Understanding Customer Relationships Essay Example for Free

Understanding Customer Relationships Essay I further confirm that I have not shared my work with other candidates. Table of Contents Cover page1 Table of Contents2 Task 1: Keeping stakeholders informed 3 6 Task 2: Collecting stakeholder information 7 9 Task 3: CSR – Gaining an Internal Perspective 10 12 Task 4 REPORT To:Marketing Manager From:Marketing Assistant Date:25th November, 2011 Subject:Keeping stakeholders informed INTRODUCTION: Communication is defined as the process by which information is exchanged between individuals through a common system of symbols, signs or behavior (www. erriamwebster. com/dictionary). It is a two-way process and plays a central role for effective relationships within an organization (CIM Introductory Certificate in Marketing Study Workbook, pg 135). For communication to be effective, the receiver must understand the message in the manner the sender intended for it to be received. As with majority of organizations, stakeholders are an integral part of any organization and must be well informed of necessary decisions and activities of the said organization. With reference to the recent oil spillage crisis, it is important that BP communicates to the following stakeholder groups – a. FOUR STAKEHOLDER GROUPS THAT BP NEEDED TO COMMUNICATE WITH AND THEIR SCOPE OF INTEREST ARE: Governments and regulators: Government alongside the regulatory agencies established by the government to dominate the industry, are responsible for formulating policies which govern offshore drilling processes and also ensure that the interest of the public is protected from the activities of the oil companies. Both bodies need to be informed of the spillage to allow for monitoring of the situation and deployment of resources and assessment teams to establish shoreline protection and clean up priorities. (http://www. env. gov. bc. ca/eemp/resources/strategies/oilstrat. htm) The information would further assist the government investigate the cause of the spillage in order to take necessary legal actions and also help with legislation of regulatory laws which governs oil exploration by the oil companies. . Stakeholders and analysts: The stakeholders include shareholders and investors who have financial interests and commitments in BP. They should be informed of the spill and every progress made by BP, so that they are kept abreast of the financial implications and expenditure that would arise from the spillage, cleanup process and compensation cost which might result in a loss in revenue for BP and ultimately their financial interests. c. Local communities: Local communities are usually members of the community within which an oil project is situated and in this case, the community where the oil spill has occurred. They would also include the local media, medical organizations, nongovernmental organizations active within the area, local security forces etc. Organizations must establish themselves as reputable members of a community. (www. ou. edu/deptcomm/literature review. htm) By establishing a reservoir of goodwill in the community it is often easier to gain community support during a crisis (Sellnow, 1993). As such, affected residents of the local community around where the spillage occurred should be communicated to and assessed for physical and behavioral health effects the spillage might cause especially if the residents depend on oil, fishing or other affected industries in the locality of the spill. BP should also inform the local communities on steps it has taken or would take to combat the effect of the spillage on the environment and possible compensations to the communities. d. Customers: These vary from domestic fuel users to agricultural and aviation users of bulk LPG. All BP customers should be contacted and informed of the spillage as this might affect the supply of various products as supplied by BP. The multiplier effect of shortage of products by BP would not only mean a loss in revenue for the customer whose livelihood depend s on sale of products but also on the end user as might be in the case of retail fuel consumer and inadvertently more loss to BP. 2. ADAPTATION OF MESSAGES TO MEET THE NEEDS OF EACH OF THE STAKEHOLDER GROUP For a communication to be effective, the message passed must be well understood by the party for whom the message is intended (decoder) for and must be able to communicate back to the sender. BP must ensure that it communicates information about the spillage to the above mentioned stakeholders in respect to their functions and adaptabilities. o For the government, a series of meetings should be arranged where discussions regarding assessments, clean up exercises and monitoring policies are discussed and reported back to the government the progress of the situation. Stakeholders are to be informed via mails or financial reports the cost analysis of the clean up exercise as well as financial implications of the spill incurred by the company. o BP should seek to invite non-governmental organizations who focus on environmental policies and issues to assist with implementation of programs designed to help residents within affected communities. o Customers can be reached more effectively a nd interpersonally through in depth interviews, viral online communications, web based interactive programs and feedback channels on BP’s website. . TWO COMMUNICATION TOOLS THAT COULD BE USED TO ENHANCED THE MESSAGE The purpose of communication is to get a message across clearly using methods or tools that would effectively target the intended receiver. These tools could either be verbal or non-verbal tools of communication. To communicate its intent, BP must use the following communication tools to enhance the credibility of its message:- ? PR: Public Relations is defined as a planned and sustained effort to establish and maintain goodwill and mutual understanding between an organization and its publics (IPR). In enhancing the credibility of its message, BP would use PR to not only ensure that its intended target receives its message, but would also help reshape and boost the consumer perception of the BP image in light of the spill crisis thereby, warding off unfavorable rumors. ? Direct Marketing: This is the most targeted method of communication as it seeks to target individual customers with personalized messages and build relationships with them as they respond to direct communications (UCR online syllabus; session 7, pg 8). Direct marketing is defined as the planned recording, analysis and tracking of customer behavior to develop relational marketing strategies (Institute of Direct Marketing, UK) Using direct marketing, a well thought out and planned message is made available by BP to target each stakeholder group and solicit positive responses from each group to help manage the spill crisis. 4. EVALUATION OF THE EFFECTIVENESS OF COMMUNICATION TOOLS OUTLINED ABOVE †¢ Direct Marketing: One of the benefits of direct marketing is that it allows for direct interaction with the consumers and hence immediate responses are obtained from the consumers. This in turns also ensures that BP’s personalized messages are well targeted and monitored such that the aim of public relations in helping to enhance consumer perception of BP’s image is also attained. BRIEFING PAPER From:Marketing Assistant To:Marketing Manager Date:17. 12. 2011 Subject:Collecting Stakeholder information Information is defined as the data formatted or structured to support decision making or define the relationship between two facts (Zikmund/Babin: Essentials of marketing research; 3rd edition). It is a marketing asset which impacts on performance of an organization (CIM Study Workbook, pg 108) 2. INFORMATION TO BE COLLECTED BY BP IN RELATION TO ITS STAKEHOLDERS o Local Communities: BP would seek to collect information about the local communities which would include population count, availability of amenities such as hospitals, roads, schools, water, electricity, income levels, gender, age etc. It would also seek to identify the general occupation of residents in the community (e. g if farming or fishing is the main stay of the residents and the effects of the spill) and income/lifestyle of residents. It would also seek to understand the culture and ethnicity of the people so as not to strain relationship with its communities. BP should also seek to collect information about its communities to help assess the social and environmental impacts of its project within such communities. o Government and regulators: As these two bodies promulgate policies which govern the exploration of oil wells, CSR and offshore activities, it is important that BP is up to date with its information on all offshore and environmental laws so as to protect itself from abjurations. It would also collect information to understand its tax liabilities and entrepreneurial activities in collaboration with both bodies. . 2USEFULNESS OF INFORMATION COLLECTED TO BP †¢ For Budgetary control:- Greater control and more informed decision making are possible when all costs of all operations are available †¢ For Planning: Information helps BP make adequate plans for its operations within its communities, or act in accordance to governing policies and also inform actions to address/prevent health effects in affected communities during a spill crisis †¢ For decision making: Adequate data collected would be used for making strategic decisions for its sector and management plans. . 3USEFUL INFORMATION TO BE COLLECTED BY SCREENPLAY MARKETING MEDIA COMMUNICATIONS LTD. To ensure our relevance and maintain our market share over the next six months, we must seek to collect the following information about our varying clients in order to effectively meet their needs and surpass their expectations: ? Clients’ activities: we must seek to collect information about each client’s various activities within the next 6 months and plan media campaigns around those activities to meet intended consumers. Customer attitudes: We would need to interview and collect information on target segments of consumers to assess how well they match our ideas and fit into clients’ marketing plan ? Competitors’ activities: Over the next 6 months, we would need to identify who our competitors are through secondar y research and collect information about their activities in order to help us plan our strategies ? Markets: it is important that we carve our niche market and gather necessary information on them. We would need information as to who are clients are, their products, existing/potential market for the product all necessary for us to have an idea on how best to position our client’s product for an increase in market share. 2. 4ONE METHOD OF COLLECTING INFORMATION In order to collect the necessary information, I would recommend the Secondary method of data collection. Secondary data is data that has not been specifically created for the purpose at hand but can be used and analysed to provide marketing information where primary data is not yet available or not sufficient(CIM Study Workbook, pg 110). This is a preferred choice of data collection because it – o Helps to make primary data collection more specific since with the help of secondary data, we are able to make out what are the gaps and deficiencies and what additional information needs to be collected. o Is less expensive and economical to conduct seeing that the information is readily available and does not require the process of collecting new data o Saves time o It provides a basis for comparison for the data that is collected by the researcher (www. managementguide. com) DISCUSSION PAPER Prepared for: Marketing Manager Prepared by: Marketing Assistant Subject:CSR – An Internal perspective Date: 17. 12. 2011 INTRODUCTION: Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) is about how businesses align their values and behaviour with the expectations and needs of stakeholders not just customers and investors, but also employees, suppliers, communities, regulators, special interest groups and society as a whole. CSR describes a companys commitment to be accountable to its stakeholders. CSR demands that businesses manage the economic, social and environmental impacts of their operations to maximise the benefits and minimise the downsides (www. srnetwork. com) 3. 1 PURPOSE OF THE PROJECT The purpose of this project is to seek to form a committee to propose and identify a CSR activity for ScreenPlay Marketing and Media Communications Ltd to embark on as its efforts in giving back to the society in which its business operates and increase our awareness of environmental consciousness. 3. 2BENEFITS OF CSR TO THE ORGANISATION Consumers increasin gly do not accept unethical business practices or organizations who act irresponsibly (www. simplycsr. co. uk). The benefits of Corporate Social Responsibility cannot be overemphasized and a carefully planned CSR would help our organization to †¢ Develop and enhance relationships with customers and society thereby retaining customers whilst attracting new ones †¢ Enhance brand image so customers’ perception about the brand is positive †¢ Attract, retain and motivate employees A key potential benefit from  CSR  initiatives involves establishing the conditions that can contribute to increasing the commitment and motivation of employees to become more innovative and productive. www. ic. gc. ca/site/csr-rse. nsf/eng/h_rs00100html) †¢ Sharpen decision making and help reduce risk 3. 3. IMPORTANCE OF INTERNAL COOPERATION AND PARTICIPATION It is important that a good working relationship exists between all departments of our organization on this project so as to ensure completion of tasks and fulfillment of our set objectives. It is envisaged that with team work and co ntribution of ideas from all each department involved in this project would yield productivity and also ensure the success of our CSR project. 3. IDEA ON IMPROVING OUR ORGANISTION’S ENVIRONMENTAL RESPONSIBILITY One idea I would like to suggest to increasing our environmental responsibility is the adoption of a child from the eye department of the children’s ward at the Lagos State Teaching Hospital. There are at present about 300 cases of children with cancer of the eye been treated at the hospital. It is my proposition that we render our CSR to the kids in this ward by sponsoring a child every quarter to the Suraksha Children’s Hospital India – a top hospital in India noted for treatment of eye tumors in children. The relative low costs of surgery and living expenditure has influenced the choice of Suraksha Children’s Hospital and the intervals at which each child would undergo a treatment would not be cumbersome for the organization to bear. We would work in conjunction with a team of doctors at the Lagos State Teaching Hospital to assist in compiling names of beneficiaries of the treatment through a series of preliminary requirements for each beneficiary. This would include age, severity of case, and income level of parents – as this would be aimed at children whose parents cannot afford the treatment cost in the state. This project would be tagged ‘The ScreenPlay Media Communications â€Å"Light a world† project. 3. 5COST IMPLICATION FOR PROPOSED CSR PROJECT The cost for this project is outlined below: †¢ Hospital fees: This would cover cost for accommodation in the hospital for the number of days from the date of admittance to the discharge date and would also cover administrative and drug fees. †¢ Surgery fees: includes surgery fees, anesthetic fees, blood transfusion (if necessary) and surgeon’s fee. Accommodation fees: this take care of accommodation and feeding costs for the accompanying ward/parent of the child †¢ Travel/logistics fees: covers flight fares for child and accompanying ward along with visa application fees. It would also cover for transportation for the beneficiaries upon arrival in India. This cost is estimated at a total of N750, 000 (? 3,000) per quarter and totaling N2, 250,000 (? 9,000) per annum for 3 kids. RESEARCH Prepared for:Mark eting Manager Prepared by:Marketing Assistant Subject:Maintaining the work/life balance Date:30. 11. 2011 EMAIL To:[emailprotected] com (marketing manager) Cc: [emailprotected] com, [emailprotected] com, [emailprotected] com Subject: Committee set up on Proposed CSR Project Dear Elliot, Trust you are fine. As per your memo dated 16th November 2011on setting up a committee for the proposed CSR activity, kindly see below the list of intended participants from the various departments:- a. Ore Odusanya (HR department): Having worked with Ore in the past few years, his analytical and interpersonal skills in relating with people would be very useful in this project . Trish Banner: (Accounts department): Trish’s skill in handling financial transactions as well as contacts within the travel agency would suffice in this project and assisting with obtaining relatively low fare prices for each beneficiary. c. Gladys Knight (Creative department): her artistic talents would help create the right messages for advertisement purposes which would position the brand as foremost in connecting with its s ociety. Her wits and acute sense of judgment would also aid in ensuring that the right candidates are chosen for the project. . Ken Rice (logistics department): an ardent and hardworking colleague, though in the HR department but with an ability to drive and ensure prompt delivery of projects would ensure that logistics such as visas, hotel booking and transportation of each beneficiary is handled promptly at designated timelines. I would also like to suggest that the committee is convened soon so as to enable us conclude the plans within the shortest time frame possible and liaise with the team of doctors in Nigeria and India for the commencement of the project. It would also afford us time to put together a media campaign to boost publicity. Best regards Lolah Adebambo Project Leader REFERENCES Book Sources Vincent. K CIM Introductory Certificate in Marketing Study Workbook, 2009/2011 (BPP Learning Media, London) Internet sources www. ic. gc. ca/site/csr-rse. nsf/eng/h_rs00100html (accessed in December 2011) (www. merriamwebster. com/dictionary). (accessed in November 2011) (www. csrnetwork. com) (accessed in December 2011) [pic]

A Critical Analysis Of Patriarchy Sociology Essay

A Critical Analysis Of Patriarchy Sociology Essay In the article Patriarchy, the System, Allan Johnson defines patriarchy, and in doing so addresses the common misconceptions and stereotypes that people inaccurately identify with the term. He argues that people tend to generalize and attach the term patriarchy with men, and therefore come to the conclusion that all men are oppressive people.  [1]  Johnson recognizes a pattern in which women feel free to blame men for oppressing them and therefore men take it personally and become defensive. He argues that women will blame men for patriarchy simply because theyre men.  [2]  Johnson also considers the possibility that perhaps people are simply confused, that they cannot distinguish the difference between patriarchy as a system and the individual. He argues that people have to recognize this, and examine larger contexts, in order to solve social problems. Johnson suggests that race, gender and class oppression are not actually oppression, but rather the sum of individual failin gs.  [3]  Johnson argues that in order to solve social problems, these misconceptions must be cleared up. If were ever going to work toward real change, its a confusion well have to clear up.  [4]  Johnson effectively identifies common misconceptions about patriarchy, and convincingly argues that this ignorance and individualist perspective is contributing to problems within society. Allan Johnson goes on to argue that patriarchy is organized around relationships and shared understandings, and he argues that this can limit you to some degree.  [5]  Johnson provides an interesting perspective on how we participate in our social lives. He makes a very good point when he suggests that patriarchy can exist without men being portrayed as the villains. People tend to follow along with what society deems is the norm. This is significant; as it explains why individuals make the decisions that they do, in a larger social context. Johnson further analyzes what patriarchy really means, and explains that it is simply part of our culture, and the symbols and ideas within it. He argues that the make up of patriarchal culture is important to understand because it affects the structure of social life.  [6]  He discusses the possibility that culture enforces gender roles and power positions, therefore shaping and influencing our values. Allan Johnson goes on to say that everyone contributes to patriarchy, the system, whether theyre aware of it or not. We are all involved in patriarchy, but it does not necessarily mean that women are the victims, and men are the oppressors. He explains that who we think we are is closely related to who others think we should be and where we fit in social systems. He sums up his ideas by stating that all men and women are involved in patriarchy because we occupy social positions.  [7]  This further proves his point, that patriarchy cannot be constrained to individuals themselves, as patriarchy is beyond the individual experience. This article studies the concept of patriarchy as a framework. It provides a sociological perspective on social inequalities and attempts to explain why they exist. Johnson convincingly argues that people dont truly understand the origins of patriarchy. He has taken the term patriarchy and uses a sociological approach to uncover what it really is, a social construction or framework. He defines patriarchy in broader social terms and effectively proves that there may be oppressive individuals in society but patriarchy is not the result of all men being oppressive people, it is the result of individuals collectively possessing power. The sociological approach that Johnson uses helps to examine and analyze society as a whole, a structure in which everyone participates in and contributes to. This approach can help to explain why individuals act out certain behaviors in their own social lives. Perhaps people behave in such patriarchal ways because the system has influenced us in such ways. Maybe gender oppression has nothing to do with men being patriarchal, but more to do with how our society has been constructed and how our culture and our ideas about men and women have been shaped within it. Johnson helps us to use our sociological imagination to better understand the problems society currently faces. To conclude, Allan Johnsons article Patriarchy, the System can help us to analyze society in broader social terms in order to understand systems like patriarchy and our participation within these larger systems. Johnsons article helps us to use a sociological perspective to better understand the individual and why things like gender oppression occur. This article is useful, as Johnsons argument could be applied to other social contexts as well. This article allows us to further our knowledge of social constructions and how we participate in them, and therefore how we can change them to improve equality and eliminate the ideas present in our culture that limit us.

Statistical techniques for cryptanalysis

Statistical techniques for cryptanalysis Introduction: Cryptography is the art of writing messages in code or cipher, to disguise, and thereby secure the content of a particular stream of text. When encrypted, a plain text message can be revealed only through the use of the key used to encode the cipher. Cryptography does not mask the existence of the message, but does disguise its content [1]. In contrary, cryptanalysis is the art of recovering the plaintext of a message without access to the key. Successful cryptanalysis may recover the plaintext or the key for a specific ciphertext [2]. There are five general types of cryptanalytic attacks:- 1. Ciphertext-only attack: In this type of attack, the cryptanalyst has a series of cipher texts encrypted using the same encryption algorithm. Then, the cryptanalyst deduces the plain text of each of the cipher texts or identifies the key used to encrypt the cipher text 2. Known-plaintext attack: In this type of attack, the cryptanalyst has a series of ciphertext and their corresponding plaintext values encrypted using a specific key. The cryptanalyst then tries to deduce the key by forming a relationship between the ciphertext and plaintext entries. 3. Chosen-plaintext attack: In this type of attack, the cryptanalyst not only has access to the ciphertext and associated plaintext for several messages, but he also chooses the plaintext that gets encrypted. His job is to deduce the key used to encrypt the messages or an algorithm to decrypt any new messages encrypted with the same key. 4. Frequency analysis: It is the study of thefrequency of lettersor groups of letters in aciphertext. The method is used as an aid to breakingclassical ciphers. Frequency analysis is based on the fact that, in any given stretch of written language, certain letters and combinations of letters occur with varying frequencies. 5. Rubber-hose cryptanalysis: The cryptanalyst threatens, tortures or blackmails the person who has the key until they give it up. Among the many cryptanalytic techniques, frequency analysis or frequency counting is the most basic technique applied to break substitution cipher based algorithms, among the varied list of attack techniques. The basic use of frequency analysis is to first count the frequency of ciphertext letters and then associate guessed plaintext letters with them. More complex use of statistics can be conceived, such as considering counts of pairs of letters digrams, trigrams, and so on. This is done to provide more information to the cryptanalyst. It exploits the weakness in the substitution cipher algorithm to encrypt similar plaintext letters to similar ciphertext letters. Frequency analysis based cryptanalysis techniques were used to break ciphers based on the traditional cryptographic algorithms, but they do not work well with the modern block cipher based cryptographic algorithms. Statistical properties of English: Frequency analysis based cryptanalysis uses the fact that natural language is not random in nature and single alphabetic based substitution does not hide the statistical properties of the natural language. In the case of encryption using monoalphabetic substitution, to start deciphering the encryption it is useful to get a frequency count of all the letters. The most frequent letter may represent the most common letter in English, E followed by T, A, O and I whereas the least frequent are Q, Z and X [7]. Statistical patterns in a language can be detected by tracing the redundancy of the text in the language. It has been realized that various universal regularities characterize text from different domains and languages. The best-known is Zipfs law on the distribution of word frequencies [5], according to which the frequency of terms in a collection decreases inversely to the rank of the terms. Zipfs law has been found to apply to collections of written documents in virtually all langu ages [5]. English language characters have a very high redundancy rate when used for cryptographic substitutions. If we have a message encrypted using the substitution cipher that needs to be cracked, we can use frequency analysis. In other words, if the sender has used an encryption scheme, that replaces one letter in the English to be another letter in English, we can still recognize the original plain text as, the frequency characteristics of the original plain text will be passed on the new cipher text characters [4]. To apply frequency analysis, we will need to know the frequency of every letter in the English alphabet, or the frequency characteristics of the language used by the sender to encrypt the text. Below is a list of average frequencies for letters in the English language. So, for example, the letter E accounts for 12.7% of all letters in English, whereas Z accounts for 0.1 %. All the frequencies are tabulated and plotted below:- For example, let us consider the following sentence: We study Cryptography as part of our course. Using a simple substitution cipher, let us consider the following: a->c , b-> d, c->e..w->y, x->z, y->a, z->b So, the cipher text becomes: yg uvwfa etarvqitcrja cu rctv qh qwt eqwtug. A simple frequency analysis of the cipher text can be carried out and the results are as given below: The above data can be used by a cryptanalyst to identify the key or the plaintext by using simple substitution to the cipher text till a suitable plaintext value is not identified. Apart from the use of mono alphabetic frequency analysis, cryptanalysts also identify frequency of paired letters better known as digram frequency and that of three letter words, called as Trigram frequencies. These help the cryptanalyst to exploit the redundant features of English language to break the cipher. The most common Digrams (in order): th, he, in, en, nt, re, er, an, ti, es, on, at, se, nd, or, ar, al, te, co, de, to, ra, et, ed, it, sa, em, ro. The most common Trigrams (in order): the, and, tha, ent, ing, ion, tio, for, nde, has, nce, edt, tis, oft, sth, men Table 1: Digram and Trigram Frequencies [6] These help in identifying the most commonly used terms in English to break a cipher. The digram frequencies are used to break two letter words such as an, to, of etc and the trigram frequencies are used to break three letter words such as the, are, for etc. After breaking a significant two letter and three letter words, it is practically east to identify the key from the cracked values of plaintext by matching the corresponding values in the ciphertext. This huge weakness in English language is used to break cipher texts encrypted using simple algorithms that make use of English alphabets. In practice the use of frequency analysis consists of first counting the frequency of ciphertext letters and then assigning guessed plaintext letters to them. Many letters will occur with roughly the same frequency, so a cipher with Xs may indeed map X onto R, but could also map X onto G or M. But some letters in every language using letters will occur more frequently; if there are more Xs in the c iphertext than anything else, its a good guess for English plaintext that X is a substitution for E. But T and A are also very common in English text, so X might be either of them also [4]. Thus the cryptanalyst may need to try several combinations of mappings between ciphertext and plaintext letters. Once the common single letter frequencies have been resolved, then paired patterns and other patterns are solved. Finally, when sufficient characters have been cracked, then the rest of the text can be cracked using simple substitution. Frequency analysis is extremely effective against the simpler substitution ciphers and will break astonishingly short cipher texts with ease. Attacks on Traditional algorithms Encrypting using traditional algorithms have been defenseless against cryptanalytic attacks as they use bit by bit encryption, which can be easily broken using frequency analysis based attacks. 1. Caesar Cipher: Considering the case of one of the oldest ciphers, the Caesar Cipher, this cipher replaces one letter of the plaintext with another to produce the ciphertext, and any particular letter in the plaintext will always, turn into the same letter in the cipher for all instance of the plaintext character. For instance, all Bs will turn into Fs. Frequency analysis is based on the fact that certain letters, and combinations of letters, appear with characteristic frequency in essentially all texts in a particular language [9]. For instance, in the English language, E is very common, while X is not. Likewise, ST, NG, TH, and QU are common combinations, while XT, NZ, and QJ are very uncommon, or even impossible to occur in English. This clearly shows how the Caesar cipher can be broken with ease by just identifying the frequency of each letter in the cipher text. A message encrypted using Caesar cipher is extremely insecure as an exhaustive cryptanalysis on the keys easily breaks the code. 2. Substitution Ciphers: The Caesar cipher forms a subset of the entire set of substitution ciphers. Here, the key of the encryption process is the permutation of all the twenty six characters of the English alphabets. Rather than choosing a particular key for all encryption process, we use a different key for successive encryption processes. This technique increases the number of possible key to 26!, which is about 4 X 1026, which eliminates the exhaustive cryptanalysis attack on the keyspace [7]. To decrypt the cipher the, statistical frequency distribution of single letter occurrence in English language is analyzed. Then, the digram and trigram frequencies of standard English words are compared with the frequencies of the trigrams in the cipher to finally reconstruct the key and in turn decipher the text. This is an efficient method to break the substitution cipher as, each plaintext letter is represented by the same ciphertext letter in the message. So, all properties of plaintext are carried on to the cipher text. 3. Vigenere Cipher: In a Vigenere cipher, there is greater security as, a given plaintext letter is not always represented by the same ciphertext letter. This is achieved by using a sequence of n different substitution ciphers to encrypt a message. This technique increases the possible number of keys from 26! to (26!)n. Although this was considered to be unbreakable, the Kasiskis method of attacking a Vigenere cipher yielded successful results of decrypting the message. According to this method, the first step is to find the key length (n). Find identical segments of plain text that get encrypted to the same ciphertext, when they are b positions apart, where b=0 mod n. According to Kasiski, the next step is to find all the identical segments of length greater than 3, and record the distance between them [7]. This can then be used to predict the length of the key (n). Once this is found the key is found by an exhaustive search of the keyspace for all possible combinations to identify the key. This is done by substituting all possible values for n to generate substrings. Once the substring is formed, the plaintext message can be automatically identified by using the back substitution of the key into the cipher [7]. This can be done for all possible values for n until finally arriving at the actual key, which reveals the plaintext that was encrypted. This method can take a long time to break the key to identify the plaintext incase the key length is very long, as the keyspace value would be large for larger keys. Defeating frequency based attacks: Frequency based attacks have been used for a long time to break traditional encryption algorithms. It uses the fact that, traditional encryption algorithms do not eliminate the statistical properties of the language upon encryption. The first way to defeat frequency based attacks is to encrypt blocks of characters at a time rather than single letters [7]. This would ensure that, the same text in the plaintext is not encrypted to the same text in the ciphertext upon encryption. For e.g., if we use the Caesar cipher encryption scheme, the word ADDITIONAL will be encrypted to CFFKVKQPCN, we can see that the alphabets A, D and I are repeated more than once and at each instance, the encryption scheme used always encrypts A to C, D to F and I to K. This can clearly be used during frequency analysis to analyze the redundancy of the characters and in turn map them back to get the original plaintext character. Using a block encryption scheme, one can be satisfied that, this phenomenon does not occur as, in a block encryption scheme, the whole plaintext is broken into chunks or blocks of data, that is fed in as input to the encryption algorithm. The algorithm then, reads the input block along with the key and encrypts th e complete block of plaintext, rather than individual characters, so there is a smaller chance that two blocks will produce the same chunk of ciphertext. The second way of defeating frequency analysis is to make use of synonyms of words [7], rather than repeating the same word over and over again in a sentence. There are a lot of words in English, which have more than one synonym, thus providing with a set of words to be used as convenient in the particular context. To help in the selection of a synonym, grammar checking would have to be used to ensure that, the meaning expressed in the sentence is not altered by changing the words. Attacks against this technique could include creating a list of the best synonyms, but this would not help the attacker as different word could be used at each instance the same meaning needs to be expressed, defeating the benefit of this technique. This technique of using alternate words to represent common words to defeat cryptanalysis attacks is called Homophones [7] in cryptography. A third technique that can effectively defeat cryptanalysis is Polyalphabetic substitution, that is, the use of several alphabets to encrypt the message [3], rather than using the same substitution technique again and again. The Vigenere Cipher is a form of Polyalphabetic cipher. This ensures that, no two characters are encrypted to the same ciphertext alphabet in the same message. This ensures that, direct frequency analysis of the cipher is not possible to successfully retrieve the original message. However, other techniques need to be used to identify the key length, if this is possible, then frequency analysis attack could be used to identify the original plaintext message successfully. Finally, a possible technique that could be used to defeat frequency analysis is to encrypt a single character of plaintext with two ciphertext characters [3]. Upon encountering the same character twice, then different characters should be used to encrypt the message. This can be achieved by using a key size double that of the plaintext message and then encrypting the same plaintext with two values in the key and save them together for the same plaintext character. This would ensure that no two plaintext characters will have the same ciphertext character, defeating the frequency analysis method of breaking the cipher. Modern encryption algorithms and cryptanalysis: Modern cryptographic algorithms take a better approach in defeating frequency analysis based attacks. The cryptographic algorithms nowadays use block encryption, rather than encrypting characters bit by bit, thus eliminating the redundancy of ciphertext alphabets for similar plaintext alphabets. Block ciphers are the central tool in the design of protocols for shared-key cryptography. A block cipher is a function E: {0, 1}k ÃÆ'- {0, 1}n à ¢Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚   {0, 1}n. This notation means that E takes two inputs, one being a k-bit string and the other an n-bit string, and returns an n-bit string [2]. The first input is the key, which is used to encrypt the secret message. The second string is called the plaintext, and the output is called a ciphertext. The key-length k and the block-length n are parameters associated to a specific block cipher. They vary from block cipher to block cipher, and depend on the design of the algorithm itself. Some of the most trusted symmetric ciphers inclu de AES, Triple-DES, Blowfish, CAST and IDEA. In public-key cryptography, the most commonly used cryptosystems are RSA and the Diffie-Hellman systems, which have not been found to have any vulnerabilities till date. Preferably, the block cipher E is a public specified algorithm. In typical usage, a random key K is chosen and kept secret between a pair of users. The function EK is used by the sender to encrypt the message, for a given key, before sending it to the intended receiver, who decrypts the message using the same key [2]. Security relies on the secrecy of the key. So, at first, one might think of the cryptanalysts goal as recovering the key K given some ciphertext, intercepted during transmission. The block cipher should be designed to make this task computationally difficult. In order to achieve this, the algorithms that are used to encrypt the message must be designed with a high degree of mathematical complexity, which cannot be reversed to obtain the plaintext from a known ciphertext. The length of the key used during encryption of a message plays an important role in deciding the effectiveness of an algorithm. Key length is conventionally measured in bits, and most of the well known strong ciphers have key lengths between 128 and 256 bits. A cipher is considered strong if, after years of attempts to find a weakness in the algorithm, there is no known effective cryptanalytic attack against it. This indicates that, the most efficient way of breaking an encrypted message without knowing the key used to encrypt it is to brute force it, i.e. trying all possible keys. The effort required to break an encrypted message is determined by the number of possible keys, known as thekeyspace. Knowing the speed of the computer to break the key, it is easy to calculate how long it would take to search the keyspace to break a particular cipher [2]. For example, considering a cipher that uses 128-bit keys, each bit can either be 0 or 1, so, there are 2128 or 3ÃÆ'-1038 keys approximately. Suppose we imagine that about ten billion computers are assigned the task of breaking the code, each capable of testing ten billion keys per second, then, the task of running through the entire keyspace would take around 3ÃÆ'-1018seconds, which is about 100 billion years. But, in fact, it would be necessary to run through only half the keyspace to hit upon the correct key, which would take around 50 billion years. This is longer than the estimated age of the universe according to modern cosmology, which is about 15 billion years [2]. This shows that, it is practically infeasible to crack modern cryptographic algorithms using Brute Force attacks. So, one can imagine the effectiveness of the modern cryptographic algorithms and their resistance towards cryptanalytic attacks. Conclusions: Cryptography has progressed in recent years and modern cryptographic algorithms have proved to be successful in defending against most forms of cryptanalytic attacks. Frequency analysis based attacks have proved to exploit the weaknesses in traditional encryption algorithms into revealing the plaintext message that was encrypted using them. The natural language used to encrypt messages is not considered to be random in nature, which is exploited by frequency counting based attacks. Based upon the frequency of letters that occur in the ciphertext, one can guess the plaintext characters due to their redundancy rate and the specific combination of letters in a word. This weakness can be repelled by using stream ciphers, which do not carry the redundancy in the plaintext to the ciphertext. Modern block cipher, encrypt a chunk of plaintext into ciphertext and vice versa, eliminating the redundancy of language used in encryption. Although the algorithm plays an important part, it is the key length used in block ciphers that helps in repelling cryptanalysis. Modern ciphers use a key length starting from 128 bits, eliminating the possibility of a brute force attack to decrypt the message. The higher the key length, the more time it takes to break these ciphers. These advantages have made modern cryptographic algorithms more popular among the security community. No known weaknesses have been found in these algorithms yet, that may allow one to identify the plaintext message. Bibliography: [1] Stallings, W., Cryptography and Network Security, Chapter 1, Third Edition, Prentice Hall, 2003 [2] Schneier, B., Applied Cryptography, Chapter 1, Second Edition, John Wiley Sons, New York City, New York, USA, 1996 [3] Hart, G.W., To Decode Short Cryptograms, Communications of the ACM 37(9), 1994, pp. 102-108 [4] Lee, K.W., Teh, C.E., Tan, Y.L., Decrypting English Text Using Enhanced Frequency Analysis, National Seminar on Science, Technology and Social Sciences (STSS 2006), Kuantan, Pahang, Malaysia [5] Zipf, GK., Human Behaviour and the Principle of Least Effort, 1949, Cambridge: Addison Wesley Publications. [6] Lewand, R.E., Cryptological Mathematics, The Mathematical Association of America, 2000, Pages 345-346 [7] Stamp, M and Low, R.M., Applied Cryptanalysis, 2007, Chapter 1 and 2, John Wiley Sons, New York City, New York, USA [8] http://www.simonsingh.net, Online internet frequency analysis tools [9] http://www.textalyser.net, online text analysis and frequency analysis information

Home Schools V.S. Public Schools Essay -- Education Learning Papers

Home Schools V.S. Public Schools How would your life be different if you were home schooled? Perhaps you were. If not though, do you think that you would be on the same academic path that you are on now? In the case of Evenstar Perez, it made her life very different. Evenstar started out going to a public school from first grade through fifth, but it wasn’t until she entered into sixth grade that she began to be home schooled. Evenstar mentioned, â€Å"At first the transition was difficult because I was so used to the public schools system of doing things, but later I became better adapted.† When asked what advantages she felt she gained from her home school experience, Evenstar replied, â€Å"A lot.† She then went on to explain how she got ahead of students her age at public schools; â€Å"I got way ahead in my math classes. While most students in my grade at public schools were taking algebra, I was taking geometry.† Evenstar had the ability to experience both a public school a nd home school educational experience and stated that the home school experience allowed for more personal time and individual attention. She explained, â€Å"There is more time to study, you can work at your own pace, and you can get more done in the home school environment.† It becomes clear through talking with Evenstar that home schooling had a positive impact on her life. Presently in America, there are 1.5 million students who participate in home schooling. This amount constitutes for about 2.8% of all of the students that do not attend either a private or public school for the grades K-12 (Cai 1). It has been, and continues today, to be an ongoing debate over whether home schooling or public schooling offers a better education for a student. Ther... ... (2002): 1-15. Cartland, Jenifer, Ruch Ross, Holly S. Henry, and David B. Adolescence. â€Å"Feeling At Home In One’s School: A First Look At A New Measure.† Academic Search Premier. 38 (2003): 1-12. Eley, Mark G. â€Å"Making the Home School Connection.† Academic Search Premier. 59 (2002): 1-3. Raver, Cybele C. â€Å"Young Children’s Emotional Development and School Readiness.† Department of Education. (2003): 1-6. Ray, Brian D. â€Å"Customization Through Home Schooling.† Educational Leadership. 59 (2002): 1-6. Rivero, Lisa. â€Å"Progressive Digressions: Home Schooling For Self Actulization.† Roeper Review. 24 (2002): 1-12. Ryan, Kevin, and James M. Cooper. Those Who Can, Teach. Boston: Houghton Miflin Company, 2004. Sheehan, Michele. â€Å"Dancing With Monica: Personal Perceptions of a Home School Mom.† Roeper Review. 24 (2002): 1-11. Home Schools V.S. Public Schools Essay -- Education Learning Papers Home Schools V.S. Public Schools How would your life be different if you were home schooled? Perhaps you were. If not though, do you think that you would be on the same academic path that you are on now? In the case of Evenstar Perez, it made her life very different. Evenstar started out going to a public school from first grade through fifth, but it wasn’t until she entered into sixth grade that she began to be home schooled. Evenstar mentioned, â€Å"At first the transition was difficult because I was so used to the public schools system of doing things, but later I became better adapted.† When asked what advantages she felt she gained from her home school experience, Evenstar replied, â€Å"A lot.† She then went on to explain how she got ahead of students her age at public schools; â€Å"I got way ahead in my math classes. While most students in my grade at public schools were taking algebra, I was taking geometry.† Evenstar had the ability to experience both a public school a nd home school educational experience and stated that the home school experience allowed for more personal time and individual attention. She explained, â€Å"There is more time to study, you can work at your own pace, and you can get more done in the home school environment.† It becomes clear through talking with Evenstar that home schooling had a positive impact on her life. Presently in America, there are 1.5 million students who participate in home schooling. This amount constitutes for about 2.8% of all of the students that do not attend either a private or public school for the grades K-12 (Cai 1). It has been, and continues today, to be an ongoing debate over whether home schooling or public schooling offers a better education for a student. Ther... ... (2002): 1-15. Cartland, Jenifer, Ruch Ross, Holly S. Henry, and David B. Adolescence. â€Å"Feeling At Home In One’s School: A First Look At A New Measure.† Academic Search Premier. 38 (2003): 1-12. Eley, Mark G. â€Å"Making the Home School Connection.† Academic Search Premier. 59 (2002): 1-3. Raver, Cybele C. â€Å"Young Children’s Emotional Development and School Readiness.† Department of Education. (2003): 1-6. Ray, Brian D. â€Å"Customization Through Home Schooling.† Educational Leadership. 59 (2002): 1-6. Rivero, Lisa. â€Å"Progressive Digressions: Home Schooling For Self Actulization.† Roeper Review. 24 (2002): 1-12. Ryan, Kevin, and James M. Cooper. Those Who Can, Teach. Boston: Houghton Miflin Company, 2004. Sheehan, Michele. â€Å"Dancing With Monica: Personal Perceptions of a Home School Mom.† Roeper Review. 24 (2002): 1-11.

Sports Management :: essays research papers

Sports Management   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Someone once said, â€Å"There are those who make things happen, those who watch things happen, and those who wonder what happened.† I consider myself one of those rare people who really knows how to â€Å"make things happen.† I have gone from being a follower to being a leader, from being someone who was shy and uncertain to a person who is self-confident and assertive. It has been a remarkable metamorphosis, and it has changed my future professional plans and personal goals.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The awakening of my independence happened during the end of my softball season my freshman year in college when my head coach had cut my scholarship because of lack of funding. I was faced with making my first mature decision into what my future was to hold. The following year I transferred to Thomas College hoping to play ball again which did not materialize because there were not enough players recruited to start the softball program. At Thomas College, I realized that I was going to school for the wrong reason -- to play ball. The idea hit me that being at Thomas College was not going to get me where I wanted to go in life. I then transferred to the University of Charleston, where I am presently. I wanted to pursue a sport management degree, while using my athletic abilities to participate in softball. I have no regrets on the decisions I have made, because I would never be the person I am today or have met all of the key people along the way.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Throughout my college career, I have attempted to learn as much as possible about the field of sports management through various work experiences with many different types of sports organizations. Through my experiences with people in a minor league baseball association, fitness club, public relations department, athletic departments, and various recreation centers, I have had the opportunity to develop and hone my communication and public relation skills in several different areas. These experiences have helped me gain a better understanding of my career goals in the sports industry.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  In addition to the time spent out in the field, my education at University of Charleston has further developed my skills and knowledge of sports management, specifically in the areas of marketing, promotions, public and media relations, and management. I have also had the opportunity to be involved in various extracurricular activities that have provided me with the skills and knowledge that I have employed in my work experiences. Many concepts that I have learned from these activities were not taught in the classroom, but were

America’s cause Essay

But he calmly proceeded to act his part, pretending not the least bothered by the gut-wrenching ride over a swirling sea. The following day he received this message from the Navy Department: â€Å"Dear Mr. Wayne- we are pleased to record this latest addition to naval lore. To the immortal expression, ‘damn the torpedoes, full speed ahead,’ we now add your own memorable words, ‘get me out of this son of a bitch! ’†(Wayne168-169). Wayne spoke the American language well. Once, asked by a reporter about his rumored plan to run for president, Wayne said, â€Å"Bullshit. † When asked to give a definite comment, Wayne told him to use the word. The following day, this news item appeared: â€Å"When Mr. Wayne was questioned about the possibility of running for national office, he replied ‘B—–t! †(Wayne 162). Americans responded to John Wayne in a manner different from other stars of his generation. Other actors simply shed off their screen personae after the lights went off; not so Wayne. Although little was written about his private life (marriage, romantic affairs) until after his death, his public life was an open book that maintained and reinforced the John Wayne mystique. He was a natural treasure who was loved and respected. In 1979 he was awarded the Congressional Gold Medal. In 1998, an Army RAH-66 helicopter was named â€Å"Duke† in his honor. He wore a POW bracelet to show his sympathy with the fighting men in Viet Nam. Speaking extemporaneously before a subcommittee hearing in connection with the bill for the Congressional Gold Medal, Maureen O’Hara Blair, Wayne’s co-star in The Quiet Man, spoke for Wayne: â€Å"He is, believe me, the United States of America. He is a man that has a code of beliefs that he sticks with. He believes in individual responsibility and honor. † Said Reagan of Wayne: I never saw Duke display hatred toward those who scorned him. Oh, he could use some pretty salty language, but he would not tolerate pettiness and hate. He was human all right: he drank enough whiskey to float a PT boat, though he never drank on the job. . . he was virtually always the first to arrive on the set and the last to leave. World War II helped to define what John Wayne stood for. Unable to join the Navy due to an old football injury, his age (34), and being a father of four, Wayne did his part in the war by making movies about America’s fighting men. He appeared minus his horse and six-shooter in memorable films like the Fighting Seabees, Flying Tigers, Reunion in France, They Were Expendable, and Back to Bataan. The 1949 film Sands of Iwo Jima earned Wayne his first Oscar nomination. These films did not have the nauseating gore and graphic violence of present-day war movies, but they exalted the heroism of ordinary men, and people related to them well. Wayne had made it a point not to accept any role that was un-American or tended to denigrate the United States or the American tradition. At a time when he was nearly bankrupt, Wayne bankrolled, starred in, and directed the epic The Alamo, which had been his dream project of many years. In it, playing the role of Davy Crockett, he described the defenders’ role as they waited for the approaching battle with Santa Anna: â€Å"There’s right and there’s wrong. You got to do one or the other. You do the one and you’re living. You do the other and you may be walking around, but you’re as dead as a beaver hat. † As Crockett, he voiced out the timeless yearning of the Texans for independence: â€Å"It means people can live free, talk free, go or come, buy or sell, be drunk or sober, however they choose. † John Wayne did not win on Oscar for The Alamo (except for Best Sound) although it received six nominations, but people came in droves to see the movie. Besides his classic westerns and war pictures, The Alamo is one of his lasting legacies. John Wayne is often equated with conservatism. He was the product of an age when Americans were proud of their heritage, conscious of their country’s new role as a world power and sincerely believed in the righteousness of America’s cause. He was born when Theodore Roosevelt was president, a man who believed in Manifest Destiny and was wont to â€Å"speak softly, but carry a big stick. † Wayne belonged to a generation yet untouched by pangs of national self-doubt, unstricken by remorse over purported wrongs committed by the white man against the natives, the blacks, the Vietnamese, the American youth who were being sent to die in remote battlefields. This was the turbulent 60’s, an age when young Americans were seduced by flower power, discovered new ideologies, adopted a libertarian attitude and opposed any kind of war. In a nation divided by war, John Wayne was seemingly a lonely figure as young Americans felt shame for everything America ever did in the course of her ascent to world dominance. A friend of Senators Barry Goldwater and Joe McCarthy, and former President Ronald Reagan, John Wayne was Republican to the core. Against the weakening of American resolve, John Wayne’s tenacious adherence to the American tradition of duty and honor could only be seen as naivete – sprung from the good guy–bad guy scenarios in his celluloid world. From the 40’s to the 60’s, the Left made inroads in school campuses where teach-ins became common, swaying many of the youth to the new ideology, and threatening to undermine the foundations of the country’s democratic system. Due to its potentials for propaganda, the movie industry was targeted and there were rumors that some Hollywood figures had embraced socialism. In 1944, Wayne helped found the Motion Picture Alliance for the Preservation of American Ideals, in the company of other giants like Clark Gable, Gary Cooper, Walt Disney, and Robert Taylor. He later became president of the association for two terms. He was outspoken against the communist threat. He was mistaken for an archconservative and accused of blackballing movie personalities who refused to cooperate in Congressional hearings, although he never testified, nor did he blackball anybody (Wayne 55). His being perceived as a staunch anti-communist even gave rise to rumors that the late Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin plotted to have him murdered (Soviet Dictator).

Ponyo on the Cliff by the Sea: A better version of The Little Mermaid Essay

Ponyo on the Cliff by the Sea, written, directed and animated by Hayao Miyazaki, in the year 2009 was an animated movie aimed at young audiences and their parents. He took Hans Christian Andersen’s short story The Little Mermaid as a blueprint for portraying this poetic, fantastic work using adorable pictures with interesting and impressive storyline to attract audiences. I would personally consider the movie Ponyo on the Cliff by the Sea as an improved version of Andersen’s The Little Mermaid because Miyazaki had introduced a lot of new elements to make the story look more realistic and interesting by considering the current preferences of children’s. In this movie, Miyazaki has not only described the love between people and people, but he has also highlighted the relationship between creatures and people using a simple story line. Generally, I would perceive Ponyo on the Cliff by the Sea as a great animated movie because it contains various outstanding features such as simple but attractive story, visually appealing animated pictures which are far better compared to other animated movies released recently and the music in the movie is quite pleasant touching people’s soul. In the following part of the essay, I am going to describe how Miyazaki successfully captivated the audiences’ likenesses through his new movie: Ponyo on the Cliff by the Sea. There is a huge difference between the Hans Christian Andersen’s story The Little Mermaid and the Miyazaki’s movie Ponyo on the Cliff by the Sea. In the Andersen’s The Little Mermaid, there were so many children who got upset on her demise and her infatuation towards the prince. While suffering with great pain, she drank the potion and the Little Mermaid lost her tongue in exchange for her tongue, which was considered as the most beautiful part of the story, but still her sacrifice could not get the prince’s love. At last, her body turned into foam and it never existed again. According to Robinson, â€Å"the story’s agony and tragedy [actually loses] the people’s heart† (Robinson). Such a pathetic story used to break the children’s dreams. However, I would consider Hayao Miyazaki’s movie Ponyo on the Cliff by the Sea as an ameliorated story of The Little Mermaid because he slightly modified the ending of the story and introduced a lot of exciting elements to make the story more closely related with children’s preferences. Miyazaki has drawn several cute scenes about the main character girl Ponyo, such as eating noodles with her lover Sosuke and playing around with her pinky sisters. These scenes attracted the current generation of young audiences and made them fall in love into this adorable character and hence got them emotionally attached towards the movie. In addition to that, the climax of the movie was slightly changed that the Ponyo gets transformed into a little girl from a fish, so that she can be with Sosuke forever and it can be considered as one of the major difference when compared to the climax of The Little Mermaid’s. Therefore, I would personally consider the happy ending, the way of presentation and depicting characters as major elements making Ponyo on the Cliff by the Sea better than The Little Mermaid. People regard Ponyo on the Cliff by the Sea, not only as a better version of The Little Mermaid, but also consider it as a great animation movie due to its simple and attractive storyline. Although there are people who criticize that the story sounds weird, and like many of Miyazaki’s previous films, Ponyo is also written from a child’s perspective and with a child’s sense of logic (Rodriguez). Miyazaki has raised the complexity of the movie’s theme to a higher level, enabling both children and adults to think and enjoy. The audiences are provided with three ways to observe the main theme of the story, which is the love between people, families, and creatures. First the audiences could feel the love and the relationship between Ponyo and her father Fujimoto. In the story, their relationship is not so well due to the busy schedule of Fujimoto, which reduced the time spent by him to understand his daughters and vice-versa. As her mother was also busy and hardly available at home, Ponyo had very less time for interacting with her parents. Even though Fujimoto tried his best to take care of Ponyo, such as providing clean food and taking them out for sightseeing at the sea, she didn’t care much about her father’s feelings. The only thing that she wanted to do was to get away from her father. What Ponyo did was immature and completely understandable, because she was just a 5 year-old girl at that time. But I believe that Miyazaki wanted to stress the issue that there does exist children who are bound do the same thing with their parents as well, and he wanted the young audiences to understand that whatever their parents are doing is only for the love they have towards their children. Secondly, the audiences may notice how Sosuke loved his mother. Although his father used to leave him and his mother at home while going for fishing, he realized how to take good care of his mother and carry the responsibilities of the family as a whole. I do remember a scene, when Sosuke’s father called to apologize for not coming back for dinner which left Sosuke’s mother crying about that. At that time, Sosuke’s passes her a napkin, consoling her not to get sad about that. Sosuke doesn’t know the reason for her mother being upset, but his actions represent the second type of love, which indicates how the younger generation shows their love towards their parents. Finally Miyazaki wanted to express the pure love between the main characters, Ponyo and Sosuke to the audiences as the third kind of love. One of the scenes comprised of a test that Nereus had given to Sosuke. Without anybody’s help, any ship to drive, and any lights to walk in the tunnel, Sosuke builds his courage to take care of Ponyo, the one whom he loves a lot and he overcomes all the hurdles that come in his way. These scenes inspired me to think about the children of this era. It is common that children would cry and call for their parents when they encounter difficult situations; however, despite the worry about his mother’s disappearance at that moment, Sosuke tactfully handled all these challenges physically and mentally encouraging Ponyo too to be strong. Therefore, I personally think that the act of the 5 year-old boy, Sosuke should be highly appreciated because it is really not an easy task for a normal child to either handle or accomplish it. The only reason why Sosuke could do it is all because of the love he had towards Ponyo, which gave him the power to raise his courage to get through all the challenges. The factors that decide whether an animated movie was successful or not doesn’t purely depend on the storyline or content that the director wants to emphasize, but it also depends on the way the movie was filmed that embellishes the movie with eye-catchy and enthralling features. When compared with the Disney film The Little Mermaid, Ponyo on the Cliff by the Sea didn’t involve any Computer-Generated Imagery (CGI) work, which meant that the whole film was drawn by animators, and this further heightens the film’s natural characteristics. â€Å"In Miyazaki’s fertile imagination, the ordinary and magical worlds blend into each other; both are full of marvels† (Young). Young adds that Miyazaki’s movie provided softer and more realistic pictures to the audiences as all the things were hand-made. For example, I would personally consider the sea to be the most imaginative part of the movie. Miyazaki used his abundant imaginations in transforming the sea into a living character that can represent the mind of Ponyo’s father Fujimoto. One of the scenes is that, Fujimoto uses his magic to transform the sea into a living creature to chase Ponyo, but the sea couldn’t catch her and it fiercely outbursted onto the land. In addition to the much hyped imaginative scenes, Miyazaki had asked Joe Hisaishi to compose the background music for the movie. The movie became additionally attractive, as Hisaishi had used children to sing all the songs. Hence, these specialties made Ponyo on the Cliff by the Sea so special that it induced people to come and enjoy. In summary, Ponyo on the Cliff by the Sea possesses nice elements for being considered as a great animated movie. First of all, being structured similar to the traditional tale The Little Mermaid, Miyazaki’s movie is more appreciated by the audiences of this era as it had a better climax than the story and the more updated elements are provided to meet the expectations and interests of children. Secondly, the complexity of the movie initiates audiences to deeply think about how people should interpret love and relationship between people, families, or even lovers. Thirdly, with the inclusion of more animated pictures and intoxicated music, audiences felt emotionally attached to the movie, trying to feel the happiness and sadness of the characters in the movie. Even though there are people criticizing the movie, but I believe that it has already qualified as a good animation movie because Miyazaki has designed it to become approachable by both adults and children. I personally feel that people can get inspired by the love of the story, trying to practice it in the real world, and very soon the society will become more harmonious. People would become friendlier to each other, making the world a better place to live on. Works Cited Robinson, Tasha. â€Å"Ponyo. † 13 Aug. 2009. The Onion Inc. A. V. Club. 2 May 2010 . Rodriguez, Rene. â€Å"Review : Ponyo. † 14 Aug 2009. The Miami Herald. Miami Herald Media Co. 02 May 2010 . Young, Deborah. â€Å"Film Review: Ponyo on the Cliff by the Sea. † 30 Aug. 2008. The Hollywood Reporter. 2 May 2010. .