...2013 Ai Weiwei Ai Weiwei is an internationally celebrated Chinese artist whose voice is heard loudly through his art. He believes in freedom of expression and despises the Chinese Government’s power. Ai’s contemporary style comes in many forms; Sculpture, architecture, installation, film and photography, are only some of his great talents; his art exposes the very real hardships of the Chinese people and how their culture has been muted over time. The government has become such a major influence and has gained so much power that at one point they convinced the people to destroy their cultural reminders in hopes that they will leave behind an insignificant past. Ai Weiwei was born the 18 of May 1957 to father Ai Qing and mother Gao Ying. Ai Qing was well known throughout China for his very forward poetry. Qing would later be considered a liberal who spoke out by joining a very left wing Artist Association and in doing so he was subsequently arrested in the early 1930’s, this decision cost he and his family to be sentenced to live in a labor camp. For the first eighteen years of Ai Weiwei’s life was spent in Xinjiang and later they would be removed to Gobi Desert (with even worse conditions) then back again to Xinjiang before being released in 1975. Life was very hard for the family during this long period of time. The year of 1975, brought with it great change for their entire Weiwei family, they were allowed to return home to Beijing and in the year of 1978, Ai Qing would...
Words: 2779 - Pages: 12
...L’échec du BIC en lancement des sous-vêtements en FRANCE Sommaire L’histoire…………………………………... ………………………………………………3 Présence mondiale……………………… ………………………………………………4 Développement durable………………… ………………………………………………5 Bic en chiffres……………………………. ………………………………………………6 Références………………………………... ………………………………………………7 L’histoire Le Groupe BiC est une société cotée en bourse fondée le 25 octobre 1945, dont le siège social se situe à Clichy en France. Années clés – expansion vers international 1945 - Marcel Bich (1914-1994) et son associé Edouard Buffard (1908-1996) fabriquent à Clichy (France) des pièces détachées de stylos plume et porte-mines 1950 - Marcel Bich lance le stylo à bille BIC® Cristal® en France. BIC® est une version raccourcie de son propre nom 1954 - Entrée de BIC sur le marché italien 1956 - Entrée de BIC sur le marché brésilien 1957 - Entrée de BIC au Royaume-Uni, en Australie, en Nouvelle-Zélande, en Afrique du Sud... par l’acquisition de Biro Swan (Royaume-Uni) 1958 - Entrée de BIC sur le marché des Etats-Unis par l’acquisition de Waterman Pen 1959 - Entrée de BIC sur les marchés scandinaves 1960 - Expansion de BIC en Afrique et Moyen-Orient dès le début des années 60 1965 - Entrée de BIC sur le marché japonais et le marché mexicain 1969 - Création de BIC Graphic (marquage publicitaire) 1972 - Entrée de BIC en Bourse (Paris) 1973 - Lancement du Briquet BIC® 1975 - Lancement du Rasoir BIC® 1979 - Entrée de BIC sur les marchés...
Words: 1494 - Pages: 6
...thing that approaches the importance of that reality is finding like minds that realize the same, and being able to make some connection with them. If these books have influenced you the same way that they have us, we invite your contact at the email addresses listed below. Enjoy, Michael Beight, piman_314@yahoo.com Steven Reddell, cronyx@gmail.com Here are some new links that we’ve found interesting: KurzweilAI.net News articles, essays, and discussion on the latest topics in technology and accelerating intelligence. SingInst.org The Singularity Institute for Artificial Intelligence: think tank devoted to increasing Humanity’s odds of experiencing a safe, beneficial Singularity. Many interesting articles on such topics as Friendly AI, Existential Risks. A SingInst.org/Media Videos, audio, and PowerPoints from the Singularity Summits; and videos about SIAI’s purpose. blinkx.com/videos/kurzweil Videos on the internet in which the word “Kurzweil” is spoken. Great new resource! PRAISE FOR THE...
Words: 237133 - Pages: 949
...Summary of A Conversation with Ai Weiwei, an interview conducted by Zheng Shengtian Ai Weiwei, a respected contemporary artist from China is the interviewee in Zheng Shengtian’s article, A Conversation with Ai Weiwei. Conducted in the artists’ studio in Caochangdi, Beijing on July 19, 2013, Shengtian delves deeply into Weiwei’s life before and after his foray into the art world. It is through this interview that we get a sense of what the underlying inspirations were and what the current motivating factors are for Ai Weiwei as an artist and activist. A privileged childhood was far from the reality for Ai Weiwei. At an early age, Weiwei was already grasping what it meant to be wrongly accused and the consequences it had. Weiwei and his family were sent to live in a military camp in Xinjiang, China after his father; Ai Qing was condemned as a “rightist” in 1957 (Shengtian 6). When asked about his life in the military camp, Weiwei did not have a clear recollection and only saved a few traumatizing memories. He recalled the time when their military camp fired the first shot of China’s Cultural Revolution on January 26th. “I remember hearing lots of explosive noises. I saw my family boarding up the door. I heard running footsteps on our rooftop. Because the rooftop was made of tiles, which were not soundproof, I could hear the bullets whistling by” (Shengtian 8). Seeing dead bodies, including classmate, Ma Lu, is still very much a vivid memory for Ai Weiwei. Such scenes would...
Words: 993 - Pages: 4
...machines that were able to do some kind of intelligent work. According to AI concept it is possible for a machine to think. Actually intelligence has different meanings according to different people so let’s skip this talk and come to the point Strong vs Weak AI. Strong AI: According to think tanks of AI a day will come when computer’s computations and calculations will become so strong that a computer will be able to take decisions just like human brain, so that we will be able to call it as intelligent as human brain. In other words a machine will think in the same way as a human brain does. Weak AI: Weak AI is also intelligence in a way because the technology that we are using today as AI can be referred to as weak AI. Because the level of AI that we attain today can’t be placed at the level of human brain, because the most advance machines today we have can’t actually think like human brains. The case of chess master Garry Kasparov vs IBM's Deep Blue program is a good illustration. Although Kasparov had the advantage of human intuition, Deep Blue had the ability to calculate 200 million probabilities per second. Better approach to adopt: According to me it is impossible for a machine to attain a level of intelligence like human brain. But if we consider that it happens so this will be a destruction of the world. Because human brain is equally as dangerous as it is intelligent, so better approach is weak AI but it should be evolved for the betterment of...
Words: 294 - Pages: 2
... Chia-Wei Hsu is an artist, filmmaker, and curator based in Taiwan, he travels to many locations in Asia foraging for stories in the aftermath of war. In addition Hsu continues to investigate colonial histories of Taiwan, Malaysia and Singapore as part of a larger project dedicated to backtracking early globalization. Hsu is interested in forgotten histories of the cold war in Asia, he weaves together complex narratives of geography, history, and myth through storytelling in his films and installations, he constructs a mythical narrative lingers between fiction and reality where stories, spirits and machineries meet. He is concerned with how to step into reality through filmmaking but also bridges illusion and reality. He strives to bring art into locations other than museums and as a filmmaker he also seeks to develop his own political practice. His interest lies especially in the political, economic, and infrastructural role played by the Dutch East India Company in the 17th century in southeast Asia. Ruins of the Intelligence Bureau is a film that deals closely with regional histories, produced by Le Fresnoy, which grew out of Hsu’s 2012’s project Huai Mo Village, in which children from a local orphanage formed an audience and film crew that interviewed the pastor and founder of the orphanage, the drug trade in the area has led to a large number of orphans, who reveals that he was among those in the lone troop and was also an intelligence officer for the CIA during the cold...
Words: 737 - Pages: 3
...Tanya Leadmon English 111 11/04/13 Singularity When Raymond Kurzweil wrote “The Singularity is Near: When Humans Transcend Biology” in 2005, he predicted that Singularity would occur in the year 2045. Singularity is defined as when computers become smarter than humans. Kurzweil truly believes that this will happen in the year 2045. While reading my critique of Kurzweil’s theory, decide for yourself if you believe Singularity will occur in 2045, or ever. Kurzweil describes his law of accelerating returns as exponential increase in technologies like computers, genetics, nanotechnology and robotics, and artificial intelligence. Kurzweil also predicts that once Singularity has been reached, machine intelligence will be a quintillion times more powerful than all human intelligence combined. Before Singularity can occur, Kurzweil states that there will be exponential growth in evolutionary progress, computational capacity, how the brain works, and revolutions in genetics, nanotechnology, and robotics. Kurzweil believes computational capacity will continue to grow exponentially. He feels that a new paradigm will debut to carry on this growth. According to him, this new paradigm will be nanotubes. He goes on to say that the best way to build machine intelligence is to first understand human intelligence. The first step is to peer inside the brain. Kurzweil predicts that during the 2020’s greater details of the brain will surface because...
Words: 530 - Pages: 3
...I was absolutely amazed by Ai Weiwei’s work. I love how he didn’t just use his art as a means to acquire wealth or to paint away his grievances and stay silent, but instead used it as a way to speak out about what really mattered. To speak up for those who saw the underlying darkness of China but were too afraid to say something. Its truly admirable that he decided to be the voice that would represent an entire country, knowing the risks, knowing that the government would frown upon it and still having the courage to go against that and fight for what he believed in. And i think that for us, especially the younger generations, who live in america, where these types of things are common, we fail to see how dangerous expressing one’s feelings can be. I mean when we think of a country like China, most of us think of a globally dominating culture, who is leading the world into the future; when in reality (according to...
Words: 583 - Pages: 3
...J’ai visité la France et la Belgique pendant les vacances d'hiver. J’ai voyagé pour le plaisir et pour rencontrer des gens différents. J'ai visité la Tour Eiffel, Notre-Dame de Paris et l'Arc de triomphe. C’est formidable et magnifique! Il y a eu beaucoup de monde et il a plu toujours pendant le voyage, mais j'ai toujours le plaisir quand même! J’ai habité dans une auberge, c'est pas mal, les chambres est minuscules avec des lits jumeaux, et le prix est eu raisonnable. Mais il y avait les personnes que je n'ai pas connu dans la même chambre que moi, alors, c'est un peu inconfortable. J'ai préféré prendre le train et le bus en France, parce que le taxi est très cher. J'ai pris souvent le bus ou le métro à Paris, c'est plus cher à Paris qu'à Galesburg pour prendre un taxi. Je suis allée à Rouen pour le visiter mon amie, j'ai pris le train de Paris, le prix est raisonnable, et ça fait une heure et demie pour y aller. La plupart des Français peut parler un peu anglais. Je parle un peu français, mais j’ai une amie qui parle bien français, donc on n'a pas eu beaucoup de problèmes de communiquer. Mais j’ai eu un problème d’argent, parce que les choses sont toutes trop chères en France. J’aime la France, et je pense que la Tour Eiffel est très belle et inoubliable! Je suis allée à la Seine aussi, et il y a eu beaucoup de serrures d'amour sur les ponts parisiens, c'est vraiment romantique! Je vous recommande...
Words: 277 - Pages: 2
...French Writing Controlled Assessment (Mon hero) La personne que j'admire est mon oncle, Olufemi Oloyede. Il est le frère de mon père. Il a quarante-huit ans. Il habite au Nigeria, à Lagos et Il a habité depuis vingt-cinq ans. Il n'a rien accompli de particulièrement spécial, mais je crois que il est respecté parce que sa profession. Apres avoir étudié médicine à l'université, Il a spécialisé dans Cardiologique. Quelle bonne idée! Je l'aime parce qu’Il a étudié très bien à l'école sans hésiter, malgré le fait qu’il a fallu dix ans. Il était vraiment travailleur. Alors même qu’Il travaille beaucoup, Il n'est jamais fatigué ou éculé. La plupart du temps il ne plaignait jamais. Mon Oncle est grand et forte. Il porter toujours un costume car Il a souvent dit qu’ils sont à la mode. Ses vêtements sont toujours bien propres. Il est savant, judicieux et drôle, plus drôle, à mon avis que tous les autres. Il est moins strict que mes parents. Il a deux sœurs et deux frères. Il est marié et a deux enfants. Une fille de dix-sept ans et un garçon de deux ans. Mon Oncle est mon héro parce que Il m’a inspiré à devenir docteur. Je travaillerai dur et si je deviens médecin, Je lui serais reconnaissant. J'étais sur le point étudier la musique, car toujours, je pensais que devenir un docteur, ce serait trop dur. Cependant, selon moi, Il a transformé mon opinion et mon but. C'est pourquoi mon oncle est mon...
Words: 254 - Pages: 2
...Purchasing (b) Accounting (c) Post-sales service (d) Human resource management (4)Top management continually emphasizes and supports investments designed to improve the efficiency of the manufacturing process. Such a focus most likely reflects the pursuit of which type of strategy? (a) Product differentiation (b) Low-cost (c) Needs-based (d) Variety-based (5) Which of the following is not a means by which information improves decision making? (a) Increasing information overload (b) Reducing uncertainty (c) Providing feedback about the effectiveness of prior decisions (d) Identifying situations requiring management action (6)In the value chain concept, upgrading IT is considered what kind of activity? (a) Primary activity (b) Support activity (c) Service activity (d) Structured activity (7) Lower-level management employees are most likely to make which of the following decisions? (a) Structured decisions involving strategic planning (b) Unstructured decisions involving managerial control (c) Structured decisions involving operational control (d) Unstructured decisions involving strategic planning (8) Which of the following is a function of an AIS? (a) Reducing the need to identify a strategy and strategic position (b) Transforming data into useful information (c) Allocating organizational resources (d) Automating all decision making (9) A firm, its suppliers, and its customers collectively form which...
Words: 338 - Pages: 2
...Business Strategy Sessione 1 Prof. Silvio Marenco Torino, 20 Novembre 2012 Obiettivi del corso Obiettivi • Esaminare come le organizzazioni realizzano, sostengono e rinnovano il vantaggio competitivo • Esplorare cosa i manager/executive devono fare per costruire strategie di successo 1 Contenuti • Panoramica • Il vantaggio competitivo - Che cos’è - Le fonti del vantaggio competitivo - Le opzioni per raggiungerlo • Il processo strategico 2 La strategia e’ una “grossa bestia” Non basta un solo sguardo per poter vedere l’intero elefante Fonte: Mintzberg “Strategy Safari” (1998) 3 La strategia – cos’è? ”L’arte della guerra ... rafforzarsi in una posizione favorevole " – Oxford Dictionary • Obiettivi-base a lungo termine di un’impresa • Scelta di un percorso d’azione • Allocazione di risorse necessarie per portar a termine questi obiettivi" – Alfred D. Chandler “Un piano per realizzare qualcosa (cosa e come)" – Field Guide to Strategy ”Un insieme di azioni integrate volte al raggiungimento di un vantaggio competitivo sostenibile" – McKinsey, anni 80 4 L’evoluzione del pensiero strategico Periodo Anni 50 Tema dominante BACK UP Anni 60-primi anni 70 • Pianificazione aziendale • Pianificazione di crescita, diversificazione e pianificazione di portafoglio Fine anni 70metà anni 80 • Posizionamento • Pianificazione e controllo del budget • Controllo finanziario Fine anni 80metà anni 90 • Vantaggio competitivo Anni...
Words: 799 - Pages: 4
...Some years ago, I (GLS) was snooping around in the cabinets that housed the MIT AI Lab's PDP-10, and noticed a little switch glued to the frame of one cabinet. It was obviously a homebrew job, added by one of the lab's hardware hackers (no one knows who). You don't touch an unknown switch on a computer without knowing what it does, because you might crash the computer. The switch was labeled in a most unhelpful way. It had two positions, and scrawled in pencil on the metal switch body were the words ‘magic' and ‘more magic'. The switch was in the ‘more magic' position. I called another hacker over to look at it. He had never seen the switch before either. Closer examination revealed that the switch had only one wire running to it! The other end of the wire did disappear into the maze of wires inside the computer, but it's a basic fact of electricity that a switch can't do anything unless there are two wires connected to it. This switch had a wire connected on one side and no wire on its other side. It was clear that this switch was someone's idea of a silly joke. Convinced by our reasoning that the switch was inoperative, we flipped it. The computer instantly crashed. Imagine our utter astonishment. We wrote it off as coincidence, but nevertheless restored the switch to the ‘more magic’ position before reviving the computer. A year later, I told this story to yet another hacker, David Moon as I recall. He clearly doubted my sanity, or suspected me of a supernatural belief...
Words: 642 - Pages: 3
...JOURNAL OF MANAGERIAL ISSUES Vol. XVI Number 3 Fall 2004: 361-381 Diversification Strategy and Top Management Team Fit Dan Marlin Assistant Professor of Management University of South Florida — St. Petersburg Bruce T. Lamont Professor of Management The Florida State University Scott W. Geiger Assistant Professor of Management University of South Florida — St. Petersburg Matching managers to diversification strategy has long been a cornerstone of strategy implementation research (Finkelstein and Hambrick, 1996; Guthrie and Datta, 1998; Krishnan et al, 1997; Leontiades, 1982; Michel and Hambrick, 1992; Pitts, 1977; Reed and Reed, 1989; Song, 1982; Tihanyi et al, 2000). The basic premise underlying this body of research is that different strategies pose different management challenges that, in turn, require systematically different management skills and experiences to be implemented successfiilly. Managers with backgrounds and skills matched to the critical task demands of a firm's diversification strategy, therefore, should be reflected in superior financial performance. Despite the logical appeal of these arguments, their empirical support remains limited and uneven. The cumulative findings suggest that managers of multi-business firms are generally matched to the task demands of their firm's diversification strategies (Michel and Hambrick, 1992; Pitts, 1977; Song, 1982), although contrary evidence has been found as well (Reed and Reed, 1989). Further, the...
Words: 5319 - Pages: 22
...When a firm creates, formulates, and implements a strategy that adds value and competitive advantage that is a strategic business plan. A strategic business plan is the layout or outline that specifies how a firm is going to reach their plans or goals over a certain period of time. The plan can be very specific or very broad. It can focus on one part of the business, as well as a whole focusing on all functions within a company. This plan is important to an organization’s long-term success because it gives the company a direction or purpose in which to set goals and carry them out. A strategic business plan assists a company in providing products and services in a more efficient and effective manner. Without a strategic business plan a firm will have a difficult time maximizing the potential of its resources. New opportunities and key resources for growth or improvement will be limited or perhaps even missed. A strategic plan is important to both small and large businesses. I believe that for any company, no matter the size, it is equally important to have a strategic business plan in place. This will assist in understanding customer needs and be able to adapt to constant changes and new trends taking place within the company. With a successful strategic plan, a company has a great opportunity for becoming very successful. Innovation plays a key role in developing a company that has potential for growth and success. Innovation provides the company with ways to maintain a competitive...
Words: 277 - Pages: 2
