Thursday, December 26, 2019

Civil Disobedience Freedom Fighters or Criminals Essay

â€Å"No radical change on the plane of history is possible without crime,† This quote from Hermann Keyserling is just one of many statements that help describe the meaning and true raw power of Civil Disobedience. Civil disobedience as defined by Merriam Webster is the â€Å"refusal to obey governmental demands or commands especially as a nonviolent and usually collective means of forcing concessions from the government†. The most promising and understandable of the definitions of Civil Disobedience would be that given to us by Gandhi from India â€Å"Compassion in the form of respectful disagreement†. Even the Veterans Fast for Life from here in the United States must agree when saying, â€Å"when leaders act contrary to conscience, we must act†¦show more content†¦Throughout all of the valiant efforts of Hungarian Students and workers the Hungarian revolution had begun only to see hundreds die and thousands more leave with fatal casualties. The only way the Hungarians could fight back was to take up arms and fight back with as much force as possible and eventually they did succeed only to watch all of their hopes a dreams crushed when the soviets returned to decimate the Hungarian Freedom Fighters within a matter of a few short days. The Soviet Union’s Reign had only ended when the Berlin wall was demolished in 1989 when other countries finally realized that the Communist were also a very large threat to the rest of the world, which bring me to yet another point in history when the same efforts concluded to very fruitful rewards. â€Å"You must not lose faith in humanity, humanity is an ocean if a few drops of the ocean are dirty, the ocean does not become dirty,† Gandhi one of the very few self-actualized people that was left on the planet can be considered the father of CivilShow MoreRelatedThe Myth Of The Latin Wom I Just Met A Girl Named Maria Essay1830 Words   |  8 Pagesexample of civil disobedience was à ¢â‚¬Å"in the refusal of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego to obey the laws of Nebuchadnezzar, on the ground that a higher moral law was at stake. It was practiced superbly by the early Christians, who were willing to face hungry lotions and the excruciating pain of chopping blocks rather than submit to certain unjust laws of the Roman Empire† (King 210). He added that â€Å"to a degree, academic freedom is a reality today because Socrates practiced civil disobedience† (King 210)Read MoreTerrorism And Its Effects On Terrorism Essay1442 Words   |  6 Pageson Pakistan sponsored militancy within Kashmir is based upon terrorism. In contrast, the greater number of the Kashmir’s use the term ‘freedom fighting’ and alternatives for the need of violent force through the Indian troops which is known as state terrorism. This makes it difficult for academics or any nations to define terrorism due to some express it is freedom fighting whilst others say it is te rrorism. We live in a world where states are realising the consequences towards national securityRead More10 Historical Events During the British Rule in India3932 Words   |  16 PagesWith the help of Lord William Bentick, the then Governor-General of India, Bengal Sati Regulation Act, 1829 came into force wherein the practice of Sati or of burning or burying alive the widows of Hindus was declared illegal and punishable by the Criminal Courts. 2. The Sepoy Rebellion of India – 1857 The first war for the Indian Independence occurred in this year and this was the year when the British rulers took India fully under their control. After Britain had gained two-thirdsRead MoreTerrorism And The Global Terrorism Essay2012 Words   |  9 Pagessponsored militancy surrounded by Kashmir to be based upon terrorism. In contrast, the greater number of the Kashmir’s use the term ‘freedom fighting’ and alternatives for the need of violent force through the Indian troops which is known as state terrorism. This causes difficulties for academics or other nations to be able to define terrorism due to some express it is as freedom fighting whilst others say it is terrorism. Alternatively, there are a selection of difficulties when it comes to defining terrorismRead MoreLife Without Electricity5146 Words   |  21 Pagesto  Amritsar  and opened a shop as a signboard painter, assuming the name of Ram Muhammad Singh Azad. This name, which he was to use later in England, was adopted to emphasize the unity of all the religious communities in India in their struggle for political freedom. Udham Singh was deeply influenced by the activities of  Bhagat Singhand his revolutionary group. In 1935, when he was on a visit to Kashmlr, he was found carrying  Bhagat Singhs  portrait. He invariably referred to him as his guru. He loved to singRead MoreHow Effective Is Terrorism Is For Achieving Its Political Objectives3701 Words   |  15 Pagesdominations, religious freedom political autonomy or independence The separatist groups are those with the goals of separation from existing entities through independence, political autonomy, religious freedom or dominations. Other terrorist groups either categorised being religious, domestic, social, political, revolutionary, nationalistic, ethnocentric or international (Terrorism definition, 2015).In a brief summary, terrorism is categorised into six categories. Civil disorder is aRead MoreOne Significant Change That Has Occurred in the World Between 1900 and 2005. Explain the Impact This Change Has Made on Our Lives and Why It Is an Important Change.163893 Words   |  656 Pagesthe century. Due in large part, however, to the weaknesses of the League, resistance to the rise of internal repression and interstate aggression in the interwar years was feeble at best. Stalinist, fascist, and Japanese militarist contempt for civil rights, much less even peaceful protest, opened the way for brutally repressive regimes that actively promoted or systematically engineered the massive episodes of rape, oppression, and genocidal killing that were major offshoots of a second globalRead MoreIgbo Dictionary129408 Words   |  518 Pagesbecome fully light (of day): Chi Ä“fosà  go Daylight has come fully be bright (of daylight): Chi Ä“fosà  sá »â€¹go The daylight is bright and strong period of daybreak as light grows stronger B. be open, clear clear (a space) clear away be open, clear, spacious freedom from care; security; case mention mentioning 83 Igbo Dictionary: KayWilliamson. Draft of Edition II -fo afà   -fota afà   -fá »  1. -fá » dá » ¥ -fá » dá » ¥ga -fá »  sà ²Ã¯â‚¬ ¥ á » kpá » ¥kpá » ¥ v. -fá » nye -fá » pà ¹Ã¯â‚¬ ¥ta -fá » - 2. -fà ¹ v. à ²fà ¹fà ¹, mfà ¹ -fà ¹ à ¨fà ¹ -fà ¹ghalá »â€¹ba -fumà ¬na -fà ¹nará »â€¹

Tuesday, December 17, 2019

Money Laundering And Its Effects On The World - 2534 Words

Arvon Lunsford Professor Kuchta ENGL 102 15 November 2016 Money Laundering In todays world there are so many different ways to commit a crime. You might not even realize it, that it could be a family member or even a really close friend committing these crimes. I am talking about a white collard crime called Money laundering. Have you ever wondered what Money laundering really is? With this research paper, you will get a chance to finally learn what it really is all about. You will get an inside look into Money laundering. From their we will learn about the types of people that commit this type of crime and why. Then we will look into how they ended up getting caught. After that we will take a look into all the cases against the people and corporations that were caught red-handed laundering money. Now that I have caught you’re your attention, you are probably thinking to yourself; â€Å"What is Money laundering?† Money laundering is a term that â€Å"refers to the activities and financial transactions that are undertaken specifically to hide the true source of the money† (IRS.GOV) that you have received. This is usually happening when you are receiving your money illegally and trying to show that you are receiving the money from actual business type situations. A great example would be a drug dealer receiving all of his money from selling drugs and then turning around and saying he is receiving the money from a fake storefront or even from construction. When in reality they do notShow MoreRelatedMoney Laundering Essay1059 Words   |  5 Pages â€Å"Money laundering†, is a term that is often used in association with illegal activities, especially in terms of terrorist actions. Many news reports in televisions and newspapers have used the term money laundering but still, the general public do not have enough knowledge of what money laundering is and the corresponding effects upon society. In line with this, there is also a need to further study the processes that are involved in money laundering in order to properly address the aforementionedRead MoreWhy Do I Think It Is A Macroeconomics Issue?918 Words   |  4 PagesMoney laundering Why do I think it is a macroeconomics issue? Macroeconomics is a science that studies nature, relationships and behaviour of economic aggregates: national income, total consumption expenditure, total employment and the general price level (Dwivedi, 2010, p.7). In macroeconomics money is considered as a critical element playing the role of encouraging the trading of goods and services. The term Money laundering is used to describe an illegal way of putting money in circulation whichRead MoreGross Domestic Product ( Gdp )1695 Words   |  7 Pagesthe latter uses more governmental outlays than most nations, all nations to some degree make attempts to alleviate economic downturns, as well as to maximize upward movement. Though there must be concern for issues such as the notorious crowding out effect, government activity is often the catalyst to dramatic changes in the economy. The previous example of China as an exporter is true, however it must be noted that it too relies heavily on government expenditures to create a stable economy that hasRead MoreThe Mafias Money Laundering988 Words   |  4 PagesMoney Laundering The term money laundering is said to create from Mafia possession of Laundromats in the United States. Gangsters there were earning huge sums in cash from extortion, prostitution, gambling and bootleg liquor. They needed to demonstrate a legitimate source for these monies. ‘Money laundering is the process by which criminals try to conceal the true origion and ownership of the proceeds of their criminal activity, allowing them to maintain control over the proceeds and, in the endRead MoreMultinational Banks and Financial Institutions1661 Words   |  7 PagesPeople in the modern world keep their funds stored in some type of financial institution, whether it’s a small local bank that only operates in a small town or a large multinational bank that has offices in every major city around the world and caters to millions of people. With the responsibility of handling the assets of millions of people banks are sometimes accused for activities that may be illegal, such as money laundering: the method of concealing illegally acquired money or invasion of a client’sRead MoreProstitution, Drugs And Money Laundering922 Words   |  4 Pages Prostitution, drugs and money laundering are all tied together in the underground world of the public crimes arena. In fact, acts are all influenced by the political, economic, and social relations intertwined with organized crime resulting in violence, public health issues, and money laundering schemes. Markets can be found online, on the streets, and through legitimate and illegitimate practices. The very nature of prostitution and drug crimes are considered victimless crimes, resulting in collateralRead MoreThe Wave of Corporate and Political Changes Since the Early 2000s875 Words   |  4 PagesSince early 2000’s the world has witnessed a series of corporate and political events which have had major impacts on investors, corporations and economies worldwide. The events which had more severe implications are the huge corporate collapses such as Enron which pointed out the issues linked to fraudulent earnings manipulation and the financial crisis of 2008. When it comes to political events, 9/11 has so far been the most devastating one. All these events and the wave of chan ges that they triggeredRead MoreNorth Korea Case Study1085 Words   |  5 Pagestactical levels. Training Circular 7-100 defines HT as, â€Å"the diverse and dynamic combination of regular, irregular, and terrorist forces, criminal elements, or a combination of those forces and elements all unified to achieve mutually benefitting effects.† NK can create strategic diversions, challenges, and deterrence through the threat of development and/or use of its WMD/missile program. NK can use missile threats on US territories to provoke offensive action, create strategic divisions betweenRead MoreBernie Madoff1600 Words   |  7 Pagescharges but when the acts of embezzling money or falsifying business records are committed a company is more apt to prosecute. People have different views regarding what is ethical and what is unethical. Some feel that it’s okay to tell a little white lie, or to make a quick long distance call on the companys dime, as long as they are not hurting anyone. In the case of Bernard Madoff unethical behavior crossed over from gray to definite black and white. The world Bernard Madoff offered to his investorsRead MoreEssay on money laundering2736 Words   |  11 Pagesnbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;Money laundering is the routing of illegal profits from bank to bank to disguise its existence. The illegal profits are usually made through activities such as drug trafficking, prostitution rings, illegal arms sales, and various other t hings. Unfortunately money laundering is a serious crime that is still prevalent in the United States and other countries. The Russian mafia, the Triad or Chinese mafia, and the Columbian drug cartel are just a few of the groups that partake in money laundering

Monday, December 9, 2019

Corporate Governance & Ethics

Question: Discuss about theCorporate Governance Ethics. Answer: Introduction: Plagiarism has often emerged as one of the critical issue about which academic students complain along with their grades and assessment (Lathrop and Foss, 2005). In this context, the present report aims to analyse and examine the reasons behind the punishment given to students for doing plagiarism. Reason for Universities Punishing Plagiarism Plagiarism can be defined as incorporating the opinions and views of other authors in carrying out an academic work without giving them proper credit. It is regarded as cheating and unfair practices by the students studying in the international universities. Plagiarism is considered as strict offense as it is considered as stealing the work of others without giving them proper credibility (Lathrop and Foss, 2005). The international colleges and universities have regarded it as an academic offense and have implemented strict legal rules and policies against the students involved in such fraudulent activities. Plagiarism as a stealing offense is taken as issue of copyright infringement and thus is subjected to be dealt though taking proper legal action (Bloch, 2012). International universities regard it as criminal offense as they consider it as unethical and morally wrong. This is because students engaged in such activities often do not develop the requisite skills that they should obtain through carrying out a specific task provided to them. The completion of a specific academic task requires a student to conduct thorough research by critical evaluation of available sources. This results in enhancing the problem-solving and critical thinking abilities of students (Bloch, 2012). As such, students plagiarising their work are believed to lack appropriate reasoning and critical thinking skills and thus does not fulfil the criteria of completing their academic course. The main objective of international universities behind providing academic tasks to the students is to increase their analytical and reasoning skills. However, plagiarising of work by the students does not result in enhancing their academic skills and competencies. Therefore, internati onal universities undertake plagiarised work as unethical and criminal offense and undertake strict actions against the students involved in such corrupt practice (Lathrop and Foss, 2005). In addition to this, academic students involved in plagiarising also negatively impact the grades of other students. This is because undetected plagiarised work will achieve good grades and therefore will affect the grades of others students who have completed their work ethically. Plagiarism also negatively impacts the brand reputation of the college or university (Pecorari, 2010). The occurrence of plagiarism work by a student of a university implies that teachers or professors in that university are unable to develop the requite skills in the students required for completing a specific task. Thus, universities have implemented strict rules for students involved in plagiarism activities such as huge penalties or legal action to be taken against them (Pecorari, 2010). Conclusion Thus, it can be inferred from the discussion held in the overall report that plagiarism is indeed a serious academic offense and must be avoided by the students. References Bloch, J. 2012. Plagiarism, Intellectual Property and the Teaching of L2 Writing: Explorations in the Detection based Approach. Multilingual Matters. Lathrop, A. and Foss, K. 2005. Guiding Students from Cheating and Plagiarism to Honesty and Integrity: Strategies for Change. Libraries Unlimited. Pecorari, D. 2010. Academic Writing and Plagiarism: A Linguistic Analysis. AC Black.

Monday, December 2, 2019

Walt Disney Essay Sample free essay sample

A ) Industries where Walt Disney compete: Walt Disney tries to be the biggest planetary supplier of media and amusement contents. for that intent. operates in four different sectors: 1. Media Networks: with two chief organic structures. on the one manus Broadcasting units. which include the ABC telecasting acquired in 1995 for $ 19 billion ( 2nd largest acquisition in US history at that minute ) . doing Disney the largest amusement company in US and supplying it with world-wide distribution mercantile establishments for its originative content. On the other manus. Cable Networks. which include ESPN-branded overseas telegram webs. Disney Channel. Disney Channel International. bets in Tocopherol! Entertainment and Lifetime and the start-ups like Toon Disney and SoapNet. 2. Entertainment Studio: bring forthing several films. telecasting life plans. musical recordings and unrecorded phase dramas. Besides engages covering sectors such as theatrical. place picture and telecasting distribution of Disney’s movie and telecasting library. And eventually including studios like Walt Disney Pictures. We will write a custom essay sample on Walt Disney Essay Sample or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page Touchstone. Buena Vista. Miramax and Pixar ( the successful life studio created by Steve Jobs ) . 3. Subject Parks and Resorts: which are reasonably celebrated all over the universe and include the Walt Disney World resort in Florida with around 15 million visitants per twelvemonth. the Disneyland Park and two hotels in California. and the Disney Cruise line operated out of Port Canaveral. Florida. It besides produces royalties on grosss from Tokyo Disneyland where Disney receives 10 % of gate grosss. 5 % of other gross revenues and ongoing consulting fees. and Disneyland Paris. which was bailed out by some investors after enduring of import economic troubles. 4. Merchandises for consumers: it licenses the company’s characters to consumer makers. retail merchants. and publishing houses throughout the universe. The company besides works in direct retail utilizing The Disney Stores. and produces books and magazines in the US and Europe. The company besides produces sound and computing machine package merchandises. movie. picture and computing machine package merchandises for the educational market place. B ) Strategy and corporate aims of Walt Disney: Engagement in these four sectors allows the company to profit from synergisms and accordingly be able to cover the whole amusement experience of clients. Eisner ( Walt Disney CEO known for being able to rebirth the company in the late 20th century ) used to state: â€Å"the ability to leverage the Disney trade name depended on corporate synergy† . for this ground it was created different activities such as the â€Å"synergy boot camp† where employees learn about the company during 8 yearss non being allowed to manage their regular responsibilities. they besides have an award system for those who had been to the highest degree committed to synergy. coercing everyone to look left and right and to construct Bridgess between divisions. This synergy procedure. boosted grosss through cross-promotion among different divisions. for case one twelvemonth before a film was traveling to be released. it was presented to managers of consumer merchandises. place picture and subject Parkss. so they were able to take part in the procedure and fix their schemes for new merchandises. In its web page the Company states its chief corporate aim: â€Å"The mission of The Walt Disney Company is to be one of the world’s taking manufacturers and suppliers of amusement and information. Using our portfolio of trade names to distinguish our content. services and consumer merchandises. we seek to develop the most originative. advanced and profitable amusement experiences and related merchandises in the universe. † This can be considered as excessively general but is such a immense Company that it is really hard to put an identified alone aim for all its divisions. There are two chief ways for making competitory advantage. 1 ) cost leading ; and 2 ) distinction. Walt Disney follows chiefly the distinction method. they try to be different from other sketchs. television channels normally take the best plans ( ESPN is leader in the athletics field ) . Parks and resort are really celebrated all over the universe. therefore they use the chief tools for accomplishing distinction. such as stigmatization. merchandise design. quality. creativeness. invention and new merchandises development. which gives the chance to hold better borders for their merchandises through an invention procedure. C ) To analyse firm?s current scheme. beginnings of competitory advantage and to take into history possible jobs that the Company will hold to face. it has to be made a SWOT analysis: Strengths ( internal ) :* Worldwide known trade name with strong repute and the ability to keep strong individuality with consumers. * Adaptation to new engineerings.* Ability to develop new trade names and merchandises to accommodate to altering consumer penchants. while staying profitable. * Offers their clients high quality merchandises and services. which gives the possibility to distinguish and bear down more for their merchandises. * It is present in multiple subdivisions of the amusement industry. * Diversification of its portfolio offers the company significant advantages in footings of diminishing its hazard. Opportunities ( external ) :* Continue turning through farther variegation. there is room to develop the market in emergent states such as China where they are building a new park. * Leverage from synergisms through its four principal concern. which are truly interrelated. * As a effect of its good fiscal place. they have opportunities to get new concerns to spread out into new profitable sections and new merchandise markets. Failings ( internal ) :* Low return on investings on Studio Productions. as a effect of buccaneering in the film industry. * Difficulties to command such a large Enterprise.* Risk implied in all their investings. as large bulk of them are immense. * Huge investings cut down benefits and equity place in the short tally. Menaces ( external ) :* Strong rivals in the amusement industry. like Warner Bross. * Very hard to happen and afford the most originative employees. which is the key to success in this sort of concerns and for that ground there is a batch of competition to engage them increasing fixed costs. * Troubles on integrating large acquisitions like ABC. * Negative promotion ; mentioned in the instance. for case utilizing sapphic and cheery histrions when Walt Disney is considered to be for traditional households. * Lack of protection of rational belongings in many non-developed states. * Economic force per unit area around the universe. D ) Once briefly analyzed the Company through the SWOT method. to detect the sustainability of the competitory advantages of the company and the sustainability of current market conditions. it is of import to see the 5 forces of porter: Menace of new entrants: it is hard for them to entry. Disney has been able to happen a really typical niche in the industry. By experience. the Company knows what the clients want. Disney has focused on market variegation for old ages and the company covers a broad scope of merchandises and services. Bing a market leader has made it possible for the company to pattern effectual economic systems of graduated table in production as merely really big companies can run into such big capital demand to do investings like the ABC. Dickering power of clients: it is high in the service and in the amusement industry. Since a big figure of clients are needed to do Disney’s operations profitable. the clients have certain powers. For case. if the monetary value on a peculiar place picture is excessively high. clients may be loath to passing the money needed to buy the merchandise and accordingly it will be hard to cover the costs. Dickering power of providers: it can be considered as medium. Disney is runing in a extremely differentiated industry with high shift costs associated with operations. a few companies dominate the providers and for this ground it is really concentrated. However. Disney is a alone and of import client of many of those providers. so the Companies size may surely be a great advantage. To be able to order big volumes of alone merchandises from providers it creates dependent relationship of providers. Menace of replacement merchandises or services: it is low because even though there are several options. such as consoles. The necessity of households to amusement and leisure. all together. will ever be at that place. Tocopherol ) Two chief rivals: On the one manus. News Corporation operates as a diversified media company worldwide. It operates in several sections: Network Programming section ; the Filmed Entertainment section ; and the Publishing section. The endeavor has followed a perpendicular integrating scheme that is based on the control of the supply concatenation of its merchandises. On this manner. it keeping the content and distribution moral force. thereby doing easy to pull off contracts and this is critical in instance of information goods. News Corporation took over the full value concatenation of the amusement and media industry. which gave him control over different media. On the other manus. Time Warner Inc. operates as a media and amusement company in the United States and internationally. It operates in three sections: Networks. Film and TV Entertainment. and Publishing. In this instance the scheme followed has been the horizontal integrating one. particularly due to the merger between Time Warner and AOL. an cyberspace service company. in 2001. With this operation other media companies oriented towards the content felt force per unit area come ining the distribution concern. F ) New strategic determinations and execution programs: The key to success of Walt Disney during so many old ages has been to be originative and advanced plenty to accommodate to universe alterations. for this ground I would concentrate my attempt on engaging the â€Å"best minds† . for being able to go on with this advanced procedure. For this intent I would seek to engage top managers from rivals by offering them non merely better wages but besides the sense of belonging to a Company. which is altering the universe through doing people happier. At the same clip. I would make a Walt Disney survey centre where the best immature alumnuss will prosecute to be trained with the most originative professors in the Disney values. As Steve Jobs used to state: â€Å"employees from first division are merely willing o work with employees of first division† Additionally. I would seek to leverage the great trade name image that Disney has all over the universe to construct new subject Parkss in developing states with large population such as Brazil. India and Turkey. Furthermore. taking into history the harm suffered from buccaneering I would seek to get new concerns with solvency jobs. to come in into new sections related to the amusement industry. for case consoles. Finally. as the reproduction of films at place is diminishing all over the universe because of buccaneering and alternate methods such as streaming. I would concentrate on making fewer new films with immense advertizement investings and particular effects doing them more attractive to be watched at the films and accordingly doing truly profitable through box offices remembrance.

Tuesday, November 26, 2019

Maritime Applications for Machine Learning and Data Science

Maritime Applications for Machine Learning and Data Science    As data collection and analysis seeps into the conservative maritime industry we are beginning to see cracks in this grand old system based on tradition and trial and error. When I say old, I don’t mean the 1980’s or even the 1880’s. Opinions vary on the exact time shipping became modern as any sailor or longshoreman would recognize today. When the English and Dutch began standardizing shipping practices between their two countries to increase safety and profit the practices soon spread. This was happening in the late 1600’s and if you wanted to be part of the shipping economy you looked to the English, Dutch, and to a lesser extent, the Spanish. Today we can see another example of this technology clustering having a lasting effect on a growing industry. Starting in the 1960’s California became the place to be if you were a part of the new generation of electronics companies. Standards were set and the jargon and culture of Silicon Valley we have today is a direct result of this small but powerful geographic area. In addition to soft concepts like jargon, deep architectural standards like eight digit binary numbers were solidified. The same sorts of transactions and relationships were also true of shipping as it became a standardized business. Global shipping today represents many cultures and values and it must be responsive in the era of pervasive media and digital content, or it will be demonized and lose the minimal goodwill available to a largely invisible industry. Yet when they see a good idea, which is one that will save money, it is quickly adopted by the upper levels of management. Workers are sometimes resistant to change for fear of job loss. Both of these behaviors occurred when the intermodal shipping container was introduced in the 1950’s as a cost saving measure. Automation of ships and ports will be a much more difficult journey than the one fought by the proponents of the modular container in the early days. Job loss among longshoremen was real and the sealed container ended the common practice of pilfering some of the cargo. This was common, and still happens occasionally today, with some Masters sanctioning the activity. The fact was it took much less labor to load a ship with large boxes than it did individual sacks or grain or crates of equipment that varied in size and weight. Automated ships and ports will eliminate some jobs that are hazardous or dirty and most people will not miss this kind of work. Jobs that have a high value are a different story. A totally autonomous ship is in the future and that means less risk for deck hands while increasing profits substantially for ship owners. The savings are similar to autonomous car savings, less risk, less insurance costs, more efficient operation, better traffic management, and elimination of human error.    The elimination of human error on the operational level is important since most accidents happen because of failure due to poor design or human error in some aspect of vessel operation. Machine learning is giving us insights into the marine world we never had before, and some of the revelations are contrary to accepted beliefs. A good example of this is the Digital Deck product for commercial fishermen that was developed by the company Point 97. Digital tracking of fishery data collected by fishermen in their daily operation led to discoveries local regulators used to manage fish stocks and reduce the resources needed to search for illegal fishing activity. Automatic importing of data allows for near real-time insights not only for regulators, but also fishermen. Now a new class of data is emerging with the announcement from MIT that they have developed an algorithm that monitors wave data in order to predict rouge wave formation. Rouge wave are giant and often deadly waves that form in the open sea where two wave fields combine. Rouge waves are often in the form of a peak and not a long running wave like those produced by tsunami. This is a new class of data because it needs quick action to work. Automatic avoidance systems are not generally accepted and permission to change course could take minutes. Rouge waves form and do their damage quickly so the best use of this data is in an automatic system that will change course or turn to face the wave bow-on. This will make mariners uncomfortable but the alternative is worse. Classification societies, insurers, and regulators all stand in the way of more automation but like self-driving cars, they will be accepted because of greater convenience and cost savings. We have already reached a point where there is too much data for one human to absorb. All that data on the helm displays can be better managed by computers which already run many parts of a modern ship. The few sailors that do remain on ships of the future will likely be technicians with few hands on duties unless automated maintenance and repair systems fail.

Saturday, November 23, 2019

How to Create a Homeschool Schedule

How to Create a Homeschool Schedule After deciding to homeschool and selecting  curriculum, figuring out how to create a homeschool schedule is sometimes one of the most challenging aspects of educating at home. The majority of today’s homeschooling parents graduated from a traditional school setting. The schedule was easy. You showed up to school before the first bell rang and stayed until the last bell rang. The county announced the first and last days of school and all the holiday breaks in between. You knew when each class was going to take place and how long you’d spend in each based on your class schedule. Or, if you were in elementary school, you just did what your teacher told you to do next. So, how do you make a homeschool schedule? The complete freedom and flexibility of homeschooling can make it difficult to let go of  the traditional school calendar mode. Let’s break homeschool schedules down into some manageable chunks. Yearly Schedules The first plan you’ll want to determine is your annual schedule. Your state’s homeschooling laws may play a  role in setting your yearly schedule. Some states require a certain number of hours of home instruction each year. Some require a specific number of homeschool days. Others consider home schools self-governing private schools and put no stipulations on attendance. A 180-day school year is fairly standard and works out to four 9-week quarters, two 18-week semesters, or 36 weeks. Most homeschool curriculum publishers  base their products on this 36-week model, making it a good starting point for planning your familys schedule. Some families keep their schedules very simple by choosing a start date and counting days until they’ve met their states requirements. They take breaks and days off as needed. Others prefer to have a framework calendar in place. There is still lots of flexibility even with an established yearly calendar. Some possibilities include: A typical school schedule from Labor Day until the end of May/first of JuneYear ‘round schooling with six weeks on/one week off or nine weeks on/two weeks offFour-day school weeks until youve satisfied attendance requirementsFollowing your city or countys  public/private school calendar (This option works well for families who homeschool some of their children while others attend a traditional school or families in which one parent works at a traditional school.) Weekly Schedules Once you’ve decided on the framework for your yearly homeschool schedule, you can work out the details of your weekly schedule. Take outside factors such as co-op or work schedules into consideration when planning your  weekly schedule. One of the benefits of homeschooling is that your weekly schedule doesn’t have to be Monday through Friday. If one or both parents have  an unconventional work week, you can adjust your school days to maximize family time. For example, if a parent works Wednesday through Sunday, you can make that your school week, as well, with Monday and Tuesday being your family’s weekend. A weekly homeschool schedule can also be adjusted to accommodate an  irregular work schedule. If a parent works six days one week and four the next, school can follow  the same schedule. Some families do their regular  school work  four days each week reserving the fifth day for co-op, field trips, or other outside-the-home classes and activities. Block Schedule Two other scheduling options are block schedules and loop schedules. A block schedule is one in which one or more subjects are allotted  a large span of time a couple of days a week instead of an hour or so every day. For example, you might schedule two hours for history on Mondays and Wednesdays and two hours for science on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Block scheduling allows students to fully focus on a particular subject without over-scheduling the school day. It allows time for activities such as hands-on history projects and  science labs. Loop Schedule A loop schedule is one in which there is a list of activities to cover but no  specific day  to cover them. Instead, you and your students spend time on each as its turn comes up on the loop. For example, if you’d like to allow space in your homeschool schedule for art, geography, cooking, and music, but you don’t have time to devote to them each day, add them to a loop schedule. Then, determine how many days you want to include loop schedule subjects. Perhaps, you choose Wednesdays and Fridays. On Wednesday, you study art and geography and on Friday, cooking, and music. On a given Friday, you may run out of time for music, so the following Wednesday, you would cover that and art, picking  up with geography and cooking on Friday. Block scheduling and loop scheduling can work well together. You may block schedule Monday through Thursday and leave Friday as a loop schedule day. Daily Schedules Most of the time when people ask about homeschool schedules, they’re referring to the nitty-gritty daily schedules. Like yearly schedules, your states homeschool laws may dictate some aspects of your daily schedule. For example, some states homeschooling laws require a specific number of hours of daily instruction. New homeschooling parents often wonder how long a homeschool day should be. They worry that they aren’t doing enough because it may only take two or three hours to get through the day’s work, particularly if the students are young. It is important for  parents to realize that a homeschool day may not take as long a typical public or private school day. Homeschooling parents don’t have to take time for administrative tasks, such as roll call or preparing 30 students for lunch or allow time for students to move from one classroom to the next between subjects. Additionally, homeschooling allows for focused, one-on-one attention. A homeschooling parent can answer his or her student’s questions and move on rather than answering questions from an entire class. Many parents of young children through first or second grade find that they can easily cover all subjects in just an hour or two. As students get older, it may take them longer to complete their work. A high school student may spend the full four to five hours – or more – dictated by state law. However, you shouldn’t stress even if a teen’s school work doesn’t take that much time  as long they are completing and comprehending it. Provide a learning-rich environment for your children and you will discover that learning happens even when the school books are put away. Students can use those extra hours to read, pursue their hobbies, explore electives, or invest in extracurricular activities. Sample Daily Schedule Allow your daily homeschool schedule to be shaped by your family’s personality and needs, not by what you think it â€Å"should† be. Some homeschool families prefer scheduling specific times for each subject. Their schedule may look something like this: 8:30 – Math9:15 – Language Arts9:45 – Snack/break10:15 - Reading11:00 – Science11:45 – Lunch12:45  Ã¢â‚¬â€œ History/social studies1:30 – Electives (art, music, etc.) Other families prefer a daily routine to a time-specific schedule. These families know that they’re going to start with math, using the example above, and end with electives, but they may not have the same start and end times each day. Instead,  they work through each subject, completing each and taking breaks as needed. Factors to Consider It’s important to note that many homeschooling families start much later in the day. They don’t start until 10 or 11 a.m. – or even until the afternoon! Some factors that may influence a homeschooling family’s start time include: Biology – Night owls or those who are more alert in the afternoon may  prefer a later start time. Early risers and those who are more focused in the mornings, usually prefer an earlier start time.Work schedules – Families  in which one or both parents work an atypical shift may choose to start school after that parent goes to work. When my husband worked second, we had our big family meal at lunch and started school after he left for work.Family needs – Factors such as a new baby, a sick parent/child/relative, a home-based business, or maintaining a family farm can all affect start times.Outside classes  Ã¢â‚¬â€œÃ‚  Homeschool co-op,  dual-enrollment, and other classes or activities outside the home may dictate your start time requiring that you  complete school work before or after these commitments.   Once you have teens who are working independently, your schedule may undergo a radical shift. Many teens find that they’re most alert late at night and that they also require more sleep. Homeschooling allows the freedom for teens to work when they’re most productive. The Bottom Line There is no one perfect homeschooling schedule and finding the right one for your family may take some trial and error. And it will likely need to be adjusted from year to year as your children get older and the factors affecting your schedule change. The most important tip to remember is to allow your familys needs to shape your schedule, not an unrealistic idea of how the schedule should or shouldnt be set up.

Thursday, November 21, 2019

Can Anyone Steer this Economy Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Can Anyone Steer this Economy - Essay Example The question at hand is of the condition of the family if the value of their home rises while their wages decrease (Mandel). Unfortunately, the statistics to answer these questions are not available, but there are different scenarios that can give a common sense solution to the question at hand. First of all, bonds have hit an acceptable low, which is good news for the home buyer (Mandel). If a homeowner encounters a decrease in their income but their home value increases, the chance of refinancing their home to consolidate their debts at an affordable rate is better with lower interest rates. This can put a family in a stable situation while the money lasts, but with the fluctuating mortgage rates, they may encounter a situation in which refinancing is not an option. On the other hand, if a homeowner's home does not raise in value and their income increases, they may be able to work out a longer term solution rather than refinancing their home. Those with higher incomes are able to contribute more of their money to savings and retirement funds than those with lower wages. That way they are able to have funds available in case of a rainy day. Michael Mandel states in his article that "the broad-based drop in incomes is being driven more by the rise of China and India." He also states that "Globalization has

Tuesday, November 19, 2019

The Role Of Gender In Team Collaboration Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

The Role Of Gender In Team Collaboration - Essay Example I learned how gendered communication and decision-making can affect the kinds of jobs and wage levels of women and men (Parcheta et al., 2013, p.244). The second proof the case study is awareness of skills needed to handle current workplace challenges. I learned that women should enhance their communication and negotiation skills that are related to their performance (Bear & Woolley, 2011, p.148). They should not be afraid of being aggressive in fighting for equal pay or promotion. The cons of doing the case study are related to examining exceptions to gender stereotypes and social generalizations. The first con of the case study is it does not consider men and women who do not fit in gender stereotypes. Some women are not timid in negotiation processes, while some men are not that aggressive in fighting for higher pay. The case study assumes that men and women, in general, have these gender-stereotyped characteristics, thereby neglecting individual differences. The second con of the case study is it has the tendency to overlook companies that may have benchmarks already when it comes to challenging gender stereotypes and in promoting gender equality in top management positions, high-paying positions, and gender wage. Some companies are making headways in undercutting gender bias and promoting equality across all workplace avenues. One of the actions that can help stop sexual harassment in the workplace is to promote refresher training on sexual harassment using office hours time. Using office/employment time is already a strong signal that the company takes sexual harassment seriously because learning about it is part of paid labor. In addition, refresher courses update employees about sexual harassment reports and their resolutions at work or in the industry, thereby showing that the company does not take harassment reports lightly.

Sunday, November 17, 2019

Analysis of two brands of commercial Bleaches Essay Example for Free

Analysis of two brands of commercial Bleaches Essay Analysis of Two Brands of Commercial Bleaches Objective To determine the concentration of sodium chlorate(I) (NaClO) in two commercial bleaches and compare the two bleaches on both concentration and price. Procedures 1. 10. 0 cm3 of the bleach KAO was pipetted into a clean 250 cm3 volumetric flask. It was made up to the mark using deionized water. 2. 25. 0 cm3 of the diluted solution was pipetted into a conical flask. 3. 10 cm3 of 1 M potassium iodide solution and 10 cm3 of dilute sulphuric acid was added into the conical flask also. 4. The mixture in the conical flask was titrated against the 0. 0992 M sodium thiosulphate solution. 5. Three drops of freshly prepared starch indicator are added into the conical flask when the reaction mixture turned pale yellow . 6. The mixture was titrated to the end-point. 7. At the end point, the solution turned from dark blue to colourless. 8. Steps (1) to (7) were repeated with another bleach LION Results Concentration of standard sodium thiosulphate solution : 0. 0992M Brand 1 Trade Name : KAO Bleach Price : $7. 33per dm3 ($11/1500mL). Trial 1 2 Final burette reading / cm311. 90 23. 40 35. 00 Initial burette reading / cm3 0. 20 11. 90 23. 40 Volume of Na2S2O3 / cm3 11. 70 11. 50 11. 60 Brand 2 Trade Name : LION Price : $6. 67per dm3 ($10/1500mL) Trial 1 2 Final burette reading / cm3 14. 60 28. 70 42. 80 Initial burette reading / cm3 0. 50 14. 60 28. 70 Volume of Na2S2O3 / cm3 14. 10 14. 10 14. 10 Questions 1. For each brand, calculate (a) the amount of the active ingredient available in g dm-3. (b) the cost per gram of this compound. (c) 1a) For KAO Bleach, Averge volume of sodium thiosulphate solution used=(11. 5+11. 6)/2=11. 55cm3?no. of mole of S2O32-=(11. 55/1000)(0. 0992) =0. 00114576mol. ?no. of mole of I2 =(no. of mole of S2O32- )/2 =0. 00057288mol ?no. of mole of OCl- in10 cm3 solution = no. of mole of I2 x10 =0. 0005728810 =0. 0057288mol ? Mass of OCl- contained in 10 cm3 solution=0. 0057288x(16+35. 45) =0. 29474676g ?Concentration of OCl- (active ingredient available) =0. 29474676/(10/1000)=29. 47gdm-3 For LION Bleach, Averge volume of sodium thiosulphate solution used=(14. 1+14. 1)/2=14. 10cm3 ?no. of mole of S2O32-=(14. 10/1000)(0. 0992) =0. 00139872mol. ?no. of mole of I2 =(no.of mole of S2O32- )/2 =0. 00069936mol ?no. of mole of OCl- in10 cm3 solution = no. of mole of I2 x10 =0. 0006993610 =0. 0069936mol ? Mass of OCl- contained in 10 cm3 solution=0. 0069936x(16+35. 45) =0. 35982072g ?Concentration of OCl- (active ingredient available) =0. 35982072/(10/1000)=35. 98gdm-3 1b)For KAO Bleach, Cost per one gram of OCl- = 11 /[29. 474676x(1500/1000)] =$0. 277/g For LION Bleach, Cost per one gram of OCl- = 10 /[35. 982072x(1500/1000)] =$0. 185/g 2. Based on the calculated results, decide which of the two brands of bleach is a better buy. When compring the costs per one gram of OCl- of KAO(0. 277/g) and LION($0. 185/g), as we can pay a lower price ($0. 185)to buy the same weight of active ingredient (OCl- ) in LION bleach, LION bleach is a better buy. 3. Explain why potassium iodide and sulphuric acid must be in excess. ClO-(aq) + 2I-(aq) + 2H+(aq) i I2(aq) + H2O(l) + Cl-(aq) From the equation above, iodide ions and hydrogen ions react with Hypochlorite ions to form iodine ,water and chloride ions. To determine the actual number of mole of ClO- ,all ClO- ions sholud react to give iodine. KI (I-) and H2SO4 (H+) must be in excess to ensure all ClO- has been converted into Cl- ions. Then the number of mole of I2 produced is calculated by titrating against sodium thiosulphate and hence the number of mole of ClO- ions can be calculated by ratio: No. of moles of ClO- = No. of moles of I2 In other words, excess potassium iodide and sulphuric acid are used for ensuring all ClO- ions are reacted react to give iodine. Moreover,dilute sulphuric acid is added to increase the rate of reaction. If KI and H2SO4 are not in excess, some of the ClO- ions are not converted into Cl- . Consequently the calculated number of mole of ClO- ions present would be smaller than the actual one since the number of mole of ClO- ions which are not converted into Cl- are not taken into account. 4. Bleaching solution may deteriorate for two main reasons. One is the attack by carbon dioxide in air according to the equation: 2ClO-(aq) + CO2(aq) i CO32-(aq) + Cl2(aq) What is the other possible reason? Under normal condition,Hypochlorite ions decompose to give oxygen and chloride ions. Ionic equation: ClO-(aq) i O2(g) + 2Cl-(aq) Chemical equation: NaClO(aq) i O2(g) + 2NaCl(aq). The rate of the reaction above can been increased at high temperature or under sunlight. When sodium hypochlorite is heated or evaporated, sodium chlorate and sodium chloride will be formed. Chemical equation: 3 NaOCl(aq) i NaClO3 (aq)+ 2 NaCl(aq) 5. The starch indicator should not be added too early. Why? Starch is often used in chemistry as an indicator for redox titrations where iodine is present as starch forms a very dark blue-black complex with iodine. Moreover,the indicator is not affected by the presence of iodide (I-). In order for the the starch solution to change colour, both starch and iodide must be present. Starch forms an unstable complex which is blue coloured in low concentrations of iodine. However, this complex is in high concentrations of iodine . If starch solution is added too early, the conical flask still contains high concentration of iodine. As a result, highly stable complex is formed,the starch indicator then cannot be decolourised and the complex will spoil the reaction medium. Consequently, the titration cannot continue. Therefore the iodine must be diluted first with the titrant ,sodium thiosulphate to ensure no higly stable complex is formed. After that the starch can be added.

Thursday, November 14, 2019

How smart is Einstein? :: essays research papers

There is a parlor game physics students play: Who was the greater genius? Galileo or Kepler? (Galileo) Maxwell or Bohr? (Maxwell, but it's closer than you might think). Hawking or Heisenberg? (A no-brainer, whatever the best-seller lists might say. It's Heisenberg). But there are two figures who are simply off the charts. Isaac Newton is one. The other is Albert Einstein. If pressed, physicists give Newton pride of place, but it is a photo finish -- and no one else is in the race. Newton's claim is obvious. He created modern physics. His system described the behavior of the entire cosmos -- and while others before him had invented grand schemes, Newton's was different. His theories were mathematical, making specific predictions to be confirmed by experiments in the real world. Little wonder that those after Newton called him lucky -- "for there is only one universe to discover, and he discovered it. " But what of Einstein? Well, Einstein felt compelled to apologize to Newton. "Newton, forgive me;" Einstein wrote in his Autobiographical Notes. "You found the only way which, in your age, was just about possible for a man of highest thought and creative power." Forgive him? For what? For replacing Newton's system with his own -- and, like Newton, for putting his mark on virtually every branch of physics. That's the difference. Young physicists who play the "who's smarter" game are really asking, "how will I measure up?" Is there a shot to match -- if not Maxwell, then perhaps Lorentz? But Einstein? Don't go there. Match this: In 1905, Einstein is 26, a patent examiner, working on physics on his own. After hours, he creates the Special Theory of Relativity, in which he demonstrates that measurements of time and distance vary systematically as anything moves relative to anything else. Which means that Newton was wrong. Space and time are not absolute -- and the relativistic universe we inhabit is not the one Newton "discovered." That's pretty good -- but one idea, however spectacular, does not make a demi-god. But now add the rest of what Einstein did in 1905: In March, Einstein creates the quantum theory of light, the idea that light exists as tiny packets, or particles, that we now call photons. Alongside Max Planck's work on quanta of heat, and Niels Bohr's later work on quanta of matter, Einstein's work anchors the most shocking idea in twentieth century physics: we live in a quantum universe, one built out of tiny, discrete chunks of energy and matter.

Tuesday, November 12, 2019

The disvantage and advantage of globalization

Globalization describes the process by which regional economies, societies, and cultures have become integrated through a global network of communication, transportation, and trade. † (Globalization, 2010). Nowadays, small business has to compete against multinational companies face to face as globalization becomes an irreversible momentum. In some case, small business have no need to against the large companies because they focus on different scale until the small companies grow up.However, I agree that small business in IT industries cannot compete against multinational companies when small companies become threats to the lager ones. In this essay, I will explain why small business still exist today and compare their advantages to multinational companies in the sector of financial strengths and productivity advantages. Small business still exists now because they have unique features, especially they focus on the lower market. It is no need for them to compete against the mul tinational companies Sometimes. Hey sever the specific communities. Such as they are willing to run their small business in some small illegal and remote area where multinational firms do not pay attention to. Enclave, K. (2002) argued that small business have to overcome these rules: â€Å"†¦ Information technology (IT) powerless crowd out product development Initiatives†¦ † It Is clearly that overcoming these sales abstract is difficult but not impossible. Small business has its own advantages because it can use convenient and easy solutions to common business problems.However, low price is the most popular strategy for small business to make profits and attract customers' attention. Small business spends less none on advanced Invention. Comparing Dell Company mentioned by Enclave (2002) that if they want to enlarge their popularity they have prepackaged solutions to meet unique buyer's need. They set up specific system to solve these problems to keep In touch wit h their customers. As a result, they have to Invest more money to the stuff. In order to maintain their cost, they have to raise the selling price. That Is the major reason why small business can exist at present.But after small companies changes into large ones, multinational firms consider those companies as a threat, in order to hold their markets share, which will acquire or knock down small business before they growth. Multinational corporations have financial strength support them to enlarge their market share. As a result, it is relatively easy for them to meet the customers' need and enhance their reputation. Large companies are willing to spend money on observations about what people really need and want to buy. They invest amount of money In advertising their products.For example, IBM personal computer business was acquired by Chinese famous personal computer brand Leno, and hen, spend almost one million hired Chinese famous movie star Jingle Xx as their spokeswomen. Not o nly this, Leno company invest large deal of money to sponsor many activities on television and radio to enhance its popularity. As for small business, they will be asked for achieve their customers' need and have large fund to broaden kinds of products claimed by Enclave (2002). Preston (2010) cited Bob Evans 1 OFF than what you have. † It seems hard for small business to follow multinational companies.Small business have tight budget and less popular than large firms, asking over large companies market stocks is difficult for it. Small companies can still exist because of the scale they were chosen. Sheldon small firms are held in CAB, they chose to serve the limited people instead of making less money because much more large companies in there. Small business avoid compete against large firms directly. Multinationals companies have high productivity benefit from their advanced technology. High technology helps those firms make high profits and also help themselves a lot. The productivity advantage of foreign-owned firms is usually en as reflecting multinationals' technological advantage visa–visa domestic firms. † (Marksmen, 2002 cited by Grammar & G ¶erg, 2007). However, advanced technology plays vital role in processing high productivity. Consumers are more willing to pay more to buy those high quality productions, they believe this goods produced by large companies have quality assurance. Another example to support this argument is by Preston (2010) whose study compares the strategic IT companies in the world.He shows that IBM as a technology provider, grabbing consumer market by its innovation product named Smarter Planet. Some software companies in small scale sell some cheaper goods to make profit, but these products cannot run well in the long term. Consequently, people always spend a lot to repair them. Then, fewer people will purchase their products because of lacking of guarantee. It leads themselves face the big problem that b ankruptcy or acquired by large firms. Grammar (2007) quotes Balk (2001) who stated that different roles in different kinds of economies play various roles for productivity growth.To conclude, Multinational reparations have financial strength support them to enlarge their market share. For instance, improving popularity through advertisement and getting high productivity because of their advanced technology. In some cases, small business has no need to fight against multinational companies as they are focus on different market. When small business growing up, they would be take into consideration by large companies because those firms will reduce their market share. Whether small business should compete against multinational ones or not depend on what market they focus on.

Sunday, November 10, 2019

Attitude Towards Women Fathers and Sons Essay

To analyze the attitudes towards the women question and the most useful starting point would be to look at the representation of the liberated woman, Yevdoxia Kukshina, which can be contrasted with the representation of Bazarov’s mother or Nikolai Kirsanov’s wife, the women ideals of the older generation. Kukshina is clearly meant to the representative of the radicalism of the 1850s to1860s, â€Å"the progressive, advanced or educated woman : nigilistka or nihilist woman† (Richard Stites). She has ‘vowed to defend the rights of women to the last drop of my blood’ and is scornful of Sand ‘an out of date woman’. She has separated from her husband and plans to go abroad to study in Paris and Heildelberg. She thus, personifies the emergence of new objectives and tactics among the Russian emancipees of the early 1860s. However, it is also quite obvious that while much has been written about Turgenev’s attitude towards his nihilist hero, there is no doubt that the female nihilist Kukshina is an unflattering caricature and as Walter Smyrniw quotes â€Å"Turgenev has deliberately portrayed Kukshina as a ludicrous and repulsive emancipee.† Walter goes on to argue that in his portrayal of Kukshina, Turgenev lampooned only certain undesirable tendencies generated by Russian emancipees. The worst among them was a lack of genuine involvement, an inadequate commitment to the movement itself. Some merely assumed the roles of the emancipated women and hence their behaviour was both contrived and unnatural. Although many critics have argued along the same lines of Turgenev’s portrayal of Kukshina as a device for irony â€Å"the progressive louse which Turgenev combed out of Russian reality† (Dostoevsky) and that he has assumed the same sentiment in respect to Russian men who merely assumed the pose of materialists and nihilists (eg. Sitnikov), it is hard to escape that in the description of her person and household we find some of the stereotyping of radical women found in most conservative writing. He did not hesitate in expressing value judgments when ridiculing the pretentiousness and hypocrisy of Russian women who merely played the role of emancipees. She is dirty and slovenly in her habits and person, her room is scattered and dusty, her hair disheveled and her dress crumpled. Moreover, her conversation and behaviour is meant to ‘show’ us that her radicalism is shallow and unaffected. The narrator ‘tells’ us that she greets her guests with a string of questions without waiting for answers. It is important to notice here the narrator’s generalization here, which would seem to impute lack of serious concern (feminine casualness) to all women as part of their feminine nature and not to Kukshina as an individual. The narrator draws repeated attention to Kukshina’s unattractive physical appearance almost as if that were partly her fault. Kukshina is unfortunate enough to show her gums above her top teeth when she laughs and her piano playing revels her flat-cut fingernails. However, what is most significant in terms of the dominant patriarchal ideology of the mid-nineteenth century Russia is her declaration, â€Å"I’m free, I have no children.† From a conservative perspective, this would count as near sacrilegious statement. Though Bazarov himself is a serious character, it’s possible to read Sitnikov as a parody of the younger generation. At Madame Kukshin’s, the narrator tells us â€Å"To Sitnikov the chance to be scathing and express contempt was the most agreeable of sensations† (13.44).

Thursday, November 7, 2019

Free Essays on Copy DVD

How to convert a DVD to VCD This is one of the best methods to produce excellent quality VideoCD's from DVD's. This guide will help you produce VideoCD's that can be played on PC's, PSX Movie adaptors and all standalone VCD & DVD players that can play home-burned VCD's. Only 4 software titles need to be installed and all are relatively small in size. The best bit of all is that the software is Freeware or Demo ware with results comparable to commercially available software. The final VCD is better quality than most Original VCD's, equal or better than standard VHS and the sound is near CD quality. Although this guide uses CladDVD to rip (remove the DVD copy protection and transfer the movie files to your Hard Drive) the movie off the DVD, other freeware rippers can also be used. These include VobDecGUI and DOD SpeedRipper. The actual encoding to VCD is done by bbMPEG, which is freeware and now bundled with the latest version of the freeware FlaskMPEG. Other commercially available Adobe(r) Premier Plug-in's can also be used and are detailed in the FlaskMPEG Help file. Software you will need: 1. CladDVD 1.64 (It can be found at http://members.netscapeonline.co.uk/claddvd/) 2. FlaskMPEG 0.594 (It can be found at http://go.to/flaskmpeg) 3. TMPGEnc 12a & English patch (It can be found at jamsoft.com/tmpgenc/) 4. Nero 5.x (It can be found at ahead.de) 5. WinOnCD 3.6+ (It can be found on Morpheus) You will also need a Computer with: Windows 95B, 95C, 98, 98SE, ME, NT sp4 or 2000 installed. A Pentium II 300 MMX or equivalent as a minimum. At least 64meg memory An internal DVD Rom player (any speed) Hard drive with at least 4 gb, but prefrably 10 gb FREE space in one partition. WinZip and WinRAR or WinAce (whick will handle all types; zip, rar, ace, cab..etc) to extract the files above. Fully functional demo versions can be downloaded from winzip.com/, rar... Free Essays on Copy DVD Free Essays on Copy DVD How to convert a DVD to VCD This is one of the best methods to produce excellent quality VideoCD's from DVD's. This guide will help you produce VideoCD's that can be played on PC's, PSX Movie adaptors and all standalone VCD & DVD players that can play home-burned VCD's. Only 4 software titles need to be installed and all are relatively small in size. The best bit of all is that the software is Freeware or Demo ware with results comparable to commercially available software. The final VCD is better quality than most Original VCD's, equal or better than standard VHS and the sound is near CD quality. Although this guide uses CladDVD to rip (remove the DVD copy protection and transfer the movie files to your Hard Drive) the movie off the DVD, other freeware rippers can also be used. These include VobDecGUI and DOD SpeedRipper. The actual encoding to VCD is done by bbMPEG, which is freeware and now bundled with the latest version of the freeware FlaskMPEG. Other commercially available Adobe(r) Premier Plug-in's can also be used and are detailed in the FlaskMPEG Help file. Software you will need: 1. CladDVD 1.64 (It can be found at http://members.netscapeonline.co.uk/claddvd/) 2. FlaskMPEG 0.594 (It can be found at http://go.to/flaskmpeg) 3. TMPGEnc 12a & English patch (It can be found at jamsoft.com/tmpgenc/) 4. Nero 5.x (It can be found at ahead.de) 5. WinOnCD 3.6+ (It can be found on Morpheus) You will also need a Computer with: Windows 95B, 95C, 98, 98SE, ME, NT sp4 or 2000 installed. A Pentium II 300 MMX or equivalent as a minimum. At least 64meg memory An internal DVD Rom player (any speed) Hard drive with at least 4 gb, but prefrably 10 gb FREE space in one partition. WinZip and WinRAR or WinAce (whick will handle all types; zip, rar, ace, cab..etc) to extract the files above. Fully functional demo versions can be downloaded from winzip.com/, rar...

Tuesday, November 5, 2019

Find out What Marine Conservation Is

Find out What Marine Conservation Is Marine conservation is also known as ocean conservation. The health of all life on Earth depends (directly or indirectly) on a healthy ocean. As humans began to realize their increasing impacts on the ocean, the field of marine conservation arose in response. This article discusses the definition of marine conservation, techniques used in the field, and some of the most important ocean conservation issues. Marine Conservation Definition Marine conservation is the protection of marine species and ecosystems in oceans and seas worldwide. It involves not only protection and restoration of species, populations, and habitats but also mitigating human activities such as overfishing, habitat destruction, pollution, whaling and other issues that impact marine life and habitats. A related term you may encounter is marine conservation biology, which is the use of science to solve conservation issues.   Brief History of Ocean Conservation People became more aware of their impacts on the environment in the 1960s and 1970s. Around this same time, Jacques Cousteau brought the wonder of the oceans to people through television. As scuba diving technology improved, more people took to the undersea world. Whalesong recordings fascinated the public, helped people recognize whales as sentient beings, and led to whaling bans. Also in the 1970s, laws were passed in the U.S. regarding protection of marine mammals (Marine Mammal Protection Act), protection of endangered species (Endangered Species Act), overfishing (Magnuson Stevens Act) and clean water (Clean Water Act), and establishing a National Marine Sanctuary Program (Marine Protection, Research and Sanctuaries Act). In addition, the  International Convention for the Prevention of Pollution from Ships was enacted to reduce ocean pollution. In more recent years, as ocean issues came to the forefront, the U.S. Commission on Ocean Policy was established in 2000 to develop recommendations for a new and comprehensive national ocean policy.  This led to the creation of the National Ocean Council, which is charged with implementing the National Ocean Policy, which establishes a framework for managing the ocean, Great Lakes, and coastal areas, encourages more coordination between the Federal, state and local agencies charged with managing ocean resources, and using marine spatial planning effectively. Marine Conservation Techniques Marine conservation work can be done by enforcing and creating laws, such as the Endangered Species Act and Marine Mammal Protection Act. It can also be done by establishing marine protected areas, studying populations through conducting stock assessments and mitigating human activities with the goal of restoring populations.    An important part of marine conservation is outreach and education. A popular environmental education quote by conservationist Baba Dioum states that In the end, we will conserve only what we love; we will love only what we understand; and we will understand only what we are taught. Marine Conservation Issues Current and emerging issues in marine conservation include: Ocean acidificationClimate change and warming ocean temperatures.Sea level riseReducing bycatch in marine fisheries and entanglements in fishing gear.Establishing marine protected areas  to protect important habitats, commercially and/or recreationally-valuable species and feeding and breeding areas.Regulating whalingProtecting coral reefs through studying the problem of coral bleaching.Addressing the worldwide problem of invasive species.Marine debris and the issue of plastics in the ocean.Dealing with the problem of shark finning.Oil spills (an issue the public became well aware of thanks to the Exxon Valdez and Deepwater Horizon spills).The ongoing debate of the appropriateness of cetaceans in captivity.Studying and protecting endangered species (e.g., North Atlantic right whale, vaquita, sea turtles, monk seals and many other threatened and endangered species). References and Further Information: The Encyclopedia of New Zealand. Story: Marine Conservation. Accessed November 30, 2015.ScienceDaily Reference. Marine Conservation. Accessed November 30, 2015.U.S. Commission on Ocean Policy. 2004. Review of U.S. Ocean and Coastal Law: The Evolution of Ocean Governance Over Three Decades. Accessed November 30. 2015.  U.S. Commission on Ocean Policy. About the Commission.  Accessed November 30, 2015.The United States Environmental Protection Agency. Ocean Dumping Timeline. Accessed November 30, 2015.

Sunday, November 3, 2019

Reactions papers Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Reactions papers - Essay Example This holy book teaches that only true believers will be rescued on the day of the Last Judgment, while the rest will burn in the hell-fire, suffering from the eternal torments. The laws of God are unalterable. He sees every man and knows all the deeds and thoughts of people. People come to this world in order to improve themselves and serve the good. Man is the greatest of the divine creatures, the living image of God, while the nature of god is unidentified and mysterious. Islam is divided into three denominations: Sunni, Shia and Sufi (mystic Islam). The major difference between Sunni and Shia Islam is in their vision of the role of caliphs and Imams. Shias believe that only Muhammad’s descendents have the divine appointment and obey Imams, while Sunni accept the elected system of caliphate. Selim accuses Ismail of his going against the true religion and other Muslim people, tyranny and oppression directed towards the true believers and the rejection of the Caliphs. Selim be lieves, that by these actions of his, Ismail undermines the essential beliefs of the Sunni and repudiates the Quran. Selim also views himself as the noble protector of the true religion and prosecutor of all the unfaithful. War is against divine laws, teaches Quran. Conflicts must be first reconciled by the words. That is why Selim writes a letter to Ismail, trying to turn him to the right path of faith and informing him that otherwise he will have to commence war. It is obvious from the letter, that Selim pursues not only religious, but also state interests, trying to return back the territories captured by Ismail. Letter 8. Revolutions Reshape the World. There was a century between the Glorious Revolution (1688) in England and French revolution of 1789-1799, yet both events had the same results: establishment of the Parliamentary, constitutional monarchy. Bill of Rights, accepted by the British Parliament in 1689, which is still a part of the British

Friday, November 1, 2019

Merging and Clashing Cultures, & Defending Human Rights Essay

Merging and Clashing Cultures, & Defending Human Rights - Essay Example For example â€Å"Have a Coke and Smile† and then the latest â€Å"Open Happiness† with which people all across the world can relate to, but the campaign â€Å"Coke is it† is restricted to shores of the United States only. Moreira very logically elucidates this saying that although Coke is a host in America, yet â€Å"Coke is a guest, not the host, in most countries† and this could campaign would be rejected by an international audience. Marketing Strategies Applied by Coca-Cola It is very true that the trademark of Coca-Cola identifies itself with a positive tone of advertising. This can be further explicated as a technique in world marketing. The name Coca-Cola is found to be comparative with happiness of all kinds. This why one can find the trade name to be correlated with festivities, major sporting events like the World Cup, stadiums, and posters that represent light spirited frivolities. It is believed that the company intentionally associates itself with all these values of life that can create an atmosphere of joviality. This is deliberately done to increase a positive consciousness among the common masses. Coca-Cola: Relating Itself with the Customers It has been observed that Coca-Cola works on the positive psychology of the masses. People can relate to the optimism that it projects as a brand. People who are pent up with their ordinary lives can feel a sudden freshness by procuring a Coke. A typical example of this is a working executive, confined to his or her cubicle or even a laborer working in a factory find it to be a refreshing drink. What this means is that all humans think alike, there is no basic difference between them as the emotion remains to be the same and this is exactly what Coca-Cola aims to accomplish. In simple words this creates a desire which Coke tries to charm by fascinating all and sundry irrespective of their social backgrounds. Coca-Cola: In American Culture The fact that the marketing tactics of Coca-Cola is based on ubiquity is quite interesting in itself. This can be further justified by this piece of information that it has merged with the country’s culture it has visited into. In short it has become a part of the major culture wherever it has marketed itself. It is like the very instance of ‘El Kiosko Budweiser’ show in Puerto Rico that Arlene Davila points out. She finds that people think â€Å"locally produced shows are reflections of the local culture.† Hence the Puerto Ricans have acknowledged â€Å"Budweiser beer as a local product† (Davila, 2004). Likewise Coca-Cola has been mingled with mainstream cultures like in Taiwan they have chosen one their best as a brand ambassador. The Wang Lee Hom who is admired by all in Taiwan, sings the jingle of Coca-Cola with a Taiwanese melody. That is Coke does not act like the oppressive colonizer. Much to the contrary it has mingled itself with the larger cultures of the world. This has one mo re string attached to it that of the company’s regard for music. It comprehends world music as part of their marketing strategy for sure. Coca-Cola in Indian Culture In India Coca-Cola has to cope with a number of things. The new â€Å"Indian consumer† had a different taste. This consumer did not want to be fooled by a foreign company. This nouveau generation of consumer preferred Indian products over

Tuesday, October 29, 2019

CIPD Course-Employee Relations - UK based system Essay - 1

CIPD Course-Employee Relations - UK based system - Essay Example this definition, one could outline several reasons why performance management is required: first of all, to run an organisation, one must be aware of the people who work within it, and of the skills that the staff members possess, so that before setting any target one could outline the plan of action and, moreover, consider the risk factors involved. Performance management allows managers to keep regular check of performance on an individual and group basis. Workforce acts as bearings in a machine that need to be kept clean and oiled on a regular basis; the same applies to PMS (CIPD 2013, pp. 3–4). Another purpose of using performance management is to control the budget of an organisation; it may include setting salary grades and hiring or firing people. Therefore, to maintain a business or to run an organisation, performance management has become a necessity in the present day scenario. 2. Data Gathering, Observation and Communication: To establish a frictionless momentum for a company, it is compulsory to maintain regular checks and balances. This is only possible in the presence of a keen observer, who is knowledgeable of the past and present, and does know how to communicate his/her findings to the workforce (CIPD 2013, pp. 2–25). 3. Performance Appraisal Meetings: The purpose of performance appraisal is to establish ground for both the lateral and vertical movement of employees. With the implementation of various tools and techniques, performance appraisal provides crucial inputs for succession planning and job rotation (CIPD 2013, pp. 2–25). Motivation refers to the force that urges an individual to work. Whether the job is simple or complex in nature or whether working hours are long or short, better output can be achieved provided motivation is there. Motivating factors are given importance in the industry. Pleasant and positive physical factors stir up motivation. Factors of motivation are also taken into account in the study of morale and

Sunday, October 27, 2019

Identity and Postmodernism | Essay

Identity and Postmodernism | Essay Critically assess the contention that identities are, plural, unstable, situationally enacted, and sites of contestation. The stability or otherwise of identity has become a major battleground for sociological theorists in recent times. The infamous ‘postmodern’ turn has rendered identity a deeply problematic phenomenon. In this paper I will investigate the claim that identities are unstable sites of contestation. I will do this by examining the dissolution of identity within postmodern theory before examining both the negative and more importantly, the positive consequences of this.[1] This will enable a deeper understanding of precisely what is meant by this fluid notion of identity, and where possible criticisms and inconsistencies can be located within this theory. The debate over the stability of identity is one that is inseparably linked to postmodernism. This diverse group of theories centre around, in Lyotard’s (1984:xxiv) famous phrase, ‘incredulity toward meta-narratives.’[2] Postmodernists maintain that the project of modernity has failed, and that no single source or body of knowledge can legitimise itself as a universal measure of value or identity. This obviously has some profound effects on the ways in which we would normally think about the world. Postmodernism no longer allows us to theorise society into homogenous identities which can then be totalised in a grand-theory or meta-narrative. This is also the case when it comes to the identification of the self. Rather than the self maintaining a stable core of identity, from a postmodern perspective identity is fluid and is dependant upon where the self is historically and culturally situated. As Luntley (1985:185) notes, this conception of the self threatens the very possibility of self-identity: The loss of self-identity is threatened because if we situated the self in real historical circumstances, we would situate it in things that are contingent and constantly changing. Therefore, the self would also be constantly changing. It would be in flux and would have no continuing identity. Once the very identity of the self comes under threat, then so does the possibility of any coherency in social theorising. A postmodern society is one in which the identities of the social actors are undergoing constant transformation. Identity then becomes open to contestation as there is no longer any ultimate referent (truth, science, God etc.) to provide universal legitimation. In Lyotard’s terms, the impossibility of a grand or meta-narrative leads to the social being constructed of small narratives, none of which are necessarily more valid than another. Any theory that aims at totalising society should only be seen as one constructed from a particular perspective (e.g. one that still remains in the logic of modernity), rather than a totalising theory as such. Whilst postmodernism can be viewed as liberating and opening up seemingly limitless opportunities for re-theorising society, it does at the same time impose new problems. Firstly, there seems to be an inconsistency in the postmodernist stance, as it could be argued that the theory of the dissolution of meta-narratives is a type of meta-narrative itself. This criticism can also be applied to the postmodernist take on identity, for in arguing that identity is ultimately unstable and fluid postmodernists inadvertently provide a certain rigid structure in which identity operates (i.e. that all identity must be unstable). So whilst postmodernism is liberating on the one hand, on the other it sets limits to the very possibility of any meaningful social theory or practice. This is exemplified in the disparity between postmodern theorists, some of which view postmodernism as opening up huge opportunities for getting rid of authoritarian grand theories, others view it as essentially debilitating as the only thing that can prevail in postmodern societies is a sense of meaningless flux. Within this disagreement the postmodern analysis of identity remains reasonable intact, both sides of the argument larg ely accept that identity is fluid and unstable. By analysing this disagreement we can therefore obtain a better understanding of the various aspects of fluid identity. Jean Baudrillard (1990:160-164) for example, argues that the dissolution of identity is a process that started in the nineteenth century and was exacerbated in the twentieth. In the postmodern era, historical processes have undermined the stability of identity, so that it becomes impossible to meaningfully theorise about social identity. Rigid identity and meaning are destroyed due to the rise of global capitalism and the demise of the referents from modernity (truth, purpose, meaning and so on). ‘Gone are the referentials of production, signification, affect, substance, history, and the whole equation of â€Å"real† contents’ (Baudrillard 1988:125). Identity now becomes a radically fluid and empty vessel, which becomes temporarily filled with content that has no foundation or ultimate meaning. Whilst for Baudrillard this cannot be thought of as a particularly positive or negative phenomenon, as ‘good’ or ‘bad’ no longer have any real mea ning in postmodernity, it does render theoretical and political action largely impotent.[3] This is why in postmodernism we are presented with numerous texts heralding the end of theory, history, meaning and so on.[4] The dissolution of identity means for many postmodernists that theory and meaningful political action are no longer possible: The end of history is, alas, also the end of the dustbins of history. There are no longer any dustbins even for disposing of old ideologies, old regimes, old values †¦ Conclusion: if there are no more dustbins of history, this is because History itself has become a dustbin. It has become its own dustbin. Just as the planet itself is becoming its own dustbin. (Baudrillard 1994b:26) The negative aspects of the lack of fixity and grounded meaning in identity are thus very evident. Laclau and Mouffe on the other hand, in Hegemony and Socialist Strategy, positively embrace the fluidity and instability of identity. Indeed, they argue that the impossibility of the closure of identity is what makes the social possible (1985:112). Society as such is therefore an impossible object for Laclau and Mouffe, as the field of identities is never fixed, but the continuing attempt to do this renders the possibility of the social. Society resists closure and remains eternally negotiable as the meanings produced to bind the social together are only temporarily fixed at nodal points by articulation (1985:11). Articulation is where social relations and identities are modified. Many differing types of articulations (political, cultural, scientific an so on) are capable of doing this, but the important thing for Laclau and Mouffe is that no one particular articulation totalises and re stricts the ability for other articulations to operate freely. Laclau and Mouffe (1985:13) argue that their concept of hegemony recognises the plurality of struggles and attempts to engage with it: The concept of ‘hegemony’ will emerge precisely in a context dominated by the experience of fragmentation and by the indeterminacy of the articulations between different struggles and subject positions. Hegemony for Laclau and Mouffe refers to the ‘battleground’ of identity. As the identity of the social is fluid and open to negotiation, different types of social articulations and struggles will attempt to hegemonise society to gain recognition. While this attempt at hegemony in itself is not a negative practice for Laclau and Mouffe, successfully achieved hegemony is. It is therefore imperative that a strong egalitarian and democratic framework is in operation for this site of social hegemony. The advent of democracy is therefore a pivotal moment in social history. Here Laclau and Mouffe (1985:186-187) concur with Claude Lefort’s analyses of the ‘democratic revolution’. Society prior to democracy was thought of as a unified body with power being embodied through that of a sovereign monarch, who was the representative of a god or gods. After the democratic revolution, power becomes an empty space without reference to a transcendental guarantor or a r epresentation of substantial social unity. A split occurs between the instances of power, knowledge, and the foundations of law which are no longer absolute. Without these foundations, no law can be fixed and everything is open to questioning. Society cannot be apprehended or controlled, the people become sovereign but their identity can never be totally given. But once we are in a democratic society, we are in danger of totalitarianism. This is because a purely social power can emerge after democracy has destroyed extra-social powers, which presents its power as total and extracts from itself alone the principles of law and knowledge. As there are no longer any foundations or a centre to political power, it becomes necessary to bind together political spaces through hegemonic articulations. But these articulations will always remain partial, as they have no ultimate foundation. Any attempt to deny the radically open nature of the social will lead to totalitarianism, be it a politic s of the ‘left’ according to which every antagonism can be eliminated and society rendered transparent, or a fascist authoritarian fixing of the social into a rigid hierarchical state system. The democratic logic of equivalence can therefore be hegemonised into totalitarianism. The radical openness of identity is therefore impinged with the danger of totalitarianism for Laclau and Mouffe.[5] To avoid this, the diverse and fluid nature of identity should be embraced within an egalitarian and democratic framework, so no particular articulation may hegemonise social identity. This is difficult however as the ultimate lack of closure for identity leads to a necessarily antagonistic network of social relations. Antagonism is caused when a discursive form of one type of identity interrupts another’s discursive frame (1985:154). The inability of a particular identity to successfully assimilate the articulations of another leads to an internal antagonism that becomes the catalyst for a further modification of itself. Hence there is no stable core to any particular identity, identity is always shifting and changing. But this is also how a democratic framework can be constructed. As all identity is open, then democratic and egalitarian ideals can permeate diff erent articulations to avoid totalitarianism: [I]t is only from the moment when the democratic discourse becomes available to articulate the different forms of resistance to subordination that the conditions will exist to make possible the struggle against different types of inequality. (1985:154-155) The openness of identity, once incorporated into a democratic framework, is therefore a positive and progressive phenomenon for Laclau and Mouffe. The impossibility of totalising society is embraced as an opportunity for new fields of thought to be created, free from the tyranny of authoritarianism. We can therefore see a great disparity between Baudrillard’s and Laclau and Mouffe’s notions of the openness of identity. Both perspectives fully accept the lack of stability in identity, yet for Baudrillard this leads to sociological and political impotence, whereas for Laclau and Mouffe this is seen as an opportunity for sociological and political creativity and action. For many theorists however, the apparent differences or similarities between various postmodern theories of unstable identity are merely superficial.[6] They claim that there are deeper problems and inconsistencies within this notion of identity itself. Zizek (2000:106-107), for example, claims that whilst Laclau and Mouffe are vehemently opposed to all forms of essentialism, and seek to affirm the radical contingency of the political and irreducibility of the social, they nonetheless have to rely on a formal existential a priori, such as ‘the logic of hegemony’. In other words, one of the main problems with this type of discourse is that in maintaining that identity and the social is radically open, it has to rely on a certain formal logic. Laclau and Mouffe have to rely on a ‘logic of hegemony’ as the natural state of identity formation and articulation, as they deny that the fluidity of identity is a historical phenomenon: Only in contemporary societies is there a generalisation of the hegemonic form of politics, but for this reason we can interrogate the past, and find there inchoate forms of the same processes that are fully visible; and, when they did not occur, understand why things were different. (Laclau 2000:200) This proposes that all social identity was always-already the result of hegemonic struggles, whilst it is only in our ‘postmodern’ world that we can recognise this. So while the maintaining of the openness of identity is a form of anti-essentialism, it is nonetheless only operable within a rigid essentialist framework. Zizek criticises this approach for its lack of historical analysis. For Zizek (2000:95) it is the process of contemporary global capitalism that has created the conditions for the demise of essentialist politics, and has led us to the ‘recognition’ of the irreducible plurality of identities.[7] Zizek argues that Laclau and other proponents of this postmodern notion of identity do not analyse the logic that makes this possible, and therefore do not engage with any theoretical confrontation with it. In fact Zizek (1993:216) and other notable theorists argue that postmodern theories of identity are merely a product of capitalism and late modernit y:[8] Far from containing any kind of subversive potentials, the dispersed, plural constructed subject hailed by postmodern theory simply describes the form of subjectivity that corresponds to late capitalism.’ Rather than postmodern identity being a liberating and revolutionary new way of rethinking the social, from this perspective it is merely a reaction of late modernity which fails to seriously engage with the major problematic of our time. It is in this sense that Hardt and Negri (2000:138) argue that ‘the postmodernist and postcolonialist strategies that appear to be liberatory would not challenge but in fact coincide with and even unwittingly reinforce the new strategies of rule.’ Postmodern notions of the fluidity of identity bring us to a political and theoretical impasse.[9] But it could be argued that this is only the case if we accept postmodernism itself as a type of totalising theory. The notion of the fluidity of identity is useful and does open up new avenues of theorising and politicising. But as Zizek and others argue, the social and historical processes that have lead up to this should play a greater role in understanding modern or postmodern identity. Some postmodernists such as Baudrillard accept these historical processes, but insist that they are irreversible under a banner of the end of history. Others such as Laclau and Mouffe insist on the positive aspects of the instability of identity, and indeed even insist that it is unavoidable. But what both these positions share is the unavoidability of groundless identity, and the ultimate impossibility of creating positive content for identity. Laclau and Mouffe may argue that positive identity is possible, within a democratic framework. But the problem of failure remains unavoidable; all identity is either a failed attempt at hegemonising the social, or if successful then it is necessarily totalitarian as it denies the radical openness of identity as such. Even in this positive use of fluid identity, negativity is still very much inscribed into its operation. The lack of fixity in identity does indeed seem to correlate with modern or postmodern subjectivity, as Zizek argues above, but claims that make this a universal and necessary phenomenon are fraught with difficulties. References Baudrillard, J. (1988) Selected Writings. Cambridge: Polity Press Baudrillard, J. (1994a) Simulacra and Simulation. Michigan: University of Michigan Press Baudrillard, J. (1994b) The Illusion of the End. Cambridge: Polity Press Bauman, Z. (1992) Intimations of Postmodernity. London: Routledge Brockelman, T. (2003) ‘The failure of the radical democratic imaginary’, Philosophy and  Social Criticism, vol 29 no2, pp 183-2 Butler, J., Laclau, E. and Zizek, S. (2000) Contingency, Hegemony, Universality.  Contemporary Dialogues on the Left. London: Verso Grillo, R.D. (1998) Pluralism and the Politics of Difference State, Culture, and Ethnicity in  Comparative Perspective. Oxford : Clarendon Press Fukuyama, F.(1992) The End of History and the Last Man. London: Hamish Hamilton Hardt, M. and Negri, A. (2000) Empire. London: Harvard University Press Laclau, E. and Mouffe, C. (1985) Hegemony and Socialist Strategy. Towards A Radical  Democratic Politics. London: Verso Lefort, C. (1988) Democracy and Political Theory. Cambridge: Polity Press Lyotard, J-F. (1984) The Postmodern Condition: A Report on Knowledge. Manchester:  Manchester University Press Sim, S. (1986) ‘Lyotard and the Politics of Antifoundationalism’, Radical Philosophy,  Autumn no 44, pp 8-13 Zizek, S. (1993) Tarrying with the Negative. Kant, Hegel and the Critique of Ideology.  Durham: Duke University Press Zizek, S. (1999) The Zizek Reader. Oxford: Blackwell Publishers Zizek, S. and Daly, G. (2004) Conversations with Zizek. Cambridge: Polity Press 1 Footnotes [1] As the negative aspects of postmodern identity are clearly evident (lack of meaning, stability and so on), I will therefore concentrate more on the positive aspects of fluid identity to gain greater insight. [2] See Hardt and Negri (2000:139-140): ‘It is difficult to generalize about the numerous discourses that go under the banner of postmodernism, but most of them draw at least indirectly on Jean-Francois Lyotard’s critique of modernist master narratives †¦ [P]ostmodernist theories are defined by many of their proponents as sharing one single common denominator, a generalized attack on the Enlightenment.’ [3] ‘The dialectical stage, the critical stage is empty. There is no more stage no more stage either of mental or political solidarity.’ (Baudrillard:1990:164) [4] See for example Fukuyama (1992) [5] Here we can see parallels with Lyotard’s antagonism toward meta-narratives. [6] Grillo (1998:219) interestingly claims that there is another problem with postmodern theory: ‘There is an ambiguity in postmodernist writing in the social sciences: are we dealing with an intellectual stance (on language and so forth) or type of culture and society whose features are captured by the phrase postmodern? Or both?’ In other words, postmodernists are generally confused in their theorising, as they cannot adequately account for the origins of the dissolution of identity and meaning. [7] Zizek is not alone in this view. See for example Brockelman (2003:191): ‘[A]t the core of all social systems producing identities is a certain structure, a structure that alone makes possible the formation of diacritical or articulated identities.’ [8] See also Hard and Negri (2000:137-143) [9] Stuart Sim (1986:11) for example reproaches postmodernism for its political ineptitude, arguing that antifoundationalist political approaches are ‘uncoordinated guerrilla campaigns conducted by alienated solipsists – and one wonders how successful that would be.’