Monday, September 30, 2019

Mary Shelley Frankenstein: Ugly Society

Frankenstein is full of horrible elements about human society. Mary Shelley shows many of the sides of human beings that are not necessarily positive attributes. She really gives a kind of critique on mankind’s judgement of others. In this novel, a major theme is that in society people judge people by their looks and this judgment may cause negativity, this can be seen through the characters, Victor and the creature, when they judge other characters or are judged themselves. When you meet someone, the first thing you do is start judging them on what their wearing or how their hair is styled, and this is not always a good thing.Immediately after Victor gave the monster the last touch to spark life in it, he simply judged the monster on its looks only. Since the creature was very ugly looking, this did not bring up a very positive situation for Victor. Victor described the first contact with the monster when he says, â€Å"I had gazed on him while unfinished; he was ugly then; but when those muscles and joints were rendered capable of motion, it became a thing such as even Dante could not have conceived†(p. 68).If I was to witness this without knowing the prior events I would be frightened. Although, since Victor knows exactly what is going on as he is giving the monster life, it is odd that he should be so frightened. Its so bad that Victor nearly rejects the creature at conception. In accordance with Victor's actions towards his initial contact with the monster, Shelley kept the theme of mankind condemning an individual due to its looks by having Victor scared of the monster strictly due to its ugliness.This is different than if I was the one in the laboratory, I would be very scared as would anyone. However, due to the fact that Victor had worked on it for a couple of years and knew the situation exactly, he had no real right to be scared by the plain sight of the creature. Since he was fully expecting the creature to come to life, it was kind of odd that he would disown the creature so abruptly, which goes along with the critique that the author probably intended.Therefore, as Shelley presumably wanted to emphasize, humans use vision as their primary form of acceptance in too many occasions. This particular situation would constitute a valid use of a very over-used proverb, â€Å"one should never judge a book by its cover. † In this novel, Victor â€Å"judged a book by its cover† as much of society does and did not accept the creature for its actions or any other attributes other than that its ugliness, which was enough for him to be appalled.This same theme is the very reason as to why the creature goes on a killing rampage. Frankenstein’s creature begins to realize after a number of years that his ugly looks will gain no acceptance from anyone. This is especially true to him because his very creator or â€Å"father† would not accept him on the basis of ugliness. The creature himself realizes t his as well. After reading Victor's journal that he found, the creature said, â€Å"Accursed Creator! Why did you form a monster so hideous that even you turned from me in disgust? â€Å"(p. 171).Since his only contact with society, apart from the contact with a blind man, has been with people who show only horror when they lay eyes on him, the creature starts to see that he will not be able to be a part of human society based on his physical appearance. That saddens him because of his need for companionship. That is probably a major part of Shelley's critique on society. Therefore, the creature begins to go on a sort of â€Å"killing rampage† until Victor meets his demands and creates another creature as to give him a companion to live and associate with.Since Victor cannot get himself to do just that, the creature goes on a killing rampage on people that specifically effect Victor emotionally. This is relevant since Victor’s judgment caused the creatures abandonmen t based on looks, and now Victor is going to suffer. When you judge someone on their looks it can affect you in negative ways, such as in racism, when people judge others on their skin tone, fights will occur, riots can flood the streets, and even death will happen.Society shows that judging looks has a very bad flaw that can result in chaotic outcomes. In Frankenstein, Shelley is really able to make a critique on society and its faults. She used the various characters as tools to get through to the reader the state of mankind and some of the problems that are present. In fact I, along with others, believe that she greatly intended on making the conflicts that society faces present in an entertaining form.

Sunday, September 29, 2019

Human nature Essay

Human nature has always emphasized on achieving more. As the history prevail the first ever invention of human was a wheel, and ever since the development of wheel, the mankind has always been in a continuous strive to achieve more. Information is an integral part of human life and the technology has always played an eminent role to increase the lifestyle and living standards of mankind. Communication has always been the core point of interest for people and this is one aspect where the research will continue to eternity. (Rhoton, 2001) Samuel Morse who is considered as one of the pioneer of communication through the development of telegraph was able to give birth to the term information technology. The information technology is totally dependent upon research. Up till now billions of dollars have been spent on the research of communication and information technology. The profound period that affected the development of IT was development of ENIAC computer in the era of 1950s. (O’Brien, 2008) Through the development of ENIAC large amount of calculations were easily completed by the machine and it was used as multipurpose machine for calculations and programming. The speed and flexibility was very high due to which it made a huge impact in World War II. After the development of ENIAC computers were developed in a similar pattern. The need was recognized by different people and researches were conducted to develop such a machine that could automate some difficult processes. (Rappaport , 2002) The development of computers to cell phones to laptops, all were pretty much predictable as they were developed in the need of the hour. The progress of technology has always been a progress of speed and memory, but now in the modern era the three factors that are very important in the technology research are speed, memory and portability. In the future we can assume that we will witness more speed in machines, with high memory storage and high level of portability. References O’Brien, J. (2008) Managment Information Systems (pp. 239) Rappaport, Theodore (2002). Wireless Communications: Principles and Practice. Prentice Hall. Rhoton, John (2001). The Wireless Internet Explained. Digital Press.

Friday, September 27, 2019

Berlioz Bicentennial Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words - 1

Berlioz Bicentennial - Essay Example With Currie sounding each drum, mallet, or "metal" to an ever-repeating rhythmic figure, various orchestral soloists and ensemble groups simultaneously define the melody or motif. Torke's expressed goal is to use these devices to get the listener "grooved into a rapturous state". Except for parts of the marimba movement, I was chiseled into an unrelentingly bored state. In this work, Torke commits an unpardonable sin: most of his forces go unheard. Specifically, the full string complement, the full wind complement, and the harp are seen busily sawing, blowing, and plucking away with only occasional audible evidence of their presence. The listener hears only the trumpets and trombones vying for attention with Currie's fearsome forward phalanx. The audience did give hearty applause at Rapture's conclusion and reportedly bought considerable numbers of its Naxos CD recording during intermission. In my view, however, they were sustaining a collective placebo effect from Torke's pre-performance address to them regarding the "sexual rapture" and related concepts. Like the 12-tone music of nearly a century ago, Rapture needs to be studied not merely heard to be appreciated.

Why do you think Humanities courses are required Essay

Why do you think Humanities courses are required - Essay Example Additionally, by understanding the shortcomings of worldviews that have been tried and failed, we are given adequate warning about the fate of many similar ideals that might be practiced within our own lifetimes. By understanding the nuances of the past and the reasons why the past has given way to the present we are able to better understand how and why we are where we are today. Additionally, humanities (as their very name implies) gives us a full and complete picture of the human condition; replete with all of its rationality and irrationality. Unlike the hard sciences, humanities teach us that human nature is a fluid and liquid ideal that can be molded and bent to the will of powerful leadership dynamics for both good and bad purposes. This in turn reminds us that the way in which we study and understand the humanities is directly linked to how well we will be able to determine our own future for ourselves and our

Thursday, September 26, 2019

Read the passage and answer the four questions provided Essay

Read the passage and answer the four questions provided - Essay Example ut as by that law of out nature, which makes food necessary to the life of man, population can never actually increase beyond the lowest nourishment capable of supporting it†(Malthus, 431). Basically, this means that nature has made it so that humans must have food and water to survive, and this is how nature keeps the population in check because without enough nourishment humans will die, which keeps the population down. When the human population is at the appropriate equilibrium, there is enough food and resources to go around, which makes for a happy society. Thomas Malthus makes the assumption that the more food and resources that are available, the quicker the human population and demographics will grow. Without enough food to go around, the population is not likely to increase as the birth rates will decrease and death rates will increase, which creates a more stable population. Malthus believes that the period between the doubling of the population will be much lengthier if food becomes much more difficult to acquire(Malthus, 431). Overall, these assumption do appear to be valid in that it is common sense that without sustenance, any population is less likely to succeed and thrive. To a certain extent, the argument developed by Malthus appears to have some roots in the idea of natural selection. The overall idea with natural selection is that the strong will survive, and the weak will perish. With this type of argument in mind, it is fair to say that public relief for the poor is essentially going against natural selection. By providing food and charity to the poor, this weak population is being kept alive instead of dying off like nature intended it. Therefore, in the view of Thomas Malthus, public relief should be discontinued or halted altogether because keeping poor people alive continues the process of draining nature’s sustenance for the strong. In this way, charity is very harmful to the Earth and the human population as a whole because the

Wednesday, September 25, 2019

What am I Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

What am I - Essay Example This means that an individual is what he thinks of himself and what others think of them. For example: if an individual’s mind think that he/she is a good student then an individual will exhibit characteristics that are the characteristics of a good student. These characteristics include studying hard, acting in a disciplined manner in school and class and involving oneself in class activities. These behaviors will result in better grades for the student and will place a positive picture of the student in the minds of the classmates as well as teachers and in turn this will become his/her identity. Individuals need to ensure that there is congruence between what they think they are and what others think they are. In order to attain this congruence they need to change and modify their behaviors according to what they want to be or what their mind tells them to do. In short the answer to the question of What I am is that I am what is want to

Tuesday, September 24, 2019

Individual Reflection on Marketing Simulation Game Assignment - 1

Individual Reflection on Marketing Simulation Game - Assignment Example My part included taking care of the marketing plan to be able to evaluate and understand the market in which the company operates as well as its competitiveness in the industry. In this project, our main aim for my part of the project was to help us in assessing and understanding the competitiveness of MYPHONE Company. In addition, the simulation was also aimed at creating awareness about various resources such as finances, research and development, sales, as well as the costs for carrying out different marketing activities that were required by the company. The experience and the knowledge that were achieved from this simulation were intended to be used in sound decision making for the betterment of the growth of the company as far as its marketing sector is concerned. The simulation will also help to add more knowledge in the world of marketing in this company, which have not been realized. I was able to achieve the goals that this simulation intended to find out. This is because; the simulation looked both the internal and the external assessment of the company. Such analyses are very important in finding out which internal or external factors are responsible for the companys growth or barring the company from growing in the market. Such analyses were very helpful in unravelling what marketing strategies should be applied by the company to combat its unfavorable environmental factors and how the favorable factors can be turned into opportunities that can be exploited. MYPHONE was found to operate in a very competitive market. At least from the weaknesses, strengths, opportunities and threats of the company, it is easy to know the level of competitiveness of the company when compared to its competitors. It was easy to know the weaknesses of the company in order to make corresponding decisions and strategies that could be used to change the weaknesses into strengths. The strengths of the

Monday, September 23, 2019

Three Art Styles - Dadaism, Surrealism and Impressionism Research Paper

Three Art Styles - Dadaism, Surrealism and Impressionism - Research Paper Example The essay "Three Art Styles - Dadaism, Surrealism and Impressionism" explores Dadaism, Surrealism and Impressionism, three styles of modern art. Dadaism has always been most visibly a frame of mind. This frame of mind began as a rebellion against WW1, the bourgeoisie, the social norms of the time, the abstract and impressionistic art of the time, and finally, by the 1920’s, it became a rebellion even against itself. It was extremely negative in its critique of everything, and also self-destructive. Dadaism began in 1915 and basically died in 1924, although there is a resurrection now in what is called Neo-Dadaism, so it might be argued that it’s not neo at all but is a continuation of sorts. Perhaps it is only the loudness of the anarchy, the violence of its performance, the wildness of its manifestos 1924. that has died, while the core beliefs still influence art today. Perhaps no one symbolizes the loud, outrageous and rebellious wildness of the original movement more than Baroness Else von Freytag-Loringhoven. She pushed her sexuality, fantastic costuming, immodest street roaming, and irrationality in everyone’s faces, living Dada and, in so doing, challenged the male sexual, cultural, intellectual and artistic insecurities of Dada artists Marchel DuChamp, Man Ray, Francis Picabia, and much of New York. Locher argues that we are not in a post-modern era at all, but in a continuation of Dada, in that we are still reacting to and rebelling against what has happened in the past half a century.

Sunday, September 22, 2019

Personality Analysis Essay Example for Free

Personality Analysis Essay Most people understand personality as the image that people display and project to the outside world. However, personality is more than this and includes even the psychological experience that is hidden inside us (Ewen, 2003). The word personality is a derivative of a Latin word-‘persona’ who’s meaning is ‘mask’ (Ewen, 2003). Personality analysis can therefore be referred to as the comprehensive investigation of all the aspects relating to personality. For many years people have tried to explain behavior as well as what it is that makes a person. In an attempt to offer explanations, personality theories have been advanced some of which are the existential/humanistic and dispositional theories. Just like many other theories, these personality theories are fallible and they cannot be proved. These theories have their similarities as well as their differences. Dispositional theories of personality try to explain personality using innate tendencies. These are the tendencies that individuals are born with and they can be hereditary or not. Dispositional theorists believe that genes play a big part in determining one’s personality. Words and phrases are mostly used to reflect this theory (Weiten, 2010). For example when one says that someone is kind-hearted. These theories are also known as trait theories and trait theorists’ assumption is that physique does not determine behavior but that the stable personality traits are the ones that determine behavior. Personality traits are described as stable qualities that one displays in all the situations. These theories were advanced in reaction to a personality theory known as type personality theory which linked human physique to certain temperaments or personality characteristics. Several people are associated with the development of trait theories and examples include Gordon Allport, Lewis Goldberg, and Hans Eysenck but the person who originally introduced the trait theories was known as Carl Jung (Nicholas, 2008). Carl Jung is the one who introduced the idea of temperaments and his theory purported that one is either born an introvert or an extrovert and that this cannot be changed. Gordon Allport described personality as a combination of both mental and physical personality aspects (Nicholas, 2008). He described personality as a dynamic organisation meaning that the aspects of personality keep on changing throughout an individual’s life in response to situations (Nicholas, 2008). These personality changes occur only to a certain degree and the personality remains relatively stable over time. Allport’s trait theory also portrays personality as naturally deterministic. This means that behavior, personality and thought are influenced and controlled by a mechanism that is inborn. In development of his theory, Allport categorized all the words contained in the dictionary that describe personality traits into central traits, cardinal traits and secondary traits (Nicholas, 2008). The cardinal traits are those that dominate in the whole life of an individual. People who exhibit these traits are rare and people tend to associate these people with these traits. Central traits on the other hand are less dominating compared to cardinal traits. They are the characteristics that constitute the foundation of an individual’s personality and are commonly used by people to describe others. For instance when one says that someone else is intelligent they are describing those people using the central traits. The last personality characteristics are secondary traits. These are the traits that manifest depending on situation and are sometimes related to preferences or attitudes (Ewen, 1998). Lewis Goldberg and Costa McCrae among others expanded the theory of Fiske D. and this led to development of the big five model. The personality traits attributed to this theory are classified under five categories. One is extraversion where some people are social and outgoing. The second one is conscientiousness where individuals display high levels of organization and thoughtfulness (Oliver, Robins Pervin, 2008). The third is openness where individuals display insight and imagination. The fourth category is agreeableness where individuals are trustworthy, kind, and affectionate. The last one is neuroticism where individuals with this trait tend to be anxious, sad, moody and emotionally unstable (Oliver et al. , 2008). Based on this theory, individuals who have traits such as extraversion and agreeableness will get along well with people while people with neuroticism traits will not get along with people. Hans Eysenck built on Jung’s idea by approaching the idea of temperaments from a mathematical point of view. Since his theory is built on the work of Jung, then this theory also assumes that a part of personality is genetically determined. Jung said that though it was impossible for an introvert to change to an introvert, depending on the situation one can modify their behavior (Boeree, 2009). He created a test that was used to determine people’s traits. Based on his theory there are several personality characteristics. One of these is introversion and extraversion where extroverts are outgoing and introverts are reserved. The other personality trait is emotional stability/neuroticism where individuals with a high level of neuroticism exhibit nervousness and emotional instability (Boeree, 2009). The last personality trait is psychoticism where people find it hard to deal with the reality (Boeree, 2009). These personality traits determine how individuals interact with others. People who are extraverts tend to get along well with people as they are outgoing while introverts are not social and may be viewed as unfriendly. Another thing is that people with psychoticism do not relate well with people as they tend to be hostile and manipulative. Humanistic personality theories approach to personality is phenomenological. This phenomenological approach focuses on the subjective experiences of individuals. The leading theorists associated with humanistic theories are Abraham Maslow and Carl Rogers. These theories are known as humanistic because their emphasis is on the unique characteristics of people. According to these theories, all people have an inborn tendency to become self-actualised and that self actualization serves as the main force that drives behavior (Mitterer Coon, 2008). This self-actualisation is an ongoing process where one naturally grows towards fulfilling their potential. Humanistic theorists acknowledge the uniqueness of personalities as people’s perceptions of the world are unique to them. These perceptions are reflected in the way people behave. According to these theorists, people’s perceptions are not determined by their personality traits, their reinforcement history, or their ego development (Mitterer Coon, 2008). They further say that by nature people are good. Carl Rogers’s humanistic personality theory portrays personality as being composed of structural components. These components include self, self-regard, self-ideal, and self-concept (Mitterer Coon, 2008). Of these components, Rogers says that the main component is self and it consists of concepts, ideas, perceptions, and values that define an individual (Mitterer Coon, 2008). According to him, a person’s behavior and perception of the world is influenced by their self-concept. In addition, he says that in addition to self-concept every individual has an ideal self and that happiness and fulfillment are increased if the ideal self is closer to the self concept (Mitterer Coon, 2008). He further says that a phenomenal field is composed of both an individual and their world and that reaction to the world involves the individual as a whole and not merely parts of the individual (Mitterer Coon, 2008). Maslow’s humanistic personality theory is similar to that of Rogers. Maslow just like Rogers believed that individuals have a tendency to grow towards self-actualisation. In addition, just like Rogers’s theory Maslow’s theory views individuals as beings whose approach to current issues and perceptions is subjective (Engler, 2008). According to Maslow there are several characteristics associated with people who have gained self-actualisation. One of these is awareness meaning that these people are very much aware of the meaningfulness of life and that due to this they are usually constantly enjoying life. The other characteristic is that they are reality centered and this means that they are usually concerned with issues in their environment. Acceptance is the other characteristic and it means that these people accept their environment as well as what cannot be changed. Lastly these people exhibit a sense of humor that is not hostile meaning that they do not joke about others as they consider this offensive (Engler, 2008). All the above theories in one way or another attempt to give an explanation of human behavior. They all acknowledge that personality characteristics affect the way people behave in different situations. It is the differences in personalities that make people to react differently to the same situation. Each theory has a number of personality characteristics which are attributed to them and these determines how individuals interact with others so that some people tend to get along well with people while others do not. References Boeree, G. (2009). Trait theories of personality. Retrieved 1 May, 2010 from http://webspace. ship. edu/cgboer/genpsytraits. html Engler, B. (2008). Personality theories (8th ed. ). USA: Cengage Learning. Ewen, R. B. (1998). Personality, a topical approach: Theories, research, major controversies and emerging findings. New Jersey: Lawrence Eribaum Associates, Inc. Ewen, R. B. (2003). An introduction to theories of personality. New Jersey: Lawrence Eribaum Associates, Inc. Mitterer, J. O. Coon, D. (2008). Introduction to psychology: Gateways to mind and behavior (12th ed. ). Belmont, CA: Wadsworth. Nicholas, L. (2008). Introduction to psychology (2nd ed. ). Cape Town: UCT Press. Oliver, P. J. , Robins, R. W. , Pervin, L. A. (2008). Handbook of personality: Theory and research. New York, NY: Guilford Press. Weiten, W. (2010). Psychology: Themes and variations (8th ed. ). Belmont, CA: Wadsworth.

Saturday, September 21, 2019

Shots at Fortune and Life Essay Example for Free

Shots at Fortune and Life Essay Very few people get a shot at Fortune and Life but Margaret Bourke-White simply snapped her fingers and got into both. This very attractive and talented photojournalist made her name in the industry through her pictures for Fortune and Life Magazine. Living during the era when journalism was still way ahead of video productions, her photographs told much of a story with a shot from her lens. Margaret Bourke-White was born on June 14, 1904 in the Bronx, New York to Joseph White and Minnie Bourke. Joseph was of Polish-Jewish background while Minnie had Irish-English blood. (Women in History) Her parents were both believers of a religion called Ethical Culture which was a form of atheism. Ethical culture was very rigid to the point that it only allowed sexual intercourse between married couples for the sole purpose of creating children. (Goldberg 1986 pp. 4-5) In adherence to its philosophies, the couple brought up their children in a mentally stimulating and moral home. (Keller 1996 pp. 8-9) Mr. White was an engineer who was able to develop many versions of printing presses while his wife was totally dedicated in nurturing their children. Minnie was a very strict mother. She limited the children’s exposure to fried food and funny papers. Joseph, on the other hand, was an amateur photographer who was able to pass on his love for still pictures to his daughter. Margaret’s passion for photography began when as a child of eight years, she went with her father to watch the manufacture of printing presses. The marvel of seeing molten iron being poured captivated the photographer in her. (Margaret Bourke White par. 1) However, her total absorption into photojournalism was still far behind her mind. She began her college years in 1922 at New York’s Columbia University in a course for herpetology which is the study of reptiles. However, she met Everett Chapman, an engineering graduate student and got married in 1925. The marriage ended in divorce a year later which was also the time she decided to incorporate her mother’s last name into her own. (Margaret Bourke-White Biography 2007 par. 2) She became the student of Clarence White, a known photography instructor which sparked her interest enough to leave herpetology. She switched courses and schools several times before she finally graduated in 1927 at Cornell University. (Bois 1997) She opened her own photo studio after college at Cleveland wherein she specialized in architectural photos of industrialization. At that time, Cleveland was enjoying industrial progress and she marveled in taking pictures of this era which can be considered as symbols of economic prosperity. â€Å"She romanticized the power of machines through close-ups, dramatic cross lighting and unusual perspectives† that gave people a different view of industrialization. (â€Å"The Photography of Design† 2004 par. 5-6) Her pictures got the attention of well-known publisher, Henry Luce. By 1929, he was able to get her to shoot as staff photographer for the first issue of Fortune Magazine. The assignment was a difficult one that had to focus on Swift and Company’s hog processing plant but her perseverance to be the best made her finish the job well. (Cox 2003) By 1936, Luce introduced the first issue of Life Magazine. The front page photo of Fort Peck Dam that at that time was still under construction was shot by Bourke-White along with her essay inside. Fortune and Life magazines gave her numerous opportunities to see the world for various photo assignments. She was able to capture photos of World War II in Europe including Nazi camps, Mohandas K. Gandhi, the Korean War and the social unrest in South Africa. (Lee Gallery par. 1)

Friday, September 20, 2019

Environment Essay: Mitigation Measures

Environment Essay: Mitigation Measures Chapter 3: Reducing Emissions From Deforestation Forest Degradation (REDD) 3.1 Genesis and emergence of REDD The current international climate change framework is a long way from delivering the emissions reductions required for a global stabilisation target necessary to give the world a realistic chance of limiting global warming to 2 ºc equivalent to atmospheric CO2e at 445-490ppm or lower. Further strong and urgent concerted international action will be needed from both developed and developing countries to meet this goal across all sectors: Increase energy efficiency Reduce demand for emissions intensive goods and services Switch to lower carbon technologies for transport and industrial sectors Action on non-energy emissions such as deforestation. Different mitigation measures are required for different sectors as mentioned above with emphasizing more on forests sector which is the main scope of this paper. It is estimated that in the absence of any mitigation efforts, emission from the forest sector alone will increase atmospheric carbon stock to around 30ppm by 2100, at which the current atmospheric CO2e levels stand at 433ppm according to the analysis of Eliasch Review (2008). Thus there is certainly urgency for forests to be a central part of any global climate change deal by placing it in the top priority as it is increasingly accepted that mitigation of climate change will not be achieved without the inclusion of forests fully into the framework in post 2012. Part of the explanation for this is that forests offer the greatest single opportunity in tackling climate change and to reduce carbon emissions immediately and cost-effectively as opposed to developing and inventing expensively new technological infrastructure and when compared with abatement in other sectors. This is confirmed by reports from Stern Review (2007) and IPCC AR4 (2007) in which deforestation accounts for nearly a fifth of global carbon emissions (18-25%), surprisingly a very significant and greater share second only to energy. Forests including woodlands play many roles in climate change mitigation through carbon sequestration, emission reductions, and carbon substitution. It has been estimated that 80% of the total emissions savings agreed under the current protocol of the convention would be wiped out if the current forest loss in forested developing countries such as Brazil and Indonesia to continue until 2012 (Stern, 2008). Given this significant rate of forest loss worldwide, thus reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation (REDD) would undeniably make a major contribution to meeting an emission stabilisation target by complementing measures such as afforestation, reforestation and restoration. These measures would increase global carbon stocks by sequestering and storing atmospheric carbon when new forests are planted and grow. Additionally, natural forests maintain carbon stocks and transfers, and act as a carbon sink besides other co-benefits including biodiversity conservation, ec osystem services, poverty alleviation and livelihoods. The increased use of wood-based biofuels and wood products with bioenergy crops plantation are options for carbon substitution. Currently developing countries have no obligations under UNFCCC to mitigate GHG emissions although most cases of deforestation are originating from tropical developing countries which accounts for over 1Gt per year of emission resulting from deforestation in the tropics (Stern, 2007). However, developing countries can contribute to global emission reductions by hosting projects under the CDM which include both afforestation and reforestation projects. Measures on REDD were initially excluded from the land use, land use change and forestry sector (LULUCF which is now referred to as agriculture, forestry and other land use (AFOLU) within the IPCC Guidelines for National Greenhouse Gas Inventories as of 2006 for technical consistency) within the UNFCCC’s CDM during CoP7 in Marrakesh. The explanation on REDD exclusion was due of the possibility that if incentives were provided for individual projects, the result would be displacement of deforestation activity elsewhere within a co untry, with little or no net gain. Discussions for the inclusion of REDD was initiated at CoP11/MoP1 in Montreal during late 2005, which marked the first step for entry into force of the Kyoto Protocol on 16 February 2005. However, during the CoP13/MoP3 which was convened in Bali in December 2007, agreed to what is known as the Bali Roadmap. The main advances in the roadmap are the commitments to be negotiated including: emphasising the development of appropriate policy approaches and positive incentives that would lead to REDD and the role of forest conservation in the carbon trading regime, sustainable forest management and the forest carbon stock enhancement; Financing the adaptation needs of developing countries; and Funding the transfer of low-carbon technologies to developing nations. The inclusion of REDD in the roadmap is seen as a way to address environmental destruction by assigning value to intact forest ecosystems including peatlands and swamps. REDD has the potential to shift the balance of underlying economic market forces that currently in favour of deforestation, by allowing incentives and ultimately payments for the ecosystem services provided by forests in the tropical regions. REDD credits offer the opportunity to utilise funding from developed countries to reduce deforestation in developing countries despite question on how to reward forest conservation for the following approaches to pay countries: for reducing deforestation relative to a baseline of past deforestation rates, and/or future projections of deforestation; according to a fixed formula based on forest area and/or the carbon stock represented. In general, forest destruction takes place because forest countries can make more money by using the land for intensive agricultural activities, as they capture the value of standing natural timber, then annual harvests of agricultural produce such as beef, palm oil and soya beans (Tickell, 2008). Thus reward payments would therefore have to be sufficient to protect forests from competing land uses and he suggested that countries would be rewarded based on maintaining agreed areas: for pure conservation, with no exploitation save that of indigenous or long-established peoples; for limited, sustainable exploitation focussed on non-timber products; for more intensive exploitation, including for timber but subject to certification for sound management; of plantation, but including measures to protect soils, water and biodiversity; of degraded and destroyed forest undergoing restoration and rehabilitation to one of the above categories. The deadline for reaching an agreement on the specifics of an international REDD mechanism, at least as regards to it being implemented in the short and medium term, is the CoP15 which will be held in Copenhagen in December 2009. REDD still faces many challenges especially in implementation as there are particular problems with regards to controlling these emissions owing to: their dispersed nature, making them hard to control, and hard or indeed impossible to measure with accuracy. The difficulty of distinguishing with certainty between emissions that are of natural origin, and those that are due to deliberate human interventions; Issues of national sovereignty in which some forest rich developing countries do not take kindly to other countries telling them what they may and may not do with their forests. These three factors make it inconceivable that these emissions should be controlled at source in the same way as emissions from other sources. There are also many problems with the approach currently being developed under the framework to protect forests, which is to incorporate REDD within the carbon trading regime. While much of the deforestation under consideration is the result of legal land-use change and logging, there is also a significant proportion that is illegal. If avoided deforestation is to become a credible element of an international system for controlling greenhouse gas emissions, forest areas will have to be managed over the very long term and be subject to effective legal enforcement.   It is not yet clear whether the necessary investment in standing forests will come from a public fund or private markets, but, if the latter is the case, it is likely that carbon captured in countries with effective forest law enforcement will be valued more highly than in those with poor sectoral governance. 3.2 Expectation for global climate deal at CoP15 Talks on commitments for the post 2012 period are on-going since CoP13/MoP3 in Bali in December 2007. Forest carbon emissions together with emissions from other sources are a global negative externality. The cost of each unit released into the atmosphere is not borne by the emitter. Instead the costs are imposed on the international community as a whole in the form of exposure to the carbon toxification and damaging effects of climate change. There is currently no comprehensive system that rewards REDD efforts although it brings global benefits. Thus it is reasonable that any international climate change framework should internalise the emissions from forests in order to incentivise forest nations to protect and conserved their natural standing forest from deforestation and degradation. According to the Eliasch Review (2009), there are likely three criteria that a successful international climate change framework should meet: Effectiveness to deliver the emission reductions at required scale by tackling three major challenges, that is, leakage, additional and permanence.  Issues range from permanence (whether a county can ensure that forest carbon savings are permanent) to leakage (what happens when carbon conservation in one area drives deforestation in another?) to baseline data establishment (how does one measure historic deforestation to establish a baseline for calculating reduction?). Efficiency to minimise the overall cost of achieving the emissions reductions; and Equitable to ensure that the benefits of international action are distributed fairly.  questions over land rights (will REDD trigger a land rush by industrial agriculture giants and forestry firms?) as well as how local communities will benefit There is also ongoing squabbling between a coalition of forest nations and Brazil, which sees REDD as an attempt to limit its economic development of the Amazon rainforest. Some forest-rich countries that have low deforestation rates have expressed concern they will be left out of the process since their forests are not under immediate threat. 3.3 Sources of funding Despite various concerns mentioned above, it appears likely the REDD initiatives will move forward. According to ITTO  ( ), funds are starting to flow to tropical countries via international REDD initiatives and voluntary carbon offset projects. The potential to channel resources to tropical countries under any successor to the UNFCCC’s Kyoto Protocol, which expires in 2012, will have to be improved significantly over present arrangements in order to have any impact. The level of assistance provided to tropical forests through the existing CDM has so far been a bitter disappointment to many. The negative experience of the CDM in the relatively straight forward areas in which it has operated to date inspires little confidence in its ability to encompass the far trickier area of emissions from deforestation. Last week nine industrialized governments announced plans to put US$165 million (â‚ ¬114 million) toward the World Banks newly created Forest Carbon Partnership Facility, a scheme that will offer tropical countries carbon offset credits to preserve forests. The U.S. did not pledge any funds but some 30 tropical countries in Africa, Latin America and the Asia-Pacific stood to benefit from what the World Bank called the first financial mechanism to pay countries for saving their tropical forests. In the spirit of the progress on REDD, Governors from the Brazilian state of Amazonas and the Indonesian provinces of Aceh, Papua and West Papua agreed to a moratorium on logging until the carbon values of their forest lands is assessed. 3.4 Linking to carbon markets Kyoto includes defined flexible mechanisms such as Emissions Trading, the Clean Development Mechanism and Joint Implementation to allow annex I economies to meet their GHG emission limitations by purchasing GHG emission reductions credits from elsewhere, through financial exchanges, projects that reduce emissions in non-annex I economies, from other annex I countries, or from annex I countries with excess allowances. In practice this means that non-annex I economies have no GHG emission restrictions, but have financial incentives to develop GHG emission reduction projects to receive carbon credits that can then be sold to annex I buyers, encouraging sustainable development. [4]In addition, the flexible mechanisms allow annex I nations with efficient, low GHG-emitting industries, and high prevailing environmental standards to purchase carbon credits on the world market instead of reducing greenhouse gas emissions domestically. Annex I entities typically will want to acquire carbon cre dits as cheaply as possible, while non-annex I entities want to maximize the value of carbon credits generated from their domestic Greenhouse Gas Projects. While there is an urgent need to reduce emissions from deforestation, there are considerable dangers in including forests within the carbon trading regimes. This is because GHG emissions need to be cut both from forest destruction and from fossil fuels, that is not to trade the one off against the other. By putting carbon credits from REDD into the Kyoto Protocol’s carbon trading regime, the Annex 1 parties will be able to continue to pollute at will provided they offset their pollution by REDD elsewhere. Developing countries are not expected to de-carbonize their economy unless developed countries supply enough funding and technology. Setting no immediate restrictions under the UNFCCC serves three purposes: it avoids restrictions on their development, because emissions are strongly linked to industrial capacity, they can sell emissions credits to nations whose operators have difficulty meeting their emissions targets, they get money and technologies for low-carbon investments from the developed countries in Annex II. Developing countries may volunteer to become Annex I countries when they are sufficiently developed. Common but differentiated responsibility The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change agreed to a set of a common but differentiated responsibilities. The parties agreed that: the largest share of historical and current global emissions of greenhouse gases originated in developed countries; per capita emissions in developing countries are still relatively low;  Brunei do have a high per capita emission the share of global emissions originating in developing countries will grow to meet social and development needs. China, India, and other developing countries were not included in any numerical limitation of the Kyoto Protocol, because they were not main contributors to the greenhouse gas emissions in the pre-treaty industrialization period. China has since become the largest greenhouse gas emitter.However, even without responsibility under the Kyoto target, developing countries were to share the common responsibility of all countries to reduce emissions. The protocol defines a mechanism of compliance as a monitoring compliance with the commitments and penalties for non-compliance The five principal concepts of the Kyoto Protocol are: commitments to reduce greenhouse gases that are legally binding for annex I countries, as well as general commitments for all member countries; implementation to meet the Protocol objectives, to prepare policies and measures which reduce greenhouse gases; increasing absorption of these gases and use all mechanisms available, such as joint implementation, clean development mechanism and emissions trading; being rewarded with credits which allow more greenhouse gas emissions at home; minimizing impacts on developing countries by establishing an adaptation fund for climate change; accounting, reporting and review to ensure the integrity of the Protocol; compliance by establishing a compliance committee to enforce compliance with the commitments under the Protocol. 3.4 Institutional aspect for Designated National Authority (DNA) Among the annex I signatories, all nations have established Designated National Authorities to manage their greenhouse gas portfolios; countries including Japan, Canada, Italy, the Netherlands, Germany, France, Spain and others are actively promoting government carbon funds, supporting multilateral carbon funds intent on purchasing carbon credits from non-annex I countries, and are working closely with their major utility, energy, oil and gas and chemicals conglomerates to acquire greenhouse gas certificates as cheaply as possible. Virtually all of the non-annex I countries have also established Designated National Authorities to manage the Kyoto process, specifically the CDM process that determines which GHG Projects they wish to propose for accreditation by the CDM Executive Board.

Thursday, September 19, 2019

Dr. Diver as Rosemarys Father-Figure in Tender is the Night :: Tender is the Night Essays

Dr. Diver as Rosemary's Father-Figure in Tender is the Night      Ã‚  Ã‚   Parents are the basic role models for their children. Both parents play an important role in raising their children, but it is the father whom is normally portrayed as the protector, advisor, and provider of the family. He is the person whom the children look up to when they are young and whom the daughters compare all men to when they become older. The father sets the standards for his children. If there is no father, children must look other places for this type of comfort and information. Sometimes they might turn to their mother who would take over the father's place as best she could. The only role that the mother cannot fulfill, however, is the comparison that daughters need when looking for a husband. To try and fulfill this need, the daughters might find a male whom they trust and believe would be a good role model and father-figure and then base their future ideals on the qualities that he portrays.    Rosemary, from Tender is the Night by Fitzgerald did not have a father figure for a good portion of her life. She had been raised by her mother, a twice widowed woman, and the boarding school in France which she had attended when she was younger. Rosemary had never really known her father when he was alive so Mrs. Speers was both father and mother to her. Mrs. Speers did a good job of being both while Rosemary was growing up, but once she became old enough to begin looking for a husband, Mrs. Speers was not quite the right person to compare men to. Mrs. Speers attempted to counteract this need by forcing Rosemary to become a more independent person. Then she would not have to rely on her or anyone else, including a man. By gradually realizing that she can make her own decisions, Rosemary also realized that she did want to have a man in her life and that she needed that father-figure for comparison. She also realized that she was missing the comfort, protection, and advice that comes from a male. It was not until she went to the French Riviera that she finally found the father-figure she had never had before, in Dr. Dick Diver.    After meeting Dr. Diver, Rosemary was left with the impression that "he would take care of her, and .

Wednesday, September 18, 2019

Cost Accounting: Its role and ethical considerations Essay -- Business

Cost Accounting: Its role and ethical considerations Introduction: Accounting is the process of identifying, measuring, and communicating economic information about an entity for the purpose of making decisions and informed judgements. The major areas of within the accounting are: Financial Accounting, Managerial Accounting/Cost Accounting and Auditing- Public Accounting Managerial accounting is concerned with the use of economic and financial information to plan and control the activities of an entity and to support the management in planning and decision-making process. Cost accounting is the subset of managerial accounting and it helps management in determination and accumulation of product, process or service cost. Role of Cost Accounting: Increased competition and uncertain business conditions have put significant pressure on corporate management to make informed business decisions and maximize their company?s financial performance. In response to this pressure, a range of management accounting tools and techniques has emerged. One of the most important tools that a management can use is - Cost Accounting. Cost accounting helps management in making strategic decisions by identifying an organization?s comparative strengths and weaknesses and a better ways to use, improve or eliminate them. Cost information is used for many different purposes:  · Performance measurement;  · Cost reduction and control;  · Determination of reimbursement and fee or price setting;  · Program authorization, modification, and discontinuation decisions; and  · Decisions to contract out work or make other changes in the methods of production or delivery of services. Cost accounting provides various tools for example: Cost-benefit analysis, break-even analysis, and CVP to help management in making decisions. Role of Ethics in Cost Accounting Webster's Dictionary defines ethics as "...the principles of conduct governing an individual or a profession: the discipline dealing with what is good or bad or right and wrong, or with moral duty and obligation; a particular theory or system of moral values". Ethics are very important in any field. In cost accounting also ethics play an important role. Ethical situations can easily arise in any business setting when money is involved. . The whole Enron saga was the result ... ...g is an important tool that can help management in making informed decision. Though it is not legally required but still it is necessary to run an entity effectively. Cost accounting is turned toward the future. There are different methods of costing in Cost Accounting: Absorption costing and Variable costing. Both have some merits over the other. An entity can use both of them for different uses. Absorption costing can be used for external reporting, managers need to review the effect of their decision on financial reporting to outsiders whereas Variable costing can be used by managers to review the effect of management decisions on production, costs and profits. References: Absorption, Variable, and Throughput Costing. Retrieved on December15, 2004 from http://www.kellogg.nwu.edu/faculty/balachan/htm/Acct439/Solutions/solution_manual19.doc Hilton, Ronald W: Cost Management: Strategies for Business Decisions, Second Edition: Marshall: Accounting, What the Numbers Mean, Sixth Edition: 3-8 Turner, Robert M: Ethics and professionalism: the CPA in industry, April1990. Retrieved on December15, 2004 from http://www.nysscpa.org/cpajournal/old/08416230.htm

Tuesday, September 17, 2019

Children Should Be Placed with Adoptive Parents

This report will be discussing the views on parent adopting children of difference races and colour. It will also be explaining the word used to describe for parents adopting children of different race and colour. Additionally, the report will also mention the history and meaning of ‘trans-racial adoption’ and the arguments that surround this topic. The terminology used for parent to adopt a child of another race or colour is trans-racial adoption (TRA) or inter-racial adoption.The meaning of TRA is to place a child from a race or ethnic group with adoptive parents of another race or ethnic group. The question within society has been arisen whether children should always be placed in a home where the parents are from the same race or colour, which is where issues of whether TRA is practical in the long run. The most heated controversy throughout the history of TRA, has been to do with black children being adopted by white adoptive parents.Andrew Morrison states from his 2004 Journal â€Å"Trans-racial Adoption: The Pros and Cons and the Parents’ Perspective† that black families rarely adopt white children as there are considerably more white parents who are generally looking to adopt. Up to 40% of children who are up for adoption are black, and social workers often refuse to accept the idea of black parents adopting white children In the public record, the first publicly recorded documentation in the United States that white parents adopted a Black child shows that such an adoption took place in 1948, in Minneapolis, Minnesota.Until the 1950s, TRA was almost unheard-of; the prevailing policy and practice of adoption agencies discouraged such adoptions. The justification for these policies and practices was the prevailing belief that race matching would increase the chances of a good parent child relationship. Although TRA of Native American children had occurred frequently over the past century, formal placement of Native American chi ldren with white parents was particularly prevalent in the late 1950s (Andrew Morrison, 2004)

Monday, September 16, 2019

Wilfred Owen War Poetry

Poetry places individuals minds in a state of imagination and emotion where words are thoughts of experiences branding into the minds of the readers. Dulce Et Decorum Est explore how the experiences create emotions for the readers mind to capture the essence of war whilst on the other hand the Anthem for Doomed Youth speaks about what war was like in conjunction to pitifulness and stupidity. To begin, Dulce Et Decorum Est (It is sweet and honourable) talks about war and the effects of war. The effects of war are described as ‘Bent double, like old beggars under sacks, Knock-kneed, coughing like hags' where soldiers are demystified in juxtaposition to the propaganda where they are spoken about as young, strong, handsome men and here they come back buggered and weak from the war. Owen speaks about the war with his insights of pity he has for it ‘In all my dreams, before my helpless sight, He plunges at me, guttering, choking, drowning. If in some smothering dreams you too could pace Behind the wagon that we flung him in, And watch the white eyes writhing in his face, His hanging face, like a devil's sick of sin' and Owens insights of the war allow the readers to capture and understand what world war 1 was like from his own experiences. Owen uses emotive and alliteration language to grasp the minds of the readers ‘Gas! Gas! Quick, boys! An ecstasy of fumbling, Fitting the clumsy helmets just in time; But someone still was yelling out and stumbling And flound'ring like a man in fire or lime†¦ Dim, through the misty panes and thick green light, As under a green sea, I saw him drowning. ‘ With Owen being able to grab the readers attention, he is able to use this imagery to create a sense of emotion towards the readers as they look to find a deeper understanding of the war. Assonance of the terms ‘ing' helps to associate the feeling of what was happening at that time where he expresses the scene as ‘guttering, choking, drowning' when his friends where being drowned in the green poisonous gases described as ‘green sea' to emphasis that sense of dying helplessly. The enthusiasm that own incorporates into his poetry expresses his own opinions and thoughts of the pitifulness and stupidity of war when he says ‘My friend, you would not tell with such high zest' and this is an indication to hat he feels about outsiders trying to explain what it was like without even being their to experience it first hand. To understand the war, the poetry of Owen directs his insights of the war straight to the readers where his descriptive language and emotive scenery create the images of a first hand experience and this is how Owens poetry brands emotions and melts the images of emotion into the readers minds through his thoughts and experiences. In relation to Owens Dulce Et Decorum Est, the poem Anthem for Doomed Youth uses a range of techniques to embed emotions into the mods of readers. Owen captivates the readers attention through a wide range of imagery where ‘passing-bells for these who die as cattle? ‘ grasps the minds readers to create a scene of dying cows to mimic the deaths of soldiers and the pain of death and war through ‘stuttering rifles rapid rattle' where the alliteration captures the readers attention whilst still creating that image of death and loss. The poem Anthem for Doomed Youth is rather a sad story of tears and sorrow where by Owen speaks about ‘The pallor of girls brows shall be their pall;' which indicates how the sad expressions of girls eyebrows are the only thing that they can share that is common to both sides. The excessive use of personification dims the horror of the war to allow readers to understand the pain through metaphors explaining ‘passing-bells for these who die as cattle? , and ‘wailing shells' and ‘drawing-down of blinds' which signify the closing of the soldiers eyes in death and wailing shells are dead men in the ocean floating by one by one without anything able to be done about it and this is how Owen further expresses his feelings of pity and stupidity on war. Owen uses personification and emphasis in his poetry to allow his emotions and thoughts to be branded into the minds of the readers and to allow them to grasp the sense of pithiness of war. In conclusion, Owens poetic insights in Dulce Et Decorum Est and Anthem for Doomed Youth allow readers to grasp the experiences of war and a sense of emotion towards what Owen would have been feeling throughout the war. Owen way of communicating to the outside world away from war is effective in enabling him to capture the minds of readers and lead them into a state of embedding his insights into their minds so that they can gather s deeper understanding of the lives of soldiers in world war 1.

Sunday, September 15, 2019

Global Warming Myth

Man made global warming does not exist. Evidence suggests that carbon levels are not abnormally high and that the ice caps are not melting away. There are many reputable scientists who question this theory we call global warming. Others would say it is a way for the government to control more and more of our daily lives and to move along an agenda that benefits certain groups and individuals. Man made global warming is a theory being preached to us as gospel and being taught as fact already proven.However there are a large number of people in the scientific community who would disagree. One of the most prominent opponents of man made global warming was Dr. Frederick Seitz. â€Å"Dr. Seitz is a physicist who served as the president of the National Academy of Science during the 1960’s and of Rockefeller University from 1968 to 1978. In 1973 he received the National Medal of Science. †(Oriana Zill de Granados, PBS. org, April 24, 2007, p1. ) Dr. Seitz known as the â€Å"G randaddy of global warming skeptics† (Buisness week, June 24. was an apponent of climate change saying that â€Å"the science behind global warming was likewise inconclusive and certainly didn’t warrant imposing mandatory limits on the greenhouse-gas emissions† (Mark Hertsgaard, Vanity Fair. com, While Washington Slept, May 2006, p3. ). Dr. Seitz believed science was being misrepresented and wrote an â€Å"op-ed page to The Wall Street Journal thrashing the integrity of a 1995 I. P. C. C. and that global warming and ozone depletion were exaggerated threats devised by environmentalists and unscrupulous scientists pushing a political agenda†. Mark Hertsgaard, Vanity Fair. com, While Washington Slept, May 2006, p3) He also wrote that â€Å" This IPCC report, like all others, is held in such high regard largely because it has been peer-reviewed. That is, it has been read, discussed, modified and approved by an international body of experts. These scientists h ave laid their reputations on the line. But this report is not what it appears to be–it is not the version that was approved by the contributing scientists listed on the title page.In my more than 60 years as a member of the American scientific community, including service as president of both the National Academy of Sciences and the American Physical Society, I have never witnessed a more disturbing corruption of the peer-review process than the events that led to this IPCC report. † (Dr. Frederick Seitz, Wall Street Journal, June 12, 1996) Dr. Seitz was also a main component to and wrote the forward for the Oregon Petition. The Oregon Petition states â€Å"We urge the United States government to reject the global warming agreement that was written in Kyoto, Japan in December, 1997, and any other similar proposals.The proposed limits on greenhouse gases would harm the environment, hinder the advance of science and technology, and damage the health and welfare of manki nd. There is no convincing scientific evidence that human release of carbon dioxide, methane, or other greenhouse gasses is causing or will, in the foreseeable future, cause catastrophic heating of the Earth's atmosphere and disruption of the Earth's climate. Moreover, there is substantial scientific evidence that increases in atmospheric carbon dioxide produce many beneficial effects upon the natural plant and animal environments of the Earth. (Oregon Institute of Science and Medicine. org) This petition has garnered over 31,000 signatures of scientists who feel that man made climate change is not definitive. Almost 10,000 of those who signed the petition have PhD’s. This petition shows that there are a large number of scientists who question man made global warming exists, unlike the Washington Post writer who wrote about scientists who are skeptical about global warming â€Å"but these few- about 2% of climate researchers- could hold their annual meeting in a phone booth, if there are any left. (Larry Bell, Forbes, That Global Warming Consensus, July 17, 2012 p. 1) These scientists are not just forming an opinion on the subject there is mounting evidence to back up their claims against climate change. We hear about the ice caps melting and watch on television polar bears stranded on floating pieces of ice that have broken off and drifting away. National Public Radio published a story on its website claiming â€Å"Ten years ago, a piece of ice the size of Rhode Island disintegrated and melted in the waters off Antarctica.Two other massive ice shelves along the Antarctic Peninsula had suffered similar fates a few years before. † (Richard Harris, NPR. org, Humans Role In Antarctic Ice Melt is Unclear, August 22, 2012) This leads to a conclusion that Antarctica is melting away when just the opposite is happening. According to (James Taylor, Antarctic Ice Sets Another Record, Forbes, September 19, 2012) † Antarctic sea ice has been growing s ince satellites first began measuring the ice 33 years ago and the ice has been above the 33 year average throughout 2012†.Snow and ice are steadily increasing and growing faster than it is melting. Meteorologist Anthony Watts shows us new information from ICESAT(Ice, Cloud, and Land SATellite) which is NASA’s top satellite for observing and measuring the earths ice and masses. â€Å"During 2003 to 2008, the mass gain of the Antarctic ice sheet from snow accumulation exceeded the mass loss from ice discharge by 49 Gt/yr (2. 5% of input), as derived from ICESat laser measurements of elevation change.The net gain (86 Gt/yr) over the West Antarctic (WA) and East Antarctic ice sheets (WA and EA) is essentially unchanged from revised results for 1992 to 2001 from ERS radar altimetry. † (Wattsupwiththat. com, Anthony Watts, ICESAT Data Shows Mass Gains of the Antarctic Ice Sheet Exceed Losses, September 10, 2012) So ice and snow are growing in Antarctica and a new stud y by NASA suggests that the continent once was green and full of vegitation. The frozen continent of Antarctica which some believe is melting away due to global warming once was green and suitable for vegitation. The peak of Antarcticas green perioid was between 16. 4 and 15. 7 million years ago during the Micene Epoch†. (NASA. gov, June 17, 2012, p. 2) During this time carbon levels, which is the main contributor to greenhouse gasses and global warming were â€Å"400 to 600 parts per million(ppm)† (NASA. gov, June 17, 2012,p. 2) Carbon levels today are at â€Å"393ppm, the highest they have been in the past several million years. † (NASA. gov, June 17, 2012, p. ) This shows our carbon levels today are almost the level they were millions of years ago when Antarctica was green and yet today snow and ice are building in the region. If carbon levels are almost the same as they were millions of years ago than who was creating them? We are told over and over again we cause global warming from our cars to refriderators to hairspray. The question needs to be answered who was driving in Antarctica 16 million years ago? The answer is nobody. Global warming is being used as a tool generate fortunes for the government and take our liberty away.

Saturday, September 14, 2019

Yahoo Case Study

Report write-up on Yahoo Case study Yahoo was conceptualized almost accidentally in 1993 by Jerry Yang and David Filo – who were pursuing their electrical engineering degree from Stanford University – while posting a list of their favorite sites on the web, got officially founded in 1994 and incorporated in the year 1995. Initially named â€Å"Jerry’s guide to world wide web†, got later named Yahoo which was an acronym for â€Å"Yet another Hierarchal Officious Oracle†.The term â€Å"Hierarchal† described how the Yahoo database was arranged, the term â€Å"officious† describing the many office workers who would use Yahoo from their work place and â€Å"oracle† suggesting a â€Å"source of wisdom†. Today Yahoo! Inc. is a multinational internet corporation best known for its web portal, search engine (Yahoo! Search, #2 in search engine market share with 6. 8% market share) and for a variety of other services, including Yaho o! Directory, Yahoo! Mail, Yahoo! News, Yahoo! Finance, Yahoo! Groups, Yahoo!Answers, advertising, online mapping, video sharing, fantasy sports and its social media website. With revenue figures of $4. 9B for FY’2011, and a market capitalization of $23. 8B, Yahoo’s success story comprises many hits and more misses. After the modest web directory started to attract large influx of visitors on a daily basis, Yang and Filo decided to make business of it by renting advertising space on the Yahoo Directory pages. Capital Investment came in from Sequoia Capital, who proposed to hire a professional CEO to drive the business forward.After a careful evaluation of a half-dozen candidates, Michael Moritz of Sequoia Capital chose Timothy Koogle, who brought 15 years of leadership experience in high-tech management. Timothy had to use great influence and persuasion skills to bring everybody on board on his vision for the company, one that would create a world connected via the web . His vision encompassed leveraging the company’s existing strength of the web directory by providing more and more compelling content and driving higher advertising revenue.At the same time, create an online platform where buyers could meet sellers, transacting safely over the internet and charging a cut of the revenue for these services provided. They also added customization features for their registered users on their Yahoo financials page so that specific companies of interest could be followed by the users. Along the way, they also helped advertisers reach out to their relevant audience better and thereby increasing the value delivered to them. The strategy was working out very well for Yahoo. Yahoo grew rapidly throughout the 1990s.It also made many high-profile acquisitions. While everything was going great for Yahoo, they failed to evaluate their strategy at that juncture. The environment they were thriving on was that of the dot-com bubble and most companies that we re sources of advertising revenue for Yahoo were the dot-com companies. When the dot-com bubble burst, most of these companies went bankrupt drying out sources of advertising revenue for Yahoo. Its stock price skyrocketed during the dot-com bubble, Yahoo stocks closing at an all-time high of $118. 5 a share on January 3, 2000. However, after the dot-com bubble burst, it reached a post-bubble low of $4. 05 on September 26, 2001. While the corporate level vision and strategy were forward looking, the business level strategy needed timely review, the lack of which brought about the downward spiral of Yahoo in a short span. Owing to a huge negative impact on the shareholders’ value, Tim Koogle resigned giving the heirs to Terry Semel, a former Warner Brothers executive.Semel’s goal was to arrest the fall in Yahoo’s revenues by diversifying from the hitherto advertising centric revenue model to subscription-based, value-added services and increasing the quality in ad vertising revenue by targeting more stable companies. This strategy was viewed as but a late reaction to the changing market landscape, something that investors expected the leadership to foresee. Terry Semel also had his share of low moments as CEO of Yahoo during the criticism he drew for cooperating with the Chinese officials to release previously confidential Yahoo information to the Chinese government.He also lost a chance to buy out Google during its nascent years, whose search engine services it used till Yahoo developed its own search engine technologies. Over the years, Yahoo also failed to catch the market trends of social, mobile, local, platform services etc. at the right times, which has resulted in diminishing market share figures in each of the spaces. While Yahoo revenue has dipped for the year 2011, the company’s financials look strong with low debt and good cash flow.Company’s new management team is betting big on mobile and connected TV businesses. M obile applications, where the company is lagging behind competitors like Google and Facebook, is a business line it must produce a turn-around performance on since the markets a trending in that direction. Marissa Mayer, former Google executive, who is now at the helm of the $5B company, would hope to bring her successful experience at Google to Yahoo to deliver the goods on the Mobile platforms business. Discussion Questions: . To what extent was the evolution of strategy at Yahoo planned? To what extent was it an emergent response to unforeseen events? Yahoo’s initial strategy during Koogle’s time of foraying into advertising and online portal for facilitating e-commerce and shopping were a planned strategy and were apt for the company with its inherent strengths. however, the portfolio diversification undertaken by Semel was an attempt to lower the risk exposure as a response to the changed business environment. 2.Could Yahoo have done a better job of anticipating t he slowdown in advertising revenue that occurred in 2000 – 2001 and positioning itself for that slowdown? How? What might it have done differently from a strategic planning perspective? In order to achieve a sustained competitive advantage, a firm must adapt to the change in the market trends. As a strategy evaluation process, yahoo could have foreseen the dot-com bubble burst as the bubble formation was a process that had initiated around ’98. Analysts highlighted the risk in staying invested with the dot-com companies.There was surplus income available with retail investors during that period, which is suggestive of a trend of higher demand of normal goods / services over inferior goods / services. Yahoo could have seen this trend and positioned itself for a niche product / service offering. 3. Does Yahoo have a source of potential long-term competitive advantage? Where does this come from? Yahoo has a good cash flow – a low debt and also a business model in p lace for buyers to meet sellers. Social Media has played a key role in penetrating the market – creating awareness of using the online medium.Yahoo has the system in place to capitalize this strength in order to optimally utilize the buyer-meet seller platform – expand it from retail presence to corporate interactions, include a model that addresses webinars for multiple industries eg pharma meet can be entirely conducted online – creating a significant cost advantage for the participants and also adding to its revenue by marginal investments that wont affect its balance sheet either. 4. What does Koogle’s resignation in May 2001 tell you about the role of a CEO in a public company?CEO’s role in a public company has evolved over the years, but in essence, remains that of a custodian of the shareholders’ value. Koogle had a very good vision and strategy for the company, which did transpire into success initially. While the formulation of the strategy may have been done well, the execution at the business level and evaluation of the strategy could have been better. Even towards the end of Terry Semel’s tenure in 2006, his salary was reduced to only $1 (with $70M worth of stock options ofcourse) due to shareholders’ dissatisfaction.

Friday, September 13, 2019

A Nation of Idiots Analysis

What evidence does Moore offer to support his contention that America is a nation of idiots? Is calling us all a nation of idiots an effective way to get our attention and sympathies? Moore shares a number of personal experiences in this selection to dramatize his disgust with formal education. Overall, how would you characterize his attitude toward school and schooling? What textual evidence leads you to make those conclusions?What are the potential problems with using this kind of rhetorical or argumentative strategy in his writing? Moore offers evidence of public ignorance to support that America is a nation of idiots. He does this by stating, â€Å"Only 11 percent of the American public bothers to read a daily newspaper, beyond the funny pages or the used car ads† (Idiot Nation excerpt, Colombo, Cullen, Lisle, 129).This example is a good reflection of Moore’s attitude and style of grabbing the reader’s attention. He relates to the readers in simple terms, but always with a hint of sarcasm. I believe that calling America a â€Å"nation of idiots† is an effective way of getting us to listen. The way Moore sees it, schools have used various tactics to educate its students and politicians have used different forms of engaging the public, but the public is not interested.Moore states, â€Å"A nation that not only churns out illiterate students but goes out of its way to remain ignorant and stupid is a nation that should not be running this world – at least not until a majority of its citizens can locate Kosovo (or any other country it has bombed) on the map† (Idiot Nation excerpt, Colombo, Cullen, Lisle, 129). The potential problem with using this kind of rhetorical strategy in his writing is that the readers probably do not think of themselves as â€Å"idiots† and therefore will assume that Moore’s words do not apply to them and readers will tune out.Another problem is Moore will offend some of his audience and naturally these audience members will become defensive and disregard Moore’s current and future work. Moore does not see schooling in America as an effective way of educating the nation. He also views it as a very harmful environment that teaches children not to question authority and not to think, but rather do as they are told. â€Å"They learn that to rock the boat could get them rocked right out of school† (Idiot Nation excerpt, Colombo, Cullen, Lisle, 143).

Thursday, September 12, 2019

Did the British public opinion about the Iraq War changed during the Essay - 1

Did the British public opinion about the Iraq War changed during the war - Essay Example However, the public support for the military actions which are government led in Britain plays an important role in foreign and defense policies. Public opinion establishes the political mission legitimacy, maintains the effectiveness of the military, sustains the morale of the deployed troops in war, and justices the required budget for resourcing military. There is no robust evidence of what the public of British thinks about the mission of British involvement in Iraq. There is also a difference of opinion among them. Despite the length of involvement of United Kingdom in the Iraq war, the public opinion is difficult to be entirely determined about the mission. The public opinions data in the Iraq war area have been collected through opinion polls. The opinion polls provided evidences which are relatively timely and quick about the public perceptions and opinions. Nevertheless, there exist potential issues which regard the sample representatives related to some social groups like those people without the landline or internet access. Representative and independent surveys of UK about the public opinion towards the Iraq war mission have shown a contrast in public attitudes. The surveys however have not always included the comparisons of formal statistics on how the public opinion may differ. The UK’s public opinion on the war in Iraq has no relation to the estimations of UK about the military casualties’ tolerance. UK studies have drawn on the theories that are suggesting on public opinion on war. The theory suggests that the public opinion about objectives, moral justifications and success of the military campaign is related to the military death acceptability by the public. There are other theories also which suggest that absolute number of death is of large irrelevance. The accurate estimates of military deaths are associated with the public attitudes

Company Law Case Study Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Company Law - Case Study Example These people are called "owners", composed of the incorporators, directors, and the stockholders. Another point to consider is that a corporation, once approved, has a legal personality separate and distinct from its owners. Having a legal personality separate and distinct from its owners gives the corporation a limited liability to shareholders. Limited liability is a legal doctrine which means that if a "plaintiff wins a court judgment against the corporation, he (the plaintiff) cannot satisfy the judgment out of the personal assets of the owners, rather, the plaintiff must collect from the assets of the corporation".2 Limited liability is likened to a "veil" that offers the owners of the business protection for their personal assets, like for instance, if one of the co-owners or employees commits an unlawful action that injures someone, or if someone sues the corporation for non-payment of debt.3 But is the limited liability doctrine absolute The answer is it is not.4 The corporate law protection of limited liability can be lost through 1) piercing of the corporate veil, 2) defective incorporation, 3) improper signing of documents.5 This essay aims to discuss piercing the corporate veil by first explaining the limited liability rule followed by ... This doctrine is used when the property or assets of the corporation is not enough to support its liabilities.6 "The phrase relies on the metaphor of the 'veil' that represents the veneer of formalities and dignities that protect a corporation, which can be disregarded at will when the situation warrants looking beyond the 'legal fiction' of a corporate person to the reality of other persons or entities who would otherwise be protected by he corporate fiction."7 The formation of this doctrine can be traced beginning from a number of cases formulating the law formulating the law principle of separate and distinct legal personality of corporations. This principle of English law company was firs laid down in the case of Salomon v. Salomon.8 Mr. Salomon formed a company by apportioning one share for each of his family members to comply with the statute at that time which required at least seven members to form a company. Mr. Salomon later became a secured creditor of the company. When the company fell on hard times, it paid Mr. Salomon's debenture. The unsecured creditors claimed all the remaining assets of the company arguing that it worked as an agent for Mr. Solomon. The Court held otherwise. The effect of this rule is that the individual subsidiaries with in a conglomerate will be treated as separate entities and the parent cannot be made liable for the subsidiaries' debts or insolvency.9 Attempts to lift the principle of separate and distinct legal personality of corporations were unsuccessful in a number of cases that followed after the establishment of the said principle. For instance, in Adams v. Cape10 , it was held that the corporate veil cannot be lifted

Wednesday, September 11, 2019

Circuit Protection and Polyphase Motors Assignment

Circuit Protection and Polyphase Motors - Assignment Example These techniques result in a high arc voltage to control over current and voltage during a fault in operation. Types of Air Blast Circuit Breakers: The Air blast circuit breakers can be divided into the following three types: (a). Axial Blast ABCB (b). Axial Blast ABCB with Side Moving Contact (c). Cross Blast ABCB Construction: (a). Axial Blast ABCB The axial blast air ABCB consists of two contacts; one is fixed and the other is movable. The fixed contact has an arcing chamber with a spring loading mechanism, and a nozzle orifice over which the movable contact rests under the normal closed condition. In case a fault arises, a high Figure 1.Axial Blast ABCB (Courtesy:www.electrical4u.com) air pressure in the arcing chamber causes the spring to deform. This produces an effect of lengthening and cooling of the air column in the chamber which pushes out the movable contact. As a result of these changes an arc voltage is produced which is much higher than the system voltage. The disparit y in voltage levels results in the quenching of the arc produced. (b). Axial Blast ABCB with side moving contact: Figure 2. ... As a result, an arc is drawn between the fixed and movable contact, which is passed over to the arcing electrode. This causes the surge to be quenched. (c). Cross Blast ABCB Figure 3. Cross Blast ABCB (Courtesy:www.electrical4u.com) The cross blast ABCB has a fixed blast pipe. The moving contact’s movement is perpendicular to the direction of the air blast from the blast pipe. An exhaust chamber having arc splitters is fitted on the same alignment as the blast pipe. When the movable contact is detached from the fixed contact an arc is established. High pressure air coming from the blast pipe enters the exhaust chamber after passing through the contact breaker, forcefully taking the arc into the exhaust chamber. This results in the quenching of the arc. 1. b. OIL-FILLED CIRCUIT BREAKER Working Principle: The oil-filled circuit breaker is one of the oldest types of circuit breakers. It employs mineral oil as the insulating medium to quench the surging arc. The fixed as well as t he movable contacts are immersed in oil; as a result the arc forms a bubble in the oil. The energy of the arc is utilized to decompose the oil into hydrogen gas. As a result arc quenching is obtained. Types of Oil Circuit Breakers: Oil circuit breakers can be broadly classified into two categories: (a). Bulk Oil Circuit Breaker (b). Minimum Oil Circuit Breaker (a). Bulk Oil Circuit Breaker Construction: Figure 4. Conceptual view of the Bulk Oil Circuit Breaker. (Courtesy:www.electrical4u.com) The bulk oil circuit breakers employ transformer insulating oil as the insulating and arc quenching medium. The current carrying contacts (fixed and movable) and the earthed parts of the circuit breaker are placed in a large quantity of oil in a closed tank or vessel. The oil

Tuesday, September 10, 2019

Palestine between WWI and WWII Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Palestine between WWI and WWII - Essay Example Arguably, Muslims, Christian and Jewish groups invoke religious arguments to hold their positions on the Canaan land territory hence sparking conflict. Muslims argue that the land belongs to all Abraham descendants with Ishmael included whom they believe as their origin. Jews and Christians believe that God promised the land of Canaan to them through Abraham’s young son Isaac. The conflict exploded to a full-blown civil war in 1947 leading to establishment of Israel modern state in May 1948. Competing territorial ambitions initiated political and nationalist conflict following the fall of Ottoman Empire shifting large-scale Arab, Israeli conflict to local Palestinian Israeli conflict (Goldschmidt & Davidson, 2009). The large-scale conflict largely ended after 1973 October cease-fire. In the interwar years, the conflict was further fuelled by land purchases and culture conflicts, mainly attributed to religious differences. The other major cause of the war was the rise of anti-S emitism and the rise of the Arab Nationalism. The anti-Semitism caused by a notion that there was a Jewish conspiracy that was propagated by the Europeans and had no roots to Islam. The rise of the Arab Nationalism saw the coming of leaders such as Hajj Amin al-Husayn who were both educated and enlightened the masses on their rights and what they needed to do. The Great Britain white paper was also known as MacDonald white paper. This was because Malcolm McDonald presided over it as the British colonial secretary.

Monday, September 9, 2019

WiFi, VPNs & Encryption Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words - 1

WiFi, VPNs & Encryption - Assignment Example In this scenario, different restrictions are implemented on the system access mechanisms. As a result, it becomes very difficult for these security threats to pollute a system and spread to other systems and devices (Merrifield, 2015). In other words, the concept of least privileges is used by the system administrators to offer the smallest amount of system resources needed to complete important business tasks. This mechanism is implemented through a variety of methods such as user rights (for instance putting restrictions to users’ rights, the way they access to the systems), resource permissions for instance implementing restrictions on CPU, network, memory and file system permissions. For instance, if a middleware system simply needs access to the network, the capability to write to a log, and read access to a database table, it refers to all the authorizations that should be approved. However, the middleware server should not be granted administrative privileges in any cas e under any circumstances (OWASP,

Sunday, September 8, 2019

POEMS Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

POEMS - Essay Example June Jordan herself a civil rights activist who fervently fight for the rights of African-Americans. Her radical beliefs and principles are vividly echoed in her poem. On the other hand, Ted Kooser’s poem sounds simple on the surface due to its terse and straightforward style. My initial interpretation of the poem is that the author is unhappily celebrating his birthday, celebrating an important day of his life alone. But when I read Kooser’s biography, my interpretation of the poem changed. When I learned that he is recognized as a poet with a remarkable grasp of metaphors I thought that perhaps the poem is not even talking about him or, specifically, his own gloomy disposition, but about the simple things that are usually taken for granted, like a book, darkness, a window. What the author, I think, is trying to convey is that these simple things can bring happiness, like the happiness that a birthday celebration can

Saturday, September 7, 2019

Sweatshops Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Sweatshops - Essay Example Nike violated laws about working conditions, working hours, and forced overtime. They have been labeled as employing ‘sweatshop’ conditions in their manufacturing units. Due to globalization markets expanded and the market discipline intensified. This discipline penetrated into the spheres of lives of people previously untouched. The global garment industry offers the western consumers a wide variety of styles and fashion at affordable prices. Competition in the industry gave rise to sweatshops. To survive amidst competition, market restructuring had to be done in the form of buyer-driven commodity chains and lean retailing (Micheletti, 2006). They had to respond to the changing consumer demands for fashion and quality at reasonable prices. They had to invest to create and satisfy the fluctuating demands of the consumers. To deliver fashion and quality they had to rely on the individual garment workers and not the machinery. People started clamoring for branded products and brand culture was what became the decisive factor. Sweatshops are not new to America and since the industrial revolution many generations have toiled in sweatshops. Usually women, children or unskilled workers are used in sweatshops from the poverty-stricken families, who have no other option to earn a livelihood. Their pay is sub-standard and the working conditions are unsafe and unhygienic. Although it essentially started in the garment industry, but it exists in other industries as well. Sweat shops are the result of greed and opportunism; they may also stem from competitive pressures. These have come into existence due to globalization, government regulations, immigration, business practices, racial, ethnic and gender discrimination. The people are underpaid and overworked while the working conditions are unsanitary and far from reasonable. It violates safety, heath, wage and child labor laws. People have gone to the extent of saying that they would

Friday, September 6, 2019

The Syrian conflict through the theories of constructivism and realism Essay Example for Free

The Syrian conflict through the theories of constructivism and realism Essay This essay aims to delineate and elucidate the Syrian conflict through the theories of constructivism and realism. Particular attention will be paid to the origin of the Syrian Civil War, along with the major actors involved in this regional, and now international, conflict. â€Å"The people want to topple the regime!† was the anti-government graffiti on the wall of a local school in Daraa city painted by a group of Syrian children on March 2011. Those children were arrested and tortured by the local security authorities (Diehl, 2012: 7). This act eventually led to an anti-governmental uprising due to the outrageous reaction of the community over children’s mistreatment after incarceration by the local security authorities. The uprising demanded the release of children, justice, freedom as well as equality for all people. At the core, these peaceful demonstrations were considered to be against the sectarian and family dictatorship because the political power was mainly held by the Alawite elite (Diehl, 2012). In response to these demonstrations, the Syrian government planned to enforce security forces for the protestors to suppress them. The deadly aggression used by the government to oppose dissent led to protests across the country calling for the president to resign. Violence soon escalated as the government battled hundreds of rebel brigades. This rebellion further turned into a full-fledged civil war between the Free Syrian army and the Syrian regime (Thompson, 2016). The main allegation that the Syrian r egime associated with the protestors was that they were Islamic Al- Qaeda’s extremist terrorist gangs who were supported and funded by the various countries such as Turkey, Qatar, the kingdom of Saudi Arabia as well as the United States of America which they try to seek peace with Israel (Sommier, 2014). Similarly, the same Syrian regime who was supported by Russia, China and Iran, was present in the front fire line with Israel (Fisher, 2012). Since then, the regional and international intervention has proven to be a key factor in the power struggle as the government and opposition have received financial, political and military support. This has directly intensified the fighting and allowed it to continue; Syria is effectively being used as a proxy battlefield (Wimmen and Asseburg, 2012). The death toll as recorded and presented by the Syrian center for policy research approximately totaled at 470,000 as a result of ongoing conflict until February 2016. Due to the intensification and spread of fighting, a dire humanitarian crisis was evident since 4.8 million people tried to take refuge abroad and 6.1 million people were internally displaced as per the records of UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. It has also been reported by the Syrian Network for Human Rights that since 2011, more than 117,000 people have been either disappeared or detained by the governmental forces. In the detention, ill-treatment and torture are two rampant things that have also resulted in the death of thousands of people in detention. In addition to all the crisis events going on, ISIS (Islamic State) made more complications by the widespread and systematic violations. This was achieved by ISIS through targeting civilians with artillery, kidnappings, executions, using child ren as soldiers, and torture (Human Rights Watch, 2016).

Thursday, September 5, 2019

Analytical Review Of From Out Of The Shadows History Essay

Analytical Review Of From Out Of The Shadows History Essay From Out of the Shadows is a study of Mexican women, who had migrated to America before the World Wars, their struggles and achievements. Vicki L. Ruiz is a professor of History and Chicano/Latino studies , University of California and has authored a number of books including the well known book Cannery Women, Cannery Lives. Vicki L. Ruiz exposes the strife the Mexican women had to face after crossing the border early in the century. The book tells us about the endeavors of these courageous and enterprising women and the society they helped to build in an alien land, quite often under hostile conditions. In her book she writes From Out of the Shadows focuses on the claiming of personal and public spaces across generations (Ruiz, xi). Ruiz was motivated to chronicle this aspect of American history by the stories she heard as a child from her mother and grand-mother. Her imagination was kindled by the images of village life, the difficult living conditions and the discrimination women faced in those days. From Out of the Shadows also emphasizes the different types of political activism in which the Mexican-American women participated and created public awareness, which included fighting for the cause of civil rights and organized protests against the Vietnam War. For a newer edition of this book, Ruiz has added a preface that carries on the story of the Mexican womens experience in America and traces the growth of Latino history. The book describes the first exodus of women crossing the border from Mexico to California seeking refuge from tyrannical husbands or in search of a better life earlier on in the century. Over one million Mexican men and women migrated al otro lado between 1910 and 1930 (Ruiz: 6) Ruiz throws light on the effort made by protestant groups in an attempt to Americanize the Mexicans but whose efforts generally failed because the Mexican women relied on their own community groups like the rural community groups, religious groups and labor unions to help them absorb into mainstream American society. The book talks about the conflict that arose between mothers and daughters when the daughters were forbidden to use makeup and the mothers insisted that teenage girls attend a dance or go for social outings like movies with a chaperone. What this book reveals is a portrayal of a distinct culture in America, one that has slowly gained momentum and richness in the past several years. From Out of the Shadows is a significant contribution to the largely unrecorded and undocumented history of Mexican-American women. She has chosen to integrate the cultural diversity based on gender, class, region and generational experiences. She has used a variety of sources in her research such as records of census, journals and scholarly texts. In the introduction, Ruiz tells her readers that Mexican women have made history, no matter what their occupations. However, somehow their tales have remained in the shadows (Ruiz xi). In her work, Ruiz has tried to address the issues of interpreting these unheard voices and defining strength within individuals, families and communities. Conventionally the history of America has focused on the Northern European immigrants and their progeny as the settlers in a male dominated, capitalist society. In her writing, Ruiz demonstrates the hardships the Mexican women faced in their journey to become a part of the American community. Ruiz draws upon the lives of women, their dreams, aspirations and decisions and gives these issues a platform. She examines the influx of Mexican women into the States before World War II. Her writing also illustrates their responses to the pressures and challenges of adjusting to the newly forming American culture and Americanization of society in general. The women had to live with altered social values during the inter-war period and the end of young Mexican American women who took to chaperoning. The increasing political and social activism of Mexican women and their role in resisting financial oppression as well as their espousal of the cause of feminism through the 1960s and 70s has been faithfully chronicled in the pages of this book. As yet not much has been documented and published about the activities and importance of Mexican women in twentieth century America. In that perspective this book may be considered as a pioneering attempt to record the contribution of Mexican women in building a multicultural American society. The book is full of interesting anecdotes and tales of how the women struggled to make sense of an alien world, into which they had migrated, and of their efforts to make their lives and of those around them meaningful. The thoughtful way in which personal interviews of Mexican women with very long memories and lots of stories to tell, adds poignancy to the text. The narrative increases the readers admiration for the courage and doggedness displayed by these women in their struggle to realize their rights and for a chance to get equal opportunities, work and wages. To present an unbiased analysis of the book one must draw attention towards some of the draw backs in the book as well. While this is a monumental effort to chronicle the contribution of Mexican women and the integration of Latino people to the American society it becomes hard to comprehend the frequent use of jargon that impacts the flow of the narrative. In portions the author becomes too involved in the account and loses sense objectivity and neutral research. Ruiz, however, admits that she has written from the heart (p.xii) and this kind of impassioned approach may appeal to a good many of her readers. Readers looking at this book as a traditional source of historical data may find this approach subjective and a bit unconventional. It must be emphasized here that the data collected and recorded in this book is of great importance to students of American history and to all those generations of Mexican-American people who have now become assimilated in the multicultural American so ciety. The book will find a ready readership amongst scholars in who are taking courses or researching in the areas of Diaspora, immigration and ethnic studies. It is also an asset for teachers who have to teach courses in this filed. This book is of special interest to women all over the world and to anyone who wishes to learn about the Mexican settlers in America and the contribution Mexican-American women have made to the development, organization and sustenance of Latino culture in the American society. Through the pages of this book Vicki Ruiz has truly rescued the Mexican- American woman and drawn them From Out of the Shadows. Work Cited: Ruiz, V.L. 2008. From Out of the Shadows: Mexican Women in Twentieth Century America. New York: Oxford University Press. Print. .