The Stupidest Angel Chapter 8

Chapter 8 HOLIDAY HEARTBREAK Christmas Amnesty. You can fall out of contact with a friend, fail to return calls, ignore e-mails, avoid eye contact at the Thrifty-Mart, forget birthdays, anniversaries, and reunions, and if you show up at their house during the holidays (with a gift) they are socially bound to forgive you – act like nothing happened. Decorum dictates that the friendship move forward from that point, without guilt or recrimination. If you started a chess game ten years ago in October, you need only remember whose move it is – or why you sold the chessboard and bought an Xbox in the interim. (Look, Christmas Amnesty is a wonderful thing, but it's not a dimensional shift. The laws of time and space continue to apply, even if you have been avoiding your friends. But don't try using the expansion of the universe as an excuse – like you kept meaning to stop by, but their house kept getting farther away. That crap won't wash. Just say, â€Å"Sorry I haven't called. Merry Chris tmas.† Then show the present. Christmas Amnesty protocol dictates that your friend say, â€Å"That's okay,† and let you in without further comment. This is the way it has always been done.) â€Å"Where the fuck have you been?† said Gabe Fenton when he opened the door and saw his old friend Theophilus Crowe standing there, holding a present. Gabe, forty-five, short and wiry, unshaven and slightly balding, was wearing khakis that looked like he'd slept in them for a week. â€Å"Merry Christmas, Gabe,† said Theo, holding out the present, a big red bow on it – sort of waving the box back and forth as if to say, Hey, I have a present here, you're not supposed to sandbag me for not calling for three years. â€Å"Yeah, nice,† said Gabe. â€Å"But you might have called.† â€Å"Sorry. I meant to, but you were involved with Val, I didn't want to interrupt.† â€Å"She dumped me, you know?† Gabe had been seeing Valerie Riordan, the town's only psychiatrist, for several years now. Not for the last month, however. â€Å"Yeah, I heard about that.† Theo had heard that Val wanted someone who was a little more involved with human culture than Gabe. Gabe was a behavioral field biologist who studied wild rodents or marine mammals, depending on who was providing the funding. He lived at a small federally owned cottage by the lighthouse with his hundred-pound black Labrador retriever, Skinner. â€Å"You heard? And you didn't call?† It was nearly noon, and Theo's buzz had mostly worn off, but he was still thrown. Guys were not supposed to lament the lack of support from a friend, unless it was backup in a bar fight or help in moving heavy stuff. This was not normal behavior. Maybe Gabe really did need to spend more time around human beings. â€Å"Look, Gabe, I brought you a present,† Theo said. â€Å"Look at how glad Skinner is to see me.† Skinner was, in fact, glad to see Theo. He was crowding Gabe in the doorway, his beefy tail beating against the open door like a Snausage war drum. He associated Theo with hamburgers and pizza, and had once thought of him as the emergency backup Food Guy (Gabe being the primary Food Guy). â€Å"Well, I suppose you should come in,† said Gabe. The biologist stepped away from the door and allowed Theo to enter. Skinner said hi by shoving his nose into Theo's crotch. â€Å"I'm working in here, so things are a little messy.† A little messy? An understatement on a par with calling the Bataan Death March a nature hike – it looked like someone had loaded all of Gabe's belongings into a cannon and fired them into the room through the wall. Dirty laundry and dishes covered every surface except for Gabe's worktable, which, except for the rats, was immaculate. â€Å"Nice rats,† Theo said. â€Å"What are you doing with them?† â€Å"I'm studying them.† Gabe sat down in front of a series of five-gallon aquariums arranged around a center tank in a star pattern and linked by Habitrail tubes, with gates for routing rats from one chamber to another. Each of the rats had a silver disk about the size of a quarter glued to its back. Theo watched as Gabe opened a gate and one of the rats rushed to the center tank and immediately tried to mount its occupant. Gabe picked up a small remote control and hit the button. The attacking rat nearly did a backflip trying to retreat. â€Å"Ha! That'll teach ‘im,† Gabe shouted. â€Å"The female in the center cage is in estrus.† The rat backed away tentatively and did some sniffing, then attempted to mount the female again. Gabe hit the button. The male was jolted off of her. â€Å"Ha! Now do you get it?!† Gabe said maniacally. He looked up from the cages to Theo. â€Å"There are electrodes on their testes. The silver disks are batteries and remote receivers. Every time he gets sexually aroused, I'm hitting his little nuts with fifty volts.† The rat made another attempt and again Gabe hit the button. The rat spazzed its way to the corner of the cage. â€Å"You stupid shit!† Gabe shouted. â€Å"You think they'd learn. I'll hit each of them with the jolt a dozen times today, but when I open the cage tomorrow, they'll all run back in and try to mount her again. You see, you see how we are?† â€Å"We?† â€Å"Us. Males. See how we are. We know there's going to be nothing but pain, but we go back again and again.† Gabe had always been so steady, so calm, so professionally detached, scientifically obsessed, so dependably nerdy – Theo felt as if he were talking to a whole different person, like someone had scrubbed off all the intellect and had exposed the nerves. â€Å"Uh, Gabe, I'm not sure that we should equate ourselves with rodents. I mean – ; â€Å"Oh, sure. That's what you say now. But you'll call me and tell me I was right. Something will happen and you'll call. She'll stomp your heart and you'll finish the destruction she starts. Am I right? Am I right?† â€Å"Uh, I – † Theo was thinking about the graveyard sex followed by the fight he'd had with Molly last night. â€Å"So I'm going to change the association. Watch this.† Gabe stormed over to a bookshelf, threw aside a bunch of professional journals and notebooks until he found what he was looking for. â€Å"See. See her.† Gabe held up a recent Victoria's Secret catalog. The model on the front was wearing garments spectacularly inadequate in concealing her appeal. She looked as if she just couldn't be happier about it. â€Å"Beautiful, right? Amazing, right? Hold that thought.† Gabe reached into the pocket of his khakis and pulled out a stainless remote just like the one on the rat table. â€Å"Beautiful,† he said, and he hit the button. The biologist's back arched and he suddenly became six inches taller, all the muscles of his body seeming to flex at once. He convulsed twice, then fell to the floor, the crumpled catalog still in his hand. Skinner lapsed into a barking fit. Don't die, Food Guy, my bowl is on the porch and I can't open the door by myself, he was saying. It was the same every time, he was always glad when the Food Guy wasn't actually dead, but the Food Guy's convulsions made him anxious. Theo rushed to his friend's aid. Gabe's eyes were rolled back and he twitched a couple of times before he sucked in a deep breath and looked Theo in the eye. â€Å"See. You change the association. Won't be long and I'll have that reaction without the electrodes glued to my scrotum.† â€Å"Are you okay?† â€Å"Oh yeah. It will take hold, I know it. It hasn't worked with the rats yet, but I'm hoping it will before they all die.† â€Å"They're dying of this?† â€Å"Well, it has to hurt or they'll never learn.† Gabe held up his remote again and Theo snatched it out of his hand. â€Å"Stop it!† â€Å"I have another set of electrodes and receiver. You want to try it? I've been dying to try it out in the field. We could go to a titty bar.† Theo helped Gabe to his feet, then set him in a chair facing away from the rat table and pulled a chair around for himself. â€Å"Gabe, you are out of control. I'm sorry I didn't call.† â€Å"I know you've been busy. It's okay.† Great, now he has the appropriate Christmas Amnesty reaction, Theo thought. â€Å"These rats, the electrodes, all of it, it's just wrong. You're just going to end up with either a bunch of paranoid misogynist males, or a pile of corpses.† â€Å"You make that sound like a bad thing.† â€Å"You got your heart broken. It will heal.† â€Å"She said I was dull.† â€Å"She should see this.† Theo gestured around the room. â€Å"She wasn't interested in my work.† â€Å"You guys had a good run. Five years. Maybe it was just time. You told me yourself that the human male was not evolved for monogamy.† â€Å"Yeah, but I had a girlfriend when I said that.† â€Å"So it's not true?† â€Å"No, it's true, but it didn't bother me when I had a girlfriend. Now I know that I am biologically programmed to spread the seed of my loins far and wide, to as many females as possible, a series of torrid, meaningless matings, only to move on to the next fertile female. My genes are demanding that I pass them on, and I don't know where to start.† â€Å"You might want to shower before you start the seed spreading.† â€Å"You don't think I know that? That's why I was trying to reprogram my impulses. Tame the animus, as it were.† â€Å"Because you don't want to shower?† â€Å"No, because I don't know how to talk to women. I could talk to Val.† â€Å"Val was a pro.† â€Å"She was not. She never turned a trick in her life.† â€Å"Listener, Gabe. She was a pro listener – a psychiatrist.† â€Å"Oh, right. Do you think I should start with a prostitute, or ‘tutes?† â€Å"For a broken heart? Yeah, I'm sure that will work just as well as the electrodes on your scrotum, but first I need you to do something for me.† Theo thought maybe, just maybe, work – nonfreakish work – might bring his friend back from the brink. He reached into his shirt pocket and pulled out the hank of yellow hair he'd taken out of the Volvo's wheel well. â€Å"I need you to look at this and tell me about it.† Gabe took the hair and looked at it. â€Å"Is this crime stuff?† â€Å"Sort of.† â€Å"Where did you get it? What do you need to know?† â€Å"Tell me everything you can about it before I tell you anything, okay?† â€Å"Well, it appears to be blond.† â€Å"Thanks, Gabe, I was thinking maybe you could look at it under the microscope or something.† â€Å"Doesn't the county have a crime lab for that?† â€Å"Yeah, but I can't take it to them. There are circumstances.† â€Å"Like?† â€Å"Like they will think I'm stoned or nuts or both. Look at the hair,† Theo said. â€Å"You tell me. I'll tell you. â€Å"Okay, but I don't have all that cool CSI stuff.† â€Å"Yeah, but the guys at the crime lab don't have batteries Super-Glued to their gonads. You've got them there.† Ten minutes later Gabe looked up from his microscope. â€Å"Well, it's not human,† he said. â€Å"Swell.† â€Å"In fact, it doesn't appear to be hair.† â€Å"So what is it?† â€Å"Well, it seems to have a lot of the qualities of optic fiber.† â€Å"So it's man-made?† â€Å"Not so fast. It has a root, and what appears to be a cuticle, but it doesn't look like keratin. I'd have to have it tested for proteins. If it's manufactured, there's no evidence of the process. It looks as if it was grown, not made. You know polar-bear hair has fiber-optic properties – channels light energy through to the black skin for heat.† â€Å"So it's polar-bear hair?† â€Å"Not so fast.† â€Å"Gabe, goddammit, where in the hell did it come from?† â€Å"You tell me.† â€Å"Just us, okay? This doesn't leave this cottage unless We get some confirmation, okay?† â€Å"Of course. Are you okay, Theo?† â€Å"Am I okay? You're asking me if I'm okay?† â€Å"Everything all right with you and Molly? The job? You're not smoking dope again, are you?† Theo hung his head. â€Å"You say you have another one of those electrodes?† Gabe brightened. â€Å"You'll need to shave a spot. Can I open my present while you're in the bathroom? You can use my razor.† â€Å"No, go ahead and open your present. I have some stuff I need to tell you.† â€Å"Wow, a salad shooter. Thanks, Theo.† â€Å"He took the salad shooter,† Molly said. â€Å"Wow, was that important to him?† Lena asked. â€Å"It was a wedding present.† â€Å"I know, I gave it to you. It was a wedding present to me and Dale, too.† â€Å"See, there was tradition.† Molly was inconsolable. She drank off half of her diet Coke and slammed the plastic Budweiser cup down on the bar like a pirate cursing over a schooner of grog. â€Å"Bastard!† It was Wednesday evening, and they were at the Head of the Slug saloon to coordinate the replanning of the food for the Christmas for the Lonesome party. Lena's first reaction to Molly's call to help was to beg off and stay at home, but even as she was creating an excuse, she realized that she'd only sit home obsessing alternately on getting caught for killing Dale and getting her heart broken by this strange, strange helicopter pilot. She decided that maybe meeting with Molly and Mavis down at the Slug wasn't such a bad idea. And she might be able to find out from Molly if Theo suspected her in Dale's disappearance. Yeah, fat chance, with Molly obsessing on Theo's – whatever it was that Theo was supposed to have done wrong. It sounded to Lena like he had just taken a salad shooter to work with him. You were supposed to empathize with your friend's problems, but they were, after all, your friend's problems, and Lena's friends, Molly in particular, could be a little wacky. The bar was full of singles in their twenties and thirties and you could feel a desperate energy sparking around the dark room, like loneliness was the negative and sex was the positive and someone was brushing the wires together over an open bucket of gasoline. This was the fallout of the holiday heartbreak cycle that started with young men who, lacking any stronger motivation toward changing their lives, would break up with their current girlfriend in order to avoid having to buy her a Christmas present. The distraught women would sulk for a few days, eat ice cream, and avoid calling relatives, but then, as the idea of a solitary Christmas and New Year started to loom large, they swarmed into the Slug in search of a companion, virtually any companion, with whom they could pass the holidays. Full speed ahead and forget the presents. Pine Cove's male singles, to display their newfound freedom, would descend on the Slug, and avail themselves of the affections of dejected women in a ga me of small-town sexual musical chairs played hungrily to the tune of â€Å"Deck the Halls† – everyone hoping to have slipped drunkenly into someone more comfortable before the last fa was la-la-ed. There might have been a bubble around Lena and Molly, however, for they were obviously not part of the game. While both were certainly more than attractive enough to garner attention from the younger men, they had about them a mystique of experience, of having been there and moved on, of unbullshitability. Essentially, they scared the hell out of all but the drunkest of the Slug's suitors, and the fact that they were drinking straight diet Coke scared the hell out of the drunks. Molly and Lena, despite their own personal distress, had slain their own holiday desperation dragons, which was how the Lonesome Christmas party had started in the first place. Now they were on to new, individual anxieties. â€Å"Sloppy joes,† said Mavis, a great cloud of low-tar smoke powering the announcement and washing over Lena and Molly. It had been illegal to smoke in California bars for years, but Mavis ignored the law and the authorities (Theophilus Crowe) and smoked on. â€Å"Who doesn't like his meat sloppy on a bun?† â€Å"Mavis, it's Christmas,† Lena said. So far Mavis had only suggested soupy or saucy entres – Lena suspected that Mavis had misplaced her dentures again and was therefore lobbying for a gummable feast. â€Å"With pickles, then. Red sauce, green pickles, Christmas theme.† â€Å"I mean shouldn't we do something nice for Christmas? Not just sloppy joes?† â€Å"At five bucks a head, I told her that barbecue was the only way to feed them.† Mavis leaned in and looked at Molly, who was muttering malevolently into her ice cubes. â€Å"But everyone seems to think it's going to rain. Like it ever rains in December.† Molly looked up and growled a little, then looked at the television screen behind Mavis and pointed. The sound was muted, but there was a weather map of California. About eight hundred miles off the coast there was a great blob of color whirling in jump-frame satellite-photo motion, making it appear that a Technicolor amoeba was about to consume the Bay Area. â€Å"Ain't nothin',† Mavis said. â€Å"They won't even give it a name. If that thing was crouched like that over Bermuda, they'd have given it a name two days ago. Know why? ‘Cause they don't come onshore here. That bitch will turn right a hundred miles off Anacapa Island and go down and dump all over the Yucatan. Meanwhile we won't be able to wash our cars because of the drought.† â€Å"The rain at least will stop any sand-pirate attacks,† Molly said, crunching an ice cube. â€Å"Huh?† said Lena. â€Å"The hell did you say?† Mavis adjusted her hearing aid. â€Å"Nothing,† Molly said. â€Å"What do you guys think about lasagna? You know, some garlic bread, a little salad.† â€Å"Yeah, we can probably do it for five bucks a head if we don't use sauce or cheese,† said Mavis. â€Å"Lasagna just doesn't seem very Christmasy,† said Lena. â€Å"We could put it in Santa Claus pans,† Molly suggested. â€Å"No!† Lena snapped. â€Å"No Santas! We can do a snowman or something, but no friggin' Santas.† Mavis reached over and patted Lena's hand. â€Å"Santa played a little grab-ass with a lot of us when we were little, darlin'. Once your mustache starts growing you're supposed to let go of that shit.† â€Å"I am not growing a mustache.† â€Å"Do you wax? Because you can't see a thing,† said Molly, being supportive. â€Å"I do not have a mustache,† said Lena. â€Å"You think it's bad being a Mexican, Romanian women have to start shaving when they're twelve,† Mavis said. Lena took that opportunity to plant her elbows squarely on the bar and grip two great handfuls of her hair, which she began to pull, slowly and steadily, to make her point. â€Å"What?† said Mavis. â€Å"What?† said Molly. And there was an awkward moment of silence among the three – only the muted jukebox thumping in the background and the low murmur of people lying to one another. They looked around to avoid talking, then turned to the front door as Vance McNally, Pine Cove's senior EMT, came through it and let loose a long, growling belch. Vance was in his midfifties, and fancied himself a charmer and a hero, when, in fact, he was a bit of a dolt. He had been driving the ambulance for over twenty years now, and nothing gave him pleasure like being the bearer of bad news. It was the measure of his importance. â€Å"You guys hear that the highway patrol found Dale Pearson's truck parked up in Big Sur by Lime Kiln Rock? Looks like he was fishing and fell in. Yep, surf coming up from that storm, they'll never find him. Theo's up there now investigating.† Lena stumbled back to her bar stool and climbed up. She was sure everyone in the bar, all the locals anyway, were looking at her for a reaction. She let her long hair hang down by her face, hiding in it. â€Å"So, lasagna it is,† said Mavis. â€Å"But no fucking Santa pans!† Lena snapped, not looking up. Mavis pulled both of their plastic cups off the bar. â€Å"Normal circumstances, you'd be cut off, but as it is, I think you two really need to start drinking.†

A Psychological/ Profile Report Essay

This paper makes use of profiling questions and the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator test in order to create a profile or psychological report. The subject of this profile report is a person with whom the interviewer feels comfortable with, specifically, a person whom he knows well. The interviewee’s responses to the profiling questions will be analyzed and compared against the interviewer’s knowledge of the interviewee’s behavior and personality. This is not a clinical report and it should not be used for assessing psychopathology or recommending any kind of psychological treatment for the interviewee. Instead, the objective of this interview is merely to know the interviewer better. Since the interview was not conducted by a professional psychologist, inferences found in this report must be viewed with skepticism. Demographic Information: The subject of this report is a twenty-six year old female, a single mom who works as a home-based web content writer for a year now. Prior to pregnancy and her home-based job, she used to an investigative writer for an intellectual property (IP) rights firm. She also worked as a magazine in a lifestyle magazine before. Her baby is now almost a year old and she lives with her sister. In accordance to the confidentiality precept of the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator test, the identity of the interviewee will be kept private. To refer to the interviewee, the name â€Å"Fray† will be used in this report. (Myers, I. et al, 1998) Responses to the profiling questions Does the interviewee remember information more accurately if he/she observes the behavior being performed or does he/she prefer to read how the behavior is performed? Fray prefers to read how the behavior is performed. Simply said, she wants to interpret actions and behaviors in accordance to her past experiences and knowledge. She uses her general understanding of societal interactions in her attempts to interpret or understand the way people interact with her or the way other people respond to their environment. Furthermore, she thinks that actions must be viewed in a cause and effect pattern. For her, everything happens for a reason and the way people behave is probably a product of how the society interacted with them. The interviewer agrees with Fray’s responses. She has observed that Fray often likes to make insinuations on other people based on how they talk and act in public. Q2: Does the interviewee prefer studying in a library, or at home where there are background noises and some distractions? Fray opts to study at home but she noted that the preference is merely because she feels more inclined to study when she is alone inside her room. She also notes that she can tolerate the presence of background noises and some distractions which are typical in her home setting. In addition to that, she pointed out that she might also prefer to study in a library, provided that the place is not teeming with hushed but busy people who keep on walking around. The interviewer notes that the fact that Fray prefers a surrounding that’s solemn is probably part of the reason why she also prefers to work at home.

Compare and contrast plato and decsartes Essay

Descartes and Plato are two of the most influential thinkers within philosophy. The allegory of the cave and systematic doubt are also two of the most famous concepts within philosophy. Plato at the time of writing the cave allegory was trying to resist the growing influence of the Sophist philosophers who prioritised semantics and rhetoric over truth. 1 Descartes by introducing radical scepticism to philosophy was challenging traditional scholastic philosophy which had dominated the philosophy for many centuries. While both pieces of writing are separated by different ages of time and space, they share many  similarities as well as fundamental differences. This essay will attempt to compare and contrast these two bodies of work by firstly explaining what is Descartes’ systematic doubt and Plato’s Allegory of the cave before finally examining the similarities and differences between them in the final paragraph of analysis. Descartes in his first meditation introduces the concept of Radical doubt which similarly places suspicion on the senses and the appearance of things. This involves stripping away all one’s beliefs and preconceived notions in order to find the foundational bedrock of  knowledge in which all sciences could then grow2. Descartes begins his first meditation by casting doubt on all his beliefs, if a belief can be even slightly doubted it must be discarded. He wants to ‘reject as absolutely false anything in which I could imagine the least amount of doubt3’ this is called radical scepticism where all beliefs must be challenged. Through this experiment Descartes conceded that the physical senses are not to be trusted as they have deceived him before, this is known as sensory deception and this revelation forces him to  doubt any beliefs about the external world and knowledge that is gathered by the five senses. His examination also reveals that dreams states can be difficult to distinguish between waking life, this has happened before where he thought he was in bed but wasn’t. Henceforth one cannot truly know if they are awake observing reality or asleep enjoying a dream, this is known as the dream hypothesis. Descartes also uncovers the evil demon hypothesis whereby all external reality observed may be just an illusion that is perpetrated by an evil demon  seeking to deceive him, also there is the problem that all previous memories about oneself could simply just be imagination and not grounded in any reality. The system of radical doubt leads Descartes into murky territory where he cannot believe in the existence of anything at 1 JULIAS, ANNAS: INTRODUCTION TO PLATO’S REPUBLIC(NEW YORK, 1998)P. 252 2 JOHN, COTTINGHAM, DESCARTES: THE PHILOSOPHY OF MIND(LONDON, 1997) P. 21 3 JOHN CORRINGHAM, DESCARTES: MEDITATIONS ON FIRST PHILOSOPHY (NEW YORK, 2013) P. 33 all. This thankfully is changed when he discovers the cogito’ I think therefore I am’, his  starting point which saves him from uncertainty, allowing him to prove that he exists. In Plato’s allegory of the cave, there are prisoners who are locked up within the depths of a cave. All day long, they are situated in front of a wall and behind them is a fire which reflects shadows on the wall. Unbeknownst to the prisoners, there are puppeteers who use the firelight to reflect shadows of their puppets upon the wall while making noises ‘the truth would be literally nothing but the shadows’4. The prisoners are unaware of this illusion and mistakenly believe these shadows are real images. One day, a prisoner is released from his chains and allowed to walk freely about the cave. Although it is confusing for him to see the puppets and fire, he is forced to accept this clearer version of reality and eventually ascents through the cave, spending a day and night under the sun and the stars. As he becomes familiar with the world above, he realises the sun is the giver of light, how it casts shadows and how his prior life in the cave was an entire illusion. This newfound enlightenment Plato remarks will prevent him from ever returning to the life in cave, nor will his old inmates  believe him if he tried to free him, instead ‘they would put him to death5’ This intellectual awakening will cause the inmate to grasp the idea of good, the eternal form which will urge him to act ‘rationally in public or private life6’. Ultimately Plato suggests the inmate should return to his old friends and seek to help them. The cave analogy is concerned with the human condition and its’ lack of enlightenment7, for Plato the prisoners represent ordinary citizens who hold false beliefs (shadows), reality is dictated to them by their senses (appearance of things) allowing them to be easily manipulated8. Ignorance is then symbolised by darkness and the intellect and reason is symbolised by the light. The journey of the inmate from darkness to light is a metaphor for education which allows one to progress from the ignorance in the depths of the cave to the intellectual plains of the enlightened one in the outside world. The outer world symbolises true knowledge, the realisation of eternal forms while the cave again illustrates the world of appearance and false beliefs, Woozley writes ‘most men without knowing it live in this shadow world’9 4 PLATO. ALLEGORY OF THE CAVE. P. 74 5 IBID. P. 75 6 IBID. P. 75. 7 ANTHONY, WOOZLEY: PLATO’S REPUBLIC: A PHILOSOPHICAL COMMENTARY(LONDON, 1989)P206 8 JULIAS, ANNAS: INTRODUCTION TO PLATO’S REPUBLIC(NEW YORK, 1998)P254 The cave analogy and Descartes systematic doubt have much in common. Both are concerned with the illusory nature of the senses and external reality, for Plato people place too much emphasis on the senses, on the appearance of things as illustrated in by the shadows on the wall, this leads them to hold false beliefs and to be easily misled, only by entering the realm of thought can people free themselves by gaining knowledge and becoming enlightened. Descartes through the systematic doubt also maintains that external reality cannot be truly known; the sensory deception and evil demon hypothesis cast doubt on the authenticity of the outside world. Indeed the evil demon hypothesis is an almost identical scenario to that of the prisoners whose sensory perception is distorted by the shadow wielding puppeteers. Only through the mind or intellect can an individual overcome the illusory nature of the senses, it allows the prisoner to access the outside world to gain enlightenment and help his fellow inmates while for Descartes the mind by way of the cogito is the one thing  that cannot be doubted which through it allows him prove the existence of the outside world in his later meditations. The cave is an analogy which illustrates how people can possess false consciousness and how through reason and knowledge one can overcome this while systematic doubt is an instruction on how to discard false beliefs, the ascent through the cave into the intellectual world is the finishing point for Plato while the cogito for Descartes is a starting point for further investigation. The two authors also differ on the type of philosophy employed in their argument. Plato insists that after the ascent , the prisoner will experience the idea of the good ‘ the lord of light in the visible world, and the immediate source of reason and truth in the intellectual’10 the good then is the highest point of knowledge and represents Plato’s philosophy of perfect types or forms known as idealism, Descartes through highlighting the sensory, dream and demon hypothesis illustrates how the external world cannot be relied upon as a basis for true knowledge, but the cogito is a starting point, the attempt to find secure beliefs that allow a foundation for further knowledge to be rested upon  is known as Foundationalism which is credited to Descartes. In conclusion, both Descartes and Plato in their attempts to challenge the prevailing doctrine of their respective times introduced two of the most influential concepts in the world of Philosophy. Descartes through his examination of systematic doubt uncovers the limitations of the physical senses in acquiring knowledge and introduces further challenges to understanding external reality with the dream, memory and evil demon hypothesis. Only 9 ANTHONY, WOOZLEY: PLATO’S REPUBLIC: A PHILOSOPHICAL COMMENTARY(LONDON, 1989)P. 223 10 PLATO. ALLEGORY OF THE CAVE. P. 77  through the mind alone can one grasp the nature of reality starting with the cogito. Likewise Plato is concerned with the appearance of things, how the senses can deceive us and humanity like the inmates in the cave can live in a state of ignorance or darkness if they don’t use the power of the mind to acquire knowledge and reason. Only through using the intellect can humanity gather true knowledge and escape the darkness in the cave. For both the intellect is the only means for gathering true knowledge, the senses are illusory. Descartes systematic doubt and cogito provide the foundational starting point for the sciences while the  cave allegory offers advocates a way of life for humanity to feign the world of ignorance and seek true knowledge so that those who acquire it will return to the cave and help their fellow man. Works Cited: Annas, Julias. An Introduction to Plato’s’ Republic. New York: Oxford University Press Cottingham, John. Descartes: Meditations on First Philosophy. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2013 Cottingham, John. Ed. Ray Monk. Descartes’ Philosophy of Mind. London: Phoenix Publishers, 1997 Plato. The Allegory of the cave. Week 5 Handout Woozley, Anthony. Plato’s Republic: A philosophical commentary. London: MacMillan Publishers, 1989.

Commercial Law Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words - 5

Commercial Law - Essay Example If no intention is expressed, then section 18 is applicable, which provides that where there is an unconditional contract for the sale of specific goods in a deliverable state, the property in the goods passes to the buyer when the contract is made, and it is immaterial whether the time of payment or delivery or both, be postponed. Once the goods have become ascertained in this case at point of delivery, then under section 18 of the SGA, the property will not pass (subject to contrary intention in the contract) until goods are unconditionally appropriated to the contract by one party with the assent of the other. Furthermore, as highlighted in the case of Ward v Bignall4, there is a presumption that ownership passes to the buyer on delivery. The current scenario points towards a contract for ascertained goods and therefore it is likely that ownership of the property will pass on delivery based on the SGA provisions and established case law. 1b) With regard to protection against the risk of non-payment, the greatest risk to Micro Maker is if the property passes in the goods to Lacey upon delivery. As such, it would be prudent for Micro-Maker to include a retention of title clause in its agreement with Lacey in order to ensure that it can recover its goods in the event of non-payment5. Micro-Maker should also try and agree a clause whereby the risk passes to Lacey upon delivery6. This right to reservation of title has through practice been termed the â€Å"Romalpa† clause7, due to the case of Aluminium Industries v Romalpa Aluminium8, which set out guidelines regarding enforceability of reservation of title clauses: This would be the best course of action for Micro-Makers. It is further submitted that any such reservation of title clause should require Lacey to store the microwaves separately from other products and include a right of entry for

Legalization of Same Sex Marriage Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

Legalization of Same Sex Marriage - Essay Example There was paramount work done in developed states mostly United States and those in the European continent. The initials perception for those who advocated and struggled to fight for this abhorrent practice was short sightedness of the issue several consequences. This is because most of them focused on the materials based on the biblical issues without the considerations of the surrounding factors of the family institution as better start point for healthy and prosperous communities of the nation. Their basement on the religious issue was personal to involve, getting in the different religions which was one way of gaining access of banning the laws which acted as barrage to fulfillment of the detestable practice. Then, as it has always been, the repercussions of every action are felt after sometime, hence the fulfillment of the adage which say "time is the best prophet of the future". (Symons, 1980) Gay and lesbian marriage brings about abnormal practices which were unheard in our traditions and already established society. It is not that the people of the old and new generations are in the state of objecting the change. But under the practices which have already been demonstrated throughout the world are alarming due to the use of such homosexually kinds of marriages. Gay marriages have rooted cultures which display non-commitments to the established ways of living. The era before the coming up of most arguments that lead to the founding of the gays and lesbianism, families were mostly established under the heterosexuality mode of marriage. The old set of heterosexuality was more binding to the building of families which were ever long lasting and welcoming. The rapid increase on religions and political as well economic trade with the globalization era is the ones which have brought with them to ever alarming issues on the marriage institutions. (Leach, 1978) The heated debates on liberty for women and for marriage has resulted to the allowing of people to do things on the own will. This has greatly ended up making many families on the contemporary society to have a misunderstanding of marriage values and purposes. As most people would think and consider marriage, most of the early people viewed marriage as means which was set to for particular goal. The family was highly valued as it created a place which the two married people would build one another. Basically, religious studies research and through the biological scientific work which have already been disseminated, there is clear evidence that neither man nor woman can claims that he/she is perfectly complete. This study reveals that they all have certain percentage which is complemented by the partners in which they get involved. The complementation of the two people who get involved in the marriage issues is quite unique. This of course involves a number of ways which are not limit ed to the spiritual, physical and even psychological means. (Rosenblatt, 2005) Legalization of same sex marriages would thus make individuals to get into gay and lesbianism. This would actually invert the purposes of complementation on the wide studied field. The natural over turn of the marriages issues can be viewed as the source of the many problems which the global world is

D2 Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

D2 - Assignment Example During his voyage he and his three ships stopped at a place called Ballast Point. Although the Spanish ships would frequently sail down the coast of California as they came from Philippines with treasure, it took them a period of approximately 200 years before they settled there. The reason why Spain decided to settle in California was that they saw Russia as a potential threat to them. This is because the Russian traders were moving down the coast from Bering Sea and had reached Farallon Islands by 1765 which were off of San Francisco. Spain planned on colonizing Alta California as a means of keeping the Russians away from it. The plan was drawn up by Inspector-General Josà © de Gà ¡lvez, the project was led by Don Gaspà ¡r de Portolà ¡ whereas Blessed Junipero Serra was the one in charge of the missionaries. In the year 1769 many expeditions were set out where 219 people made it. Junipero Serra also on that year raised the first cross on a mission site (Starr 49). Junipero Serra was a man who made a lot of significance in the California history. He was born in the year 1713 and grew up as an educated person. At 36 years old, he joined a group of missionaries who were going out to Mexico and in December 1745 he arrived there with his companions. He volunteered for 8 years to go to the mission field in northeastern Mexico where he established a successful mission system. From the year 1758 to 1767 he preached all over Mexico, served as a home missionary and was the commissioner of the Holy Office. In the year 1767 he became the leader of the Jesuit missions in California Baja. This was after he arrived in Loreto in the year 1968 and set out to improve and expand his mission establishment. After arriving in San Diego he built the first mission plant and from there on dedicated his time and energy in his mission. By the year 1782, nine missions were founded by him. He achieved the goal of converting the Native

LEED and Lean Fundamentals Term Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

LEED and Lean Fundamentals - Term Paper Example However, generation of waste come from the individual processes that are within the production (Wiedmann & Minx, 2008). Due to this reason focused waste management demands that engineers should know the type and the source of waste. As it stands, this remains unknown with any accuracy. The work's purpose is to offer a solution through the development of a method that would involve the integration of waste from the environment into the Value Stream Mapping (VSM) lean method. Specifically it involves integration of the corporate standards of environment with the VSM process, thus permitting the established lean process to focus at specific improvement actions for environment. This method’s application is demonstrated in a set up that represents manufacturing, representing a variety of impacts in the environment. The deployment can be generalized to any environmental factor. It can represent a customized index of waste for a specific industry. The focus industry came up with the many ways that explored the multidimensional environmental wastes. The staff can use the resulting method in to quantify the wastes that are generated from the individual processes and thus can report cases of the wastes production which would enable the establishment of the waste management process for the whole lean process (Hagood & Grunden, 2012). Through this attempt, then the waste management in the manufacturing industries would be perfected. The idea can later be applied to other types of industries for the betterment of the environment. Leed and Lean Fundamentals Introduction One of the aims of lean is to reduce waste in the production process. In an attempt to achieve this, one of the common management tools that lean has used is VSM (Wiedmann & Minx, 2008). Value Stream mapping analyzes and also represents the time that is taken for completion of the process while laying emphasis time that does not have value addition to the process hence it is a non-value added time proc ess. This method is very important in reducing the time for the whole processing in a certain industry. As such it reduces the expenses that are associated to the addition time. VSM lays focus on time as wasted consumable. On the other hand, the whole process of lean is concerned with several other types of waste. Consequently the organizations that long to implement lean are required to make use of the different lean tools to cover the various dimensions of wastes for their processes. This means introduction of multiple systems each with its own culture, implementation and the reporting processes. According to Stair & Reynolds (2011), the current innovation in the waste management is targeting at developing an integrated lean system that would avoid this type of duplication. Amongst the areas that better integration is desirable, is between the dimension of time as covered by the VSM and the dimension for the environmental waste. Environmental waste is less represented in the curre nt lean design. This is because the current design of lean tends to perceive waste as a cost of the raw materials or probably the decrements associated to the productivity of the whole production system (Bartholomew & Farrauto, 2011). However, the environmental perceives the type of waste as being important due to the different toxicity and the effects of such on the environment. Collection of the data on the waste from the environment and the waste impacts is an easier task. However it is hard to

Answers to Finance Questions Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Answers to Finance Questions - Essay Example From this paper it is clear that since the Glass-Seagull Act that clearly defined the functions of investment banks, there has been several changes that have occurred in investment bank activities over the last few decades. These changes have been occasioned by market forces and regulatory requirements. Since the repeal of the Glass-Seagull Act in 1999, there has been increased competition in the investment banks sector due to more entry of more investment banks from commercial banks that opened investment banking wings. According to Santos, regulation are imposed to reduce risk, improve transparency as well as improve leverage. Some of these changes experienced include merchant banking, asset and portfolio management, research and security analysis, providing consultancy services during mergers, acquisitions and take-overs and banking for global funds transactions.This discussion highlights that a  money market mutual fund is where by many investors, both huge and small bring thei r funds together and invest them in short term securities. They are normally open-end funds where investors can purchase and sell their securities at will. These funds are professionally managed so as to reduce risks since the securities traded are highly liquid. Investment banks undertake to determine the levels of risk in different financial instruments and manage them so as to receive the best possible returns. Investment banks offer to trade in other financial instruments other than the conventional debt and equity securities.

Limited Liability Corporation and Limited Liability Partnership Paper Essay

Limited Liability Corporation and Limited Liability Partnership Paper - Essay Example But, LLPs still impose certain obligations from each of the partner as a way of maintaining standards of accountability. LLPs differ from other general partnerships in one particular aspect, namely, that each partner is only liable to his/her own debts and obligations and are not required to share the burden of their partners’ debts and obligations. In the United States, there are comprehensive legislations that govern the conception and formation of LLPs. This form of partnership is more suitable to companies offering professional services such as law firms, an accountancy firms, etc. As a matter of fact, a few states within the United States allow only certain professional classes to form LLPs. The primary legislative document that deals with partnership firms is the Uniform Partnership Act, which provides detailed guidelines. Further, many states offer liability protection only against select negligence claims, which implies that for, say, contract claims, a partner can be made liable. LLPs are similar to other partnership arrangements in that the profits accrued are divided evenly among all the members of the partnership. This is essentially to facilitate taxation and to avoid double taxation, which can dent an individual member’s profits. Some state legislation adds more conditions for limited liability. For example, â€Å"Many states provide protection only against tort claims and do not extend protection to a partners own negligence or incompetence or to the partners involvement in supervising wrongful conduct. Other states provide broad protection, including protection against contractual claims brought by the partnerships creditors. It further provided, however, that a partner was personally liable to the partnership and copartners for any breach of duty, and also allowed a creditor or other claimant to pierce the limited liability shield of a partner in

Explain Kants Ethical theories Essay Example for Free

Explain Kants Ethical theories Essay Kant’s ethical theory is an absolute and deontological theory. This means that humans are seeking the ultimate end called the supreme good also known as the ‘summon Bonnum’. Kant says that morality is a categorical imperative, this is a duty which must always be obeyed in all possible situations. A categorical imperative is what is needed to find what is right or wrong. Kant argued that to act morally is to do one’s duty, and one’s duty is to obey the moral law. Kant also believe that there was no room for emotion. Kant believe that categorical imperative helps us to know which actions are obligatory and which are forbidden. There are three principles within the categorical imperatives these include Universal law, Treat humans as ends In themselves and Act as if you live in a kingdom of ends. Universal law is putting minority views first. If it is wrong for one person than it is wrong for everyone. An action must not be carried out unless the person believes that the same situation all people would act in the same way. Treat humans as ends in themselves is respecting a person. This means that you can never use human beings for another purpose or to exploit or enslave them, this is because humans are the highest point of creation and demand unique treatment. Act as if you live in a kingdom of ends, this means treat all with respect. Kant believed that all of these helped to create ‘maxims’. A maxim is an absolute moral statement about a universal truth. For example a maxim: Murder is wrong. Therefore it is a universal rule that murdering anyone is wrong. Kant believes that we can only be true moral agents if we are free to make our own decisions. He argues that our freedom to make rational choices is what separates us from animals. He says that is you can do something, you should be able to do something, and if you cannot do something it is unfair to be asked. E.g. it is unfair to ask someone in a wheelchair to run a marathon.

SWOT Analysis: A Small Family Business

SWOT Analysis: A Small Family Business Family business is definitely a strength for RCDC as in a family owned business, the owners view their as an asset to pass on to their descendants rather than wealth to consume during their lifetimes (carron,1999). In addition, as recently argued by Zellweger(2007), the extended time horizon that characterizes family firms reduces the marginal risk of an investment and therefore the corresponding risk-equivalent cost of equity capital (McNulty,Yeh,schulze and Lubatkin,2002). Consequently, family owned firms can seize investment opportunities their non-family competitors do not consider as sufficiently attractive or consider too risky;such a situation offers family owned firms the possibility of developing their activities unhindered by aggressive competitors and of conquering markets that competitors cannot enter(Zellweger,2007,p-9) Moreover, families may bring with them significant financial and physical resources,called survivability capital(Simon and Hitt,2003),which can be used to sustain the business during economic hardship or after unsuccessful strategic movies (Dyer,2006). These elements are usually known by customers and suppliers,who may establish and cultivate long-lasting relationships because of the goodwill and trustworthiness generated by the family commitment (dollinger 1995). 2) Strong Criticism from shareholders: The continuous negative feedback from directors of warwick investments regarding the poor dividend payment record and the lack of strategic direction is actually a strength of RCDC as it acts as a drive for improvement .It is because of this critism and the drop in turnover that the Lancasters and Yorks are trying to find every possible way to save their business and satisfy the stakeholders. 3) Long-term experience in the dry cleaning business: As per the case RCDC has been in the dry cleaning business for more than a decade and they have managed to run the business reasonably well which means that they have had a good market share and enough customers to patronize and a fairly good knowledge of the particular business. They can use this experience to overcome the weaknesss and excel in their traditional business. 4)Flexi-timing: The RCDC has got both full time and part-time staff which is a strength as it increases the employee morale ,engagement and commitment to the organisation.It reduces the absenteeism to a certain level and increase the chances of recruiting outstanding employees.It even helps in reducing the staff turnover and developing the image of the employer. Weaknesses: 1)High staff turnover: As mentioned in the case, RCDC is facing a hgh level of staff turnover at both staff and managerial level which is one of the causes of the reduced organisational performance .Excessive employee turnover can hurt the overall productivity of a firm and is often a symptom of other difficulties.Every organisation strives to have high productivity,lesser turnovers and maximum profitability.managing turnover successfully is a must to achieve the above goals.Abassi and Hollman(200) stressed that the managers must recognise the employees as major contributor to the efficient achievement of the organisations success.Furthermore,highly motivated and performing individuals are the crucial factors of the organisational productivity. Therefore,there is need to develop a thorough understanding of the employee turnover from the perspective of causes,effect and strategies to minimize turnover. 2) Absence of training and development: This another weakness of RCDC which is worth mentioning as this can be a major cause for employee turnover as there is no growth within the organisation.according to the case ,the training and development interventions are completely nonexistent which means that there is no scope for employees to develop or achiveve some sort expertise in their particular professions.Moreover,Training and development is asource of competitive advantage for companies which helps to remove performance deficiencies in employees. There I greater stability,flexibility and capacity for growth in an organisation.Training contributes to employee stability in at least two ways .Employees become efficient after undergoing training. Efficient employees contribute to the growth of the organisation and growth in trn renders stability to the workforce. 3)safety Measures at work: The mishap that happened with one of the employees at RCDC makes it evident that safety measures are completely missing in the company which means RCDC is putting the ife of its employees at risk by making them work in an unsafe environment which in turn spoils the image of the company. 4) Conflict among the owners: There is a lot of conflict among the owners of the RCDC which is one of the root causes of the underperformance of the company.There is no strategic planning ,no control and no direction at all. Threats: 1)Competion: One of the main threats to all the businesss is competition and RCDC is no exception. RCDCs main competitor is Bletcheys fast clean plc which operstes approximately in the same geographical area .The Bletcheys can even take advantage of the internal problems faced by RCDC to take greater market share.as compared to RCDC, the marketing strategies and pricing policies of Bletcheys.are better and their success rate is also quite high which is why many of the RCDC employees have joined Bletchey and they have been able to pull many of the customers along with them. 2) Seasonal work : Usually people consider dry cleaning for woollen and expensive clothes so the sales tend to be higher in winter and autumn where as summer is marked with reduced sales as the clothes are machine washable. 3) Increasing nmber of supermarkets Another threat posing the traditional neighbourhood dry cleaning business is the increasing number of supermarkets having the dry cleaning stores.Most of the pople nowa-a-days find it convenient to shop from these supermarkets where they get their clothes also drycleaned.This can eventually lead to complete extinction of the traditional drycleaning. 4)Legal issues: Court cases filed against RCDC by its employees is another threat to the smooth functioning of the business.Firstly it can spoil the image of the company by reducing the sales and secondly it does not allow the management to concentrate completely on their business as most of their time goes in finding new ways to deal with these problems. Opportunities: 1)Diversification of business: One of the opportunities is to diversify their business into areas such as shoe repairs,film processing,key cutting and contract cleaning in addition to achieveing a level of excellence in their core business i.e dry cleaning.Diversifiacation can help RCDC with increased profitability and seasonal challenges. 2)Innovative Marketing strategies: RCDC can come up with some innovative marketing ideas to top the market e.g:E-marketing,offering discounts to its loyal customers etc.It can also improve its customer service by providing the option of home delivery which can prove convenient to customers having a busy daily routine and can even beat the threat of one stop-shopping. 3)Improved organistioanl strategies: RCDC needs to implement training and development programmes for employees which can help in attracting more and more people for work,reduce employee turnover and will make the process more organised.Safety measures also needs to be included in this program so that the rate of accident is minimised. 4)Centralisation of operations: Decentralisation Iis a better opportunity than centralisation as decentralisation would lead to better customer care and speedy dry cleaning which could be helpful in getting more customers and increasing the profits .In addition to this store managers should be given more responsibility and powers so that they can take decisions regarding an problem related to the specific store as and required and do not have to depend on getting orders from headquarters. Present and potential problems faced by RCDC in the following areas: a)Operations management and organisational issues: Operations management is the activity of managing the resources which produce and deliver products and services.The operations function is the part of the oranisation that is responsible for this activity.Every organisation has an operations function because every organisation produces some type of products and /or services.Page 4 No organisation can survive in the long term if it cannot supply its customers effectively.And this is essentially what operation s management is about designing,producing and delivering products and services that satisfy market requirements.For any business,it is a vitally important activity. General problems in operations management faced by small and medium sized organisations : Operations management is just as important in small organisations as it is in large ones.Irrespective of their size,all companies need to produce and deliver their products and services efficiently and effectively.However,in practice,managing operations in a small or medium size organizations has its own set of problems.Large companies may have the resources to dedicate individuals to specialized tasks but smaller companies often cannot,so people may have to do different jobs as the need arises.such an informal structure can allow the company to respond quickly as opportunities or problems present themselves.But decision making can also become confused as individuals roles overlap.small companies may have exactly the same operations management issues as large ones but they can be more difficult to separate from the mass of other issues in the organisation. Present and potential operations management problems faced by RCDC can be discussed a follows: 1)No understanding of the operations strategic performance objectives: The first and foremost responsibility of any operations management team is to understand what it is trying to achieve,which means understanding how to judge the performance of the operation at different levels,from broad and strategic to more operational performance objectives.The management in RCDC is not paying any attention to this crucial area which can lead to further damange to the companys market share. 2)Operations strategy for the organisation: Operations management involves hundreds of minutes by minute decisions so it is vital that there is a set of general principles which can guide decision-making towards the organisations longer term goals called an operations strategy.RCDC do not have any specific operations strategy which is why the organisational growth is suffering and will continue to suffer if this issue is not addressed. 3)No measures for improving the performance of the operations: The continuing responsibility of all operations managers is to omprove the performance of their operations which is another issue to be addressed in RCDC. 4)social responsibility of operations management: It is increasingly recognised by many businesses that operations manager have a set of broad societal responsibilities and concerns beyond their direct activities.the general term for these aspects of business responsibility is corporate social responsibility or CSR.The accident that took place with one of the employees and the managements attitude towards that incident makes it evident that RCDC completely lacks CSR.This has already spoiled the brand image of the company and can ruin it completely. All these issues can turn RCDC into a failing organisation. Organisational Issues: 1)Due to the heavy drop in sales over the last few months ,the directors are considering centralisation of operations at Leicestershire site leading the company to substantial savings in staff costs and providing it with the opportunity to dispose of surplus machinery.However due to the conflict between the owners the idea of centralisation does not seem to work out.If any decision is not taken in the near future, the profitability of the company will keep going down and finally the owners may have to close don the company. 2)The present 24 branches operated by RCDC are not at all enough as far as the idea of centralisation is concerned.RCDCs main target is to increase the sales and for doing this they have to attract more and more customers which can only happen if they provide better and quik services to their customers as compared to the competitors.so,the geographical coverage is very important for the growth of the business. 3)The problem of moving goods from the retail outlets to the plant and then back to the outlets and customers is another issue which needs to be addressed.Making goods and services available to the customers on time is the biggest challenge for all the organisations as it is one of the ways of building healthy relationship with customers and making them loyal to the company. c)Sales and marketing Issues: Marketing Planning: Marketing Planning can be defined as the application of marketing resources to achieve marketing objectives(P-16,marketing plans that work) In simple words marketing planning is a series of activities and the formulation of plans for achieving them.Companies generally go through a management process in developing marketing plans .In small ,undiversified companies this process is usually informal and same is the case with RCDC.RCDC needs a much more systematized marketing plan to target more customers. Constructing a marketing plan is the most difficult task for RCDC as the owners do not agree to each other and they all have different expectations and goals altogether. 2)Decling Sales: The sales of RCDC are decling rigorously and the company is not taking any serious action regarding this issue .The company needs to conduct a marketing audit which is usually conducted by organisations in situation of decling sales ,falling margins,lost market share etc.Marketing audit is a means of defining problems precisely so that each problem can be addressed and eradicated. 3)Undiversification: According to the case ,Yorks want to diversify their business and move into related ares such as Shoe repairs,film processing.key cutting and contract cleaning which is actually a good idea to increase the overall profitability and can help RCDC to overcome the bad phase of reduced sales .Hoever the disagreement from lancasters is not allowing this idea to be turned into reality. 4)Sales Promotion: d)Personnel and industrial relations: 1) Training and development: Absence of training of and development is one of the biggest problems in RCDC. As per the case training and development programmes are considered to be an expense to the company and the employees are expected to pick up work as they go.Training and development can provide RCDC with the much needed competitive edge by improving the performance of the workers and the organisation as a whole. If this practice continues RCDC will completely fail in attracting employees to work for it ,as there are no growth opportunities for employees. 2)employee relations: As per the case ,there is a lot of friction between the employees and the management which is one of the many reasons for RCDCs high staff turn over.The management needs to value its employees and show concern to their problems as the employees are the building blocks of any organisation.In order to achieve longterm goals and future success RCDC must improve its relations with its employees. 3) Health and safety: The workers at RCDC are prone to accidents as there are no health and safety measures .The management is only concerned about increasing the profits without a proper planning and concern about the people who can actually help RCDC achieve it. 4) Job dissatisfaction: The high employee turnover makes it quite evident that the employees are not at all satisfied with their job at RCDC. There can be various reasons for it e.d: No growth opportunities. Risk factor No concern for employees well being from the management. Work stress. Competitors etc. 5)Orientation : Orientation programmes are must for every organisation as it helps new employees to get aware of the work practices and the expectations of the organisation.These orientation programmes are completely missing in RCDC and it effects the perception of employees. 6)legal issues: RCDC is dealing with court cases which is not a good sign for the growth of any business as it affects the brand image. 7)Internal conflicts: Another serious issue is the conflict between the owners which has created a sort of deadlock in the company as no plans are put into action.These internal problems have already affected and can futher affect the goodwill of the company. Accounting and Finance: The present and potential problems faced by RCDC in accounting and finance are as follows: 1) Payment of dividends: One of the main problems in RCDC is the poor dividend payment plan.Every organisation has a responsibility towards its stakeholders and if an organisation does not fullfill the expections of its shareholders,it has to bear the consequences such as internal conflicts,loss of credibility,reduced sales etc.which is exactly the case with RCDC.Therefore, RCDC has to improve the standard of paying dividends to its shareholders and for doing so ,it has to manage its financial resources in a proper and planned way and keep maximising the shareholders wealth. If the business is to achieve its objective of maximising shareholder wealth then it must use its resouces to maximise profits and cash flows.This will maximise shareholder wealth because there is general agreement that share prices reflect the discounted value of a firms cash flows.Whilst it may not be possible to increase dividends every year,shareholders like to know that dividends will be paid because they provide a signal to investors.A reduction in dividends is likely to lead to a reduction in share price because the signal to the market is one of the financial difficulties ahead.such a reduction in a firms share price will in evitably have other financial implications.The company may become target for a possible take over,particularly if another company believes that the reduction in earnings has been brought about by poor management rather than hostile trading conditions.Even if this does not happen the company may well see its credit rating reduced thus increasing its capita l costs because of the increased risk perceived by investors.Capital spending may also have to be stopped in an attempt to protect the firms cash flow. 2) Financing the new project of centralisation: RCDC is considering centralisation of operations which according to the management will help in reducing staff costs and the concentration of operations will allow the company to take advantage of the economies of scale.In,addition to this the machinery in the branches could be sold off to get some finance to invest in the new plant.The main problem with the centralisation is that the company is not having enough funds to invest in the new plant which is estimated to cost around 7,50,000 pounds.even selling off the surplus machinery in branches will hardly aid in solving the finance problem. At present ,there is no possibility of assuming any increase in sales ,that leaves RCDC with the option of taking a loan from a bank to finanace the project and for doing this the company needs to discuss the profitability of the proposed project which is expected to be 1300000 pounds that can act a basis for the bank authorities to sanction the loan.However ,considering the present market condition of the company ,it is quite difficult for RCDC to get a loan sanctioned from a bank as it has lost its credibility.Even if RCDC manages to get a loan ,it has to give a serious thought on how to repay the loan.Every business and every new project involves risk,but it should be a calculated one.Calculated risk makes the success of a company more predictable while, uncalculated risk can completely damage the business. 3) Costs involved in the new project: As per the proposed plan,only the staff cost is showing a reduction by 1,80,000 pounds all other costs are assumed to be same or to show an increase e.g,the head office cost at present is 240 and even for the new plant ,it is proposed to be 240, but the operating surplus is supposed to increase by 130000 pounds,same is the case with flat rental and other entities.According to the data provided in the summary of annual operating statement ,it can be understood that the proposed plan involves more cost and only marginal saving.so, the management should seriously analyse the implications of the proposed plan and decide whether they should invest in this plan or not.

Experimental Investigations of Catalytic Effect of Cu2+

Experimental Investigations of Catalytic Effect of Cu2+ Experimental Investigations of Catalytic Effect of Cu2+ During Anodic Disolution of Iron in NaCl Electrolyte R.K Upadhyay1, Arbind Kumar2 and P.K Srivastava3 Abstract: Taguchi’s orthogonal array L9 has been effectively used to study the effect of process parameters such as voltage, feed rate and electrolyte concentration on material removal rate in context of two different types of electrolyte namely aqueous NaCl solution and electrolyte solution containing Cu2+ ions. The results indicated that Cu2+ has a catalytic effect on the anodic dissolution of iron, which restrict the oxidation of Fe2+ to Fe3+ and increases the dissolution rate during machining. The experimental results were analyzed using analysis of variance (ANOVA) method to investigate the significance and percentage contribution of individual process parameters on performance characteristics. Key Words: Electrochemical Machining, Aqueous NaCl, Cu2+, Parameters, Oxidation, Material Removal rate. Introduction: Electrochemical machining (ECM) has got an industrial importance due to its capability of controlled atomic level metal removal1. It is an anodic dissolution  process based on electrolysis, where the application of a more traditional process is not convenient. ECM has been successfully employed in aerospace, automobile industries and now gaining much importance in the electronics and other high-tech industries for the fabrication of micro components2-3. Mask less and through mask electrochemical micromachining techniques have been successively used thin films and foils of materials those are difficult to machine by other methods4-5. Electrochemical machining is low voltage (5-25 volt) machining process which offers high metal removal rate and also capable to machine hard conductive materials into complicated profiles without any thermal damages thus suitable for mass production work with low labor requirements6-7. The dissolution rate is highly reliant on the selection of electroly tes and its current carrying capacity. On increasing the concentration of electrolyte solution dissolution rate also increases but excess concentration allows the crystal formation, which may damage the accessories of ECM and reduce the volume of electrolyte in flow pipes. The conductivity of electrolyte depends not only on the concentration but also on ionic interaction. Thus, the current carrying process done by the base electrolyte is small, but H+ and OH ions produced in electrolysis of water play important role8-9. The achievement of higher dissolution rate in ECM is a strong research base which is possible by change in composition of electrolyte solution to promote catalytic effect during dissolution10. During electrochemical machining of iron at low current density it has been observed that Fe+ cation formed very easily but it is highly unstable and immediately oxidizes into Fe2+ state. Increase in current density leads to simultaneous production of Fe2+ and Fe3+, at higher current density apparent valence of iron increases above three11. Therefore, to stabilized Fe2+ in the aqueous solution is a challenge during dissolution. EXPERIMENTAL SET-UP AND PRINCIPLE OF ECM: Fig 1 Experimental set-up ECM is an anodic dissolution process works on the principle of Faradays law. While machining of iron in presence of aqueous NaCl electrolyte solution the following chemical reactions are observed12. Reactions at Cathode: Na+ + e à ¯Ã†â€™Ã‚ ³ Na Na + H2O à ¯Ã†â€™Ã‚ ³ NaOH + H+ 2H+ + 2e à ¯Ã†â€™Ã‚ ³ H2 It shows that only hydrogen gas will evolve at cathode. When pure iron is being machined electrochemically the following reactions would occur13-14. Fe à ¯Ã†â€™Ã‚ ³ Fe2++ 2e Fe2+ + 2Cl à ¯Ã†â€™Ã‚ ³ FeCl2 Fe2+ + 2(OH) à ¯Ã†â€™Ã‚ ³ Fe(OH)2 FeCl2 + 2(OH) à ¯Ã†â€™Ã‚ ³ Fe(OH)2 + 2Cl 2Cl Cl2 + 2e 2FeCl2 + Cl2 à ¯Ã†â€™Ã‚ ³ 2FeCl3 H+ + Cl à ¯Ã†â€™Ã‚ ³ HCl 2Fe(OH)2 + H2O +O2 à ¯Ã†â€™Ã‚ ³ 2Fe(OH)3 Fe(OH)3 + 3HCl à ¯Ã†â€™Ã‚ ³ FeCl3+ 3H2O FeCl3+ 3NaOH à ¯Ã†â€™Ã‚ ³ Fe(OH)3 + 3NaCl It shows that during electrochemical machining of iron in NaCl electrolyte, iron is removed as Fe(OH)2 and precipitated as sludge while sodium chloride is recovered back. Due to further reaction, formation of Fe(OH)3 is also possible Which, confirms the existence of iron in +2 and +3 states during dissolution. Determination of Fe2+ and Fe3+ ions in electrolyte solution: The electrolyte solution containing Fe+2 and Fe+3 ions was collected. Fe+2 ions were determined directly by titrating a known volume of iron electrolyte solution with K2Cr2 O7 in acidic medium (HCl). Cr2O7 2- + 6Fe+2 + 14H+ = 2Cr+3 + 6Fe +3 + 7H2O Internal indicator N- phenyl anthranilic acid was used to mark the end point. Fe+3 ions were determined after all the Fe+3 ions are reduced into Fe+2 ions with SnCl2 in presence HCl in hot. Sn+2 + 2Fe +3 = Sn+4 + 2Fe+2 The solution was then cooled and excess SnCl2 was removed by adding HgCl2 solution. 2Hg+2 + Sn+2 +Cl = Sn+4 +Hg2Cl2 (white ppt) Titration of known volume of standard solution was done using standard solution of K2Cr2O7 in acidic medium. From the volume of K2Cr2O7 used, the total amount of Fe+2 and Fe+3 ions was determined. The amount of Fe+3 ion was determined by subtracting amount of Fe+2 which is determined earlier. Material removal rate during electrochemical machining is greatly influenced by dissolution valence. As the dissolution valence decreases MRR increases. In this paper an approach is made to enhance the electrochemical dissolution of iron through control of valency (transition) therefore, in this direction, use of electrolyte solution containing Cu2+ is suggested. The dissolution limit of iron by Cu2+ ions can be is justified by considering the standard electron potential E ° for Cu2+, Fe/Fe2+and Fe/Fe3+ described as follows15. Cu2+ + 2e- Cu E ° = +0.34V Fe2+ + 2e- Fe E ° = -0.44V Fe3+ + e- Fe2+ E ° = +0.77V As E ° for Cu2+ Cu is more positive than Fe2+ Fe, Cu2 +will oxidize Fe to Fe2+. However, as E ° for Cu2+ Cu is less positive than Fe3+ Fe2+, Cu2+ will not oxidize Fe2+ to Fe3+. Making electrolyte solution: 250 gramsof NaCl was mixed with400 gramsof CuSO4 in10 litersof water. The mixture is stirred well for 2 minutes then heated until it loses its green color. The crystals of sodium sulphate (Na2SO4) and copper chloride (CuCl2) were removed by filtering the solution and thi the solution thus obtained was saturated solution of Na2SO4 containing Cu2+ ions which participates in anodic dissolution process. MACHINING CONDITIONS: Following machining parameters are selected on the basis of performance characteristics, Table1: Machining conditions for analysis SELECTION OF MACHINING PROCESS PARAMETERS Table 2 shows machining parameters and selected levels for experimental procedure Table 2: Process parameter and their levels Measurement of MRR The initial weight of the work piece was taken for calculation of MRR. Keeping the flow rate constant at 15 lit/min and the rest of the parameters are set according to table 1 for each run. Work piece was kept horizontal, and cylindrical electrode was used for machining. Gap between tool and workpiece was maintained carefully to avoid the choking. The electrode was fed continuously towards the work piece during machining and time was recorded. After machining, the cavity was formed on the work-piece. The final weight of the work-piece was taken and material removal rate was calculated as per the following formula: MRR= †¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦. (1) EXPERIMENTAL PROCEDURE: The design resulted in total of eighteen experiments, which are performed at 10V-18V supply voltage, 10-30 g/lit electrolyte concentration and 0.0001-0.0005 cm/sec feed rate as the values for the control variables. The responses measured are Material removal rate (MRR) Scheme of the experiments is as shown in Table 3. Table 3: Taguchi L9 OA for MRR RESULTS AND DISCUSSION Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) when machinating in presence of NaCl electrolyte solution: Percentage contribution of each parameter on material removal rate during electrochemical machining of iron in aqueous NaCl electrolyte solution is shown in table 4 and represented graphically in figure 2. Table 4: ANOVA for MRR [NaCl as electrolyte] Fig 2. Contributions of the parameters when machining in presence of aqueous NaCl electrolyte solution Regression Equation: MRR= -0.01096 +0.002296Voltage +64.0FeedRate +0.000540Concentration. †¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦(2) The equation (2) shows that Feed rate is dominant factor affecting MRR. The graphs shown in figure 3 are plotted from the regression equation (2). Fig 3. Main Effects Plot for SN ratios (NaCl electrolyte solution) Figure shows the main effect plot of the MRR depicting the effect of various machining parameters on MRR. As seen from the plot obtained, the MRR increased with increase in both voltage and feed rate. This is due to the fact that with increase in voltage the current increases in the inter electrode gap thus increasing the MRR. Feed rate is another important parameter. Increase in feed rate results in decrease of the conducting path between the workpiece and the tool hence resulting in high current density thus enhancing the rapid anodic dissolution. An overall increase in the MRR was also observed with increase in the concentration as the larger number of ions associated with the machining process which increases the machining current and thus results in higher MRR. Effects of selected process variables (i.e. Voltage, Feed rate and Concentration) on material removal rate (MRR) at different sets of conditions while machining in presence of aqueous NaCl solution are shown in figure 4(a), 4(b) and 4(c). Fig. 4(a) Effects of Voltage on material Fig. 4(b) Effects of Feed rate on material removal for different Concentration, removal for different Voltage, Feed rate= 0.0001 cm/sec. Concentration = 20 g/lit. Fig.4(c) Effects of Concentration on material removal for different Feed rates, Voltage= 14 V NaCl electrolyte tend to promote the oxidation of Fe2+ to Fe3+ during the dissolution process the maximum MRR obtained during machining of iron in aqueous NaCl solution recorded was 0.0653 cm3/sec. Although the higher concentration of NaCl is favorable for better MRR but excess concentration allows the crystal formation which reduces the volume of electrolyte in flow pipes and also affects the dissolution rate. Analysis of variance when machining in presence of electrolyte solution containing Cu2+ ions Percentage contribution of each parameter on material removal rate during electrochemical machining of iron in electrolyte solution containing Cu2+ ions is shown in table 5 and represented graphically in figure 5. Table 5 ANOVA for MRR [electrolyte solution containing Cu2+ ions] Fig 5. Contributions of the parameters when machining in presence of electrolyte solution containing Cu2+ ions Regression Equation: MRR = -0.0157 +0.002908Voltage +75.3FeedRate +0.000602Concentration. .†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦. (3) The equation (3) shows that voltage is dominant factor affecting MRR. The graphs shown in figure 6 are plotted from the regression equation (3). Fig 6. Main Effects Plot for SN ratios (electrolyte solution containing Cu2+ ions) The oxidation of Fe2+ in to Fe3+ is restricted due to the presence of Cu2+ in electrolyte solution which promotes the higher dissolution rate during machining. The influence of selected process variables i.e. Voltage, Feed rate and Concentration on material removal rate at different sets of conditions in presence of electrolyte solution containing Cu2+ ions are shown in figure 7(a), 7(b) and 7(c) respectively. Fig. 7(a) Effects of Voltage on material Fig. 7(b) Effects of Feed rate on material removal for different Concentration, removal for different Voltage, Feed rate= 0.0001 cm/sec. Concentration = 20 g/lit. Fig. 7(c) Effects of Concentration on material removal for different Feed rates, Voltage= 14 V. The maximum MRR obtained during machining of iron in presence of Cu2 electrolyte solution containing Cu2+ ions was 0.0774 cm3/sec, which is 18.5% more when compared with aqueous NaCl electrolyte. CONCLUSION The electrochemical characteristics of iron in aqueous NaCl solution and electrolyte solution containing Cu2+ ions has been analyzed experimentally to investigate the influence of process parameters on MRR. The Process parameters such as voltage, feed rate, Electrolyte concentration, were successfully controlled. The different combinations of these parameters were used for the experimentation in order to determine their influence on MRR. The experiment was performed by varying all parameters in combination as per L9 orthogonal array. The experimental observations support the conclusion that the presence of Cu2+ ions in electrolyte solution restrict the further oxidation of Fe2+ to Fe3+ and enhance the low valence dissolution of iron during machining. Design of experiments and analysis of variance helped in identifying the significant parameters affecting MRR. The best combination of the parameters are Voltage= 18 V, Feed Rate=0.0005 cm/sec and electrolyte Concentration = 20 g/lit whe n using a solution containing Cu2+ ions as electrolyte. The maximum MRR obtained was 18.5 % higher when compared with aqueous NaCl electrolyte for the same set of working conditions. Acknowledgement: I express my sincere thanks to Department of Applied Chemistry BIT Extension Centre Deoghar for their cooperation to conduct the experiments in order to observe the catalytic behavior of Cu2+ ions. References: 1.Sekar T, Marappan R. Experimental investigations into the influencing parameters of electrochemical machining of AISI 202. Journal of Advanced Manufacturing Systems 2008; 7(2):337-43. 2.Bhattacharyya B, Munda J. Experimental investigation on the influence of Electrochemical machining parameters on machining rate and accuracy in micromachining domain. Int J Mach Tools Manuf 2003; 43(13):1301-10. 3. Kozak J, Rajurkar KP, Makkar Y, Selected problems of microelectrochemical machining Journal of Materials Processing Technology 2004; 149: 426– 431. 4. Bhattacharya B, Doloi B and Sridhar PJ. Electrochemical Micromachining: New possibilities for Micro- Manufacturing. J. Material. Proc.Tech 2001;113:301-305. 5. Bhattacharyya B, Malapati M, Munda J, Sarkar A. Influence of tool vibration on Machining performance in electrochemical micro-machining of copper International Journal of Machine Tool and Manufacture 2007; 47: 335–342. 6.Hocheng H, Sun YH, Lin SC, Kao PS. A material removal analysis of Electrochemical machining using flat-end cathode. Journal of Materials Processing Technology 2003; 140:264- 268. 7.Yong L, Di Zhu, Yongbin, Zeng, Shaofu Huang, Hongbing Yu. Experimental Investigation on Complex Structures Machining by Electrochemical Micromachining Technology, Chinese Journal of Aeronautics 2010; 23:578-584. 8.Mukherjee SK, Kumar S, Srivastava PK. Effect of electrolyte on current- carrying process in ECM, I Mech E Part C J. Mechanical Engineering Science 2007; 221:1415-1419. 9. Byk MV, Tkalenko DA and Tkalenko MD. On participation of hydroxide ions in the anodic dissolution of metals in aqueous electrolyte solution. Prot Met t 2004; 40(3): 294-296. 10.Ayyappan S and Sivakumar K. Investigation of electrochemical machining characteristics of 20MnCr5 alloy steel using potassium dichromate mixed aqueous NaCl electrolyte and optimization of process parameters.Proc I MechE part B Journal of Engineering Manufacture 2014. 11.Srivastava PK, Kumar R, Barhai PK. Energy Profile and Thermodynamic Feasibility of Iron(I) during Electrochemical Machining of Iron.International Journal of Mechanical Engineering 2013; 41:1146-1158. 12.Mukherjee SK, Kumar S, Srivastava PK. Effect of over voltage on material removal rate during Electrochemical Machining. Tamkand Journal of Science and Engineering 2005; 8: 23- 28. 13. Neto JC.d.S, Silva, EMd, Silva MBd. Intervening variables in electrochemical machining Journal of Materials Processing Technology 2006; 179:92–96. 14.Mount AR, Muir RN. Dissolution characteristics of iron and stainless steels in chloride under electrochemical machining conditions; Journal of the Electrochemical Society 2007;154: 3: E57; E61. 15. Electrochemistry 3: Cell potentials and thermodynamics, chemwiki.ucdavis.edu †º Analytical Chemistry †º Electrochemistry (2014, accessed 15 May 2015). Stephen K. Lower. Redox equilibria in natural waters: Chem1 Environmental Chemistry, http://www.chem1.com/acad/webtext/pdf/c3redox.pdf(1998, accessed 15 May 2015). 1

The Political Climate of the 1950s Essay -- History Historical Politic

The Political Climate of the 1950s With the dropping of the Atomic bomb that ended WWII and the beginning of the Cold War, there was an irony of stability and turmoil in the United States. The start of the 1950s brought about many changes, from the Red Scare and threat of the possible spread of communism in America, to changes in political movements, civil rights movements, and another possible war, there were many significant events and people during this time.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Joseph R. McCarthy was a Republican Senator from Wisconsin with an enormous political agenda. With the fear of communism ignited by the Cold war, McCarthy and his supporters began to instill in the American people the fear that communism was taking root in the United States. In February 1950, McCarthy announced at a speech in Wheeling, West Virginia that he had obtained a list of card-carrying American Communists in the State Department (Davidson et al., 2002). For the next several months, often referred to as the Red Scare, McCarthy led a committee that investigated various government agencies and questioned a large number of people about their political associations. It was later found that the McCarthy’s charges were unsubstantiated, but the effects of this â€Å"witch hunt† would impact the United States even after the charges had settled. One the first impacts of McCarthyism was the win of Republican candidate Dwight Eisenhower in the 1952 presi dential election. The McCarthy campaign, which has accused many democrats including Harry S. Truman of taking a liberal stance on communism, hurt many democrats in the election. The infringement of civil right on the American People was yet another impact of McCarthyism. By 1952, 32 states had laws requiring teachers to take oaths of loyalty and government loyalty boards were wanted to now personal details of their employees such as what newspaper they subscribed to and what music they owned (Davidson et al. 2002). It was not until hearings against those thought to have communist association were aired on ABC and the public had the opportunity to see the badgering and mockery of these proceedings that the McCarthy’s popularity fell quickly and the Red Scare receded as well.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The Eisenhower presidency pursued dynamic conservatism or modern republicanism in his new term. In his own words, Eisenhower declared â€Å"I will be conservative when it ... ...nt, it is without doubt that it is more historically significant. Even though slavery had been abolished, equality was far from typical. The events of the 1950s seemed to say that minorities would no longer tolerate an unequal America. The strategies of the civil right movement made more of a statement than ever before in history and paved a way for civil rights activists to make a real impact on desegregation and equality. No one could have realized that what seemed as an insignificant gesture to partake in training South Vietnamese armies and America’s involvement in Southeast Asia would one day have the impact it did on America. Although at the time when Eisenhower was trying to stop of the spread of communism it seemed the right thing to do, the repercussions of that decision and the war it eventually led to was devastating to America politically, socially, and culturally. Works Cited Davidson, J. W., Gienapp, W. E., Heyrman, C., Lytle M. H., Stoff, M. B. (2002) Nation of Nations . The McGraw-Hill Companies. Schultz, S. (1999) American History 102: Civil War to the Present. Retrieved April 10, 2005 from http://us.history.wisc.edu/hist102/lectures/lecture25.html.

Sophocles Antigone - Antigone as Bad Citizen :: Antigone essays

Antigone – The Bad Citizen    Being a good citizen often involves doing something out of the ordinary to help others. Sometimes, that involves going against the will of others to do what the good citizen might think is best. Although this is traditionally the case, the biggest factor in being a good citizen is great respect for the nation in which one lives. If one wants to be a good citizen, he or she might go out of his or her way to help others, however, must do so within the rules of the nation. In the Greek Drama by Sophocles, entitled Antigone, the hero, Antigone, shows, what I would call, bad citizenship. How is this? Why is she being a bad citizen? The setting of the drama is in a fictional kingdom known of as Thebes. This kingdom is basically run by a set of rules and laws. Whether they are necessary or not, these rules must be obeyed. In Thebes, one of the rules states that Antigone's brother is not allowed to due a respectable death and therefor, will not have a proper funeral. Antigone is torn apart by this. Her brother whom she loved very much will not be able to have a respectable funeral. She explains in the drama how much she disagrees with the rules of the land. Because of this disapproval toward the law, she takes it upon herself to remove the corps of her brother from it's assigned post so she can do whatever she wants with it. She has broken the law. Although what she is has done is the right thing to do in her mind, the law states that it is not allowed. Throughout the drama, she consults her sister, Ismene, about whether or not she feels though she should commit this crime or not. Ismene makes it clear that she sh ould not and attempts to discourage her sister from doing what she did. Contrary to the advice of her sister, Antigone does indeed commit this crime for she feels that it is what a good person would do. To the average American, Antigone's actions might be considered the right thing to do.

Athenian Artistic Performances Were They a Form of Propaganda Essay

The â€Å"glory that was Greece† reached its height in 5th century BCE in Athens, under the leadership of Pericles. He opened Athenian democracy to the ordinary citizen, was responsible for the construction of magnificent temples and statues on the Acropolis and he, in effect created the Athenian empire. The definition of propaganda is â€Å"the planned use of any form of public or mass-produced communication designed to affect the minds of a given group for a specific purpose, whether military, economic or political† (Linearger, p. 39, 1954). This has connotations of dishonesty and while people assume it is a modern phenomenon, its roots go back much further. The question is however, was propaganda rife in 5th century BCE Athens and if so, was it the driving force whether explicitly or not behind many of the public displays? A funeral oration or epitaphios logos is an official speech delivered at a funeral. The epitaphios is regarded as a virtually unique Athenian concept, although early elements of such speeches exist in the Epic poetry of Homer and in Lyric poetry of Pindar; in addition modern parallels have been drawn between Lincoln’s Gettysburg address and Pericles. When Pericles gave the epitaphios for Athenian soldiers who had been killed in the first year of the Peloponnesian War. He took the opportunity to not only praise the deceased, but Athens itself, in an oration which has been both praised as enshrining the archetypal democratic system and condemned as barefaced propaganda. In Thucydides’ book History of the Peloponnesian War, Pericles’ Funeral Oration is a powerful rhetorical piece. In addition it is important evidence for the study of the Athenian sense of identity and the way they represented themselves and others. It eloquently discusses the ancient democratic model and the picture it portrays serves as a prototype for democratic states today (Abbott, 1970). Thucydides specified a man would be chosen to make an ‘appropriate speech’ i. e. it matched formulaic prescriptions of the epitaphios, which according to Edinger, â€Å"consisted of a number of recognised topics: praise of the dead, praise of the ancestors, praise of the city, consolation of the families of the dead.

Memories of the mentor Essay

Often in our lives comes a person who leaves us completely changed and different, even to ourselves. In my life such a role has been played by a number of individuals combined but one of them whose influence was maximum was late Mr. Salim, my English teacher during O Levels. May Allah bless him a place in Paradise. I have never met such a person in my life, so gentle, so broad-minded. Even now when I remember him smiling, a smile appears on my face as well and I pray for him. He was a unique man; unique in, perhaps, every sense of the word. I had known him before I came to O Levels. He had been my Oral English teacher during the 8th class but he took only one period every week and hence we knew very little about him. When I entered O Levels he was our Class Teacher as well as our English teacher. He was aware of the fact that we were not very good in English and that we needed a lot of hard work. He gave us a nice little lecture about the new challenges we were going to face and how we were going to deal with them. He told us that everyday for the first five to ten minutes one boy was to come in front of class and make a speech, on any topic he wanted to talk, in English. The students were to come roll-number wise. This was perhaps the most interesting items during my first year at O Levels. Everyday in the morning a boy would come, often reluctantly, and tell Mr. Salim what the topic was. Many times it happened that the student said that he had not prepared anything. Then he would say, with a matchless wave of his hand which I remember clearly, â€Å"Well, then do it offhand. Go on, speak on anything you want, anything you choose.† The thing which impressed me most was his vast knowledge. Before the student started his speech, he would give a little introduction on that topic, and no matter what the topic was he always knew something about it, even if it was like ‘Eating insects for food in the Far-East’! I was a shy student at that moment and I knew that the speech-process would help me in over-coming it. When my first speech was drawing nearer and nearer, I searched for a unique topic. I had taken it as a challenge to find a topic about which Mr.Salim would know nothing. After a lot of search I found one: Antimatter. This was, I think, the real beginning of my relationship with Mr.Salim. When I came to make my speech, he asked me about the topic and I told him. For the first time in my life I saw an expression of unawareness on his old face. â€Å"Ah, well,† he said, â€Å"its something about modern Physics.† And then he beckoned me to make the speech. Now I had become a person he recognized. In fact, I think, he was impressed. A few days after that he praised me for an essay I had written. I used to do assignments given by Mr.Salim with great zeal, perhaps just to hear a word of praise because when I did hear one by him, I felt myself elevated. I wouldn’t say I was very bad at English but I was not very good either. I was just an average yet somehow, slowly and gradually, like the dawn on a wet day, I was converted into a person who could write a good piece of English. I owe a lot of it to him, a lot. He understood the way we worked. He knew that we were short of time and we had a lot to do, but he knew that if he applied too much stress we would break, and so he went slowly. At that time we thought that it was folly on his part that he took us gradually, while the other sections were covering their syllabus rapidly, but now after it is over, I realize it wasn’t folly but wisdom on his part. And I’m thankful to him for the fact that he made English for us a lovely subject. While telling us the meaning of adolescence he pointed towards me, as I had at that moment faint traces of a mustache. Although I have shaved off that mustache long ago, I can never erase that memory. During his last days he taught us the past papers and he would share with me my book of past papers, which I did with great pleasure. If it had been just the love of English, I would never have written this article. He gave us a lot more than that. The outstanding among them is the broadening the horizon of my way of thinking. He was old, but he was not orthodox or conservative. He was a liberal and modern person. He understood the requirements of the modern age and he spoke fluently about it. Often, his views on Islam created disturbance among the ‘orthodox Muslims’ of our class. Topics like ‘Music, Nationality, Hadood Laws and Taliban’ were a cause of heated discussion. He had a weak and gentle heart. He couldn’t bear unjustice to anyone, even to his enemies. He was highly against the ‘Maulvies’ and called them ,’Semi-illiterate, half-educated mullahs, they want to keep us in the past, centuries back.’ He was aware of the fact that the people are apt to use their emotions rather than mind, especially in matters of religion, and this is, perhaps, his greatest contribution. He taught me to use my brain, not my emotions, for emotions are blind. He developed in me a hatred for rage and emotional acts. Yet, he was believer of freedom of speech, and whenever any student of the class objected on his views, he would allow them to say whatever they wanted to say. He would say to them, â€Å"I respect your views but I do not agree with them.† He never forced anyone to change his views. Once the topic of ‘Basant’ was under discussion and a few students of our class were speaking against it for in their view it was ‘against Islam’. He said, â€Å"Why don’t you people understand, its just a regional festival, why involve religion in this? You don’t want to celebrate it, fine, but why do you force others to do what you want? Live and Let live!† All his life he wanted to gain more and more knowledge. Perhaps, the only field in which he was weak was modern Physics. A few days before he came to know about his disease, I was sitting in the class reading the book ‘A brief history of time’ by ‘Stephen Hawkings’ and he saw me reading it. He asked me if he could see it and I gave it to him. He then discussed with me a little about Stephen Hawkings. He said that there was another book by the same author in the market and I told him that I had read that one too. Then he asked me that if I had read it could I give it to him for reading, and I told him that he could take it for reading at that very moment for I was reading it for the second time. He thanked me and took it. But he never returned it to me because we learned only a few days later that he had stomach-cancer and was now on long leave from the school. A few months after that, he died. I don’t feel anything bad about that book, in fact I feel happy that he had with him something I had given, when he died. I remember exactly the last day he spent with us. He was checking our assignments day and while he was checking mine, he asked me what the word ‘mentor’ meant for I had used it in my assignments and he wanted to know whether I knew its meaning or not, and I told him that it meant a ‘wise teacher’. He gave me an ‘A’ on that composition and I feel, I just feel, that the moment he wrote an ‘A’ on my notebook it was written in my fate that I would get an ‘A’ in English. When my result came and I had scored straight As, the person I remembered the most was Mr.Salim. He was a patient person and bore everything with courage and determination. His son had died in an accident but he had kept himself steady and carried on with his life. He adopted a son and he once told us about him. He was very nice with his students and gave us a lot of time to complete our assignments but when a student wouldn’t do any work for months he would say, â€Å"Show me your knuckles, show me your knuckles,† and then he would give a blow on them with a wooden duster. I think I won’t forget him my whole life. I remember him quite often; his words, his expressions, his speeches, his advises, his laughes and his smiles. He was a little hard of hearing and whenever he a person said something he couldn’t understand, he would bring his hand to his ear and say with an unparallel expression, â€Å"Pardon?† I remember it clearly, every moment of it. He never gave me any special treatment, he treated me like any teacher would treat a normal good student but the way he has influenced me is astonishing. I love that person. His death was a big loss, a big loss. I sometimes feel that I never got the time to tell him how much thankful I was to him, and that how much I owed to him, and that how much I loved him but he went away, unaware that he had changed the whole life and way of thinking of a person. At times when I remember him, I feel that he can see what I am doing and that he is happy. I feel that somehow he knows that how much I loved him and how much I am grateful to him. I know that some of his ideas were wrong and in some points he misunderstood Islam but I also believe that it was all due to his gentle and nice nature and he had no bad intentions, and I also hope and pray that Allah would forgive him for his mistakes because he did them in good faith. I believe that Allah is gentle with gentle people, and Mr.Salim was certainly a gentle person. Through this article I just want to thank him because I feel that he is reading this article. I just pray that Allah blesses him with a place in Paradise.