heads that come under promotional mix:Advertising: Stated as the paid promotion of a product or service by a known source, for a large number of customer base. Advertising comes in two forms; Print and electronic. Print advertising is also differentiated into different print types, to start with lets begin with the most simple and easy to see one, that is the paper print advertising, this includes newspaper advertisements, magazines, and pamphlets.The advertisements that appear on the newspapers and the magazines are a bit costly as they cater to a very large group of people. Moreover the pamphlets are also costly but they are distributed ion a fixed number of people therefore the costs are high, whereas the outcome may also vary. In the other range of print advertisements are the billboards that are setup on prime locations for a fixed number of days, the ‘air space' of the billboard is rented and usually the costs are really very high.The other form of advertising is electronic advertising, which includes the TVC (television commercia ls) and the radio commercials, in all the radio commercials are the cheapest form of adverting as compared to the print and the TVC, because the radio only caters to a specific range of people who at different times tune into these radio stations also these people may switch to other radio stations when they feel bored or whenever advertisements come up.The last and the most effective way to reach through advertisements is the TVC, these high cost commercials that take up the advertising expense of a company, these also have ranges and the viewer-ship of a particular channel also sets the price level of that channel's advertisement rates. As far as research has shown the advertisements on TV are the most effective as they are far reaching and can also be very direct for people of different sorts. Sales Promotion:The sales promotion is at times mixed with advertising but this isn’t so, as advertising takes into account only mediums like paper or electronic, advertising cannot be live or in other words in front of your eyes, that is where the sales promotion comes in, when a person is seen selling some item at a kiosk that is especially set-up for the promotion of that product people see it as marketing tactic or simply advertising, but this isn’t advertising, this is sales promotion, this way people come in front to sell the product and make the product familiar with the market, providing information with the product and before the product is sold, therefore selling and promoting the product at the same time. This sort of promotion is suitable if you have placed the product in a place where you know that your target audience can come easily and that they will find it easy to reach there.And that they are going to listen to what you have to say, for if they don’t do that, you might sell the product but you might not have the chance to promote the product which will induce the next sale idea into the mind of the customer. Personal Selling: Wh en a person is making sales, he/she is not only selling the product that he is supposed to sell, he is also selling himself with the product. Now the question arises, why would anyone want to sell himself with the product, doesn't it sound absurd? Yes it does because personal selling is not the physical selling of a person, its when a person makes the other person (customer) so comfortable with him that the customer not only listens to what he has to say but also believes him and does what he tells him to do, that is in the end persuade the customer so much so that he actually ends up buying the product.This has to be bore in mind that sometimes the salesperson has to identify the personality traits of different people as some might not like the idea of another person telling them what to do, therefore he must be polite and know what to say an when to say it , and to whom to say it to. Public Relations: Whenever a company tries to address a problem that exists in the society and tha t doest actually have a direct link to its product or services, it is actually creating rapport, what does that mean? Well this means that the company is merely trying to create goodwill with the general public so that the people begin to trust the organization as a whole and not just the products.This trust is actually the first step for any organization to get a hold of the target audience, for when somebody trusts a person he trusts everything the person says or does, in exactly the same way when a company creates goodwill in the market the people in general and the target market in particular begin to trust the company and this leads them to trust the products that are being offered by the company as well, which eventually creates sales for the company and generates profits for them. Direct Marketing: This is the fifth part of promotional mix, it is more like sales promotion but in some texts it is referred to as the fifth head of promotional mix.It deals with every way that the company comes into contact with the customer, and directly offers the products to the customer, this is done normally in big malls when companies set up small kiosks to inform and educate the general public about their role in the society and what their product is all about. Conclusion: All in all the promotional mix is actually a means for the company to communicate to the general public or their target audience. This process not only deals with the company but also its sales people who actually form the level of trust with the customer in the end. It should also be noted here that alone the promotional mix does have an importance to it but it cannot survive in isolation, therefore going about with the rest of the marketing tools and processes is also as important as the promotional mix. References: 1. Kotler , Philip , & Armstrong, Gary (2007). Principles of Marketing,.Prentice Hall; 12 edition.