Boring essays

Boring essays The three stories that are to be discussed contrast in several different ways. The stories of Bruce Evans, and Jean Crawley, differ from those of Grant McRae for several different reasons. The stories of Bruce and Jean had a view of home life during the war as well as a view of a soldier who fought on the ground. Grant McRaes story was that of an air force soldier who did little work on the ground. Bruces story was one of bravery as they marched across Europe in an attempt to free it from the Nazis hold, while Grant told a story of being locked away in a POW camp. The final way that the stories were different is that Jean and Bruce had stories that were filled with fact and locations, were as, Grant didnt teach he just reminisced, and it was written down. Ultimately all three veterans tell different stories, this shows us that although they fought in the same war there were many different aspects to it. When Bruces told his story it was one of triumph. He began by telling the class about how he became a soldier and his training, but ultimately the bulk of his story came when he entered combat in Normandy. Bruce spun tails of heroics of taking out the German gunners and taking that part of France for the allies. His story continued to the liberation of Holland from the Germans and the wonderful welcome that they received from the Dutch. His story concluded with his march into Germany were he heard that the war was over, and he returned to Holland got rid of his armaments, and was treated like a hero by the Dutch. Jeans story is another story of bravery. Jean told tales of how the women were brave enough to enlist in to the armed services. She spoke of how these women were willing to risk their lives in order to protect their homeland from air raids done by the Germans, risking their own lives by shinning lights on the planes, making them vulnerable to bombing. Grant told a ver y different story. ...

Kaplan MCAT Courses

Kaplan MCAT Courses If youve set your sights on mastering the MCAT before you register, then you know youll need to prepare for it with practice tests, books, apps, tutoring or MCAT courses. If taking a class has been on your mind, then youre in the right spot. Many test prep companies out there offer MCAT courses to help you master the skills, testing techniques and knowledge youll need for test day. Kaplan is one of those companies, but their programs are top-notch and their reputation is typically outstanding. Heres what Kaplan has to offer. Kaplan MCAT Courses Kaplan Test Prep is the largest test prep company out there, and with its size comes great products and test prep materials. The MCAT course options listed below, taught by one of Kaplans trained teachers, all come complete with the Kaplan Higher Score Guarantee: If youre not ready to take the MCAT, you can study with Kaplan again for free. Or, if for any reason youre dissatisfied with your score gain, you can study again for free. And, if you dont score higher on the MCAT at all, you can study with Kaplan for free or get your money back. MCAT Classroom: On Site The Kaplan On Site MCAT course is just as it states: youll take your classes in an actual classroom with an actual Kaplan teacher. Why is this good? Personal attention, of course, with an interactive setting. The classes and times will vary according to your exact location, but I typed in my zip code, and found nine classes available for enrollment in less than 15 miles from my location. At press time the cost was $1,999 or three payments of $666.33 Whats Included: 11,000 practice questions, in addition to MCAT Qbank custom quizzes19 full-length exams11 supplemental lessons online, with a live teacherOver 200 hours of MCAT instructionAccess to all AAMC exams, including the Self Assessment PackageA Mobile-enabled and optimized syllabus in MCAT prep MCAT Classroom: Anywhere The Kaplan Anywhere MCAT course is   for those of you whod like a teacher, but dont have the time to travel to a physical classroom. The classes are live, so you will have to boot up the old computer at a certain time to take the course, but there are literally scores of options for class times and days since you arent restricted to your zip code. At press time the cost was $1,999 or three payments of $666.33 Whats Included: 25 live, online classroom sessions led by expert instructors11,000 practice questions, in addition to MCAT Qbank custom quizzes19 full-length exams130 additional hours of on-demand video instructionAccess to all AAMC exams, including the Self Assessment Package MCAT On Demand The Kaplan On Demand MCAT course is designed for people with hectic schedules, who need to cram in some prep time whenever they can. Its available 24/7 because the lectures are not live like the Anywhere and On Site MCAT courses – theyre recorded. Watch them whenever youd like, as often as youd like, for as long as youd like. Pause and start over if you need to or watch the entire lecture again and again. At press time the cost was $1,833 or three payments of $633.00 Whats Included: 25 core lessons- and over 130 hours of total instruction-led by expert instructors11,000 practice questions and custom quizzes with Kaplans MCAT Qbank19 full-length examsAccess to all AAMC exams, including the Self Assessment Package Signing Up for Kaplans MCAT Courses If you like what you see with Kaplans MCAT courses, you can call 1-800-KAP-TEST to enroll, or you can head to Kaplans website to check availability and sign up online.

CASE STUDY-WALMART'S JAPAN STRATEGY Study Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

-WALMART'S JAPAN STRATEGY - Case Study Example The author goes on to explain the issues faced by the company in its quest for international expansion. The major problem faced in Japan was the cultural diversity that existed between its American and Japanese employees. Another factor is that the company, known for its low prices, did not find favor with the Japanese mentality. Unlike the United States, the Japanese equated low prices with poor quality. In Mexico and the United Kingdom, the company faced stiff from other retailers. In Mexico, three of the prominent retailers formed an operational alliance to get the benefits of large-scale purchases in order to compete with Wal-Mart. The study suggests that the entry of Wal-Mart into Japan was timed perfectly (in a strategic context). The country was just emerging out of a recession and Wal-Mart hoped that low prices would be a hit with cash strapped consumers. But the strategy has not been accepted well by the people because of the reason mentioned above. The next section provides a balance sheet and income statement of the corporation for the years 2000 - 2003. It can be seen that there has been a steady growth over these years in all parameters like assets, income, profits and dividends.

Health Care Finance in the United States SLP Essay

Health Care Finance in the United States SLP - Essay Example NC Health Choice for Children does not cover pregnancy related services. Another major advantage of getting healthcare for citizens in North Carolina is that individuals cannot be rejected because of health condition. Furthermore, health Care Coverage program eligibility is based on family’s finance. Seniors along with unemployed need to have a specific medical need when application is made. Just like in other states, patients can opt for either HMO or PPO plans. This allows an individual to select a plan with a different ramifications since different provides will charge a different price. North Carolina’s policies regarding health care is not much different than federal policies outlined for other states. As a matter of fact, North Carolina dictates that children under 18 are eligible for Medicaid. Medicaid is quite essential is provides affordable healthcare to parties that cannot afford insurance. One important detail about Medicaid is the fact that nearly all cost-sharing is prohibited for children covered based on family income. Hence in separate plans, the state has the ability to demand premiums, deductibles or other cost-sharing fees. This means that children’s coverage can be covered by Medicaid or a private insurance company depending on the family’s income. Â  In North Carolina the self-employed and small business are guaranteed access, and insurance companies are limited in, which is dictated by other factors. One of the key factors that dictates healthcare polices is the cost of unhealthy versus healthy self-employed individuals and small groups. Even under the best of circumstances, those who are new to the health insurance market, or have previously been covered by an employer, should be prepared for sticker shock. A standard small group health insurance policy in North Carolina can easily cost $15,000 or more for a family. Most self-employees obtain the HNOnly Plan H-101, in which the deductible for individual is

The Ways Juliet Changes in Romeo and Juliet Essay Example for Free

The Ways Juliet Changes in Romeo and Juliet Essay 1. The way in which her maturity level changes is extreme. In the 3rd scene in act 1 it shows how young she is (13) as she has not even thought of the idea of marriage. She says† It is an honour that I dream not of.† Meaning she has not thought about marriage yet. While she is doing this Romeo is still in deep sorrow about the fact that Rosaline does not love him but he loves her. These 2 points show the difference in age and maturity already as she is not having much to do with boys but Romeo is already chasing girls. A fact that is shocking to any modern day person is that she is only 13 at the beginning of the play and she is being asked about marriage. This shows the time that the play is set in as it is normal to get married at this age. Lady Capulet says, â€Å" Thou knowest my daughter’s of a pretty age† in Act 1 scene 3. Juliet also says that she will think about the idea of marriage which links onto my next point. Another thing that shows how young she is that even though she has never met Romeo before she immediately falls in love with her. This shows her immaturity. Modern day people talk about teenage love and how it is so unlikely to last and how teenagers will fall in love at first sight but never really make a relationship last. Well this is an example of that but in those days if you loved each other you would get married. The way she is only around 1 day into her relationship and is getting married shows how venerable she is which is another factor adding to her maturity level. Another factor about her maturity level is that she develops from someone who takes no risks to taking a life threatening risk. A point that shows she is young is that she is like a sheep at the beginning. Following what ever Romeo did but then she changes that and becomes more mature and thinking hard about whether Romeo is right for her. In the end she decides to do the bravest thing anyone could ever do in her situation. Though her immaturity does not think it through very well as she never though about what might happen if Romeo saw her â€Å"dead†. Both Romeo’s act of killing Tybalt and Juliet’s poison act ended up in maturity getting the better of both of them. If either of them had been more mature then Romeo would have run away rather than kill and Juliet would not of had to take the poison. 2. The way she obeys her parents explains her maturity. At the beginning she is obeying every word her parents say and then at the end she takes poison to evade marrying someone her parents have arranged a marriage with. At the beginning of the play she also trusts her nurse and obeys her as well. During the middle of the play she meets the rebellious Romeo who has met Juliet at a party after he has been mourning his loss of Rosaline, they decide in scene 6 acts 2 to get married. They enter Friar Lawrence’s cell and get married. This marriage is secret and this is the start of the times when she disobeys her parents. The final stage of her complete disobeying of her parents and nurse is when she takes the poison. She also shuns her nurse and tells her go away after she proposes that Juliet marries Paris. Her father is also extremely angry as he set up the marriage and she does not want to get married. 3. Her perception of Romeo changes dramatically through out the play as well. First of all she starts off by thinking he is wonderful and the best man to ever love and then she cannot decide whether he is evil or good. This happens after he kills Tybalt. A quote to describe her feeling for him is â€Å"Beautiful tyrant†. This oxymoron shows how she is confused about whether he is a good man or evil. She gets very defence over him though when the nurse says bad things about him. She is confused over her feeling for Romeo. Her feeling for him change through out the play as she her picture of him changes from handsome and a good man to an evil/still good man. She still loves him very much though as she risks her life for him taking poison and then ends up killing herself as her husband committed suicide think she was dead. Another quote that explains her confusion over whether Romeo is good or bad is â€Å"honourable villain† or â€Å"Upon his brow shame is ashamed to sit† These 2 quotes explain how he is honourable to her but a villain to everyone else. And also how shame would never be a characteristic about him. In summary she changes majorly throughout the whole play. From immature to mature and from not even thinking about marriage to marriage. Overall her as a character becomes an adult. No longer is she obeying her parents and not being in love. She has transformed to a proper young adult who knows what the word love means and its full values. Also she learns how important some people are to her and that if you want things your way you are going to have to take risks in order to full those wishes of hers. These wishes end in blood spill and peace between the 2 previously raging families.

Chinese Culture :: Cultural Identity Essays

The communist government thought that the liberation of women, who make half the population of China, was necessary for China to have complete freedom (Heng). Child weddings were banned, concubines were outlawed and brothels were closed. Women were allowed to hold real jobs. Some went to night school, or worked at the factory (Wudden). Laws were passed that equalized women under the law. The major ones were, The Chinese constitution of the early which 1950s. Which stated that Chinese women enjoyed equal rights with men in political, economic, social, cultural, and family life. The state protected women's rights and interests, practiced equal pay for equal work, and provided equal opportunity for women's training and promotion (Heng). The Marriage Law, which eliminated arranged marriages, saying that both women and men were free to choose their marriage partners, and widows were allowed to remarry (Heng). The Inheritance Law, which recognized the equal right of women to inherit family property (Heng). The Labor Insurance Regulations Law of 1951 guaranteed women 56 days of maternity leave with full pay (Heng). The Land Reform Law of the early 1950s provided rural women with an equal share of land under their own name, protecting their economic independence (Heng). After women got married conditions remained much the same, only instead of being subject to a father they were subject to their husbands. Like they had to with their brothers and fathers they had to obey their husbands absolutely and without question. Their husbands often had two or three wives. A major change though when a woman got married was that she was also subject to her mother in law, a relationship that was often very nasty (Zhou). When a woman’s husband died she couldn’t remarry, that would be disloyal to her husband. Even if she had no food it was better for a woman to die of hunger than remarry.

The Essense Of Buddhism

John Snelling has written that scientists with their scientific information have succeeded in sending space craft to distant planets or even probe to remote quarters of the planet with radio telescopes, (Snelling 7). They may investigate the mysteries of the sub atomic world with electron microscopes. But the thing that infact know least about is this great mystery that is right here with us all the time- the heart of the matter behind Buddhism.For like every one they subscribe to consensus view and don’t give the matter a second thought. Thus, according to John Snelling of the London Buddhist Society, these scientists fail to see what is right under their nose, (291). Buddhist is concerned, Snelling has found, with the unravelling of this mystery. In the first sense it is necessary to see through the great delusion of ‘I', of the so called person. Then it is a matter of finding what really is there.And how plot thickens to penetrate this mystery is to penetrate the ulti mate mystery, the mystery of the heart of all things, and confront what the Christians called God, the Hindus Brahman or Atman-and it goes by other names in other religions. Buddhists, however hesitate to put a name to it or say anything or say anything at all about it. It is they maintain something that cannot be grasped by intellect or described in words.It cannot be seen directly; but that seeing brings about something truly miraculous: a total transformation, no less. The veils of delution fall away and last the world is perceived as it truly is. At the same time a deep compassion also crystallizes: a pure, self less kindliness and caring born of an understanding of the unity of all beings. Therefore, as has been established by John Snelling in his ‘The Buddhist handbook: a complete Guide to Buddhist Teaching and Practice', (7) Buddhism is quite simple.But as, Snelling has found out simple things are always hard to fully realize, so people need all kinds of aids and suppor t. A vast superstructure according to Snelling has therefore grown up around the basic heart core of the Buddha’s teaching: mountains of philosophical speculation, a voluminous literature, monastic codes and ethical systems, histories, cosmologies, different types of ritual and meditation practice, institutions and hierarchies. John Snelling writes of one Shuan Chin ken who wrote a preface to a text book (mumonkan)From the London Buddhist society, John Snelling (1987) established that many of those who have undertaken the study and practice of Buddhism have also taken an interest in the western psychotherapies that developed from the pioneering work of Sigmund Freud, the, the most famous western psychologist. As well as the Freudian psychoanalysis and its derivatives, Snelling has found that, this includes the analytical psychology of Freud great but errant student, Carl Gustav Jung, as well as subsequent developments right down to the present time, where Buddhism and western society have come together in a wonderful bond, (Snelling, 292).These theories, now regarded as Western psychotherapies arose towards the end of the 19th century and in the early part of the 20th century. This great discovery made by the pioneers of this movement was of the existence of the unconscious: an area or range of aspects of human psyche falling outside the normal range of conscious awareness. Snelling records the therapeutic aspects that interested Dr. Freud to study a lot on the nerve system of animals.Sigmund Freud, as recorded by, Snelling was to the view the unconscious as a kind of cellar containing mainly what he called ‘vises’, all those aspects of himself that a person does not wish to confront- the unacceptable desires, aggressive impulses, painful memories and many other areas of ego. Snelling has established cure of all these consisted reclaiming this exiled material from the abyss of knowing and restoring it to the province of consciousness- or in Freudian terminology: restoring it to the ego from the Idd, a process that Freud compared to reclaiming land from the sea, (Snelling, 295).If Freud’s tendency had been essentially secular, according to John Snelling then Jung’s ideas brought the new psychology into the area once regarded as the preserve of religion (293). Indeed he began to see the role of analysis not merely as directed towards curing neurotic symptoms but of assisting harmonious development, the flowering of individual potential, and ultimately towards securing a transformation that would take the individual beyond himself. John Snelling writes:â€Å"The fact that the approach to the numinous is the real therapy and inasmuch as you attain to the numinous experiences you are released from the curse of pathology†. (Snelling 253). To accord due credit to Jung, however, it must be said that many western Buddhists have found that this ideas represent useful bridge into exotic world of Eastern spir ituality. Some have gone so far as to undertake Jungian analysis and have found helpful, particularly in dealing with psychological problems.According to John Snelling, Alan Watts was able to explain on this in his writing of the seven symbols of life (1936); Watt propounded the idea that Buddhism has more in common with psychotherapy than with religion as the term was then understood in the west. Psychotherapy and Buddhism are intermarried and each has its part to play in assisting in its full realization, psychotherapy in helping to develop a sound ego, Buddhism in taking the process on from there, (Snelling, 298). Religion of faith Buddha emphasized that his teachings had a practical purpose and should not be blindly clung to.He the Dharma to a raft made by a man seeking to cross a dangerous hither shore of a river, representing the conditioned world, to the peaceful further shore, representing Nibanna (M. 1. 34-5). He then rhetorically asked whether such a man on reaching the ot her side should lift the raft and carry it around with him there. He therefore said, Dharma is for crossing over not for retaining, that is a follower should not grasp at Buddhist ideas and practices, but use them for their intended purpose, and then let go of them when they had fully accomplished their goal.Many ordinary Buddhists, though do not have a strong attachment to Buddhism. While the Buddha was critical to blind faith, he did not deny a role for soundly based faith or trustful confidence (saddha) for to test out his teachings, person had to have at least some initial trust in them. He emphasizes a process of listening, which arouses saddha, leading to deeper saddha and deeper practice until the heart of the teachings is directly experienced. A person then becomes an Arahat, one who has replaced faith with knowledge.Even Theravada Buddhism, which often has a rather rational unemotional image, a very deep faith in the Buddha, Dharma and Sangha is common. Ideally this is base d on the fact that some part of Buddha’s path has been found to be uplifting, thus inspiring confidence in the rest. Many people though have a calm and joyful faith (pasada) inspired by the example of those who are well established on the path. In essence therefore, Buddhism is a religion that is based on aspects of faith. In actual sense Buddhism is a religion where faith is exercised for the purposes of perfection.We therefore accept the fact the statement of acclaim that Buddhism is a religion of faith holds. Buddhism does not demand that anyone accepts their teaching on trust. The practitioner is instead invited to try them out, to expriment with them. John Snelling writes and says there is no compulsion and it happens to find truth elsewhere or otherwise all well and good, (Snelling, 4). The essential freedom from dogma is enshrined in the Buddha's words to the Kalama, a people who lived in the vicinity of the town of Kesaputta:† Come, Kalamas, do not be satisfied with heasay or with tradition or with legendary lore or with what has come down in your scriptures or with logical inference or with weighing liking for a view after pondering it over or with the thought ‘the monk is our teacher' When you know in yourselves ‘these ideas are unprofitable, liable to censure, condemned by the wise, being adopted and put into effect they lead to harm and suffering ‘, then you should abandon them†¦ ( and conversely:)when you know in yourselves these things are profitable†¦Ã¢â‚¬Ëœ then you should practice them and abide in them. † (Snelling, 3). Philosophical foundations According to John Snelling, in his The Buddhist Handbook: A complete Guide to Buddhist Teaching and Practice Buddhism as a religion is based o philosophical foundations. He writes: â€Å"At the core of Mahayana philosophy lays the notion of emptiness: Shunyata. Buddha very much in the spirit of anata as first teaches this. It is not used to imply, not me re or sheer nothingness, but ‘emptiness of inherent existence’; that is, the absence of any kind of enduring or self –sustaining essence.There is also a sense in which it has connotations of conceptual emptiness: absence of thoughts. It could be regarded too as a non-term signifying the ineffable understanding arising within the practice of meditation†¦Ã¢â‚¬  Therefore, Shunyata as used by Buddha has formed this philosophical foundation in Buddhism, although in addition to this Snelling introduces another key term tathata which according to Buddhism philosophical foundations means ‘thusness’ or ‘suchness’ which signifies Emptiness in its immanent aspect: as it appears in the world of form.The Buddha, as Snelling writes, is sometimes called the Tathagata: ‘He who is thus gone’. The Tathagata-garbha (garbha means ‘germ’) doctrine, on the other hand, proposes the notion of an imminent Absolute: the manifestat ion in form of a transcendental principle, (Snelling,5). Therefore it is true Buddhism has some philosophical foundations as it written by John Snelling, (Snelling, 4). In conclusion we have seen that Buddhism involves that Buddhism has evolved on the basis of some philosophical foundations and that it involves psychological, religious, some mystical experience and meditations.Unlike other religions, Buddhism holds the religious perfection in which one should not clung of practical faith but should eventually make it to knowledge. Therefore, this makes it more a practical experience. It is such aspects, according to John Snelling that drive us to believe that there is no Buddhism but only Buddhists. REFERENCES Snelling, John. The Buddhist Handbook: A complete Guide to Buddhist Teaching and Practice. London: Rider, 1987.

Presocratic Philosophy Essay

Introduction As early Greek civilization grew more complex (c. 500 b. c. e. ), mythology and religion began to develop into philosophy (and later into science). As part of this development, a new kind of thinker emerged known as a sophos, from the Greek word for â€Å"wise. † These â€Å"wise men,† and they were almost exclusively men, asked increasingly sophisticated questions about all sorts of things, especially natural processes and the origins and essence of life. Although mythology and religion continued to play important roles in the lives of people for centuries to come, these first philosophers were noted for their attempts to use reason and observation to figure out how the world works. Instead of living a â€Å"normal life,† the sophos devoted himself to asking questions that so-called normal people thought had already been answered (by religion and mythology) or were unanswerable (and thus a waste of time). In respect to public perceptions, it didn’t help that the sophos lived and spoke in ways that were interpreted as showing disregard and possibly disrespect for conventional values, and that set him or (infrequently) her apart from â€Å"regular folks† living â€Å"normal† lives. It is hardly surprising, then, that one of the earliest popular images of philosophers is the stereotype of an odd, â€Å"absent-minded,† starry-eyed dreamer and asker of silly questions. The very first Western thinkers identified as philosophers were initially concerned with questions about the nature of nature (physis) and of the â€Å"world order† (kosmos). Presocratic Rational Discourse The earliest Western philosophers are referred to as the Presocratics because they appeared prior to Socrates, the first major figure in the Western philosophical tradition. Some of the Presocratic philosophers are described as proto-scientists because they initiated the transformation of mythology into rational inquiry about nature and the cosmos. A very general characterization of the development of Presocratic philosophy is helpful for placing subsequent philosophical issues and disagreements in context. Of  most interest for our purposes is the Presocratic philosophers’ struggle to offer rational, â€Å"objective† arguments and explanations for their views. These concerns played a major role in the origins and historical development of Western philosophy. The first philosophers’ intense interest in explanations shaped the development of reason by triggering questions of logical consistency and standards of knowledge that went beyond the sorts of evidence that a craftsman could offer to back up his claims to expertise. The Presocratic Philosophers Thales Thales (c. 624–545 b. c. e.), traditionally said to be the first Western philosopher, seems to have believed that water is in some way central to our understanding of things. This concept was probably based upon a belief that the earth floated on water, and that all things originate with water. Current opinion holds that Thales believed that whatever is real is in some significant sense ‘‘alive. ’’ According to Aristotle, Thales ‘‘thought that all things are full of gods,’’ and as evidence of such powers even in apparently inanimate nature he points to the remarkable properties of what was referred to as the ‘‘Magnesian stone’’. Although Aristotle’s statement is too slight to serve as a sure foundation for judgment, it seems more likely that Thales was arguing for the broader presence of life forces in the world than most people imagined, rather than that the real in its totality is alive. Anaximander Thales’ younger contemporary from Miletus, Anaximander, born toward the end of the seventh century B. C. E. , found the explanatory principle of things in what he called ‘‘the apeiron,’’ a word that might be translated as ‘‘the indefinite,’’ ‘‘the boundless,’’ or both. This opens up the possibility that the apeiron is both immeasurably large in its temporal and physical extent and also qualitatively indefinite in that it is without measurable inner boundaries. The apeiron is further described, according to Aristotle, as being ‘‘without beginning,’’ ‘‘surrounding all things,’’ ‘‘steering all things,’’ ‘‘divine,’’ ‘‘immortal,’’ and ‘‘indestructible. ’’ Some have inferred that Anaximander’s barely concealed purpose was Western philosophy’s first attempt at demythologization. Equally striking is Anaximander’s description of the universe as a closed, concentric system, the outer spheres of which, by their everlasting motion, account for the stability of our earth, a drum-shaped body held everlastingly in a state of equipoise at the center. Whatever the inadequacy in certain details (the stars are placed nearer to the earth than the moon), with Anaximander the science of cosmological speculation took a giant step forward. As far as life on earth is concerned, Anaximander offered another striking hypothesis. The first living things, according to him, were ‘‘born in moisture, enclosed in thorny barks’’ (like sea urchins), and ‘‘as their age increased, they came forth onto the drier part’’ (as phrased by Aetius [first to second century C. E. ]). Pythagoras Although we know that Pythagoras was a historical figure, it is difficult to determine exactly what Pythagoras himself taught. He wrote nothing, and the ideas of other members of the community were attributed to him as a sign of respect and as a way of lending weight to the ideas. Plato and Aristotle rarely assign ideas to Pythagoras himself, although Pythagorean ideas seem to have influenced Plato’s philosophy. Pythagoreans asserted that number is the first principle of all things. They were the first systematic developers of mathematics in the West and discovered that natural events could be described in mathematical terms, especially as ratios. To the Pythagoreans, the â€Å"principle of number† accounted for everything. Number was a real thing. Somehow, numbers existed in space, not just as mental constructs. According to Pythagorean doctrine, the entire universe is an ordered whole consisting of harmonies of contrasting elements. The Greek for â€Å"ordered whole† is cosmos. The Pythagoreans were the first philosophers to use the term cosmos to refer to the universe in this way. The â€Å"celestial music of the spheres† is the hauntingly beautiful phrase the Pythagoreans coined to describe the sound of the heavens as they rotate according to cosmic number and harmony. Xenophanes A fourth Ionian philosopher, Xenophanes of Colophon, born around 580 B. C. E. ,is the first we know of to overtly attack the anthropomorphism of popular religious belief, in a series of brilliant reductio ad absurdum arguments. His own view has been understood, ever since Aristotle, as pantheistic. Xenophanes was also the first philosopher we know of to ask what degree of knowledge is attainable. In B34 we read: ‘‘the clear and certain truth no man has seen, nor will there be anyone who knows about the gods and what I say about all things. ’’ Several ancient critics took this to be an indication of Xenophanes’ total scepticism. On this basis of moderate empiricism and scepticism, Xenophanes offered a number of opinions of varying plausibility about the natural world, one of which—a strong, evolutionary interpretation of the discovery on various islands of fossils of marine animals—is enough to constitute a major claim to fame in natural philosophy and ranks with his other significant steps in epistemology (the theory of knowledge dealing with what we know, how we know it, and how reliable our knowledge is), logic (the study of rational inquiry and argumentation), and natural theology (the attempt to understand God from natural knowledge). Heraclitus One of the most important and enigmatic of the Presocratics, Heraclitus (fl . 500 b. c. e. , d. 510–480 b. c. e. ), said that ignorance is bound to result when we try to understand the cosmos when we do not even comprehend the basic structure of the human psyche (soul) and its relationship to the Logos. The complex Greek word logos is intriguing. It could and at times did mean all of the following: â€Å"intelligence,† â€Å"speech,† â€Å"discourse,† â€Å"thought,† â€Å"reason,† â€Å"word,† â€Å"meaning,† â€Å"study of,† â€Å"the record of,† â€Å"the science of,† â€Å"the fundamental principles of,† â€Å"the basic principles and procedures of a particular discipline,† â€Å"those features of a thing that make it intelligible to us,† and â€Å"the rationale for a thing. † The Heraclitean capital L Logos is like God, only without the anthropomorphizing (humanizing) of the earlier philosophers and poets who attributed human qualities to the gods. According to Heraclitus’s impersonal view of God, the Logos is a process, not an entity. As such, the Logos is unconcerned with individuals and human affairs, in much the same way that gravity affects us but is unconcerned with us. More radically yet, Heraclitus asserted that even though things appear to remain the same, â€Å"Change alone is unchanging. † Traditionally, it has been held that Heraclitus went so far as to claim that everything is always changing all the time. But whether he really meant that everything is always changing, or that individual things are held together by energy (change), remains unclear. Anaximenes Anaximander’s younger contemporary, Anaximenes, who lived during the sixth century B. C. E. appears to revert to a prior and less sophisticated vision in claiming that the earth, far from being a drum-shaped body held in equipoise at the center, is flat and ‘‘rides on,’’ supported by air. The same might be said of his contention that the basic, ‘‘divine’’ principle of things was not some indefinite entity but something very much part of our experience; namely, air. Anaximenes’ view would also no doubt have seemed to be corroborated by the fact that the universe, commonly understood as a living thing and hence needing a soul to vivify it, possessed in air that very ‘‘breath’’ that for most Greeks constituted the essence of such a soul. Parmenides Parmenides of Elea (fift h century b. c. e. ) radically transformed the early philosophers’ interest in cosmology, the study of the universe as a rationally ordered system (cosmos), into ontology, the study of being. By common agreement he was the giant among the pre-Socratics. According to Parmenides, none of his predecessors adequately accounted for the process by which the one basic stuff of the cosmos changes into the many individual things we experience every day. In his search for a solution to the problem of â€Å"the one and the many,† Parmenides turned to a reasoned analysis of the process of change itself. According to Parmenides, all sensations occur in the realm of appearance. This means that reality cannot be apprehended by the senses. Change and variety (the many) are only appearances; they are not real. If this is true, then our most commonly held beliefs about reality are mere opinions. The senses cannot recognize â€Å"what is,† much less can they discover—observe—it, ever. In other words, whatever we see, touch, taste, hear, or smell is not real, does not exist. Perhaps most unsettling of all, Parmenides â€Å"solved† the problem of the appearance of change by concluding—in direct opposition to Heraclitus’s insistence that everything is always changing—that the very concept of change is self-contradictory. What we think of as change is merely an illusion. The logic runs as follows: â€Å"Change† equals transformation into something else. When a thing becomes â€Å"something else,† it becomes what it is not. But since it is impossible for â€Å"nothing† (what is not) to exist, there is no â€Å"nothing† into which the old thing can disappear. (There is no â€Å"no place† for the thing to go into. ) Therefore, change cannot occur. Empedocles posited, against Parmenides, change and plurality as features of reality, but affirmed the eternality of anything that is real; the sphere-like nature of the real when looked at as a totality and the fact that the real is a plenum, containing no ‘‘nothingness’’ or ‘‘emptiness’’. Anaxagoras likewise posited change, plurality, and divisibility as features of reality, yet also affirmed the eternality of the real (understood by him as an eternally existent ‘‘mixture’’ of the ‘‘seeds’’ of the things currently constituting the world, rather than the eternal combinings and recombinings, according to certain ratios of admixture, of four eternally existent ‘‘roots’’ or elemental masses). Leucippus Leucippus of Miletus (c. fi ft h century b. c. e. ) and Democritus of Abdera (c. 460–370 b.c. e. ) argued that reality consists entirely of empty space and ultimately simple entities that combine to form objects. T is materialistic view is known as atomism. Leucippus is credited with being the originator of atomism and Democritus with developing it. Rather than reject Parmenides’ assertion that change is an illusion, Leucippus argued that reality consists of many discrete â€Å"ones,† or beings. Zeno Zeno, who was born early in the fifth century B. C. E. , was a friend and pupil of Parmenides. In his famous paradoxes he attempted to show by a series of reductio ad absurdum arguments, of which the best known is perhaps that of Achilles and the tortoise, the self-contradictory consequences of maintaining that there is a real plurality of things or that motion or place are real. The prima facie brilliance of many of the arguments continues to impress people, though it soon becomes clear that the paradoxes turn largely on the failure or unwillingness of Zeno, like so many Pythagoreans of the day, to distinguish between the concepts of physical and geometrical space. Zeno’s way of constructing the problem makes it seem that his primary object is to defame pluralists by attacking the logical possibility of explaining how there can be motion in the world. Gorgias Gorgias has achieved fame for the stress he laid upon the art of persuasion (‘‘rhetoric’’), although whether he wrote the baffling On What Is Not as a serious piece of persuasive reasoning or as some sort of spoof of the Eleatic philosophy of Parmenides and others remains disputed. Its basic, and remarkable, claim is prima facie, that nothing in fact is (exists /is the case [esti] or is knowable or conceivable. Any exiguous plausibility that the arguments supporting this claim possess turns on our overlooking Gorgias’s failure, witting or unwitting, to distinguish carefully between knowing and thinking, along with his various uses of the verb ‘‘to be. ’’ If the failure was witting, the document can be seen as a skillful device for the spotting of fallacies as part of training in rhetoric and basic reasoning. If it was unwitting, Gorgias still emerges as what he was claimed to be—a deft rhetorical wordsmith on any topic proposed to him. Protagoras Perhaps the greatest of the Sophists was Protagoras of Abdera (481– 411 b. c. e. ). Protagoras was an archetypal Sophist: an active traveler and first-rate observer of other cultures who noted that although there are a variety of customs and beliefs, each culture believes unquestioningly that its own ways are right—and roundly condemns (or at least criticizes) views that differ from its own. Based on his observations and travels, Protagoras concluded that morals are nothing more than the social traditions, or mores, of a society or group. The details of Protagoras’s beliefs remain disputed. When he said, for example, that ‘‘anthropos [humanity] is a/the measure for all things, of things that are, that they are, and of things that are not, that they are not,’’ it is unclear whether he is talking about one person or the sum total of persons; about ‘‘a’’ measure or ‘‘the’’ measure (there is no definite article in Greek); or about existence or states of affairs or both. The Platonic reading in the Theaetetus, which takes ‘‘anthropos’’ as generic and ‘‘measure’’ as exclusive, led to the assertion that the logical consequence was total (and absurd) relativism. ______________________________ References: The Columbia History of Western Philosophy. Richard H. Popkin. Columbia University Press. 1999. Archetypes of Wisdom: An Introduction to Philosophy. 7th ed. Douglas J. Soccio. Wadsworth, Cengage Learning. 2010.

Are Pop Stars Good Role Models Essay Example

Are Pop Stars Good Role Models Essay Example Are Pop Stars Good Role Models Paper Are Pop Stars Good Role Models Paper Are Pop Stars Good Role Models As children we are born into a world full of false hopes and false idols. These false hopes are those of many who have everlasting dreams of a person who will save them from their own struggles in life and be there to guide them into a better one. False idols of today are those who take the place of the actual heroes in everyday life. They take the place of the true martyrs and the true Heroes that risk their lives trying to make the dreams of many come true. A lot has changed in a short amount of time. The heroes we know and love today are not the same at the ones we knew yesterday. They have been falsified to create a new dominance of masculine heroes for boys and a snappy divas for girls. All of this is creating a new sensation of kids any young teens wanting to become something they’re not and unfortunately the heroes they idolize and look up too are nothing more than an actor in a costume or a lyrically confused diva who only lip sings to entertain an audience of millions and to save her career that has been hanging on by a thin line for many years. The hero was distinguished by his achievements by his achievements: the celebrity by his image or trademark. The hero created himself; the celebrity was created by the media. The hero was a big man; the celebrity is a big name. † (Robert D. Ramsey) These supposed heroes were not created by themselves they were created by hype of media and critiques. Without them the pop star would be nothing more than a person in the cr owd. These pop stars are more concerned with their own careers rather than how their actions affect the young viewers watching. People don’t realize that with enough popularity and money a pop star can become the worst nightmare a mother could want. Examples of this are of those who reenact every single detail of the pop star, whether it be the pop stars looks or in some cases the violent and crazed actions captured by media of the star gone wild, and unfortunately the kids catch on and apply this in the way they live. That’s how many become drugged crazed and alcoholics. Unfortunately this is a growing problem, but there is no help given its based on how these supposed heroes live their lives. On some cases it’s good to have a hero; they give us the strength to keep moving forward despite what pushes us down in life. â€Å"Without heroes were all plain people and don’t know how far we can go. † ( Barnard Mclamod) They give us the Acknowledgement of our own status by raising our hopes by doing things that none can do. They empower us with the morals of everyday life and they show us any way and every way to better ourselves by giving examples on how they live. Heroes by their very nature, serve as highly visible and sharply focused reflections of various qualities in their societies including morality† (Hughes-Hallet, Lucy That was before media had created new idols and new heroes. They have outshined all of the previous men and women who risk their lives in fighting for what they believe in. Yet none of these people are given the recognition they deserve. All of it is given to talented performers who get up on stage and are suddenly moralized by star crazed fanatics who want to live up to the person on stage. These misconceptions on heroes are greatly exaggerated by today’s standards. Men are overly exaggerated in masculinity and other qualities most parents wouldn’t want in their child yet none will stand and fight this growing problem until it’s too late â€Å"for evil to succeed is for a few good men to do nothing† (Edmund Burke). Sooner or later more and more will be idolizing these celebs and because of this more and more will become just like replicas of them.

Free Short Stories from Project Gutenberg

Free Short Stories from Project Gutenberg Founded by Michael Hart in 1971, Project Gutenberg is a free digital library containing more than 43,000 e-books. Most of the works are in the public domain, though in some cases copyright holders have given Project Gutenberg permission to use their work. Most of the works are in English, but the library also includes texts in French, German, Portuguese, and other languages. The effort is run by volunteers who are constantly working to expand the librarys offerings. Project Gutenberg was named after Johannes Gutenberg, the German inventor who developed movable type in 1440. Movable type, along with other advances in printing, helped facilitate mass production of texts, which fostered the rapid spread of knowledge and ideas in art, science, and philosophy. Goodbye, Middle Ages. Hello, Renaissance. Note: Because copyright laws vary from country to country, users outside of the United States are advised to check the copyright laws in their respective countries before downloading or distributing any texts from Project Gutenberg. Finding Short Stories on the Site Project Gutenberg offers a wide range of texts, from the United States Constitution to old issues of Popular Mechanics to charming medical texts like 1912s Cluthes Advice to the Ruptured. If youre specifically hunting for short stories, you can start with the directory of short stories arranged by geography and other topics. (Note: If you have trouble accessing the Project Gutenberg pages, look for an option that says, Turn off this top frame and the page should work.) At first, this arrangement seems straightforward, but on closer examination, youll realize that all of the stories categorized under Asia and Africa, for example, are written by English-speaking authors like Rudyard Kipling and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, who wrote stories about those continents. In contrast, some of the stories categorized under France are by French writers; others are by English writers writing about France. The remaining categories seem somewhat arbitrary (Ghost Stories, Victorian Stories of Successful Marriages, Victorian Stories of Troubled Marriages), but there is no question that they are fun to browse through. In addition to the short stories category, Project Gutenberg offers an extensive selection of folklore. In the childrens section, you can find myths and fairytales, as well as picture books. Accessing the Files When you click on an interesting title on Project Gutenberg, youll be confronted with a somewhat daunting (depending on your comfort level with technology) array of files to choose from. If you click Read this e-book online, youll get completely plain text. This is an important part of what Project Gutenberg is trying to accomplish; these texts will be preserved electronically without complications from fancy formatting that might not be compatible with future technologies. Nevertheless, knowing that the future of civilization is secure wont improve your reading experience today one iota. The plain-text online versions are uninviting, awkward to page through, and dont include any images. A book called More Russian Picture Tales, for example, simply includes [illustration] to tell you where you might see a lovely image if only you could get your hands on the book. Downloading a plain text file rather than reading it online is slightly better because you can scroll all the way down the text instead of hitting next page over and over. But it is still pretty stark. The good news is that Project Gutenberg really, really wants you to be able to read and enjoy these texts, so they offer many other options: HTML. In general, the HTML file will provide a better reading experience online. Take a look at the HTML file for More Russian Picture Tales, and-voil!- the illustrations appear.EPUB files, with or without images. These files work on most e-readers, but not on Kindle.Kindle files, with or without images. Be aware, though, that Project Gutenberg is up in arms because of the Kindle Fire, unlike previous Kindles, is not particularly compatible with free e-books. For suggestions, you can read their webmasters Review of the Kindle Fire.Plucker files. For PalmOS devices and a few other handheld devices.QiOO mobile e-book files. These files are intended to be readable on all mobile phones, but Javascript is required. The Reading Experience Reading archival material, electronically or otherwise, is very different from reading other books. The lack of context can be disorienting. You can often find a copyright date, but otherwise, theres very little information about the author, the pieces publication history, the culture at the time it was published, or its critical reception. In some cases, it may be impossible to even figure out who had translated works into English. To enjoy Project Gutenberg, you need to be willing to read alone. Going through these archives is not like reading a bestseller that everyone else is reading, too. When someone at a cocktail party asks you what youve been reading, and you answer, I just finished an 1884 short story by F. Anstey called The Black Poodle, you will likely be met with blank stares. But did you read it? Of course you did, because it begins with this line: I have set myself the task of relating in the course of this story, without suppressing or altering a single detail, the most painful and humiliating episode of my life. Unlike most works you read in anthologies, many of the works in the Project Gutenberg library have not withstood the proverbial test of time. We know that someone in history thought the story was worth publishing. And we know that at least one human being- a volunteer from Project Gutenberg- thought a given story was worth putting online forever. The rest is up to you. Browsing through the archive may raise some questions for you about what on earth that test of time really means, anyway. And if you feel youd like some company in your reading, you can always suggest a Gutenberg piece to your book club. The Rewards Though its wonderful to see a familiar name like Mark Twain in the archives, the truth is that The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County has already been widely anthologized. You probably have a copy on your shelf right now. So the Gutenberg price tag, though fabulous, isnt really the best thing about the site. Project Gutenberg brings out the literary treasure-hunter in all of us. There are gems at every turn, like this wonderful voice from Bill Arp (pen name of Charles Henry Smith, 1826-1903, an American writer from Georgia), featured in The Wit and Humor of America, volume IX: I almost wish every man was a reformed drunkard. No man who hasnt drank liker knows what a luxury cold water is. Cold water may, indeed, be a luxury to the drunkard, but for someone who loves short stories, the real luxury is the chance to explore thousands of rich-but-almost-forgotten texts, to read with fresh eyes, to get a glimpse of literary history, and to form unencumbered opinions about what you read.

Role of Shareholders Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3000 words

Role of Shareholders - Essay Example However, state laws and company bylaws determine the areas in which shareholders are entitled to vote Shareholder powers One of the main areas where shareholders are generally entitled to use their power is the election of the board members who are the â€Å"agents† of the corporation. The board of directors â€Å"acts on behalf of the shareholders† and is responsible for the maximization of shareholder value by incorporating appropriate policies through the managers they select for corporate operations (Reference for Business 2012). Any fundamental change which the organization plans to incorporate needs to be approved by the shareholders before implementation (Miller 2012). This implies that they have the power to approve a merger, change or amend the articles of incorporation of a firm, affect the sale of all or part of the company’s assets or even approve the dissolution of the corporation (Ronen and Yaari 2007). However, in many of such decisions prior board approval is required. They not only have the power to choose the members of the board of Directors but also to vote against them if found to be inefficient and remove them from the board. Generally a director is removed if there is sufficient cause for voting him out. However, certain state statutes and corporate articles allow their removal without any cause (Miller 2012). This means that if majority of shareholders feel that a particular director is not required, they can vote him /her out of office without giving any justification for their action. Shareholders can impact a company policy by proposing their own ideas for shareholder vote. However, for this they need to present their idea to the board of directors and ask them to distribute it to all the shareholders before the shareholder meeting by including it in the proxy papers sent to them (Miller 2012). However, this power is limited by the fact that SEC (Securities and Exchange Commission) has set a limit to who can forwa rd these proposals. As per SEC, only those shareholders who have stocks worth at least $1000 can submit such proposals (Miller 2012). This submission is also limited by the fact that the proposal should be related to some noteworthy policy concern and not any ordination day to day operational consideration (Ronen and Yaari 2007). Thus, we can see that though the shareholders have the powers to affect change, they are limited in their use of power. In general, each shareholder has voting rights in proportion to the number of shares held by him/ her. However, the company can limit the voting rights of certain categories of shareholders (Miller 2012). For example, most organizations do not give voting rights to preferred shareholders. The companies can do this by incorporating the same in the articles of incorporation. However, if the laws of the State of operation do not allow such provisions, then the organization has to abide by the law. Some times preemptive rights are granted to s hareholders. This gives them the right to subscribe to the â€Å"same percentage of new shares being issued as they already hold in the company† (Miller 2012). This helps them to maintain their â€Å"proportionate control† over the organization in terms of voting power and financial interest (Miller 2012). The implication of this right is significant when the organizati