Thursday, October 31, 2019

Statistics-demographic reports Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Statistics-demographic reports - Essay Example From the General summary report it is evident that if we rank students on the basis of their educational status, then we will come to know that the highest percentage of students i.e. 44.19% is completing their bachelor’s degree. 33.99% of students are related to graduate degree that’s why ranked at 2nd place in 2000 Educational Attainment. Therefore, the product should be introduced in the market by keeping the students of this age group in your mind as they appear to be significantly large segment in the region. Before pricing the product, the household income needs to be considered. The change in median household income is 123.60% from 1980 to 1990 and 68.10% from 1990 to 2000. The percentage changes for average household income are 178.80% and 69.50% from 1980 to 1990 and from 1990 to 2000 respectively. Similarly, percentage changes for per capita income are 184.00% and 65.60%. Among three categories average household income has the highest income in 2000 and the highest percentage change for household income. So, the new snack food should be launched by keeping average household income in mind. According to the given data, the percentage changes of the people with salary $150,000 + is highest so, the target market for the products should be the people having salary above $150,000 +. However, if the new snack is going to have a low to average price then other income groups can be also targeted. In addition, it is also important to consider which the income bracket of the target market. The highest percentages of the people of the ages less than 25, 65-74 and 75+ earn Less than $10,000. The highest percentages that are 15.87%, 14.43%, 11.86% and 11.50% of people of ages 25-34, 35-44, 45-54 and 54-64 respectively earn $100,000 - $124,999. So, the people having salary range $100,000 - $124,999 should be targeted for this product. The people having salary range $75,000 to $99,999 also have large percentages

Tuesday, October 29, 2019

Online vs. Traditional Education Essay Example for Free

Online vs. Traditional Education Essay Have you ever had the opportunity to take online classes? Have you even heard of online classes? If you haven’t, you are missing out on a great opportunity. Online education is rapidly becoming a popular alternative to traditional education. It is offering more flexibility for students and providing individuals with better opportunities for postsecondary education. Even though traditional education has been the only form of education for hundreds of years, online education offers a new and improved style of learning. When people think of education, they think of a classroom filled with desks, paper, books, and other students. After all, this is how humans have been taught for generations. This is an example of traditional education. Traditional education is when students attend a school and are taught in a formal classroom setting. There is an instructor that teaches the class by giving demonstrations or by lecturing. It allows the students to have face-to-face interaction with the instructor or their fellow students. Traditional education has never been very flexible. There are scheduled times for class and working around that schedule can prove to be difficult. Often times, life events can conflict with the class schedule. This can cause students to miss class and fall behind in their work. While traditional education is not very flexible, online education is. Online education is the use of technology to share educational information and to teach students. It often only requires a computer and an Internet connection. The classroom setting of an online education can be anywhere. You can work from the comfort of your own home or while you are at the library. As long as you have access to a computer with Internet, you can go to school. In many situations, you can also complete the school work on your own time. That way if something comes up at the last minute, you still have the ability to complete your school work without losing points. It also allows students to continue to work at their job while taking classes. This is a very nice convenience to have, especially for individuals who have a family or have a job to work around. Online education can also be much cheaper than traditional education. It is not uncommon for tuition at online schools to be lower than that of a traditional school, although this is certainly not true of all online programs. In addition, costs associated with things like commuting, classroom supplies, and housing are not relevant in an online learning environment. Some programs may not require students to purchase textbooks or provide the material online. Usually, students can download all of their materials needed for class, such as assignments or textbooks, straight from their online classroom. The lower costs of an online education are a key factor for its rising popularity. Another large factor to consider when choosing a form of education is the availability of resources. Most traditional schools have a vast amount of resources. They often have at least one library, science labs, computer labs, and other resources that make the learning experience easier. The only problem is that some of these resources have limited access. They are only open during certain hours and may even be closed some days. This reduces a student’s flexibility and may affect their ability to complete work on time. Online education, on the other hand, offers resources that are available 24/7. The resources are all online, so there is no need to have a closing time or open hours. They are at the students’ fingertips and only require the click of a button. They may even offer more resources than you would find at a traditional school. Resources such as a free plagiarism checker or a grammar review are usually not available to students in a traditional classroom setting. These resources can give online students the upper hand in education and will allow them to perform at a higher level. The biggest difference between traditional and online education is the method of communication. In traditional education, everything is face-to-face. The students interact with the teacher directly and the discussion occurs only in the classroom. This face-to-face interaction allows the students to build social skills and form relationships with other classmates. The only downfall there is with this method is that once the class is over, it can be difficult to contact the instructor if a question or problem would arise. In online education, communication is much different. Students can be thousands of miles apart and live in different time zones. Therefore there cannot be any face-to-face interaction. Instead, online education relies on instant messaging through a forum. It is very similar to a chat room. This is where the majority of the communication takes place. Students can communicate with the instructor and with each other by posting messages and waiting for a reply. This makes it very easy to get a hold of other people, no matter the time of day. The downfall with this method is that sometimes it can take a while before you receive a reply. However, online courses require a certain amount of participation so the question will be addressed before too long. Many people question the amount of work that online students do. Some even say that online colleges should not be as credible as traditional universities. Nothing could be farther from the truth. Online education shares many of the same requirements expected by traditional schools. Online students write research papers, have to create projects, and take finals just like any other student. In fact, many online schools have traditional campuses and have the same requirements for both campus and online students. It does not matter which form of education an individual chooses. They will be required to do the same amount of work in order to attain their degree. For years I thought traditional education was the only way to go. I was a firm believer in the traditional ways and never thought that you could get the same education by sitting on a computer. Now that I have experience in both forms of education, I can see why so many people are switching to online programs. The flexibility of online classes and the vast amount of resources make it more user friendly than ever before. The popularity of online education is on the rise and will continue to increase as more people switch from the traditional ways.

Sunday, October 27, 2019

Benefits of Green Supply Chain Management

Benefits of Green Supply Chain Management Consciousness about the environment has been on the increase in the past few decades. Worlds environmental problems such as global warming, toxic substance usage, and decrease in non-replenishable resources has caught up amongst the people now. The Governments around the world are releasing campaigns to take this problem to people. Quite a few organizations have responded by using ecological principles to their business, such as reducing the energy use of oil, using environmentally friendly material first, and using recycled paper for packaging. Ecological principles have been extended to many departments within the organization, including the supply chain. environmental management of the supply chain (GSCM) made its appearance in recent years. This concept encompasses all steps in the manufacture of the first to the last stage of the lifecycle, from product design to recycling. Green Supply Chain Management can also be used for other economic sectors like government, education and s ervices apart from manufacturing. The aim of this paper is to express the impact of green in the management of the supply chain. It starts with the basics of Supply Chain Management of the company at different levels. Then he covers the chronology and the benefits of Green Supply Chain Management. What factors influence society to adopt the Green Supply Chain?These factors can be classified according to different players such as government, whole of market, industry, competitors, and society. Since Green Supply Chain Management can be applied to various areas within the company, this document also addresses the implementation of Green Supply Chain Management in several areas.In addition, a few examples of Green Supply Chain Management application is also demonstrated to support the concept. Table of Contents (jump to) Introduction Basics of supply chain management Supply Chain Integration Chronology of GSCM Objectives of GSCM Listening to Environmentally Aware Consumers Profiting from Being Green Unawareness of Potential Benefits Green Design Green Operations The Case of Kodak: Green Technological Advancement Why Change to Green Supply Chain Management? Conclusion Introduction Supply chain management has been viewed conventionally as a process in which the raw materials are converted into finished products, and are then provided to the end-customer. This whole course of action requires extraction and exploitation of various natural resources. The point to be noted here is that however, we live in an era where environmental sustainability has become an important concern to business practices. Manufacturers for a very long time now have been facing the pressure to concentrate on Environmental Management (EM) in their supply chains. However it is not at all an easy task to perform. The blending of the green concept to the supply chain concept affixes a new concept where the supply chain will bear a straight relation to the environment. This fact is interesting because both these paradigms were contradictory in the past. Supply chains, from an operational point of view, are all about mining and exploiting the raw materials from the environment. This paper will present a general idea about the Green Supply Chain Management (GSCM) literature. Knowledge of the broader outlook of the Green supply chain is the most important step in getting an insight about the branch of environmental sustainability. There is a vast span of literature available on the subject of green supply chain management, especially from 1990s to the present. But the key arguments that were drawn out of the Green supply chain Management literature over the last almost two decades are the concepts of green design, green operations, green manufacturing, waste management and reverse logistics. The purpose of this paper, however, is to provide insights on some of these topics and present an overview of the academic standpoint of the Green Supply Chain Management literature. This paper will begin with discussing the traditional supply chain management and will then proceed by moving on to chronology of the Green Supply Chain Management. This paper will then furth er move on to talk about the idea of Green Design and Green Operations. At the end, this paper contains a brief talk about why organisations go for a Green supply chain? Basics of Supply Chain Management The term supply chain originated around the mid 1970s. Supply chain was used as a term for transferring on electricity towards the final customer. However the term supply chain management came into the picture not until the late 1980s. The potential benefits of integrating the various internal business functions which included purchasing, manufacturing, sales and distribution into one interrelated framework were discussed. Since then supply chain management has been defined as the integration of business functions involving the flow of materials and information from inbound to outbound ends of the business. Twofold or party relationships between the suppliers are becoming a part of the supply chain process. Here the formulation of a supply chain framework in terms of establishing contracts between firms can be seen. The opportunity to either vertically integrate or market their products in connection with other partners has been given to the organisations. Supply Chain Integration The concept of Supply chain management evolved dramatically around the early 1990s.It turned out to be so due the increasing importance of the relationship of the firm with other suppliers. One of the possible reason for this was the emergence of a globalised marketplace. The firms needed to become more integrative amongst other firms to reduce the susceptibility of its supply chain. There are various examples and case studies where the firms have become or are becoming more integrative to their supply chain partners. A few good examples can be 1.) the Japanese automotive industry and the Italian craft-based industry. The operational processes of the supply chain are enhanced by the help of the added factors such as Lean and Just-In-Time (JIT) Management. The requirement of the organisations to become dynamically quick to respond to the needs of customers has become increasingly important.The contributing factors that would make firms more competitive are: speed (delivering customer demand quickly), agility (responsiveness to customer demand) and leanness (doing more with less) The Chronology of Green Supply Chain Management (GSCM) An emerging field that fibres out of the traditional supply chain perspective is Green supply chain management (GSCM). Businesses have been sparked to become more environmentally conscious by the quality revolution in the late 1980s and the supply chain revolution in the early 1990s. Green Supply Chain Management has gained popularity in both academics and professionals to intend in reducing waste and safeguarding the quality of product-life and the natural resources. Now the important assets to achieve best and state of art practices are Eco-efficiency and remanufacturing processes. The demand of the Global markets and pressures from governments are forcing businesses to become more sustainable. In my personal opinion, increase in government regulation and stronger public mandates for environmental responsibility have brought these issues onto strategic planning agendas, and into the executive suites. The key argument that came out in the literature over the last two decades are the concepts of: green design, green operations, reverse logistics, waste management and green manufacturing . The very first green supply chain came into existence in 1989. It was the first of its kind literature that developed a finest forecasting system for organisations to use and to forecast products that can potentially be reused/recycled. This forecasting system, however, was exceedingly controversial as individuals returning containers is not typically known with confidence, so therefore, the findings were somewhat unintelligible. The first green design literature came into context in 1991 with the aim of considering the need for a green design to reduce the impact of product waste. Further Life-cycle analysis was an example of a structure that came out of green design. Green Operations in terms of reverse logistics was an important concept that came out of the Green Supply Chain Management concept. The use of plastics and bottle recycling came up by late 1990s and early 2000. Waste management is another topic that came out of the Green Supply Chain Management literature. Green Manufacturing, on the other hand, was not conceptualised until 1993. Objectives of Green Supply Chain Management (GSCM) The purpose of the whole supply chain must be green to help the company achieve its environmental objectives. To facilitate this, employees must learn strategies on green procurement, understand business practices, corporate social responsibility strategies define, develop logistics processes more efficiently, and learn about the alignment of the chain supply to meet the goals of corporate sustainability. Every company that manufactures and sells products uses packaging materials every day. Packaging is used everywhere starting from moving raw material to a manufacturer followed by bulk finished goods to a distribution centre and in the end the final product to the customer. The packaging material executes a number of tasks; protects the objects from damage, from the ecological circumstances, and also make the objects easier to transportation and to make the item eye-catching to the customer. However, as the publics opinion about the environment is changing, companies are looking at how they can shift to greener packaging alternatives. A few of the suggested alternatives are: Recycled Content In packaging materials from recycled materials is available, including corrugated cardboard, molded pulp, cardboard, steel, newsprint, aluminum, glass and some but not all plastics. It is common practice to include some level of recycled content for certain packaging materials. Post-Consumer And Pre-Consumer Content The term post-consumer shows the finished products that were used by the consumer, then removed from waste for recycling. Materials recycled by households and non-residential users such as offices, manufacturers and retailers are included in the post-consumer materials. Examples of post-consumer materials include foam block, newspapers, glass and aluminum containers, and corrugated cartons. Pre-consumer content is different from post-consumer in that it includes the waste left by the methods of processing and printing, rejected by the manufacturer before it is used by the consumer. Either total recycled content by combining the totals for the period before post-consumer and / or the post-consumer recycled content is provided by the manufacturers. The environmental benefits are provided by both pre-consumer and post-consumer recycled materials. The use of recycled materials supply market with post-consumer items that are sorted to be recycled by consumers. Paperboard Packaging Cardboard is used for packaging materials in a variety of industries because of its cost, versatility and low durability. Increasing amounts of cardboard with post-consumer recycled materials are used by businesses because of its quality, cost advantage and a reduced impact on the environment. Companies have adopted the use of recycled cardboard in products reaching the consumer in mind to improve the quality, variety and availability of recycled cardboard. Various studies around the world today show that over 50% of products on supermarket shelves are packed in recycled cardboard. According to a survey conducted by the Alliance of recycled cardboard, 61% of consumers are more likely to buy a company that uses recycled cardboard packaging. The study also revealed that 77% of consumers felt better about a company that uses recycled cardboard and 80% said do something good for the environment when they buy products with recycled cardboard packaging. This suggests that the growing awareness of environmental issues by customers and the efforts that manufacturers regarding the use of recycled packaging does not go unnoticed. As companies move towards policies more friendly environment, a change effort that can be made throughout the supply chain that should not increase the overall cost is to improve the use of recycled packaging. Products such as recycled cardboard, which are now available are of high quality, low cost and are a major concern for consumers. Listening to Environmentally Aware Consumers As the community becomes more and more aware of the issues regarding the environment and global warming, consumers will be bound to ask more questions about the products they are purchasing. Some of the questions that the companies face today are: how green their manufacturing processes and supply chain are? How much is their carbon footprint? and How they recycle? Profiting from Being Green The myth that going green will result in lower profits and increased operational costs has disappeared as many companies now have realised that its not a bad thing and have been able to satisfy the customers desires to incorporate green initiatives in their supply chain processes and also convert it into increased profits. A number of companies have established the fact that there is a link between improved environmental performance and financial gains. Companies have had an insight into their supply chains and found out areas where improvements in the way they operate can result into increased profits. Just for an example General Motors condensed their clearance costs by $12 million by setting up a reusable container program with their suppliers. In a desperate attempt to reduce the costs throughout their supply chain, General Motors derived that the cost reductions they realised match the companys commitment to the environment, maybe General Motors may have been less concerned about the green issues if they were making record profits. Unawareness of Potential Benefits By reducing the environmental impact of their business processes, companies can find cost savings. Savings are often seen as an advantage to implement environmental policies, by re-examine the supply chain business, procurement, planning and management of material consumption for dispatch and delivery of finished products. Benefits attributed to reducing the environmental impact of a company are not in the minds of the executives of the supply chain despite the public emphasis on the environment. It shows that many executives are still unaware that improving the environmental performance of waste disposal and resulting low training costs, less the costs of environmental permitting, and often, reduced material costs. The expectation of an interest in environmental issues and environmental concerns by the community will not diminish as economic issues become more important because of the faltering economy.. Green Design Green design is a vital sub-theme to Green supply chain management. It encourages environmental awareness about designing a product or a service. Organisations have specific prospective to become eco-friendly in the direction of product re-manufacturing. Heavy industries that have intricate supply chains must take into concern the benefits of reverse logistics (RL). ISO14000 was introduced as a result of the Rio Summit on the Environment in 1992. The pressure groups calling for firms to encourage greening of their supply chains are growing. In 1998 a two-level location model is proposed on product recovery with the support of the Dutch government. The role of purchasing in reverse logistics system and design was examined. All the manufacturing plants that participated in the above mentioned model concluded that all of them were in favour of reverse logistics without government legislation having been imposed. Life-cycle Analysis Life-cycle analysis is an imperative part of Green Design. To measure environmental and resource related products to the production process life-cycle analysis was introduced. This measurement involves everything that comes in stages starting from extraction of raw materials, production, distribution, and remanufacturing, recycling and final disposal. Life cycle analysis scrutinize and enumerate the energy and materials used and wasted and measures the impact of the product on the environment. Government policies are also an additional feature for organisations to work in the direction of life-cycle analysis. Green Operations Reverse logistics Reverse Logistics (RL) is the contrary of traditional or forward logistics. A process where a manufacturer accepts previously shipped products from the point for consumption for possible recycling and re-manufacturing is reverse logistics. Various studies report that reverse logistics have been extensively used in automobile industries such as BMW and General Motors. Other companies such as Hewlett Packard, Storage Tek and TRW are also using reverse logistics as a supply chain process. Following reverse logistics would sooner or later help firms become more aggressive and competitive in their own industry. First stage in the recovery process is the Collection stage. For remanufacturing products are selected, collected and transported to facilities. To begin the converging process, the used products came from different sources and should be brought to product recovery facility. When sorting reusable products Sorting and Recycling are also an important mechanism. The collection schemes should be classified according to materials whether separated by the consumer (separation at source) or centralised (mixed waste). The end objective is to arrange products that can be reused to trim down costs of making new products. Implementation of GSCM to various areas Companies are investigating all aspects of their supply chain to reduce costs.A key element of any program of cost reduction is implemented waste reduction. There are a number of processes that can be used to reduce waste in the supply chain of a business. Design of product To identify where the use of raw materials can be reduced or high-priced materials be replaced, many companies are probing the design of their products. Indeed many businesses are reviewing each component to identify whether it can be manufactured or purchased at a lower price. Companies are examining cheaper and less wasteful materials when designing product packaging options. Raw material Management Every production process should be investigated to reduce the waste of raw materials. Waste material that cannot be recycled or reused must be redesigned in manufacturing operations processes. Even in processes that do produce waste that can be recycled should be examined due to the costs in recycling processes. Using Scrap Material The use reuse of waste material can be stretched out as well as minimizing the waste of raw materials in manufacturing processes. Improvements in the technology of reclaiming waste material means that companies that formerly discarded waste products now have the capability to reuse that material. The costs will inevitably fall helping more businesses with waste issues as the recycling technology becomes more available. Quality improvement Quality control is present in all manufacturing processes but usually aims on the finished product rather than reducing waste. Minimizing the waste of raw materials as well as producing a quality product should be the goal of quality management. Improving the overall quality of a companys manufacturing process will reduce waste overall as it will increase the quantity of finished goods that pass quality inspection. The Case of Kodak: Green Technological Advancement Since the early 1990s, the need for technological advancement to Green Operations is becoming more popular. The new economy has encouraged firms to be more environmentally sustainable and eco-efficient. Kodak is an example of a company that has a remanufacturing line to the supply chain. It is reported that 310 million single-use cameras have been returned since 1990. Although the timing of returns of singleuse cameras is unknown, Kodak has managed to allocate 310 million singleuse cameras back into their production line. The reason for this success came from its own product design. Kodaks single-use cameras are simple, reusable and easy to recycle, and because of this, Kodak has managed to reuse their products and save costs. Xerox Europe, US Naval Aviation are also good examples of Green Operations. Companies are encouraged to have Green Logistics due to various legislations. Producer responsibility has always been, and is still, a growing concern. This concern is important because organisations are now beginning to become more rational in preserving the natural resources and the environment. Why Change to Green Supply Chain Management? There are different thrusts for companies to change to a greener supply chain than the existing one. Some organisations are simply doing this because it is the right thing to do for the environment even though some of the motivators are quite unclear. Maybe some are more fundamental to environmental change, but others may not. Studies, however, reveal that profitability and cost reduction are some of the main motivators for businesses to become green in the supply chain. Reverse logistics were motivated primarily by economic factors and not concerns about protecting the eco-system. The reverse logistics can only bring about profitability and reduction of waste. Advertising took this idea further and argued that Green Supply Chain Management practices are only about win-win relationships on environmental and economic performance. There are hidden values to reverse logistics and the companies need to admit it.. The customers, on average, return about 6% of the products they buy. These products can be from plastic bottles to boxes. If organizations can capture this 6% return from the consumers,they will be able to cost-save. Doing this, however, still remains an issue. Reverse logistics can cost-save only if done precisely. Saying this means that before going any further to green logistics, organisations must have a core vision to promote Environmental Management. Conclusion The intention of this paper is to briefly provide an outline of the Green supply chain literature. This paper argues that the ecological impacts of industrial activity has been reduced by the help of Green Supply Chain Management.. Key academics have argued different angles to Green Supply Chain Management. The concepts of green design, green operations, reverse logistics, waste management and green manufacturing are the key themes that came out of the Green Supply Chain Management literature over the last two decades. This paper, however, briefly discussed some of these issues and, first of all, a brief introduction to conventional supply chain management was provided, then a discussion to the chronology of Green Supply Chain Management and green supply chain as a discipline. Green design and green operations were briefly discussed next. The motive for organisations to go towards green operations was dealt in the last part of this paper. Even though Green Supply Chain Management has been scrupulously reviewed, there are areas around Green supply chain that still require further study. One is a gap in the literature in terms of the stakeholders views towards green supply chain. Stakeholders views can sometimes be contradictory to the companys point of view. Normally, when the word natural environment and sustainability comes into the picture, this is seen as a restriction to the organisations generation of profits by most operation managers and stakeholders. Some stakeholders would go against green supply chain management and some would not. This paper recommends that researchers should focus more towards qualitative study such as interviews in understanding the variation in different stakeholder views towards green supply chain management to depict the varied views about the concept and how this, in the end, implicates management decisions.

Friday, October 25, 2019

Rising Incidence of Alzheimers Disease Essay -- Alzheimers Disease Es

Alzheimer’s disease is the most common dementia that destroys brain cells and causes problems with memory, thinking and behaviour. According to recent statistics (Alzheimer's Association, 2010), Alzheimer’s is the 7th-leading cause of death in the USA with the number of people suffering from AD only in America over 5.3 million. It affects more women than men, causing differences in symptoms depending on gender. There is no cure which can guarantee a recovery for diseased people to date. However, more possible cures exist for diseased females. As per Brian Ott’s article on gender differences in Alzheimer’s disease, females have huge changes in behaviour comparing with males. This process is tightly connected with emotional instability, mood swings, wandering, and refers to personality change. Over listed symptoms are the first one to show up, but eventually there become more and more consequences of the disease such as frequent delusions, hallucinations, and sun-downing – the exacerbation of syndromes in the afternoon and evening, which makes a person in early stages of Alzheimer’s more antisocial and unadapted to a daily life. Such difficulties with communicating with people makes lives of patients very complicated, make them suffer of misunderstanding, and lead to depression as it was proved by American Psychiatric Association (1980). Indeed, 69% of people with dementia were suffering from depression (from Neundorfer, 2001: American Psychiatric Association, 1980). A group of researchers has found evidence of difference in language comprehension and memory regression between males and females: the latter are more vulnerable to such changes in cognition due to influence of sex hormones on the brain (from Ott, 2005: Sherwin, 1997)... ...llet, X., N. Raoux, N. le Carret, J. Bouisson, J. Dartigues, H. Amieva. 2009. Gender-related Differences in Visuospatial Memory Persist in Alzheimer’s Disease. Archives of Clinical Neuropsychology 24 (issue: unknown): 783-789. Oxford Journals. http://acn.oxfordjournals.org (accessed October 27, 2010). Neundorfer, M., M. McClendon, K. Smyth, J. Stuckey, M. Strauss, M. Patterson. 2001. A Longitudinal Study of the Relationship Between Levels of Depression Among Persons With Alzheimer’s Disease and Levels of Depression Among Their Family Caregivers. Journal of Gerontology: PSYCHOLOGICAL SCIENCES 56B (5): 301-313. http://psychsocgerontology.oxfordjournals.org (accessed November 12, 2010). Ott, B., D. Cahn-Weiner. 2005. Gender Differences in Alzheimer’s Disease. Geriatric Times 2 (6). http://www.cmellc.com/geriatrictimes/g011123.html (accessed October 23, 2010).

Thursday, October 24, 2019

Kant on the Nature of Genius

Kant was an 18th century German philosopher whose work initiated dramatic changes in the fields of epistemology, metaphysics, ethics, aesthetics, and teleology. Like many Enlightenment thinkers, he held our mental faculty of reason invests the world we experience with structure. In his works on aesthetics and teleology, he argued that it is our faculty of judgment that enables us to have experience of beauty and grasp those experiences as part of an ordered, natural world with purpose.In the philosophy of Immanuel Kant, genius is the ability to independently arrive at and understand concepts that would normally have to be taught by another person. An essential character of â€Å"genius† for Kant is originality, or a talent for producing ideas which can be described as non-imitative. In the Critique of Judgment (1790) Kant defines genius as an artist capable of articulating truths or understanding in an imaginative, and uniquely creative way [1]. The articulation of the truths or understanding involves both a judgment by a viewer and the methodology by which it is created, and that specific criteria for both must be present for the designation of â€Å"genius†.   Kant assumes that the cognition involved in judging art is similar to the cognition involved in judging natural beauty.Thus, while two objects may have aesthetic beauty but the way they are created imparts the object with â€Å"soul†.   Kant argues that art can be tasteful (that is, agree with aesthetic judgment) and yet be ‘soulless' – lacking that certain something that would make it more than just an artificial version of a beautiful natural object.   He further claims that what provides soul in fine art is an aesthetic idea that unlike rational ideas can’t be adequately exhibited sensibly.A genius generates aesthetic ideas, exhibits them tastefully, in a way that is universal and capable of being shared. While observing the work of art the viewer should experience the same state of mind the artist had while creating it.â€Å"The power of communicating one’s state of mind, even though only in respect of the cognitive faculties, carries a pleasure with it, as we can easily show from the natural propension of man towards sociability (empirical and psychological). But this is not enough for our design. The pleasure that we feel is, in a judgement of taste, necessarily imputed by us to every one else; as if, when we call a thing beautiful, it is to be regarded as a characteristic of the object which is determined in it according to concepts; though beauty, without a reference to the feeling of the subject, is nothing by itself.† (Kant Section 9, pp 1)One analogy that has been made is that to make a chair, one must know, in advance what a chair is, and create it with the intention of creating it.   In this respect Kant assumes that the creation of art is an exercise of will.   This is a convenient definition because it allows him to also distinguish art from nature because he assumes there is no prior notion or will behind the activity nature. This leads to a dilemma in whether one can call some forms of modern art a reflection of genius, if those works are created randomly, or allowed to self shape based on the physical properties of matter such as glass or ceramics.Another dilemma it raises stems from our definition of who has will or intention. For humans it is clear that the intention to express a thought or feeling through the creation of a physical art is an act of will, but do other animals have will is a matter of metaphysics rather than philosophy. According to Kant’s definition it would be difficult to know for sure if art painted by cats [2] or other non-mammals [3] would qualify, since for Kant non humans are part of the natural world and not endowed with will. Yet, as all of us know who own pets, animals have both distinct personalities and wills.For Kant, art also means somet hing different from science, since it is a skill or practical ability that is more than just an understanding of awareness of something.   He also distinguishes from a labor or craft which has a vested interest or purpose in having the product itself. This also limits who can be a genius since any art that has a function separate from the function of being observed and understood for the idea it expresses, must not be real art, and its creator not a genius but a craftsman. This definition seems anachronistic since in many fine art museum there are displayed fragments of pottery or metalwork that are considered art today yet when they were produced, were produced by craftsman so that they could be used by ordinary people who were not concerned with the deeper meaning of what that plate may have represented.It would seem that the ability of the craftsman to mix metals or use new firing techniques to achieve a texture or impression of strength not found when traditional materials wer e used is expressing a form of genius. His idea was to create an object, regardless of its popular usage, that was different from the ones before that, when viewed by the recipient or purchaser gave them the impression that this new object, such as a sword, was better, stronger, more reliable or more facile. Thus according to Kan’s first definition of art, the expression of a concept by exercise of will is fulfilled. It would seem then that the use of the object later has no relevance on whether or not the object is art, and as a consequence no bearing on whether its producer is a genius.Kant spends much effort to categories arts into mechanical and aesthetic, agreeable and fine art. What it is defines the state of mind of the creator when producing it, and therefore creates the criteria of whether the final product actually reflects the thought or will of the person creating it.   Kant introduces yet another rule to this confusing definition by stating that it should not b e obvious (which would be in poor taste) what the intentions actually were.   Thus it would seem that for an art to be truly genius it should convey a message of concept, somewhat unclearly so that no one is 100% sure what the creator’s intentions were.   Thus the less obvious a message (though no message is also bad) the more likely the creator is to be a genius.According to Kant genius is the talent (natural endowment) that makes it possible to produce art which is an object that has no predefined definite rules or concepts for producing or judging it in a way that satisfies aesthetic judgment that is more than a functional object, or a representation of something natural. To make things art must have elements of originality for it to be a characteristic of genius. This means also that fine art properly is never an imitation of previous art or nature, though it may ‘follow' or be ‘inspired by' previous art and nature. To be radically original is difficult, b ecause all human production is in some form an imitation or a trained action through other artistic influences, schools, and culture.Kant's approach to art emphasizes our interest in it rather than the artwork in itself. The artwork is beautiful insofar as it instigates an intellectual activity termed reflective judgment. For Kant, the viewing of art rouses us to an intellectual involvement with the world in which the very sense of order by which the whole world can be articulated as a whole and be kept in balance is brought to light.   Reflective judgment does not determine whether something exists or not. It also does not determine what specific qualities a particular object might actually possess. Such judgments are cognitive and belong to the field of science. Reflective judgment judges whether something is beautiful. Beauty is never experienced as a determinate thing. We do not experience beauty directly, although it is always implicated in our experiences of the world. Beaut y is a feeling induced by our sense of an ordering, a valuing, at work in the world that lies beyond any explicit demonstration.   The ability of the artist to generate such thought in the observer is thus deemed genius.There is a dilemma with this point of view, since what generates such thoughts for an individual is that individual’s experience. So one is left to wonder is the genius in the artist who created an object that could elicit that experience, or is it in the observer who is open to allowing that experience to occur in themselves? Thus if I look at a painting such as American Cubist Stuart Davis (1894-1964), Report from Rockport, 1940, and feel no understanding or connection, is it my lack of genius or his? If I feel a negative response is that a sufficient criteria of genius?Kant indirectly makes the artificial requirement that for something to reflect genius, it must be liked by the observer, not disliked. This is evident in his effort to define taste as invol ving the judgment that a thing is beautiful. Taste is a subjective judgment in which an object is referred by our imagination to our subjective selves, to the feeling of pleasure or displeasure that the object arouses in us. The representation of the object rather than the object itself is what is at issue in this judgment–not the building itself but its manner of being formed would be the matter of an aesthetic judgment. Though perception is always colored by experience, and is necessarily subjective, it is commonly taken that that which is not aesthetically satisfying in some fashion cannot be art. However, â€Å"good† art is not always or even regularly aesthetically appealing to a majority of viewers.In other words, an artist's prime motivation need not be the pursuit of the aesthetic. Also, art often depicts terrible images made for social, moral, or thought-provoking reasons. For example, Francisco Goya's painting depicting the Spanish shootings of 3rd of May 180 8, is a graphic depiction of a firing squad executing several pleading civilians. Yet at the same time, the horrific imagery demonstrates Goya's keen artistic ability in composition and execution and his fitting social and political outrage.Kant defines several aspects that lead to the formation of an individual’s taste. The first is quality which is supposed to be an objective evaluation of the object being considered. This means that a science of art appreciation has to be developed to define good from bad art in a way that is agreeable to everyone since it follows some pre-set rules, as w ell as generating a psychologically positive impact.â€Å"†¦ when [a man] puts a thing on a pedestal and calls it beautiful, he demands the same delight from others. He judges not merely for himself, but for all men, and then speaks of beauty as if it were a property of things. Thus he says that the thing is beautiful; and it is not as if he counts on others agreeing with him in his judgment of liking owing to his having found them in such agreement on a number of occasions, but he demands this agreement of them. He blames them if they judge differently, and denies them taste, which he still requires of them as something they ought to have; and to this extent it is not open to men to say: Every one has his own taste. This would be equivalent to saying that there is no such thing as taste, i.e. no aesthetic judgment capable of making a rightful claim upon the assent of all men.† (Kant, p. 52; see also pp. 136-139.)Another aspect of taste is quantity of positive appreciation (which means many people have to agree).   This judgment cannot, however, be proven. We can only ask others to look again with more attention to some aspects in hopes that can be induced to see something that eluded them in the first place. Thus genius of the artist grows with the contemplation of the observers, again indicating that it is as much attributable to the viewer as it is to the producer. A third criteria of taste is the purposeness of an object, or that it should have a reason for being there, greater than just the artists desired to memorialize the object.   Finally the last aspect of taste is the feeling of satisfaction in the object by the observer.To summarize, according to Kant, art encourages an intuitive understanding, was created with the intention of evoking such an understanding or an attempt at such an understanding in the audience, has no other purpose or function, may communicate on many different levels of appreciation, leads to many different interpretations, or reflections, demonstrates a high level of ability or fluency, and creates an appealing or aesthetically satisfying structures or forms upon an original set of unrelated, passive constituents.   This definition leads to a vagueness and subjectivity to art appreciation that varies from person to person, and an uncertainty who is most responsible the artist or the observer.De spite the attempt to attribute genius to the creator of the artistic object, all the definitions suggested to help the observed form a value judgment externally define what is artistic, or beautiful. Thus it would seem that for an artist to be truly appreciated and considered, he has to conform to the opinions of non artists, and tailor his work to stimulate their positive responses within the rule network they created.   This is undoubtedly responsible for statements like â€Å" he was ahead of his time† and why truly innovative artists are seldom appreciated during their lifetime.  [1] Critique of Judgment. Trans., James Creed Meredith. (Oxford: Clarendon, 1988)[2] Why Cats Paint: A Theory of Feline Aesthetics Heather Busch, Burton Silver, Ten Speed Press, Berkeley CA, 1994.[3] Museum of Non-Primate Art. http://www.monpa.com

Tuesday, October 22, 2019

Definition and Examples of Hyponyms in English

Definition and Examples of Hyponyms in English In linguistics  and lexicography, hyponym is a term used to designate a particular member of a broader class. For instance, daisy and rose are hyponyms of flower. Also called a  subtype  or a  subordinate term. Adjective: hyponymic. Words that are hyponyms of the same broader term (that is, a hypernym) are called co-hyponyms. The semantic relationship between each of the more specific words (such as daisy and rose) and the broader term (flower)  is called hyponymy or inclusion. Hyponymy is not restricted to nouns. The verb to see, for example, has several  hyponyms- glimpse, stare, gaze, ogle, and so on.  Edward Finnegan points out that although hyponymy is found in all languages, the concepts that have words in hyponymic relationships vary from one language to the next (Language: Its Structure and Use, 2008). EtymologyFrom the Greek, below name Examples and Observations Hyponymy is a less familiar term to most people than either synonymy or antonymy, but it refers to a much more important sense relation. It describes what happens when we say An X is a kind of YA daffodil is a kind of flower, or simply, A daffodil is a flower.(David Crystal, The Cambridge Encyclopedia of the English Language, 2nd ed. Cambridge University Press, 2003)Hyponyms of Red[L]et us consider words that have a similar meaning because they belong to the same segment of a domain. For instance, the words pink, scarlet,  orange, hot pink, and pumpkin . . .  are all more marked, specific terms for colors that derive from the color red. . . . These words share many of the semantic properties of the word red. Because these words form a subclass of the word red, they are referred to as hyponyms of red. Similarly, maple, birch, and pine are hyponyms of tree.Hyponyms are  more specific words that constitute a subclass of a more general word.(Bruce M. Rowe and Diane P. Levine,  A Concise Introduction to Linguistics, 4th ed.  Routledge, 2016) A Test for HyponymyHyponymy involves specific instantiations of a more general concept such as holds between horse and animal or vermillion and red or buy and get. In each case, one word provides a more specific type of concept than is displayed by the other. The more specific word is called a hyponym and the more general word is the superordinate which may also be referred to as a hyperonym or hypernym . . .. Where the words being classified according to this relation are nouns, one can test for hyponymy by replacing X and Y in the frame X is a kind of Y and seeing if the result makes sense. So we have (A) horse is a kind of animal but not (An) animal is a kind of horse and so on.(Ronnie Cann, Sense Relations. Semantics: An International Handbook of Natural Language and Meaning, Vol. 1, ed. by Claudia Maienborn, Klaus von Heusinger, and Paul Portner. Walter de Gruyter, 2011)InclusionIn general, there are a number of hyponyms for each superordinate. For example, boar and piglet are a lso hyponyms of the superordinate pig, since the meaning of each of the three words sow, boar, and piglet contains the meaning of the word pig. (Note that in defining a word like sow, boar, or piglet, the superordinate word pig is often used as part of the definition: A sow is an adult female pig.) Thus, it is not surprising that hyponymy is sometimes referred to as inclusion. The superordinate is the included word and the hyponym is the including one.(Frank Parker and Kathryn Riley, Linguistics for Non-Linguists. Allyn and Bacon, 1994) Hierarchical Relationships and Multiple LayersHouse is a hyponym of the superordinate building, but building is in turn, a hyponym of the superordinate structure, and, in its turn, structure is a hyponym of the superordinate thing. A superordinate at a given level can itself be a hyponym at a higher level.(Patrick Griffiths, An Introduction to English Semantics and Pragmatics. Edinburgh University Press, 2006)​Hyponyms and hypernyms have multiple layers, as in the following examples, where fry is a hyponym of the hypernym cook, but fry itself is a hypernym for some other types of frying:Hypernym: cookHyponyms: bake, boil,  grill, fry, steam, roastHypernym:  fryHyponyms:  stir-fry, pan-fry,  sautà ©, deep-fry(Michael Israel, Semantics: How Language Makes Sense. How Languages Work: An Introduction to Language and Linguistics, ed. by  Carol Genetti. Cambridge University Press, 2014)  .   Pronunciation: HI-po-nim

Monday, October 21, 2019

Definite Fate in Ancient Greece Essays

Definite Fate in Ancient Greece Essays Definite Fate in Ancient Greece Paper Definite Fate in Ancient Greece Paper Fate has been an important concept that determines the lives of the people of Ancient Greece. During this time, it was widely believed that there was no escaping fate. Although, this knowledge is widespread and understood by many during this time, in stories such as the legend of Perseus, Homer’s the Iliad and Oedipus at Colonus it is shown that some characters would go to great lengths to alter their fate, even though they know such an aim is futile. At most, the interactions these characters have with the gods of this time allow for their pending fate to be prolonged. In all, fate in Ancient Greece is a phenomenon that cannot be escaped but through interaction and maybe relationship with the Greek gods, their fates may be extended. Ancient Greek’s believed that a person’s fate cannot be changed; regardless of the attempts made to try and change one’s fate. However, the outcome seems to return to the predestined fate that had been laid out beforehand. This is true for the case of Perseus. In the story, the oracle at Delphi prophesies and tells Akrisios, which is the father of Danae and grandfather of Perseus, that he will never have a son. And that his daughter’s son will kill him. Immediately, Akrisios makes an attempt to prevent this fate from happening. Fearing that the gods may kill him if he were to slay Danae, he â€Å"built a brazen chamber underground and there guarded Danae† (Lopez-Ruiz, 255). In order for Akrisios to not fall under his predestined fate he makes an attempt to change it by making sure his daughter does not get pregnant. Despite the widely accepted view of unchanging fate, he still makes the attempt. Later on in the story due to Zeus impregnating Danae the prophecy comes to fruition due to a god’s involvement. It was in an event that Perseus partook in that he mistakenly killed his father, â€Å"But in throwing in the quoit he struck Akrisios on the foot and killed him instantly† (Lopez-Ruiz, 256). In regards to unchanging fate, it is shown clearly that fate cannot be altered. Given the example of Akrisios, no matter what he tried his efforts were futile in deterring and inevitably stopping the outcome of the fate he was already predestined. In the ancient Greek world people accepted fate as an unchanging and predestined occurrence. Regardless of the choices a person makes during those times a person’s fate would not be altered. The outcome remains the same no matter the case or experience that the person goes through. In accordance with the previous statements, even though fate is an unchanging phenomenon in the ancient world, it is through divine intervention that we see some heroes have a sort of extension or prolongation to their predetermined fate. The gods seem to play a key role during the span of a person’s life up to the time they reach the â€Å"fate† that they are destined to achieve. The gods tend to act as intermediaries between fate and the people. Meaning, their underlying role is to have the peoples fate go through as predetermined but in ways that suit their views. They can choose the life the person is to live and hardships but the fate of the person is forever unchanged. For example, in Homer’s the Iliad, Zeus proclaims, â€Å"Ah me, that it is destined that the dearest of men, Sarpedon, must go down under the hands of Menoitios son Patroclus. The heart in my breast is balanced between two ways as I ponder, whether I should snatch him out of the sorrowful battle and set him down still alive in the rich country of Lykia, or beat him under at the hands of the son of Menoitios† (Book 16, lines 433-438). This may seem to be the opposite of the definition of fate by Zeus attempting to aid Sarpedon, however Zeus is thinking about whether or not he should save Sarpedon from death, and knowingly by doing this Zeus will be aiding in Sarpedon conquering his fate and staying alive. In the end, Zeus does not save Sarpedon and he dies. The importance of this shows the proof that regardless of intervention by the gods they only act as intermediaries of the fate of the Greek people. Zeus’ options were to intervene or not to. And Zeus chose not to, meaning that fate was already in play when he made his decision. Sarpedon was destined to die, and as fate would have it, he did die. As stated, the gods are important and act as the underlying factors between a persons predestined fate. This in turn shows that fate is not even controlled by the powerful gods of Greek times but by its own natural phenomenon. And that a persons defined fate is unchanging. The ancient Greeks acknowledged the fact that fate has its own sense of reality outside the individual and spiritual that shapes and determines human life. Ancient Greeks, portrayed fate as a horrifying and indomitable force. They believed fate was the call of action of the gods - an unopposable reality that the oracle at Delphi revealed to many. Oedipus, in Oedipus at Colonus deliberates multiple times over fate, before being granted a blessing to Oedipus. â€Å"When He pronounced those many evils to me / He also said that, after a long time, this should be a resting place / That I would come to a final country, where I should find / A seat of the solemn gods and a refuge for strangers† (Oedipus at Colonus, lines 87-90). This is the oracle’s prophesied fate of Oedipus, saying that he will go through many trials and hardships but that he would also arrive to a resting place. Oedipus accepts this because he believes it’s his fate, and the hope of the refuge gives him strength through the hardships. Just like popular belief in ancient Greek culture, accepting one’s fate is the norm because fate is law and unchangeable. Throughout this analysis, it is explicitly sighted that fate is an important concept towards Greek mythology. It is understood through Homer’s writings and other writers of the time that fate is a set and decided phenomenon that is unchangeable throughout the course of their lifetime. A god’s intervention has no effect on a person’s fate but tend to be the subject that runs the course of that fate. The Greek gods are the ones that hold the in-between outcome of each person’s fate. No matter what the circumstance is, fate is predetermined and will produce an outcome regardless. In all, neither gods nor humans can do anything to alter a person’s fate. People cannot try and alter their fate because in the end it returns to the same outcome and god’s are only able to prolong, aid, and ultimately lead to the finality of that person’s fate.

Sunday, October 20, 2019

Free Essays on Sex Education

Teens today are faced with the mass media advocating sex subliminally, while our education systems stress abstinence. It is all too fishy. Since Mary Ware Dennett’s essay for her two sons in 1915 , to set facts from fiction, times have changed in the ways we communicate to our children about â€Å"how babies are born†. With access to over a thousand websites on the web and pictures that scream of sex research (and content, might I add) to answer all of their unanswered questions, the topic is readily available to the young and adolescents. The information collected by the mind of a child can influence what he or she may posses psychologically in their future. Like they say, â€Å"Curiosity kills the cat!† As such a touchy subject might be, it would be straightforward to say that teens and children alike are getting mixed messages these days. One concern of parents is: teaching their children how to make decisions, watching them make one is another. Schools are helping to teach children the basics of childbearing and sexual education. This subject may be the most controversial of them all. Nonetheless, it is one of the most important types of information that adolescence (and preadolescence) will learn in their school career. Sexuality education help lower the risks of teen pregnancies and the spread of disease. The purpose of this paper is to identify the main aspects behind sexual education in our school-based programs in the present. But is our education system really working as hard and effectively as our society would like them to? Main idea behind sexual education There are two main ideas behind sexual education, the prevention of STDs and teen pregnancies5. Though, the rate of teen pregnancies has dropped, it is accepted into the lives of over one million women each year2. STDs (sexually transmitted diseases) are most common in the United States, affecting 30 million people2. Since 1981, when AIDS (... Free Essays on Sex Education Free Essays on Sex Education I held a notice from my 13-year-old daughter's school announcing a meeting to preview the new course in sexuality. Parents could examine the curriculum and take part in a lesson presented exactly as it would be given to the students. When I arrived at the school, I was surprised to discover only about a dozen parents present. As we waited for the presentation, I thumbed through page after page of instructions on the prevention of pregnancy or disease. I found abstinence mentioned only in passing. When the teacher arrived with the school nurse, she asked if there were any questions. I asked why abstinence did not play a noticeable part in the material. I was shocked by what happened next. There was a great deal of laughter, and someone suggested that if I thought abstinence had any merit, I should go back to burying my head in the sand. The teacher and the nurse said nothing as I drowned in a sea of embarrassment. My mind went blank, and I could think of nothing to say. The teacher ex plained that the job of the school was to "teach facts," and the home was responsible for moral training. I sat in silence for the next 20 minutes as the course was explained. The other parents seemed to give their unqualified support to the materials. "Donuts at the back," announced the teacher during the break. "I'd like you to put on the name tags we have prepared and mingle with the other parents." Everyone moved to the back of the room. As I watched them affix their nametags and shake hands, I sat deep in thought. I was ashamed I had not been able to convince them to include a serious discussion of abstinence in the materials. I uttered a silent prayer for guidance. My thoughts were interrupted by the nurse's hand on my shoulder. "Won't you join the others?" The nurse smiled sweetly at me. "The donuts are good.""Thank you, no." I replied. "Well, then, how about a name tag? I'm sure the others would like to meet you." "Somehow I doubt that," I replied."W... Free Essays on Sex Education Teens today are faced with the mass media advocating sex subliminally, while our education systems stress abstinence. It is all too fishy. Since Mary Ware Dennett’s essay for her two sons in 1915 , to set facts from fiction, times have changed in the ways we communicate to our children about â€Å"how babies are born†. With access to over a thousand websites on the web and pictures that scream of sex research (and content, might I add) to answer all of their unanswered questions, the topic is readily available to the young and adolescents. The information collected by the mind of a child can influence what he or she may posses psychologically in their future. Like they say, â€Å"Curiosity kills the cat!† As such a touchy subject might be, it would be straightforward to say that teens and children alike are getting mixed messages these days. One concern of parents is: teaching their children how to make decisions, watching them make one is another. Schools are helping to teach children the basics of childbearing and sexual education. This subject may be the most controversial of them all. Nonetheless, it is one of the most important types of information that adolescence (and preadolescence) will learn in their school career. Sexuality education help lower the risks of teen pregnancies and the spread of disease. The purpose of this paper is to identify the main aspects behind sexual education in our school-based programs in the present. But is our education system really working as hard and effectively as our society would like them to? Main idea behind sexual education There are two main ideas behind sexual education, the prevention of STDs and teen pregnancies5. Though, the rate of teen pregnancies has dropped, it is accepted into the lives of over one million women each year2. STDs (sexually transmitted diseases) are most common in the United States, affecting 30 million people2. Since 1981, when AIDS (... Free Essays on Sex Education Sex education is the process of acquiring information and forming attitudes and beliefs about sex, sexual identity, relationships, and intimacy. It is also about developing young people’s skills so that they make informed choices about their behavior, and feel confident and competent about acting on these choices. Young people have a right to sex education because it is a way of helping to protect themselves against abuse, exploitation, unintended pregnancies, sexually transmitted diseases, and HIV/AIDS. Sex education seeks to both reduce the risks of potentially negative outcomes from sexual behavior and to enhance the quality of relationships. It is also about developing young people’s ability to make decisions over their entire lifetime. If sex education is going to be effective it needs to include opportunities for young people to develop skills, since it can be hard for them to act on the basis of only having information. For example, being able to communicate, listen, negotiate, ask for and identify sources of help and advice, are useful life-skills and can be applied in terms of sexual relationships. Other important skills include being able to recognize pressures from other people and to resist them, deal with and challenge prejudice, seek help from adults – including parents, guardians and professionals – through the family, community and health and welfare services. Sex education that works also equips young people with the skills to be able to differentiate between accurate and inaccurate information, discuss a range of moral and social issues and perspectives on sex and sexuality, including different cultural attitudes and sensitive issues like sexuality, abortion and contraception. Young people can be exposed to a wide range of attitudes and beliefs in relation to sex and sexuality. These sometimes appear contradictory and confusing. Young people are very interested in the moral and cultural structure... Free Essays on Sex Education Sex Education â€Å"Ignorance is bliss/‘tis folly to be wise,† ends the poem An Ode on a Distant Prospect of Eton College, written by Thomas Gray in 1747 (Gray). As it was true for the time, his statement continues to live on in American society. Everyday people look ignorantly away as murderers, molesters and terrorists threaten humanity. Ignorance is over-powering, like cancer is to the body, slowly taking over and destroying everything it can latch onto. How long will we let this continue? Every sixty seconds a child dies of AIDS in the world and each year in America one million teenage girls become pregnant. Another twelve million people become infected with a sexually transmitted disease in the United States alone (United States). Not all of these problems can be cured, but there is a way to control these occurrences. Sex education programs in public schools throughout America are not comprehensive. With the public limitations on what can be said or shown to students, t eachers have found it difficult to teach informative lessons on sex education. Also, more open-minded attitudes and the availability of contraception within schools are needed for a decrease in pregnancies and sexually transmitted disease infections among teenagers. Comprehensive sex education programs in public schools are continuing to be ridiculed and banned. In 1998 at Kanai Peninsula, Alaska, Homer High School sex educators were told that they were no longer allowed to â€Å"display† condoms in the classroom (â€Å"Condoms put†¦Ã¢â‚¬  15). The school was trying to follow suit with the other schools in the district. Many people disagree with not allowing teenagers to see condoms at school, seeing that â€Å"about half of all teenagers between the ages of fifteen and nineteen have had sexual intercourse† (Jakobson 47). How can teenagers use the proper contraception when they have no idea what it looks like? Not only are teenagers having intercourse at...

Saturday, October 19, 2019

To what degree are we responsible for manipulating our own Essay

To what degree are we responsible for manipulating our own consciousness - Essay Example This essay suggests that changes in that perceptival bias result in different perceptions of the world, different experiences of being, and ultimately a different structure for human consciousness—and that these difference can be, in many ways, better. Too often, we humans tend to believe that sight is a first, most fundamental sense. We map the process of understanding by way of visual metaphors—seeing someone else's point, having in-sight, pushing past old horizons. Even the idea of â€Å"understanding† implies standing upright, a practice that helped early humans differentiate themselves from other animals in part because of better sight-lines. This emphasis on sight has both biological and sociological origins, in that philosophy and art have often emphasized the visual over other senses. As Pallasmaa notes, the â€Å"invention of perspectival representation made the eye the center point of the perceptual world as well s of the concept of the self† (Pa llasmaa 283). And yet, when we are deprived of sight, we do not lose our capacity to think or comprehend. Instead, it turns out the old cliche is true, and that the loss of one sense heightens the others. This is precisely what happened with John Hull, whose loss of sight—his â€Å"deep blindness†Ã¢â‚¬â€was the â€Å"prerequisite for the full development, the heightening, of his other senses† (Sacks 507). ... e â€Å"focus† on sight perhaps because it seems most obviously self-reflective; we can see ourselves seeing, a recursive act not with smell or taste or even sound. But our brains do not treat sight as if it is some singular sense, somehow greater or ontologically distinct from the rest of our embodied lives. Instead, â€Å"there is increasing evidence from neuroscience for the extraordinarily rich interconnected and interactions of the sensory areas of the brain, and the difficulty, therefore, of saying that anything is purely visual or purely auditory, or purely anything† (Sacks 514). In many ways we might even consider this myth of sight's preeminent value less for what it gives us as conscious being and more as what it takes from us. Whenever bias toward one perspective becomes pronounced enough that it begins to exclude other perspectives, or to limit the capacity to imagine alternatives, then the opportunity cost has become too pronounced. This seems to me to be w hat is happening with our culture's ocular-centrism; the emphasis on sight and vision encourages certain ways of being that are unfortunate: A culture that seeks to control its citizens is likely to promote the opposite direction of interaction, away from intimate individuality and identification towards a public and distant detachment. A society of surveillance is necessarily a society of the voyeuristic and sadistic eye (Pallasmaa 287). In today's culture in particular, with its readily available mobile cameras, social media, government surveillance, private surveillance, and the erosion of the cultural norm of privacy, it seems almost impossible to take issue with Pallasmaa's assessment: while we gain as a culture from the perspective we gain from our sense of vision, there is a moment wherein that

Friday, October 18, 2019

Company critical analysis - AT&T Research Paper

Company critical analysis - AT&T - Research Paper Example Launched from New Haven, Connecticut in 1878, AT&T, working under the aegis of the American Bell Company gradually spread its business into all major towns of the country and acquired the assets in their totality from the Bell Company on December 30, 1899. Background of the company (AT&T) and its problem with competitors AT&T partnered with the Western Electric Company during its initial years in business and made innovative discoveries in the field of telecommunications which allowed it to spread the business to all parts of the American Continent. Its innovations and discoveries allowed it to make transcontinental telecommunication feasible. When the Bell Company’s patent expired in 1894, thousands of other operators’ jumped into the fray triggering intense competition and causing a spurt in the number of telephone connections in the US. AT&T has never looked back since then and after decades of monopolistic rule in the American telecommunications industry, it till re mains the market leader by foraying and diversifying into technologies which changed with signs of the times. AT&T spread out throughout the world and established offices and manufacturing facilities in major cities of the developed countries. The company has many inventions’ in telecommunication technology credited to its scientists, seven amongst them even winning the Nobel Prize in Physics (Web, AT&T). The invention of the transistor, the telephone dial, push-button telephony, the coaxial cable, mobile telephony, cellular telephone and demonstration of the first television are credited to the company, technologies that revolutionized the electronics industry. The company played pioneering role in the launch of the first telecommunications satellite in the world and the implementation of 911 as a direct emergency helpline within the United States. The first major issue which AT&T faced during its century long dominance in the United States was the settlement of its first fe deral anti-trust lawsuit in 1913, when it established itself as government sanctioned monopoly by signing a document called the Kingsbury Commitment, divesting itself of the control of the Western Union telegraph company, and paving the way for non-competing independent telephone companies to establish interconnectivity with AT&T services. The company was being directed during this period by its President, Theodore Vail, whose innovative strategies set the trend for the company’s operations for the next seventy years (Web, AT&T). Another anti-trust suit was filed against the company in 1974 when it had to divest itself from local telephone operations in favor of lifting of restrictions on the company as envisaged in the 1956 Consent decree (Web, AT&T). The parent Bell System ceased to exist in 1984 and the company acquired a new logo and renamed itself as AT&T. It forayed into computer business by acquiring NCR computers, which subsequently established itself as an independen t company after a decade long liaison. Competition in the telecommunications sector intensified in 1996 after President Bill Clinton signed the telecommunications Act into law which endeavored to eliminate legal and regulatory barriers prevalent in the industry. The company directors reduced subscription rates in populist endeavors to sustain itself,

Analytical Chafetz & Nelson and Toomeys essays Essay

Analytical Chafetz & Nelson and Toomeys essays - Essay Example Morris E. Chafetz, in â€Å"The 21-Year-Old Drinking Age: I Voted for it; It Doesnt Work,† and Toben F. Nelson, and Traci L. Toomey, in â€Å"The Drinking Age of 21 Saves Lives,† adopt opposing views on this issue. Chafetz argues that the MLDA of 21 â€Å"has not worked,† and is not linked to reduced drunk-driving fatalities (7). He holds that enforcing a minimum legal age for drinking does not take into consideration the deaths caused by alcohol off the highways, and drives teenagers to binge drinking in unsupervised surroundings. On the other hand, Nelson and Toomey take the position that the MLDA of 21 has reduced drinking-related deaths, and decreased binge-drinking in underage college students. Although both authors have credibility and are knowledgeable and logical about the subject, and Chafetz is more accommodating of opposing viewpoints, Nelson and Toomey make a more convincing argument as their stand is supported by extensive references to research stud ies. Both the essays are authored by writers with impeccable credentials. Chafetz is a credible speaker in the MLDA debate, as he is the founder of the National Institute for Alcoholism and Alcohol Abuse and The Health Education Foundation in Washington. His reputation is further bolstered by the fact that he was a member of the Presidential Commission on Drunk Driving, Director and Executive Member of the National Commission against Drunk Driving and the Presidential appointee at The White House Conference for a Drug-Free America. He is also a Doctor of Psychiatry, with a long history of association with social issues, such as alcoholism and drug abuse. Chafetz’s credentials are more than matched by Nelson and Toomey, who belong to the University of Minnesota’s School of Public Health. Their argument is further supported by a group of academicians and researchers. The reputation of the writers contributes to the trustworthiness of the essays and makes them both credible. Similarly, both the essays

Working conditions Coursework Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Working conditions - Coursework Example Millions of Americans have put their health on the line due to unhealthy eating habits and neglect for their healthcare needs. With the rising cost of healthcare and insurance coverage that the employers have had to shoulder recently because of the advent of the Obama Health Care Act, some of them have decided to take matters into their own hands and force their employees to become healthy for their own good and the good of the pocketbook of the company. Although their concerns are valid, the reason behind it is not. Some of them have opted to punish employees who have chosen not to participate in the company wellness programs by having them pay hefty fines. This paper will look into the legality of such actions and if it is a just punishment for an employee who does not wish to participate in the employee wellness programs. Facts and other pertinent data will be presented using various online reputable sources such as newspapers, journals, interviews, and the like. Do You Think an O verweight Employee Who Chooses Not to Participate in a Wellness Program Should be Penalized? We live in a modern society that provides us with more than ample means of living a healthy lifestyle through the proper nutrition intake, diet, and exercise. However, most people fail to take advantage of these basic opportunities presented to them. The result is a weakened state of health for the individual. As such, the individual ends up requiring much more healthcare than his insurance program can provide. Added to this 3 problem is the fact that the new health care laws of the United States has made it more difficult and expensive for the employers to keep their employees covered with ample medical insurance benefits. The continued rising cost of healthcare coverage has thus forced some employers to take the health matters of their employees in their own hands by forcing them to participate in a company mandated healthcare program or face severe penalties for non-participation. Their i ntention is clear, to keep their health care costs down, but at the expense of sticking their noses in where it does not belong, in the private lives of their employees. Their participate or pay fines choice disrespects the freedom of an individual to choose how he lives his life and how he participates in various activities. It would appear that an increasing number of companies are opting for such health care rider coverage for their employees. As many as; â€Å"almost half (47%) of companies already use or plan to use financial penalties over the next three to five years on workers who don’t take part in health-improvement programs.† (Bilski, 2010). With 81 percent of the companies punishing the non participants by; (Bilski, 2010) increasing deductibles (17%), and increasing out-of-pocket expenses (17%). However, just because the companies choose to implement such punishments does not make it right. Admittedly, these acts of forced healthcare participation are legal (Goldberg, 2012). The reason is simple, those who choose to keep themselves healthy by living properly and participating in healthcare programs should not be made to carry 4 the burden of coverage for his or her co-workers who cannot be bothered or do not care about their health. But, there is something that got lost in legal translation here. Companies are allowed to encourage employees to participate in wellness programs to a certain extent only. The rules as outlined by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission dictates that (â€Å"Is My Company's Wellness Program Legal?†); â€Å"... an employer may conduct medical examinations and activities that are part of a voluntary wellness and health screening program. Therefore, offering employees the opportunity to voluntarily participate in health screening

Thursday, October 17, 2019

The application of balanced scorecard in the performance evaluation of Essay

The application of balanced scorecard in the performance evaluation of higher education - Essay Example In the case of non-proï ¬ t organizations, the BSC lays huge emphasis on customer satisfaction and therefore a priority is given in all matters regarding to customer services. in organizations where a financial crisis is a daily affair, their BSC prioritized financial perspective. Focusing on different prioritization perspective of BSC, organizations have an opportunity to allocate resources appropriately with minimal wastage or fraud. The study case has also provided a platform for non-profit organizations to measure how they perform. In this, performance measure indicators (PMIs)are applied as indicators of efficiency. Again, different definition of PMIs can be adopted to fit the objectives of the business. In case of institutions of higher learning, â€Å"student/staff ratio† and â€Å"Ph.D ratio† PMIs are appropriate. For manufacturing concern, â€Å"customer satisfaction† is applicable while â€Å"service delivery† PMIs works with non-proï ¬ t org anization. Though implementation of the BSC has not been effected in Taiwan and other developing countries, America and Europe are already reaping its benefits. BSC is yet to gain momentum and relevant in third world countries. However, this study has clearly demonstrated that BSC can be instrumental in delivering positive changes in strategic and performance management in higher learning institutions. Furthermore, the study has recommended that senior management and supervisors must fully support the implementation of system managing tools, otherwise they are destined to failure. In conclusion, institutions should me motivated by their vision and mission so that they are run like any other business where efficiency is highly

Criminal Justice 2 Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Criminal Justice 2 - Essay Example   The elite in the society are treated well despite their involvement in crimes this because they have money and hence can afford good lawyers who will defend them. The police will not tort the elite, in the fear of law, but the non-elite are treated unfair and nobody worries about them because they do not have the capability. In Texas, crimes are classified into felonies and misdemeanors. According to the Texas penal code-section 12.03 misdeamor are classified into three categories  in relation to their seriousness. While felonies are classified into   five categories, capital felonies, felonies of first degree, of the second degree, felonies of the third degree and lastly the state jail felonies. An individual found guilty of a class A misdemeanor is fined not more than $4000, confinement in jail not for more than a year or both. A person guilty of class B misdemeanor is fined not to beyond $2000, confinement in jail for not more than 180 days or both. While class C misdemeanor, can be fined but not to exceed $500. A person found guilty of capital felony is punished by life imprisonment without parole or death. First degree felony one is subjected to life imprisonment or a jail term not less than 5years and not more than 99years. In addition, he can be fined not to exceed $10000. Second degree felonies can be imprisoned for not more than 20years or less than 2 years. In addition a fine not to exceed $10000. A third degree felony is imprisoned for not more than 10 years and a minimum of 2 years and an addition fine of not more than $10000. A state jail felony   can be punished by a jail sentence of approximately two years and not less than 180 days. A juvenile gang is an association of peers that has a name, recognizable symbols, identifiable leadership, a territory, a regular meeting pattern and collective actions of illegal activities. Mainly the gangs are youths aged 12 to 24. Many of the youths may involve in aging when they are

Wednesday, October 16, 2019

Working conditions Coursework Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Working conditions - Coursework Example Millions of Americans have put their health on the line due to unhealthy eating habits and neglect for their healthcare needs. With the rising cost of healthcare and insurance coverage that the employers have had to shoulder recently because of the advent of the Obama Health Care Act, some of them have decided to take matters into their own hands and force their employees to become healthy for their own good and the good of the pocketbook of the company. Although their concerns are valid, the reason behind it is not. Some of them have opted to punish employees who have chosen not to participate in the company wellness programs by having them pay hefty fines. This paper will look into the legality of such actions and if it is a just punishment for an employee who does not wish to participate in the employee wellness programs. Facts and other pertinent data will be presented using various online reputable sources such as newspapers, journals, interviews, and the like. Do You Think an O verweight Employee Who Chooses Not to Participate in a Wellness Program Should be Penalized? We live in a modern society that provides us with more than ample means of living a healthy lifestyle through the proper nutrition intake, diet, and exercise. However, most people fail to take advantage of these basic opportunities presented to them. The result is a weakened state of health for the individual. As such, the individual ends up requiring much more healthcare than his insurance program can provide. Added to this 3 problem is the fact that the new health care laws of the United States has made it more difficult and expensive for the employers to keep their employees covered with ample medical insurance benefits. The continued rising cost of healthcare coverage has thus forced some employers to take the health matters of their employees in their own hands by forcing them to participate in a company mandated healthcare program or face severe penalties for non-participation. Their i ntention is clear, to keep their health care costs down, but at the expense of sticking their noses in where it does not belong, in the private lives of their employees. Their participate or pay fines choice disrespects the freedom of an individual to choose how he lives his life and how he participates in various activities. It would appear that an increasing number of companies are opting for such health care rider coverage for their employees. As many as; â€Å"almost half (47%) of companies already use or plan to use financial penalties over the next three to five years on workers who don’t take part in health-improvement programs.† (Bilski, 2010). With 81 percent of the companies punishing the non participants by; (Bilski, 2010) increasing deductibles (17%), and increasing out-of-pocket expenses (17%). However, just because the companies choose to implement such punishments does not make it right. Admittedly, these acts of forced healthcare participation are legal (Goldberg, 2012). The reason is simple, those who choose to keep themselves healthy by living properly and participating in healthcare programs should not be made to carry 4 the burden of coverage for his or her co-workers who cannot be bothered or do not care about their health. But, there is something that got lost in legal translation here. Companies are allowed to encourage employees to participate in wellness programs to a certain extent only. The rules as outlined by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission dictates that (â€Å"Is My Company's Wellness Program Legal?†); â€Å"... an employer may conduct medical examinations and activities that are part of a voluntary wellness and health screening program. Therefore, offering employees the opportunity to voluntarily participate in health screening

Tuesday, October 15, 2019

Criminal Justice 2 Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Criminal Justice 2 - Essay Example   The elite in the society are treated well despite their involvement in crimes this because they have money and hence can afford good lawyers who will defend them. The police will not tort the elite, in the fear of law, but the non-elite are treated unfair and nobody worries about them because they do not have the capability. In Texas, crimes are classified into felonies and misdemeanors. According to the Texas penal code-section 12.03 misdeamor are classified into three categories  in relation to their seriousness. While felonies are classified into   five categories, capital felonies, felonies of first degree, of the second degree, felonies of the third degree and lastly the state jail felonies. An individual found guilty of a class A misdemeanor is fined not more than $4000, confinement in jail not for more than a year or both. A person guilty of class B misdemeanor is fined not to beyond $2000, confinement in jail for not more than 180 days or both. While class C misdemeanor, can be fined but not to exceed $500. A person found guilty of capital felony is punished by life imprisonment without parole or death. First degree felony one is subjected to life imprisonment or a jail term not less than 5years and not more than 99years. In addition, he can be fined not to exceed $10000. Second degree felonies can be imprisoned for not more than 20years or less than 2 years. In addition a fine not to exceed $10000. A third degree felony is imprisoned for not more than 10 years and a minimum of 2 years and an addition fine of not more than $10000. A state jail felony   can be punished by a jail sentence of approximately two years and not less than 180 days. A juvenile gang is an association of peers that has a name, recognizable symbols, identifiable leadership, a territory, a regular meeting pattern and collective actions of illegal activities. Mainly the gangs are youths aged 12 to 24. Many of the youths may involve in aging when they are

Organizational Behavior-Syllabus Essay Example for Free

Organizational Behavior-Syllabus Essay I. Course Information Intelligence and technical knowledge will only take you so far in your work and private lives. My goal is to introduce you to behavior in organization (and of organizations) in a way that stresses you personal behavioral skill development. In other words, the course should help you assess your strengths and weaknesses and will stress how you can enhance and improve your management skills. To that end, the course stresses a mix of assessment tests for each chapter to give you a personal point of departure for learning and skill development, along with basic theory and cases and role plays to examine examples of situations and skills that we are studying. This is a hands-on course. I expect students to come to class prepared to learn and to participate! Course Objectives: 1) To provide students with knowledge and understanding of the basic principles of organizational behavior (i.e. human behavior in organizations). 2) The course includes both theoretical and practical aspects of OB and is designed to offer introductory knowledge, skills, and perspectives in OB that can be useful for students’ professional and academic careers. II. Course Learning Outcomes: On completion of this course, students should be able to: 1ï ¼Å½ Understand the basic principles of organizational behavior (i.e. human behavior in organizations). 2ï ¼Å½ Be equipped with introductory knowledge, skills, and perspectives in OB that can be useful for students’ professional and academic careers. Teaching and Learning Activities: 1. Lecture 2. In class exercises, small group discussion 3. Team Presentations 4. Final Exam III. Assessment In addition to attendance and engagement in classroom discussion, all items discussed in class including all materials assigned as ‘Required’ reading may be used to assess students’ progress in the class. The methods of assessment include the following: Personal Journal A skills-based OB course centers upon assisting you to assess your strengths and weaknesses, developing a learning plan to redress these and regular reflection about how you can apply the skills and concepts learned outside the classroom. Keeping a journal is the best way to facilitate this. To ensure you get off to a timely start, I shall ask for some specific assignments that constitute part of the journal to be handed in for credit. Examples include the self- assessment of strengths and weaknesses based upon the online assessment (class 2), and other individual exercises in the textbook. You can fulfill the first assignment online at http://www.passovoy.com/assessment/sal/quick.html. You are required to complete a minimum of 8 assessments. In some cases, you will be surprised by what you learn about yourself – both positive and negative. Each student is required to write a maximum two-page single-spaced typed write-up regarding what you learned about yourself. Final Exam A written in-class exam will be given on May 14, 2012. The format of the exam is a combination of multiple-choice and/true-false questions, and are based on lecture and text materials. Many questions are applied and require you to analyze and synthesize OB concepts. Please prepare early for the exams and come to class with any questions or concerns you may have prior to the exam date. Do not feel uncomfortable asking questions. Other students will also benefit from the discussion. Top Five Take-Aways This assignment provides a final opportunity for you to synthesize and share your learning with the class. Reflect on your learning in this class and write up a list of your â€Å"Top Five Take-Aways† from the course. Explain why you chose each concept, how you have utilized it in your own life, and how you think it will help you in your future role as a leader. There is no set length of the paper. That depends on your learning. You are required to turn in a hard copy. Single-spacing, please. Obviously you will not be graded on whether your choice of a learning point is valid or not. Your learning is your learning. Your grade will be based on how well you explain that concept’s application to your life. Your presentation in class will be fairly informal. Each member of the class will have about a minute or so to share a point or two about your most important learning from the course. It is simply an opportunity to reflect on your learning with your peers. Sometimes hear ing what is important to other people can also contribute to your own learning. Group Project Learning to work effectively in groups is a critical work skill. On day one, you will be asked to form groups (final membership to be handed into me by the third meeting. With your group, you will have two assignments. The first is to develop a team learning notebook, recording team responses to case discussion questions throughout the semester. The team learning notebook will be collected during the mid-point of the course (6th week), as well as the end of the course (12th week) . The second assignment is to conduct a 20 minutes presentation on a topic of your choice related to the topic on the day selected by your group. Further information will be given in class and sign up is on a first-come first –serve basis. If any group member expresses displeasure with group process and contributions of others shall used a peer evaluation form. Each individuals contribution will be identified on the peer evaluation form I will provide and that will be confidential (i.e., your group members will not see your evaluation of their participation). All group members should participate equally to obtain full credit for the assignment. For example, if the assignment receives a grade of 8.5 out of 10 and your group gives you 100% participation rate, then you will receive the total 8.5 points. If your group gives you less than 100% participation, your grade will be adjusted accordingly. Evaluation of your peers should help you maintain an appropriate level of participation from all of your group members. IV.Course Policies Academic Dishonesty: Assignments found to have been plagiarized or an exam in which cheating is found to have occurred will receive a grade of ‘zero’.