Human Comfort Approach In Green Building Design

Human Comfort Approach In Green Building Design Recently, there has been an increasing emphasis on a green building design approach, which is aimed at ameliorating the overall impact of the built environment on human comfort and the natural environment. In this selective review, external , building envelope and internal factors will be examined in relation to human comfort. In particular, this project will focus on human comfort in regard to the importance and impact for day lighting, visuals and environment, material properties, protection factors, ventilation, thermal comfort, and access their effectiveness in the context of green building design. With regard to human factors, it is concluded that the impact of these factors on building occupants needs to be taken into account in advance in order to design a building which enhances the human health and well-being and consequently leads to the increase of productivity. Introduction Green building design approach is one of the global response to the increasing realization that the built environment contributes significantly to climate change over the entire buildings lifecycle. Building accounts for more than 40 percent of carbon dioxide emissions (Hegger et al. 2008). Moreover, the steadily rising energy cost over the past few years help to facilitate the trend towards sustainability. Taking into account these factors, energy saving measures have become a requirement in these days. End-users search for sustainable building concept, with low management cost and energy usage, which provides structures made from building materials that are in accordance with ecological point of view. Aside from looking at energy and operating cost, they also take an increasing concern in work performance levels. Only when people healthy and satisfy they can optimize their productivity (Bauer et al. 2007:11). Seeing these factors by necessity, means offering both a comfortable and healthy environment which is essential as a strategy to attract the investors and buyers. Still, there is no doubt that the comfort and well-being of humans is based to a certain extent on their subjective perception of some external influences (Hegger et al. 2008:55). Sassi (2006:101) seems to support this view and points out that people respond differently to situations and environments depending on their character and circumstances. Hegger et al. (2006) claims that the factors which will affect human comfort are basically categorized under physical, intermediary and physiological conditions. The purpose of this project is to examine the physical conditions with regard to human comfort and to focus on the building envelope, external and internal influencing factors. The importance and the impact of these factors on human comfort will then be examined, with a focus on the effectiveness in the green building design approach. Since the concept of this approach is increasingly put into practice globally, it is felt that this examination will highlight areas which need to be taken into account and will be integrated into the design process. 1.0 A Definition of Human Comfort and Green Building Design Human Comfort Human comfort can be broadly defined as the building occupants expression of satisfaction with the thermal environment (Yudelson 2007). Some of the parameters that affect the users comfort are as follows: environmental conditions (interior air temperature, lighting intensity and level of noise), physiological criteria (age, gender and constitution), intermediary conditions (clothing and activity) and individuals (Hegger et al. 2008:55). There is a connection between physical and psychological health. They are the factors that are highly likely to influence the human sense of happiness (Martin 1997). In turn, ones happiness will impact on peoples expectations, experiences and sense of self-worth. Humans generally wish to be accepted, respected and to feel secured. Therefore, it is essential for an architect to understand how people respond to the environment in order to design spaces which can enhance human health and well-being. Styles and types of building material, responses to individual building, light quality and atmosphere are linked to culture and personal memories which in turn linked to individuals character (Sassi 2006). For instance, a small space may feel comfortable to certain people but claustrophobic to others. It is difficult to design a building which would be universally appealing that enhances everyones well-being. Nevertheless, certain commonalities can be identified in regard to comfort and identity. Buildings should be designed to satisfy and fortify positive feelings as well as enable people to enjoy quiet moments of reflection and relaxation (Sassi 2006:137). It plays an important role in increasing occupants productivity and health in buildings. The building design could influence the human body mechanism to exchange heat with the environment through convection, radiation and evaporation (Hegger et al. 2008:55). As Bordass (1995) has pointed out that the elements which affect human comfort should be able to be operated and adjusted by the occupants. In other words, reduce heat loss yet sustaining good air quality is a necessity in terms of thermal comfort in building design for cold weather. Green Building Design Green building is always name as ecological building, sustainable building, or energy-efficient building. Green building design is a concept which emphasize on passive design strategy by making full use of day lighting, natural ventilation and allowing the insulated fabric and thermal to work effectively (Woolley 2008:181). A green building focuses on reducing building impact on the environment and occupants health while increasing the efficiency of resource use through better planning, design, construction, management and maintenance (Green building index organization 2009). To quote from the Department of Standards Malaysia (2007), a green building design approach is an strategy which united architectural, engineering, site planning, and landscaping so as to design an energy efficient building which would optimize the human comfort This approach makes an effort to optimize the advantage of the environment and to use building materials which is acceptable from a building ecology point of view. 2.0 External Factors Relevant to Human Comfort in Green Building Design Architecture and open spaces can help to define peoples identity and to define their territory. A good architecture can create special reference to the locality, high design quality and interactions between building and its environment (Hegger et al. 2008:102). Recognition of the locality help to promote responsibility with respect to the environment and human beings. Designing with emphasize on natural day lighting and visuals should begin at the preliminary design stage. By proving these, it can help to conveys a feeling of safety, belonging and security. 2.1 Day Lighting Day lighting is a significant factor for pleasant interior conditions. Without sufficient day lighting, people cannot perform well and healthy. Natural light stimulates humans organism and controls bodys functionality. It is crucial for our visual perception and has a substantial influence on our work efficiency (Hegger et al. 2008:102). Building materials which are transparent or translucent are essential if we wish to make use of daylight. However, it transmits heat as well as light. This in turn means that with more daylight, it reduces the dependence on artificial lighting, and the internal heat loads are decreased as well (Thomas and Garnham 2007:135). Conventional and innovative day lighting systems that collect, transport and distribute light deep into buildings and systems that reduce the need for artificial lighting are recommended. For building plans, this implies a design that is no more than 66 feet wide, about 33 feet length of front to back from any window to any workstation (Yudelson 2007:80). In other words, a buildings long axis should be oriented to east-west in order to allow a maximum day lighting from both south and north facing windows. The day lighting conditions over the course of the day influence the human hormone balance and synchronize our internal clock (Ander 2003). Thus, day lighting strategies, for instance, the orientation of the building, the proportion of window, the depth of the rooms, glare and ultra-violet (UV) protection, the design of reflective surface and the coloring of the enclosing components (walls, floors and soffits) are all the important design features. Passive and technical measures can be taken into account during design. Sunlight acts as a link that connect the building occupants with the outside world, facilitating our essential connection with nature and giving us a sense of time. It is important to realize that the mood or the perception of a space created by light is just as vital (Thomas and Garnham 2007:136).. To put it simply, people see and feel better whenever there is natural light for reading and working. 2.2 Visuals and Environment In green building design, emphasis is placed on providing outdoor views from all workstations. The research shows that if the occupants able to enjoy the outside view during the workday, it is more conductive to physical and mental health than working in a windowless environment (Yudelson 2007). Trees can help to absorb carbon dioxide from the air and store it as carbon. It can also provide shade to buildings, reducing heat gains and thus, improving the internal environment. In other words, contact with nature is beneficial to the well-being of humans. The building should be planned and designed so as to be visually as well as physically well connected with the outdoors. When designing the external works, emphasis should be put on to create and preserve natural habitats by providing extensive lawns, keep the area is natural state, trees and hedges, green roofs, and green facades. In some cases which the area of plot is small, rooftop planting can replace ground sealed by construction work. Environment plays an important role in satisfying basic human needs and quality of life. It can help to reduce stress and also can speed up recovery. In addition, it can affect humans on a psychological and physical level by acting as a recuperative and stimulating factor for our creative functions. In densely developed cities, it is critical for human health to strike a balance between making space accessible to people and preserving flora and fauna. According to some studies, dealings with nature will affect humans mental health, whereas leisure activities in nature directly benefit to physical health (Sassi 2006). 3.0 The Influence of the Building Envelope on Human Comfort in Green Building Design Building envelope acts as a boundary that separates between interior and exterior of a building through which thermal energy is transferred (Hegger et al. 2008:82). It also serves the function of protecting users and occupants against climate change such as solar radiation, precipitation and wind so as to create safe, healthy and secure interior space. However, the role of building envelope becomes more complex as the demand for comfort increases. A building should enable people to feel safe and comfortable by reducing potential dangers. To increase human comfort, the well-being and health of occupants in aspects such as material properties, safety and security, sound, interior air, and interior climate must be taken into consideration during design stage. 3.1 Material Properties The choice of material for building envelope will affect human comfort in the building. The designers should take great care when specifying materials in regards of the impact these materials have upon humans feeling about spaces and buildings. Functionality that reflect regional climate as well as cultural preferences, local vegetation and high-technology material need to be incorporated in the design. Materials are always describe as cold or warm. Based on scientific basis, metal for example, are good conductors of heat and therefore take the heat quickly from the body. On the contrary, wood is a poor conductor and hence feels relatively warm to touch. These physical sensation correspond to psychological states, such as a timber paneled room would feel warmer and more comfortable to inhabit than a predominantly metal one (Thomas and Garnham 2007:89). Different kind of wall material, construction and thickness are likely to differ in the value of thermal conductivity. U-value is a measure of the fabric heat loss which take into accounts mechanism like conduction, radiation and convection of heat transfer. The same can be said that the lower the u-value, the better the insulation the lesser energy needed to maintain comfort, the lower the environmental impact. Insulated walls reduce energy cost and increase comfort with levels of minimal effort (Thomas and Garnham 2007:102). To achieve sustainability in building design, consideration should be given to low embodied energy, material manufactured that is on waste, easy to disassembly and used to recycle in the end of the building life span, transportation to the construction site and strategies or method that are often used in architectural practice. 3.2 Protection Factors on Occupants Well Being and Health Building should keep users safe and secure both within the building and its environment by protecting them from accidents, intruders, fire, and natural dangers. Accordingly, contributions to the subjective perception of safety and secure by providing a good layout, lighting, social controls, presence of other people and good visual links are necessary (Hegger et al. 2008:195). A designer can provide these features by considering the specification of material, fire protection concept, natural dangers, clarity and peoples activities during design stage. Creating pleasant acoustic conditions is also one of the important protection factors. Noise pollution and acoustic conditions will influence the well-being of people and can affect their health. Noise between usage units and plus disturbance such as noises from building services and unfavourable room acoustic should be avoid through precautionary building physics and room acoustic measures. Constructional sound insulation and room acoustic measures should be included in the room acoustics report as a guidance. Besides the above aspects, interior air and climate are also the fundamental elements to increase the well-being and health of the occupants. A poor interior air quality will cause some bodily symptoms and lower the productivity (Awbi 2008). Moreover, thermal comfort has a major influence on the human heat balance and direct effect on energy consumption of buildings. It should be optimized through constructional and passive measures. For example, it can be done through specifying the construction methods, thermal insulation, moisture control, coordination of window proportion, ventilation concept and also the protection against overheating by providing sun shading devices. 4.0 Internal Factors Which Support Human Comfort in Green Building Design The primary function of building is to provide a suitable internal environment for the purpose of the building. According to Boubekri (2008), the effects of poorly designed buildings, whether in terms of limited natural ventilation or poor thermal comfort, would affect the health of building occupants. In order to achieve an acceptable level of human comfort, the indoor environment for human implies a temperature between 16 to 25 degree Celsius. 4.1 VENTILATION Natural ventilation is another approach which will provide a healthy and comfortable internal environment by removing polluted indoor air and replace with the fresh air from outside through openings. It would be cosy if the air can be circulated naturally from the outside to the inside of the building (Hegger et al. 2008:101). People will have sensations such as the warmth of the unfiltered sunlight, smells and acoustic stimulus by direct contact with outside air. It can have a positive effect on the quality of the habitable room, in that, natural ventilation system are particularly user friendly from the emotional pint of view (Hegger et al. 2008:99). Thus, habitable rooms should always include opening the facade whenever possible. There are three main mechanisms in natural ventilation, for instance, single sided where air comes in from a window, cross ventilation where air crosses a space from one side to another which the effect of wind pressure causes the air to enter on the windward facade and pass through the building and lastly providing a stack effect exiting path, resulting from the temperature differences between the indoor and outdoor air, where the hot air rises and exits the opening near the roof or providing openings at the 2 sides of the wall. According to Department of Standards Malaysia in MS1525 (2007), cross ventilation is defined as the flow of air through a building due to a wind-generated pressure drop across it. These processes are natural and are provided by pressure gradients and temperature differentials which in turn create pressure differences (Thomas and Garnham 2007:116). They do not required large quantities of energy to run the powerful fans which used in mechanically ventilated buildings. Natural ventilation is the most energy efficient way of supplying essential fresh air to a building. When it is insufficient, then other cooling options may be possible. 4.2 THERMAL COMFORT According to Flynn and Segil (1970:80), human body functions as a heating and cooling mechanism. It can, to some extent, efficiently and automatically adjust to the environmental conditions that vary from optimum. Our body functions to lose heat at a certain rate to reasonably cooler air and surfaces. Nevertheless, if such action is either too slight or excessive, it will lead to occupant discomfort and physiological stress. Human heat balance, humans body temperature, needs to be around 37ÂÂÂ °C; this is a prerequisite for well-being. Humans emit heat through the following mechanisms: firstly by exhalation and through evaporation of skin, secondly by covection of heat from body surface to the surrounding air, thirdly by conduction of heat from the body to immediate objects and lastly by radiation of heat to the nearby objects and the surfaces enclosing the room (Hegger et al. 2008:55). On the other hand, heat transfer in building in three modes, which are conduction, convection, and radiation (Moe 2010:9). If the temperature of surrounding area drops, the body will first allow the extremities to cool in order to protect the functions of brain, heart and other vital organs (Hegger et al. 2008:55). It is essential to transfer the internal heat generated to the environment in order to get a constant temperature. If the temperature of the interior air is not consistant, the risk of accidents increases and manual dexterity, productivity and mental abilities decrease quickly. In regards of this, a thermally comfortable environment is primarily due to physical influencing factors such as the temperature of the interior air and the average temperature of the external air, the humidity of interior air and the movement of the air (Hegger et al. 2008:56). Building functions to admit and conserve heat when the external environment is cold and to thwart the penetration when the external environment is warm. Conclusion Human comfort is not only a strategy in green building design for the purpose of attracting the investors and buyers, but also an approach which determines occupants health and well-being. This paper has discussed the factors that contribute to human comfort and has briefly presented the importance and the influence of the factors towards peoples comfort in certain aspects of building design. These included the building envelope, interior and exterior factors which consist of day lighting, visuals and environment, material properties, protection factors, ventilation, and thermal comfort. The effectiveness of the approach towards users comfort has also been highlighted, particularly with regard to the human comfort and well-being lead to the increasing of productivity. In discussing the effectiveness of the approach, it has concluded that although the desired degree of comfort can be a highly subjective perception, some commonalities can be identified. This can assist in optimizing the design for a better human comfort. Green buildings always offer a high level of comfort and healthy indoor climate while depending on renewable energies and low energy embodied resources ( Bauer et al. 2007). It should be noted that human comfort is only one of the approach in green building design. Other approaches such as energy efficiency and renewable energy should be taken into account in design , however, are lied outside the parameters of this paper due to the limited scope and a more thorough research could be done in this area. This would be particular interest to the professionals who incorporate the environmental engineering studies in their design.

Successful Entrepreneur

Steve Jobs is one of the most successful entrepreneurs and was listed as Fortune Magazine’s Number One most powerful businessman of 2007 out of twenty-five other top businessmen. He is the co-founder, chairman and CEO of Apple Inc. and was the CEO of Pixar Animation Studios until it was acquired by the Walt Disney Company in 2006. Steve Jobs is currently the Walt Disney Company’s largest shareholder and a member of its Board of Directors. He is considered a leading figure in both the computer and entertainment industries. He is also widely credited as the inventor of the Macintosh, the iPod, the iTunes Store, and the iPhone, among other things. His history in business has contributed greatly to the myths of the quirky, individualistic Silicon Valley entrepreneur, emphasizing the importance of design while understanding the crucial role aesthetics play in public appeal. His work driving forward the development of products that are both functional and elegant has earned him a devoted and popular following. Steve Jobs passion was always technology from a young age, so he took his first job at Atari Inc. hich was a leading manufacturer of video games. He struck up a friendship with fellow designer Steve Wozniak. Steve and Steve developed a system with a toy whistle which made it possible to make free long distance telephone calls. Together with Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak, Steve Jobs helped popularize the personal computer in the late ‘70s, and in the early ‘80s. After losing a power struggle with the board of directors in 1985, Steve Jobs resigned from Apple and founded NEXT, a computer platform development company specializing in the higher education and business markets. NeXT’s subsequent 1997 buyout by Apple brought Steve back to the company he co-founded, and he has served as its chief executive officer since his return. A true example of a successful entrepreneur who strived with his passion to be the best. Life story of Steve Paul Jobs :- Steve Paul Jobs, was an orphan adopted by Paul and Clara Jobs of Mountain View, California in 24th February 1955. Jobs was not happy at school in Mountain View so the family moved to Los Altos, California, where Steven attended Homestead High School. His electronics teacher at Homestead High, Hohn McCollum. After school, Jobs attended lectures at the Hewlett-Packard electronics firm in Palo Alto, California. There he was hired as a summer employee. Another employee at Hewlett-Packard was Stephen Wozniak a recent dropout from the University of California at Berkeley. An engineering whiz with a passion for inventing electronic gadgets, Wozniak at that time was perfecting his â€Å"blue box,† an illegal pocket-size telephone attachment that would allow the user to make free long-distance calls. Jobs helped Wozniak sell a number of the devices to customers. In 1972 Jobs graduated from high school and register at Reed College in Portland, Oregon. After dropping out of Reed after one semester, he hung around campus for a year, taking classes in philosophy and immersing himself in the counterculture. Early in 1974 Jobs took a job as a video game designer at Atari, Inc. , a pioneer in electronic arcade recreation. After several months working, he saved enough money to adventure on a trip to India where he traveled in search of spiritual enlightenment in the company of Dan Kottke, a friend from Reed College. In autumn of 1974, Jobs returned to California and began attending meetings of Wozniak's â€Å"Homebrew Computer Club. † Wozniak, like most of the club's members, was content with the joy of electronics creation. Jobs was not interested in creating electronics and was nowhere near as good an engineer as Woz. He had his eye on marketability of electronic products and persuaded Wozniak to work with him toward building a personal computer. Wozniak and Jobs designed the Apple I computer in Jobs's bedroom and they built the prototype in the Jobs' garage. Jobs showed the machine to a local electronics equipment retailer, who ordered twenty-five. Jobs received marketing advice from a friend, who was a retired CEO from Intel, and he helped them with marketing strategies for selling their new product. Jobs and Wozniak had great inspiration in starting a computer company that would produce and sell computers. To start this company they sold their most valuable possessions. Jobs sold his Volkswagen micro-bus and Wozniak sold his Hewlett-Packard scientific calculator, which raised $1,300 to start their new company. With that capital base and credit begged from local electronics suppliers, they set up their first production line. Jobs encouraged Wozniak quit his job at Hewlett-Packard to become the vice president in charge of research and development of the new enterprise. And he did quit his job to become vice president. Jobs came up with the name of their new company Apple in memory of a happy summer he had spent as an orchard worker in Oregon. Apple Company and Steve Jobs : Jobs and Wozniak put together their first computer, called the Apple I. They marketed it in 1976 at a price of $666. The Apple I was the first single-board computer with built-in video interface, and on-board ROM, which told the machine how to load other programs from an external source. Jobs was marketing the Apple I at hobbyists like members of the Homebrew Computer Club who could now perform their own operations on their personal computers. Jobs and Wozniak managed to earn $774,000 from the sales of the Apple I. The following year, Jobs and Wozniak developed the general purpose Apple II. The design of the Apple II did not depart from Apple I's simplistic and compactness design. The Apple II was the Volkswagon of computers. The Apple II had built-in circuitry allowing it to interface directly to a color video monitor. Jobs encouraged independent programmers to invent applications for Apple II. The result was a library of some 16,000 software programs. For the Apple II computer to compete against IBM, Jobs needed better marketing skills. To increase his marketing edge he brought Regis McKenna and Nolan Bushnell into the company. McKenna was the foremost public relations man in the Silicon Valley. Nolan Bushnell was Jobs's former supervisor at Atari. Bushnell put Jobs in touch with Don Valentine, a venture capitalist, who told Markkula, the former marketing manager at Intel, that Apple was worth looking into. Buying into Apple with an investment variously estimated between $91,000 and $250,000, Markkula became chairman of the company in May 1977. The following month Michael Scott, who was director of manufacturing at Semi-Conductor Inc. , became president of Apple. Through Markkula, Apple accumulated a line of credit with the Bank of America and $600,000 in venture capital from the Rockefellers and Arthur Roch. Quickly setting the standard in personal computers, the Apple II had earnings of $139,000,000 within three years, a growth of 700 percent. Impressed with that growth, and a trend indicating an additional worth of 35 to 40 percent, the cautious underwriting firm of Hambrecht & Quist in cooperation with Wall Street's prestigious Morgan Stanley, Inc. , took Apple public in 1980. The underwriters price of $22 per share went up to $29 the first day of trading, bringing the market value of Apple to $1. 2 billion. In 1982 Apple had sales of $583,000,000 up 74 percent from 1981. Its net earnings were $1. 6 a share, up 55 percent, and as of December 1982, the company's stock was selling for approximately $30 a share. Over the past seven years of Apple's creation, Jobs had created a strong productive company with a growth curve like a straight line North with no serious competitors. From 1978 to 1983, its compound growth rate was over 150% a year. Then IBM muscled into the personal computer business. Two years after introducing its PC, IBM passed Apple in dollar sales of the machines. IBM's dominance had made its operating system an industry standard which was not compatible with Apple's products. Jobs knew in order to compete with IBM, he would have to make the Apple compatible with IBM computers and needed to introduce new computers that could be marketed in the business world which IBM controlled. To help him market these new computers Jobs recruited John Sculley from Pesi Cola for a position as president at Apple. Jobs enticed Scully to Apple with a challenge: â€Å"If you stay at Pepsi, five years from now all you'll have accomplished is selling a lot more sugar water to kids. If you come to Apple you can change the world. Jobs in 1981 introduced the Apple III, which had never fully recovered from its traumatic introduction, because Apple had to recall the first 14,000 units to remedy design flaws, and then had trouble selling the re-engineered version. Another Apple failure was the mouse-controlled Lisa, announced to stockholders in 1983. It should have been a world beater, because Lisa was the first personal computer controlled by a mouse which made it have a user-friendly interface, but had an un-friendly price of $10,000. The worst thing about Apple's development of computers was they lacked coherence. Each of Apple's three computers used a separate operating system. Jobs designed the Macintosh to compete with the PC and, in turn, make Apple's new products a success. In an effort to revitalize the company and prevent it from falling victim to corporate bureaucracy, Jobs launched a campaign to bring back the values and entrepreneurial spirit that characterized Apple in its garage shop days. In developing the Macintosh, he tried to re-create an atmosphere in which the computer industry's highly individualistic, talented, and often eccentric software and hardware designers could flourish. The Macintosh had 128K of memory, twice that of the PC, and the memory could be expandable up to192K. The Mac's 32-bit microprocessor did more things and out performed the PC's 16-bit microprocessor. The larger concern of management concerning the Macintosh was not IBM compatible. This caused an uphill fight for Apple in trying to sell Macintosh to big corporations that where IBM territory. â€Å"We have thought about this very hard and it old be easy for us to come out with an IBM look-alike product, and put the Apple logo on it, and sell a lot of Apples. Our earning per share would go up and our stock holders would be happy, but we think that would be the wrong thing to do,† says Jobs. The strengths of Macintosh design was not memory, power, or manipulative ability, but friendliness, flexibility, and adaptability to perform creative work. The Macintosh held the moments possibility that computer technology would evolve beyond the mindless crunching of numbers for legions of corporate bean-counters. As the print campaign claimed, the Macintosh was the computer â€Å"for the rest of us. † The strategy Jobs used to introduce the Macintosh in 1984 was radical. The Macintosh, with all its apparent vulnerability, was a revolutionary act infused with altruism, a technological bomb-throwing. When the machine was introduced to the public on Super Bowl Sunday it was, as Apple Chairman Steve Jobs described it, â€Å"kind of like watching the gladiator going into the arena and saying, ‘Here it is. † The commercial had a young woman athlete being chased by faceless storm-troopers who raced past hundreds of vacant eyed workers and hurled a sledgehammer into the image of a menacing voice. A transcendent blast. Then a calm, cultivated speaker assured the astonished multitudes that 1984 would not be like 1984. Macintosh had entered the arena. That week, countless newspapers and magazines ran stories with titles like â€Å"What were you doing when the ‘1984' commercial ran? † Jobs' invocation of the gladiator image is not incidental here. Throughout the development of the Macintosh, he had fanned the fervor of the design team by characterizing them as brilliant, committed marhinals. He repeatedly clothed both public and private statements about the machine in revolutionary, sometimes violent imagery, first encouraging his compatriots to see themselves as outlaws, and then target the audience to imagine themselves as revolutionaries. Jobs, like all those who worked on the project, saw the Macintosh as something that would change the world. Jobs described his Macintosh developing team as souls who were â€Å"well grounded in the philosophical traditions of the last 100 years and the sociological traditions of the 60's. The Macintosh team pursued their project through grueling hours and against formidable odds. A reporter who interviewed the team wrote: â€Å"The machine's development was, in turn, traumatic, joyful, grueling, lunatic, rewarding and ultimately the major event in the lives of almost everyone involved†. The image Jobs wanted the public to have of the Macintosh was young, wears blue jeans, and lives in an 80's version of the 60's counterculture. Macintosh was impatient, uncomfortable, and contemptuous of everything that was conventional or hierarchical. He/she was both creative and committed, believing strongly that his/her work ultimately matters. Even if we counted beans for a living, we secretly saw ourselves as Romantic poets. Jobs approach in developing the Macintosh was like the history of telephones. When the telegraph became popular for communication a century ago, some people suggested putting a telegraph machine on everyone's desk, but everyone would have had to learn Morse code. Just a few years later Alexander Graham Bell filed his first patents for the telephone, and that easy-to-use technology became the standard means of communication. â€Å"We're at same juncture; people just are not going to be willing to spend the time learning Morse code, or reading a 400-page manual on word processing. The current generation of personal computers just will not any longer. We want to make a product like the first telephone. We want to make mass market appliances. What we are trying to develop is a computer that can do all those things that you might expect, but we also offer a much higher performance which takes the form of a very easy-to-use product. † As the Macintosh took off in sales and became a big hit, John Sculley felt Jobs was hurting the company, and persuaded the board to strip him of power. John Sculley tried to change the discipline of the company by controlling costs, reducing overhead, rationalizing product lines to an organization that some in the industry called Camp Runamok. Sculley came to the conclusion that â€Å"we could run a lot better with Steve out of operations,† he says. Jobs tended to value technological â€Å"elegance† over customer needs which is a costly luxury at a time of slowing sales. And Jobs's intense involvement with the Macintosh project had a demoralizing effect on Apple's other divisions. Jobs was exiled to an office in an auxiliary building that he nicknamed â€Å"Siberia. † Jobs says he did not get any assignments and gradually found that important company documents no longer landed on his desk. He told every member of the executive staff that he wanted to be helpful in any way he could, and he made sure each had his home phone number. Few ever called back. â€Å"It was very clear there was nothing for me to do,† he says, â€Å"I need a purpose to make me go. † He soon came to believe that he would find no purpose within Apple. In July, Sculley had told security analysts in a meeting that Jobs would have no role in the operations of the company â€Å"now or in the future. † When Jobs heard of the message he said, â€Å"You've probably had somebody punch you in the stomach and it knocks the wind out you and you cannot breathe. The harder you try to breathe, the more you cannot breathe. And you know that the only thing you can do is just relax so you can start breathing again. † The Next Step Steve’s Come back to Apple : Jobs sold over $20 million of his Apple stock, spent days bicycling along the beach, feeling sad and lost, toured Paris, also goes on a spiritual trip to India with his friend. The Mr. Nobody, Steve, started again once he was out of his super rich, super successful period. After three years, he founded a new company, ‘Next’. He launched Next Cube. It was an extremely powerful and much expensive machine at that time and probably, an offering to an immature market. It failed miserably. Then Steve and his company, Next, moved to the making of softwares and operating systems. His money and property were not with him, but his creative mind was. He showed an interest in George Lucas’ company, the Pixar Animations. George Lucas is considered the father of modern special effects in the films. Lucas was not interested in Pixar, so Steve took charge of the company in 1986. He entered into a contract with Disney in 1990. Pixar made the animations and Disney did the marketing and distribution of the animation films. Steve could read the future five years ahead. In 1995, the ‘Toy Story’ proved to be the huge success in Hollywood and Pixar never looked back. But now this Steve was not the Steve of 1080s. He gradually became Zen Buddhist. Meanwhile, he saw Bill Gates climbing the success ladder with sheer business techniques and not with orthodox ideologies. By the way, the flagship product of Microsoft, the Windows operation system, is nothing but an adaptation of the ideas of Steve’s Macintosh computer. Bill Gates proves to be an extremely practically businessman who along with working for Apple also copied the technologies of Apple Macintosh! Oh! You would ask what happened to Apple after Steve’s exit! Imagine a body without its soul! This is no exaggeration. After leaving its soul, the company instead of running, started crawling. Without Steve, the entire computer business in the world changed in the decade of 90s. Nobody could match the steps with the changing times. Apple Corporation was about to announce bankruptcy and it was about to become insolvent. At that time, the then Apple’ boss, Mr. Gil Emilio took an unprecedented decision. He decided to buy a new operating system for the Mac computers. And the best and advanced operating systems were made by only one company in the vicinity, and that was Steve Jobs’ company, ‘Next’†¦! As per the contract between the Apple and the Next, Steve re-entered his own company after 12 years†¦.! And that too, just for a salary of $ 1 a year†¦! But this time the new Steve was different from what he used to be back in 1980s. This Steve came with a lot of learning from life. Now it was his turn to stage the boardroom drama. In 1997, in the board meeting Steve once again was elected the CEO of the Apple Corporation. The new all-powered Steve created ‘Ometra’, the contract; wherein all the employees were made to agree to the term that the boss’ decision is final in any matter! Steve had already tasted the fruits of being the ‘ideologist’. Now he was a shrewd businessman, with a lot of practical mind setup. He knew that Apple did not have enough funds to carry out its research projects. So he played one big master stroke. He invited none other than, Mr. Bill Gates to invest in Apple†¦! Bill Gates was more than ready to invest in Apple, because the person, who copied the technologies of Steve, had to have the greatest trust in his capabilities! Apple was now on track again. Steve was still purist and idealistic as far as the technological innovations and the aesthetic looks are concerned. He made the new ‘OSX’ operating system, which was a huge success in the market (In OSX, we already have different versions like, Chitah, Puma, Jaguar, Panther, and Tiger. Recently we have seen the successful launch of its Leopard & Snow Leopard version in 2007). Steve also launched the transparent computers in the market for the first time in the name of iMac. Then, we got the super finely designed, iBook laptop from Apple. In 2001, Steve made portable digital music player called, the iPod. Steve always considered the Windows operating System an inferior product as compared to the Macintosh products (which to a large extent is even true). He always called Windows as ‘Working in Hell’. But this Steve was ready to compromise with his beliefs for the success of his company. He, eventually, started making the Windows enabled Macintosh computers. The unimaginable success of iPode literally scrambled the pillars of world music industry! Just two years ago, he sold out his animation studio Pixar to Disney and in return, got the life-time directorship on the Disney’s board. Steve re-entered Apple by playing the gimmick of taking a salary of $ 1 per year. But he, after getting into his company again, proved very influential and last year he was the highest-paid CEO of America! But amidst such an entire scenario, the time and life struggles had taken their toll on Steve’s health. He was diagnosed with Pancreas cancer. He fought with his cancer also and came back victoriously. He sensed that the mobiles with music player were giving tough competition to his iPod. So, he decided to enter an entirely new market segment for Apple, the mobile market. And the result is in front of us ! The iPhone ! Apple’s creativity has got a support in the face of a ruthless, hardcore, practical businessman. The Apple Corporation, today, is valued at more than $120 billion. Bill Gates has failed to proceed further from Windows. And Steve, with his mind power, has gifted us with some of the greatest innovations of our time. When the ever struggling and always winning Steve recently, in a function, told Bill Gates that ‘we have more past moments to cherish than deciding on the future road map’, everybody around could easily see tears in the eyes of both long time friends! He gave a very emotional, touching and quite inspiring speech to management students on their Commencement in the Stanford University in 2005. This story of successful entrepreneur is much more exciting than watching a fantasy film, isn’t it? The story is of a young man getting all the glitz and glories in his heydays, losing everything because of dirty corporate games, and again through his own intelligence, coming back to the top! Achievements of Steve Jobs: Year after year and event after event, Steven Paul Jobs, popularly known as Steve Jobs has won countless accolades and laurels for his work and dedication to the revolutionize the IT industry. Whether it was the formal ntroduction of Mac computers to the world in the 70s or the inception of the universal revolution called iPhone in 2007 or the most recent revelation of iPad, Steve Jobs has been iconic in the contributions he has made to computer and internet technology – every reason why he has been ruling the roost as one of the most admired CEOs of the industry. The primary reason being the impeccable success of the Apple iPad tablet that launched early this year which has sold millions of units world-wide till date. The Apple iPad still continues to make waves and is no doubt, treated as a culture medium of comparison for other competing tablet PCs

Exploring Rita Dove’s “The Darker Face of the Earth”

â€Å"An expert poet, a creative story writer and adept at writing scripts of various genres†; all things, which make the world filled with writings. This is one of the gorgeous ways of delineating the character of an American poet and author, Rita Frances Dove. â€Å"I think the worst thing that can happen to a poet is to be self-conscious, to think, ‘I’m writing a poem’ the moment that you’re writing a poem.† With all this line, as quoted by Ingersoll (2003) during an interview held at the University Press of Mississippi, Rita Dove shows her philosophical adage and belief about the essence of every event happening around her.It merely signifies that whatever things come along the way should be given an explicit notion whether it could bring good and a noteworthy happening or an adverse occurrence. In other words, exploring the never-ending queries that come to her mind is what makes her personality an avid â€Å"truth seeker† to find the real significance of her surroundings. For a better comprehension about where her life revolves around and to what principle does it lie, her play entitled â€Å"The Darker Face of the Earth† explains how Dove exploits the story Oedipus Rex for her own purpose.As a writer who delves into the stone of knowledge, she brings more insightful prospects with regard to the contemporary issues arising from her community—trying to compare the huge difference or similarity between all characters of the two stories, The Darker Face of the Earth and Oedipus Rex.Significance of the Play ‘The Darker Face of the Earth’Her notion concerning the mixture of races leads her to creating a more compelling play, which she entitled ‘The Darker Face of the Earth’ (Pereira). Hence, her views concern marriage, cohabitation, or sexual intercourse between a white person and a member of another race. Such a perspective comes from the event, which has taken place in th e late 20th century America (â€Å"History of slavery in America starts in 15th century Europe: The Cincinnati Enquirer,† Bauer).As an analysis of the play’s title, Dove picks it from one of the lines in the play depicting sexual intercourse between two different races—White and Black: â€Å"When the pear blossoms / cast their pale faces on / the darker face of the earth† (1st ed. 76). Augustus, a mulatto (the first-generation offspring of a black person and a white person) delivers this line as he explicates about his notion on miscegenation. A variety of scholars that criticize the play focuses more on the usage of ‘cast’ in the line, which connotes that the presence of insult while using the â€Å"pale faces† on â€Å"darker face(s)† is inevitable.Therefore, the line is obviously a representation of rapes done by the white men to the number of black women prior to the American Civil War. Such coercive intercourse between a wh ite person and a member of another race is emotionally or psychologically untroubled in the play. For a better comprehension, such kind of relationship is shown in the play where Amalia, the white plantation mistress, finds the way to having a sexual intercourse with the slave Hector.As a result, the existence of Augustus, the mulatto, is just inevitable. Based on the play, his mother Amalia willingly finds measures only to obtain a sexual intercourse with Hector in response to her husband Louis, who have raped slave girls (1st ed. 14-16).The Darker Face of the Earth begins the flow of its story with the Augustus’s natal day to Amalia Jennings LaFarge, a white slave mistress, from a sexual intercourse with the black slave Hector. Augustus is obviously born with combined characteristics of more than one kind—White and Black races.With stormy or turbulent characteristics, Louis LaFarge makes way so that people may never acknowledge Augustus as Amalia’s child. The couple tells the people that her child died at birth in spite of the fact that a doctor takes him away with an aim at raising baby Augustus as a slave. Consequently, Hector becomes devastated by grief. Helplessly, he does not know what to do with his life; anguish overshadows his life for a number of years.Augustus’s fatherly white master gives him the twenty years of education and various kinds of journey from different places; hence, he experiences combined cultural aspects. No later than this period, the white master brings the twenty-year old Augustus to the Jennings even though he knows that this son of Amalia had an insurrection lately. Unknowing that Amalia is his mother for he has once told that he was a child of a slave woman, who had been raped by his white master; he begins an affair with his biological mother.Nevertheless, there is one slave woman named Phebe who desires an affair with him but it does not take too long as another slave Scylla tells him about the p ossible outcome of their affair that would lead him in a certain demise. He listens to what Scylla tells him; however, he unintentionally kills Hector when he becomes involved in a rebellion. He does not know that Hector is his biological father to Amalia; thus, he puts his father to certain demise in order to prevent him from divulging the machination, which has just taken place between him and Amalia.Ultimately, he has been ordered to kill Amalia that makes him troubled. However, he thinks Louis LaFarge is his father so he kills him. In spite of that fact, Amalia tells him the reality, and whilst in a good position of doing so, her son learns that she and Hector are his parents—a fact that he has just learned and realized to be all machinated.As an analysis of such circumstances, it becomes quite easy to learn that there is the presence of sexual intercourse between a white person and a member of another race; hence, a mulatto or the first-generation offspring of a black pe rson and a white person comes to existence—Augustus, the son of whom he links to.  Ã¢â‚¬ËœThe Darker Face of the Earth’ and ‘Oedipus Rex’The Darker Face of the Earth is a narration of Sophocles’s drama entitled ‘Oedipus Rex’ that is shaped from the image of a pre-Civil War plantation near Charleston, South Carolina. Like Oedipus Rex, the play harmoniously relates the loveliness and royalty of the old concept of legendary conspiracy as Dove portrays the surpassing authority, an underlying cause of change when it comes to erotic occurrences. Moreover, the play is not created from the Oedipus myth but also from the real events of slavery in the 15th century America (â€Å"History of slavery in America starts in 15th century Europe: The Cincinnati Enquirer,† Bauer).One of the most significant events happens in the play is that concerns with the critical scene in which Amalia interviews Augustus, her newly purchased slave (â€Å"Th e Darker Face of the Earth: Completely Revised Second Edition,† Dove). Amalia listens as the new slave sings â€Å"the sorrow songs,† and explaining, â€Å"They don't need a psalm book.† (2nd ed. 82). Notwithstanding his explication, he gives assurance on his own literacy; lists the books of his formative education: â€Å"Milton. The Bible. / And the Tales of the Greeks† (2nd ed. 83). Amalia holds the book and reads about â€Å"Tales of the Greeks†.While reading the contents, Amalia tries to narrate the latest event, which she learned through both newspaper and word of mouth accounts particularly when it comes to the story of slavery. However, she revises some of the events happened in the history in order to make it suitable to her present life. As the conversation of the two continues, Augustus narrates his personal history about slavery (2nd ed. 89-90). Meanwhile, they listen to Amalia’s husband, Louis LaFarge in his room while reading the night sky for portents (2nd ed. 87-88). Therefore, as a result, such a scene brings about the fact that Amalia and Augustus are embracing, according to Pereira (2003).Nevertheless, prior to such an embrace, Augustus turns poetical as he reads an imaginary past portraying Amalia’s views of his personal notion: â€Å"One soft spring night when the pear blossoms cast their pale faces on the darker face of the earth, Massa stood up from the porch swing and said to himself, â€Å"I think I'll make me another bright-eyed pick-aninny.† Then he stretched and headed for my mother's cabin.† (2nd ed. 92).Therefore, Augustus makes a certain fictionalized interpretation of his personal life by means of verbal imagery. This is to say that, such narration of his own life opposes much of the actual experiences and circumstances with regard to his nativity. Moreover, even though Augustus is indeed a child who is born by the union of combined bloods—a white and a black sl ave, still it is a union of love, and is not achieved by force or threat or any act of compelling. Furthermore, as to his story, his mother is white while his father is black. Hence, the presence of an irony on his narration is obviously overshadowing the story.The Darker Face of the Earth has a similar involvement of sexual intercourse between persons so closely related that law forbids them to marry or the statutory crime of such a relationship. The practice of slavery by contradicting the marriage to the slave and by restraining sexual interest in intermediate relation to a slave and a master, contradicts authority to give the title father, mother, sister, or brother with conviction and reality.On the other hand, in Oedipus Rex, the so called, ‘King’ never mentions the name of his parents because of his ‘sexual intercourse between persons so closely related that law forbids them to marry’ or ‘the statutory crime of such a relationship’ and t he act of murdering his or her father, mother, or a close relative (Sterren, M.D.). Therefore, The Darker Face of the Earth remains bold and strong without the presence of a king or Oedipus Rex.The Darker Face of the Earth comes after the prototype but not the story line of Oedipus Rex. Based on comparison of the two stories, Sophocles begins the flow of his story with the vision of a comprehensive constitutional king or queen. For a better comprehension, Oedipus appears as a stranger to his city, which is under his rules. Moreover, Thebes is permitted as a right or privilege by the former king in terms of marriage as a sort of recompense for solving an enigma in a murderous Sphinx.The story begins with the appearance of tranquility; however, the entire city is ravaged by the plague. In addition, Oedipus kills his father and marries his mother. However, Dove begins his play with the birth of an Oedipus—Augustus, the child of an African slave named Hector and Amalia Jennings.C onclusionWhen it comes to analyzing a variety of poems, dramas, and plays, a number of critics and scholars believe that The Darker Face of the Earth and Oedipus Rex make contemporary issues with regard to slavery and racial union a world of antiquity, which continues to revolve. Despite of the fact that two authors, Dove and Sophocles, create a harmonious flow of the story, yet the presence of some sorts of variation in terms of the story’s themes and lines become inevitable due to the environment or scene in which the characters move and play their roles. Dove’s 1994 play entitled ‘The Darker Face of the Earth’ mirrors numerous themes or artistic representations and certain machinations or contrivances, which take place in an ancient Greek play by Sophocles’s ‘Oedipus Rex’.In The Darker Face of the Earth, there is the presence of ignorance and anger as the issue that concerns with slavery is much concerned. Intelligence never complete s this play, as the characters seem to be marked by a lack of restraint although some events are not coercive. However, there is the presence of these themes in Sophocles’s Oedipus Rex; intelligence overshadows the characters, as they do every thing in accordance with the right way— no merciless qualities. In both plays, fortune obviously works as the protagonists act as victims while doing the part of voluntary agents. Hence, the fortune of every individual works out with his personal behavior without focusing on his culture. Although Oedipus and Augustus exist in different ways, yet they have the choice to control their fortune.

Organ Transplants An Organization - 1486 Words

Lizetth Gonzalez Mrs. Forsythe English 7-8 1B January 20, 2015 Organ Transplants Despite the fact that more than a million have signed up to become donors the number of donors is still nowhere near the number of people on waiting for transplants therefore, resulting in an average of eighteen deaths every day due to the shortage. (Pros) Keep in mind the amount of lives saved or restored when a single organ donor can save up to eight lives. In addition to saving lives and restoring broken lives, a donation can reduce medical expenses of patients because they no longer require regular checkups or medication after a transplant. As well as helping patients, donating organs provides an opportunity to make a tragic occurrence into a delightful†¦show more content†¦(Pros) As can be seen in the figure below, many organs potentially qualify for transplants providing the opportunity of saving more than one life from a single donation if all organs qualify for transplants. (Pros) The graph above represents the number of transplants performed each year for every organ provided. In 2008, over fifteen thousand kidneys and two thousands hearts provided new life through transplantation and given to patients in need. Thousands of transplants take place each year; however, the amount of patients on waiting lists continues to grow with forty-five percent of certain people remaining on transplant waiting lists. (Pros) The amount of people that require transplants becomes bigger every day. In 2009, the number of patients on waiting lists was over one hundred thousand while the number of donors remained under twenty thousand. (Pros) Everyday donors become a greater necessity in order to help others’ lives get better. However, when a person becomes a donor families may develop issues with the process that takes place before a donor becomes a qualified donor. For example, some families do not appreciate having their family member on life support while organs are re moved; however, potential donors are first tested and organ removal does not begin until they are declared brain dead. Some organs require transplantation in a matter of hours after removal for the sake of the recipient’s health and the functioning of