Monday, September 30, 2019

Advantages and Disadvantages of Written and Unwritten Constitutions

Identify and discuss the advantages and disadvantages of written and unwritten types of constitutions. A constitution is a body of fundamental principles or established precedents according to which a state or organization is governed, especially when embodying the rights of subjects. A constitution sets out how all the elements of Government are organized and how power is carved up among different political units. It contains rules about what power is wielded, who wields it and over whom it is wielded in the governing of a country.As a kind of deal or contract between those in power and those who are subjected to this power, a constitution defines the rights and duties of citizens and the devices that keep those in power in check. A constitution is the supreme law of the land in any given country and no other law may conflict with it, nor may the government do anything that violates it. Constitutions exist as national and regional. Two types of national constitutions that exist are the written (codified) constitution and the unwritten (uncodified) constitution.Countries like the United Kingdom, Israel and New Zealand possess the unwritten constitution while countries like India, United States and states of the Commonwealth Caribbean possess the written constitution. A written constitution is one that is contained in a single document which is the one source of constitutional law in a state. Written constitutions are often the product of some dramatic political change such as a revolution as was the case of America and the gaining of independence by the Commonwealth Caribbean countries from Britain.The process by which a country adopts a constitution is closely tied to the historical and political context driving these fundamental changes. The legitimacy and longevity of codified constitutions have often been tied to the process by which they were initially adopted. States that have codified constitutions normally give the constitution supremacy over ordinary s tatute law. Unwritten constitutions are the product of an ‘evolution’ of laws and conventions over centuries. There are advantages and disadvantages to both types of constitutions.Major principle and key constitutional provisions are entrenched, safeguarding them from intervention by the Government of the day. An entrenched constitution cannot be altered in any way by a legislature as part of its normal business concerning ordinary statutory laws. The strongest level of entrenchment exist in those constitutions that state that some of the most fundamental principles are absolute, i. e. certain articles may not be amended under any circumstances. For example the German Federal Constitution which states that human dignity on the basis of human rights is protected.The fundamental rights or the right to life are outlined. The Bill of Rights are clearly outlines which deals with rights to equality, human dignity, life, privacy, freedom of speech, freedom of religion and expr ession, labour relations, education, children and legal process. A Bill of Rights place limitations on the Government and creates an area of freedom for the people. Individual liberty is more securely protected and authorative Government is kept at bay. The Government is ‘straight jacketed’, so absolute power cannot be the norm of the government.The Constitution is supreme over ordinary statute law. If there is any conflict between a legal statute and the constitution, all or part of the statute are declared ultra vires by a court, and struck down as unconstitutional. The constitution of the United States had many unforeseen shortcomings which the Founding Fathers could not have envisioned over two hundred years ago. These had to be patched through amendments, but have been honoured by Governments, and no dictatorship has been able to take hold of it.The opposite effect of this was seen with the constitution of Argentina written many years after in 1853 and was a better document, but did not prevent a succession of dictatorial Governments from ignoring it, such as the Peron’s Military Government which ignored the fundamental rights of the people. In Argentina a state of emergency was declared 52 times to bypass constitutional guarantees. Non political judges are able to police the constitution to ensure that its provisions are upheld by other public bodies.The judiciary is unique in that it is not elected, but it is independent. Judges in Trinidad and Tobago and the rest of the Commonwealth Caribbean are appointed by the various Judicial and Legal Service Commissions. As a result no one, especially a corrupt politician can interfere in the work of the constitutional courts. The constitution is protected by the legal bodies of the courts, such as the Supreme Court, the Constitutional Courts or the High Courts of the various countries. The responsibility of the court is to protect constitutionally established rights and freedom.Any constituti onal violation by the executive, such as a politician who abuses the power of his established office can be held accountable in court. This was evident in Trinidad and Tobago, where many felt that the last Prime Minister, Patrick Manning abused the powers of his office, and on many occasions was taken to court for judicial review. The German Constitutional Court is a special court dedicated solely to the protection of the constitution. Constitutional courts are powerful instruments of judicial review with the power to declare â€Å"unconstitutional† a law that is deemed incompatible with the constitution.France has a Constitutional Council which judges the constitutionality of laws before the ratification process. The power of the legislature is constrained, cutting its sovereignty down to size. A crucial function of a constitution and a classic feature of democracy is the division of power among the three pillars of Government, i. e. the legislative, the executive and the ju diciary. The legislature makes laws and monitors the executive. The executive makes policy, proposes laws and implements laws passed by the legislatures and the judiciary tries cases and administer justice.Each arm of the state keeps watch over the powers of the other. The courts can judge the actions of the legislature and the executive but cannot pass laws. The legislature can make laws but cannot hand down judgments or take executive action. The challenge is to ensure that the executives do not wield its authority without being contained by the other branches. Division of power in this way ensures checks and balances within the system in a country. Lord Action’s assumption was, â€Å"power corrupts: absolute power corrupts absolutely†.The concentration of all power into the hands of one individual or group places them in a position to abuse that power and thus to instill fear into the common man, hence the need for the doctrine of the separation of powers in a democ racy. The written document has an educational value in that it highlights the central values and overall goals of the political system. The ceremonial preamble of the Trinidad and Tobago’s constitution makes reference to the supremacy of God, fundamental human rights and freedoms. The American constitution also draws reference to God.The constitution of the Republic of South Africa 1996 which is called the â€Å"birth certificate† of a new South Africa states the hopes and aspirations of the nation torn apart by apartheid. This preamble recognizes the injustices of the past and honours those who suffered for injustices and freedom and respect for those who work to develop the country and believe that South Africa belongs to all who live in it, united in diversity. One disadvantage of the written constitution is that it is more rigid and may therefore be less responsive and adaptable than an unwritten one.It is the view of many politicians and academics globally that a constitution should grow with the society in keeping with that particular time in the historical development of the country. This type of constitution does not allow for a great amount of organic change over time and does not easily take into account the needs of the democratic system and the people. A majority is needed in Parliament to attempt any kind of modification. The United States constitution is stuck with old provisions that people think are a bad idea, e. . the right to bear arms and the right to a jury trial in federal cases involving more than twenty dollars. After time most of these old provisions are ignored or never used in a modern society, since they are not relevant to the needs of the people. Last year the St. Vincent Government attempted constitutional reform, but needed a majority of seventy five percent of the voters in a referendum. The Government was not able to get this majority, so they are stuck within the confines of their old constitution.Within the las t couple of years the People’s National Movement under the Prime Minister Patrick Manning, of Trinidad and Tobago attempted constitutional reform, but they did not have a majority in Parliament so they went about it in a different way. The draft proposed constitution was printed and widely distributed to citizens of the country so that their views were shared. Throughout the country there were public meetings and consultation with the people. The people were given a forum to express their desire or disgust for the proposed constitutional document.There was also consultation with the leader of the opposition, because the support of the opposition was needed to make any kind of amendment to the proposed constitution. The second disadvantage of the written constitution is that Government power may be more effectively constrained by regular elections than by a constitutional document. In democratic countries, General Elections are held ever so often so that the people can decide who forms the next Government. In the United States, elections are held every four years, but a President cannot serve more than two terms, so he cannot run for office after his second term is up.This is another way to keep someone out of the Presidency for too long, like in some of the African countries where it is noted that Presidents who serve for more than twenty years or so, allow the power to go to their heads, and as a consequent use the constitution and the military to stay in power for an unlimited number of years, which history has proven is unhealthy for the development of those countries, since those countries have been plagued with civil war, unrest and economic problems. The third disadvantage is that constitutional supremacy resides with non elected judges rather than with public accountable politicians.By virtue a politician is accountable to the people and in a democratic country like Trinidad and Tobago if one is not satisfied by a Member of Parliament he can take action, as was the case when a Muslimeen member was disgruntled because his daughter could not attend a Catholic School with her traditional Muslim garb. The gentleman went into the office of the Education Minister and demanded accountability. Others politicians are also asked to publicly account because in those cases the media intervene to voice the grievances of the people. However judges are not accountable to anyone for their actions, whether they are right or dead wrong.They are insulated from outside interference. Judges can be easily corrupted in cases where they have large debts or have vices that they need money to maintain. It is a common sight to see judges at exclusive casinos in Trinidad and Tobago. One of their hobbies is gambling, and it is well known that most gamblers are always in debt because the mathematical probability of all gambling games is designed for the players to lose most of the time. Once criminal elements know which judges are in debt, they can easi ly reach out financially to these judges, and of course for favors in return.In the past in Trinidad and Tobago judges took bribes in the form of money, land, houses, and luxurious estates in order to drop charges, throw out a case or find some legal technicality or loophole to dismiss a case. During the 1970’s, 1980’s and early 1990’s the well known drug dealer and killer Dole Chadee had every single one of his cases dismissed at the Princes Town Magistrate’s court, and it was the same judge who sat on those cases, because he was not accountable to anyone, not even the Prime Minister at the time.The Medellin Drug Cartel in Columbia controlled the drug trade in that country during the 1980’s and they were untouched by politicians and law enforcement during their reign. Judges had to drop charges against any member of this Cartel if they ever went to court because the Cartel Bosses threaten the judges with violence and death. Because these judges ha d the power to drop these cases and were not accountable to any political directorate, they had no choice but to throw the cases out, else they and their families would have face executions by the drug cartel.The fourth disadvantage of a written constitution is that constitutional provisions are enshrined in customs and conventions and may be more widely respected because they have been endorsed by history and not invented or drawn up by humans On major advantage of the unwritten constitution is its flexibility and responsiveness to change. It is easily adapted to change and amendments. It is flexible and adaptable to different customs, and since the British population is more diverse now than ever with immigrants from all different societies, cultures and races, this is important.The laws have been flexible to allow Muslim men to have more than one wife in British society. The laborious process of amendment does not have to be done simply because a minor change in political practic e. For example, if the minimum age to vote was to be changes from 18 to 17, in the United States, a formal amendment would take years any may even fail to happen for a number of years because of procedural reasons. Such a change in the United Kingdom could easily be done in a matter of hours.Therefore the unwritten constitution allows for a great amount of organic change over time, to easily take into account the changing times and needs of the democratic system. It allows itself to be shaped by the needs of the people, adopting as required by circumstances. It is quite common for out of date or unworkable bits of laws to be discarded for new procedures and customs. Non written traditions and customs carry greater weight in the United Kingdom as oppose to the written constitution. The British people are extremely proud of their monarchy, their historical achievements, their progressive democracy, their freedom and dignity.They are the world’s oldest democracy and as a result the people are proud to respect the conventions and uphold law and order in society. The first major disadvantage of the unwritten constitution is that there is no single text that can be invoked and there is no definition of state powers and no limits except â€Å"customs†, meaning that whatever compromise is necessary between current opinion and the Government sense of virtue may come into conflict. The British constitution exists in every single piece of legislation ever passed in Parliament.These also exist in common law, treaties with foreign powers, analysis and comments made by experts such as politicians and academia. Since the British constitution is the product of evolution of laws and conventions over centuries which include written source and e. g. constitutional statutes enacted by Parliament (House of Communities Act 1972, Human Rights Act 1998), and also unwritten sources such as constitutional conventions, observation of precedents, royal prerogatives, customs and traditions , such as always holding a General Election on Thursdays.Altogether these constitute the British constitutional Law. The other disadvantage is that only a select few can acquire such knowledge of the unwritten constitution since they are scattered across many documents. Thus it is only these select few who are able to interpret it and what is worrying is that these people might be the ones to connive in constitutional subversion. Most British people would struggle to put their hands on what their rights are or in which text they can locate these literature.So the responsibilities that goes with being British may never fully be understood by the average citizen because those rights are scattered across a host of different places. The next disadvantage is that â€Å"delete and insert† can be done on the constitution if by chance one day a written one is implemented. Minor violations would go unnoticed because the average citizen is not aware of the various types of British laws. The Parliament could easily fox a written constitution to serve itself and executive members without the public ever being aware of this.Another disadvantage is that limits to state powers are not clearly expressed and this is of great concern to the knowledgeable people of British society. Parliament has unlimited law-making powers and there is no clear separation of powers among the three arms of the Government. Historically the United Kingdom has not had a definition of individual rights and freedoms. The 1689 Bill of Rights sets out the powers of the Parliament, but relies on the notion of residual freedom and the concept of parliamentary sovereignty.Therefore individual rights remained dependent on the ad hoc statutory protection or upon judicial protection under common law. The closest thing the United Kingdom has to a Bill of Rights is the Human Rights Act of 1998 which incorporates the European Convention of Human Rights 1950 into domestic law. The ability of ordinary people to challenge the actions of various institutions of Government is formally limited to the acts of public authority by section six.The new counter- terrorism measures appeared to erode civil liberties in the wake of the September 11th 2001 attack in New York, and the July 7th 2005 bombings of the subway in London. The last disadvantage is the question of British sovereignty. The entry of the United Kingdom into the European Union in 1973 was a major constitutional development, bringing Britain under the supranational jurisdiction of the European Union in a limited number of areas, which has gradually grown over the years.This illustrates the erosion of the United Kingdom unfettered sovereignty. Well known British politicians over the years have commented publicly on this issue of Britain slowly losing its sovereignty. After World Was Two the American troops seized covert plans from the Germans that outlined another future attempt by to unify Europe under German rul e, but this time without the use of war. It entailed the unification of Europe which Hitler wanted to achieve by use of force and the military, and the ultimate destruction of America.This information has been declassified within recent years. One has to question the diplomatic motives behind the driving force of the European Union and its acceptance of Britain into the Union, so Britain should seriously think about it sovereign erosion. Although there are differences between written and unwritten constitutions with respect to their advantages and disadvantages, one must carefully consider the usefulness of a constitution and its promotion of democracy and the rights and freedom of the people.We can see that although the United Kingdom does not have a written document, it is the oldest and one of the greatest democracies in the world. The British people are proud and law abiding. The United Kingdom has so far been a peaceful and stable country, whereas countries like China, Russia, North Korea, Vietnam and Myanmar all have written constitutions, but basic human rights are not enjoyed by a number of citizens of those countries. A perfect example of democracy that truly respects the rights, freedom and aspirations of the people is in the United States where there is a written constitution.

Sunday, September 29, 2019

Focal Point Consultants Essay

While observing CanGo for last two weeks we at FPC (Focal Point Consultants ) have identified some six major issue that we feel should be addressed to allow the organization to better achieve there over all goals. First Concern—Priority 1 CanGo appears to have a financial issue and there is has not been a complete audit to address this issue. Also CanGo needs to learn how to use the resources that they already have and redefine the processes and procedures. First Recommendation The financial team at CanGo needs to work with all the key areas of the company to conduct an audit of current processes. This audit will allow for everyone to review all the current processes that are in place and determine what they can do to enhance them and at the same time the financial team can use this data to outline how much the current processes are costing the company overall. At the conclusion of this analysis the reports will allow for the company to cut spending in the correct areas so that they can improves the others. There are many things that can be done to make improvements without spending money or having to acquire new technology or devices. Within the warehouse for example the layout can be enhanced even more so that people are not wasting time walking. Minor and Major changes to just the layout will allow the CanGo to improve efficiency and overall performance. Each department head needs to complete a detailed time study on the processes they outlined above. Once this time study is complete then the data can be used to see what is taking the longest and make changes to that process. By taking these steps it will allow CanGo to approach improvements in the correct manner by taking those actions that don’t have ny hit to the company’s bottom line. After all these types of changes are complete that is when and only when money should be spent on new technology and devices to make processes more efficient. Second Concern—Priority 2 The loyalty of customers for the specific targeting market is declining. Second Recommendation Think about how you want to be treated as a consumer. Now apply that same concept to the targeting market. Review the evaluations that are submitted by the consumers. It will tell what impression the company is making. Also, spend time in the Customer Service department. This the first point of contact for consumer. How they are handle will determine whether a consumer will return: Customer service might just be the most critical of all in running your business. If your customers like how they are treated, not only will they keep coming back, but they will refer you to others. Treating customers as individuals and not as a stepping stone up your ladder of success can go a long way. Listen to their concerns and build a relationship with them. If your customer feels as though you have their best interest they will be loyal to you. Your customers can really do a lot of your marketing for you. Word of mouth, especially in a world where Facebook and Twitter are some people’s main way of communicating, is a very powerful tool (Debs Marketing Connections, 2012). Third Concern – Priority 3 Online purchases CanGo has talked about that they have a high rate of items added to the online shopping cart. Although this information does not support the amount of purchases actually received via CanGo’s online website. Third Recommendation  Having a high rate of items added to an online shopping cart means that you have a good storefront and getting customer’s to actually place the items within there shopping carts. This is only one piece of the multipart puzzle. The shopping site needs to be enhanced to entice the customer to actually complete their purchase as that is how we are going to make money overall. Since there is a high traffic volume to the website we would also recommend that the marketing team reach out to a third party website advertising company that will pay to place ads on CanGo’s website. This will drive also be another source of revenue for CanGo so they can then reinvest this money back into the company. Fourth Concern – Priority 4 While Reviewing the video’s from weeks 3 and 4 I saw a issue that they is an issue within the warehouse and they do have a solution but no really reviewed the reports that Debbie provided. I think that these reports should have been reviewed while in the meeting so that they could have discussed all the points of the issue and the recommended solution to the warehouse productivity issue. Then Liz asked the group a question I wonder how the board will feel about this recommendation. Fourth Recommendation A solution to this problem would be to complete a full audit of the issue and do a trial run analysis of the proposed solution. This would allow for recommendations to be made to the board and the results of the proposed solution can be given right away. As people need to see measurable figures so that they can tell if something will be worth putting the time and money into the project. Fifth Concern – Priority 5  In the week 4 Videos they are talking about the market segment of boys in Japan. They ask each other questions about how they can get the market analysis complete and then the gentlemen having lunch say that I will do it. Fifth Recommendation There are a couple of thing on this problem that needs to be solved first managers should not interrupt an employee’s lunch unless it is extremely urgent. This is an issue because the employee stated he is â€Å"Just trying to enjoy my lunch break†. The Manager should have approached the employee at a later time when he was not at lunch. Then there is the issue of the market analysis. This assignment should get assigned out to a third party marketing company that can tap into the market in Japan and gauge what the consumer wants. This would be a lot more cost effective than attempting the complete this analysis on their own and wasting resources that they don’t have in the first place. Sixth Concern – Priority 6 Sales are not increasing as projected for the company possibly due to the design of the online purchasing process. Sixth Recommendation Place a test run on the current online purchase process as a consumer. Time the entire process to see how long it takes. As the test run is being completed, keep the consumers’ needs and wants in mind. Determine if needs were met as well as satisfied. View the information available to see if it’s appealing to lead to the purchase the item. Also, notate likes and dislikes of the experience. Have a group of employees to assist to gather more information for comparison. Determine what updates can be implemented to entice the consumer to make a purchase. Keep track of different trends to keep a competitive edge for things like: 1.  In-store pick up. In the past few months we’ve seen Walmart implement in-store pick up for orders placed online, while Sears and Kmart are going a step further bringing online purchases out to your car. In Chicago, Sears and Kmart are even testing home delivery and bundling items with those from its retail partners at Sears’ Marketplace, further blurring the lines between online only retailers and those that came before. And in Florida, Farm Stores lets shoppers order groceries online and pick up at a drive through. 2. Pick up depots.  Smaller retailers without a vast network of stores like Walmart or Sears may open designated pick up locations for goods ordered online. Retail consultant Neil Stern of McMillan/Doolittle points to French retailer Chronodrive. com as an example. 3. Mobile Apps. Smartphones are the dominant cell phone and apps for all platforms are growing. The ones that allow for price comparisons or send out coupons are already among the most heavily used with good reviews, but we’re just getting started. 4. Less flash more function. Forget about flashy apps or features like virtual dressing rooms.  Consumers haven’t responded to these and rightly so. Maybe the technology will get there, but until it does, user reviews are better gauges of clothing fit and quality than any technology can offer. 5. Video. Look for more user-generated video on retail sites. Retailers are letting customers upload video clips modeling new clothes or using a new purchase. Davis believes this is one trend that will definitely pick up speed. 6. Social networking. Facebook and Twitter aren’t even close to played out yet. Consumers can increasingly â€Å"like† or follow a favorite retailer and get discounts or tips on deals.  JCPenney is using Facebook to actually sell goods and more than 12 million consumers â€Å"like† Victoria’s Secret on Facebook as of last month (March), making it the most popular retailer on the site (its Pink brand ranks No. 2, according to the ChannelAdvisor Facebook Commerce Index). That’s an active population of customers reaching out and requesting information from the retailer. And social shopping is just getting started, says Jim Okamura, managing partner at Okamura Consulting, a group specializing in online retail. There’s evidence (that Facebook offers) a good return on investment and there are a lot of retailers that haven’t done anything yet,† he says. â€Å"This is going to be the year of Facebook testing. 7. Daily deals and flash sales. This may seem like a very crowded playing field, but sites like Ruelala and OneKingsLane are reproducing at a furious pace. And based on how quickly many items sell out, often within minutes of email notifications going out, more will jump on this popular trend. 8. Retail based social networks. This is one trend experts don’t expect to happen at any large level. Sears is still trying to build a social network of its own customers and Walmart tried and abandoned a similar effort, neither attempt bodes well for its success. Facebook really owns this space, but look for small, focused sites to create communities of like-minded users, says Okamura. 9. International. â€Å"There’s been an accelerating trend in international or cross border e commerce, of small niche online retailers are now doing 10-20% of their sales outside of their own country,† says Okamura. Look to online shops like SousVide Supreme that sells specialized cooking equipment and StyleTrek. com, a community built to launch up and coming international designers as models. Other big name retailers like Zara and Top Shop are building out their online business to reach U. S. shoppers, even as the store base grows more slowly. 10. Deal aggregators. Of course there are always deal sites, like Dealnews, ConsumerSearch, FatWallet and Brad’s Deals that are cutting through the din of so many sites and sales to bring consumers only the information they’re interested in. (Forbes, 2012).

Saturday, September 28, 2019

How to Write University of Wisconsin-Madison Essays 2017-18

The University of Wisconsin–Madison (the official state university of Wisconsin) is a public university that was founded in 1848, directly following Wisconsin’s acquisition of statehood. Wisconsin is well known not only for its excellent academics, but also for its hugely successful NCAA athletic teams. The 936-acre campus is located right next to downtown Madison, which is consistently ranked as one of the best college towns in the country. With nearly 5,000 unique courses and over 200 distinct majors, it’s no wonder that the University of Wisconsin–Madison attracted 32,887 applicants to the Class of 2016. The 52.6% acceptance rate necessitates strong supplemental essays, and we at are here to help you break them down step by step! Students can apply online, using either the Common Application or the University of Wisconsin Application System. Both application options require two supplemental pieces of writing: a short prompt and a long prompt. Below, you’ll find the two prompts along with our take on the best way to tackle the essays, as well as some tips on what you should (and shouldn’t) include in your supplements. This prompt shouldn’t be too difficult — with a limit of 100 words, you’re going to be writing no more than a few sentences. While you should use this short essay as an opportunity to elaborate on the activity that portrays you in the best light, make sure that the selected activity is actually â€Å"important to you.† If the extracurricular that you select appears impressive (think three-time section leader in your all-state band, or coordinator of a peer tutoring program that works with nearly one hundred kids), but you’re not able to articulate why it’s relevant to your life and your journey through high school, the admissions committee won’t be impressed. Don’t feel like the activity you write about needs to be one in which you held leadership; while leadership in the activity is of course looked highly upon, the genuine story you tell about its importance to you is key. Take this scenario: You were elected student body president as a junior and presided over all student council meetings. While you enjoyed the position, you’re planning on majoring in biology and not government. Last summer, you were one of the few interns at a local research hospital, where you helped discover a previously unknown bacterium. Even though you’ll likely put â€Å"student body president† as the first item on your activity list, you may want to write the short essay about your experience at the hospital, which led you to decide on a biology major. If you participated in any type of volunteer work, at a local soup kitchen or homeless shelter, and feel that those experiences had a profound impact on you, you could write about the volunteer work. That being said, you don’t necessarily need to write about volunteer/community service activities! If you were the president of your high school’s school store, or the captain of your town’s travel soccer team, and that significantly defined your past few years, you can absolutely choose it as your activity. The key is just to make sure admissions officers get a more in-depth look at who you are through the lens of the activity. Whichever activity you choose, be sure that your writing is clear, concise, and effective. There’s no need for complex metaphors, nor overly intense descriptions. As long as it’s evident to the reader that your activity had a meaningful impact on your development as an individual, you’ve done your job! Submit your essay and we’ll get back to you with helpful edits. In the long essay prompt, the University of Wisconsin-Madison is looking for a modified version of the â€Å"why us† supplement. Even if Wisconsin isn’t your top choice, for the purposes of this essay, you should put yourself in the shoes of a student that’s wanted to attend Wisconsin for the past few years. If you have family ties to the university, or live in Wisconsin and have grown up rooting for the Badgers in sporting events, don’t hesitate to mention it! The admissions committee wants to see commitment and genuine interest in the school—they should instantly feel your passion for Wisconsin as they read through your essay. While the prompt appears to pose two questions: â€Å"Why Us?,† and â€Å"What opportunities would you take advantage of as a student?† you should be blending the two questions together throughout your supplement. Show your passion by mentioning specific courses, clubs, or programs that you are interested in. The university website will be your greatest resource for this — there’s a wealth of information available! Explain how your experiences throughout high school qualify you for admission to the University of Wisconsin. Articulate how those experiences demonstrate, in the words of the admissions website, â€Å"leadership, concern for others and the community, and achievement in the arts, athletics, and other areas.† Try to provide an example of each of those three areas (or, better yet, find an activity that combines multiple). Serving as the captain of a school athletic team demonstrates both leadership and athletic achievement while selling handmade crafts at charity auctions demonstrates concern for community and artistic achievement. Don’t try to make the entire essay just about these three facets of your personality, but do make sure that you adequately explain how your activities exemplify each character trait. Also, don’t be afraid to talk about experiences unrelated to your major: If you’re applying to the School of Education, you can absolutely bring up an organization in the School of Business that focuses on entrepreneurship, like the WAVE or WEB program, or a research opportunity, like the Grainger Institute in the School of Engineering — the more well-rounded your interests are at Wisconsin, the more likely you are to be accepted. The last, and optional, component of the prompt asks you to explain any â€Å"circumstance that could have had an impact on your academic performance and/or extracurricular involvement.† Be very careful with what you write here, and remember that it’s completely optional. If you choose not to include it, there’s really no harm done (and, if anything, it eliminates the possibility of writing something that could decrease your chances of admission). If there was a situation throughout high school that was thrust upon you (think family/personal medical emergency or moving schools), you can absolutely write about that, as it will help to establish sympathy with the reader. If you’ve had any experiences that could reflect negatively on you, including them in the essay may not be wise. Writing about depression, drug/alcohol use, or criminal activity could raise red flags and prevent you from being accepted. If you feel strongly about including one of these topics (or something similar), definitely reach out to a guidance counselor, teacher, or trusted adult to ensure that you’re crafting your message in the best possible way. We hope our analysis of the two supplemental essay prompts has helped you to fine-tune your plans for your Wisconsin-Madison application!

Friday, September 27, 2019

Home Bias Puzzle Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Home Bias Puzzle - Research Paper Example This is due to the fact that changes in the domestic economic environment are less likely to affect the investments in international markets. Jeske (2001, p. 37) explains that portfolios which are invested outside the domestic market are not considered to be risky because the risk of the investment is distributed in several markets. The reasons why the home bias is common among investors raise puzzles among economists. This paper analyzes the explanations for home bias and evaluates the reason why it is convincing, which makes it a continuous phenomenon in finance and investment economics. There are various barriers to the flow of capital across nations due to less or lack of economic integration. Sendi and Bellalah (2010, p. 78) assert that this explains the home bias of investors. The economic barriers include restrictive economic laws, high information costs, international taxation, high transaction costs and political boundaries which affect foreign investment. This illustrates t hat investment in foreign equities is costly to the investors and their propensity for domestic investment. These barriers seem convincing as a valid justification for home bias. However, the home bias puzzle continues because the bias continues even after the removal of these restrictions in the modern global economy. Shikuan and Cheng-Da (2011, p. 1

Thursday, September 26, 2019

Quantitative Research in Clinical Practice Essay

Quantitative Research in Clinical Practice - Essay Example Quantitative utilizes statistical analysis to accurately determine the outcome of a given phenomenon. Matveev (2002) argues that quantitative research is data driven, thus can be verified via observation as well as experiments. The incorporation of quantitative research in clinical practice enables research aspects that may not be suitable for qualitative research and provide more accurate and verifiable results. Quantitative research utilizes structured questionnaire, which can be used, for example, to vigorously assess patients satisfaction with services provided.The author states that in conducting a cause-effect relationship, which is predictive in nature, quantitative research provides the best tool for accurate prediction. In clinical practice, cause-effect relationships are common, thus the incorporation of quantitative research remains a critical tool for effective decision making. Using people with spinal cord injuries, Chen, Lai & Wu (2013) seek to determine the factors tha t affect Moving-Forward behavior. This is a cause-effect relationship that requires the use of quantitative technique, which is known for reliable outcomes. Quantitative research in clinical practice would provide an evidence based research, which adds to the reliability of researcher works that are crucial for the practice. Quantitative research is usually more objective than qualitative researcher even though numerous researches utilize a combination of both research approaches to achieve the desired results.

Examining Representation Of Suburbs And Model Dwelling Essay

Examining Representation Of Suburbs And Model Dwelling - Essay Example The house is well fenced with a stone field. The painting shows that Pissarro had visited Bedford Park during the summer in 1987. First, mansion displayed on the other side of Lucien’s house is a modern building with special features. For instance, the entire building is made up of three buildings that are joined together. This design reveals that there is technological development in structural designs of model dwellings or mansions. Secondly, mansions or model dwellings in London are well connected by good transport systems like roads. Pissarro's painting "Bed road" displays the presence of a well-developed road passing between model dwellings. The colorful painting of the mansions in the "Bed road" displays the high quality of the building and the wise selection of colors by ancient house designers. In comparison to the recent picture of the Bed road, Bedford Park in 1995, there are similarities in the house design and the colorful painting on the walls. These similarities depict that Pissarro's ideas on his work would come true in the future. In conclusion, the two paintings discussed above reveal that the 19th century and 20th-century artists had unique skills and capabilities of representing different structures in different places using oil paintings. In his two paintings, Camille Pissarro was able to display the ancient structures developed using high technology. Structures like model dwelling in were characterized by colorful paintings and good transport system as displayed by Pissarro's paintwork.

Wednesday, September 25, 2019

Dance, production, performance, choreography (OCD as the central Essay

Dance, production, performance, choreography (OCD as the central theme) - Essay Example That is dance as an influential impulse and as a skillfully choreographed ability practiced mostly by professionals. The link between these ideas will be stronger in producing a dance for a live community audience. Producing and making a dance for a live community performance is one of the most challenging tasks and it requires joint efforts. Several people will need to be engaged in coordinating all elements that are essential for production. Some of the fundamental aims of creating this dance would include expressing and communicating our feelings. We will open the dance with a voice over counting 1,2,3,4, it will be counting four times in totoal and will speed up as it goes along. This will be used to introduce the ocd. We will be in the audience or one of the chairs getting up on stage sequence (nat workshop)-introduces our characters. This will slowly show the affect our ocd/ movement has on us and on each other. Showing the connections between us as we travel about our everyday life. Trio - waking up in everyday life, showing our relationships between each other, showing our interaction e.g racing forward (competing against each other). further developing our characters and the relationships between them. ... It also shows Niamh and Nats relationship (nat not wanting to talk/slightly controlling niamh. These relationships are all a counter reaction of our feelings towards ocd.  Niamh and nats duet: showing niamhs battle to be open about it and nats battle to keep it hidden. symbolises the struggles behind ocd that doesn’t always appear on the surface Possible working with other people - representation of more character relationships that occur from ocd Niamh, Cecilia and Nat sinister trio - heavily focused on characterisation. showing the reactions of others to ocd e.g niamh is open about it and nat and cecilia are intrueged and checking if she still does it in weird situations. their ocd is still showing through but they are trying to hide it.   The community dance will aim at educating people on the importance of insurance as well as entertaining them. Moreover, the community dance will often entail a unique attempt of stylization, for instance the dance movements will be arr anged into a rhythmic or spatial pattern, tracing circles or lines on the ground, tracking a definite order of steps, or complying with a pattern of usual stresses or accents. All these features will produce a unique condition of mind and body that will provide the audience with a different knowledge. We would like the audience to be drawn into the patterns and rhythms generated by the movements of dancers so that they may share the feelings being expressed. The choreographic process Choreography refers to the art of creating dances, the assembly and arrangement of movement into a pattern and order. Latest Western dances have been produced by particular choreographers, who have been considered as the owners and authors of their works in an approach comparable to composers,

Tuesday, September 24, 2019

Core Curriculum Content Standards Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Core Curriculum Content Standards - Essay Example In large part, both the New Jersey curriculum standards and the National Core Curriculum Standards are designed to prepare students for the college environment. Indeed, this is one of the major noted concerns of the establishment of the standards, as it was believed that previously public school systems had not gone far enough in establishing stringent enough instructional methods that consider the importance of college preparation. Another important element that is reflected across both curriculum standards is the importance of combining both content and skill specific knowledge. In both instances, this knowledge is incorporated into the specific curriculum designations. Indeed, it’s noted that, â€Å". The Standards set a rigorous definition of college and career readiness, not by piling topic upon topic, but by demanding that students develop a depth of understanding and ability (‘Myths vs. Facts).† Indeed, it’s clear that the underlining philosophy behi nd the two sets of standards are directly in-line with each other. While the overriding philosophy of the state and national curriculum standards are in-line with each other they differ along a specific line.

Monday, September 23, 2019

Business Management Affairs Coursework Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

Business Management Affairs - Coursework Example Sole Trading When a person individually initiates and operates his/her own business, it is called sole trading. The most obvious feature of sole proprietorship is that there is no legal distinction between the business and the owner. Usually, a sole trader uses a trade name or business name instead of his legal name. Under UK company law, the proprietors’ name must be shown on business emails, business stationery, and other business premises. It generally involves lower amount toward capital investment as compared to other modes of business ventures. It is best fitted to people with innovative business ideas and sufficient capital for running their business. The main benefit of this system is that the businessman owns everything what he acquires from the business. Moreover, with the feasibility of self guidance, the individual can grow without restrictions. In addition to this, as Tonkin (2006) states, sole trader can start the business with minimum set up cost and can continue operations without a tax file number. He is also exempted from many other legal charges and superannuation. Since the sole trading business specifically focuses on certain market segments, the sole trader can effectively satisfy the customer needs. In addition, the individual can take advantages of personal relationships for the business promotion. On the other hand, sole trader is not free from risks as he is the only person responsible for any loss incurred in the business. Therefore, if the sole trader faces business loss; his every asset including personal asset may be seized to discharge the liabilities he has incurred. This personal liability becomes the most threatening disadvantage of sole proprietorship. A series of legal obligations may also drag him out of the line; sometimes he needs to pay provisional taxes. Similarly, sole trader may face difficulties in the event of an unforeseen contingency since he has only restricted access to financial sources. The lack of access to financial sources also becomes a barrier for the sole trader to recruit high-caliber employees. Another major disadvantage of sole proprietorship is that it cannot allow credit sales since this type of business has limited access to working capital; this situation is an impediment to business expansion. A positive spell of possible success is foun d in the given discussion. As Matt is the winner of the TV show â€Å"You’re Hired†, he may have creative concepts as well as sufficient capital to start his business as a sole trader. Partnership When two or more persons join together with their capital and make contract to run a lawful business, it is called partnership business. This system ensures collective responsibility for all liabilities arising on the ground of the partnership business. As it is in the case of sole trader, registration of partnership is not necessary. This feature helps the partners in minimizing the struggles of legal formalities. All the strategies of partnership firms are formulated on shared opinion of partners which would make the policies rather balanced in their nature. At the same time, any partner may represent the business without giving prior information to other partners; therefore, one partner’

Saturday, September 21, 2019

Rights of Enemy Combatants Essay Example for Free

Rights of Enemy Combatants Essay The September 11 2001 US bombing was followed by a US declaration of war against terrorism. The reason the US government cited for the war declaration was the intention to rid the world of all international terrorism groups that posed a formidable danger to the civilian life which is obviously innocent. True to its promise of war against terrorism, the US government has been seen to make progress. By 2003, the US government was holding about 762 terrorism suspects in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba (Stanton, 2003). The war against terrorism, according to the US government is still on and the government is not going to stop until it apprehends the capital terrorist and the head of Al- Qaeda, Osama Bin Laden. In the process of this war against terrorism, a number of tools and policies have been put in place by the US government to make the war successful. The tools at one point or another have often contradicted the very laws and regulations enshrined in the constitution of the US. One such contradiction is the concern of American Legislature of whether or not such terror suspects attract the legal rights enjoyed by the American citizens. The debate goes on. Introduction The meaning of the word Enemy Combatant is context specific. Taking the American fight against terrorism as the context, then the word may be taken to refer to an armed member belonging to an army of an enemy state with which America is at war. For instance, if America is at war with Iraq, then any member of the Iraq armed force qualifies to be called an enemy combatant (Detention of Enemy Combatants Act, 2005). It should be noted that the definition of enemy combatant has evolved over time. Prior to 2008 and according to the Geneva Conventions Article 3, an enemy combatant was described as any individual in an armed war or conflict and who attracts detention subject to the laws and customs of war (Geneva Conventions Article 3, 1949). In America today, the word enemy combatant may be taken to refer to any individual who is, allegedly, a member of the major terrorist groups; Al-Qaeda and Taliban (or member of any other group engaged in terrorism activities) who is being held or detained by the US government. Such individuals are termed as Unlawful combatants who do not in any case attract the protection of Geneva Convention entitled to War Prisoners. Therefore, enemy combatant has three definitions and we need to choose the one we will use in this paper. The last definition of enemy combatant i. e. an individual who is, allegedly, a member of the major terrorist groups of Al-Qaeda and Taliban being in custody of US authorities under the status of unlawful combatant. This paper seeks to highlight the legality of the â€Å"Unlawful Combatant† title given to these individuals by the US government. Further, the paper assesses the presence or absence of legal rights for the unlawful combatant subject to the constitution of the United States of America. Part three of the Geneva conventions defines the prisoners of war as military forces members or militia of such a force belonging to an enemy state at war with America, regular armed forces members showing allegiance to the government, Civilians supporting in non-combat roles and carries an ID issued by armed forces they owe allegiance, Inhabitants of a region uninhabited and who carry arms and reiterate on the enemies approach i. e. they follow the rules of war. Sometimes, an individual may fail to lie in any one of the specifications outlined in the Geneva Convention defining a war prisoner. In such a situation, the Geneva Convention article 3 specified further that such individuals should be treated to belong to any of the classes specified until their true status is determined by a competent tribunal. Treatment of unlawful combatants, who are supposed to be treated as war prisoners but are not, is a contentious issue in the Bush administration. The alleged suspects of Al Qaeda are supposed to be treated as war prisoners but have been called unlawful combatants, which is still within the confines of the convention. Now where the argument comes in is the closing clause in the Geneva Convention Part 3which spells out the fact that whether an individual is a lawful or unlawful combatant, he is supposed to be treated in a humane way (Geneva Conventions Article 3, 1949). The rationale behind the particular treatment of the â€Å"unlawful combatants† in Guantanamo Bay is enshrined in the Enemy Combatants Act, 2005 which has since received a considerable resistance from the judiciary and civilians alike. This 2005 Act not only managed to block the detainee’s access to lawyers and courts but also gave the government authority to play out of the dictates of the US constitution. The Act too denies the detainees the habeas corpus which is the legal feat through which detainees can ask for reprieve from illegal detention or imprisonment. The American Bar Association (ABA) is one such organization that has lifted up hands in protest against the detaining of individuals termed as unlawful combatants without giving them their right to habeas corpus. In 2003, ABA released a resolution besieging the congress to set standards to guide the detaining. They further urged the congress to allow the detainee full access to lawyers and courts in a bid to prevent netting of innocent individuals because some of the individuals held may have been found in the wrong places at the wrong times (Holland, 2008). The unlawful combatants should have access to courts and attorneys entitlement as specified by Geneva Convention Part 3 Section 5 which calls for a tribunal to determine if detainees are unlawful combatants or not. The tribunal needs to be competent. The Geneva Convention dictates are standards that should be followed internationally. In fact it is an international legal system. The Supreme Court attested to the detainee’s rights and that is why it ruled that the detainees could use U. S. courts to seek reprieve from detention (Senne, 2006). If among the detains there happens to be American citizens, such as Jose’ Padilla and Yaser Hamdi, then they have a right to an attorney, access to court and an hearing subject to American constitution. They are also entitled to a speedy trial; to determine whether or not they are guilty. They are entitled to these rights because they are American citizens. (CRS Report, 2005). The Military Trials Bill which got approval from the congress gave legislative support to the military to carry out practices unfamiliar with the Criminal Justice system of the US. The practices include prosecution, interrogation and detention denies the detainees their right of self representation (by forcing the detainees to accept lawyers from the military) and their right to a speedy trial (Smith, 2008). This infringement if detainee’s rights have also been witnessed by the Director for Human Rights, Washington Office, Tom Malinowski when he talks about how bush has managed to deny the detainees their rights. This view was affirmed by the Supreme Court when it issued an order for the 6 Algerian men who had been detained for seven years to be released. The court claimed that the detaining was illegal and it had gone against the rights of those detainees. This was seen as a setback on the US government’s war against terrorism. (Glaberson, 2008) Illegal Rights of Enemy Combatants Despite the civilians, human rights activists and some part of the judicial system maintaining that the Unlawful Enemy Combatants have legal rights that the government has only chosen to ignore, the government on its part denies this claim saying the response and treatment of detainees is within the confines of the constitution. The Enemy Combatants Act, 2005 and The Military Trials Bill set the pace for the treatment that the detained Enemy Combatants receive. The two Acts/ Bills make the treatment legal and they were passed due to anticipation by the executive that court challenges were imminent. Thus, the executive entrenched in the bills/ Acts some provisions strong enough to bar the courts interference and at the same time limit the application of international conventions that govern the treatment war prisoners or is it Enemy Combatants. These provisions also went further to bar habeas corpus leaving the detainees without any basis to seek reprieve from detention or to challenge the detention. Reacting to The Military Trials Bill, Neal Katyal, a law professor at Georgetown University said that the formation of the bill basically created two-system justice. The first justice system being the military commissions to deal with foreigners termed as Enemy Combatants and the normal or regular criminal justice system to take care of the US citizens. The emerging two systems of justice, he said, violated the14th Amendment which embraces the equal protection for all provided they are under the US jurisdiction (Austin, 2003). The fact that these detainees are called Enemy Combatants means that unlike war prisoners, they are open to detention for as long as it takes the war on terrorism without access to an attorney or any judicial intervention. The designation of Enemy Combatant traces its origin in the 1942 American Case Law where the supreme law was able to recognize the Law of War and its distinction between the War Prisoner (Lawful Combatant) and the Enemy Combatant (Unlawful Combatant). The distinction further that the Enemy Combatants were not subject to the â€Å"War prisoner† status that attracts the protection 1949 Geneva Convention pronouncements. The Enemy Combatant designation has . been used by the Supreme Court earlier in history and this has given the government precedent to use this term and treat the Enemy combatants as it does (Austin, 2003).

Friday, September 20, 2019

In Depth View The Valley Of Unrest English Literature Essay

In Depth View The Valley Of Unrest English Literature Essay The poem gives a sense of the few emotions that one feels first and foremost at delving into the world of Gothic. Fear. Horror. Tragedy. Solitary. Turmoil. But are they really enough to understand it? Gothic as a genre is far from simple interpretation. To that fact none are. The explanation for the word Gothic is simpler though. UC Davis  University Writing Program teaches about Gothic novels by first and foremost establishing the origin of the word Gothic. Although now gothic is popularly associated with literature and architecture, this misconception has to be set right. Its origins lie with the tribals. The Goths were one of the many Germanic tribes who fought numerous battles with the Roman Empire for centuries. According to their own myths, as recounted by Jordanes, a Gothic historian from the mid 6th century, the Goths originated in what is now southern Sweden. They reached the height of their power around 5th century A.D., when they sacked Rome and captured Spain, but their history finally subsumed under that of the countries they conquered. The association with architecture can be owed to the period of Renaissance. During this time Europeans rediscovered Greco-Roman culture and began to regard a particular type of architecture, mainly those built during the Middle Ages, as gothic not because of any connection to the Goths, but because the Uomo Universale (translates to universal man) considered these buildings barbaric and definitely not in that Classical style they so admired. The term Gothic, when applied to architecture, has nothing to do with the historical  Goths. In a British context it was even considered to extend to the Reformation in the sixteenth century and the definitive break with the Catholic past. Gothic broke the norms and thus acquired the name. Another strand of thought says that Gothic literature earned the name because all the novels seemed to take place in Gothic-styled architecture mainly castles, mansions, and, abbeys. The w ord is now used to describe an architectural style and, as a derivation of that, a genre of literature based on dark deeds in crumbling gothic mansions and castles is an intriguing mix of the two theories proposed by UC Davis. Defining the genre does not end there. Jerrold E.Hogle calls it an unstable genre. Gothic seduces, overpowers, confuses and blends not just the readers as well as other genres. Gothic as a genre comprises elements of mystery, horror, dark, tragedy things that disturb the normal and its perceptions. Romance is not what the mind grasps for while thinking of gothic. But that is what one needs to be aiming at even after preliminary studying. Be it your simple Wikipedia search that tells you Gothic fiction  is a genre of literature that combines elements of both  horror  and romance or a scholarly article which states Gothic fictions oscillate between the earthly laws of conventional reality and the possibilities of the supernatural emphasizing the difference between horror and romance as genres while reflecting on the common ground that has been christened Gothic. Horror predominantly is associated with Gothic genre eclipsing romance but that is not really the whole picture. Websters Collegiate Dictionary gives the primary definition of horror as a painful and intense fear, dread, or dismay. A genre of literature intended to thrill readers by provoking fear or revulsion through the portrayal of grotesque, violent, or supernatural events is Horror. Blood curling yes but it becomes heart wrenching as romance is dashed into the story line. Romance writers of America state that the two basic elements that comprise every romance novel are a central love story and an emotionally-satisfying and optimistic ending.  On the other hand, Janice Radway who popularized Romance beyond the usual feels the genre is assisted by the use of clichà ©s, uncomplicated syntax, and signifiers which utilize familiar cultural elements. This further strengthens the different poles of studying horror and romance but gothic brings with itself amalgamation of the peaks a nd lows of the other styles. Gothic can be termed a mixed or hybrid genre. In the contemporary world no genre can be strictly defined. Each genre transcends its boundary to join hands with another to prove more entertaining. Action meets tragedy, comedy with romance and so on and so forth. This is the case with gothic. Kelly Hurley in The Cambridge Companion to Gothic Fiction resists calling the genre gothic horror and defines it as a genre comprised of texts that have been deemed popular; that deploy sensationalist and suspenseful plotting; that practice narrative innovation despite the frequent use of certain repetitive plot elements; that depict supernatural or seemingly supernatural phenomena or otherwise demonstrate a more or less antagonistic relation to realist literary practice; that actively seek to arouse a strong affective response (nervousness, fear, revulsion, shock) in their readers; that are concerned with insanity, hysteria, delusion, and alternate mental states in general; and that offer highly charged and often graphically extreme representations of human identities, sexual, bodily and psychic. This definition itself displays the heavy dose of horror in gothic but romance is not far behind. Fred Botting said that gothic is an exploration of mysterious supernatural energies, immense natural forces, and deep, dark human fears and desires that gothic texts apparently found their appeal. The appeal and identity of gothic relies on the dark according to him. This can be construed to be true to some extent. Gothic can be considered investigative literature as well of some puzzling entities. It can be as simple as a haunted house at the end of the road or a monster formed on legend that inhabits the marsh in the town forests. Gothic is often explained as a representation of the unsaid or hidden. Fears and anxieties that one may wonder about can be found in various gothic texts. This is the uniqueness of gothic. In general, the deep fears and longings in western readers that the gothic both symbolizes and disguises in romantic and exaggerated forms have been ones that contradict each other, and in such intermingled ways, that only extreme fictions of this kind can seem to resol ve them or even confront them. This explanation strives to keep a bridge between horror and romance. It forms its basis on the bizarreness of some of the thoughts can simply not be explained by one genre and requires two. The polarity of thought can be made sense by reading the diametrically opposed genres as one i.e. Horror + Romance= Gothic. Professor John Lye proposes that as the immediacy of the Holy threatened to disappear from the culture in the later 18th century the period was marked by literary expressions of the sublime, of the mysterious, and of the strange; by a return to the imagination of the mediaeval that marked pre-romantic period, so that the mediaeval was the place of historical reference and allusion. She says romance took two main forms in the English novel in the early part of the 19th century: Gothic Romance and Historical Romance. Gothic romance specialized in symbolic exploration of the unconscious through the strange, the haunting, and irrational. Like many romances the Gothic tended to be set in distant lands or on barren, threatening countrysides. Gothic romance exposed and dealt with deep anxieties in persons and the culture. Gothic set out to expose and deal with the consciously ignored. Heathcliff in  Wuthering Heights, for instance, is a dark foreigner and hence culturally the Other, that against which we define and defend our humanity and civilized state, he a man with no parentage, a waif from the slums of Europe; and he is a figuring-forth of the force and terror of evil and of the irrational, a force of energy without civility. He is inexplicable but compelling because he sums the fears of his time and, to an extent, ours. Frankensteins monster showed us the terrors that scientific interference in the holiness of the human held for us. Science has and always will be viewed as a necessary evil. Fr ankenstein in its very element embodies this statement with strokes of darkness. Hawthorne of The Scarlet letter fame defined this breed of romance as a place of more mystery, less specific description of concrete reality, a place where, if you will, both elemental and spiritual forces could be put in play in a landscape that was full of symbolic, almost allegorical, potential. Today romance is generally associated with the strange and mysterious, the adventurous, with the lure of foreign lands, with something slightly magical, with a story which refuses to be tied to the realist tradition and explores phenomena which are unusual, allegorical, and symbolic. Increasingly being stated is that Romance and horror form Gothic. They together have changed the perception of gothic from a horrifying sight of that which was most unbearable in a culture to recognition and embrace of the monster as the image, the inner, often denied aspects of us. Gothic follows the first law of genre according to Robert Miles which is to deviate and make it new. Horace Walpole followed the golden rule and identified gothic as a genre through his work. Hogle remarks on the pliability and malleability of this type of fiction making has proven to be stemming as it does from an uneasy conflation of genres, styles, and conflicted cultural concerns from its outset. The Castle of Otranto is looked at as the first gothic novel and its entry initiated a new literary genre namely gothic. It was first published in 1764 and simply changed the meaning of gothic. Before Walpole it was almost always a synonym for rudeness, barbarous, crudity, coarseness and lack of taste but due to Walpole the word assumed two new key meanings: first, vigorous, bold, heroic and ancient, and second, quaint, charming, romantic, sentimental and interesting. First the book was advocated as a blend of the two kinds of romance, the ancient and the modern, the former all imagination and improbability and the latter governed by the rules of probability connected with common life. He wished to bridge the gap between the romances of old which were according to him all marvel and wonder, and the realist romance of his own day. In this comparison he refers to his own cross between medieval chivalric romances and neoclassic tragedies oriented towards the old aristocracy, on the one hand, and the newly ascendant bourgeois novel directed in its comic elements and probabilities of common existence on the other hand. The second editions preface constitutes a manifesto for a new species of romance. With this edition he came forward as the author of Otranto. The year was 1765. The manifesto was a set of rules which if not for him would have in all probability been dismissed as a piece of eccentric whimsy. Castle of Otranto spearheaded a revolution in the world of medieval literature. It served as the direct model for an enormous quantity of novels written up through the first quarter of the nineteenth century. Once a successful formula was established it was done to death. Robert Miles talks about the terrorist system of novel writing. This system was supposed to bombard the senses of the readers. It was deemed to be different form horror. Ann Radcliffe even said terror expands the soul and awakens the faculties to a high degree of life. She states further that terror is pleasurable because it is cloaked in obscurity and mystery while horror is graphic and unequivocal. Due to the success of Gothic fiction the literary world witnessed a shocking increase in the imitative works although this only indicated the high level of consumption it also ended up giving birth to the terrorist novel writing. The time was after 1790 and this form of writing was a satirized form of the perceived system for writing Gothic Romances. Terror writing survived but sooner than later became eclipsed and Gothic emerged again. Gothic never limited itself. The eighteenth century gave way to Victorian gothic which in turn opened doors to Modern gothic. Post modern gothic, female gothic, gothic science fiction, postcolonial gothic, urban gothic and queer gothic are just a few examples. The basic elements of gothic were incorporated in various plots and added to the multiplying strands of gothic. Many scholars have identified a few elements that are mandatory in any gothic text claiming or aiming to be gothic. Elements of Gothic Novel by Robert Harris state the obvious rudiments of Gothic: 1. Setting in a castle.  The action takes place in and around an old castle, sometimes seemingly abandoned, sometimes occupied. The castle often contains secret passages, trap doors, secret rooms, dark or hidden staircases, and possibly ruined sections. The castle may be near or connected to caves, which lend their own haunting flavor with their branchings, claustrophobia, and mystery. 2. An atmosphere of mystery and suspense.  The work is pervaded by a threatening feeling, a fear enhanced by the unknown. Often the plot itself is built around a mystery, such as unknown parentage, a disappearance, or some other inexplicable event. 3. An ancient prophecy  is connected with the castle or its inhabitants (either former or present). The prophecy is usually obscure, partial, or confusing. What could it mean? In more watered down modern examples, this may amount to merely a legend: Its said that the ghost of old man Krebs still wanders these halls. 4. Omens, portents, visions.  A character may have a disturbing dream vision, or some phenomenon may be seen as a portent of coming events. For example, if the statue of the lord of the manor falls over, it may portend his death. In modern fiction, a character might see something (a shadowy figure stabbing another shadowy figure) and think that it was a dream. This might be thought of as an imitation vision. 5. Supernatural or otherwise inexplicable events.  Dramatic, amazing events occur, such as ghosts or giants walking, or inanimate objects (such as a suit of armor or painting) coming to life. In some works, the events are ultimately given a natural explanation, while in others the events are truly supernatural. 6. High, even overwrought emotion.  The narration may be highly sentimental, and the characters are often overcome by anger, sorrow, surprise, and especially, terror. Characters suffer from raw nerves and a feeling of impending doom. Crying and emotional speeches are frequent. Breathlessness and panic are common. 7. Women in distress.  As an appeal to the pathos and sympathy of the reader, the female characters often face events that leave them fainting, terrified, screaming, and/or sobbing. A lonely, pensive, and oppressed heroine is often the central figure of the novel, so her sufferings are even more pronounced and the focus of attention. The women suffer all the more because they are often abandoned, left alone (either on purpose or by accident), and have no protector at times. Hogle elaborates by pointing out that women are the figures most fearfully trapped between contradictory pressures and impulses. It is Otrantos Isabella who first finds herself in what has become the most classic Gothic circumstance: caught in a labyrinth of darkness full of cloisters underground and anxiously hesitant about what course to take there. 8. Women threatened by a powerful, impulsive, tyrannical male.  One or more male characters has the power, as king, lord of the manor, father, or guardian, to demand that one or more of the female characters do something intolerable. The woman may be commanded to marry someone she does not love (it may even be the powerful male himself), or commit a crime. Isabella in Otranto fears the pursuit of a domineering and lascivious patriarch who wants to use her womb as a repository for seed that may help him preserve his property and wealth, on the one hand, yet worried that, fleeing in an opposite direction, she is still within reach of somebody [male], she knew not whom, on the other. Women were constantly reduced to objects of exchange or as tools of child bearing. 9. The metonymy of gloom and horror.  Metonymy is a subtype of metaphor, in which something (like rain) is used to stand for something else (like sorrow). Note that the following metonymies for doom and gloom all suggest some element of mystery, danger, or the supernatural such as wind howling, rain blowing, eerie sounds, sighs, clanking chains, barking of distant dogs, ruins of buildings and several others. One of the classics is footsteps approaching and characters trapped in a room. These elements are highly common and dramatic. They are played up more in the world of cinema with various effects. 10. The vocabulary of the gothic.  The constant use of the appropriate vocabulary set creates the atmosphere of the gothic. Here as an example are some of the words (in several categories) that help make up the vocabulary of the gothic in  The Castle of Otranto. What is interesting about this table is the guidance it provides to its readers about identifying gothic in a simpler way. It also denotes the words that are frequently used to create the ambiance of a particular word to make it fitting in the plot and effortlessly gothic. Mystery diabolical, enchantment, ghost, goblins, haunted, infernal, magic, magician, miracle, necromancer, omens, ominous, portent, preternatural, prodigy, prophecy, secret, sorcerer, spectre, spirits, strangeness, talisman, vision Fear, Terror, or Sorrow afflicted, affliction, agony, anguish, apprehensions, apprehensive, commiseration, concern, despair, dismal, dismay, dread, dreaded, dreading, fearing, frantic, fright, frightened, grief, hopeless, horrid, horror, lamentable, melancholy, miserable, mournfully, panic, sadly, scared, shrieks, sorrow, sympathy, tears, terrible, terrified, terror, unhappy, wretched Surprise alarm, amazement, astonished, astonishment, shocking, staring, surprise, surprised, thunderstruck, wonder Haste anxious, breathless, flight, frantic, hastened, hastily, impatience, impatient, impatiently, impetuosity, precipitately, running, sudden, suddenly Anger anger, angrily, choler, enraged, furious, fury, incense, incensed, provoked, rage, raving, resentment, temper, wrath, wrathful, wrathfully Harris has also listed the Elements of Romance. In addition to the standard gothic machinery above, many gothic novels contain elements of romance as well. As observations denote romance and gothic have become synonymous to a great extent. A study of these elements shows similarities with elements of gothic and uniqueness of romance. Elements of romance include these: 1. Powerful love.  Heart stirring, often sudden, emotions create a life or death commitment. Many times this love is the first the character has felt with this overwhelming power. 2. Uncertainty of reciprocation.  What is the beloved thinking? Is the lovers love returned or not? 3. Unreturned love.  Someone loves in vain (at least temporarily). Later, the love may be returned. 4. Tension between true love and fathers control, disapproval, or choice. Most often, the father of the woman disapproves of the man she loves. 5. Lovers parted.  Some obstacle arises and separates the lovers, geographically or in some other way. One of the lovers is banished, arrested, forced to flee, locked in a dungeon, or sometimes, disappears without explanation. Or, an explanation may be given (by the person opposing the lovers being together)   that later turns out to be false. 6. Illicit love or lust threatens the virtuous one.  The young woman becomes a target of some evil mans desires and schemes. 7. Rival lovers or multiple suitors.  One of the lovers (or even both) can have more than one person vying for affection. The elements of romance create the required drama that increases the entertainment quotient and connects with a wider span of readers. This results in a wider appeal for gothic. Kelly Hurley states that the period of 1760- 1820 showed some identifiable characteristics. Gothic has been defined in terms of plot which features: Stock characters like the virtuous, imperiled young heroine. Stock events like her imprisonment by and flight from the demonic yet compelling villain. Setting: the gloomy castle and complicated underground spaces are a must. Hogle says that the tale usually takes place in an antiquated or seemingly antiquated space such as a vast prison, a graveyard, an aging city or a large old house. Theme: the genres preoccupation with taboo topics such as incest, sexual perversion, insanity and violence; its depictions of extreme emotional states, like rage, terror and vengefulness. Style is defined by its hyperbolic language. The need to exaggerate. Hogle states all gothic novels were satirized for their excesses. He believes that the Gothic exaggerates its own fictionality and does so through long lasting and creatively changing techniques. The language is one of the most important ones. The pattern of hyperbolically verbalizing contradictory fears and desires over a possible base of chaos and death, and in a blatantly fictional style, remains a consistent element in gothic. Atmosphere: Its elaborate attempts to create a brooding, suspenseful atmosphere. The vocabulary table is testament to this point. Those words are employed generously to create a certain aura. Narrative strategies are confusion of the story by means of narrative frames and narrative disjunction. The author aims to make the story jump in time and from character to character. A reading of Dracula will show the jump in narratives from Jonathan Harker, Mina Harker and Van Helsing. Since the narratives are in diary entry or letter formats it ends up keeping the reader engaged as well. Plotting: The use of densely packed and sensationalist, rather than realist plotting. Hogle states that within the antiquated spaces where the tales take place are hidden some secrets from the past (sometimes recent past) that haunt the characters, psychologically, physically or otherwise at the main time of the story. Impact on readers: Its affective relations to its readership whom it attempts to render anxious, fearful or paranoid. Fred Botting in his summation of Candyman explains standard horror and gothic themes: ghost stories, urban gothic gloom, romance plots and visual and verbal references to staple fictions alongside a persecuted (or insane heroine), the villain is a slasher figure ever ready to disembowel his victims with a hook, a Faustian temper, a vampiric blood letter feeding off social fears. Although the film was made in 1992, the story line was inspired by Clive Barkers book The Forbidden which came approximately two decades before the movie. The similarities can still be spotted though. Botting in his observations mentions the few elements that have proven to be elementary in this genre. Leslie Fielder in Invention of the American Gothic discusses the deep lingering fear for readers of the gothic that Fielder recognizes: the terror or possible horror that the ruination of older powers will haunt us all, not just with our desires for them, but with the fact that what grounds them, and now their usurpers, is really a deathly chaos. As mentioned earlier gothic does disturb the normal. Plaguing its readers with nightmares and deep rooted worries about possible tragedies is actually one of its aims. Gothic became the forum to say the unsaid and to represent the unspoken. A premise which led to wide spread popularity. Gothic has been under scrutiny by various fronts. It has been used as a point of reference in economic statements by the founder of Marxism. Karl Marx used one of the most common Gothic monsters, the vampire to simply drive his statement home. Capital is dead labor, which, vampire-like, lives only by sucking living labor, and lives the more, the more labor it sucks. This quote is from Capital, Volume I, and Chapter 10. He has deftly pointed towards capitalism as a blood sucking monster i.e. a vampire. Antonis Balaspoulos an eminent personality used similar references.   Ã‚  -labor value extracted from living bodies and congealed in the parasitically animated body of capital   Ã‚  -the abstraction of value which, in a bloodless movement, vampirizes all of the workers labor and, transforming itself into surplus-value, becomes capital The idea behind mentioning these statements is to catch a glimpse of gothic outside the literary world. An observation also has to be made of the replacement of gothic with vampires and of the stereotypical delegation of roles i.e. capital as the monster and the Labor as the victim. Psychoanalytic Gothic is an intriguing concept devised due to Sigmund Freud, the father of psychoanalysis. In the psychoanalytic gothic, we intensely desire the object that has been lost, or another object, person, or practice that might take its place, but we are aware at some level that this object carries with it the threat of punishment: the anger of the father, the breaking of the law, castration. This strand of gothic has been articulated by Steven Bruhm in the Cambridge Companion to Gothic Fiction. The want of something that does not belong to oneself. In both theory and clinical practice, psychoanalysis is primarily attributed to the work of Sigmund Freud, for whom the gothic was a rich source of imagery and through whom the Gothic continues to be analyzed today. Psychoanalysis provides us with a language for understanding conflicted psyche of the patient whose life story or history is characterized by neurotic disturbances and epistemological blank spots. More often than not , such psychoanalytical accounts are intensely gothic: The Uncanny (1919) and A Seventeenth Century Demonological Neurosis (1922) along with a number of Freuds case studies, make the figure of the tyrannical father central to the protagonists Gothic experiences as Stokers Dracula (1897). The Gothic provides the best known examples of those strange and ghostly figures that Freud saw as examples of The Uncanny. For him what is quintessentially uncanny is the deeply and internally familiar as it appears to us in seemingly external, repellant, and unfamiliar forms. Most familiar to Freud are strictly psychological or visceral drives from our earliest existence, such as sheer repetition- compulsions. But perhaps what is most central to the Gothic be it classical or contemporary is the very process of psychic life that for Freud defines the human condition. Now, what makes the contemporary Gothic contemporary is that the Freudian machinery is more than a tool for discussing narrative; it is in large part the subject matter of the narrative itself. To the degree that the contemporary Gothic subject is the psychoanalytic subject (and vice versa), she/ he becomes a/the field on which national, racial, and gender anxieties configured like Freudian drives get played out and symbolized over and over again. Gothic becomes particularly contemporary in both its themes and reception; however, is that these unconscious desires center on the problem of a lost subject, the most overriding basis of our need for the gothic and almost everything else. Botting does point out that psychoanalytic criticism one of the most common lenses through which the gothic is viewed, often misperceives its own scientific knowledge of sexual instinct and Oedipal wished exemplified in the tales of terror and horror, all too visible in their characters and on the surface of their narratives. So much for the buried machinations of desire. Botting advocates that gothic has some stock elements but so does its criticism. He thinks the all too deep reading misconstrues certain elements and they get falsely portrayed. Michel Foucaults transgression is applied on gothic as well. Transgression enables limits and values to be reaffirmed, terror and horror eliciting rejection and disgust; on the other hand, it draws eyes and imaginations, in fascination, to peep behind the curtain of limitation in the hope of glimpsing illicit excitements made all the more alluring for bearing the stamp of mystery and prohibition. Transgression means violating boundaries or committing offences. Gothic signifies a writing of excess with its hyperbolic language and drama. Gothic signified an over abundance of imaginative frenzy. Passion, excitement and sensation, transgress social properties and moral laws. Gothic excesses, nonetheless, the fascination with transgression and the anxiety over cultural limits and boundaries continues to produce hesitant emotions and meanings in their tales of darkness, desire and power. Gothic excesses are blamed of transgressing the proper limits of aesthetics as well as social order in the overflow of emotions. Gothic plots are criticized at times of celebrating criminal behaviour and carnal desires. As gothic came to represent the unsaid and the dark, it did transgress the beliefs and norms of the old world but due to the favourable rates of consumption, it remains an associated theory and nothing else. Gothic as a genre has been avidly debated, reformed, criticized and adaptive to the changes around it.

Thursday, September 19, 2019

Developmental Origins of Permanent Inequality from Neolithic Revolution

The revolutionary evolution of culture can be analyzed through a shift in complexity of social organization. Population growth triggered a need for cohesion, resource surplus, distribution and regulations of surplus implicating widespread population trade networks. These causal factors of the Neolithic Revolution incorporate other potential causal factors that implies through these three pathways a sociopolitical transformation developed, Urbanization. By identifying the Neolithic revolutionary factors this paper will be able to directly correlate the urbanization aspect in a generalized cause and effect description. 12,000-6,500 years ago, the Neolithic period laid down a sociopolitical foundation that through various entities and cultural factors developed into a rapid and revolutionary sociopolitical system. Subsequently, because the complexity of Urbanization is multifaceted and multivariable in its genesis I choose to focus my efforts on Ancient Near East Pre-Pottery Neolithic in turn narrowing the perspective to key causal factors, population growth, ritual beliefs, and trade, which in my opinion are the base elements of social complexities (Overlay in population growth resulting in new technology, and social developments, as well as religion being a technology of control through administration of surplus agricultural assets, economics and new technology are enhanced through trade—the process of Neolithic to urban revolution is succinctly intertwined.), also linking urbanization factors to their potential Neolithic effect. There is no doubt that population growth played a significant role in the transition from bands and chiefdoms to state-level societies. â€Å"Population was at once the cause and effect of this shift in civ... ...ssumption that seemingly all the points are the result of sedentism—or population increase. Mesopotamia, during the Neolithic revolution was primed for domestication and agriculture. The shift is environmental temperatures gave way to the ability to create permanent settlements. It is through these permanent settlements and technology of agriculture that inequality was created. In order to control the growing population and expanding foodways a social complexity was needed. There had to be someone to dictate who does what and when, power, was then established, and upheld through religious connotations and exclusivity propaganda. It is through writing this paper that I completely agree that, â€Å"Neolithic revolution was a technological breakthrough† (Acemoglu 2009:2). Technology adds complexity; it was a natural progression into the origins of permanent inequality.

Wednesday, September 18, 2019

Physics of Springboard Diving :: Sport Swimming Swim Diving Diver Physics

The Hurdle Before a diver jumps off of a springboard, he does a sort of hop-skip step called a hurdle. After doing a few steps, the diver leaps up into the air with his arms raised. When he lands back down on the tip of the board, he swings his arms down past his legs and then up, leaping into the air and off of the board. The purpose of this hurdle is as follows: A diver cannot simply stand on the end of board, step off, and expect to have the power to go up or the momentum to rotate his body in any direction. What the hurdle does, is first to allow the diver to use the diving board as a slingshot, and second get as much energy as possible out of the "slingshot". This is achieved when the diver takes the first leap into the air with his arms raised. When he comes back down on the board, his own mass falling onto the board will apply a certain force. An additional force is added as the arms swing down at the same time with a greater acceleration, applying more force. At the bottom of the diving board's oscillation, all of the now stored potential energy is released. The diver swings his arms upward and begins to release his pressure on the board. The board pushes the diver up and into the air with a huge force. This force now can be used by the diver not only to go up, but to rotate and therefore perform various dives. The Dives and Application To do a front dive a diver pushes his hips upward just slightly as he leaves the board. After he had begun to go up into the air, he throws his arms downward just enough to make is upper torso rotate around his hips. At the peak of the dive, the diver tightens his stomach muscles and pulls his legs up towards the sky, leaving his body in a perfect upside-down position to enter the water head-first. In order to perform a front dive with a somersault, it requires a full flip of the body and therefore it takes a quicker rotation to cover such an angular distance. The diver takes off from the diving board with the same hip motion and arm swing as for a forward dive, but throws the arms further and makes a smaller "ball" in the air. Physics of Springboard Diving :: Sport Swimming Swim Diving Diver Physics The Hurdle Before a diver jumps off of a springboard, he does a sort of hop-skip step called a hurdle. After doing a few steps, the diver leaps up into the air with his arms raised. When he lands back down on the tip of the board, he swings his arms down past his legs and then up, leaping into the air and off of the board. The purpose of this hurdle is as follows: A diver cannot simply stand on the end of board, step off, and expect to have the power to go up or the momentum to rotate his body in any direction. What the hurdle does, is first to allow the diver to use the diving board as a slingshot, and second get as much energy as possible out of the "slingshot". This is achieved when the diver takes the first leap into the air with his arms raised. When he comes back down on the board, his own mass falling onto the board will apply a certain force. An additional force is added as the arms swing down at the same time with a greater acceleration, applying more force. At the bottom of the diving board's oscillation, all of the now stored potential energy is released. The diver swings his arms upward and begins to release his pressure on the board. The board pushes the diver up and into the air with a huge force. This force now can be used by the diver not only to go up, but to rotate and therefore perform various dives. The Dives and Application To do a front dive a diver pushes his hips upward just slightly as he leaves the board. After he had begun to go up into the air, he throws his arms downward just enough to make is upper torso rotate around his hips. At the peak of the dive, the diver tightens his stomach muscles and pulls his legs up towards the sky, leaving his body in a perfect upside-down position to enter the water head-first. In order to perform a front dive with a somersault, it requires a full flip of the body and therefore it takes a quicker rotation to cover such an angular distance. The diver takes off from the diving board with the same hip motion and arm swing as for a forward dive, but throws the arms further and makes a smaller "ball" in the air.

Graduation Speech -- Graduation Speech, Commencement Address

Edgar Allan Poe once said, "All that we see or seem is but a dream within a dream." The 13 years that I have spent attending school have quickly passed through my life as if a dream, much as I imagine it did Edgar Allan Poe. I can still remember my first day of school in Vietnam when I was five years old. Timid and scared, I held my mother's hand tightly, frightened that if I let go, I would lose her forever. My mother looked at me and said gently in Vietnamese: "Su hoc nhu thuyen tren dong nuoc nguoc. Khong tien at se lui" Translated into English it means: "Education is like a boat heading upstream against the river's current. If it is not going forward, it will be left drifting behind." Now, years later, I stand among fellow students who have also bravely faced the challenge of that upstream river of knowledge. We are gathered here tonight for a very special and important occasion. It will be a night for all of us to remember, a night of wonderful memories, a night that celebrates the end of one journey and the beginning of another. I would like to welcome all of you here today -- faculty, family, friends, fellow Phi Theta Kappans, and of course, the one, the only Harding Community College graduating Class of 2006. Thank you for giving me the honor of speaking to you on this very special occasion in our lives. Giving a commencement speech is a very challenging task. The faculty would like a speaker with a substantive message. The parents would appreciate a sentimental tone, and the graduates would like the speech to be brief! Two years ago, we came to this institution with great enthusiasm and determination to build a bridge to the future for ourselves and for the next generation. We brought with us impressive... ...e has given us, to work together to translate the abstract into reality. In closing, and rather than saying good-bye to all of you, I ask the Class of 2006 to please rise. Let us give a grateful applause to Harding Community College for all that it has done and continues to do to help students like us in our quest for success. Let us thank you, our distinguished faculty, for believing in us, compelling us, and teaching us to explore the fullness and strength that lie within ourselves. Let us thank our family and friends for loving us, supporting us, and encouraging us to pass through the challenges of that upstream river of knowledge. And, let us celebrate this day with cheerful applause and congratulations to each other for being wonderful companions along this journey. Class of 2006, I wish you all a bright future and may another journey begin here.