Critical Analysis of Thomas Hardy’s Novel Tess of the D’urbervilles Essay

Thomas Hardy is on of the brightest representatives of English realism at the end of 19th and the beginning of 20th century. At that time, a new stage in the development of the English literature began, characterized with the conflict between the supporters of realism and the new modernist artistic directions. He learned from his predecessors to raise important and interesting problems, to tell interesting stories , to portray interesting characters and to describe the environment. Hardy is defined as classic of English literature as well as regional novelist, master of personalities and circumstances, the first real artist of Nature and human nature. The general features of his novels are pessimism, tragedy and fatalism . These characteristics also define Hardy as the first creator of tragic novels in the English literature . The roots of this worldview go back in to his homeland full with remains of ancient times and also in his inability to understand the social changes occurring in England. The disappointment of the village atheist from the big city, regarded by him as the source and symbol of evil, disintegration of the patriarchal peasant family, which he idealizes as a symbol of strong morality and real moral virtues becomes central theme in his novels . That is fully represented in Tess of the d’Ubervilles. The novel belongs to the group of novels called for character and circumstances. It can be defined as social, because it is placed in a specific social context, but it can also be defined as moral and psychological. It is like a monograph of a personality but it is also a monograph of a period as well. A tragic story stands in the center of the novel and that is the story of the main female character Tess Durbeyfield and her life filled with plenty of unusual and exciting meetings, adventures and misadventures. The novel is divided in several parts , called phases . They are named : The Maiden , Maiden No More , The Rally , The Consequence , The woman pays , The convert , The Fulfilment . With the titles of each phase the author directs to the main plot points and sets basic suggestions about what is happening. The novel covers four years of the life of Tess. Several images are shown- the homeland of Tess, her house, the f arms, the church and the opposition village-city. It is no coincidence that Hardy is called master of personalities and circumstances. In the novel he uses a dramatic form , which means disclosure of the relationship between group of characters (Alec, Tess, Angel) and epic form : story disclosure of a person (Tess). This is dictated by his desire to better express the problem of human destiny and also to express his strongest side – the ability to trace the universal connection between human and the surrounding environment. Hardy introduces unknown and ordinary people out of touch with the turbulent stage of life in the big city and he endows them with strong passion and spiritual nobility. They face the perpetual problems of life and death , the power of human passions and the human happiness. With the transform of the limited provincial scene and its small people into a great drama with universal significance his artistic power is really shown. The story develops in a dramatic order- the events follow each other in a specific rhythm which leads to the denouement. The stories are told in a simple and clear manner because the characters involved are fully developed . Tomas Hardy succeeds to present his characters in a comprehensive manner and he achieves that with the ability to observe each gesture and with sensitivity to all that is unique to an individual. The main character of the novel is Tess Durbeyfield. She is a beautiful, pure and kind , very attached to her family, responsible and hardworking. Right from the beginning Hardy specifies the type of the character and implies that there is something different about her and her fate is predetermined. With that the character becomes predictable in a sense for the reader and it is expected that she will succumb to sin. One of the events in the first part- the death of the horse which Tess feels guilty about becomes a catalyst for the change in her life. Under the influence of her parents and sense of responsibility, she agrees to leave her home and accept the challenges and responsibilities o f the independent life in the estate of Alec d’Urberville. This moment in the novel acts as a inception of the action because it puts an imprint on the further life of the heroine. Placed in an unequal and humiliating relationship – worker-master, she is assaulted by Alec who not only violates her honour but also her feelings. Tess tries to be strong , returns to home and gives birth to the illegally born child and reconciles with the reprehensible attitude of the community. But after the child dies she makes a choice and tries to seek her happiness. On the new working place the fate turns her good side towards the girl and Tess meets her first and big love- Angel Clare. This love restores the true nature of Tess. She becomes more sensitive and gives away warmth and kindness to everyone around her. The two lovers have a chance to restore their honour, dignity and the joy of life but it is radically conflicting with the requirements of the age, full with prejudice. For Angel and his mother, Tess is not pure and virtuous. Abandoned and rejected by her loved one, Tess again seeks salvation in her home and family to be rejected again. The disappointment of Angel , the loneliness and misery makes her go to the first man in her life- Alec. Tess does not fit entirely in the image of a victim because she makes her choice alone this time but on the other hand she is a victim because she is pressed by the circumstances. Her decisions are accompanied with doubts and concerns. Her clash with different manifestations of love and different understanding of moral values and dignity cause deep and painful self-analysis. The assessment of her own life is ruthless and she does not find mercy for herself. For Tess is enough knowing that she is going to die loved by Angel and get her retribution to Alec by killing him. The death of Tess is required by the genre and it is not unexpected. With the blessing of the marriage of her sister with Angel, the young woman rises above the prejudices of the society. Do you accept the heroine’s qualification as a â€Å"pure woman†? Why (not)? In the first and the second part of the novel the answer is yes because the ruin of Tess happens by force and due to her innocence and trustfulness rather than depravity. But on the second encounter with Alec, Tess makes an unforgivable compromise which defiles her purity. If there is something pure in Tess that is her love and soul.

Disneyland Paris Marketing Strategy Essay

In this essay, the point of interest will be the market research disaster of Walt Disney Company after they opened a Disney park in Europe. The Walt Disney Company had experienced a big failure in the theme park business. Having successfully opened parks in the US and Asia, the idea to open one in Europe came natural. The city of Paris was chosen to host the new theme park. That was the first of many decisions that led to a very unsuccessful opening of EuroDisney. Many factors contributed to EuroDisney’s ‘unhealthy’ performance during its first few year of activity and many of these factors could have been avoided if the proper research would have been done. The first problem with EuroDisney was that Paris was the town chosen to be this park’s home. Paris was the perfect city to build the famous park in firstly because of the demography but the wrong one when it comes to its customs and culture. There were many marketing and operational errors that echoed into the park’s unsuccessful opening. For example, EuroDisney’s advertising had emphasized Disney’s image as an alluring bit of Americana culture rather than thinking of the French customers. EuroDisney’s image-marketing did not explain to Europeans what the theme park was or what attractions it had to offer the European consumer. Advertising was so focused on the size of the park and the glamour behind it, that this poor marketing strategy hurt overall business. 1 The Walt Disney Company had taken a golden step towards Japan and driven by their first success on Asian territory considered it logical to be the same in Europe. The first years in Europe have proved the contrary. A combination of factors contributed to a disastrous start in Paris. The biggest factor contributing to the poor performance was the failing cultural adaptation. Disney was build and promoted in Europe as a piece of wonderful America. Everything about the park was American and cultural differences between America and Europe were completely neglected. This resulted not only in negative experiences by customers itself, but also in a heavy load of criticism from the intellectual segment of France, which traditionally didn’t have good relations with ‘Americanism’. 2 Besides the cultural problems, a lot of secondary factors contributed to the big failure. We must think of customers’ pockets. The price to enter the park and especially staying at the hotels, was too high in the European mindset and customers weren’t willing to spend this amount of money. As we have already explained, the French culture was not the perfect one to absorb the specific American product, as one other reason is that the English language is still unpopular in France and the American style isn’t much appreciated; in this case the cultural adaptation went wrong in almost every aspect. The EuroDisney management team seems to have been poorly informed or have done superficial research on the European culture and market. 1 â€Å"The Cultural Barbarism of EuroDisney.† 123HelpMe.com. 06 Jan 2013 http://www.123HelpMe.com/view.asp?id=167709 2 Ibidem When Disney opened EuroDisney in Paris, the park was a symbol of American culture. The cultural adaptation that was necessary to make the park a success didn’t cross the mind of the Disney team. The problems Disney encountered when entering Europe with Disneyland were not only because of the behavior of the French, it was the neglecting of (European) culture in general that made EuroDisney a disaster. So, concluding all the arguments: the main methodological mistake made was the choosing of the place of their park. The first and most striking mistake was not France or any specific country, but the problem was adapting to culture in general. EuroDisney’s entry strategy should have been used keeping in mind the customer and the end user of the product, in this case the ordinary Frenchman. The entry strategy should have taken into consideration all cultural aspects of their venture The strategy should be conceived after a thorough research conducted to help Disney enter the European market. The answer to how the Walt Disney Company should market the destination to potential customers & other stakeholders is partially answered with the quote below: As a whole, a move by any company to any foreign market should not be made without an extensive, in-depth study based on exhaustive research into every applicable aspect of the economy, laws, culture, climate, interests, customs, life-style habits, geography, and work habits. This integration of differing management practices is typical with any company doing business abroad. However, a great deal of time, patience, understanding, education, and willingness to accept and/or compromise are needed from all parties involved in order to make this integration successful. 3 A new EuroDisney park would not fit in the European picture for the same reasons we discussed above: the cultural environment, language, vacation and entertainment rituals, etc. In any case, the American style and culture shown in ‘Disney’ should be narrowed down as much as possible to adapt to any of the European countries in order for it to be a success. 3 Eurodisney Research Design.† 123HelpMe.com. 06 Jan 2013 http://www.123HelpMe.com/view.asp?id=164935

Analytical Report Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words - 1

Analytical Report - Essay Example The system will generate SMS messages to the subscribed students and faculty about the upcoming events taking place in SEECS UNIVERSITY. It will keep them informed about the class schedules and any activity taking pace in the institute. Messages will be automated and the administration will not have to write the content manually. Our system will be flexible so that the admin of the SEECS UNIVERSITY will be able to send the information of their choice and moderate it accordingly without any problems. The project will also contain a web portal where the students, faculty can interact with the interface. The web portal will maintain all the admin tasks. The students and faculty will have special forums to discuss about any activity, topic and sharing of ideas. Those forums will be accessible both through web and SMS. Problem Statement: SNS will be an automated SMS based notification system that will generate automatic notifications about upcoming events, class schedules, announcements. Our system will also enable the students to interact with each other via SMS and web based discussion forums. Students will also be able to get reminder about the class with location of the classroom. Main challenges in implementation are dissociation between different subscribers. Every subscriber will get message of only his/her related subscribed service. Ensuring security will also be another challenge. Our system will ensure absolutely no spamming. A centralized control is necessary to deploy that will be a major task. Masking the cell number of the sender will also be ensured in our system so that if someone does not want to expose his/her cell number to everyone will be able to do so. Related Work and Literature Survey: SEECS UNIVERSITY is already using NINS, an SMS notification system to notify the students about any activity. But this system lacks automation. There are some defined groups, the operation personnel have to select the groups, write the message manually and sen d it. There are no concepts of automatic timers, SMS alerts about any emergency, inter communication between students and faculty. There is no integration with â€Å"SEECS UNIVERSITY website† and event calendar updates are needed to be sent manually for notification. That means that if someone does not have internet access in a certain situation, He or She is unable to find about the event that is updated in the event calendar. Our proposed project will be automated. It will generate SMS alerts based on timers. A separate web portal will be maintained for the administration for registering, allowing deleting subscribers, student, faculty discussions because there is no user friendly and proper interface of NINS right now. Using our system the faculty will be able to get the reminders of their schedules, which right now is absent in NINS. A Student will be able to interact, using SMS service with the whole class wherever He or She might be even without internet access. Right n ow there is no such service provided by NINS. All the control is with the admin and a student cannot convey his message, important news or notification regarding any activity if He or She does not have a cell number of

International Business Practices - cultural differences Essay

International Business Practices - cultural differences - Essay Example The best method is to wait until Australian partner brings these subjects and not to be afraid to express the opinion even if it completely different. Similar to Australians, South African partners might discuss social issues as well, including race policies. The concept of political correctness is very important - it is acceptable to talk about race without imposing the personal views. Interestingly, South African business partners tend to talk about anything except for business. For example, the common interest in sports can solidify the personal side of the business relations (South Africa Business Etiquette, 2003). If the sales manager expresses the desire to see a cricket match or any other national sport, the further business communication will much improve and be beneficial for both sides. Knowledge of this business ethics can help the PM company to do business more effectively in South Africa. The culture in Britain is very unlike to Australia and South Africa. British partner will never discuss social issues or common sports interests with the stranger. British are more reserved and value personal distance in business relations (United Kingdom Business Etiquette, 2003).

Recuitment & selectionCMI LEVEL 3 DiPLOMA Assignment

Recuitment & selectionCMI LEVEL 3 DiPLOMA - Assignment Example The process of hiring the candidates starts with human resource planning which helps to determine the type and number of employees an organization needs. Hiring is an ongoing process and not confined to the formative stages of an organization. This is because some employees leave the organization through retirement and resignation. The process stops only when the organization ceases to exist. Answer 2 It is regarded as the systematic process of identifying jobs to identify the various activities, tasks and responsibilities which are associated with a particular job or a particular group of jobs. The main purpose of the job description is to gather information systematically, focus on behaviour, tasks and outcomes. Although, it is not the analysis of work process yet it helps in defining the job related to the process the work behaviour (Bennett, 2002). Job analysis will help in the analysis of various organizational purposes that provides a fundamental basis for managerial decision m aking. It also helps the manager for various fundamental bases for legal decision making and develops broader decision classification. It helps the managers largely to classify the various jobs according to various categories and then adapt to the changing world dynamics. For conducting an accurate job analysis a systematic flowchart needs to be drawn which help in drawing out reliable information (Price, 2011). Answer 3 Job description can be clearly defined as a clear and concise description of the job duties and responsibilities. The job description can take various forms and they are composed of four elements (Choi, Woods and Murrmann, 2000). These include job summary, list of job functions, requirement sections and other information. The main objective of the job description would include task of finding, interviewing and also makes the hiring and selection process easier and smooth. These job descriptions also serve important purposes like communicating job expectation to the employees, measuring future performance, planning of future and also boosting the employee morale. Answer 4 Person specification includes the skills that the job candidates have in order to accomplish the tasks effectively for a designation offered by the company. The person specification can outline the basic qualification, training expertise, experience and much other personal specification. These describe the job requirements which a job holder needs to possess to execute the job actions smoothly. Basically, these person specifications include the educational, qualification, training, experience and varied other personal attributes. The most important methods of creating the advertisement would be to make them understand that they can undertake the job responsibility dutifully. Task B Presently, there had been a sudden vacancy in the organization for the post of the receptionist and the process of recruitment of receptionist would be as per the requirements of the organization. T he process of recruitment would be as follows: Firstly, a group of prospective candidates are selected for screening and interview purposes to assess their degree of qualities and knowledge in terms of

The Medieval Age Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

The Medieval Age - Essay Example This made the Nobles rebel against the crown often, as they controlled their own local armies. In Manorialism, the 1000’s of acres which belonged to the manor was owned entirely by the nobles. They had complete administrative control over the areas. But, the military power lay entirely with the king preventing Noble's ability to revolt against their lords. Manorialism gave more freedom to the peasants, serfs and the nobles ruling them. They were freed from the duty of guarding their territories fiercely and started to concentrate on developing the areas assigned to them. This system functioned pretty much the same way as the modern governments do. The Last Crusade and the fall of the AcreVenice and Genoa both flourished in trade from 1010. The first crusade started with an emotive appeal from the pope on November 27, 1095. Christians from all over the Europe joined together and waged a war against Muslims in getting their holy land back. This is seen as a .attempt by the churc h to sustain papal control over the mass. However, the first crusade ended successfully with Antioch being captured and King Bohemund of Southern Italy and his descendants becoming its rules for the next two centuries. He encouraged the Italians to establish trade connections with Egypt through Antioch. Venice was the first state to establish trade contacts with Egypt a. They met the Egyptian merchants bringing spices from the South Asia near the Red sea, collected their goods and sold it for huge profit in the Europe.

Applying a reading as a lens Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Applying a reading as a lens - Essay Example Forty years on in today’s world, men can be viewed through the same lens once considered only for women; today’s ‘ideal’ spectator may be female, looking at the nudity or semi-nudity of a man. The term nudity rather than nakedness is intentionally used here in light of Berger’s reference to the dichotomy between nakedness and nudity (), wherein if a person is naked they maintain self but to be nude that person becomes an object on display for the satisfaction of others. The depiction of the male in (Fig.1) is nude not naked and is an object for the desire of women and men. I say men, because such an image would also appeal to men whose sexual preference is for other men; I say men because the same image would appeal to hegemonic men who desire the same muscled physique as that paraded in the photograph. The author of this advertisement has considered his audience, his spectators, through a very wide lens and has been able to present an image that is exhibited in such a way as to allure the largest possible number of voyeurs. He has turned a man rather than a women ‘into and object – and most particularly an object of vision: a sight’ (Berger ). His visual representation provides evidence of his way of seeing what his intended audience wants to see; in other words, in his mind, through his lens he has defined his audience. Through his lens he sees one primary audience – one that is driven by sexual desires, which by definition transgresses all boundaries of gender. While the creator of this image has determined an image of his audience, the viewer can at the same time determine a picture of the creator. As a viewer looking at this photographic advertisement, I see it as having been created by somebody that understands how human nature is driven by sexuality and that in today’s world of equality and desire for perfection, such sexuality can be enticed by a male body. If the same advertisement pre sented a female body the creator would more likely lose a percentage of his spectators – homosexual males. I see a creator who is astute in selection of person for the image because it is that of the famous footballer and metrosexual David Beckham, which provides additional fodder for enticement. Fig.1 Calvin Klein What is particularly worthy of mention in this advertisement is the way in which the eyes of the image are looking directly at his spectators, as if to talk without speaking, knowing they are there looking at him in the same way that for Berger men look at women. In paintings discussed by Berger too the women rarely looked out to their audience but instead looked away or down (). Another difference between this photograph and the portrayal of women in European nude paintings is that women were exposed as submissive (Berger )wherein here the connotations are far from submissive; instead we get a sense of brazen assertiveness, a kind of ‘come and get me if you dare’ impression. There seems to be a fine line between this advertisement in fact, and soft pornography and the creator is inviting his spectators to a voyeuristic screening. While the body is displayed for its audience and to appeal to the sexuality of that audience, it still has much to do with the man’s own sexuality, unlike the same picture of a female displayed in the same way. There is no attempt to provide the spectator with a sense of ownership (as was the intent of female nudes) by minimizing the man’

Early childhood education Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

Early childhood education - Research Paper Example Early Childhood Education (ECD) is one of the substantial and essential components for the students that help them grow in every field of their lives that can lead them to the attainment of success, status, and prosperity. With the advancements and developments that the world is encountering, the educational and learning curriculum and the teaching methods have improved and enhanced in a continuous way that have left an indelible impression on the achievement of the student’s progress in a productive and positive manner Education is the learning, knowledge, insight and the information that students get in their academic levels that can provide them with an understanding about how and in which direction to lead their lives. Moreover, quality in education helps the students to make their lives in a much better position as they have the power of knowledge. Due to such importance, that education holds in itself, education, and predominantly early childhood education is one of the prime concerns that cannot come under ignorance. Nonetheless, like any other sphere of influence, the area of education also has numerous issues that the students’ experience in their academic lives (Saracho & Spodek, pp. 1-4). Besides, students have a strong need to develop specific skills that takes account of problem solving, analytical and critical thinking skills in order to survive and cope up the world of global competition. Early childhood educators play an integral role in setting the underpinning for developing the future leaders of the planet. However, with respect to the broad spectrum of early childhood education, the primary and first question that comes to mind is regarding the program of study of the students. Therefore, the thesis statement of the dissertation is â€Å"when designing the curriculum for the preschool of young child’s classroom, what are the prime concern areas, concepts or subjects to focus that can lead to the progress of the student in a most constructive way†. Literature Review According to various researches, it has come under notice that the physical environment of the classroom plays a significant role in the learning styles of the students that has failed to come under notice and ignored to great extent. In addition, these studies conclude that the prime focus of the educators or the teachers is only on pedagogy, content of the core curriculum and interpersonal dynamics, which eradicates their focus from the physical contexts, which is one of the imperative contributors of teaching and learning. The physical environment of the classroom includes the classroom setting as well as the outdoor setting. However, these studies conclude that by changing the classroom environment that persuade and endorse play would facilitate in escalating and promoting literacy activities among children during their early childhood or preschool years (Essa, pp. 189-191). In addition, the environment ought to be such that m ust provide opportunities to the children that can lead them to explore and learn. Studies also exhibit that the arrangement of shelves, comfortable and sturdy furniture, learning materials displayed on shelved and classroom design on an overall basis when taken into strong consideration demonstrates to be very fruitful (Essa, pp. 192-195). According to some schools of thoughts, it has come under observation that teachers and educators of early childhood is another vital and crucial facet that must have a proper background knowledge and information regarding the early childhood education or child development. This is because courses related to such studies provide massive emphasis on the development of the child and the

Information System Security Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 14000 words

Information System Security - Essay Example 31): Computer systems thus have to be constantly available, secure and accurate. To ensure this, adequate and effective risk management practices must be in place – that is, risk management must be effectively integrated into an organization’s existing security model, having readily available solutions for security threats and being ever vigilant for novel security threats as they develop. The purpose of this study is to identify the role of risk management as part of the security model of modern information systems. To address this objective, the researcher primarily undertook a comprehensive review of related literature. The gained knowledge is then applied to a case study to illustrate the potential value of the area under investigation. For ensuring system security, an organisation ought to implement an efficient security model and carry out certain analyses and implementation steps. This Question will research how Risk management is defined in the literature and of which components it consists of. In addressing risk management, the role of risk analysis is investigated as an important tool in analysing the shortcomings of an organisation’s security system. It will then identify the different methods available to organisations to implement a sound risk management paradigm. For the identification of the risks faced by modern information systems, the researcher identified and presented the most common risks and threats a modern information system faces today and how they have developed over time. The study investigated several external and internal risks and the technologies used by people who pose threats. The researcher proceeds with a detailed analysis of the available technologies for risk reduction in information systems. Dutta & McCrohan (2002) assert that commercial operations have always been wrought with security problems, and over the years, several ways of responding to these issues have evolved. The increasing popularity

Health of the Aging (CASE) Module 1 Coursework Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Health of the Aging (CASE) Module 1 - Coursework Example These reforms create cost-sharing and premium subsidies, create new markets for purchasing of health insurance, and develop new rules that would govern health insurance and the involved industry (Rosenbaum, 2011). The second element that has an impact on the elderly involves ensuring accessibility of the populations that are medically underserved to primary health care. Due to the elevated health risks involved with the elderly, they remain underserved in the society, thus prompting for the need of establishment of a system that will provide utmost care for them. The provision of long-term care has a direct impact on the elderly as most of the elderly individuals suffer from chronic illnesses such as diabetes among others, which require lifetime management (Rosenbaum, 2011). The intent of the Health insurance coverage reforms is to establish standards that guide insurers to mitigate the discrimination that initially existed against older people and other highly vulnerable groups including women and children (Rosenbaum, 2011). As such, this element bans the annual coverage limitations, use of conditions already in existence and prolonged waiting periods. On the other hand, the intent of improving the accessibility to primary health care is to mitigate the shortage in health care professionals, who provide primary health care. This can be achieved through investing in the development of the community health centers and the establishment of the National Health Service Corps. Lastly, the intent of the long-term care initiative is to protect the families of individuals who are terminally ill from becoming bankrupt through the establishment of Medicaid options that facilitate community-based care (Rosenbaum, 2011). The Patient Protection and Affordable Act is likely to lead to low access to Medicare for the older adults in the long term given that it mandates Medicare payment reductions. As such, funding cuts on the involved services have a direct

Shooting Dad Essay Example for Free

Shooting Dad Essay Sarah Vowell is best known for her smart, witty spoken essays she delivers on public radio. One of her writings called, â€Å"Shooting Dad†, is a view into her, â€Å"lifelong opposition to her father†. In the essay called â€Å"Shooting Dad†, Vowell states that â€Å"during her teenage years she came from a home that was divided†. She compared her home environment to a Civil War Battlefield. Vowell was a gunsmith’s daughter, and her views on the Second Amendment were completely different than her father’s. Vowell shares the story, when her father takes her and her sister, Amy, in the backyard to teach them how to shoot a gun. Vowell and her sister are only six years old, and she recalls how holding the gun made her feel small. She states the sound was big, it kicked her to the ground, and it hurt. After this incident with shooting a gun, Vowell wanted to never touch another gun again. Not long ago, Vowell’s father builds a nineteenth-century cannon, from scratch. She becomes open-minded to the concept, that this is not just a gun to her father. She views the cannon as a â€Å"map of all his obsessions†. Vowell explains that if she was ever going to understand her father then shooting the cannon, with him, was her only chance. Total Word Count: 199 During this experience Vowell realizes that she and her father are not that different at all. She views her father and herself as the same. She refers to her father and herself as, â€Å" smart-alecky loners with goofy projects and weird equipment. Once Vowell begins to open her mind, to the idea that the cannon was not just another gun, she begins to see her father from a different perspective. When Vowell was younger, her view on guns was based off her experience, when she was six years old. She felt it was decided, that guns were not for her. Therefore, this clouded her perspective on guns and all that was associated with guns. Until her father built the cannon and she became open-minded to the idea, her view on guns was distorted. A new idea cannot be grafted on a closed mind, an opening must be made. Vowell’s father building the cannon was her opening. This allowed her, to have the opportunity to view her father in a different way. Vowell viewed the cannon as â€Å"unwieldy and impractical†, just like everything else she cared about. Her view, with the cannon, changes in comparison to what she likes. This shows that she became more open-minded to the concept of her father’s interest in guns. Until Vowell became open-minded, to her father’s view point she could not relate. However, once she could relate, she saw her father in a different light.

Will The New Technologies Affect Leadership And Leaders

Will The New Technologies Affect Leadership And Leaders Abstract The article presented here talks about the influence of technology on leaders and leadership. The article starts with identifying the key practices that a leader need to perform in a typical organization and then states the ways in which, technology has influenced these practices. The article present two aspects, one is key roles and responsibilities of leader and characteristics of leadership and then presents how technology has its influence. In the end, the article make justification of the concerned topic i.e. is technology has an impact on leadership and leaders or not. Key words: technology, leader, leadership Introduction A leader is a person who motivates its employee to perform high. According to few management gurus, what the corporate world needs are leaders and not managers. Leaders main work is to motivate the employees for harder work. Leader is very widespread character that could be originate in any area of a company. Leadership is the quality which is possessed by the leader. In any leadership stream the most significant work is to motivate people to work under him. Leadership can better defined as the process and set of activities by which the leader establishes a social influence on the people by imparting them support and helps who are working for the achievement of common goal. It is the leadership of the leader to bring out the maximum contribution from an individual as possible. A leader must have a quality leadership. He could also provide people working for him the social security so that they feel secure under him and should also be able to motivate people for common beliefs. (Dee) The issue of the report is to discuss the impact of technology on leaders and leaderships. We know that in last few decades, the technology has developed too many folds. This technology has changed the working process of employees and entire organization. No one today thinks of working without a computer and the world is entirely connected to each other. The report will thus, try to find out the impact of these technological advancements on the leadership styles and on leader too. Methodology and Discussion: Leaders enjoy a great amount of powers in the organization. With these powers leaders are said to be engaged in power-politics that is using the authority for own sake. Leaders faces a lot of problems in an organization in terms of issues related to power and politics. The first one is managing diversity at work place. In country like UAE, where the workforce is completely diverse in terms of cultural background, education etc, managing diversity is a big challenge for the leaders. The leaders also have to maintain proper communication with the employees. Literatures suggest that this is one of the primary causes of leaders problem in the organization.  [1]   Another issue which leaders have to face is regarding work environment. Work environment is a major constituent of an effective organizational culture. The work environment not only constitutes the physical constituents of the location but also the culture of the work like senior-subordinate relations. (Pilerot, 2009) Another issue which leaders need to address is employee training. The problem here is that when new technology is introduced in the company to cut operational expenses, the work and expectation from the employees also changes a lot. So there is a clear need to employee training. Employees are needed to be trained at new technology so that they are able to be a part of companys cost cutting scheme. Employee training is a necessary part of any organization which needs to be happen periodically. Also, the modern high competitive world has generated new concerns like work life balance etc for leaders to address. Introducing technology here, technology has provided many of the tools and ways for organization to produce effectively and also to manage their workforce effectively. Employees can now work from their home as technology keeps then connected to the office. The works which use to take days can now be addressed very quickly and precisely as now there are softwares and hardware to address the problems. In the later part of the report, we will focus on how the technology has influenced on leadership and leaders keeping in mind the discussion regarding roles and problems a leader faces in an organization. (Dee) Technology and work life balance: As discussed earlier that one of the key issue a leader needs to address is the work life balance of the employees. In this highly competitive world, every organization wants its employees to perform as effectively as they want. The labor laws which use to restrict the working hours and just dummy rules now the problem of work life balance is on high alert these days. Leaders are constantly facing problem to retain their employees and to keep them motivated towards the work place. Here, technology forwards its hands to help leaders. With development in technology, employees are no more restricted to work in office premises. Employees can now work from their home as technology keeps then connected to the office. The works which use to take days can now be addressed very quickly and precisely as now there are softwares and hardware to address the problems. What leaders now use to do is to email the work to the employee assigning the time line and the employees have to do the work witho ut any restriction of attendance in the office. So, if the employees have a high propriety work, he can address the work while working from this home. This also saves the time consumed in travelling etc and adds to work life balance of the employee. This adds to the job satisfaction of the employees and also helps leaders to keep the trust of the employees in the organization as using these techniques gives a message to the employees that leader do think about them. (Pilerot, 2009) Technology helps leaders to manage work force diversity The world today is a single entity. The borders of nations have not left with any restrictions on passage of trade and business. This has made the global GDP to increase with many folds. The other outcome of this globalization is diversity. There could be no better example than UAE which has more people of foreign origin than the natives. The issue of managing a diverse workforce is increased too. Technology again helps leaders to address the problem. One important problem raised to leaders by diversity is managing documents in different languages. Technical solutions like translators, converters are now helping leaders to communicate with the employee in their native languages. For example, Google translator is used in UAE to convert Arabic documents to English and vice-versa. Leaders thus can communicate properly with employees of other ethnic origin. (G. Sheard, 2009) Leaders issue of maintaining communication with the employees: For any leader, maintain proper communication with the employee is a key issue. Leaders need to know the views of the employees, their perception of any issue or decision, and employee aspect of company policy. The size of any organization is the most significant obstacle in this direction. Also to keep the records of every communication with every single person is out of scope of common individual. Technology again helps leaders in this perspective. The leaders now can maintain digital copy of their communications with employees. Emails, chats, memos, reminders are now all digitized. The leader can record important events like meeting with a group of employees, birthdays of employees etc on electronic calendars which make the probability of missing any information close to zero. (Albion, n.d) Technology also is providing different ways of communication. For information communication needs, there are ways like cell phones, chats, video conferencing etc by which a leader can keep touch with the employee. Now the leader can exactly see what the employee is doing and how he is doing the work. Taking about few new advancements too, there is a facility to share your computer screen with others via internet so that now the leader can see what the employee is doing, the progress of his work etc. So technology has changed the way a leader communicates with his employees and has increased the efficiency to great heights. Technology is helping leaders to conduct trainings Another issue which leaders need to address is employee training. The problem here is that when new technology is introduced in the company to cut operational expenses, the work and expectation from the employees also changes a lot. So there is a clear need to employee training. Employees are needed to be trained at new technology so that they are able to be a part of companys cost cutting scheme. The problem here is employees are reluctant towards change and there are evidences which prove that employees have negative attitude towards undergoing training. This attitude increases an issue of motivating employees towards training for leaders. Leaders again get support of technology for addressing this problem. An example is Learning Management system. One case is of Aventis Pharmaceuticals and IBM which implemented learning management system. It is critical in enabling an organization to compliance with modern business standards. LMS enables employees to register online, join other business training activities and personalizing training records by conferences, meetings and documenting training taken outside the LMS. With the help of technology like LMS, leaders can now arrange trainings for the employees in more efficient manner than before. (Dee) Technology help leaders to establish a sound work environment: Another issue where technology is helping leaders is establishing a sound work environment. The business structure now a day is required to be employee friendly and at the same time should encourage employees to perform effectively. This is a tough task for leaders as these demands are contradictory to each other. Technology again has a role here to address the issue. With efficient ways to maintain proper communication, managing diversity and other issues addressed earlier, technology helps leaders to build an efficient as well as employee friendly environment. Critical Analysis: From the above discussion it is clear that technology has influenced almost every aspect of leadership and leaders role. But we see critically analyze it, we will found that the leader still have to manage communication with the workforce, leader still has to ensure that employee are satisfied with the company in terms of work life balance. Leader even after great advancements in technology has to look for training needs of the employees. (Albion) All these shows that technology do has influenced the ways in which leaders used to work but the basic roles of leaders and concern of leadership practices are static. Conclusion: On the basis of the report, we can say that even with the great advancements in technology, the basic roles and practices that leaders and leadership involve are still the same. The primary roles of leaders incorporate managing work force diversity, ensuring work life balance; encourage employee participation and most of all, directing the efforts of the employee to achieve the goals of the organization as a whole. With the advancements in technology, the ways in which leaders use to perform all these tasks can changed significantly but has not change the theme of leadership. Technology has greatly improved leaders ways to manage the workforce but has again given birth to new types of problems too. As we defined in introduction section, a leader is a person who motivates its employee to perform high. According to few management gurus, what the corporate world needs are leaders and not managers. Leaders main work is to motivate the employees for harder work. Technology has changed the way in which a leader works but has not changed the characteristics of leadership. (Pilerot, 2009)

Importance of Internal and External Business Analysis

Importance of Internal and External Business Analysis Introduction In the current business environment in which we do exist, there is need for one to be dynamic in order to survive. The business environments, both internal and external are changing fast and swiftly hence not giving chance to businesses and people who are static. Therefore, in order for one to progress in the current business environment, one needs to identify his or internal strengths and weaknesses (Guy, 2009). One also should be in a position to identify the possible opportunities and threats and be in a position to capitalize on these threats by the strengths and weaknesses at hand. Knowledge of Strategy and Economics â€Å"Strategy is the direction and scope of an organization over the long term: which achieves advantage in a changing environment through its configuration of resources and competences with the aim of fulfilling stakeholder expectations† (Guy, 2009). As the business environment becomes more difficult and competitive, there is need for companies and individuals to have strategies to aide them sail through. â€Å"A prescriptive strategy is one whose objective is defined in progress and whose main elements have been developed before the strategy commences.† (Skinner and Skinner, 2008). â€Å"An emergent strategy is one whose final objective is undecided and whose elements are developed during the course of its life, as the strategy proceeds.† (Abrahams, 2003). From the definations above, it could be seen that a prescriptive strategy provides clear set goals for a business. The prescriptive strategy would not be a good strategy for the agent as the business environment is changing. The emergent strategies would be most appropriates as, â€Å"Emergent strategy increases flexibility in a chaotic environment, allowing the business to respond to pressure and develop opportunities† (Cadle, Paul and Yeates, 2010). In a business environment that is constantly changing, forces or supply and demand constantly affecting the market hence price volatility. There are also imperfect market conditions meaning businesses could make either profits or losses depending on the sway of the market ((Cadle, Paul and Yeates, 2010). Agents should have good knowledge of this to allow the business to always be on the gaining side. Changing business Environment A changing business environment is expected for businesses that rely mostly on technologies and forces of demand and supply. The above-mentioned factors are not the only factors that lead to changes in business environment but there exist other factors. As an agent, one should have knowledge of these key factors, including globalization, rising incomes, rapidly changing technology, changing economic structure, e-commerce and skill requirement. The understanding of the business environment is a key aspect for any agent who would want to penetrate the business world. The above factors vary greatly thereby affecting the business environment accordingly. The agent should therefore use emergent strategies that enable a person to adapt in any changes in the external and internal environment. Changes in the price levels and changes in technology levels greatly affect the business plans and strategies. Agents should keep in mind such changes and be in a position to predict their changes in order to make appropriate strategies in the given industries. Strengths and Weaknesses Strengths of a person can either be analyzed as personal and professional. Professional strengths are those acquired through learning and experience thereby depend on the exposure of the agent. Personal Strengths are those acquired through the environment one has been brought up in hence are the characteristics of the agents. As an agent, the possession of various language skills enables one to be in a better position to communicate and express ideas better (Kaplan and Norton, 2001). As I possess knowledge in only one language, that creates a weakness that should be eliminated. My knowledge in numeracy skills gives me an advantage in the industry as I am in a position to interpret and predict key important factors in the business environment. The possession of moderate IT skills is both a strength and a weakness as I am not fully knowledgeable in the area but at least literate. Personal traits are also a key factor in the determining ones strengths and weakness. My interpersonal skills and self-organization increase my chances of associating well with the outside world. Time management is key of them all; this will enable me to strategies well and be in a position to predict the future in a right manner. A weakness exists in my risk taking ability therefore the need to avoid risk or learn on the best way to take risks. Connecting to the Environment Strengths could be seen as Numeracy skills, self-organization, time management and interpersonal skills. Weaknesses include risk taking ability, language and IT skills. Opportunities include changes in the price levels and changes in consumer preferences. Threats include globalization, experienced agents and rising in incomes causing inflation. With these in mind, I would opt for a job as a manager who would thrive to chief executive officer in time. Training in Information Technology and language skills will be of utmost importance. Communications skills will increase my employment base from local to international. Currently, with enough capital, the best business to set is the banking business. With increased rate of credit and reduced use of paper money, banking industry tends to be more profitable, (Abrahams, 2003). The best partners would be good financers and people who have special skills in the industry. I would pick them from all over but the first place to start would be from my friend list, as I know them better. Conclusion Analyzing of one’s strengths and weaknesses allows one to be in a position to capitalize on the opportunities and the threats available. Business Environment are known to change frequently due to various factors such as price and technology changes. Therefore, one should be able to choose the best strategy to implement in such a scenario. Emergent strategies are those strategies that can be manipulated with time unlike the prescriptive strategies that are set before the implementation process. For business that are changing, agents are advised to always update their education background and strategies in order to always fit whenever the turn the business may take. References Abrams, R., 2003.  The successful business plan. 1st ed. Palto Alto, Calif.: Planning Shop. Blair, A. and Hitchcock, D., 2001.  Environment and business. 1st ed. London: Routledge. Brooks, I., Weatherston, J. and Wilkinson, G., 2011.  The international business environment. 1st ed. Harlow, England: Financial Times/Prentice Hall. Cadle, J., Paul, D. and Yeates, D., 2010.  Business analysis. 1st ed. Swindon: British Informatics Society. Campbell, D. and Craig, T., 2005.  Organisations and the business environment. 1st ed. Amsterdam: Elsevier Butterworth-Heinemann. Cherunilam, F., 2010.  Business environment. 1st ed. Mumbai [India]: Himalaya Pub. House. Grote, J., Lang, A. and Schneider, V., 2008.  Organized business interests in changing environments. 1st ed. Basingstoke [England]: Palgrave Macmillan. Guy, F., 2009.  The global environment of business. 1st ed. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Kaplan, R. and Norton, D., 2001.  The strategy-focused organization. 1st ed. Boston, Mass.: Harvard Business School Press. Skinner, J. and Skinner, J., 2008.  Business plan, business reality. 1st ed. Toronto: Pearson Prentice Hall.

A Kinder Reader Essay -- Essays Papers

A Kinder Reader When one thinks of stories that improve us as human beings, Aesop’s Fables comes to mind, not the dark, dank, heroin‑laced world of Mohsin Hamid’s Moth Smoke. But, reading is like fashion, and one man’s cherished plaid pants are another man’s horror. Not all fiction can directly dole out moral advice, such as Jane Austen’s warnings about the dangers of hasty judgment in Pride and Prejudice, but almost all fiction can proffer tales that at the very least expand our range of vision. Moth Smoke brings us, its intended American audience, into the foreign world of modern day Pakistan. The protagonist, Daru, is recently unemployed, in love with his best friend’s wife and cultivating a small heroin addiction. Hamid puts the readers front and center of this foreign world by making them the judges of Daru. To step out of your surroundings, even if only for 245 pages, changes you, makes you unable to step back into the exact mold of a form er self you left behind. Your borders have shifted, been expanded, even if only by a fraction. Terry Eagleton brings these ideas to light in his book, Literary Theory, when he extrapolates on what it means to become a â€Å"better† person—a transformation in which, liberal humanists would argue, literature plays a part.1 At first glance Moth Smoke appears to be a novel left out of the running for this transformative seal of approval. How can a reader be morally transformed by a story that does not teach one how to â€Å"love thy neighbor† but rather the finer details of how to roll a joint while driving? But, after only a few pages Moth Smoke becomes a crash course in moral complexity, throwing readers head‑first into uncomfortable situations and then forcing them to make a... ...y sympathetic. So the box is wide. The crime is violent and despicable: the needless killing of a boy. So the box is long. And the defense invokes a grand conspiracy, corruption, which is particularly resonant these days. So the box is tall† (38). Professor Superb’s dimensions of the box serve as a tangible example of the judgment the reader must make. In each direction, on every axis of the box is a different, but equally valid, moral decision to be made. Transformative literature such as Moth Smoke forces its readers to expand their empathy in order to make such decisions with clarity and conviction. Notes 1. Terry Eagleton, Literary Theory (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1983). 2. All references in the text are to Mohsin Hamid, Moth Smoke (New York: Picador USA, 2000). 3. Eagleton, 210. 4. Eagleton, 208. 5. Eagleton, 208.

Charles Manson and the Manson Family Essay -- Murder Slaughter History

Charles Manson and the Manson Family   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã¢â‚¬Å"Jails, courtrooms and prisons had been my life since I was twelve years old.† (Emmons and Manson, 21) These are the words of Charles Milles Manson, a convicted serial killer who has never actually murdered a single person in his life. Manson was born â€Å"no name Maddox† on November 12, 1934, and has in fact been in prison for more than half of his life. (28) It was 1967, after Manson had just been released from the Federal Penitentiary at Terminal Island, San Pedro, when the â€Å"Manson Family† had begun to form. (85) In just two years the family would not only grow to a surprisingly large number, but become nationally known for the brutal murders of Sharon Tate, Voytek Frykowski, Jay Sebring, Abigail Folger, Steven Parent, Gary Hinman, Leno LaBianca, and Rosemary LaBianca. (Bugliosi and Gentry, 558) Although many people know of the â€Å"Manson Family†, few are aware of the lives the family members led before 1967; these are their stories. Mary Theresa Brunner is usually considered to be the first member of the Manson "Family." She was born on December 17, 1943, to parents John and Evelyn Brunner in Eau Claire, Wisconsin. Shortly after graduating from the University of Wisconsin she moved to California to accept a librarian position at UC Berkeley. It was there, while walking her poodle in the spring of 1967, that she met a man who had only weeks before walked out of a federal penitentiary. (Brunner) Perhaps the most well known of the "Manson girls" is Lynette Alice Fromme. She was born on October 22, 1948 in Santa Monica, California. Her mother, Helen Benzinger Fromme, was a homemaker and her father, William Millar Fromme, was an aeronautical engineer. Her father was known to be cold and intimidating; his treatment of his growing daughter was very harsh. Upon moving to the LA suburb of Redondo Beach in 1963, Lyn's grades began to suffer and she started drinking and abusing drugs. After barely graduating in 1966 she moved out of her parents' home and was supporting herself. After only a few months her newfound freedom ended at her father's insistence. She enrolled at El Camino Junior College and had only been there for a couple of months when a final argument with her father left her out on the streets with no place to go. She went to her boyfriend’s only to discover that he was not home, so she decided to head up ... ...ere originally sentenced to death by the gas chamber, but California did away with such a sentence.). Manson is currently seventy-years-old. (Parole) These seven people each came from completely different backgrounds, but all were searching for a new way of life. They all had found the life they were looking for with a thirty-two-year-old ex-convict from Cincinnati, Ohio. Together, they came to be known as the â€Å"Manson Family†, and together they achieved fame by taking the lives of eight innocent people in 1969. Works Cited Bugliosi, Vincent and Curt Gentry. Helter Skelter. New York: Bantam Books, 1974. Emmons, Nuel and Charles Manson. Manson In His Own Words. New York: Grove Press, 1986. www.charliemanson.com. Manson Family Photo Gallery #1. April 25, 2005. ---. Parole Hearings. April 25, 2005. www.charliesfamily.com. Lynette Fromme aka Squeaky, Red. April 25, 2005. ---. Leslie Van Houten. April 25, 2005. ---. Mary Brunner. April 25, 2005. ---. Patricia Krenwinkel aka Katie. April 25, 2005. ---. Susan Atkins aka Sadie. April 25, 2005. www.cielodrive.com. Charles Denton Watson. April 25, 2005. ---. Robert Kenneth Beausoleil. April 25, 2005. Charles Manson and the Manson Family Essay -- Murder Slaughter History Charles Manson and the Manson Family   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã¢â‚¬Å"Jails, courtrooms and prisons had been my life since I was twelve years old.† (Emmons and Manson, 21) These are the words of Charles Milles Manson, a convicted serial killer who has never actually murdered a single person in his life. Manson was born â€Å"no name Maddox† on November 12, 1934, and has in fact been in prison for more than half of his life. (28) It was 1967, after Manson had just been released from the Federal Penitentiary at Terminal Island, San Pedro, when the â€Å"Manson Family† had begun to form. (85) In just two years the family would not only grow to a surprisingly large number, but become nationally known for the brutal murders of Sharon Tate, Voytek Frykowski, Jay Sebring, Abigail Folger, Steven Parent, Gary Hinman, Leno LaBianca, and Rosemary LaBianca. (Bugliosi and Gentry, 558) Although many people know of the â€Å"Manson Family†, few are aware of the lives the family members led before 1967; these are their stories. Mary Theresa Brunner is usually considered to be the first member of the Manson "Family." She was born on December 17, 1943, to parents John and Evelyn Brunner in Eau Claire, Wisconsin. Shortly after graduating from the University of Wisconsin she moved to California to accept a librarian position at UC Berkeley. It was there, while walking her poodle in the spring of 1967, that she met a man who had only weeks before walked out of a federal penitentiary. (Brunner) Perhaps the most well known of the "Manson girls" is Lynette Alice Fromme. She was born on October 22, 1948 in Santa Monica, California. Her mother, Helen Benzinger Fromme, was a homemaker and her father, William Millar Fromme, was an aeronautical engineer. Her father was known to be cold and intimidating; his treatment of his growing daughter was very harsh. Upon moving to the LA suburb of Redondo Beach in 1963, Lyn's grades began to suffer and she started drinking and abusing drugs. After barely graduating in 1966 she moved out of her parents' home and was supporting herself. After only a few months her newfound freedom ended at her father's insistence. She enrolled at El Camino Junior College and had only been there for a couple of months when a final argument with her father left her out on the streets with no place to go. She went to her boyfriend’s only to discover that he was not home, so she decided to head up ... ...ere originally sentenced to death by the gas chamber, but California did away with such a sentence.). Manson is currently seventy-years-old. (Parole) These seven people each came from completely different backgrounds, but all were searching for a new way of life. They all had found the life they were looking for with a thirty-two-year-old ex-convict from Cincinnati, Ohio. Together, they came to be known as the â€Å"Manson Family†, and together they achieved fame by taking the lives of eight innocent people in 1969. Works Cited Bugliosi, Vincent and Curt Gentry. Helter Skelter. New York: Bantam Books, 1974. Emmons, Nuel and Charles Manson. Manson In His Own Words. New York: Grove Press, 1986. www.charliemanson.com. Manson Family Photo Gallery #1. April 25, 2005. ---. Parole Hearings. April 25, 2005. www.charliesfamily.com. Lynette Fromme aka Squeaky, Red. April 25, 2005. ---. Leslie Van Houten. April 25, 2005. ---. Mary Brunner. April 25, 2005. ---. Patricia Krenwinkel aka Katie. April 25, 2005. ---. Susan Atkins aka Sadie. April 25, 2005. www.cielodrive.com. Charles Denton Watson. April 25, 2005. ---. Robert Kenneth Beausoleil. April 25, 2005.

Free Narrative Essays - Canoeing :: Personal Narrative Essays

Canoeing: A to Z We were practicing methods of paddling Ruth Elvedt discusses in her book, Canoeing: A to Z. We did the side stroke, which pulls the canoe sideways. We did the back stroke, which makes the canoe reverse course. We also did the classic forward stroke to go forward. We became quite proficient in the art of spinning the canoe around in circles from combining the methods Ms. Elvedt discusses in her book. The numerous people who were floating close by laughed at us and called us idiots because of our unique practice of paddling. We interviewed Rich's uncle, Earl Keys, who claims to have floated The Current over a hundred times, prior to our departure for the river. He had warned us when we questioned him about his numerous float trips down Current River to be extremely careful when we came to a fast moving bend in the river called Wallace's Point. He said, "Wallace's Point is lined with so many root wads (root wads are clumps of tree stumps, roots, branches, leaves, and whatever else might float down the river) along the banks, and it has so many sunken canoes and sunken logs along it's main channel that safe passage through it is impossible - unless you stick to the right side of the bend." As we neared the end of a long straight away in the river, I noticed the speed of the water was increasing exponentially. A look farther down the river told me what I had been dreading this whole trip now lay before us, and we were going into Wallace's Point from the wrong side of the river! "Rich! Back-right stroke! Back-right stroke! Hurry! Don't you see that we're going in the wrong way? BACK-RIGHT STROKE!" I bellowed as a rush of excitement and worry hit me. "Hey, take it easy man. We can do this. We'll just paddle like crazy to the other side. Got it?" was Rich's unusually calm reply to my maniacal outburst. So we both put our backs into it and made it to the other side of the river; however, before we knew it we were moving faster than most people can run, and steering the canoe was becoming very

African American Reconstruction Essay

?Reconstruction in the 1800’s can have a lot of different meanings. For some the reconstruction was the rejoining of the two sides that fought in the civil war, the North and the South. For others in government it was the presidential reconstruction after the death of Lincoln. Most importantly for some reconstruction mean finally being a free man with right and who could vote and provide for his family. The African Americans were a big part of reconstruction, just being freed by the passing of the thirteenth amendment which was adopted on December 6, 1865. This new law stated â€Å"Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, nor any place subject to their jurisdiction. † Being freed was a step in the right direction for the African American, but anything not properly followed through with can end up undoing itself. Unfortunately for the African Americans in the south the progress towards freedom and citizenship and equality had hoped for took a terrible turn for the worse and most of their dreams were crushed. The north removing their army from the south to settle a dispute over who would be president undid what the 14th and 15th amendment were set to do and with no enforcement of them and the black codes life for the average African American remained one filled with difficulties and racism. In 1863 the emancipation proclamation was written to give freedom to all slaves in the rebel states, soon following that the Thirteenth amendment was passed. This Thirteenth amendment took the emancipation proclamation one step further and freed the slaves wherever they may be. Now the mass of newly freed African Americans in the South had to face the difficulties of getting a life started while being surrounded by many angry white Southerners. It granted them their freedom, but did nothing to guarantee them with voting rights, benefits, or the same opportunities as their white countrymen. Imagine you spent your whole life surrounded by people who considered you less than a person. To them you were just a mass of living space that only had the brain capacity to do simple jobs. Once you received a certain document, that says you are a full human being with all the capabilities of others, do you think those people would instantly accept this change and consider you an equal in society? When the civil war came to a close, the White Southerners moved quickly to put an end to the African American’s newfound freedom. They wanted a way to return African Americans back to what they were before the war, which were slaves. In order to do this without getting in too much trouble from the north they had to do it in a way that seemed neutral and fair to all races. Anyone with common sense however could tell that these laws were passed specifically to limit African Americans. These laws started out as what were commonly referred to as the black codes. These were a set of laws that were applied specifically to African Americans to help keep them in a form of slavery. Some of these laws were. â€Å"No person of color shall migrate into and reside in this state, unless, within twenty days after his arrival within the same, he shall enter into a bond with two freeholders as sureties†. â€Å"Servants shall not be absent from the premises without the permission of the master†. â€Å"Servants must assist their masters â€Å"in the defense of his own person, family, premises, or property†. â€Å"No person of color could become an artisan, mechanic, or shopkeeper unless he obtained a license from the judge of the district court – a license that could cost $100 or more. † These laws however didn’t stick around forever and then the Jim Crow Laws were put into place. The Jim Crow laws stated that it is okay for African Americans and whites to be separate as long as they were equal. Even the Supreme Court said that Jim Crow Laws were constitutional even though the stuff that the African Americans got was so much less quality. â€Å"For we colored people did not know how to be free and the white people did not know how to have a free colored person about them. † This quote was stated by the name of Houston Hartsfield Holloway following the passing of the thirteenth amendment. Most of these African Americans didn’t know how to be free and adapting to this new life was extremely difficult. These Freeman had to now face the difficult task of not only dealing with the racism of the white southerners living around then but also needed to get jobs. The freedman bureau was then created to try and help newly freed slaves get on their feet. The freedman bureau created March 3, 1865 main focus was to† provide food and medical care, to help the freedmen to resettle, to ensure justice for the freedmen, to manage abandoned or confiscated property, to regulate labor, and to establish schools. † Now that it was legal for these newly freed men to learn, establishing school in which they could learn was very important. These schools would help them learn trades and skills to help them get jobs. While the freedman’s bureau did not establish schools itself, it coordinated and helped to finance the activities of northern societies committed to black education. It is stated in the Voices of Freedom book written by Eric Foner that by the year 1969 only four years after the thirteenth amendment was passed nearly 3000 schools were established in the south. More impressive than that, these schools have more than 150000 pupils. The bureau was able to give former slaves most of the basics like food, shelter, clothing, and a way to make a living. Without being given the basics there is no way the African Americans would ever be able to take care of themselves and support their families. They needed help adapting to the new freedoms they were given, just as white men had to adapt to them being free, (although most of the time white men still treated them like dirt). The passing of the fourteenth and fifteenth amendments helped to make great strides towards equality for African Americans. This amendment was the â€Å"heart† of Congress’ reaction to Johnson’s reconstruction plan and said that all people born in the United States are citizens. This upturned the 1857 Supreme Court decision in Dred Scott v. Sandford. In this case it stated that persons of African descent were not citizens and therefore not entitled to constitutional rights. On top of that it also prohibited states from revoking â€Å"life, liberty or property† without due process of law. Finally it required states to guarantee equal protection under the law. All states were required to ratify it. It was of course to get some of the southern states to ratify a law like this that on top of giving freedom to African Americans would also give them civil rights. Just because the fourteenth amendment said something, which did not mean that it would be enforced. The Military and Reconstruction Act of 1867 however, was passed to make sure that it was. The funny thing about this act is, on the very last day of session for congress, and the congress that was currently fighting with the current president to the point where they tried to kick him out of office overrode his veto and had it passed. The Ten Confederate States that had refused to ratify the Fourteenth Amendment were divided into five military districts. Each military district was put under the direction of a military governor authorized to appoint and remove state officials. Voters were registered, and suffrage was extended to freedmen. State constitutional conventions were called, and elected delegates were charged with drafting new constitutional provisions providing for black suffrage. Finally, states were required to ratify the Fourteenth Amendment before readmission. The congress didn’t stop here however; they later passed even more military reconstruction acts. â€Å"The new acts directed military commanders to register voters, call conventions, and organize elections, rather than wait for state officials to act. In the face of recalcitrance from Johnson’s executive branch and white southerners attempting to subvert the law, Congress in July 1867 passed a third Reconstruction Act, declaring the existing state governments in the South illegal and subject to military control and the U. S. Congress. † In an attempt to delay the creation of new state governments, some southern whites turned to a provision of the first Reconstruction Act requiring that a majority of registered voters was necessary to ratify a new constitution and called for a boycott of the ratifying election. On March 11, 1868, Congress passed a fourth and final Reconstruction Act that allowed a majority of those voting to ratify a new constitution, regardless of the size of the attendance. President Johnson, being the leader of this nation at the time, worked to delay and obstruct the army from enforcing these laws. The main job of the fifteenth amendment was to give the right of vote to any male of any race. Section two of this article also said â€Å"The Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation. † This sounds great at first that the African Americans will not be able to vote with no problems. This, as good as it looked in writing, would ultimately fail in some places due to the terrorist threats that were places upon African Americans who planned on voting. During reconstruction African Americans were brandished political power in the south for the first time. Most of these men were those who either lived in the north or lived abroad, and were educated. Before holding political power most were either lawyers or teachers. Black political power was unfortunately short-lived. Northern politicians grew increasingly conciliatory to the white South, so that by 1872 virtually all leaders of the Confederacy had been pardoned and were again able to vote and hold office. The white men were able to take back the south by putting economic pressure on the blacks and by threatening them. One of the biggest ways in which the blacks were threatened was by the Ku Klux Klan, also known as the KKK. The Ku Klux Klan was originally organized in the winter of 1865-66 in Pulaski, Tennessee as a social club by six Confederate veterans. It started out small and was kept secret at first. When the Klan was first formed they had no violent intentions in mind. After they had a large amount of growth however it turned from a group of people into a terrorist organization. The Klan systematically murdered black politicians and political leaders. It beat, whipped, and murdered thousands, and intimidated tens of thousands of others from voting. The African Americans of course tried to fight back to this injustice at first but because they were outnumbered and had no guns, they didn’t have a chance. â€Å"A 103-year-old woman was whipped, as was a completely paralyzed man. In Georgia, Abraham Colby, an organizer and leader in the black community, was whipped for hours in front of his wife and children. † The KKK’s main objective was white supremacy but President Grant responded to their attacks. In the year 1868 Ulysses S. Grant ran for office and used the slogan â€Å"let us have peace†. After getting the fifteenth amendment passed, the Enforcement Acts were passed, which made it a crime to interfere with registration, voting, office holding, or jury service of blacks. Because of this new law over a 1000 members of the KKK who violated it and interfered were convicted. On top of this act to protect the African Americans there was also the Ku Klux Klan act. These new acts made it so it was okay for the government to interferer and help put a stop against terrorist acts. This act although it did help a little was not greatly enforced. In the year of 1876 was the presidential election of Samuel J. Tilden vs. the Republican Rutherford B. Hayes. In this election Hayes ended up winning the popular vote, but as far as electoral votes went it was a tie. This was a big problem and a hard decision to appease until there was the Compromise of 1877. This Compromise would swing the vote away from the Democrats and to the Republicans in return for the removal of all remaining troops from the south. It was on that day that the period of reconstruction would end and the reconstruction for African American would begin to go backwards in the south. Africans Americans were given a sliver of hope and promised to be free equal man just to have the government not follow up on its promise. With all of the troops now removed from the south there was no one there to help protect them or to enforce the laws in which gave them freedoms and rights. They never did go completely back to the way it was before the civil war, but because of how in those net couple of years segregation and discrimination could have been eliminated it is just as tragic. African American Reconstruction helped lay out a great pathway for African Americans to become truly equal and free men in the United Stated. Unfortunately because of their not being enough support from the government they would get to walk down that path to equality for many years later.

Reading Summary of Eric Abrahamson and Gregory Fairchild’s Management Fashion Essay

Thesis While most fads in management technique are short-lived some techniques become institutionalized and evolve and are reshaped to fits current fashions. Exogenous and endogenous forces shape the demand for management- knowledge entrepreneurs to constantly reshape and redefine rational management processes. Evidence Abrahamson and Fairchild’s study yielded findings that help contextualize the concept of management fashion. Lifecycles of a management techniques typically follow a â€Å"short-lived, bell-shaped, symmetric popularity curve†. Positive feedback on management techniques increases the discourse promoting that technique, making it more diffuse across organizations. Exogenous forces facilitate or suppress fashion niches and endogenous maintain niches. Superstitious learning suggests that managers seek to find instant-results and cure-all solutions for their management approach, motivated by emotion rather than detailed studies. Whereas real-learning constitutes careful planning and evaluation of ideas to produce an effective management technique. Limitations Abrahamson and Fairchild articulate the negative aspects of constant transience -temporal instability and cross-sectional diversity- but fail to indicate the effects these management fashions have on the institutions in which they are implemented. Do shifting management techniques stunt institution growth, do changing techniques disrupt the markets for the products of these institutions? Questions (1) What causes certain management practices to become institutionalized while others are only passing fads? (2) Are the results of â€Å"superstitious-learning† or â€Å"real-learning† more likely to be adopted? Which is more effective?

Lead Contamination in Agro-Based Products as Current Public Health Threat in Bangladesh

Lead contamination in agro-based products as current public health threat in Bangladesh A. M. M. Maruf Hossain1*, M. Shahidul Islam2, Md. Moklesur Rahman1, Md. Mustafa Mamun1, M. Azizul Islam Kazi2, and Syed Fazle Elahi1 1Department of Soil, Water and Environment, Faculty of Biological Sciences, University of Dhaka; 2Analytical Research Division, BCSIR Laboratories, Dhaka. *Corresponding author Abstract: Agro-based products are primary to all human food sources. Contamination in these is also the easiest way of human health getting affected in large scale. Among the myriad of agro-based products, commercially produced milks and eggs were sampled. Chicken eggs were sampled from Dhaka and its nearby other seven districts covering the central region of Bangladesh. Dhaka, Narsingdi, Kishoreganj, Mymensingh, Tangail, Gazipur, Narayanganj, and Munshigonj were selected for the study. Twelve eggs were randomly sampled from each district’s egg stock market. In Dhaka, Gazipur, and Tangail’s market both brown and white colored eggs were found. Six eggs from each type were sampled from these three districts. In the rest five districts only brown colored eggs could be found. Commercial liquid milks of 13 prominent milk producers have been sampled with replication. Introduction: Poultry plays a vital role in the economy of Bangladesh in recent years. The contribution by livestock is 3% of the total GDP (BBS, 2004) and nearly 10% of the agricultural GDP (Poultry Business Directory, 2007). As food poultry provides meat and egg. An egg is a good source of energy, protein, and fat. A 50 g weighing grade A chicken egg provides estimated values of 297 KJ energy, 6g protein, 5g fat (1. 5g saturated, 2. 0g monounsaturated, and 0. 8g polyunsaturated), and 190mg cholesterol. Chicken eggs are the most commonly eaten eggs, and are highly nutritious (FAO, 2007). They supply a large amount of complete, high-quality proteins (which contains all essential amino acids for humans), and provide significant amounts of several vitamins and minerals, including vitamin A, riboflavin, folic acid, vitamin B6, vitamin B12, choline, iron, calcium, phosphorus and potassium. Again liquid milk is an important source of fat, lactose sugar, and proteins (Casein, Albumin). Egg and milk are essential contexts to our daily diet. Bangladesh has a long historical record of raising poultry under traditional backyard farming. In 1935 improved variety of birds were first introduced in the countries. In the long run it is in the early nineties that a number of private parent stock farms have started their operation to produce commercial Day Old broiler and layer Chicks. Today for commercial egg production layer chicks from these farms are being used. Commercial egg production mostly uses the layer breeds of Hyline Brown, Hyline White, Hisex Brown, Hisex White, ISA Brown, Lohman Brown, Shaver White, and Shaver 579. The prominent milk producers have their own farms in Bangladesh. They produce and market both pasteurized and UTH (ultra high temperature) processed milks. For egg and milk urban people depend completely on commercially produced products while rural people have some practice of backyard farming. As industrial and agricultural practices are not strictly regulated and maintained environment-friendly in Bangladesh, contamination can happen in many ways especially with heavy metals. For this reason a widely distributed egg samples have been collected from Dhaka and its surrounding other seven districts where industrial activities and hence pollution is most prevalent. Similarly a number of liquid milks were sampled with replication to reflect a representative picture. Materials and Methods: Sampling area for egg: The egg sampling area constituted eight districts including capital Dhaka and covered the central region of Bangladesh. Dhaka, Narsingdi, Kishoreganj, Mymensingh, Tangail, Gazipur, Narayanganj, and Munshigonj were selected for the study. Twelve eggs were randomly sampled from each district’s egg stock market. In Dhaka, Gazipur, and Tangail’s market both brown and white colored eggs were found. Six eggs from each type were sampled from these three districts. In the rest five districts only brown colored eggs could be found. The sampling area is shown in gray color in Figure 1. Figure 1: Map of Bangladesh representing the darkened study area Milk sampling: Commercial liquid milks of 13 prominent milk producers have been sampled with three replications in each. These covered liquid white, mango, chocolate, and banana milks. Aarong – white, Aarong – chocolate, Aarong – mango, Milkvita – white, Milkvita – chocolate, RD – white, RD – mango, RD – banana, Amo – white, Amo – chocolate, Amo – mango, Pran – white, and Starship – chocolate liquid milks were selected for the study. Sample pretreatment: ? The egg samples were boiled in deionized water and after complete boiling albumen and yolk were separately oven-dried at 80oC to remove all moisture. The samples were oven-dried unless the difference between two readings of weight was found negligible. Each of oven-died albumen and yolk were treated and analyzed separately. ? A portion of the liquid milk samples were used for density measurement. Milk samples were treated and analyzed as it is. Sample preparation method: The samples were prepared by using HNO3 – HClO4 digestion (Kebbekus & Mitra, 1998). Since the samples were of organic origin with a very high organic content, HNO3 – HClO4 digestion was preferred over the more common HNO3 extraction for the determination of heavy metals. This strongly oxidizing digestion decomposes organics quickly and efficiently. Sample analysis: Analysis of all prepared samples was performed through atomic absorption spectrophotometry (AAS). BDH standard solution was used for preparation of lead (Pb) standard curve. During the sample preparation for arsenic determination, hydrochloric acid (at least 11. 6 ml concentrated HCl for 100 ml total sample) and KI (at least 1 %) were added. For the other heavy metals no special treatments were done. Hydride vapor generation technique was used in the determination of arsenic and mercury. Chromium, cadmium, lead, and arsenic determination were done in air-acetylene flame whereas mercury determination was done in cold vapor. The lead (Pb) contamination in eggs is calculated by using the average parameter values of total 96 eggs sampled, where albumen and yolk have been studied separately in each egg (Table – 1). Table – 1: Average physical parameters for 96 egg samples from 8 districts Average physical parameter |Average |Standard error | |Whole weight of eggs, g |55. 5098 |0. 7590 | |Shell: albumen: yolk ratio |1: 4. 8672: 1. 9775 |NA | |Albumen raw weight, g |34. 4401 |- | |Albumen moisture content, % |84. 0603 |0. 1512 | |Albumen dry weight, g |5. 900 |- | |Yolk raw weight, g |13. 9930 |- | |Yolk moisture content, % |51. 3656 |0. 1616 | |Yolk dry weight, g |6. 8054 |- | The lead (Pd) contamination in comme rcially produced chicken eggs in Bangladesh is presented in Table 2 (average dry weight basis). Revise SPSS with all new â€Å"data† Table – 2: Pb contamination of chicken eggs in Bangladesh Sample classes |Pb in Egg albumen |Pb in total |Pb in Egg yolk |Pb in total |Total Pb in each |Pb in total egg | | | µg/g |Egg albumen | µg/g |Egg yolk |egg (albumen + |(albumen + yolk), | | |(dry weight) | µg |(dry weight) | µg |yolk),  µg | µg/g | | | |(dry weight) | |(dry weight) | | | | |Values for 6 |5. 905 |30. 6918 |18. 3190 |124. 6680 |155. 3599 |12. 6356 | |Brown Egg |samples | | | | | | | |(Dhaka) | | | | | | | | | |St. error |1. 1043 |  Ã¢â‚¬â€œ |4. 439 |  Ã¢â‚¬â€œ |  Ã¢â‚¬â€œ |  Ã¢â‚¬â€œ | |White Egg (Dhaka) |Values for 6 |11. 1847 |61. 4041 |6. 4769 |44. 0777 |105. 4818 |8. 5790 | | |samples | | | | | | | | |St. error |1. 7396 |  Ã¢â‚¬â€œ |2. 627 |  Ã¢â‚¬â€œ |  Ã¢â‚¬â€œ |  Ã¢â‚¬â€œ | |Brown Egg (Narsingdi) |Values for 12|10. 4818 |57. 5453 | 15. 0153 |102. 1849 |159. 7302 |12. 9911 | | |samples | | | | | | | | |St. error |2. 3770 |  Ã¢â‚¬â€œ |3. 458 |  Ã¢â‚¬â€œ |  Ã¢â‚¬â€œ |  Ã¢â‚¬â€œ | |Brown Egg |Values for 12|9. 4945 |52. 1248 |10. 6030 |72. 1574 |124. 2822 |10. 1080 | |(Kishoreganj) |samples | | | | | | | | |St. error |0. 5917 |  Ã¢â‚¬â€œ |0. 7616 |  Ã¢â‚¬â€œ |  Ã¢â‚¬â€œ |  Ã¢â‚¬â€œ | |Brown Egg Mymensingh)|Values for 12|9. 4769 |52. 0279 |5. 7009 |38. 7969 |90. 8248 |7. 3869 | | |samples | | | | | | | | |St. error |1. 1593 |  Ã¢â‚¬â€œ |0. 6024 |  Ã¢â‚¬â€œ |  Ã¢â‚¬â€œ |  Ã¢â‚¬â€œ | |Brown Egg (Tangail) |Values for 6 |11. 565 |60. 7000 |5. 4060 |36. 7898 |97. 4898 |7. 9290 | | |samples | | | | | | | | |St. error |4. 4361 |  Ã¢â‚¬â€œ |1. 8938 |  Ã¢â‚¬â€œ |  Ã¢â‚¬â€œ |  Ã¢â‚¬â€œ | |White Egg (Tangail) |Values for 6 |11. 3587 |62. 594 |0. 7730 |5. 2602 |67. 6197 |5. 4996 | | |samples | | | | | | | | |St. error |2. 4524 |  Ã¢â‚¬â€œ |0. 4713 |  Ã¢â‚¬â€œ |  Ã¢â‚¬â€œ |  Ã¢â‚¬â€œ | |Br own Egg (Gazipur) |Values for 6 |6. 8734 |37. 7349 |1. 755 |11. 4023 |49. 1372 |3. 9964 | | |samples | | | | | | | | |St. error |2. 0868 |  Ã¢â‚¬â€œ |0. 6178 |  Ã¢â‚¬â€œ |  Ã¢â‚¬â€œ |  Ã¢â‚¬â€œ | |White Egg (Gazipur) |Values for 6 |5. 9167 |32. 4825 |2. 2874 |15. 666 |48. 0491 |3. 9079 | | |samples | | | | | | | | |St. error |2. 1738 |  Ã¢â‚¬â€œ |1. 2855 |  Ã¢â‚¬â€œ |  Ã¢â‚¬â€œ |  Ã¢â‚¬â€œ | |Brown Egg |Values for 12|0. 7702 |4. 2285 |5. 4222 |36. 9002 |41. 1288 |3. 451 | |(Narayanganj) |samples | | | | | | | | |St. error |0. 4071 |  Ã¢â‚¬â€œ |1. 9852 |  Ã¢â‚¬â€œ |  Ã¢â‚¬â€œ |  Ã¢â‚¬â€œ | |Brown Egg (Munshigonj)|Values for 12|11. 3360 |62. 2346 |8. 8177 |60. 0079 |122. 2426 |9. 9421 | | |samples | | | | | | | | |St. rror |2. 3649 |  Ã¢â‚¬â€œ |2. 7654 |  Ã¢â‚¬â€œ |  Ã¢â‚¬â€œ |  Ã¢â‚¬â€œ | Maximum permissible limit in chicken meat is 0. 1  µg /g and in chicken fat is 0. 1  µg /g(1). The average statistics for all egg samples are presented in Table 3 . Table – 3: Statistics of all egg samples |Total sample number |192 | |Mean |8. 1611 | |Std. Error of Mean |0. 5253 | |Minimum |ND* | |Maximum |34. 5637 | * = Not detected The average lead (Pb) contamination picture in commercially produced liquid milks in Bangladesh is presented in Table 4. Table – 4: Pb contamination picture in liquid milks in Bangladesh |Sample classes |Average density |Volume as packed, mL|Average Pb |Standard error |Average total Pb | | | | |concentration in | |in packet,  µg | | | | |sample,  µg/mL | | | |Aarong – white |1. 0207 |250 |0. 8102 |0. 2451 |202. 500 | |Aarong – chocolate |1. 0511 |200 |1. 5344 |0. 2675 |306. 8800 | |Aarong – mango |1. 0554 |200 |0. 9447 |0. 3961 |188. 9400 | |Milkvita – white |1. 0226 |250 |0. 9739 |0. 3212 |243. 4750 | |Milkvita – chocolate |1. 0548 |200 |1. 2925 |0. 6512 |258. 5000 | |RD – white |1. 193 |230 |1. 9657 |0. 1987 |452. 1110 | |RD – mango |1. 0523 |200 |1. 6984 |0. 4812 |339. 6800 | |RD – banana |1. 0552 |200 |1. 209 |0. 5012 |241. 8000 | |Amo – white |1. 0257 |250 |1. 4943 |0. 1246 |373. 5750 | |Amo – chocolate |1. 0577 |200 |0. 181 |0. 1789 |163. 6200 | |Amo – mango |1. 0619 |200 |0. 8997 |0. 8047 |179. 9400 | |Pran à ¢â‚¬â€œ white |1. 0256 |200 |1. 2886 |1. 0079 |257. 7200 | |Starship – chocolate |1. 0508 |200 |4. 7589 |1. 4347 |951. 7800 | Maximum permissible limit in milks is 0. 02  µg /mL(1). The average statistics for all milk samples are presented in Table 5. Table – 5: Statistics of all milk samples |Total sample number |39 | |Mean |1. 5145 | |Std. Error of Mean |0. 2165 | |Minimum |ND | |Maximum |7. 0713 | Standard for lead (Pb) content of milk and poultry products: Comparing the obtained data from the egg and milk samples with the standards set in â€Å"Codex general standard for contaminants and toxins in foods (CODEX STAN 193-1995, Rev. -2006)†, it is evident that these foods are heavily contaminated with Pb in Bangladesh. In case of both egg and milk, the average Pb levels are about hundred times higher than the maximum permissible limits whereas the maximum respective values are quite large. 1. CODEX STAN 193-1995, Rev. 2-2006. http://www. codexalimentarius. net/web/index_en. jsp 2. Kebbekus, B. B. , and S. Mitra. (1998). Environmental chemical analysis. (Blackie Academic & Professional, London). [pic]

Eating Insects Essay

Introduction: Insects have been here long before human civilization, foraging the world and utilizing its nutrients. In a sense then, every human being ever has been forced to interact with insects, so then why has this â€Å"household† item not been utilized as a food source for humans? Well, that’s not entirely true. Entomophagy, according to Webster’s Dictionary, is the practice of eating insects. Using insects as a food source isn’t as uncommon as one may think, the practice of Enotmophagy has been performed for centuries, dating back to Indian tribes and Australian aborginals. Insects greatly outnumber humans and are found in nearly every possible location in the world, so their presence in and around human food isn’t unbelievable. While this practice is becoming more popular around the world, consumers in the U. S. are still skeptical of the idea Whether its eating them â€Å"a la mode†, or eating them without knowing, insects are increasingly prevalent in food consumed by humans. Main Body: Insect consumption seems a little farfetched, yet there are several reasons that this idea may not be crazy. Meat is considered to be one of the best sources of protein in diets, however, certain insects provide amounts of protein comparable to that of meat; thus making insect consumption a much cheaper alternative to meat in developing countries. Take, for example, 100 grams of dried caterpillar, providing fifty-three grams of protein, seventeen percent carbohydrates, and a whopping fifteen percent fat. In fact, they are believed to have a higher proportional fat and protein value than that of beef and fish. Also, most edible insects are proven to be much cleaner than fish. For example, According to Pulitzer prize winner, Dr. E. O. Wilson of Harvard University, there are an estimated ten quintillion (10,000,000,000,000,000,000) insects in the world, or about one hundred and fifty million insects per one human being. Insects are in no way, shape, or form, a product of scarcity; insects are found nearly everywhere, thus proving to be another reason for insects to be used for food consumption. Due to the fact that insects provide incredible amounts of nutritional value and an incredible population, they are proving to be means of income for people in developing countries. Specifically, Sudan and Nigeria trade and utilize insects as a source of income, exporting three to five tons annually to countries such as Belgium and France. This means of earning income for Sudans and Nigerians produces $41,500 annually. Insects being utilized for their nutritional value and high concentration, proves to show how incredibly useful insects are to humans, surprisingly as a food source. Many countries all over the world are taking advantage of insects as a food source. In Africa, several groups use Orthoptera as a means of food. They gather locusts early in the day, before they are active; they then boil them before group members clean and salt them. Noting goes to waste, they even use the legs by grinding them up and mixing them with peanut butter and salt. Also, performed in areas of Africa and Australia, termites are being utilized for their high protein and fat value. The big queen castes of termites, reaching three inches in lenghth, is most sought out due to its incredibly high nutritional value. They are often lightly fried and sold in markets to be eaten by hand, thought to be a snack food. However, termites can also be used as a colorless oil used when frying food.

Architecture beneath Nature Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Architecture beneath Nature - Essay Example The residential sector has increasingly adapted landscape architecture. Homes have been built as part and puzzle of the landscape implying a balanced ecological system. Buildings beneath the ground have been treasured in the sense that they are unseen and they resemble the landscape (Hagan, 2001). This implies that they are designed in an attractive way and the decorations are not different with the natural features. This has led to increase in the trend of architecture beneath the ground and an increase in the art. Globally, the art of architecture beneath the landscape has been adapted due to the magnificent products it offers after a thorough work of art and design. Furthermore, the space utilized in the creation of such features, has globally been accepted as part and puzzle of the environment. This is because it creates no negative impacts, but contributes to the beauty of the surrounding landscape (Tsui, 1999). Buildings that are invisible are designed to match the entire feature of the landscape. For instance, buildings in a hilly topography are built to be inside the hill and thus no one can suspect or even think of an existing building within the hill. It can be compared to the nature of camouflage since buildings in rocky and gully landscapes are designed in the same sense hence unseen buildings being part of the landscape. On the contrary, some buildings can be unseen but some parts are seen. This implies that the building is completely out of view, but the entrance is visible signifying that a building or structure exists in a certain landscape (Tsui, 1999). Architecture beneath nature creates another important aspect that changes the entire study of architecture. This is because this field of architecture is different and accompanied extensive invention and innovation. It is also different in the sense that buildings communicate with nature