A Visit to Toys’ R Us

| A Visit to Toys’ R US| How Toys are Affecting Gender Roles in Growing Children| | Ji-Young Kim| | 2012-05-21| | Today’s toy store is the Mecca for children. Although many traditional toy stores have died out due to the advent of electronic toys, big stores like Toys’ R US have survived by flexibly by absorbing its new adversaries. Now, they sell a very wide arrange of toys, from orthodox toys like dolls and action figures to toys that followed technology’s evolution, like electronic book readers and of course, video games.However, while toys have evolved, it became clear from my observation that the buyer’s attitudes about what toys are appropriate for each sex has not changed much. Also, although many previous masculine themed toys have become gender-neutral, still many more gender-biased toys carry messages of what boys and girls are expected to grow up. Still, I could see signs of improvement overall, and believe that as long as there is room f or improvement, gender bias amongst children will gradually disappear.As I coursed through the aisles, I noticed that the store divided itself into several parts: boys, girls, electronic games, and gender neutral. I found it amusing that the section for the girl’s toys was in the very back of the store. I assumed that this would result in girls getting a taste of the boy’s toys, but not vice versa. It would be profitable for the toy store to place the girl’s section in the front, because ignored products are often placed in the most valued spots (e. g. shelves that meets eyelevel), but I guessed that the toy store assumed that it would hear complaints from the parents if they decided to place toys that way.The front of the store, excluding the girl’s section, was divided into half by gender-neutral toys and toys for boys. Interestingly, the section for boys and gender-neutral sections were not marked ‘boys’ but only the types of the toys (e. g. action figures), but the section for girls was clearly marked as ‘girls’. Firstly what I see was the gender-neutral area contained mainly storybooks, board games, Lego, sports and musical instruments. I noticed that many toys that were traditionally considered masculine, like drums and skateboards, were now in the gender-neutral area.However, some toys we consider traditionally gender-neutral like sports equipments, had no pink colored items (lacrosse sticks), while some other equipments, like tennis rackets, which were placed right next to the lacrosse sticks, came out in both pink and blue. I assumed that there was no market for pink lacrosse sticks, or it wasn’t significant enough to fit into a toy store. Board games almost always showed ageism and reinforced sex stereotypes on their cover when depicting men or women. It is also worth noting that toys that are completely free of gender bias are based on themes completely unrelated to social activities (e. . rubber dinosaur models). One interesting board game for small children, named Battle of the Sexes by Imagination, was about testing the opposite sex about the interests of the player’s sex (e. g. The number of football players in a team). Outwardly, this seems like an excellent game which allows you to get to know what the opposite sex is like, but is in fact reinforcing ideas about the norms of the opposite sex into children. The gender-neutral section also included the well-known Lego series.Although I call this a gender-neutral toy, it is only so because it has a small amount of pink-colored sets containing pieces that are mostly women. Despite the Lego series’ seemingly gender-neutral concept of building blocks, most of the toys are themed around mostly masculine activities. Many, if not most, depict warfare, a theme based on violence, which is mostly considered masculine. Adventure themed Lego toys have no women characters involved; it always depicted men who are digging up a desolate landscape and fighting mummies with, of course, pistols and swords.Maybe, as shown in a video â€Å"Different but Equal†, boys will have a better initial ability to construct Lego blocks creatively due to their superior space recognition skills, but they will be able to further reinforce their abilities by playing with the blocks frequently, and ultimately resulting in reinforcing the idea that this ability is male-oriented. However, as recent studies show, women have just as much potential to do as well as men do on those areas. Sadly, parents who have daughters may be ignorant of these facts and may be intent on getting their daughters’ dolls rather than block toys.Still, the fact that there are Lego toys aimed for girls can mean things have improved such as Lego Friends, for only a decade ago it was even hard to find women figures in Lego products. It may be that some parents are shifting their paradigms and starting to get children what they wish for. The electronics corner was filled with toys that included characters symbolizing the peak of masculinity. For instance, the famous Super Mario series from Nintendo that has lasted for more than 30 years as a bestseller series, almost always depicts Mario, the main hero of the series, rescuing Princess Peach, the traditional helpless princess from danger.Mario has mustaches and grows in size and power when he consumes mushrooms, symbolizing the masculine features of a man, while Princess Peach wears pink frilly dresses, is always helpless and carries an umbrella, not to mention wearing makeup and jewelry. I believe that the video game company is unwilling to discard this facet of the game, because it has sold well for more than 30 years by creating games that live up to gender stereotypes.In rare cases the main character was a heroine, the female is either wearing a robotic outfit that covers the entire body and has a gun in the place of her hand (Metroid, Nintendo) or dres sed up in formal dresses (The Island Princess, Nintendo). It was clear that the former was meant for boys and the latter for girls. Most video games for boys were about destroying or somehow vanquishing the opponent, reinforcing the idea of ‘control’ and ‘power’, and ultimately in aggressive behavior.The section with toys for boys was filled with items that emphasize masculinity, especially action figures. Figures of men (especially superheroes and professional wrestlers with bulging muscles and tattoos) show boys from an early age how an ‘ideal’ man should look like. These toys will very likely lead to respect of power from a very early age, and will affect their speech style and ultimately reinforce differences in gender roles. Other than action figures, other notable toys were racecars and other automobiles, especially fighter planes.These toys would most probably give boys the idea of what would be ‘cool’ or what a ‘cool job’ looks like. These jobs have a thing in common: they are all risk-taking, and therefore toys are teaching boys to be risk-takers from an early point of their lives, as described in the video â€Å"Different but Equal†, although we have outlived the stone age. On the other hand, the girls’ toy section was the polar opposite: the whole area was an oversized dollhouse covered from start to end with pink. Merchandises included basic make-up, small frilly dresses for children and of course, dolls.All dolls were very slim and tall, and mostly had makeup on their faces, showing contrast to the tattooed and muscular action figures. These dolls will help keep future women in line by building an image of an ideal woman within a girl’s head, from a very early age. One interesting feature was that while there were Caucasian and African American dolls, there were none depicting Asians, perhaps because Asians have a longing for whiter skin, and prefer Caucasian ove r Asian dolls. It explicitly shows the place of Asians in American society: a race that aspires to become Caucasians, both in and outwardly.That clearly affects Asian girls, or Asian mothers, as there seems to be no market for Asian dolls, and thus reinforces the ‘traditional female sex behaviors’ white girls are often encouraged to follow (Lips, 203). On the day of May 19th, 2012, I got a chance to interview Berj, one of the managers of the store. He had short black hair, dark shiny eyes, and was wearing a uniform of white pants and a shirt with the ‘ToysRUS’ logo stitched into it. Every time before he started to speak, he cleaned his throat with a weird sound. Our short ten-minute interview began in a small manager’s room at the corner of the store.The interview with Berj revealed that the directions for the positioning of the toys came from higher up, specifically from a manual distributed from the main company. This showed that the positioning of toys were carefully planned to make the most profit possible, and was considered a major factor in profit-making. Such systematic planning showed that the company was much more willing to cope and follow the current set system of sexual assignment, rather than challenge it. I could not fault them much; companies are profit-driven, and it is only natural and easier to follow the ules rather than challenge them. In the toy store I could see a whole generation repeating the footsteps of its former. Parents will buy for their children what they think is right and appropriate, and will enforce those regulations on them if necessary. And so, children who grow up accustomed to those restrictions and bonds will naturally repeat the former generation. Most, if not all boys will play with action figures depicting machismo men, and most girls will always prefer dolls over toys. It was like seeing a never-ending cycle; in Buddhist terms, samsara. Fortunately though, I could see signs of hope.B y the works of countless feminists beforehand, we can see children’s movies like Mulan, where the heroine actually takes his father’s place in war, or skateboards created for girls. Although these examples aren’t completely free of gender bias in that Mulan is still a slim and beautiful girl and those skateboards come in pink, I believe that girls (and boys) who grow up experiencing these new changes will become adults who won’t enforce their views as strongly as their parents did, and maybe someday Americans will be able to overcome this typical bias as we can never imagine.It won’t be anytime soon, but someday they will. Reference â€Å"The Human Sexes (Part One) – Different But Equal. †Ã‚  The Human Sexes (Part One) – Different But Equal. Web. 20 May 2012. . Hillary Lips, â€Å"Gender role socialization: Lessons in femininity. † Pp. 197-216 in Jo Freeman (ed. ),  Women: A Feminist Perspective. Mountain View, CA: May field, 1989.

Rich Con

As a president off company, Marty should have concentrated on overall management of the company and lead it to meets its strategic goals. Instead, she became intimately involved in integrating the new IT system which demanded more than 75% of her time which she did not plan for. If Sawyer had appointed a board with IT expertise as well as Individuals with industry and process expertise, she could have been moderately involved with the project with more time to spend on the operations of the company.Deliverables from this IT am would then be from selection of an IT system based on Rich-con's need to flawless implementation of the system and then follow through its effectiveness for a period of time to make sure It Is working properly for all conditions. Lack of Fit-Gap Analysis: The business requirements were not defined to the vendor. The vendor did not care to understand the structure of the company, or the IT systems that Rich-Con already has in place. They were not familiar with t he knowledge and expertise of the staff and the expectations of the customers.Marty and Rich-Con Pete for an â€Å"off-the-shelf† software package to implement in their organization. The selection process of the new IT system was based on some factors true for metal industries and some generic questions posed by Marty. By doing so, Rich-Con failed to recognize the Incompatibility risk of the replacement IT system. C. Omitting test phases and pilot launch prior to mass deployment of the new IT system: Any big change implementation should go through several testing phases with progressive maturity of features.Rich-Con failed to work with their vendor to customize the new system and test it out at multiple phases. They also did not go through a pilot launch phase to pick up a portion of its operations, rather than forcing the whole operations Into this new system all at once. With test phases and plot launch, employees would nave gotten ten opportunity to test out ten system, of fer important feedback which would have resulted in minimal disruption to overall operations, should something go wrong. D.Insufficient training for transition to the new system: Marty Sawyer relied on the vendor to train her employees to learn he new IT system. There was no incentive for the employees to learn this system since they did not understand how their Jobs would change once the new system was in place. The vendor did a very poor Job in offering training since they took a push vs.. Pull method to offer help. They waited to be asked questions on features and usage rather than establishing a standard implementation methodology and guide the customer through that.The frustration of Marty showed in her comment, â€Å"We had people come in and do training. It Just never really took on a life of its own. † e. Lack of customization of application software to fit the need: Even though the vendor indicated that they would accommodate requests to modify the software, Marty di d not take advantage of that. Rich-Con did not get the software tailored to fit its unique needs. In comparison, Marty spent time to configure the software to align with Rich-con's business needs and importing all existing information to its database.Overall, to replace Rich-con's antiquated IT system, Marty took a centralized decision making approach, rather than decentralization it to engage leads from every functional apartment of the organization. She lost important inputs from different work groups in that process. Other issues that Marty needed to manage simultaneously were to address Union problems, ensure that management of making the newly purchased Round operational, and address the reason of dropping sales figures and the inefficiency of the new management team.All these issues compounded and created a disaster for Rich-con's operations. Question 2: Which CUBIT governance processes might have prevented these problems? The CUBIT governance processes that could have prevent ed these problems lie within Planning and Organizing' and ‘Acquiring and Implementing the software implementation process at Rich-Con Steel. Although ‘Delivery and Support' and ‘Monitoring and Evaluation' are critical components following the implementation of new software, the problems could have been avoided if the two former processes were defined and followed.

Allusions in Brave New World

Henry Ford served as the inventor for the assembly line. He believed that the idea of independently manufacturing products was too inefficient and cultivated the idea to move the product instead of the people building it. Ford also pioneered technological research in developing products. Ford served as the turning point for technology; introducing and utilizing break-through ideas. Not only did he change how automobiles were manufactured, he changed the way people thought about technology. He made new technologies readily accessible and set the standard for the 20th century.In Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World, Huxley makes Ford the center-point for why the new society was created, the old one was un-happy and inefficient. Replacing God with Ford, Brave New World, showcases how Ford’s ideas could have been implemented. 2. Vladimir Lenin was the first person to make a country completely communist. With his uniting of the Soviet Union, Lenin integrated his communist ideolog ies into its member countries. Lenin derives many of his beliefs from his time when he was a member of the Bolshevik faction. This is where he accumulated Marxism fundamentals. Unlike in Brave New World, Lenin believed in a single class.Brave New World, invasions a perfect society with multiple social classes. In these classes, all of their members are perfectly fit with where they stand in society. There is neither backlash nor hatred among the population against the other classes. Lenin, however, believes that having different classes arouses hatred amongst a society’s citizens. 3. Thomas Malthus was an English economist that is much acclaimed for inventing modern-day rent as well as sparking awareness of population growth. The father of Malthusianism, he believed that economic factors were to be held above all else in a society.He also believed that England’s out-of-control population growth would eventually hurt the economy. He believed that the government should p lay a role in determining population growth. He was also, however, a firm believer in natural selection. Brave New World follows many of Malthus’ ideas. The primary being his belief of population growth control. Huxley implements this by having the government control all factors of the population and essentially removes bad-traits through natural selection. The society only produces people that have few DNA imperfections, allowing them to be the strongest.This essentially removes natural selection as a problem for the society. 4. Thomas Hunt Morgan was an evolutionary geneticist. He is praised with having found that genes are carried on chromosomes. Morgan also found the significance of sex-linked traits and was able to prove Darwin’s sex determination theory incorrect. Brave New World demonstrates Morgan’s genetic heredity theories by utilizing genetics to artificially create people. 5. Lewis Henry Morgan was an acclaimed anthropologist. He theorized that socie ty in general is much greater than the need for a family.He stressed that kinship must be attained by all of the societies members. He also believed that people must sense belongingness within a group in order to feel happy. Brave New World demonstrates Morgan’s fundamentals by embracing the need to belong, in order to feel happy. Citizens in Brave New World are made to feel happy by having a sense of belongingness within their own social class. They put down other social groups and only feel good about theirs. Each member is happy where he or she is in the class system. 6. Benito Mussolini was an Italian fascist dictator. Mussolini believed heavily in the national or group based identity.He wanted his citizens to act as one, having extreme pride for their nation and hiding their personal identities. He demanded that foreign influences be eradicated. Brave New World embraces Mussolini’s ideas by having its citizens share a mass-identity within their class. Individual i dentity differences are put aside and people only classify others past upon their class. 7. Herbert Hoover, a former U. S. president, believed that efficiency was the solid backbone of an economy. He theorized that the U. S. economy was heavily inefficient and as a result was beginning to slow down.He instituted many new government policies that were built upon this idea. Brave New World demonstrates this efficiency policy into the society’s main economy. The government controls most enterprises and believes that inefficiencies would slow down the economy. Automation and technology are utilized whenever possible. 8. Leon Trotsky was a Russian communist leader in the early 20th century. His beliefs, called Trotskyism, stated that the working class should have supreme power in government control. Brave New World implements Trotsky’s ideas through social classification with a cast system.Although there is a working class and wealthy class, the majority are working class m embers. Socialism is also used throughout Brave New World by the distribution of wealth and control. 9. Charles Darwin was the father of evolution and natural selection. Darwin brought about the idea of genetic evolution by theorizing that only the strongest in a population will survive and be able to carry on their genes. Brave New World takes on these ideas by utilizing genetic engineering to ensure that the society members have the best genes and have few DNA imperfections.This ensures that the members of a class will not be able to become stronger than the high class. It also ensures a broad single identity amongst a class’s members. 10. Napoleon Bonaparte was a military ruler and dictator of France and eventually most of Europe. Bonaparte used many tactics in order to control his population. He introduced Napoleonic code, which stated that men were superior and outlined a new French government. He also heavily utilized propaganda by controlling the press and restricting access to historic publications. Brave New World shares many parallels with Bonaparte.The government uses censorship in order to control public opinion. They ban texts such as Shakespeare in order to alleviate artistic interpretations and opinions. 11. Hermann von Helmholtz was a German physicist that introduced the conservation of energy and electrodynamics. Helmholtz believed that technological innovation within science was lacking but the information in order to so was. He presented that technology could be used to grow society and make it more efficient. Brave New World takes some of Helmholtz’s ideas about technological innovation and efficiency. The society pushes itself to keep innovating.The society also embraces science as a way of life through shared concepts such as thermodynamics. 12. John B. Watson was a psychologist of the behaviorism philosophy of psychology. Watson regarding everything that humans do, such as thinking, acting, or sensing, can be regarded as be haviors. These behaviors can be altered through classical or operant conditioning. Brave New World uses these ideals in order to shape how the society members think and act. Classical conditioning is used in order to change people’s behaviors. These are as simple as thinking a pant color looks good or bad. 13. Karl Marx was a German communist philosopher.He presented his ideas through Marxism, a sub-unit of communism. Working with Friedrich Engels, he believed that capitalism was a corrupt economic policy, stating that it would eventually lead to socialism, followed by communism. Brave New World encompasses his ideas by separating classes but having each class feel good about itself. Alphas look down upon epsilons, but epsilons also look down upon the alphas, instead of having jealousy. Brave New World shares the ideas of Marx but does everything possible in order to avoid them. 14. Friedrich Engels was an industrialist and co-founder of Marxism.Engels believed in a single wo rking class with quality. Brave New World takes Engels ideas and tries to do everything possible in order to avoid a Marxist based situation. Although there are different classes, they all share similar working types and although there are higher classes, there is not a classic cast system of the haves and have-nots. 15. Jean Jacques Rousseau’s Noble Savage depicts the idea that society corrupts the good natural state of a person. Brave New World shows the noble savage as John. Not correctly anticipating the new society makes him loose his values.It shows how society changes a person’s personality in order to fit within the society. 16. The quote â€Å"God’s in his heaven – all’s right with the world† in the poem Pippa Passes is modified in Brave New World. The words God and heaven and substituted by Ford and flivver respectively. Ford is used instead of God, as modern-day religion does not exist within the new society. Ford is referred to a s the cultivator of the society. Flivver is used instead of heaven as flivver referrers to something unsatisfactory or low in quality. Flivver is also used to describe old cars, notable since Ford created the modern automobile.When stating that Ford is in his flivver, this indicates that Ford has changes the world forever. Basically stating that Ford is happy where he is, the state of flivver. 17. Shakespeare’s The Tempest is used within Brave New World as an ironic symbol for the new society. When John of Brave New World and Miranda of The Tempest say â€Å"O, Brave New World†, they do not what the new society is like. They both incorrectly mistake the new world as perfect with no imperfections. Unlike Amanda, John eventually realizes the imperfections of the new world. Amanda never finds out the truth. 18. Soma is an ancient Indian herb drink.It was used to give energy to the consumer and is considered a spiritual drink. Brave New World citizens consume soma in order to relax anxiety and stress. 19. Mustafa Kemel Ataturk was the first ruler of modern-day Turkey following its independence from the Ottoman Empire. Kemel was a liberal-progressive who introduced a new Turkish alphabet and introduced many reforms under Kemalism. These included the removal of religious law and introduction of women’s rights. Brave New World encompasses several of Kemel’s beliefs such as the belief of socialism and government-controlled entities.

Security System in Reference to Immigration Essay

Security System in Reference to Immigration - Essay Example the INS for a Green Card or any other adjustment of status). Yet, after considerable review of the existing literature, consultation with scholars, policy makers, and security experts alike this author has come to the conclusion that because virtually every sort of immigration, i.e., refugee and sanctuary policy, the issuance of non-immigrant visas, and other temporary-stay provisions can potentially be exploited by terrorists, immigration policy in general should be framed in terms of security. Therefore, focusing on just one category such as student visas, or even temporary visas in general would be shortsighted. Rather, in light of September 11th all aspects of the immigration system, including the way visas are processed in overseas consulates, the handling of foreign citizens at ports of entry, policing the nation's borders, and enforcement of immigration laws within the European Union and the United States need to be transformed and strengthened in order to reduce the terrorist threat. No doubt, this presents a formidable challenge to the men and women who supply on the front-line such as border police, asylum and visa officers, immigration judges and national militaries. All these actors are forced to leave administrative decisions with limited information and often must be made in moments of crisis, involving highly charged national debates. This paper examines the contemporary (and newly emerging) challenge facing the member states of the European Union and the United States in protecting their borders against international terrorism while at the similar time acknowledging the veracity of large-scale immigration to these societies and protecting the rights of non-citizens. Close administrative cooperation at an... Atlanta, GA. When James Hollifield delivered this paper at the 1989 Annual Meeting of the American Political Science Association barely three months before the descend of the Berlin Wall he seemed to foretell the crisis situation which the member states of the European Union (at that time the European Community) and the United States would visage when coming to terms with the unprecedented international migration flows they experienced in the early 1990s. With the collapse of communism in Europe and the subsequent rise of irredentist and nationalist tendencies on a global scale, both Western Europe and the United States were faced with the challenge of sustained wide-scale migration flows into their territory throughout the early half of the decade. Accompanying these flows were highly charged national debates surrounding colonization which as Hollifield noted laid 7 bare and revealed "in pristine form the innermost workings of the political system and the key philosophical assumpti ons upon which the systems are based." it is surprising, however, is that despite the restrictionist climate of public opinion in both Western Europe and the United States, the 1990s has been the decade of immigration and one, which recast the racial and national composition now co

Controversial Family Issues Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Controversial Family Issues - Essay Example However, polygamy is a common practice among the Mormons or the Church of Jesus Christ of the Latter-Day Saints. Dena McLain, who is a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and a strong supporter of polygamy, argues that polygamy is influenced by factors such as falling in and out of love, which cannot be prevented. He further argues that polygamy is crucial since it can enable one attain health insurance (Strong , DeVault, & Cohen, 2010). Another reason given in support of polygamy particularly in the United States is that the ratio of women to men is not equal since women are more as compared to men. Supporters of polygamy thus argues that the practice is inevitable if all women are to get marriage partners since the only other possible option to provide partners to such women is divorce (Adams , 2008). As opposed to the view that polygamy is a noble practice, polygamy is actually a bad practice, which should never be legalized for a number of reasons. One of the reasons is the conflict associated with polygamy. Having multiple partners at a go will result in more disagreements between them as compared to monogamy where one marries or gets married to one person. This is particularly common in cases where one man marries several women, which results in emergence of jealousy amongst them. Another reason why polygamy is a total disgrace is the fact that it is used as a tool to justify unfaithfulness in marriage, which is considered to be an immoral practice (Adams , 2008). Practicing polygyny where one woman marries several men or polyandry where one man marries many women reduces the chances of some people getting marriage partner. This is a great deprivation and the persons affected may end up living a miserable life (Adams , 2008). Additionally, supporters of polygamy argue that it can help reduce malpractices such as child abuse and rape. This is because it would enable partners who cannot be sexually satisfied by one

Importance of Health Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Importance of Health - Essay Example The research paper â€Å"Importance of Health† highlights the importance of the level of health care and the ethics of nursing care in patients’ treatment. The aim of nursing is to maintain well-being by prevention of injuries and avoidance of illnesses. A healthy citizenry is the primary aim of any government public health program. On the other hand, there are many resource constraints which can prevent the government from giving a much-needed help for health care to everyone of its citizens. This paper discusses the many ways by which the nursing profession can also do its part as a crucial member of the health care team. It is always a good mindset to not rely on the government in all instances, such as in health care. There are clearly limits to what the government can do, given its limited budget and also the very bureaucratic nature of governance; help may not be forthcoming at all or it might get delayed. In particular, this paper looks at how changing demographi cs has increased the number of elderly citizens in most countries today. This group of people is the most vulnerable of all, in terms of access to health care, financial resources, and the onset of many age-related ailments or diseases. Older or senior citizens therefore require special attention because of these factors. The overall aging (graying) of society is not confined to just a few countries. Advances in medical or scientific knowledge also contributed to longer lifespans, so there are now more older people. Most senior citizens are parents and grandparents, with families of their own and many offspring who love them for their warmth, wisdom, and accumulated knowledge. Their impact on the overall community is their presence gives younger people and families a certain sense of importance and continuity in terms of inter-generational relationships. The importance of them staying healthy is that the community can exert effort on more productive activities and not get tied down to caring for them and spending financial resources for their medication and treatment. To stay healthy is to save precious dollars which impacts positively on the whole community. The primary responsibility for senior group health is on the members of their own family who have to take care of them and provide for their material

Animal Senses Biology magnetoreception mechanism on Migratory Birds Essay

Animal Senses Biology magnetoreception mechanism on Migratory Birds - Essay Example Birds have various times of migration. Some birds migrate during the day like swallows and crows, while some migrate at night such as warblers, cuckoos, wild fowls and woodpeckers, as well as most songbirds (Engels 1). Stimuli such as internal body clocks or subtle weather changes cause these birds to migrate, and this ability can be explained by a phenomenon called magnetoreception, which is the ability of some organisms to detect the Earth’s magnetic field in perceiving direction, altitude or location (Solov'yov 40). The Earth’s magnetic field can be detected through various mechanisms such as chemical, electrical and mechanical means, and any of these stimuli can be converted into a molecular signal like a light-stimulated or photochemical reaction in the retina, which can then be recognized and perceived by magnetoceptive organisms like birds and insects (41). Hypotheses in the mechanisms of magnetoreception in birds There are various mechanisms hypothesized for mag netoreception to occur in birds, and one of these is the phenomenon involving a chemical compass where chemical reactions occur involving the transitions of electrons between high and low energy configurations or spin states, influenced by the Earth’s magnetic field (Rodgers 353). ... The amount of products from this reaction and the length of the half-life time of the radical base pair would depend on the strength of the detected magnetic field. The strength of the magnetic field determines the amount of radical base products and their length of half-life, and their linear relationship can be used to determine the strength of the magnetic field (Ritz 135; Rodgers 353). Thus, the stronger the magnetic field, the radical base pair mechanism would be producing more molecules with unpaired electrons, which in turn keeps the bird in its intended direction. These reactions occur in the photoreceptor region of the bird’s eye, helping the birds detect the strength of Earth’s magnetic field through radical base pair mechanism. The radical spinning is explained by hyperfine interactions, and these happen when there is a coupling between the magnetic moments of the unpaired electron and its atomic nucleus (Ritz 135). The interchanging conversions between the s inglet state and the triplet state is a process whose frequency is determined by the strength of the hyperfine reactions. This system is not only influenced by the intensity but also by the direction of the field, which makes it act like a compass (136). The tendency of one component of hyperfine reaction to be strong towards one direction only determines the interchanging conversion rate of the S and T state. Thus the effects of the magnetic field would be depending on the direction of the magnetic field with respect to the alignment of the radical pairs. These are the mechanisms by which birds are able to travel at night. Photoreceptor mechanisms in birds Birds have two types of light receptors in their eye: night vision