Thursday, November 28, 2019

Midsummer Essays (1380 words) - Robert Frost,

Midsummer COMPARISON OF: ROBERT FROST'S ?STOPPING BY WOODS ON A SNOWY EVENING? AND ?ACQUAINTED WITH THE NIGHT? Robert Frost's poems ?Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening? and ?Acquainted with the Night? seem to be ordinary poems at first glance, but after an in depth look at these works and how they relate, they become much more. Frost seemed to keep a tone of mystery throughout each of these poems, never actually telling the reader exactly what was going on. By the same token, the poems gave off sense of darkness and gloom just adding to the mystery of what lies ahead. Neither of the characters in these poems seem to be very happy which also augments the gloomy mood of these poems. The characters in these poems also appear to be on some kind of journey, but are reluctant to go ahead and find out what fate has planned for them. A sense of obligation is also present in these poems, an obligation which must be fulfilled, whether the character likes it or not. More easily seen is the mystery in each of these poems. Frost keeps the reader in suspense by never telling the reader what exactly is going on, but just touches on what might be going on. And to make things even more mysterious, he gives you hints, and leaves the reader with a lot to think about in these poems. In ?Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening,? Frost exhibits this fairly clearly when his character mentions in the first line of the poem ?Whose woods these are I think I know/His house is in the village, though;/He will not see me stopping here.? These first three lines set a mood of dishonesty, as if the character is not supposed to be there, but it's all right for now because the owner doesn't know he's there. This little hint pops a question in your mind, ?What exactly is this guy doing?,? hence the mystery. Frost once again sets the mood for mystery in ?Acquainted with the Night,? by making known the presence of authority when his character states, ?I have passed by the wa tchman on his beat/And dropped my eyes unwilling to explain.? The character seems to be feeling guilty, or afraid of the authority figure and drops his eyes to the watchman because of this. But why would he feel guilty or afraid? Again, a mysterious hint. Also projected by these poems is a sense of darkness, which goes hand in hand with the mystery in these poems. The titles of these poems alone suggest darkness. Let me ask you one question; what time of day is the most mysterious? Of course the ?Evening? or ?Night? is the most mysterious time of day. But Frost does not stop here in emphasizing darkness in these poems. ?The darkest evening of the year.? This selection from ?Stopping by Woods in a Snowy Evening,? amplifies even more the sense of darkness in these poems. Why is this evening ?the darkest of the year Night is night no doubt. But what makes this evening so dark? Is it so dark because the cloud cover from the snowfall is blocking out the moon and stars, desecrating the available light? If this is true, then how could there be enough light to ?watch his woods fill up with snow,? to see that there is ?[no] farmhouse near,? or that ?the woods are lovely, dark and deep Maybe it is not that the evening is dark in the sense of ni ght versus day, but maybe it is a personification of how the character feels. Perhaps the character has hit a low point in their life and this is why the character describes the night as ?The darkest,? i.e. the lowest or saddest, ?evening of the year.? From ?Acquainted with the Night,? Frost's character mentions, ?I have outwalked the furthest city light.? When the character states that he have ?outwalked the furthest city light? it projects a very strong and large sense of darkness. During the night, the brightest light may be from a city, and to ?outwalk? this strong light, the character must walk very far, hence, ?furthest.? Immediately after this line, the character says ?I have looked down

Monday, November 25, 2019

Rubber and Alternatives essays

Rubber and Alternatives essays A forebearer to the rubber industry has been in existence since 1876 when an Englishman, Henry Wickham, returned to England from Brazil with rubber tree seeds he had gathered for germination. However, societys use of rubber predates that existence by almost 3500 years. The MesoAmericans were known to have used the latex produced by the rubber tree for a variety of purposes, including the making of rubber balls that they would use for games and entertainment. Currently, of course, the rubber industry creates a wide variety of products for which rubber is incorporated. The rubber industry not only continues to employ the latex produced by the rubber plant to produce such products, but it has also been able to add polymer blends to enhance that production. The use of polymer blends is an effective method for altering the performance of polymer materials and is widely employed in engineering plastics, rubber and fiber materials (Chiu, Tsai, 2006, p. 89). Adding polymers to the rubber provides an even more durable product and enhances the usability of natural rubber (NR) as compared to the polybutadiene classification of rubber (BR). Natural rubber is classified as rubber that is derived from natural ingredients, while polybutadiene rubber is classified as containing additives to enhance certain qualities. Chius study of the differences between the two classifications of rubber provides evidence that Natural rubber...has certain advantages, such as flexibility but the same study shows that some of its properties fall short in certain applications, such as oil resistance, air permeability, ozone resistance, compression set and thermal aging resistance (Chiu, p. 89). BR can be classified as one of a number of synthetic rubbers. There are a number of reasons why the rubber industry has found it necessary to develop these alternatives to using natural rubber. Those re...

Thursday, November 21, 2019

Market Research Individual Assignment Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Market Research Individual Assignment - Essay Example This is the reason why market research is being given more and more importance by the business top heads and the specialists who devise such plans to take the business forward. What is required now is a vision to set things right through the different manifestations of the market research and to make sure that this market research will bring positive results for the business in the end. The problems that a business might face at one point in time are very closely aligned with how well its market research has been conducted. This means that the issues which plague it in a number of different divisions are given the significance. This will make sure that the market research comes to the rescue of the people who are concerned with the business domains and settings. If the market research is conducted in a proper manner and used in an adequately sound way, there is no reason why a business should find itself behind the intelligence measures, which are so required in the time and age of t oday. Even though market research is divided into primary and secondary research, the fact of the matter is that both of these remain very pertinent towards gaining an understanding of the business dynamics, as has been evidenced through research and practice. The primary research finds out where the personal observations and direct experiences are made use of within the business enterprise yet the secondary research has more credibility – coming in directly from established sources like books, journals, periodicals, magazines, websites, newspapers and so on. The basic difference between the two is that the primary research is conducted separately for every project that is run within the business settings while the secondary form of research comes with knowledge, time and experience. The manner in which these market research domains can benefit the business is open to a number of perceptions and perspectives. Some believe that it has little scope and if of minimal practice ye t the majority of the people hold the opinion that it is indeed a very essential barometer of finding out where success lies within the business regimes and what more could be done to exploit the very same in the coming times. When the top management wants to go ahead with a particular project or undertaking, it needs to make sure that it has covered itself in a number of different ways, most significantly through both primary and secondary research bases. In essence, the role of the top management is of dire consequence to the overall success or the complete lack thereof of the business domains. If this is ensured, many tasks would be completed in an easy going way (Douglas, 2000). The top management needs to know what mistakes it is making in the wake of the market research initiatives which remain important, and if these are not taken in proper accordance, then there could be serious repercussions for one and all within the realms of an organization. The various types of data tha t are made use of within an organization comprise of its understanding as to how and where this data will actually be made use of. What this suggests is the fact that such data measures are handled differently by the varied departments within a business enterprise and are looked after well by the ones who are most closely associated with the same. Certain data is geared to suit the needs of the stakeholders while other is related with what the

Wednesday, November 20, 2019

Women In Artwork Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Women In Artwork - Essay Example There are also several transformations that have taken place in the artwork field, particularly in the 21st century as many artists have turned to use of technology in designing images and expressing peoples beauty. Apparently, its only a few sculptors that have been left in the field art. Additionally, the demand for sculptures has reduced as people are currently using digital cameras to make images, particularly in 3D images. In this essay paper, an evaluation is discussed on the role of women in art and the various transformations taking place in the field of art. Venus figurine, also known as Venus of Willendorf, for instance, is a statuette that can be traced back in the upper Paleolithic. The statuette, unearthed in Europe, is designed to portray a body of a woman though with some physical features being exaggerated. The sculpture is said to have existed since the gravetian period from 22,000 to 28,000 years back. Materials used for the sculpture included; soft stone such as limestone and steatite, as well as bones or ivory and fired clay. Nefertiti Bust is another renowned artifacts discovered in Egypt during the historical archeological activities by a German archeological team. Nefertiti bust is believed to have been an image of a royal wife of Egypt, in the Pharaoh Akhenaten royal family. Its also believed to be 3,300 years made of limestone and created by a sculptor well known as Thutmose. Cyclades is a renowned island on the southeastern part of Greece with a rich history on artwork, particularly on the discovery of Cyclades Figurines Getty Villa artifacts. In the mid-2000s B.C, a pregnant female figure, with the characteristics of the Spedos and Dokathismata was discovered through archeological activities in the Cyclades Island. Apparently, the artifact is displayed at Getty Villa gallery, it also said to be made of marble and created by Schuster Master In the modern age today, many artist and sculptors have continued to

Monday, November 18, 2019

Ethical Issues in Research Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Ethical Issues in Research - Essay Example It studies the principles about how we should do things right. We study ethics in order to improve our lives, and therefore its principal concern is the nature of human well-being. (Aristotles Ethics, 2007) Despite all these supposed advantages, there are still numerous ethical issues. This is because people interpret ethics differently. I might think of something as ethical while it may be totally unethical for another person. This is what leads to ethical problems and concerns. In the context of research, let's say, that a scientist feels that it is perfectly moral to test medicine on animals. He thinks so because his priority is benefit of science. An environmentalist, on the other hand, may feel apprehended at the thought of animals being made test subjects because his utmost priority is to protect the environment. What can we say about ethics here Both parties, in their places, are entirely reasonable. However, an ethical issue arises because both have different conventions for distinguishing between right and wrong. These issues are faced everyone everyday. Everybody comes to a point where they have to decide between what's right and what's not. This dilemma becomes especially apparent when carrying out research. There are specific norms for everything; in case of ethics of research, they are the aims or goals to be applied to people who conduct research in a systematic and scientific manner or other scholarly or creative activities, and there is a specific discipline, research ethics, on which these norms are based (Resnik, 2007). Ethical Issues Like mentioned above, these norms serve the goals of research. What are these goals The most important goal of research clearly is to find out whatever is possible about what is being studied. How does sticking to these ethical norms achieve this aim The answer is in the following section. While we get to that, we will study about the conflict of research and ethics.The biggest problem with carrying out ethical research is that it doesn't give perfectly naturalistic results. Either you can have an absolutely ecologically valid study or you can be absolutely moralistic and adhere to every ethical norm. Ecological validity is when the study is true to life. One may think, what has that got to do with ethics To carry out an ecologically valid research, it is important that subjects don't know about a lot of things that could cause demand bias characteristics or results that are affected by preconceived notions. And if subjects don't know a lot of things, this means that they haven't bee n told by the researchers and this is unethical. Researchers, on the other hand, may say that it was ethical as they kept things private for the benefit of science. Nevertheless, for an average person, it is unethical to keep things from the subjects of the study. This ethical issue is an honesty issue. Apart from honesty, another concern is confidentiality. When researchers carry out research and find amazing results, they feel obliged to share it with the rest if the world even if it means breaching of the initial agreement. Information about participants is leaked out and this too for them is for the good of science. Sharing results is one thing, while breaking a contact is another. The

Saturday, November 16, 2019

The Fall of the Berlin Wall

The Fall of the Berlin Wall The Fall of the Berlin Wall The history books, the political polemics, and economic and the geopolitical analyses of the fall of communism and the break-up of the Soviet Union fill shelves with cruel crimes committed for the party and proletariat under the dreaded regimes of Stalin, Khrushchev, and Brezhnev. The end of the empire, however, was humiliatingly public, glowing on millions of television screens as sledgehammers tore chunks out of the Berlin Wall. The end of the end began in 1985 with the ascendancy of Mikhail Gorbachev and a new generation of Soviet leaders born after Stalin and his paranoid terrors had died. Ironically, the penultimate cause of the collapse was the Soviet Unions invasion of Afghanistan, where it fought a hopeless war for nearly a decade, which that almost crushed its economy to a halt and, like the Vietnam war, called into question national leadership and purpose. The presidency passed from a rather incompetent Jimmy Carter to Ronald Regan, who had no appetite for further appeasement with the Kremlin. Historian Paul Johnson argues that the tremendous losses in Afghanistan left the Soviet Union incapable of facing President Reagans Strategic Defense Initiative, and the new leadership in Moscow realized that their imperial ventures had caused the Soviet economy to rust (History of the American People 928-29). â€Å"For our internal progress, Gorbachev said in 1987, we need normal international relations. The Soviets had to catch up to the rising prosperity and technological advances of Europe and North America. The Soviet Union had to concentrate on domestic development and promote international peace whenever possible. However, it could only accomplish such a goal by giving up any global ambitions. Therefore, as Paul Johnson and other historians point out, Gorbachev abandoned the traditional Soviet anti-western orientation. He wanted to integrate the Soviet Union into the main currents of modern life and that meant democracy, free enterprise and a market economy. He gave the Soviet Union and the World two slogans:perestroika (restructuring) and glasnost (openness). Perestroika held out the promise of reorganizing the state and society. For example, individual initiative would be revived and there would be emphasis on technology and a higher standard of living. Glasnost was the corrective held up to Stalinist excesses. Openness would permit the open discussion of the nations problems and it would rid public thinking of propaganda and lies. Soviet pseudo-history, pilloried in George Orwells dystopian novel, 1984, tapered off. New histories published archival material on the Stalinist purges and the Great Terror. In Gorbachevs way of thinking, the Russian Communist Party was to serve as the vanguard of perestroika and stimulate civic activity and responsibility. In 1990, the Supreme Soviet elected Gorbachev as the countrys president for a term of five years. At the time, Gorbachev was still the leader of the increasingly unpopular Communist Party. Economic changes accompanied these political reforms. Industrial enterprise was encouraged which in turn would foster private initiative and loosed the stranglehold of decades of central planning. By 1990, Gorbachev was cautiously promoting a market economy including the individuals right to possess private property. Religious freedoms were restored and in 1988, the Russian Orthodox Church celebrated its 1000th anniversary. Meanwhile, contacts with the outside world, especially the west, began to intensify. However, all this seemingly good stuff especially from the western perspective had its downside as well. For instance, glasnost released decad es of bitterness which had accumulated over the fifty years of Stalinist repression and terror. Perestroika and glasnost also revealed the widespread ecological damage the Soviets had caused on the environment. Gorbachevs reforms also polarized opinion in ways that even Gorbachev and his stalwart supporters could never have foreseen. In an effort to preserve unity by compromise, Gorbachev entered a bitter quarrel with his more radical rival, Boris Yeltsin. The weakening of traditional Soviet authority and the release of history brought about by the reforms of Mikhail Gorbachev, in the end, brought disunity. Meanwhile, Lithuanians, Latvians and Estonians all demanded independence which in turn set off similar demands among Ukrainians, Georgians, Byelorussians, Armenians and the various peoples of central Asia. By the late 1980s, inter-ethnic violence had escalated. And in 1990, the Russian Republic, the largest republic of the Soviet Union, declared its limited independence under Yeltsin, and an Anti-Reform Russian Communist Party broke off from the reformist party faction led by Gorbachev. Meanwhile, the transition to a market economy was too complex for ready and easy solutions. The production and distribution of consumer goods collapsed. Local governments hoarded essential commodities and the black market flourished as did the Russian Mafia. As journalist David Remnick has written: the Communist Party apparatus was the most gigantic Mafia the world has ever known. It guarded its monopoly on power with a sham consensus and constitution and backed it up with the force of the KGB and the Interior Ministry police. (Kreis, History Guide) In October 1990, Gorbachev remarked, unfortunately, our society is not ready for the procedures of a law-based state. Oppressed generations lose high expectations and the Communist elite, hypothetically similar to the Guardians in Platos utopia had lost perspective. Grenville twists an old maxim that explains the myopia: â€Å"Absolute power not only corrupts, it blinds† (894). Gorbachevs own hammer blow for Eastern Europe, Harold Evans observes, was â€Å"to renounce Brezhnevs imperial doctrine by which the Soviet Union had claimed the right to intervene in defense of its ideology in any Communist country† (American Century 655). Outside the Soviet Union, perestroika and glasnost spread among people who were resentful of Soviet domination and worried about economic collapse. In 1989 and 1990, these people showed their dislike of communist leadership and demanded democratic reforms. Poland took the lead. Here the population was traditionally anti-Russian. The Poles had long protested their countrys economic decline. Soviet assurance to assist and massive loans from western Europe brought no relief. The slightest relaxation of Soviet control only encouraged Polish nationalism, which had always been expressed with the support of the Roman Catholic Church. With the selection of Pope John Paul II in 1978, Polish nationalism surged ahead. In 1980, workers under the leadership of a electrician, Lech Walesa, succeeded in forming an independent labor union called Solidarity. Pressured by a series of strikes, the Polish government recognized Solidarity, despite threats of Soviet intervention. J.A.S. Grenville hits the truth squarely: â€Å"Masses lost their fear of the state† (894) Significantly, the Christian Cross opposed the Soviet hammer and sickle. As nearly all observers assumed, Walesa enjoyed the hefty support of the Roman Catholic Church and from Polish Catholics in the United States that warrants amplification. Scholars and historians will debate for years to come the precise causes and historical forces that produced the sudden collapse of communism at the end of the 1980s. One matter not in dispute, however, will be the earth-shattering role played in the process by Pope John Paul II, the Polish pope. Jack Kemp stresses the spiritual strength and personal prestige the Pope put behind the Solidarity, or freedom movement. From the day of Cardinal Karol Wojtylas election to the papacy in October 1978, Kemp observes, the Pope â€Å"began to shake the very foundations of communism† (Human Events). With a Polish Pope in Rome, the Polish church increased its resistance against communism. Pope John Paul II encouraged his fellow countryman, Lech Walesa, as Kemp reports, and Walesa eventually became president of Poland post-communism (Human Events). After the crumbing of totalitarian communism, Pope John Paul II released a papal encyclical titled Centesimus Annus (1991), which explained within a Christian framework why communism had failed and from that failure drew lessons about social, political and economic organization. The papal encyclical urged people not to establish an ideological heaven on Earth but to maintain human dignity and social conditions conducive to each individuals opportunity to achieve salvation of his soul. In short, the Pontiff placed individual freedom deeply within the core of Christian theology. In January 1989, Solidarity was legalized and the Communist Party retired. In May 1989, Hungary abolished the communist bureaucracy. By years end there were more than fifty political parties. In East Germany, the upheaval in 1989 was even more momentous. East Germany had always been indispensable to Soviet Russia. Its industry was nationalized, its agriculture collectivized and its people regimented by the Communist Party. In June 1953, the workers of East Berlin staged an uprising. What followed as a steady exodus of skilled workers into West Germany. Three million people escaped before the East German government erected the infamous Berlin Wall in August 1961. The East Germans braved their lives to escape: they â€Å"voted with their feet.† Bulgaria, Romania, Czechoslovakia, and Hungary soon followed suit and East and West Germany united in 1990. In the long and bitter Cold War, capitalism and freedom triumphed over communism and tyranny. Gorbachev and Yeltsin came along at the right time and faced the hidden facts of a long ruined system. American military and economic power made the Cold War too costly for the Soviet Union to press without smashing up. Gorbachev, Yeltsin, Walesa, and the Pope helped cause the fall of communism, but none compared with the late President Ronald Regan and his â€Å"innocent audacity† (Evans 656) who called the Soviet Union an empire of Evil and threatened to bankrupt it with a â€Å"star wars† defense. The national and international causes of the fall of communism were rooted in economic, military, political, trade balances, and imperial illusions, but few can deny that the United States, for decade after decade, carried the brunt of containing a predatory system. Future historians may revive tentative conclusions, but one that seems to do justice to the fall comes from Harold Evans at the end of his The American Century: History will go on unraveling the knot of circumstance, stratagem, chance, and personality. In the end, it is unlikely that no single brow will be able to claim the wreath of victory over a dangerous and depressing totalitarianism. But there can be no doubt that it was the American example, in its spiritual as well as its material beneficence, that in the long dark years was the torch of freedom all the world could see. (656) Works Cited Boyer, Paul S., ed. The Oxford Companion to United States History. Oxford: Oxford UP, 2001. Evans, Harold. The American Century. New York: Knopf, 1998. â€Å"Fall of Communism.† U.S Department of State. December 8, 2005. http://www.state.gov/r/pa/ho/time/dr/17672.htm Grenville, J.A. S. A History of the World in the Twentieth Century. Cambridge: Harvard UP, 1994. Johnson, Paul. A History of the American People. New York: Harper, 1997. Kemp, Jack. â€Å"How the Pope Helped Bring about the Fall of Communism.† Human Events. Posted Apr 5, 2005. http://www.humaneventsonline.com/article.php?id=7064 Kreis, Steven. The History Guide. 1989: â€Å"The Walls Came Tumbling Down.† http://www.historyguide.org/europe/lecture16.html Accessed Dec. 8, 2005.

Wednesday, November 13, 2019

The Purpose of the Federal Reserve System Essay -- The Fed and the Eco

Over the past few years we have realized the impact that the Federal Government has on our economy, yet we never knew enough about the subject to understand why. While taking this Economics course it has brought so many things to our attention, especially since we see inflation, gas prices, unemployment and interest rates on the rise. It has given us a better understanding of the effect of the Government on the economy, the stock market, the interest rates, etc. Since the Federal Government has such a control over our Economy, we decided to tackle the subject of the Federal Reserve System and try to get a better understanding of the history, the structure, and the monetary policy of the power that it holds. The Federal Reserve System is the central banking authority of the United States. It acts as a fiscal agent for the United States government and is custodian of the reserve accounts of commercial banks, makes loans to commercial banks, and is authorized to issue Federal Reserve notes that constitute the entire supply of paper currency of the country. Created by the Federal Reserve Act of 1913, it is comprised of 12 Federal Reserve banks, the Federal Open Market Committee, and the Federal Advisory Council, and since 1976, a Consumer Advisory Council which includes several thousand member banks. The board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System determines the reserve requirements of the member banks within statutory limits, reviews and determines the discount rates established pursuant to the Federal Reserve Act to serve the public interest; it is governed by a board of nine directors, six of whom are elected by the member banks and three of whom are appointed by the Board of Govern ors of the Federal Reserve System. The Federal Reserve banks are located in Boston, New York, Philadelphia, Chicago, San Francisco, Cleveland, Richmond, Atlanta, Saint Louis, Minneapolis, Kansas City and Dallas. The Federal Open Market Committee, consisting of the seven members of the Board of Governors and five members elected by the Federal Reserve banks, is responsible for the determination of Federal Reserve Bank policy in the purchase and sale of securities on the open market. The Federal Advisory Council, whose role is purely advisory, consists of 12 members if they meet membership qualifications. The Federal Reserve System exercises its regulatory powers in seve... ...erve. We feel that the latter is on the radical side of thinking, and that overall the Federal Reserve has the best interest of the nation and international economy in all their decisions regarding the increases in interest rates, etc. Since the onset of the Federal Reserve we have not gone into a major depression, and over a course of time there will be times when our economy will peak and boom and the Fed will feel that it is time to slow the economy by raising the rates. Bibliography FED 101 Hosted by The Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City. http://www.kc.frb.org/fed101 Friedman, Milton and Jacobson Schwartz, Anna. A Monetary History of the United States, 1867-1960. Princeton, 1963 Hailstones, Thomas and Rothwell, John. Managerial Economics, 1993. Prentice Hall, 1993 Metzler, Allan H. A History of the Federal Reserve, Vol I and II. University Press Books, 2002 National Information Center for the Federal Reserve System. http://www.ffiec.gov/nic Rabboh, Bob and Bartson, Ronald J. Principles of Economics. Pearson, 2002 The Federal Reserve Board. http://www.federalreserve.gov The Federal Reserve System Online. http://www.federalreserveonline.org