Vikings stadium up in the air :: essays research papers

The man who is emerging as the lead owner of the Minnesota Vikings isn't thrilled with Anoka County's $1.6 billion stadium development concept in Blaine, and he has tossed the plan into flux, city and county officials said this week. Zygmunt Wilf, a New Jersey real estate developer who is scheduled to visit Blaine today, has told officials that if he and his partners buy the Vikings, a domed stadium is not a priority. He also said that elements of the retail-commercial-housing development in the Blaine proposal don't appeal to him, and that he is examining land in nearby Lino Lakes as an alternative stadium site. "He's got something in mind that he wants," said Blaine Mayor Tom Ryan. "But he's the only one who knows. We have to be sure his plan, whatever it is, works for the city." Wilf has not returned repeated phone calls from the Star Tribune since February, when it was announced that he was a partner with Arizona businessman Reggie Fowler in an effort to buy the Vikings. His scheduled visit today, his second to Blaine in three weeks, has officials curious about his intentions and vision. "We're dying to find out," said Blaine Planning Director Bryan Schafer. Of the Blaine plan, Anoka County Board Chairwoman Margaret Langfeld said: "It's just up in the air right now." Two years ago, after evaluating three potential locales in Anoka County, county officials landed on the Blaine site, which has more than 400 acres ready for development. It stands just west of Interstate Hwy. 35W, bordered by 109th Avenue NE. to the north and Lexington Avenue to the east. Soon after, the county proposed a fixed-roofed stadium, with a 300,000-square-foot medical clinic, a 250-room hotel, 1.3 million feet of corporate office space, 200 townhouses and 650,000 square feet of retail and entertainment facilities. The total cost was estimated at $1.6 billion. The county and city presented the plan to Gov. Tim Pawlenty's Stadium Screening Committee last year and, with the concept, the Anoka County Board approved a three-quarter-cent sales tax increase to help pay for it. But in a meeting with city and county officials on April 14, Wilf was apparently indifferent to a roof, questioned the need for the clinic and told political leaders that he would examine the Lino Lakes land, 8 miles to the east of the Blaine site, near Interstate Hwy. 35E. "This isn't an exact quote," said Anoka County Commissioner Dan Erhart, "but he said something like, 'I'm a builder.

Interpersonal Communication Application Paper

â€Å"I have never been the same person alone that I am with people. † (Phillip Roth) I can directly relate with this quote, I’m sure quite a few people can. So often, we act differently in private than we do with others. Of course, it’s all dependent upon who the ‘others’ are. For example, we may feel more comfortable being our true selves with our friends and become more reserved with colleagues. This is not necessarily how all humans behave, some folks have no problem being exactly who they are at all times no matter whose company they are in.I admire this quality when it is not coming from someone I perceive as obnoxious. Certainly, factors such as perception, culture, and the people we are communicating with will influence how we behave in public as opposed to private. Most immediately, I think how we perceive ourselves and how we think other people perceive us will influence our behavior in given situations. We’re all so different and ou r experiences tend to shape our personalities. Some of us are naturally outgoing and social, while others are more introverted and feel best without the company of others.Both scenarios present their own challenges and behaviors will be influenced by these tendencies. It’s generally very easy and preferred for the introverted personality to go through their day without the company of another, while a more extroverted individual might feel very lonely without another’s company. How these two behave in group functions will also vary. The outgoing individual will be very much in his element, and more likely to be cheerful and positive. An introverted person will be more shy and standoffish within the group.These are merely characteristics that go together, as presented in the book under the implicit personality theory. In either case, the behavior of the individual will vary whether they are alone or with people. And this scenario is a more natural occurrence. Sometimes s ituations arise where we want others to see us as something we are not and we’ll present ourselves in a certain manner that is not true to who we are, just to fit in or gain the trust of that particular group. When alone, we may let ourselves behave more naturally and feel less obliged to pretend.Cultures also influence how we behave in public and alone. Some cultures do not allow women to be in public without a headdress, while at home they are allowed to be more relaxed. In our American culture, Christianity teaches that women should be submissive to their husbands, so behaviors will exemplify this in a church setting or when out with church friends. At home, the wife may be the one who makes the final decisions, and the family will behave as such in that particular setting. Finally, the people with which we are communicating will impact what we say and how we say it.We communicate very differently when alone with our romantic partner, as opposed to being with him or her in public. The same is true for our relationships with parents, siblings, neighbors, casual friends or close friends. The words we choose and the tone that we use with any of these communications will vary from person to person and in private or amongst others. Every situation is completely unique. As a novelist, Phillip Roth presented many fine quotes with regard to communication. It was a good exercise to apply what I’ve learned from the text and be able to expand upon this particular quotation. Interpersonal Communication Application Paper â€Å"I have never been the same person alone that I am with people. † (Phillip Roth) I can directly relate with this quote, I’m sure quite a few people can. So often, we act differently in private than we do with others. Of course, it’s all dependent upon who the ‘others’ are. For example, we may feel more comfortable being our true selves with our friends and become more reserved with colleagues. This is not necessarily how all humans behave, some folks have no problem being exactly who they are at all times no matter whose company they are in.I admire this quality when it is not coming from someone I perceive as obnoxious. Certainly, factors such as perception, culture, and the people we are communicating with will influence how we behave in public as opposed to private. Most immediately, I think how we perceive ourselves and how we think other people perceive us will influence our behavior in given situations. We’re all so different and ou r experiences tend to shape our personalities. Some of us are naturally outgoing and social, while others are more introverted and feel best without the company of others.Both scenarios present their own challenges and behaviors will be influenced by these tendencies. It’s generally very easy and preferred for the introverted personality to go through their day without the company of another, while a more extroverted individual might feel very lonely without another’s company. How these two behave in group functions will also vary. The outgoing individual will be very much in his element, and more likely to be cheerful and positive. An introverted person will be more shy and standoffish within the group.These are merely characteristics that go together, as presented in the book under the implicit personality theory. In either case, the behavior of the individual will vary whether they are alone or with people. And this scenario is a more natural occurrence. Sometimes s ituations arise where we want others to see us as something we are not and we’ll present ourselves in a certain manner that is not true to who we are, just to fit in or gain the trust of that particular group. When alone, we may let ourselves behave more naturally and feel less obliged to pretend.Cultures also influence how we behave in public and alone. Some cultures do not allow women to be in public without a headdress, while at home they are allowed to be more relaxed. In our American culture, Christianity teaches that women should be submissive to their husbands, so behaviors will exemplify this in a church setting or when out with church friends. At home, the wife may be the one who makes the final decisions, and the family will behave as such in that particular setting. Finally, the people with which we are communicating will impact what we say and how we say it.We communicate very differently when alone with our romantic partner, as opposed to being with him or her in public. The same is true for our relationships with parents, siblings, neighbors, casual friends or close friends. The words we choose and the tone that we use with any of these communications will vary from person to person and in private or amongst others. Every situation is completely unique. As a novelist, Phillip Roth presented many fine quotes with regard to communication. It was a good exercise to apply what I’ve learned from the text and be able to expand upon this particular quotation.

George Orwell’s Shooting an Elephant: Insights on Imperialism, Ethical Conflicts and Fear of Judgment Essay

George Orwell’s essay â€Å"Shooting an Elephant,† introduces an interesting insight on imperialism, ethical conflicts and fear of judgement through the inner workings of a European police officer given the grueling task of dealing with an elephant in musk within Moulmein, in lower Burma. Imperialism, as defined in the Oxford English Dictionary, reads that Imperialism is â€Å"a policy of extending a country’s power and influence through colonization, use of military force, or other means.† Interestingly, Orwell shows imperialism in his work as a consensual hatred between the Burmese and a particular European cop causing a mutual negativity. The ethical conflicts raised in this essay root from the narrator, (who we can assume is the European police officer) who has been handed the task of dealing with a lustful and aggressive elephant who was a threat to the Burmese people’s land, possessions and lives. Ethical conflicts raised in Orwell’s work, tie to the narrators fear of judgement. It was because the narrator feared judgement so terribly, that he made the choice to pull the trigger on the elephant. When an elephant in musk escapes from his chains with his Mahout far out of reach, the narrator is called in to deal with this ravaging creature. He beings along his rifle and says â€Å"I had no intention of shooting the elephant, I had merely sent for the rifle to defend myself if necessary.† In essence, the pure reason for the rifle was for precautionary reasons, yet it had drawn a large amount of attention and excitement from a large crowd of â€Å"at least 2000 and growing every minute.† (Page 284) The narrator has an ethical dilemma, as â€Å"[he] knew with perfect certainty that [he] ought not to shoot him† (page 284). Orwell compares the elephant to a valuable, expensive piece of machinery. (Page 284) He watches the elephant acting with that â€Å"grandmotherly air that elephants have,† (Page 285) realizing that the beast is calming down and coming out of his lustful phase. This later contrasts with the narrator actually shooting the elephant due to the pressure of â€Å"the sea of yellow faces and their 2000 wills pressing [him] forward.† (Page 284) As the narrator was enroute to locating this lustful elephant, he learns that it had already â€Å"destroyed a bamboo hut, killed a cow and raided some fruit stalls and devoured stock.† (Page 282) In learning these things, Orwell makes it clear that the narrator feels he has legal justification for shooting the elephant even though he morally knew he was in the wrong. Interestingly, the narrators ethics in the matter of shooting the elephant are broken because of his fear of judgement. â€Å"[He] was hated by many people as a European subdivisional police officer in Moulmein. [He] was an obvious target and baited whenever it seemed safe to do so.† When the narrator was called in to deal with this elephant in must, he came to a point where he was surrounded by thousands of Burmese people, left with the choice to either shoot the elephant, or let him live. The pressure provided by the â€Å"thousands of yellow faces,† (page 284) and all of their hatred, left the narrator with no choice in his mind but to fire at this creature. After doing this, he wonders â€Å"whether any of the others (Burmese) grasped that [he] had shot the elephant solely to avoid looking like a fool.† (Page 287) This proves the narrators fear of judgement. Orwell does an excellent job in displaying the hatred between the Burmese and the Europeans, and the feeling that â€Å"imperialism was an evil thing.† (Page 281) He says that â€Å"if a European woman went through the bazaars alone somebody would probably spit betel juice over her dress.† (Page 281) Orwell uses symbolism to demonstrate the â€Å"evil† of imperialism. The ravaging elephant that the narrator was called in to deal with is a symbol for imperialism and its evils. The actual shooting of the elephant unveils that imperialism not only inflicts damage on one side, but on both sides of the relationship. Europe, who is supposed to hold control over the Burmese peoples, lost their control due to the pressure provided by the Burmese people in the actual shooting of the elephant. The Officer is put into a large authority position, but the hate he received from the Burmese, as well as the emotional pressure they put on him to shoot the elephant, puts a sense of power on the Burmese, and less on the â€Å"greater† European colony. Throughout this reading, Orwell demonstrates the evils of imperialism as well as the pressure that we as humans often have to succumb to based on societal pressures we face. He uses a story of a European police officer working in Moulmein who is faced with the pressure of the local Burmese people to kill an elephant who is in must and has done some damage to people’s property.

Literary analysis of hunger Games Book 1 Essay

In Susan Collins’s book the â€Å"Hunger Games† the character of Katniss Everdeen is considered by many to be an example of gender role reversal. Though Katniss does portrait many traits that may be considered masculine in and of themselves, she also portrays feminine traits. Her possession of these feminine even instinctually motherly traits steer my opinion to the thought that these traits are more due to her position in her family then to that of a girl who is tomboyish in nature. In this paper I will show that the behaviors of Katniss Everdeen are traits of an eldest child of a single parent household by assuming the roles of both mother and father as opposed to simply being characterized examples of gender role reversal. The book starts out explaining the back story of Katniss, her father who she was very close with died in a mine explosion five years before the books present day. Now she is left with a mother how is so overwhelmed with grief that she can barely function and a little sister who needs she to be raised. While her father was alive their relationship seem to be very similar to that of a father with no sons who tends to teach their daughter all they would teach a son, I know this relationship very well. While fathers love their daughters they seem to have this primal need for a son, an heir. Similar to other eldest female children when their fathers unexpectedly die, she had to step up and help her mother with the family, and in her case as is in some cases she has to be the parent. While I understand Katniss’s frustration over her mother’s actions after her father’s death, this is her reality and she deals with it and takes care of her family. The very first example of this new parental role in the book is the when Katniss narrates â€Å"The last thing I need is another mouth to feed† (3). Already we are seeing Katniss as the parental provider, she doesn’t say that the cat is the last thing they need, she says it’s the last thing she needs. Then she goes into talking about preparing the food, she has killed. Using the hunting skills her father had taught her, although hunting is considered a masculine activity, she hunts to feed her family to supplement their food stores due to shortages. Any spoils from her hunts left after supplying her family she sells in the â€Å"Hob† the black market (5), earning money to support her family as a father would. Even before the games begin Katniss begins to show concern for this young  girl Rue another tribute, maybe it is Rue’s age she was after about the age of Katniss’s little sister Prim. During the games there is a point where Katniss thinks that one of the kills she heard could have been Rue, you can hear the concern in her thoughts. In a game of survival where everyone is your enemy, Katniss bonds with Rue and tries to protect this little girl. They snuggle together for warmth at night and teach each other to survive by day. When Rue is killed Katniss with an almost maternal rage immediately kills Rue’s killer, this is the first actual kill for Katniss. Then she defies the rules and morns the death of Rue having a makeshift funeral for her and a song from Rues district. This was definitely a turning point for Katniss, she once again in her life had to block out emotion and focus on survival. At this point it was no longer a game of evasion for her it turn to a kill or be kill. Never the less, she maintained her compassion. Which was evident with Peeta, even though she was not sure of his truest intention when he was injured and being hunted she cared for him and protected him. Any other tribute may have left him for dead, but she didn’t. She tended to his wound, feed him, and defended him from the careers that were out to kill him risking her own life. Her actions are like that of an eldest child caring for younger or helpless needy siblings, I know personally I treat everyone in need of help as if they were one of my younger siblings. These are not traits of gender reversal these are traits of a protector a provider a parent. When our children wrong us we forgive and still focus on their protection and safety. When our children are in danger we find amazing strengths we never knew we possessed to protect them. When they hunger we find a way to feed them. Most importantly we survive the harshest of times, overcome the greatest of obstacles and sacrifice ourselves to return to those who need us most. Katniss is no different all she did she did to return to her family to ensure their survival. Without the parental traits she possesses the outcome of the Hunger Games may have been very different. But because of these traits she not only will return to her family she has saved Peeta’s life and may have changes life in Panam for ever.

Women Labor supply in China Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Women Labor supply in China - Research Paper Example Additionally, it was punishable by job loss, and also lack of access to public goods further to that local leaders have been supported by the central Government to implement the resources (Chen and Jianxian 15).   This paper discusses the impact of an extra child to female participation in the workforce and the one-child policy effects in China. The difference between the rural and urban in the implementation of the policies is that the optimal scales differ in both setups. In rular areas, Budget constraints are higher as compared to urban centers. The same case applies in China.Hypothesis and Research Model In class we learnt on the budget constraint and utility curve model. In the graph, X-axis have the leisure and Y-axis has the income. In the original situation, before the policy was passed, the graph was linear. However, the establishment of the policy led to a shift of the optimal choice. Women participation in the workforce will provide a possibility of an increment of their wages. Ultimately, an increase in the wages will result in more leisure time and hence the shift of the curve. When income increases budget constraints will also be reduced, consequently from the graph, the optimal choice will be higher than the original value. For example, if the budget of a family made up of twins was ten dollars in a day, if the woman is actively involved in the workforce the budget will increase since preferences will also increase. This is because of the budget constraint.

POLITICS OF KNOWLEDGE Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

POLITICS OF KNOWLEDGE - Essay Example cesses based upon divine or supernatural intervention.1 For instance, earliest humans attributed floods, famines, and other natural occurrences to spirits and the fact that they were otherwise frustrated or angry with their behavior. However, with the advent of the scientific revolution, identifiable and statistically measurable metrics were provided that helped the average individual to understand the fact that they live in a rational and bounded universe; bounded to science and the processes that it involves. As a function of seeking to understand this scientific revolution to a more demonstrable degree, the following discussion will be based upon how rationalist and empirical epistemologists facilitated a fundamental shift from divine human-based knowledge. Firstly, and perhaps most importantly, the individuals involved within shifting epistemology towards a human-based knowledge most essentially affected the means by which stakeholders within society sought to question the status quo.2 For centuries, the church had held unchecked authority over the way in which individuals understood the world around them. To a varying degree, the overall level to which individuals sought to question this authority was relatively limited. However, with the advent of the scientific revolution, stakeholders within society, although all classes, were encouraged to question the status quo and consider whether or not scientific merit provided a rational and reasonable explanation for the processes and beliefs that they had so long been led to engage with. A secondary manner by which rationalist attempted to provide a fundamental shift from divine to human-based knowledge is with regard to the way in which they sought to use identifiable numbers and processes as a function of proving a particular point. Naturally, this is the very cornerstone of science; however, in centuries past, the league and dictated as the final understanding of whether or not a particular process or

Financial Inclusion in Kiva Org Case Study Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words - 129

Financial Inclusion in Kiva Org - Case Study Example Kiva is one organisation working to bring financial services closer to the excluded the world over and it leverages on technology to achieve its mission. The organisation’s goal is to connect people across the world through lending with the sole aim of alleviating poverty. It gives opportunities for people to lend a minimum of $25 which is used in creating opportunities for poor people around the world. The whole 100% of the lender's money towards funding affordable loans to the needy and once repaid the lenders could withdraw their money in full or lend again to the needy borrowers. Kiva is currently present in 86 countries around the world, works with 293 MFI as field partners and has already disbursed loans worth $683,511,700 with an impressive repayment rate of 98.75% (Kiva.org, 2015) The organisation envisions a world where everyone in the world has the power to create and unleash their own opportunities. For this reason, they are making possible for those who are financially excluded to also access capital that is cheap and safe. Kiva has a worldwide network of volunteers who collaborate with partners to make it possible for the smooth running of its programs. Most of the organisations' funds come from donors and corporate sponsors who share the vision.  Ã‚