Bertrand Russell: The Value Of Philosophy

Consider a man that looks to material needs as the necessities of life. He moves through his world in a twenty-four hour cycle of the mundane, never reaching for a less ignorant existence. Bertrand Russell believes that these â€Å"practical men†, as society deems them, are wrongly named. A meaningful life to this â€Å"practical man†, certainly does not include the understanding of a need for knowledge. Russell states, â€Å"It is exclusively among the goods of the mind that the value of philosophy is to be found; and only those who are not indifferent to these goods can be persuaded that the study of philosophy is not a waste of time† (page 9). The value of philosophy can be found when anyone chooses to step over the line between things and ideas. I am claiming, in this instance, that philosophy is valuable for being a source of knowledge and understanding, among other things. Those that attempt to gain these are in turn going to benefit from their efforts. A man does not necessarily need the ability to comprehend the entire universe, but just to be open to thought. In the past, men that worked towards this task of thinking, such as Newton, were able to take philosophy and evolve it into a separate science. This reasons that philosophy’s value is largely in the possibility of a greater enlightenment that has yet to be determined. There is value in the fact that a deeper reality exists. That life does not just run blindly through time, but streams around reason and thought. Knowledge should alone be enough of a value for philosophy to be an appreciated source of gaining exactly that end. Thomas Nagel writes, â€Å"†¦humans have the special capacity to step back and survey themselves, and the lives to which they are committed†¦Ã¢â‚¬  (page 23). This realization is one of the reasons that philosophy contains value for the society at large. Everyone, through examining and doubting their choices, can gain knowledge. And knowledge is the primary aim of philosophy, according to Russell and my own opinion. Socrates summarizes it best in Plato’s, Apology: Defense of Socrates, when he stated, â€Å"†¦an unexamined life is no life for a human being to live†¦Ã¢â‚¬  (page 40). Humans were given the capacity to have thought processes and go beyond the routine existence of lower level life forms. To let this possession go unused would be neglecting the possibilities of the mind. However, the value of philosophy for society at large is limited by self-assertion. The masses will find themselves looking for knowledge but being blocked by the view that the world is of less worth than themselves, or the Self. This will be the downfall of the instinctive man; he is contained in his private interests. It is almost like a trap, man fills his life with family and friends and believes that he has found his place in life. A true student of philosophy will have a want of knowledge that is free and pure. This want contains no concerns of Self, but rather of the not-Self. Knowledge arrives when man lets go of trying to fit the universe into his world and instead fits his world into the universe. In order to be a philosopher, one must overcome the narrow circle of the Self and of private interests. Therefore the largest value of philosophy is for the philosopher, for he is able to completely be open to the acquisition of knowledge. Most of the value of philosophy is then sent indirectly to the larger society. The fact that philosophy, as a subject, is prone to uncertainty can arouse disbelief in its value. It can be argued that no knowledge can possibly be gained by studying a field in which there are no definite answers. Russell agrees with this point when he maintains that even if answers are determined, none of them can be proven true without exception. The subjective areas of thought, those dealing with opinions and differences in beliefs and practices, would hold no basis in practicality. â€Å"Practical man† will continue to waste away in his secluded reality, convinced that being materialistic is the most important quality to possess. Russell himself mentions, â€Å"†¦many men, under the influence of science or practical affairs, are inclined to doubt whether philosophy is nything better than innocent but useless trifling, †¦and controversies on matters concerning which knowledge is impossible† (page 9). However, Russell contradicts his own statements on purpose with the idea that people have the wrong view of philosophy. The uncertainty in philosophy is what makes the subject intriguing and worth arguing for or against. So what if there are no definite answers? The process of coming to the conclusion that nothing is set in stone is where the knowledge lies in wait to be learned. The questions of life make for intellectual freedom in the search for the unfound answers. Philosophic contemplation best works when the desire for knowledge is unadulterated. This would then deal mainly with the area of the not-Self; it must be in union with the Self to create the right environment for the intellect. Russell helps to confirm my statement that knowledge is the value of philosophy when he writes, â€Å"†¦free intellect will see†¦without traditional prejudices†¦in the sole and exclusive desire of knowledge-knowledge as impersonal, as purely contemplative, as it is possible for man to attain† (page 11). J. J. C. Smart believes that we should never assume that we have found the ultimate and final truth about anything. But that having a condensed view will bring us closer than not pondering it at all. Then, any attempt to push beyond that line between things and thought will create a positive end. Knowledge, the total range of what has been perceived and learned, is the absolute value of philosophy in my opinion. Philosophers, as well as man, can only benefit from the scrutiny placed on thought. Without the knowledge that philosophy can provide, the world would be a very simple place based exclusively on materialistic views. The old saying that ignorance is bliss would unmistakably be true. Man would continue in his everyday life, unaware of the chance that he is missing. Think about what a waste such a world would be, when the possibility for undiminished intelligence and open mentality is right beyond the baggage that man carries around with him. Philosophy’s value in knowledge is that it makes man’s life worth not just surviving but truly living.

Economic Consequences of Software Crime

In 1996 worldwide illegal copying of domestic and international software cost $15. 2 billion to the software industry, with a loss of $5. 1 billion in the North America alone. Some sources put the total up-to-date losses, due to software crime, as high as $4. 7 trillion. On the next page is a regional breakdown of software piracy losses for 1994. Estimates show that over 40 percent of North American software company revenues are generated overseas, yet nearly 85 percent of the software industry†s piracy losses occurred outside of North America. The Software Publishers Association (SPA) indicated that approximately 35 percent of the business software in the North America was obtained illegally. In fact, 30 percent of the piracy occurs in corporate settings. In a corporate setting or business, every computer must have its own set of original software and the appropriate number of manuals. It is illegal for a corporation or business to purchase a single set of original s! oftware and then load that software onto more than one computer, or lend, copy or distribute software for any reason without the prior written consent of the software manufacturer. Many software managers are concerned with the legal compliance, along with asset management and costs to their organizations. Many firms involve their legal departments and human resources in regards to software distribution and licensing. Information can qualify to be property in two ways; patent law and copyright laws which are creations of federal statutes, which are subject to Constitutional authority. In order for the government to prosecute the unauthorized copying of computerized information as theft, it must first rely on other theories of information-as-property. Trade secret laws are created by provincial law, and most jurisdictions have laws that criminalize the violations of a trade-secret holder†s rights. The definition of a trade secret varies somewhat from province to province, but commonly have the same elements. For example, the information must be secret, not of public knowledge or of general knowledge in the trade or business. A court will allow a trade secret to be used by someone who discovered or developed the trade secret independently if the holder takes adequate precautions to protect the secret. In 1964, the National Copyright Office began to register software as a form of literary expression. The office based its decision on White-Smith Music Co. v. Apollo, where the Supreme Court determined that a piano roll used in a player piano did not infringe upon copyrighted music because the roll was part of a mechanical device. Since a computer program is textual, like a book, yet also mechanical, like the piano roll in White-Smith, the Copyright Office granted copyright protection under the rule of doubt. In 1974, the government created the Natural Commission on New Technological Uses (CONTU) to investigate whether the evolving computer technology field outpaced the existing copyright laws and also to determine the extent of copyright protection for computer programs. CONTU concluded that while copyright protection should extend beyond the literal source code of a computer program, evolving case law should determine the extent of protection. The commission also felt copyright was the best alternative among existing intellectual property protective mechanisms. CONTU rejected trade secret and patents as viable protective mechanisms. The CONTU report resulted in the 1980 Computer Software Act, and the report acts as informal legislative history to aid the courts in interpreting the Act. In 1980, the Copyright Act was amended to explicitly include computer programs. It now states that it is illegal to make or to distribute copies of copyrighted material without authorization, except for the user†s right to make a single backup copy for archival purposes. Any written material (including computer programs) fixed in a tangible form (written somewhere – i. . printout) is considered copyrighted without any additional action on the part of the author. Therefore, it is not necessary that a copy of the software program be deposited with the National Copyright Office for the program to be protected as copyrighted. With that in mind a copyright is a property right only. In order to prevent anyone from selling your software programs, you must ask a (federal) court to stop that person by an injunction and to give you damages for the injury they have done to you by selling the program. The Software Rental Amendments Act was approved in 1990. This Act prohibits the commercial rental, leasing or lending of software without the express written permission of the copyright holder. Another amendment to the Copyright Act was passed in 1992. This amendment made software piracy a federal offense, and instituted criminal penalties for copyright infringement of software. The penalties can include imprisonment of up to five years, fines up to $250,000 or both for unauthorized reproduction or distribution of 10 or more copies of software with a total retail value exceeding $2,500 or more. According to federal law duplicating software for profit, making multiple copies for use by different users within an organization, and giving an unauthorized copy to someone else is prohibited. Under this law if anyone is caught with the pirated software, an individual or the individual†s company can be tried under both civil and criminal law. A Civil action may be established for injunction, actual damages (which includes the infringer†s profits) or statutory damages up to $100,000 per infringement. The criminal penalties for copyright infringement can result in fines up to $250,000 and a jail term up to five years for the first offense and ten years for a second offense. When software is counterfeit or copied, the software developer loses their revenue and the whole software industry feels the effect of piracy. All software developers spend a lot of time and money in developing software for public use. A portion of every dollar spent in purchasing original softwar! e is funneled back into research and development of new software. Software piracy can be found in three forms: software counterfeiting, which is the illegal duplication and sale of copyrighted software in a form that is designed to make it appear to be a legitimate program; Hard disk loading, whereby computer dealers load unauthorized copies of software onto the hard disks of personal computers, which acts as an incentive for the end user to buy the hardware from that particular dealer; and downloading of copyrighted software to users connected by modem to electronic bulletin boards and/or the Internet. When software is pirated the consumer pays for that cost by new software and/or upgrade version being more expensive. Federal appellate courts have determined that operating systems, object code and software contained in ROMs are protected by copyright. Some lower federal courts have also determined that microcode (the instructions set on microprocessor chips) and the look and feel of computer screens is subject to copyright protection. Which has created major problems for the widespread development of multimedia applications with regards to clearing copyright for small elements of text, images, video and sound. The United States Government has been an active participant in protecting the rights of the software industry. When the Business Software Alliance (BSA) conducts a raid, Federal Marshals or local law enforcement officials participate as well. An organization known as the Software Publishers Association (SPA) is the principal trade association of the PC software industry. SPA works closely with the FBI and has also written an enforcement manual for the FBI to help them investigate pirate bulletin board systems and organizations (audits). With the help of the FBI, the result of enforcement actions resulted in recoveries from anti-piracy actions totaling $16 million since the program started in 1990. The Software Publishers Association (SPA) funds an educational program to inform individuals and corporations about software use and the law. This program provides all PC users with the tools needed to comply with copyright law and become software legal. The SPA also publishes brochures free of charge about the legal use of software for individuals and businesses. Also available to help corporations understand the copyright law is a 12-minute videotape, which is composed of the most commonly asked questions and answers to them. The video tape is available in French and Spanish and all together over 35,000 copies of the tape had been sold. The SPA has also compiled a free Self-Audit Kit with which organizations can examine their software use practices. Included in the kit, is a software inventory management program designed to help an organization track their commercial software programs that are on all their hard disks. The program searches the PC†s hard disk for more than 1300 of the most common programs used in business. Also available is the SPA Software Management Guide which helps companies audit their current software policies, educate employees about the legal use of software, and establish procedures to purchase, register, upgrade and backup computing systems. The guide, in addition, provides an Internal Controls Analysis and Questionnaire. The guide also contains all of the SPA†s current anti-piracy materials. The software industry is facing the challenges of more sophisticated network environments, greater competition among software companies along with hardware manufacturers. At this moment more software than ever before is distributed on a high volume, mass marketed basis. There are many types of software out on the market and the amount is increasing every day. They range from graphical user interfaces for application programs such as mass-market spreadsheets, to more sophisticated technical software used to design integrated circuits. The use of software plays a more vital role in our daily lives than it ever has. Such as embedded software, which is critical to equipment in such locations as a doctor†s office or an automotive shop. The instrument and devices found there depend more and more on software, because software provides the flexibility to meet the many different needs to the end user. As our lives our shaped and enhanced more by technology, there is already a greater demand that impacts the software industry. One of the main concerns of the software industry is how to deal with the issues of software licensing. More and more customers want customized software suited for their business or personal need, and expect the software development firms to accommodate to their wishes. The other side of this issue is that software development firms are concerned with unrealized revenue and excess costs in the form of software piracy, unauthorized use, excess discounts and lengthened sales cycles. For the customer and the software development firm, all of these have high administrative costs in regards to software programs. Software licensing policies were originally a result of software developer†s need to protect their revenue base in the face of potential piracy. Product delivery for software is made up of a number of different components, which are referred to as software licensing. The following factors are taken into consideration when determining a cost for a software license; physical delivery pricing, metric discounts, license periods support and maintenance, license management Tech support, change in use bug fixes and Platform Migration Product enhancements. The most commonly found type of software license found in business is known as a network license. There are four types of categories that are classified as a network license. Concurrent use licenses authorize a specified number of users to access and execute licensed software at any time. Site licenses authorize use at a single site, but are slowly being phased out and replaced by enterprise licenses. Enterprise licenses cover all sites within a corporation because of more virtual computing environments. Node licenses are also slowly being phased out because they are mainly used in a client/server environment, since the licensed software may be used only on a specified workstation in which a user must log on to in order to access and execute the software application. Currently the trend in a network system is to use measurement software, which allows vendors to be more flexible in licensing arrangements. This management software monitors and restricts the number of users or clients who may access and execute the application software at any one time. This is significant because a user pays only for needed use and a vendor can monitor such use to protect intellectual property. A new type of license that is emerging is known as a currency-based license. This type of license works on the basis that it provides to the end user a specified dollar amount of software licenses. This allows licenses to cover different business application software, so long as the total value in use at a given time is less than the amount stipulated in the license. Another type of license emerging is known as a platform-independent licensing. Which permits software to be used on a variety of different computer systems within a business, instead of buying a different license for each version of the same software used by different systems. The most common type of licensing is known as shrink-wrap, the concept behind this that the licenses terms are deemed accepted once the end user breaks a shrink-wrap seal or opens a sealed envelope containing the software. A reason for these new types of licensing is that when software licensing was first introduced, the software development firms assumed that most businesses would use the software for a 8 to 10 hour period. Yet, did not take into consideration that with the advancement of technology, more businesses would want a floating license across the world for 24 hours. This made it so it was not cost effective for the software development firm. A floating license is a license that is made available to anyone on a network. The licenses are not locked to particular workstations, instead they float to modes on the network. Shareware, freeware and public domain are different types of software available to the end user, and are distinguished by different rules about how programs may be distributed, copied, used and modified. The term shareware refers to software that is distributed at a low cost, but which usually requires a payment after a certain time period and registration for full use. Copies of this software are offered on a trial basis, the end user is free to try a scaled down version of the program. If the end user wants the shareware program, included in the program is information specifying how to register the program and what fee is required. Once registered the end user will typically receive a printed manual, an updated copy of the software (often with additional features), and the legal right to use the program in their home or business. The advantage that shareware has is that it lets the end user thoroughly test a program to see if it†s useful before making a purchase. The ! authors of shareware programs retain their copyright on the contents, and as other copyrighted software should not be pirated. Freeware is also distributed at a very low cost and like shareware is found mainly on the Internet. The authors of the freeware program do not expect payment for their software. Typically, freeware programs are small utilities or incomplete programs that are released by authors for the potential benefit to others, but the drawback to this is that there is no technical support. Public domain software is generally found on the Internet and is released without any condition upon its use. It may be copied, modified and distributed as the end user wishes to do. A license manager is a system utility-like application that controls or monitors the use of another end-user application. It is generally implemented to protect intellectual property (meaning to stop illegal copying) and/or to become more competitive by offering new ways in which to evaluate, purchase and pay for software. Since the license manager controls the number of application users, there is not a need to control the number of application copies. This process lets the end user run one or more applications between machines, without violating the terms of the license agreement.

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

Immunology - Essay Example 006) Researches have also made it clear that cats living in urban areas (40%) are more likely to be infected than the ones living in rural areas(6%) (Little, 2006) The FeLV virus is a fragile virus and can survive for only two hours in a dry environment and 48 hours in damp and moist surroundings. Though it is contagious, it can only be transmitted among cats; it cannot potentially infect humans. Within cats, it is transmitted via intimate moist contact through licking, biting, grooming or eating from the same source. It can also be transmitted through urine, feces and milk. It is also transmitted from an infected mother to her new born kitten (Hoover & Mullins, 1991) It is usually categorised in the following four classes- FeLV A, B, C and T. Out of these, only FeLV A is transmissible among cats, while the others arise de novo. While FeLV A causes severe immunosuppression, FeLV B and C cause neoplastic diseases and anemia respectively (Poulet et al,2003) Once a cat is exposed to the virus, there are four possible consequences, depending on the response of the immune system. In about 30% of the cats, the virus evokes a strong immune response, which in turn extinguishes the virus. In another 30% the cats’ immune system does not produce an immediate immune reaction. At the same time though, the virus does not manifest its potential effects. It resides safely in a dormant state in the cats’ bone marrow. It might express itself later or may remain dormant forever. In the remaining 40% of the cats, the virus is successful and the cats become infected. (Hoover, Mullins, 1991) Once the virus actively infects a cat, it can have hazardous effects. It can lead to cancerous diseases like leukemia and lymphosarcoma. It also leads to a generalized suppression of the immune system, and may also cause reproductive ailments. Besides these, it also damages the liver and intestine, and is also capable of causing blood infections (Little,2006) A few tests have been devised

Classroom Management Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2250 words

Classroom Management - Assignment Example If the teachers will allow too many disruptions, then it's very difficult to implement better discipline and classroom management techniques.(Beykont, 2002, pp-37) Different students have different sense and judgment of what's right and what's wrong. If a teacher wants to be respected then it's important for them to treat all the students fairly, and if the teachers fail to treat all students equitably then they will be labeled as unfair and no student will bother to follow their rules. (Barrow, 2004, pp-94) Teachers should also punish the best student of the class, if he or she does something wrong, this will win the hearts of all the other students of the classroom. Teachers must learn the techniques of dealing with disruption with little interruption as much as possible. Because if there is any kind of disruption in the classroom then teachers should imperatively and immediately deal with it taking care that the momentum of the classroom should not be interrupted. (Campbell-Rush, 2001, pp-117) During classroom discussion if a teacher observe that the students are taking to each other and not paying attention to what the teacher is teaching. Then teacher should use the technique of asking a sudden question from any student to help them to get back on track. If the teachers will stop the flow of their lesson in order to deal with classroom disruptions, then this clearly means that you are robbing those students who really want to learn their lessons during the precious in-class time. (Campbell-Rush, 2001, pp-138) Avoid Confrontations in Front of Students Most of the primary school teachers agree on a point that whenever there is confrontation in classroom is a loser and a winner. (Dean, 2003, pp-46) Teachers at all costs have to take care of maintaining discipline in their classroom. If teacher have disciplinary issues with any student then the teacher should deal with that student privately so that the will not lose face in front of other students and especially his or her friends. Those teachers who deal disciplinary issues in the classroom can cause some student to deviate from the path. (Dean, 2003, pp-54) Stop Disruptions with a Little Humor Primary school teachers should also learn the technique of stopping classroom disruption with the help of litter humor. It will allow the student to be more comfortable in the classroom. The use of humor technique will also create a friendly environment for learning. If something goes wrong in the classroom then the teachers should have a good laugh to help all the students to get back on track. Teacher should not confuse sarcasm with good humor. (Cangelosi, 2004, pp-63) The basic difference between a good humor and sarcasm is that humor can immediately disperse a situation, while sarcasm can actually harm the relationship between students and their teacher. Teachers must have a good judgment in this regard because what's funny for someone, others find it to be quite offensive. (Cangelosi, 2004, pp-77) Keep High Expectations in Your Class In order to maintain successful classroom management and discipline, teachers should h

Organizational behavior Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words - 1

Organizational behavior - Essay Example This gives the individual participators a sense of personal achievement (Heller, 1999). In addition, competent persons who can perform irrespective of absence of effective leadership can reach higher heights if there is effective leadership to guide and motivate them. Bright ideas, best interest, and sound business knowledge are key ingredients to a successful business, but these are not enough. Effective leadership is required to bring people together with an aim to achieve common goals of the organization (Yourarticlelibrary.com, 2014). Effective leadership is inevitable for making things happen in the consistently changing market dynamics. An organization must invest in effective leadership in order to remain relevant in a business environment with ever changing competition, profile of people joining the organization, legal, political, and social-cultural environment (Stanfielf, 2009). In addition, organizations face challenges that are specific to them. Strategies need to be developed to deal with these challenges. Effective leadership is fundamental in the formulation of appropriate strategies and implementation of these strategies to propel organizations in the right direction. If there are two teams of equal competence, but one team lacks effective leadership, the team with effective leadership will certainly win over the team that lacks effective leadership (Adair, 1983).Effective leadership at all levels of an organization increases the chances of survival of an organization. It also enables to sustain the g rowth of the organization and realization of organization’s full capacity (Fenimore and Nirenberg, 2004) Effective leadership is characterized with empowerment of employees through inclusion in decision-making, enhanced communication and consideration of individual needs and rights of the employees. The subsequent effect of effective leadership is enhanced employees commitment to the

Philosophy of African culture Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Philosophy of African culture - Essay Example The African culture has a special concern and regard for the cosmos and the humanity’s place in the cosmos. Most of the African stories are crafted concerning nature, animals , tricksters ad other themes with the common aim being explaining the existence of some occurrences that are perceived by the humanity to be controlled by the divine, and beyond the humanity control. Family values are very important in the Asian stories, with families occupying a special place in the lives of all members. How the tortoise got its rough shell is one of the stories that define the relations between cosmos and humanity in the African culture. Though the story is a trickster, it has a good lesson on the role of humanity in the universe as characterized by the animals. This story is a characterization of animals that were going to the heavens to see God Eke in appeasing him to send forth rains to quench the scorched earth, and bring about produce. From the story, the tortoise had to attend but had no wings to fly, so the birds accepted to donate each a feather to help the tortoise (Uche, 2). As the story narrates, the animals agree on brotherhood and so should help one another (Uche,3). The animals agree to sacrifice in order to appease Eke to send rain and end starvation that had claimed many lives (Uche, 4). The story explains of selfishness (Uche, 7) where the eagle remarks that the tortoise stands better to be sacrificed and the tortoise shows his selfishness by tricking others into eating all the food offered (Uche, 8). From the story above the aspect of humanity in the universe is evident. ... Hard work with no visible goals leads Temba to recount his 30 years of hard work in his daily labor with nothing to show of it (Achebe and Innes, 67). Again in this story, the sun has scorched the earth and humans are hungry again as Temba’s family still count on him to deliver failure to which they might die. The presence of a deity or god who provides in times of difficulty and despair is clear as Temba is provided with a meal for the family after hunger bites hard with no fish to catch (Achebe & Innes, 68). As Temba monologue continues, he wishes that the humanity on earth appease the Gods to send forth rains to end the suffering. This narrative portrays a good relation between God, man and the interdependence of man on God, in times of despair. The strong faith in African culture is evident that enables Temba to get food form God to feed his family. Drought is seen as a punishment from God. Wake, is another African story that spells of despair and desperation in times of n eeds. The story is about the shootings of Soweto in South Africa and largely narrates of the ordeal of death and how it is viewed in the African culture. The signing choirs explain a religious nature of the African people and the respect that the dead are given in their last send off (Achebe and Innes, 33). Death is viewed with a lot of respect in the African culture with multitudes paying their last respects and God appeased through songs for the sake of the dead. The sanctity and belief in respecting the human life is clear (35) as the narrator curses the whites who she accuses of being responsible for the death of their daughters and sons. All the above stories portray a strongly

Does International Law Matter in Relation between States Essay

Does International Law Matter in Relation between States - Essay Example International law, is the body of law that 'regulates the activities of entities possessing international personality'. Traditionally, that meant the conduct and relationships of states. However, it is now well established that International Law also concerns the structure and conduct of international organizations, and, to a degree, that of multinational corporations and individuals" (Wikipedia). International law, as it exists today, makes one question as to whether it has any real influence in impacting issues between states, related to war/peace, human rights, trade and even crime. This is because the interpretation and application of international law makes it so fluid, that it can be molded by any nation to suit its stand. The stronger the nation, the easier it gets to mold the so-called law. Damrosch et al state that international law "governs relations between independent states" (68). But if it is so slippery, how can it ever achieve this objective It must be noted, that customary international law is based on what states consistently practice out of a sense of legal obligation. So, customary international law keeps changing based on acceptance or rejection of specific acts practiced by states. The weakness inherent in international law is further examined from a legal perspective. International law as a law appears to be a paradox. As noted by Glennon: "when a given question can be argued either way, a state is presumed to be free to act. Indeed, it could hardly be otherwise in any legal system. It is, as Kelsen wrote, a 'fundamental principle that what is not legally forbidden to the subjects of the law is legally permitted to them.'84"(63). There is so much uncertainty surrounding international law that the arguments in a court are not so much about whether the actions were permissible or impermissible under international law, but about what international law really specifies. ... ance consider the environment protection law on banning tuna caught in the nets that kill dolphins, if accepted, then it has a discriminatory effect on trade. So "international law, as interpreted by the WTO, becomes the friend of business and bugaboo of environmentalists" (Ratner). If the interpretation of international law is going to increase conflicts, how can it ever ensure global stability Overall, international law has too many gaps or overlaps, which only increase tensions between states. It has seen limited success for example in the extradition of Abu Salem Qayyum Ansari to India from Portugal and in the banning of landmines. Question of War and Peace It is an accepted premise that war is waged either in retaliation or in self-defense to an aggressor's move. This has also been an accepted stance in the international framework. US, too supported this stance and normally argued that nations need to work within the international framework so that the world order does not break down. However, it was quick to exempt itself from this rationale, when it planned the Iraq invasion. Bush administration argued on the basis of the pre-emptive principle claiming that Iraq was a potential threat. US rejected traditional international law, claiming that it was not suited to manage the contemporary situation. Arend notes: Traditional international law required there to be an "imminent danger of attack" before preemption would be permissible, the [Bush] administration argues in its 2002 National Security Strategy (NSS) that the United States "must adapt the concept of imminent threat to the capabilities and objectives of today's adversaries." It contends that "[t]he greater the threat, the greater is the risk of inaction - and the more compelling the case for taking

Social Media - enterainment Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Social Media - enterainment - Assignment Example It is not clear if there was something fishy happening or if he won fairly (Jake, 2015). Social media has come to be a very huge part of everyone’s daily life more specifically with celebrities. Pop stars such as Justin Beiber and Lady Gaga, use of Face book and Twitter has become an essential aspect for both the celebrity especially for the interaction with fans as well as updating the fans on the celebrities’ latest news, dates of concert tours and their general thoughts. However, it may as well be used as a quite efficient tool for marketing for charity and self promotion. For self promotion, most celebrities gain fans and followers very quickly on twitter and Facebook due to the fact that their fans are in need to be updated on the celebrities’ lives. This means that such celebrities have high chances of marketing to a captive audience. At times this happens to be so well done such that no fan could comprehend that it is part some advertising campaign. A good example is the California Dreams Tour of 2011 for Katy Perry where the tweets of fans got to be shown over the jumbo-tron at the time of her live performance so as to get the crowd interact with the show. It was a means of receiving feedback on the show as well increase followers that were not available in the past. However, it is as well perfect for making fan loyalty stronger. Rihanna used Facebook to engage fans during the release of her 2011 album. The lyrics as well as other information for only Facebook fans were leaked at the back the scenes footage. Through this she gained followe rs, sales as well as publicity. For the promotion of charity or a cause, celebrities make use of social media for spreading information on causes the support as well as charity. Britney Spears, Kim Kardeshian and Ellen Degeneres tweeted as a way to spread information on Berry Family in 2011. It was about the tragic car accident that involved a family of 5 where the parents died and left the children

Comparative essay between England and Brazil Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

Comparative between England and Brazil - Essay Example Brazil consists of 27 federal units, 26 states, and one federal state (Levine 145-148). Brazil is the fifth largest country in the world and accounts for one third of the world population. It has an area of 8511965 sq km covering nearly half of South America with its capital being Brasilia. It was named after the dye-wood found there. It borders every nation of the continent except Chile and Ecuador. Brazil is divided into plateaus in the south and the Amazon River basin to the north. According to Fausto (76) analyzed and found out that a study done on 2011 reported that Brazil has a population of 205,716,890 people. Brazil has its main cities as; Sao Paulo, Rio de Janeiro, Salvador, Belo Horizonte, Recife, and Porto Alegre. Brazil is the only Latin American country that derives its culture and language from Portugal. Brazil was one of the only three modern states in the Americas to have its own indigenous monarchy for a period of almost 90 years. (Meade 90-93). Portugal earnestly tr ied to re-impose colonial rule but Brazil was declared independent on 7th September 1822 by the prince thus becoming Pedro I the Emperor of Brazil (Viotti da Costa 52). The nation was ruled by a series of military dictatorships until a revolt that allowed for a gradual return to stability under the civilian presidents (Meade 132). In 1964 to 1984 the military governments strongly encouraged foreign so as to encourage economic growth. After the military coup in 1964, Brazil was ruled by the military again for several years. In 1985 the first civilian president Neves was elected since 1964 bringing a nationwide wave of optimism. Color became the president after winning the 1989 elections but he was impeached by the congress because of corruption scandal and later resigned (Viotti da Costa 112-113). According to Fausto (158-160) asserts that in January 1999 the Asian economic crisis spread to Brazil and the economy remained sluggish throughout to 2001. Dilma Rouseff was elected as pres ident and assumed office in 1st January 2011 and is the sitting president up to date. Background history of England England is the most populous nation of the United Kingdom. It accounts for 84 percent of the combined total population. It has 54 million people and its inhabitants are English or British people. Some genetic evidence shows that the 75%-95% have descended in the paternal line from the prehistoric settlers who were originally from Iberian Peninsula. The spoken language is English. The most widely spread religion is Christianity and as per today 59% of the population identify Christianity (Raumer 67-68). The former capital of England was Winchester until it was replaced by London in 1066. Currently, London is the largest metropolitan area in the UK and also the largest urban zone in the European Union region. During the reign of Emperor Claudius, the Romans invaded Britain in AD 43 subsequently conquering much of Britain the area being incorporated into the Roman Empire as the Britannia (Eccleshare 265-270). The basic political system in England is a parliamentary system and a constitutional monarchy. Before the joining of Scotland and English to form the Kingdom of Great Britain, it was ruled by the monarch and the parliament of England. In the UK 2010 general elections the Conservative Party won the absolute majority in 532 contested seats, 61 more seats more than all the other parties combined. According to Eccleshare (45) argues

Language Essay Essay Example for Free

Language Essay Essay Introduction Language is universal way to express how a person feels. So of course, it is essential in cultures to express their individuality within life. Most of the time people do not put a lot of speculation on what mental processes may be taking place subconsciously. These mental processes allow a person to think, speak, and express their personal thoughts through language. In order to properly analyze that language, cognition must be a part of the mental processes too. In this essay, we will delve deeper into how language and cognition are associated. Language Lexicon Language is an efficient and consequential use of information, which can be both comprehended and used by all living things. It is also the communication of thoughts to language. According to Merriam-Webster (2014), cognitive psychology can be defined as, â€Å"a branch of psychology concerned with mental processes (as perception, thinking, learning, and memory) especially with respect to the internal events occurring between sensory stimulation and the overt expression of behavior.† Accordingly, when a person or animal learns to understand through the use of language, and with the capacity of that language, there can be a cognitive process that helps to separate humans from animals. Language is completely generative, dynamic, structured, and communicative. In language, a lexicon is known as the vocabulary or psychological language. A lexicon can hold many different types of words, which can also include how to pronounce a word, and the parts of speech for each word (Galotti, 2014). A lexicon is used to help a person understand words that are spoken, and their meanings. The spoken words are compared to a person’s lexicon, which is how a person can understand what the word is. It could be near impossible to understand a language or vocabulary without lexicons. The use of lexicons are a very important part of a person’s language. Key Features of Language There are many key features that make a language. The following are the main properties: generative, communicative, dynamic, and structured. Language is considered generative because, a person has an unlimited capacity as to how they build their personal languages. Language allows people to communicate with one another, and it also allows other animals to communicate within the same species as well. Language is dynamic because it is forever changing, and also develops people into having larger vocabularies. Lastly, the structure of language plainly shows exactly how convoluted it truly is. The great thing about language, is that it can adapt and expand as a person learns more information. New words can be added to a language or vocabulary, while others can be erased or updated (Galotti, 2014). Language development is different for each person. Some people are able to learn language through their cognitive functions, but sometimes, it takes more time. For an example, with children, they have to learn everything, which includes their own names, how they are feeling, how to express feeling, and objects. But they also have to learn how to use the vocabulary they are learning. Lastly, the feature that influences more cognitive processes, mainly languages that can influence thoughts. It works in a rotating structure, language helps to influence thoughts, and language also helps to regulates thoughts. A person always uses language in order to interpret their own thoughts. The main reason that language influences thought is because thoughts are when a person is consciously speaking to themselves. Levels of Language There are four different levels of language in reference to the structure and processing, phonemes, words, sentences, and texts. Phonemes are the tiniest part of sounds or units that can be used by people in order to form words. Phonemes are a person’s sounds of speech, which is similar to each letter in the alphabet. The main dilemma with phonemes are that each person’s creation of them are different. When a person studies phonetics, they are studying speech sounds and their physical properties. Words help a  person make sense of phonemes. Words are made up of by multiple spoken sounds. A sentence is, of course, a set of words which complete themselves. A sentence will also allow a person to organize their thoughts when they are preparing to speak, or to write something. A text helps a person connect sentences in order to form a small amount of information, or a paragraph. These usually help to explain a specific topic, and always have to be about one topic. All four of these structures are a crucial part of language. To put this more easily, phonemes lead to words, words lead to sentences, and sentences lead to texts (Galotti, 2014). Analyzing the Role: Language Process Cognitive Psychology In order to properly analyze the role of processing language, a person has to first understand cognitive psychology, to study mental processes. Mental processes give a person the ability to think, believe, perceive, solve problems, make decisions, remember, learn, reason, and adapt. By using these mental processes a person can begin to understand and comprehend language, and with that, the process of the language is used. If a person does not understand the language’s structure, that person will not have the capability to understand texts, sentences, words or phonemes, which all make up a language. With lack of perceptive abilities, a person may not comprehend language, with all of its entirety. Cognitive processes help determine how the language is processed within the brain. When a person begins to learn and understand language, the cognitive process is in use. Conclusion The cognitive process known as language drives a separation in between humans and other beings. The lexicon contains words in which people can use to compare other words or parts of speech. There are multiple key features of language. These key features, as stated above are, generative, communicative, dynamic, and structured. With all of these features, language can become very intricate. If a person were to completely understand each one of these key features, they will be able to understand and comprehend how necessary they are to be used within language. Also, it is crucial for a person to analyze the role that cognitive psychology plays within the process of language. Cognitive psychology is important in many aspects of a  person’s life, but especially in the language process. References: Cognitive Psychology. (2014). In Merriam-Webster. Retrieved from http://www.merriam-webster.com/medical/cognitive%20psychology Galotti, K. M. (2014). Cognitive Psychology In and Out of the Laboratory (5th ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE.

Assessing The Difference Between Crime And Defiance Criminology Essay

Assessing The Difference Between Crime And Defiance Criminology Essay Crime and Deviance, is a major topic which affects mostly every society in todays world. When defining crime and deviance, it will depend of the norms and values of a society. Many societies have many different values and norms. Norms of society, is where all society members are expected to conform to certain behaviours. Values of a society, is where a society values something which all society members conform to. For example, many societies value certain types of religion such as Christianity or Buddhism and many other types of religion. Crime in society, is usually very specific, that it goes against the laws of society. People who commit crimes, are breaking the law and if caught, must be punished. People can be punished for committing crimes such as burglary, damage to peoples property, murder and assault. People who are found guilty of committing crimes, must be punished by the courts of law. Crime is a relative concept. This means that how a society views criminal acts, can differ. Criminal acts in one society, may not be seen as a criminal act in another society. Society may also differ in how to punish people for committing specific criminal acts. (Broom and Selznick, 1963 p 540,541). When looking at crime in society, it is important to look at the physiological and psychological approaches in relation to crime. These approaches have been criticised. Looking at the physiological approach, a biological theory was carried out by Cesare Lombroso. Cesare Lombroso, tried to find out if there was a connection between crime and biological causes. In 1876, Cesare Lombroso carried out research called LUomo Delinquente. Cesare Lombroso (1835 1909), came up with the suggestion that criminals could be identified using certain physical characterisitics such as large jaws, low foreheads and excessive body hair. Cesare Lombrosos work was dismissed, because the theory was only focused on the criminals, in prison. This theory failed to take into account, why some people who have similar human attributes, are found throughout the world. The theory, failed to explain how certain physical human attributes distinguish criminals from people who do not commit criminal activities. (Macionis and Plummer,1998. P207) The psychological approach suggests that criminal behaviour, could be explained due to the individuals mental make up and processes such as personality, rather than the persons physical characteristics. Hans Eysenck, carried out research in Crime and personality in 1964. Hans Eysenck, suggested that it was possible that certain personality traits that people have can make certain people resistant to discipline than others.(Stephenson,1992. Page 7). Hans Eysenck also suggested that people with certain personality characteristics would be more likely to commit criminal behaviours.(Stephenson,1992. Page 7). Overall, using the physiological and psychological approach has been criticised as it does not take into account some factors such as exploring how conceptions of right and wrong initially rise,.(Macionis and Plummer,1998. P208). Deviance can be defined as behaviour which does not conform to certain norms of a specific society.(Haralambos Holborn,2008). Deviance can be explained as a more broader term than crime. It is not specific and deviant behaviour may not be criminal. Deviant behaviour can be positive and the behaviour can be rewarded. An example of positive deviant behaviour can be soldiers fighting for their country. They may be rewarded for their bravery and courage. Deviant behaviour can also be negative. An example of negative deviant behaviour may include people who commit murder. This may go against the societys value of the worth of every individual and norms, resulting in severe punishment. Some deviant behaviour may be tolerated in todays society. The behaviour is not punished or rewarded, by society members. (Haralambos Holborn,2008 P.321). Many societies have accepted same sex relationships and families, which would not have been accepted many years ago. They are not rewarded or punished, they are tolerated in the society. Laws of society can change, which does depend on the norms and values of society members. As change can happen, crime and deviance can change as well. It is very difficult to give full definition of deviance, as there is no complete way. It is a broad area of research. Behaviour which was viewed as unacceptable and deviant, may be accepted in todays society or in the future. For example, in some cultures in the past it was considered deviant for women to smoke and to wear make up in public places. Nowadays, women have more freedom to wear make up or to smoke in public places. Another example is homosexuality. Before 1969, it was illegal for men to have homosexual relations. As the laws changed in 1969, it was made legal that men over the age of twenty one could have homosexual relations.(Haralambos Holborn, 2008. P322). The famous writer, Oscar Wilde was imprisoned for having an illegal relationship with Lord Alfred Douglas before the 1967 Sexual Offenses Act was passed. (Johnston,2002.) Deviance is culturally determined(Haralambos Holborn,2008. P322). This means that deviant behaviour can change due to different cultures or some societies may accept certain types of behaviours, whereas other societies may find the behaviour unacceptable. (Haralambos Holborn, 2008 p 322). The functionalist theory in relation to the topic crime and deviance is functionalists see society as a whole, using a macro level approach. Functionalists focus on more on the sources of deviance in society, not how people commit deviant behaviour in a society. Functionalists suggest that crime and deviance can provide a a positive function in society. People may feel as part of a community and more part of a society. An example of this is when the Dunblane Tragedy occurred. This affected many people, which formed more of a closeness in society. Emile Durkheim suggested that a certain level of crime and deviance is necessary, in order for a society to function. The crime and deviance levels may become dysfunctional if crime rates increase. This can create a society whose social order is disrupted, which can create social chaos. If crime rates decrease, stagnation may occur where the society may not function properly. Robert Merton (1968) suggests that anomie, where people feel norml essness in a society, could happen if a society does not function properly. Emile Durkheim also suggested that some members of society, may rebel against societys norms and values. Some people may have different views on the norms and values of society. Functionalists also suggest the crime can produce employment for people in society. Functionalists suggest that without criminals, many people in the police force, prison workers, court workers would not have employment. An example of a Functionalist theory on Crime and Deviance is Emile Durkheims study of suicide(1897). Durkheim mainly focused on suicide rates to see if there was any social conditions which could influence or discourage people from committing suicide. Emile Durkheim noticed that suicide rates seemed to rise more during periods of political hardship during 1848, around different European countries. Emile Durkheim recognised that suicide rates might be related to social stability and integration of society. Using this theory, Emile Durkheim used a different set of data, mainly from European countries. Observing the suicide rates in different European countries he noticed that they were comparably differences but began to notice a pattern. Most countries who practiced Protestant as their religion had the highest suicide rates than countries who mainly practiced Catholic as their religion. Main protestant countries had one hundred and ninety suicides per million people. These figures were compared to mixed protestant and catholic faith countries who had ninety six suicides per million people. Main catholic countries had fifty eight suicides per million people. Emile Durkheim began to wonder if there was a link between suicide and reli gion. Durkheim tried to look at other factors such as economic and cultural differences. After looking at the suicide rates of Bavaria in Germany where mainly catholic people stayed there was a low number of suicides. Emile Durkheim then looked at the suicide rates of Prussia where mainly people had a protestant faith. He noted that Prussia had a higher suicide rate than Bavaria. Emile Durkheim then concluded that religion is related to suicide. Using this theory and the information he collected before, he concluded that suicide can be due to Anomie. This means when a society is normlessness, where there is lack of social stability and integration. During political hardship, people may feel not a part of society and feel suicide is the only way out. Durkheim concluded that there is low suicide rates in Catholic countries because there was more social control and stability that the religion brings than the protestant countries. Durkheim concludes that social stability and integration acts as a protection for people in society from insecurity and suicide. To evaluate the Functionalist perspective on crime and deviance, is that the functionalist theory provides a macro level approach. It looks at the bigger picture, giving more insight into how a society structures relating to crime and deviance. It gives a better debate, regarding how the biological theory relates to crime. Anomie, described in Robert Mertons theory (1968) gives more in depth sociological thinking, into todays society. However, Emile Durkheim was criticised for using statistics that was unreliable in his study of suicide(1897). Durkheims statistics, were only used in Europe. No other countrys statistics was used, so the theory can not be related to other countries. The statistics did not disclose the circumstances of how the people committed suicide. Many deaths, were not ruled out as accidents or murder. As the functionalist perspective only looks at the macro level approach, it does not include how people are affected by crime, individually. Functionalists assume that crime, can bond communities together in society. Victims of crime, may withdraw from society or move away from society. The functionalist approach, does not take into account individual differences in society. Functionalists also suggests that crime and deviance to a certain extent, positively benefits everyone in society. Marxists focuses on the capitalist system, but Marxists criticize that only some people in a certain group have only advantage. Other groups can be disadvantaged. The functionalist approach does not take into consideration, that society may have different groups. The functionalist theory mainly focuses on that society, as one big group. Feminists suggest that some theories, conducted with malestream views will not be able to distinguish the connection between crime and gender. Feminists can start to identify a number of issues between women and crime. Feminists such as Otto Pollak, the masked female offender, suggests that official statistics in relation to gender and crime, can be misleading. This is because the majority of police officers, court judges are male orientated. Women tend to be more leniently charged with crimes, compared to men due to their role in society. Some feminists suggest the court laws can be biased against women. Many men may be more bias, because of how a women can break traditional roles in society. Feminists such as Freda Adler(1975) suggests that because women have more freedom in society, this can cause an increase in how women can commit crimes. She suggests that this does not include the biological theory, that changes in society can change the way women behave. Pat Carlen(1988) suggests that because women have more freedom in society, that they do not have the opportunity to commit crimes. Carlen suggests that women can be more supervised by males, throughout their lives. Women, who usually have the traditional role of cleaning, house making, childcare duties will have less opportunity to commit crimes than males. An example of a Feminist theory, relating to crime and deviance is the study of Delinquent Girls(1981) by Anne Campbell. Anne Campbell carried out a study called delinquent girls in 1981. Anne Campbell suggested that more womans behaviour was becoming increasingly delinquent and in some cases, violent. Although, she argued that the changes in womens role in society, the womens movement was not a direct cause. Using primary research, Anne Campbell suggested that more young women were less prone to expressing their anger and aggression. They would more likely to keep it to themselves. Anne Campbell then suggested that a number of social and economic reasons was the reason why so many women have equal rights in society. More womens freedom in contraception and employment did give women more freedom in society. Anne Campbell suggested that this leads to a reduction in sex-role disparity and a more active roles for girls in all activities-some of which many be delinquent. Anne Campbell, 1981 Anne Campbell noticed that most of the female offenders, did not think that they had any freedom in their society. They opposed to being independent and career orientated, so they had no womens freedom in society( liberation). Anne Campbell then suggested that the rise in female delinquency, was due to the police attitudes towards young women and how the judicial systems perceives women in a society. She also looked at how women can be easily viewed by members of the public, fighting in public areas which showed an increase. As a conclusion, Anne Campbell concluded that the impact of freedom of women in society could not be directly related to crimes which women commit. To evaluate, that the feminist theory has raised more awareness of women in society. Changes in the law, where women have more equal rights. Crimes which mainly are affected by women such as rape or domestic abuse is dealt with more seriously with the police authorities. In society, women have more of a say in todays society. New laws such as the Equal Pay Act and the Sex Discrimination Act gives women more of a voice in todays society. It identifies more of an gender inequality, in crime and deviance. The feminist theory can focus too much on gender. Factors such as class and ethnicity are not included. Feminist studies such as Delinquent Girls(1981) by Anne Campbell more emphasizes on gender, Anne Campbell did not include class or ethnicity into the studies. Anne Campbell also used a small number of people which was suggested, did not represent other women in society. The feminist theory, also does not include the differences of women. They assume that all women have the same circumstances or characteristics in society, they do not look at individual differences. An example is the study of Delinquent Girls, where Anne Campbell did not individualize the people in the study. The Marxist approach is a conflict approach, which does not agree with the functionalist approach. Sociologists suggest that people who own production, have more power than the people in the ruling class(the working class). Marxists suggest there is a conflict in the capitalist system between the capitalists and the ruling class. Marxists also suggest that the laws made in society, protect the capitalists which gives them more social control in society. William Chambliss (1976) suggests that some laws are not needed in society. He suggested that property, made the most income and the people who owns the property, would become resources of economy. He suggests that laws are made, to protect the interest of the capitalists. Marxists also suggest that crime is mostly seen as a problem, mostly in the working class. The ruling class(capitalists), are more likely to get away with crime, than the working class. The Capitalists have more influence in society, so they are most unlikely to get in trouble for crime. A Marxist perspective study was carried out by Laureen Snider in The Politics of Corporate Crime(1993) suggests areas which have capitalism are most unlikely to introduce laws, which might not attract businesses. Capitalist states, use a lot of money to invest in business. They are unlikely, to introduce laws which may discourage business. Laureen Snider also suggests that most of the serious crimes are corporate crimes, committed in modern industrial countries. Laureen Snider, suggests that Corporate crime is much more serious than street crime such as drugs. This is because more money is spent and more people are killed in corporate crime than street crime. For example, Laureen Snider suggests that an estimation of 20,000 people are killed because they were murdered. Laureen Snider then suggests that 14,000 people lost their lives due to industrial accidents, 30,000 people died from using consumer products which are usually illegal and unsafe to use. 100,000 people have died due to working conditions causing disease. Snider, suggests that corporate crime costs more peoples lives than street crime. Snider also suggests that, people who commit corporate crime usually have lenient penalties or charges. There are very few corporate crime cases, which proceed to legal court. To evaluate, the Marxist perspective identifies that the Capitalists can be involved in crime, not just the ruling class using sociological studies such as The Politics of Corporate Crime(1993). Corporate crimes can affect people in society, not just street crimes. This is due to the statistics researched by Laureen Snider(1993). Highlights the inequality, that the ruling class faces towards crime and deviance in society, because they do not have as much power, influence as the Capitalists. Laureen Snider, suggests the idea that Capitalists are less likely to enter court proceedings for corporate crime shows how powerful Capitalists can be in society. The Marxist approach has been criticised for having a simple view on how power is divided between the capitalist societies. Some people suggest that capitalist societies does not always have increased levels of crime. Stephen Jones(2001) suggests that Switzerland, is a capitalist society which crime rates remain low. Whereas the Marxist approach mainly focuses on crime and deviance, it relates to the conflict theory of the Capitalists and the ruling class.

Chen Rongs The Nine Dragons :: Essays Papers

Chen Rong's The Nine Dragons Mysteries within mysteries, this is the gateway to understanding. -LaoZi (Harbaugh) Reading the Dao de Jing can be a daunting task for one who is unaccustomed to such simple riddles, as the Chinese language is so well designed to supply. The Dao de Jing itself is a collection of sayings, pearls of wisdom, which are intended to promote contemplation, an expanding of ones observational prowess, and eventually a total realization of the Dao. The Dao is the energy or being of the universe. To fully realize the Dao, is to become one with the universe, gaining immortality and absolute wisdom. Because the Dao cannot be described as it truly is, many artists have sought to allude to the Dao's true existence in painting and sculpture. One of the artists who has most successfully created a visual representation of the Dao is Chen Rong, the twelfth century literati artist. He is best known for his masterwork, The Nine Dragons. (Sullivan) Chinese Scholar artists like Chen Rong disapproved of the painting media of their professional contemporaries, opting to use black ink on paper, as opposed to the otherwise popular color on silk. The simplicity, of plain black over the simple backdrop of widely available paper, appealed to the Confucian and Daoist Scholars. As such, Chen Rong painted his Nine Dragons on a large paper scroll with black ink. (Little) Another common practice amongst Daoist scholars was the use of alcohol and other mood-altering substances, and often painting and composing poetry while intoxicated. Chen Rong was true to this practice, creating The Nine Dragons while drunk. This could very well account for the spontaneity of the work, which was first roughly outlined by Chen Rong painting with his hat; having dipped it in ink, with the fine detail work was then applied with a traditional calligraphy brush. (MFA) While these things alone may not set the Nine Dragons apart for any other Chinese literati painting, the work is truly unique and innovative. Most amazing in the work, is the illusion of motion. The waves swirl and crash, while the clouds softly shift through the sky, and the dragons fly playfully and spiritedly. No previous literati work has been able to match this fluid depiction of active movement of the dragons. Moreover, it is these dragons that hold the most significance in terms of the Daoist principles within the work. The dragon is a personification of the Dao, the realization of which is the goal of the Daoist practitioner.

Washington Irvings Rip Van Winkle Shapes American Culture Essay

Washington Irving's Rip Van Winkle Shapes American Culture "Darkness...lowers upon my mind, and the times are so hard they sicken my soul," says Washington Irving in a letter to a friend (Letters 446). This statement reveals Irving's intense emotional condition, and in many ways indicates the intense social atmosphere as well as his personal conflicts, during the composition of The Sketch Book. Upon the bankruptcy of his family's fortune, of which he depended on solely for his monetary security, Irving found himself flung into the "galling mortifications of independence" (Letters 487). In response to this trauma, he sailed to England to regain his composure and hopefully secure his stake as a writer so he could provide for himself that which would keep him from "being cast homeless and pennyless on the world" (Letters 486). Within statements like these, Irving's countenance is quite apparent. Additionally, it helps to reveal the social atmosphere of the time, as well as increase one's knowledge of "Rip Van Winkle" as it is represent ed in The Sketch Book. And this representation holds great significance to Washington Irving's development as a person, and to American culture's struggle to define itself in a unique (non-British) way. Around 1817 Irving left the United States drained of inspiration, and slid into depression. He wrote of himself to a friend several years later, "I felt cast down,abased,I had lost my cast,I had always been proud of Spirit, and in my country had been, as it were a being of the air,I felt the force of the text 'a wounded spirit who can bear?' " (Letters 743). However, the idea of The Sketch Book which came before he left relieved him to some extent. In many ways, though, hi... ...sponsibilities are. And more particularly what is America's responsibility in trying to create a nation that is unique and separate from its parentage. This is the issue that defines the importance of "Rip Van Winkle," and more particularly The Sketch Book, in the social development of our country. It seems that the particular social and political climate found its summation in our country's search for literary independence. Holistically it was Washington Irving's life, his struggles, his talents, and his perfectly-timed existence in the flow of history that helped to shape and solidify our country's identity, and immortalize him as an author. Works Cited Rubin-Dorsky, Jeffrey. "Irving's Sketches of Anxiety." American Literature. Dec 1986: 507-509, 517-519. Williams, Stanley T. The Life of Washington Irving. 2 vols. London: Oxford, 1935.

A Midsummer Night?s Dream Essay -- essays research papers

Loves Misfortunes A Midsummer Night’s Dream, is a romantic comedy written by William Shakespeare. It deals with the feelings of love and marriage as well as the laws and social order of the time. The story contains fairies and other mystical creatures who take it upon themselves to guide the mortals in the directions they think necessary. This leads to many hilarious situations and misfortunes for the humans. There are many characters in the play and, for the most part, each one is in love with one of the other characters. The play starts with Theseus, the Duke of Athens, proposing to Hippolyta, the queen of the Amazons. This is the only couple throughout the play who seem to never waver in their love for each other. These two seem to have a perfect love for each other, much like the love Hermia and Lysander have for each other before the fairies intervene. The other couple in the story that are of royal blood are Oberon, the king of the fairies, and Titania, the queen of the fairies. These two are having a lovers quarrel which has sent the seasons out of order and caused great disorder. Oberon is in love with Hoppolyta and Titania is in love with Theseus. Their lovers quarrels provide much of the comedy in the play. The other four characters caught in love triangles are Lysander and Hermia, who are in love with each other, Demetrius who loves Hermia, and Helena who loves Demetrius. Lysander and Hermia wish to marry each other but Hermia’s father, Egeu...

Oil and wasser assignment Essay

The story began from two enterprises. The company Royal –biscuit, would like to merge Edeling, a company from Germany. Brighton, CEO of Royal-biscuit, had coordinated with Wallach for many times. When they decide to merge together, they should have known that both of their cultures are quite incompatible which might result in severe conflict. In this case, we can see that most of the difficulties are about cross-culture difference. The culture of Royal-Biscuit emphasizes â€Å"Active†, â€Å"Ambitious†, and â€Å"Fast-training†, and that’s the reason why it changed food industry in UK within 10 years. However, Edeling is a family owned business with 120-year history, and quite popular in Germany. Employee in Royal-Biscuit were afraid that they might make things slowly down if everything are well-prepared and step by step, while employee in Edeling were afraid that they didn’t respect their history at all, just eager to succeed in short term. Such situation not only happened in internal management, but also happened in human resource, like recruitment for talented. Brighton wanted to integrate two companies ASAP, so that they train they staff to own leadership by â€Å"Learning and doing†. They put them in the managerial position directly. On the other hand, Edeling has a successful business model due to their system and operation. They cultivate their leader by sending them to college of commerce and doing work from basic level. Not only culture difference in both company, but also about â€Å"Nation difference†.

Assessment for Learning Essay

The Assessment Reform Group (2002) identifies ten principles to guide classroom practice in assessment for learning . Choose five of particular relevance to your practice and evaluate them in relation to the pupil experience in your school. Assessment for learning (AFL) is the process of seeking and interpreting evidence for use by learners and their teachers to decide where the learners are in their learning, where they need to be and how to achieve their goal. Black and William (1998) in their research on the use of formative assessment in the classroom found ten principles of assessment which guide classroom practice in AFL. (Assessment Reform Group, 2003) The school I work in is a city based multi cultural school. UIS caters for children from all backgrounds and inclusion is of importance to our setting. I work in key stage 1 as a HLTA. I do PPA cover throughout the year 1 classes and I cover when a teacher is away wherever possible. The subjects I teach are the foundation subjects which are History, Geography, R. S and Music. I plan, implement and assess these subjects. In UIS, we believe that effective assessment provides information to improve teaching and learning. To do this in our school, we undertake two different but complementary types of assessment: assessment for learning and assessment of learning Assessment for learning (formative assessment) involves the use of assessment in the classroom to raise pupil achievements. It is based on the idea that pupils will improve most, if they understand the aim of their learning, where they are in relation to this aim, and how they can achieve this aim i.e. to close the gap in their knowledge. Assessment of learning (summative assessment) involves judging pupils’ performance against national standards. Teachers may make this judgement at the end of a unit of work, a term, a year, or if a key stage. We give our children regular feedback on their learning so they understand what it is that they need to do better. Research has shown that their involvement in the review process raises standards, and that it empowers pupils to take action towards improving their performance. The objectives of this assessment are: to enable our children to demonstrate what they know, understand and can do their work; to help our children recognise the standards to aim for, and to understand what they need to do next to improve their work; to allow teachers to plan work that accurately reflects the needs of each child; to provide regular information for the parents and carers that enables them to support their child’s learning; to provide the head teacher and governors with information that allows them to make a judgement about the effectiveness of the school. To support our teaching, we use the Early Years Foundation Stage guidance, the Primary Framework literacy and mathematics schemes of work based on National Curriculum objectives. We assess children at the end of each unit of work to help us identify each child’s level of attainment. The first principle that I will be discussing is that assessment for learning should be part of effective planning of teaching and learning. The teachers plan their lessons with clear learning objectives. We base these upon the teacher’s detailed knowledge of each child. UIS strive to ensure that all tasks set are appropriate to each child’s ability. Our lesson plans make clear the expected outcomes of each lesson. (Appendix 1) Teachers always share the lessons learning objectives with the children as the lesson begins. They also indicate the way in which the activity is linked to the learning objective, and the criteria against which the work will be judged which is the success criteria. Teachers ask well phrased questions and analyse pupils’ responses to find out what they know, understand and can do, and to reveal their misconceptions. We identify those individual children who do not achieve, or exceed, the expected level for the lesson, and we use this information when planning for the next lesson. Targets are set for end of Key Sage 1 and approved by Governors and the local Authority. UIS set year group targets in Mathematics, Reading and Writing for all our classes, during each academic year. These are expected levels of achievement reached by the end of the year for the majority of children and the more able in class. In Foundation1, staffs know that the next step children need to take is through systematic observation. These are shared with parents and talked through with children where appropriate. In Foundation 2 children have individual reading targets and group writing targets. In Key Stage 1 all children have individual and group targets in reading, writing and maths. Children’s targets are passed over to parents and carers, the progress of each child at the end of each term is reviewed, and revised targets are set. UIS recognise various methods of assessing a child’s learning. The type of assessment that our school make varies from subject to subject. We assess informally throughout the term, based on observations made by teachers or support staff. Every week I annotate assessment of the class I teach on my plan(appendix 2) and at the end of term fill out the assessment sheet. (Appendix 3) These observations are recorded in a variety of temporary formats, such as post-it notes, and are used to inform the Foundation Stage Profile or National Curriculum levels. We take the objectives for individual lessons from the board learning objectives within the school’s curriculum plan. These in turn reflect the demands of the National Curriculum / EYFS. The teachers record the progress of each child against these board objectives. This enables them to make a  judgement about the work each child in relation to national standards and allows them to monitor the progress of each child. Each teacher passes this information on to the next teacher at the end of each year. ` Teachers can review the rate of progress by looking at work in pupils’ folders or exercise books and by the marks in the record books. They can then use this to adjust day to day teaching and plan further work. One way to improve manageability would be to make a note only of those pupils who achieve significantly above or below the expected outcomes of a task’ (QCA, p. 3). The second principle that I will be discussing is how assessment for learning focuses on how students learn. ` If children don’t learn the way we teach†¦ perhaps we should teach the way they learn (Eppig, 1981). ’ The process of learning has to be in the minds of both the learner and the teacher. Assessment for learning helps those pupils, who do not always find learning easy, to make progress. ‘Planning for personalised learning focuses on what teachers need to do ,individually and collaboratively ,to develop assessment for learning and personalise learning by establishing supportive conditions for learning’(AFL,Primary Framework). When we do our assessment of a lesson we have to consider the different styles in which pupils learn. Day to day assessments is an on going and essential part of teaching and learning. Teachers and children continually reflect on how learning is progressing, see where improvements can be made and identify the next steps to take (national strategies standard) . When undertaking assessment of pupils, teachers use their knowledge of individual children in deciding on how to go about assessing the pupil. `Research on grading pupils, shows that children are less motivated and often demoralised when they are continually compared to each other. They need to know the criteria for the next level above ,but they do not need to know what that level is called. (Clarke,2001,p. 74)’ We have to consider the nature and level of support that the pupil receives as part of a normal classroom routine. The tasks and assessments are intended to assess a child’s ability in fair and a comparable way. If a child is a visual learner and for the assessment to be fair to him we adapt the test by having pictures inserted as well as questions. For those children that are auditory learners we read out the questions to the whole class and this enables them to fulfil their learning style. In our setting we have a working wall where the children are able to see what the objective and the success criteria of the lesson are. Appendix 4 On the working wall for the visual learner, we have two eyes to show what the teacher is looking for and ears to show the children to listen. For those children where English is an additional language we have support staff that are available while the test is taking place, so the staff can help where appropriate. Our school aims to be an inclusive school. We actively seek to remove the barriers to learning and participation that can hinder or exclude individual pupils, or groups of pupils. We achieve educational inclusion by continually reviewing what we do, by monitoring data, and through asking ourselves questions about the performance of these individuals and groups of pupils. In our setting there is a boy that is very able but his writing skills are very poor. His fine and gross motor skill are underdeveloped so to get the best out of him, he does all his work on the computer which is then assessed. Children that are on the S. E. N . register have their own I. E. P. ’s to work from with their allocated support staff, once their target is achieved they move on to the next target from their P-scales. The third principle that I would like to discuss is that assessment for learning should be recognised as central to classroom practice. Tasks and questions should prompt learners to demonstrate their knowledge, understanding and skills. In our setting assessment for learning is recognised as central to classroom practice. In the Foundation unit the teachers usually plan the lesson with the ideas given by children. On a Friday afternoon the teacher has circle time with her class where she starts off with a basic topic and the children then give ideas on what they would like to do around the topic. In considering the ideas of the children it prompts the learners to learn and helps with the ongoing of assessments. I did a lesson on electricity in a year2 class which I was covering . In order for me to assess the children I asked a lot of open questions which prompted them to answer. The open questions gave the children the opportunity and encouraged them to think beyond the literal. ‘Research on wait-time showed that teachers need to leave five seconds after asking children a question, to allow them to respond. This is the optimum time it takes to process the question to formulate the answer (Clarke, 2001. p. 87). After having watched the classroom experiment I was able to take on board the idea of waiting time which I now religiously apply. ` Increasing waiting time after asking questions proved difficult to start with due to my habitual desire to â€Å"add† something almost immediately after asking the original question. The pause after asking the question was sometimes â€Å"painful. † It felt unnatural to have such a seemingly â€Å"dead† period, but I persevered. Given more thinking time, students seemed to realize that a more thoughtful answer was required ‘(D e r e k, Century Island School). The negative side to the waiting time is that some teachers wait for two seconds before they either ask another child or answer the question themselves . Children often then do not try to think of a response, because they know that the answer would be given or another child would be asked to answer. The lesson was very inter-active I was able to assess whether my success criteria was achieved. When I handed the worksheets to the children I had asked them to write the learning objective below the date and to refer to it when they were doing there work. The fourth principle that I would be discussing is that learners should receive constructive guidance about how to improve their learning. `An assessment activity can help learning if it provides information that teachers and their students can use as feedback in assessing themselves and one another and in modifying the teaching and learning activities in which they are engaged. Such assessment becomes â€Å"formative assessment† when the evidence is actually used to adapt the teaching work to meet learning needs (Black and William, 1989). Most learners are curious to know how they have done in a task . `Feedback is sometimes seen as part of a behaviourist approach to learning ,where it is part of the sequence stimulus-response –reinforcement (Wragg,2001,p. 27). The aim of marking in our setting is to improve the quality of teaching and learning in the classroom. Whilst doing my researchÃ'Ž I found out that Nancy from Riverside school says that her marking has developed from comments with targets and grades, which is the school policy, to comments and targets only. Pupils do work on targets and corrections more productively if no grades are given. Marking is an integral part of assessment and target setting and the outcomes inform short, medium and long term planning. Its rationale is to enable every child to achieve their full potential. It is recognised that one to one oral feedback is most valuable for young children. It should remind the child of the learning intention and emphasise the positive aspects of the child’s practical or recorded work. ` Various research studies have concluded that feedback is most useful when it focuses on the learning intention of the task rather than other features of the work’(Clarke,2001,p. 50). In our setting the minimal response for all written work is that it should be initialled and dated to acknowledge that it has been seen. Maths work is usually ticked if correct and marked with a bullet point to signify that the answer needs to be checked. In UIS traffic lights are used to indicate whether the child has achieved the success criteria for the task. Green-learning objective met, orange-a few examples of learning objective having been met, red-learning objective not met, need to see the teacher. (Appendix 5). When a child meets the learning objective the work may be underlined or highlighted in some way to acknowledge the child’s success. Smiley faces are used to indicate good effort. Whilst doing my research and talking to other teachers in school I found out that each child gets a detailed feedback of their work at regular intervals. This detailed feedback could be oral or written and should be specific and related to the learning intention set for the particular piece of work. Feedback needs to indicate areas where improvements or next step targets are to focus. It is important to allow children the time to reflect on the feedback and make improvements to a specific piece of work. The fifth principle that I would like to discuss is assessment for learning develop learners’ capacity for self-assessment so that they can become reflective and self managing. `In practice, peer assessment turns out to be an important complement to self-assessment. Peer assessment is uniquely valuable because students may accept criticisms of their work from one another that they would not take seriously if the remarks were offered by a teacher’(Black and William. p. 6). Peer assessment and self-assessment is much more than children marking their own or each other’s work. To improve learning, it must be an activity that engages children with the quality of their work and helps them reflect on how to improve it. Peer assessment enables children to give each other valuable feedback so they learn from and support each other. It adds a valuable dimension to learning: the opportunity to talk, discuss, explain and challenge each other enables children to achieve beyond what they can learn unaided. Peer assessment helps develop self-assessment, which promotes independent learning, helping children to take increasing responsibility for their own progress. `Research shows that if self-evaluation is linked with the learning intention of a task, children’s progress, persistence and self-esteem is improved(Black and William,1998). The development of peer assessment and self-assessment takes planning, time, patience and commitment. When children don’t understand the intended learning outcomes they find it difficult to move beyond superficial criteria related to neatness and spelling. By using a range of strategies and by dedicating time to allow children to reflect on and discuss their learning teachers can develop children’s peer assessment and self-assessment skills. ` Independent learners have the ability to seek out and gain new skills, new knowledge and new understandings. They are able to engage in self-reflection and to identify the next steps in their learning. Teachers should equip learners with desire and the capacity to take charge of their learning through developing the skills of self-assessment (Assessment Reform Group, 2002)’. UIS trains children to use the traffic light system to indicate directly on their work to what extent they feel they have achieved the learning objective of their given task and how secure they feel they are in their learning. This helps the teacher to identify if a child is having any difficulty and this also give the children confidence in seeking help. The negative aspects of using the traffic light system at right at the end of the lesson is that some children who are over confident tend to rank their achievement very high and those children that have low confidence tend to under estimate themselves. Teachers in our setting also encourage children use the thumbs up that is when a child is confident they have achieved what was expected of them, thumbs sideways which indicates that they are half way there in understanding the objective ,but could achieve more and thumbs down which indicates that the child does not really understand and needs a bit more help. In order to develop pupil’s skills with self assessing their work we use prompt questions which the children can think about when reviewing their work. Pupils need to be able to assess their own progress to become more independent learners. ` One of the reasons peer assessment is so valuable is because children often give and receive criticisms of their work more freely than in the traditional teacher/child interchange. Another advantage is that the language used by children to each other is the language they would naturally use, rather than school language’ (Black et al, 2003). We regularly do peer marking which I find very helpful indeed. A lot of misconceptions come to the fore, and we then discuss these as we are going over the work. I then go over the peer marking and talk to pupils individually as I go round the room. Peer evaluation works really well because children learn from each other where they have gone wrong and how to put it right. The advantage of peer assessment is that children get to work with different children and they get a wide idea on how the pupil has achieved their success criteria. Some children assume that the more able children never find anything difficult, but this process makes them aware that all learners find some aspects difficult. After having done all my research I have found that the most important aspect of assessment is to have the learning intention and success criteria in focus. In UIS, with the self –evaluation strategies that we use it develops children’s awareness of their learning needs as well as open doors for teachers to get a better understanding of the pupil. Some teachers tend to give feedback to pupils on areas that are not of much relevance to the objective. It takes a while to get into the habit of giving appropriate and relevant feedback but the strategy is simple, make sure that the learning intention is mentioned first and then talk about the secondary features. If it is necessary to mention the secondary features, then say it in a very low tone to the pupil concerned. `As the research demonstrates, formative assessment makes a significant difference to children’s progress –in their ability to be confident, critical learners, to achieve more than ever before and in raising their self-esteem. In a world of continuing pressure, it is good to know that we are making a real difference to children’s lives. (Clarke, 2001, p139). ’Pupils enjoy finding that other children often have the same thoughts, share similar feelings on a particular subject, and have similar problems or successes whilst doing self-evaluation assessment. Ofsted had done a survey on 43 schools and found that 7 of these schools were inadequate in their assessment for learning. `Where assessment for learning had had less impact, the teachers had not understood how the approaches were supposed to improve pupils’ achievement. In particular, they used key aspects of assessment for learning, such as identifying and explaining objectives, questioning, reviewing pupils’ progress and providing feedback without enough precision and skill. As a result, pupils did not understand enough about what they needed to do to improve and how they would achieve their targets. Teachers did not review learning effectively during lessons; opportunities for pupils to assess their own work or that of their peers were infrequent and not always effective’(Ofsted). Michael Fullan also suggests that many educational innovations have been frustrated by the inherent but understandable ‘conservatism’ of teachers. He suggests that real change will only occur where teacher beliefs about teaching and learning have been significantly altered. Education is littered with examples of innovations that have either failed or only been partially implemented because teachers weren’t convinced the change was necessary and would result in real improvement. The result has been that they merely modify their practice at the edges and then abandon the change after a while because it ‘didn’t work for them’. More effective use of assessment, particularly formative assessment, will require many teachers to reconsider their approach to teaching and learning and to re-evaluate their working practices’(Weeden,2002,p. 127). Therefore if schools and teachers want to make changes they have to have the subject knowledge, be committed and dedicated to continually re-examine their teaching styles. Reference Assessment Reform Group (2002) Assessment for Learning: Ten Principles [online] Available from:www. assessment-reform-group. org. uk [Accessed 19th December 2010]Ã'Ž Black, P. ,and Wiliam,D. (1998). Inside the black box: Raising standards through classroom assessment. Phi Delta Kappan Vol 80, 139-149. [Accessed: 19th December 2010] Clarke,S. (2001). Unlocking formative Assessment . London: Hodder and Stoughton Clarke,S. (2005)Formative Assessment in Action London:Hodder and Stoughton Eppig, P. (1981) Education by design –used in the UK as Critical Skills program by Success@Bristol (Bristol Education Action Zone) Weeden,P. Winter,J. Broadfoot,P. (2002). Assessment-What’s in it for Schools. [online] London: Routledge Falmer. p. 127. Available from: http://northampton. np. eblib. com [Accessed:27th December 2010] Wragg,E. C (2001). Assessment and Learning in the Primary School [online]. London: Routledge Falmer. p. 27. Available from: http://northampton. np. eblib. com [Accessed:27th December 2010] QCA (1999) Keeping Track,Qualification and Curriculum Authority. http://nationalstrategies. standards. dcsf. gov. uk/primary/primaryframework Appendices 1. Lesson plan 2. Annotated Lesson Plan 3. Assessment sheets 4. working wall 5. Traffic lights.