Monday, September 30, 2019

Cultural relativism Essay

Cultural relativism remains a controversial if not completely misunderstood concept in the world today. It is strange that people consider cultural relativism a problem because to do so would hint at the belief in cultural superiority or exceptionalism. It would seem that there is also a belief that variant from other cultures that are in opposition to a separate culture yield a threat. Whether the threat is real is another matter because as long as one culture perceives a threat, then there will be a militant response to such threat conceived. These days, cultural relativism has a bad reputation in many quarters. It conjures images of a world where anything goes. According to this domino theory of norms, if people open themselves to the possibility that other cultures may have valid, if different, ways of life, the next thing you know, they’ll be â€Å"doing it in the streets. † (Rosaldo) Part of the reason for such distress at the notion of cultural relativism is the fact that there is an inherent belief held by many cultures that their system of beliefs, life, etc are the â€Å"right† way to live and that any type of culture that is different or perceptually opposite of the â€Å"right† way are â€Å"wrong† and need to be contained, altered or even saved from themselves. If there is no transcendent ethical standard, then often culture becomes the ethical norm for determining whether an action is right or wrong. This ethical system is known as cultural relativism. {1} Cultural relativism is the view that all ethical truth is relative to a specific culture. Whatever a cultural group approves is considered right within that culture. Conversely, whatever a cultural group condemns is wrong. (Anderson) An example of cultural relativism gone horrible wrong can be viewed in the early clashes amidst Europeans and Native Americans during the â€Å"New World† era of the early colonization of North America. To the Native Americans, humans were considered in harmony with nature and lived among the natural world. To the European mentality, there was the belief that the natural world needed to be tamed and cities needed to be built upon the land. To the Europeans, the Native earth centrist ideology was unacceptable and needed to be removed. This was the basis of most of the early clashes that ultimately lead to massacres and genocidal campaigns. What is bizarre about this type of thought process is that it assumes there is an invisible line between cultures and that the world is not an inclusive place of a multitude of cultures. It seems to believe that culture exists only from one mindset or tradition and what is outside that tradition subscribes to chaos and disorder. First, the idea of separate but equal cultures no longer seems accurate. Cultures are not separate; they are not confined to their own individual museum cases. They exist side by side in the same space. Also, we’ve noticed that there are inequalities between cultures—relations of dominance and subordination. Take, for example, settler colonialism, the system we had in America. Relationships formed in the colonial period and after created inequalities, which a committed anthropologist would have to critique. (Rosaldo) So, from this we can infer that the concept of cultural relativism is a flawed notion and concept because it is based on a flawed premise of exclusiveness and ethnocentricity. In other words, to believe that cultural relativism exists is ridiculous because to claim it exists would mean the subdivision of humanity as opposed to looking at humanity as members as the world as a whole which is the natural order, an order only changed by human intervention designed to suit specific needs. Bibliography Anderson, Kirby. (2004) â€Å"Cultural Relativism. † Retrieved 6 February 2007. http://www. inplainsite. org/html/cultural_relativism_. html Rosaldo, Renaldo. (2000) â€Å"Of Headhunters and Soldiers: Separating Cultural and Ethical Relativism† Retrieved 6 February 2007. http://www. scu. edu/ethics/publications/ iie/v11n1/relativism. html

Sunday, September 29, 2019

Hospitality Management Essay

Reflecting from my management shift, restaurant manager has many different kinds of important tasks and responsibilities in the restaurant. Restaurant manager plays an important role in the hospitality and food and beverage department as they can motivate the staff and maintain the high quality service which will help the business run successfully. Manager can provide appropriate ambiance in the restaurant which will provide warm and comfortable environment for the customer. Waiter station and dividing sections of tables should be fully allocated before the start of service shift which starts 10:00AM. After that, checking staff’s five equipment (waiters friend, lighter, handkerchief, pen and note pad), and their grooming (hair, ironing uniform, socks, belt and name badge). In the first briefing time, restaurant manager has to explain required table-set up and finding any problem such as students who are absent. When I was restaurant manager, one waiter called in sick so I had to rearrange the table booking slots to make it fit 12 waiters instead of 13. This can make the service flow more efficiently. If I left the booking slots thee way they were, waiters would have needed to pick up tables in 10 minute gap. A manager should manage and check every time whether staff are doing the right thing. After food briefing, manager should check that all staff are familiar with the menu and kitchen abbreviations as well as the price for each dish. Thus, restaurant manager should lead their team smoothly and know all situation and happening in restaurant including kitchen as well. (Food & Beverage Work Book, Feb 2013) Before doing the restaurant manager shift, I had confidence in myself because I prepared the table time slot sheet, linen order and table and station allocation the night before my shift. But once the service started, unexpected accidents happened such as waiter calling in sick. Also, because it was Thursday and nearly towards assessment night for many people, most of the staff was very tense and unmotivated. Trying to motivate the staff to work faster and efficiently was uneasy at first but I still liked having the responsibility and doing important roles that are unlike to the normal waiting staff, I believed I learned a lot of new knowledge and management skills. I also can confidently say if I become restaurant manager again I would be better than before. Effective duty allocation Restaurant manager: Joanne Suh Host: Pearl Douglas Role: Prepare butter, Prepare silver service cutlery and waiter clothes, Make sure the menu is correct and printed, Welcome the guests arrival, Book reservation for lunch and dinner service for guests. Cashier: Lucy Payne Role: Allocate waiter dockets, record the food and beverage orders on computer for each table and prepare the bill for each table, total and fill up the cash-up sheet and record any alcohol docket received each night. When it is signed by the lecturer, put the money envelop to front office. Room service: Jay Lee Role: Collect the sick list from front office, Prepare tray for room service, take room service order, deliver the food to the rooms, collect the tray back once the food is finished (Usually after 1 hour) which will be placed on the corridor. Bar team leader: Olivia Ann Role: Prepare the mocktail and cocktail of the day, make sure bar, coffee station, water jug, wine service and waiting area and linens are set up and ready for service. Provide drink to order during service including hot beverage. Come early in the morning 6:30am to order butter and milk and other needed items and order linens and others that need time to recover the night before the shift. Bar assistant: Dana Button Role: Help the Bar Team Leader set up the bar, coffee station, waiting area, water jug, and wine service. Provide the drink to order during service. Listen and follow the bar team leader’s instructions. Barista : Make hot beverages when you receive the order from the guest. Prepare the coffee work station neatly and correctly before service shift starts. Help and follow the bar team leader’s instructions when there are no orders. (Usually start of the shift. ) Staff meal: Guy Sinclair, Lit Wang Role: Prepare Breakfast, Take staff meal orders for service and management team, Set up staff meal, Clean up Taranaki Restaurant after shift. Help in the La Vista Restaurant when the jobs are finished. Waiter: Chloe Wang, Abbey Bowater, Noriko Fuji, Shannon Rochford, Marlee Mclaughlan, Nhung Tran, Ginger(Shanshan) Yong, Cindy (Xinshi) Yang, Chris (Trung Toan) Le, James Pitisopa, Hayden Woodbury, Krill This is the list for all staffs that had been worked in my team. Absent : Savneet Singh 2. 2Explain whether you think the allocation of the duties and tasks were helpful or destructive for the team and give your reasons why. I prepared most of the jobs that I should do on my management shift but what I had missed out on was plan what the â€Å"staff† should be doing on their service shift. I had to plan out which person will be doing which task on the spot. This has resulted me giving people jobs that they are not the best at. For example giving the vacuum job to a weak female staff. Also as the staff were allocated jobs that they do not like, they refused to do the jobs I ordered them to do or made excuses to do them later. This has slowed down the cleaning time of service. But because we were already in our 8th week of operation, most of the staff were already capable of doing jobs themselves without being told to do them. We finished a little later than my expected time at lunch shift which was 2:30pm. We finished at 2:40pm. This was due to customers dining in for a long time. We had three tables of industry placement interviewers. Delegation 3. 1 Making decision For the making decision, when I organised table planning I gave three tables for most people and four tables for a couple of people due to absent waiter on the floor. There were some tables already set up from the last dinner shift so I tried to allocate one set up table for each waiter to make them prepare and set up tables quicker and fair. Also I allocated the staff meal waiters to help the floor waiters when they finished preparing for staff meal to speed up the process and we can open the restaurant on time. Explain whether you think this was effective. Think about the theory. What could be done differently? When I allocated the jobs I asked people in a polite way with a soft tone of voice so the staff do not get to tense about the jobs that they have to do. I tried to be fair for example if someone did a hard job such as vacuuming La vista, I made them do an easy job afterwards like taking menu papers out from the menu. I also thanked the staff and especially the staff members who worked harder than others to acknowledge them their work. Overall I think my theory has worked out better than ordering them harshly what to do as it was my first time being the restaurant manager and staff are not used to it they might think it too personal if I order them to do jobs in a harsh way. But I think giving more volume to my voice and seriousness at time to time would have made the staff actually listen and do the jobs I allocated them efficiently. 3. 3 Identify shift outcomes and tasks. Describe how you achieved the outcomes required in this role. It very nice outcome after shift because I went to talk around with all customers. They told me that service was very good there were only few complaints about the food taste which the service team cannot control. Overall cleaning up was a little slow for lunch but everyone picked themselves up and dinner shift flowed through a lot faster than lunch. The staff members worked hard for both service and cleaning even though many staff members were stressed about the assessment week coming up and tired. I thank all the staff members and I think my first time being the restaurant manager, I did exceptionally well. Managing conflict 4. 1 Was there any conflict or disagreement in your team? Yes, between me and my bar team leader. Because bar team leader is also a type of manager as well as they manage the bar, I should have treated the bar team leader more like a manager and different from the floor staff but instead I ordered the bar team leader to do some jobs in the bar and that had made the bar team leader unpleased as the bar team leader obviously knew what sort of jobs needed to be done. But because I am still the restaurant manager for that day, I believe I had my part and reason to say the things I have said to the bar team leader. I didn’t want to make too much of a big fuss about this matter as whether or not there are customers in the restaurant it is still a working environment and restaurant manager should behave and look professional at all times or else staff and customers will look down on both me and the bar team leader. If yes, what was done to resolve this conflict? If not, why not? I resolved this problem by pretending to not hear anything that the bar team leader said behind my back. Because I thought if the bar team leader realise that I heard our relationship will become awkward. There was also dinner shift left and I really didn’t want to make any big deal out of this matter so I just pretended I heard nothing. This was a good resolution because afterwards she worked really hard and was a great bar team leader which made the service run more smoothly which was good for everyone and the restaurant possible. But later I talked in the briefing that if the restaurant manager tell you to do something do not ignore them or refuse and treat the managers like a real manager in a work place. 4. 2 What are some other options for dealing with the same situation? I believe motivating the staff and complimenting when the staffs finish their jobs can make the staff more willing to work and follow my orders. More motivated staff can give happy energy vibe to the workplace which will be transferred to the customer which will give warmer ambiance in the restaurant. 4. 3 Would you do thing differently next time you need to work with a team? For the next time that I have to work in a team, I would try to improve myself on delegating staff. I will make sure that everything in the restaurant such as preparations and second plans for times when something goes wrong again so I have a backup plan which will make me panic less. Also next time I will plan the job allocations for cleaning and preparations before service to be more efficient with time management as a manager. 5. 1 Identify a challenge or problem that occurred during your management shift. The biggest challenge I had faced was I had one waiter absent and I had 13 slots on my booking sheet that was made and finished last dinner shift. Waiters are supposed to serve each table with 20 minute gap. This made me very busy until the last minute of service and waiters were confused as their time for booking was all changed. It also confused both the waiters on floor and the management team. 5. 2 What was your response to this challenge? After ii had found out that one waiter on floor will not show up for service, I fixed the booking sheet and made the time slot 12 instead of 13. I put tables of two people together and called rooms to move the tables to a later time to make sure each waiter received 20 minute gap between each table so they had enough time to manage their tables on time efficiently. I had to reallocate some tables and stations to distribute the absent waiter’s tables and informed the staff. 5. 3 Analyse whether your reaction/response was effective and identify what you would do differently (if anything). I think in terms with the time I had, my decision was the most effective decision that was possible and best for my staff as well. If I gave tables in 10 minute break the staff will be more stressed about their time management and make mistakes on their sequence of service and have delays which will also be unpleasing to the customers as well. If I could change one thing I would make extra booking sheets for 11 waiters and 12 waiters even though I have 13 just to make sure and be safe. 5. 4 Have you identified any skills where you need to improve? What skill do you need to improve? I think I need to improve on leadership skills as I am not good at giving people commands and orders. Asking nicely could result staff refusing to follow my request. Also leading the team well so the staff are not lost and can reply on the manger is the kind of skill I need to improve on as well. Learning about yourself 6. 2What were your strengths leading the team? Figuring out solutions and making the service run fast and efficient as well as making the staff feel comfortable is my strengths in terms of leading the team. Because I found my way through problems fast and prepared for the service well, the staff trusted me and had felt comfortable. Even with extra barriers I still managed to make service flow fast. 6. 3Have you identified any areas where you need to improve? What areas do you need to improve? I think I need to improve how to be a good leader because I don’t think I have that quality just yet when I was a restaurant manager, Also I want to improve my eight management skill such as leadership, flexibility, adaptability, inventory management, conflict resolution, ability to work under to pressure, ability to multi-task, and organization skill. To be a successful manager, I need to improve all of this skill and learn from the mistake that I had got to achieve in the future. 6. 4Identify what remedial strategies you will put in place to develop the areas that are identified above. The eight management skill: leadership, flexibility, adaptability, inventory management, conflict resolution, ability to work under pressure, ability to multi-task, and organization skill and comunication. Statistic data At lunch shift, we had 126 customers coming to dine and our total food revenue was $1,962 and total beverage revenue was $2194 Hence, our average food check is $15.6 per person. It means that we sold entree and main food more than one person, which is good but it is not so good. Our team needed upselling skills at this moment. Thus, Total revenue should be $ but we received money only $ which means we lost $. The reason why this happen was that students did not pay properly and just left without paying, but it is very serious problem in real world and somebody should be to blame. That would be restaurant manager. Hence, I think that the statistic data show us how much money we make and can find the problems such as money stolen or not.

Saturday, September 28, 2019

Hypocrisy in to Kill a Mockingbird

Hypocrisy is a huge theme of Maycomb’s society and community spirit. For example, racism plays a huge role. In the Tom Robinson trial, he is accused of raping Bob Ewell’s daughter, Mayella. But the real story is that Bob Ewell is abusive to his daughter and accused tom Robinson because he’s black. Since the social community is mostly tipped on the scale of discrimination, there are excuses made for whites. This leads into another following example.In the minds of the â€Å"good Christians† blacks are made to be slaves and do everything a white man says. Atticus is completely against this and tells Bob off. In retaliation, Bob Ewell makes it certain Tom Robinson is guilty. In the end Tom is purposed guilty even though the evidence clearly shows he’s not. The Maycomb community thinks they’re doing what’s right for the town and titles themselves â€Å"The Good Christians. † A few people, like Atticus, know they are wrong and knows they only persecuted Tom Robinson by the color of his skin.Another example of hypocrisy referring to racism would be with Mrs. Gates. Mrs. Gates is completely against Hitler thinking what he did was absolutely horrible about what he did to the Jews. But then again in her own community people are persecuting blacks the same way. Another example similar to this is Mrs. Merriweather talks about saving the poor Mruans from Africa but thinks black people in her community are a disgrace. Scout and Jem throughout the book later discover the hypocrisy in the adult world.Some examples would be, Aunt Alexandria’s view on the Cunningham’s, Lula not wanting her kids to go into a black church etc: Jem noticed the hypocrisy in the Lula situation was Lula complaining about all white people being prejudice against them but in her hate for whites and their prejudice she is also being racist and prejudice. Scout and Jem then noticed someone being mad at a certain race for doing the exac t same thing they were doing.

Friday, September 27, 2019

Comparison between The Given Day and The Short Happy Life of Francis Essay

Comparison between The Given Day and The Short Happy Life of Francis Macomber - Essay Example The Theme of Masculinity Masculinity is the dominant theme in Hemingway’s short story. His works are always repleted with masculine pursuits like war, sports and hunting. In The short happy life of Francis Macomber, he also depicts a masculine setting in which all the characters are engaged in an African Safari. They are involved in lion hunting, controlling the buffalos and things like that. The protagonist has decided to be a part of Safari in mid-thirties and seems to have achieved his sense of manhood in this specific part of his life. â€Å"Wilson considers that Macomber has been reborn into manhood, for the latter’s transformation is more of a change than any loss of virginity. Fear gone like an operation† (Strychacz 14). Though the show of cowardice in lion-hunting episode temporarily snatches from him this sense of fulfillment but he regains this sense when he engages with the buffalo. â€Å"We seem on firmer interpretive ground with the assertion that i n the final scenes Macomber becomes a fully self-controlled and self-determined man† (Strychacz 16). The whole prologue of The Given Day also encompasses a masculine pursuit of baseball games in which the writer has imagined a baseball game between legends of America. Lack of Female Characters The prologue to the Given Day is devoid of any female characters and there is no specific mention of any feminine pursuit or activity. All that has been described belongs to the domain of man. On the other hand, Hemingway’s story presents Margot, â€Å"an extremely handsome and well-kept woman of the beauty† giving the story at least a feminine touch but the overall setting and the situation diminishes her womanhood and we find her engaged in masculine pursuits along with her husband ( Hemingway 2). Minute Detail Both the works beautifully describe the characters and setting and the writers give minute details of the incident that happen during the course of the story. Hemi ngway’s description of the hunting episodes show that the writer is giving a realistic account of the event and is well acquainted with the rules of the â€Å"game†. The minuteness is visible even in the description of characters. Wilson’s character has been described as a man who â€Å" was about middle height with sandy hair, a stubby mustache, a very red face and extremely cold blue eyes with faint white wrinkles at the corners that grooved merrily when he smiled† ( Hemingway 2). Similarly, Lehane’s immaculate detail of the baseball hint towards writer’s minute observation of the sport. Following is the fine example of his descriptive style† The ball hadn’t finished arcing toward the right fielder’s feet (Ruth knew he’d miss it before he did) and the whippet was already rounding first. When the ball hit the grass, the right fielder bare-handed it and didn’t so much as stutter step before planned and let h er loose† ( Lehane 11). Game in Both of the Works Game is the key word in both of the pieces, though the connotations are different in both of the stories. In Hemingway’s story game takes the form of hunting and acts as a unifying force between the otherwise conflicting interests. Similar the unifying force in the Lehane’s prologue is the game of baseball which brings together the people who are involved in emotional

Thursday, September 26, 2019

D1 Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words - 1

D1 - Assignment Example Furthermore, the biological, physiological, and psychological changes that children experience during the years of adolescence can all be understood as explaining the component parts of childhood development. In this way, subject matter experts can work to unravel the causations and factors that contribute to an array of different actions, emotions, thought processes, and factors that influence individuals well into adulthood. As such, the use and application of childhood development to ascertain salient information on the â€Å"why† component of why individuals act, behave, and think a certain way is greatly advanced by the study and application of this body of knowledge. Biologically speaking, any chemical substance that is ingested by the mother while the fetus is still in the womb has a direct effect on the development of the child. Furthermore, drugs and the effects of pollution can inversely effect the healthy growth of the developing child and cause it to experience birth defects, congenital health issues, and or a host of behavioral problems that may not be immediately visible and/or take time to fully develop. In this way, childhood development as a function of what inputs a mother takes or ingests into her body during pregnancy has a powerful effect on the way the fetus develops within her. It is for this reason that successful counseling of the mother with regards to what to abstain from and what to avoid during the formative months of pregnancy and breastfeeding is of such vital importance. Without proper education and information relayed to at risk mothers, the infant and the mother are at risk for a great number of preventable health problems that could lead to a host of developmental problems for the unborn child in the

Social Disorganization Qeustion and Answer Essay

Social Disorganization Qeustion and Answer - Essay Example A city develops when people gather together at a particular place with a wide range of activities. The resultant is concentration that forms the city centre which is characterized by high population. The theory argues that due to the high population at the city centre, people and their activities will tend to disperse to the suburbs. This suburbs display distinctive characteristics as well as class. However, they all face similar ecological pressures. In such a society competition is not an option since once a particular suburb becomes prosperous it is invaded by people seeking job opportunities. From there on the former society setup is disorganized. This disorganization makes it hard for the current administration to govern because somewhere in the bureaucratic administration a disruption occurred and led to a breakdown of normative structures of the society. Therefore, social disorganization refers to the failure of the society in stages. First, the economic organizations fail to satisfy the whole population leading to competition for basic requirements such as food, security and housing. Next, social institutions fail. Then, people take upon themselves to provide what the societal structures were meant for. The different social groups in different suburbs define own ways for resource distribution. This leads to the formation of informal structures in the society and in this effort criminals are also involved in this process. The class disparity in this kind of society aggravates the crime aspect as the lower class seeks redistribution of wealth through informal means. To understand this effect of social disorganization, gang theory approaches this problem by identifying cultural deviance or subcultural theories as factors contributing to social disorganization (Lander, 1954). Basically, whenever social institutions fail

Wednesday, September 25, 2019

Ifnormation security and assurance Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

Ifnormation security and assurance - Essay Example The up to date tools and technologies provided by the information technology helped businesses to computerize and organize their business operations and consequently improve their business performance. Despite the fact that, the ideas of remote working, storage, processing and communication are not new, because in every decade we have seen a lot of developments and efforts carried out in these areas. However, at the moment we in reality see these ideas as a genuine implementation, in the form of cloud computing. Actually, the cloud services are offered by a third party. So the secret data and information of an organization are stored on the servers of that third party. In this scenario, organizations believe that there emerge a number of security issues for business organizations due to cloud computing environment. This paper discusses some of the important security issues in cloud computing. Index Terms—Cloud Computing, IaaS, SaaS, Cloud I. Introduction This paper presents a detailed analysis of cloud computing related security issues. In the past few years, the cloud computing has emerged an attractive platform which provides on-demand, reliable and expandable (as these services can be reduced or expanded depending on the organization’s needs) computing power to organizations. ... With the adoption of cloud computing the business organizations are able to get a large number of advantages such as utility computing, Virtualization, scalability, the ability to outsource data and processes, pay-per-use services and access to almost infinite computing resources (Aleem & Sprott, 2013; Dahbur et al., 2011; Hudic et al., 2013). In addition, this wide variety of affordable and consistent services have caught the attention of a large number of business organizations, which have decided to shift their business data, application or major operations of it into the cloud. In fact, the recent studies and researches conducted to determine the impact of cloud computing on business organizations show a beyond belief expansion; on behalf of more than 16% of the world software sales with a market of more than $46 billion. In fact, for the majority of business organizations cloud computing is believed to be an affordable, helpful and an appropriate choice for the reason that the a doption of cloud computing allows them to diminish the total expenditure of technology ownership. Without a doubt, cloud computing model provides a wide variety of tools and techniques to improve business productivity, however, there are certain security issues connected with the use of cloud computing. In order to take benefit of cloud computing a business organization must effectively deal with these issues (Aleem & Sprott, 2013; Dahbur et al., 2011; Hudic et al., 2013). II. Security Issues Cloud computing is an attractive information technology (IT) trend which ensures the implementation of the utility computing model broadly using Virtualization technologies. Keeping in mind the numerous advantages of cloud computing, an increasing number of business

Tuesday, September 24, 2019

Reaction Paper to McFerson's African Women Essay

Reaction Paper to McFerson's African Women - Essay Example These women are the nomad community’s architects. They construct and are the owners of the nomadic houses. The construction of these houses is a form of wedding ritual and is one of the events women perform collectively. In some areas, women in Somalia work collectively to fetch water, collect firewood, make food and take care of the children. Pre-nuptial gifts are from the groom’s family or himself to the girl she wants to marry or bride. In a number of cases, pre-nuptial gifts together with dowry are given by the husband as a fraction of the total wealth for the new household (McFerson 443). The nature of the pre-nuptial gifts depends on the events that occur in the marriage union, for example, if the marriage union collapses without the wife’s fault or if the head of the household dies, the pre-nuptial gift is used to support the wife. Similarly, in Western cultures, there are a number of gifts that bypass amid the groom and bride and their respective relatives during marriage. There are rules that regard the nature of these in the occasion of divorce or death, and they vary with area or time (McFerson 444). The traditional Ashanti society has a high regard for ancestors, ancestor worship and matriliny. They use ancestors as an element of worship. The ancestors are perceived to be superior and powerful to human beings. Additionally, they honor and acknowledge the presence of the ancestors (McFerson 446). The poem presume the dead or ancestors are immortal and appear in the form of wailing children, the firebrands, the grass, dying fire, whimpering rocks, forest, and in the house. This community feels the presence of the ancestors. That is why the poem insists the dead are not dead. The poem highlights matriliny in the form of inheritance. That is why ancestors or the dead are in the form of wailing

Monday, September 23, 2019

Taxation Project Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Taxation Project - Essay Example Are legal entities whereby the income flows to owners or investors; implication that income is treated as either income of the owners or revenue for the investors (Siegel & Shim, 2010). Basing on the local tax regulations, the structure can avoid dividend tax and even the double taxation since only investors and owners are always taxed on the income. They are usually considered as non-entities for tax purposes since they are not taxed but taxation flow through to other tax returns. Types of flow through entities include limited partnership, general partnership, scheme corporations, limited liability companies and master limited partnerships. This is a partnership where some of the partners are general whereby they are entitled to manage and control business while other partners are limited to the contribution of capital only. A legal document that stipulates specific requirements are usually drawn up for limited partnership. It a partnership whereby almost all partners has gone limited responsibilities depending on the jurisdiction. In this partnership, no single partner is held responsible for another partner’s misconduct or rather negligence. It should be noted that pass through entities pass profit/loss to owners/investors/shareholders and therefore do not pay tax on its income. The owners of the pass-through entities move items on their income tax return. Partners in their individual capacity are subject to tax as per their distributed shares through the net income of the entity. When it comes to corporations, taxes are charged differently for other kinds of business structures. A corporation is the only business type that must pay its income tax on the profits generated during a particular fiscal period. It should be noted that corporate is a separate entity from its owners; the tax is charged on all profits than

Sunday, September 22, 2019

Nine Planets Essay Example for Free

Nine Planets Essay A Multimedia Tour of the Solar System: one star, eight planets, and more| | This website is an overview of the history, mythology, and current scientific knowledge of the planets, moons and other objects in our solar system. Each page has our text and NASAs images, some have sounds and movies, most provide references to additional related information. In association with our friends at Solar System Scope we now have an interactive tour of the solar system (takes a while to load and opens in a new window)All eight planets can be seen with a small telescope; or binoculars. And large observatories continue to provide much useful information. But the possibility of getting up close with interplanetary spacecraft has revolutionized planetary science. Very little of this site would have been possible without the space program. Nevertheless, theres a lot that you can see with very modest equipment or even with just your own eyes. Past generations of people found beauty and a sense of wonder contemplating the night sky. Todays scientific knowledge further enhances and deepens that experience. And you can share in it by simply going out in the evening and looking up. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . The IAU has changed the definition of planet so that Pluto no longer qualifies. There are now officially only eight planets in our solar system. Of course this change in terminology does not affect whats actually out there. In the end, its not very important how we classify the various objects in our solar system. What is important is to learn about their physical nature and their histories.

Saturday, September 21, 2019

The Importance Of Effective Maintenance

The Importance Of Effective Maintenance Since the maintenance has significant impacts in industry, it has received a deep attention from the expert and practical maintenance. According to study, maintenance costs can represent from 15% to 40% of the costs of goods produced [x2]. Maintenance of process equipment is one of the inescapable tasks associated with the operation of industrial plants and until relatively recently, it was implemented either on a routine basis or after the failure of equipment. Attitudes are changing and now many organisations are adopting methods for identifying incipient faults, so that maintenance can be scheduled before there has been a failure, which would lead to loss of production and spoilage of raw material. Plants and different machine centres are assembled from a wide variety of mechanical and electrical equipment, which due to their very nature are subject to wear, corrosion, erosion and other forms of degradation [1]. It is widely accepted that intelligent, sensor based manufacturing is vital to achieve a high availability level of the sophisticated manufacturing systems in conjunction with high quality levels of manufactured components. Advanced sensor design, coupled with signal processing technologies, permits improved information about the process condition enabling process optimisation and control. It is not adequate to have information relating solely to the tool condition. Additional capabilities such as in process quality control and machine tool diagnostics are a requirement of the future, i.e. a shift from monitoring the tool condition to monitoring the process condition and the resulting part quality. [2] The use of mechanical vibration and acoustic emission signals for fault diagnosis in rotating machinery has grown significantly due to advances in the progress of digital signal processing algorithms and implementation techniques. The conventional diagnosis technology using acoustic an d vibration signals already exists in the form of techniques applying the time and frequency domain of signals, and analysing the difference of signals in the spectrum. Unfortunately, in some applications the performance is limited, such as when the signals caused by a damaged element are buried in background noise. [x3] In recent years, the possibility of obtaining more detailed information regarding the operation of process equipment by applying signal analysis techniques to conventional process measurements has, hitherto, been largely overlooked. This is because the principal purpose of the majority of process measurement systems is to provide a smooth signal for process control purposes. Therefore most process measurement systems are designed to produce a steady output signal, which is achieved by restricting the frequency response of the measurement system and thereby suppressing the noise component. [1] Signal transients are generally characterised by a short duration in time as compared to the observation interval. Research has shown that very important measurement information is often associated with the transients [1,2]. For example the vibration signals generated on a gearbox, the transients usually correspond to the local fault of the gear teeth, such as deformation, breakage and fracture. Thus analysing the transients of gearbox vibrations is useful for representing the characteristics of the gearbox health. However, it is not an easy task because the vibration measurements often carry heavy noise in the working environment, which could bury the essential vibration information of gears. Therefore, it is important and necessary to detect the transients with the machine health information in the very low signal-to-noise ratio conditions [3,4]. 1.2. Previous Work: This section contains information about the previous work that has been carried out with regards to condition monitoring and signal processing techniques. It also provides an outline of the different modern signal processing techniques used by researchers to identify faults with various machine components. 1.2.1 Machine tool A machine management system was developed at Cardiff University as a part of the MIRAM project (Machine Management for Increasing Reliability, Availability and Maintainability) that provides rapid fault diagnosis and allows the implementation of a predictive maintenance strategy [4]. This was used to extract data from the machine components by the sensors attached to it. The data processing methods implemented in the system allowed the characterization of normal and faulty behaviour of the machine component under investigation. An analysis has demonstrated the application of vibration monitoring using signal processing techniques such as Skewness, Standard deviation, RMS (Root Mean Square) and Kurtosis on the spindle system of machine tools. The results obtained from a signal after implementing kurtosis as a signal processing technique show a relatively high kurtosis value compared to other signals, which indicates a fault, associated with the spindle system. This analysis also describes the variations in the transients obtained from the coolant system of the machine tool. [5] Water treatment plant The research work conducted by a PhD student on the WRAP (Water Resources and Action Programme) test rig set-up at Cardiff University focuses on analysing the flow, pressure and pump speed request characteristics with respect to blockages induced on different valves. This analysis also studies the performance of the plant in relation to any leakages occurring in the system. Another analysis, which studies the performance of the same water filtration plant considers inducing 25 %, 50%, 75 % and 100 % blockages on the valves pre and post the pump. A fault dictionary created using a mathematical model approach was used to differentiate between the pre and post pump blockages and their degree of severities. [6] Use of modern signal processing techniques A review of modern signal processing techniques applicable to the analysis of signals whose frequency content is non-stationary has been studied in (R. Burnett, J.F. Watson*, S. Elder) [7]. Techniques like FFT (Fast Fourier Transform), STFT (Short-Time Fourier Transform) and Spectrogram have been discussed and compared using both test and actual data. Results are presented which identify the technique most appropriate for the task of fault detection in machine components under transient conditions [7]. A continuous wavelet transform (CWT) technique used for fault signal diagnosis in an internal combustion engine and its coolant system by using vibration signals has been studied by Wu Chen (2005) [8]. The advantages of using this technique for the characterization of transitory features of non-stationary signals have also been identified. Another journal contains a detailed study of the raw data obtained from physical machine parameters. It reviews the implementation of various modern signal processing and analysis techniques in time and frequency domain. Analysing signals in time domain for an initial analysis does not necessarily provide meaningful information due to background noise but transforming the signals into frequency domain provides detailed information. Further analysis shows how the vibration harmonics are linked to the identification of different types of machine faults. The harmonics within the signal categorising a component as faulty can be compared with the amplitude of those corresponding to components in a healthy condition to identify machines condition. [9] Aims of the project: The aims of the project are enumerated below: Study the characteristics and relevance of different modern signal processing techniques for the task of early fault detection in industrial machine components. Apply these modern signal processing techniques using Matlab to an archive of machine tool and water treatment plant signals obtained from the data acquisition system (DAS) and from a knowledge transfer program (KTP). Analyse these Matlab processed signals and identify the characteristics of the signal indicating a normal or faulty behaviour of the component under analysis. Chapter 2: Applications / Systems under study Wadkin V4-6 FMC: The Wadkin vertical machining centre was designed as a flexible manufacturing cell to perform operations on small to medium sized components. It comprises a fixed base, a single column, three axes of movements, an automatic tool changer, eight pallet loading stations and pallet transporter. Figure 2 shows a schematic of the machine tool centre. The Y-axis of the machine is formed by 4 hardened and ground steel slide-ways, which are fixed to the cast iron base of the machine. A table, which slides on low-friction strips can be moved to the left or right to form the X axis, by a motor. The Z-axis of the machine is formed by a cast iron column, which is bolted to the rear and upper surface of the base. This axis is moved and controlled in the same way as the X and Y axes. The head of the machine comprises the tool spindle, which is driven via a pair of pulleys, a belt and an electric motor. A tacho-generator attached to the motor is used to control the spindle speed. An encoder driven by a belt around the spindle is used to control the spindle position and orientation. Inside the spindle is a draw-bar with a spring (a stack of Belleville washers), which holds a tool in the spindle. A tool can be ejected from the spindle by activating a hydraulic cylinder above the spindle. This machining centre also consists of a tool transfer system and a 150 tool store is located to the right of the machine cell. The tool comprises 5 disks, attached to a vertical shaft, from which 30 tools can be hung. This shaft can be indexed to present a tool on each of the disk to the tool and horizontally between the spindle and the disks. On this mechanism is a pair of grippers, which holds a tool when being transport between the tool store and the spindle. [11] 2.1.1 Wadkin V4-6 Coolant system: Coolant systems are used in various application to pump liquids to cool and lubricate work pieces and cutting tools. The main objectives of the coolant system used for this application were to:- Prevent tool, work piece and machine components over heating. Increase tool life by reducing cutting forces. Improve surface finish Help clear swarf from the cutting area The cutter coolant system as shown in the schematic diagram Figure 1, comprises of two reservoirs each having a capacity of 39 litres located at either side of the machine base. The motor driven pump is controlled by means of a switch on the pendant control panel and can be switched off if coolant is not required for particular operations. The coolant pump motor on this machine cannot be switched on or off by means of programmed commands. Coolant is pumped via solenoid operated valves and a manually operated flow control/shut-off valve to the coolant outlets at the spindle nose. With the coolant pump motor running, coolant is turned on or off by SOV12 (flood coolant) and SOV51 (inducer coolant) which are energised or de-energised by programmed demands. Coolant flow is manually regulated by means of the flow control/shut-off tap located on the machine guard. Used cutter coolant drains back to the reservoirs where wire-mesh strainers prevent the ingress of large particles of swarf. A replaceable wire gauze filter is fitted to the pump inlet. The electrical system required to operate the pump motor and the two solenoids operated flow control valves comprises of three relays activated by command from the controller. These connect the flow control valve solenoids to the 110V AC supply and the pump motor to the 415V AC three phase supply. 2.1.2 Coolant systems component specifications: Table 1: Wadkin V4/6 Coolant systems component specifications Label as on diagram Component Description 1 Reservoir 2 tanks each of 39 litres capacity. Grating prevents ingress of large swarf 2 Filter Wire gauze filter attached to pump inlet 3 Pump / Motor Graham Precision pump, CPP 76. 3 phase AC motor, 2900 rpm, 1.1kw. Pump single stage peripheral impeller type. Maximum flow rate 11.6 lit/min. 4 Pressure relief valve Mechanical operated set at 4.8*10^5 N/m^2 5 Manual shut-off tap Manual tap 6 Flow control valves Solenoid operated Reason for analysing coolant pump signals: A large amount of data obtained from the Wadkin machine tool has already been grouped and processed into various charts and histograms for the ease of the analysis in previous research. The aim was to facilitate the research into machine tool condition monitoring system. Among the 160 recorded failures between a certain period of time, 84% fall within 18 pre-classified machine locations. Among these recorded failures coolant system being one of the 18 locations, ranks no. 3 in the failure frequency by machine location histogram [10]. Therefore applying modern signal processing techniques to these particular signals was considered to be a good approach to identify any faults within the component. Device(s) for acquiring signals: The raw data extracted from the coolant system were the pressure and flow signals. These signals were acquired by using flow and pressure transducers connected to the system and a data acquisition system was used to store these signals in a database for further analysis. The Kobold flow meters and switches types VKM have a spring-loaded float, which slides within a cylindrical measuring tube and has an integral orifice. This type of flow meter is a low cost flow meter and switch, which fully compensates for viscosity and to large extent for density even with very low flows. Wadkin V4/6 Spindle system: He hardened steel spindle is supported in the head casting by two pairs of pre-loaded angular contact bearings. The spindle is driven by a D.C. electric motor via fixed pulleys and a wide poly-vee belt, and has a speed range of 40-5000 rev / min. Figure 3 shows the schematic diagram of the spindle drive system. The analyses and modelling of this is very similar to the feed drive mechanism, however it does not include any linear movement and is subjected to a distributing torque proportional to cutting force components. [12] The spindle, which is fastened into the head of the machine tool, is shown in figure 9.1. It has two bearings at both the top and bottom of the shaft, together with seals to retain the grease either side of each set of bearings. On the top of the spindle is a pulley, which is driven via poly-vee belt ad a pulley attached to the spindle motor, which is shown in figure 9.2. To measure the speed of the spindle and its orientation at low speeds, an incremental encoder is positioned towards the side of the spindle. This is driven from a pulley fixed to the spindle, toothed belt and a pulley attached to the encoder as shown in figure 9.3. In figure 9.4 and exploded view of the drawbar, which is fitted into the spindle, is shown. It uses a stack of Billeville washers, which are used to draw a tool into the spindles taper. Reason for analysing spindle vibration signals: The bearings in the spindle system can fail fue to overload, misalignment, insufficient lubrication and assembly defects. Condition monitoring of these bearing is therefore very critical to the machining process. Spindle systems component specification: Device(s) for acquiring signals: The vibrations from main spindle bearings were measured by using two accelerometers mounted on the head of the machine tool as shown in figure 4. Two ENDEVCO model 5216-100 series piezoelectric accelerometers were used, which are designed specifically for vibration measurement in rugged environments of industrial machinery. These type of accelerometers have very wide dynamic range and an extremely low noise floor. [12] Data Acquisition System (DAS): A flexible and generically applicable data acquisition system has been developed at Cardiff University for the machine tool condition monitoring. This system can be viewed as a data logger associated to one or more sensors. Its flexibility allows the addition of any data logging software, hardware or sensor(s) to be linked for the analysis of different machine components when required. The DAS is controlled by a relational database management system (DBMS). The DMBS provides a user interface to specify the details of the condition monitoring tests to be performed [13]. 2.2 Water treatment plant (WRAP rig): 2.2.1 Background: The WRAP (Water and Resources Action Program) rig is a test rig set-up at Cardiff University used for research purposes. It is housed in a small container for it to be transported easily to plants or sites for demonstration purposes. The rig is designed to allow a direct performance comparison between two different types of filtration media. This rig was specifically used to demonstrate the performance of Recycled Glass Media (RGM) compared to the conventional filtration media such as sand. In previous research this rig has been used to process wash down water from a dairy production line while its sister rigs were used for different applications such as the removal of bio fouling and other wastes. The figure below shows the WRAP rig along with the individual constituents that make up the rig. Functionality of the rig: This explanation of the rig is based on the detailed piping and instrumentation diagram of the rig shown in figure x. The rig consists of four 6-staged impeller centrifugal pumps P1, P2, P3 and P4 as indicated in the diagram with P1 being disconnected as there was no external open reservoir in operation. Pumps P2 and P3 transfer unprocessed liquor to filters F1 and F2 from tank T1. This relationship / process can be altered using valves V8, V9 and V10 for operational flexibility if required. The two pneumatically actuated diaphragm valves V5A and V5B, which are controlled by the programmable logic controller (PLC) enables the flow to be selected from either the unprocessed effluent stream entering F1 or F2. The PID (Proportional Integral Derivative) loop also maintains the flow rate into each filter at a pre-programmed set point. The flow transmitters FT1 and FT2 were controlled to provide a 0-10V output to the invertors, which controlled pumps P2 and P3. This was achieved via the PID loop algorithm in the PLC. The analysis of this report only studies a small part of the WRAP rig, which is shown in figure x below. Two Cylon UC32.24 PLCs networked using a proprietary serial protocol controlled the system. These in turn were networked to a communications module, which contained a GSM modem and features two RS232 ports for connection to external devices. Chemwatch, Cylons proprietary SCADA system was used for three original operation of the rig. The system was configured to display two process mimic screens that showed real time values of the various sensor readings. A number of alarm and control screens were also present allowing a privileged operator to alter alarm thresholds, control parameters and manually override system components such as pumps. WRAP rig system components: Pump P3: Data acquisition system (KTP) Ball valves Flow transmitters

Friday, September 20, 2019

Impact of Online Learning on the Education System

Impact of Online Learning on the Education System Topic Area Education for all Can online learning replace our current model of education? Introduction We live in a world where access to most resources (thanks to the internet) are just a click away. The only resource that seems to be struggling to reach to the majority of the world through this method is schooling or education. Is it possible for education to remove the walls around our schools? Can our current model of education be replaced by online learning? Global How has online learning affected our world? Online learning has been out there since search giants like Google, Yahoo and Bing were set up. The only difference between now and then is that earlier it was difficult to prove that you had knowledge about a subject because there was very little proof of what you knew unless you could demonstrate it. Earlier all organizations mandated proper certification or documents of qualifications. Its only now that online learning offers proper certification. And in accordance to that online learning is slowly getting accepted in companies and organizations with the proof of the certificate(s) achieved by doing so. Online learning offers courses on everything from counting on your fingers to university level Astrophysics. As of 2013, the number of people in Colleges 183 million Secondary School 568.5 million Primary School 713.6 million Total number of students 1.436 billion (20.5% of the total population in 2013) The laws that govern population growth entail that these numbers would have grown in the past 4 years and would be approximately 1.501 billion people (20.5% of 7.461 billion {total population}). According to EdSurge the number of learners on the big 3 online learning sites (edX, Coursera and Udacity) were a stunning 24 million. United States of America Several universities like Harvard even encourage their students to view video lectures so they can use the time for the lecture for doing something else and when they are free they can simply view the lecture. According to Udacity CEO, Sebastian Thrun, some 4 million registered users worldwide, and about 60,000 working on nanodegrees at anyone one time. In several schools in USA, the teachers use Khan Academy to aid/conduct their daily classes. The Massachusetts Institute of Technology has put almost all of its courses online on MIT OpenCourseWare for all student regardless of their nationality, or the college/university they attend. This really helps students a lot since most of the material for math and science is almost the same as their universities/schools/colleges. India In countries like India where students are pushed to their mental and physical limits to achieve grades that yield are a 100 percent average or the equivalent, these certificates show another stairway to success to these students. Students now turn to websites like edX, Coursera, Udacity and Khan Academy to learn whatever they need to or in several cases want to. This also allows the students to excel in their studies, and get better career opportunities in their future, as online learning shows an effort to learn beyond what is expected of a student. The Rajasthan state government is going to add Khan Academy lessons as part of their day to day school curriculum to provide their students with a platform with universally accepted teaching-learning models and techniques. But due to other problems like poverty and availability of electricity (which I will address later) it is difficult to switch over to online education. China In China the number of universities and colleges offering online learning platforms has skyrocketed in the past years. 30 out 110 of Chinas well-known universities have an online learning platform. Chinas ministry of education has been encouraging a lot of students to take online courses, however no university is allowed to give out degrees. Another advantage to online learning is that you can view videos/lectures as many times as you need to. You can ask for help on forums on many online learning sites. Online learning also offers a lot of different perspective and immense exposure. Google was one of the first multi-national organisations to employ people not based on their qualifications or proof of knowledge/learning rather based on their skills and experience. There is an option for the learner to avail for the Honour Code Certificate but courses offering these certificates are extremely few and when a learner presents an honour code certificate as part of their CV or rà ©sumà ©, they are looked at with suspicion as the terms of the honour code are literally honouring your word. The reason honour code certificates and statements of achievement (based on the honour code) were stopped is because of misuse of the fact that there was no way to verify (branching out to Verified Certificates) that the person doing the course is the person whose name is on the certificate. On the other hand, verified certificates use a government issued ID to function and the name on the certificate has to match the one on the ID. This reduces chances of someone else doing your work for you. A problem with certification for online learning and online courses is that almost all the verified certificates on the most online learning platforms are now paid and the se prices are very high. A lot of the paid/verified certificates on edX are for $50 and quite a few of them are for a hundred dollars. As a matter of fact, Udacity has a minute number of free courses and all other courses on Udacity are paid. This makes it difficult for a learner to get these certificates because of the cost of these certificates. This reduces the number of learners completing the course, contary to what is said by edX when a user enrols into a course Its a proven motivator to complete the course. These prices can create a barbed-wire around the school we are trying to render wall-less. Another fact worth considering is, that in a lot of countries schooling/college is expensive and using free, online resources can help you save all that money. For the world as one, I think the developed countries (like the United States) should start by using online education to enhance and ultimately replace their current models of education. By doing so, they would set an example and would encourage other countries to be like them. National Is replacing the current model of education with online learning feasible in my country? According to the Indian Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment 27.5% of Indias population is below the poverty line, which is roughly 367.48 million people (Population of India à ¢Ã¢â‚¬  Ã¢â‚¬â„¢ 1,336,286,256 * 27.5/100 = 367478720). I believe, asking students/people who are underprivileged to learn using online resources, is inappropriate because having an internet connection is expensive and without one online learning is impossible. So its almost like saying the water is free but the way to get to the water is paid (and expensive). So I do not think it is feasible to replace my countrys current model of education with online learning. Local Is replacing the current model of education with online learning feasible for the students in my school/community? According to a survey I conducted among my friends on my social networking circles (Link to responses available in the bibliography below) à ¢Ã¢â‚¬  Ã¢â‚¬â„¢ 98.3% of the people use the internet for learning something, studying and/or work. Most people use the internet for 5-8 hours a day. 22.4% of the people use google and/or other search engines to learn what they want to. 5.1% also use Khan Academy and use search engines. 1.7% use Khan Academy and similar websites for studying. 6.9% do the points mentioned above and also use edX, Coursera and similar platforms for studying. 3.4% use Khan Academy and edX/Coursera and other platforms for studying. 11.9% use the internet for college/university work and use all of uses mentioned above. 49.2% use all/some of the tools mentioned above and also work. Keeping the above points in mind I believe that my friends circle can depend on the internet for schooling/education or can use the internet to enhance this essential process. Personal As an individual I believe I can switch over to the Internet for my education as I have no problems with Internet access, and the colleges/universities I am considering for my further education accept and even encourage online learning and certification, which again is not a problem with me. I find that I can fit into that group of people who can and should turn to online learning. I find that using E-Books and E-Lectures is more convenient and environmentally friendly (using E-Books rather than books). I can also get my hands on to material that sometimes teachers in class might not be able to cover. I think that replacing the current model of education with online education is possible for me, although I might require a teacher to guide me at times. Personal Response My research and essay were partly inspired by Salman Khans (educationist) Ted Talk (in 2011) and I had turned to online resources for learning. Salman Khan tells us how the traditional academic model is not cut out for the extremes of the Bell Curve the students who find a topic/subject easy, and the ones who dont, but the system is rather suited for the average student. He says that, just like in Music or Martial Arts, you only move onto a further skill once youve mastered the basic. But as all of us know, most of our schools cannot compensate for the students who lag behind in a subject/concept and the class simply has to move on. He uses the cheese-block analogy and demonstrates to us how minor gaps in our knowledge can make the cookie crumble (the cheese in this case!). So I see myself working on Khan academy to do the best I can and learn all I can because according to Sal Khan You only need to know one thing You can learn anything. This will help me and can also inspire othe r people to be like me. Possible Future Scenarios The world needs to realise that traditional schools and curricula will not be able to cope with our rapidly changing world. Getting the world to accept online resources as instead of/to enhance our education, we need a little amount struggle to overcome the natural resistance to change that we have, monetary funding and support from governments of the world (in terms of providing cheap internet access and pushing learners to use online resources). After taking these steps the world would slowly but surely be a better place. The world can simply ignore the fact that online education holds the key to our future and would not embrace online learning, which would cause problems several other problems (like availability of space for schools, teachers and staff required to run the school and availability of books etc). It would also cause a rise in illiteracy and poverty (since it would restrict learning and schooling to schools and colleges only). Taking into account my research, I think that this scenario is not very likely to occur. The world can realise this fact now and can help our future generations to focus on keeping up high in the sky rather than getting out of problems like illiteracy and poverty. Considering what I learnt through the course of my research, this scenario is very likely to occur. The world can move toward Scenario 2 but might not be able to make enough progress due to problems like poverty, illiteracy and lack of access to the internet. This would cause these problems to grow further. This scenario is highly likely to occur. __________________________________________________________________ Bibliography https://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=number+of+students+in+the+worldhttps://www.edsurge.com/news/2015-09-08-udacity-coursera-and-edx-now-claim-over-24-million-students https://support.edx.org/hc/en-us/articles/215167977-Does-edX-offer-free-certificates https://www.google.co.in/about/careers/how-we-hire/http://www.tatatrusts.org/article/inside/rajasthan-tata-trusts-elearning-mouh http://www.thecrimson.com/article/2015/9/3/cameo-cheating-method-mooc/ https://edx.readthedocs.io/projects/open-edx-building-and-running-a-course/en/named-release-birch/running_course/discussions.html http://socialjustice.nic.in/UserView/index?mid=76672 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demographics_of_India https://ocw.mit.edu/index.htm https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1_fipGX3VASNtGMSbY4uyMGgTY1QlpVwhH1pFuAGmT80/edit?usp=sharing (Responses for survey) http://www.worldometers.info/world-population/ http://www.ted.com/talks/salman_khan_let_s_use_video_to_reinvent_education?language=en https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-MTRxRO5SRA http://www.scmp.com/business/companies/article/1966969/more-online-education-start-ups-china-expected-close-down-2016 https://internationaleducation.gov.au/News/Latest-News/Pages/Online-education-in-China.aspx https://internationaleducation.gov.au/News/Latest-News/Pages/Online-education-in-China.aspx http://www.whatsonweibo.com/10-hottest-chinese-online-education-companies-2016/ http://www.ted.com/talks/sal_khan_let_s_teach_for_mastery_not_test_scores/transcript?language=en https://www.khanacademy.org/youcanlearnanything#

Thursday, September 19, 2019

The Immigrants in Breath, Eyes, Memory :: Their Eyes Were Watching God Essays

Immigrants   Breath, Eyes, Memory  Ã‚      Having to move to another country is not an east task because you are leaving behind everyone that you know since you are a little kid. Sophie was experiencing this because now she must drop everything and jump in a plane to reunited with her mother which she only have heard her voice. Haiti and Tante Atie was all Sophie knew, the freedom that she had to run around or just play with kids from across the street while the hot sun is kicking in. Tante Atie for Sophie was the mother that she always wanted; a mother that would wait for her outside when she returned from school or a mother that would tell her stories when she couldn't fall asleep. This will soon change when one-day plane tickets arrive and everything that was familiar to her was no longer there. Sophie was now in a new country with a mother that was also new to her. She now most learn English and at the same time maintain a fluent Creole. But the most difficult thing is to get use to New York and her new surroundings because you no longer can be running around in the street and your parents are working day and night. There is no more freedom until you become an American (meaning more independent an liberal) in from of your mother eyes. I can relate to this novel a lot because I came to this country when I was eleven years old and I had to leave my grand parents, my father and my friends behind for a new life with my mother. It was a big change because I no longer could go outside and play baseball with my friends instead I most stay in and play Nintendo. I couldn't speak with some people in my school because I did not speak English nor did I understand the language. I had to work hard to understand and speak English, I used to always go to McDonalds and order the food, this was a way for me to practice or volunteer to go to the deans office to drop or to pick up something. At the beginning was hard but my friends were supportive but there were times when people try to put me down because of my heavy accent, at that point I wanted to loss my accent but I learn that my accent is part of who I am.

Wednesday, September 18, 2019

Lsd :: essays research papers

LSD The use of drugs among Americans is rapidly rising. They can be bought and sold almost anywhere, from the streets to hallways of schools. A drug on the rapid rise from the 70's is LSD. Some people attribute this to the fact it is extremely inexpensive, $2-4 a hit, the wrong belief by users that it is a safer drug than marijuana because it isn't physically addicting. However, LSD is a hallucinogenic drug that is very dangerous, despite popular belief. LSD stands for Lysergic Acid Diethylamide. Lysergic acid is extracted from the fungus Ergot, and then left to crystallize until it is pure. It was first accidentally discovered by Albert Hoffman in 1938 in Switzerland, who was searching for possible therapeutic uses of Ergot. Hoffman continued his experiments, but never came in contact with the crystals until1943. (LSD can be absorbed through the skin.) Hoffman then sent LSD around the world to be tested and investigated to find medical uses. Lysergic acid deviates were found to relieve migraines and control postpartum hemorrhage because it causes veins to contract, but also caused gangrene of the limbs, and so further experimentation with the drug was abandoned. In the late 50's, however, LSD was used by the CIA as an interrogation drug for spies. However, it was proven to be unreliable and was later replaced with other interrogation drugs. LSD comes in the forms of crystals, liquids, tablets, gelatins, or blotting squares. The squares have designs on them such a flowers, dragons, shapes, animals, and cartoon characters to make them more attractive to young children. Often called acid, white lightning, stamps, microdot, and grateful dead, LSD is usually taken orally. There are 4 levels of experience an LSD user will go through. The first takes place within 45 minutes of ingestion. The user begins to feel enhanced senses. Colors are brighter, sounds are more distinct, and a user may feel dizzy. The second level is the plateau. Between hours one and three, the user will "see" sounds and "hear" objects. This experience of a mingling of the senses is called synethesva. Patterns within material such as sweaters and blankets appear. A user may see figures within smoke from incense, or spend extended periods of time examining lines on the palm of their hand. Clock time becomes distorted and slows almost to a stand still, whole minutes seem to pass like hours. Slight hallucinations may appear. The third stage from hours 4-7 is the climax. Colors are greatly magnified, while once familiar shapes distorted beyond recognition. The hallucinations become intense, and total unreal objects may appear.

Tuesday, September 17, 2019

Axis Bank

Due to the radical changes brought up in the new era of Banking, General Public is becoming more and more conscious of the services and facilities the different banks are providing. Banks have also started tieing up with insurance companies and other allied services companies to fulfil the needs of their customers. The delivery channels have also been shifted from branches to net banking etc. Sales promotion have also been used to position the product correctly in the eyes of the customers and for product awareness to the customers.Several tools are being used like day-to-day promotional activities like discounts, offers, loans, trade promotion, other promotional activities and so on. The project in so designed as to find out the potential customers and also bring to the knowledge about the various products and services provided by the bank. In the successive chapters we will be talking about organization. . We will also be discussing about the various products and services providedS ection 7 of the Banking Regulation Act, 1949 makes it essential for every company carrying on the business of banking in India to use as part of its name at least one of the word- bank, banker, banking or banking company. Ancient Hindu scriptures provide enough evidence of the existence of money lending business in India. Mahajans, Shroff, Sahukars, etc. were enjoyed in banking business. In the beginning of the 18th century, the East India Company set up a few commercial banks on moderns lines. In 1770, first Indian bank known as the Bank of Hindustan was started and was closed down twenty years later.Later, the East India Company started three Presidency banks with Government participation. These were: the Bank of Calcutta (1806), the Bank of Bombay (1840) and the Bank of Madras (1843). These banks had the financial participation by the Government also. During the 18th century, some other banks were also opened by Agency Houses in Madras and Calcutta. All these banks failed. Since all the banks emerged due to Agency Houses failed, the need of banking regulation in India was seriously felt. As a result, Companies Act, 1833 was brought into force.The impact of the Agency Houses got slowly reduced. Allahabad Bank came into existence in 1865 and Alliance Bank of Simla in 1875. The first purely Indian joint stock bank known as the Oudh Commercial Bank was set up in 1880 and the Punjab National Bank was launched in 1894. The Swadeshi movement in the country in 1906 encouraged the Indian entrepreneurs to start many new banks. There were as many as 648 commercial banks in India by the end of 1947. As many as 161 banks failed in quick succession during 1913-1914 and the people’s faith in the baking system was shaken.

Monday, September 16, 2019

Philadelphia’s 1793 Yellow Fever: Narrative of the Proceedings of Black People Essay

The 1793 yellow fever outbreak was a national problem. At this time the United States Capital was located in Philadelphia, PA. This essay will focus on the outbreak in Philadelphia, PA, particularly how a few different views of the African American community played a role. During this terrible time thousands of local residents fled Philadelphia, including prominent members of government such as the first United States President, George Washington along with many other community members. A local paper had an ad looking for people of color to help attend to the sick. The ad also assured those helped would not get sick ,and would be compensated. Responding to this ad was Absalom Jones and Richard Allen. Both men were leaders in the African American Community as well as free men. Fast forward to the details of what happened during this period. There were multiple theories as to the cause of the outbreak. Who could or couldn’t contract the disease was unclear as well. Also, accusations of theft and price gouging were made regarding those who helped. Then an article was written by Matthew Carey, a prominent white printer in Philadelphia. While he praised Richard Allen and Absalom Jones for their work (Winch) he suggested that blacks had caused the epidemic, and that some black nurses had charged high fees and even stolen from those for whom they cared. (Carey) This caused a printed rebuttal by Allen to save the reputation of the African American community. Allen wrote for everyone to read about what he personally saw, as he stayed in Philadelphia during the outbreak, and was on the front line helping. Multiple accounts of the helping blacks were noted in his text. Examples of African Americans caring for, treating, and burying the ill are given. In most of these instances no money was taken by the African Americans who stepped up to help. However, Mr. Allen did admit there were a few instances of shady acts by members of his community. Mr. Carey’s accusation of the price gouging and stealing from the ill wasn’t supported by any examples. â€Å"We feel ourselves hurt most by a partial, censorious paragraph, in Mr. Carey’s second edition, of his account of the sickness, in Philadelphia; pages 76 and 77, where he asperses the blacks alone, for having taken advantage of the distressed situation on the people. See more: how to start a narrative essay introduction †(Crowley and Stancliff 283). Since this was printed in multiple editions it appears Mr. Carey did very well financially selling papers, rather than reporting factual information. â€Å"We believe he has made more money by the sale of his ‘scraps’ than a dozen of the greatest extortioners among black nurses. †(Crowley and Stancliff 284). Mr. Allen acknowledges that some blacks have committed crimes, but they have been convicted of their crimes. He also points out Mr. Carey didn’t even stick around to offer any help to the ill; rather, he fled his hometown to help assure his health. Mr. Allen uses some powerful stats in a letter to the Mayor of Philadelphia. The purpose was to show what happened to the beds of the sick after they had passed away and that they were not price gouging. This would counter the claims of Mr. Carey about the blacks stealing from the ill and over charging. The letter was of a chart showing what was paid to the men and women for their service, and what costs were incurred, Then end result was an out pocket loss of –over $27,000 in today’s terms, if the conversion from pounds to dollars chart is correct. Mr. Allen used stats, comparisons, and eye witness accounts to back up his claims that the majority of the blacks who helped during this crisis did so with good intentions, often turning down money offered to them. He also gives a couple of very strong examples of whites taking advantage of the ill. One being of a white woman caring for a couple that both died in one night. She had demanded six pounds, and upon searching bulges in her clothing, she was found in possession of buckles from the gentleman that had passed, among other things. Another account was of four white men that demanded forty dollars just for carrying a coffin downstairs. Lastly, a white woman who was caring for an elderly lady was found with rings, one on her finger and another in her pocket. The Philadelphia mayor praised Allen and Jones as well as the African American community for all their help. All the stats and eye witness accounts of what happened makes Mr. Allen’s account believable and admirable. Mr. Carey was not there for the duration of the epidemic and did not back up his accusations with evidence. This also makes Mr. Allen’s account more convincing. Mr. Allen seems to cover the good and bad accounts of his community. When he examines the whites that helped all that was noted was that of stealing and price gouging. Again, the article Mr. Carey prints doesn’t back up his community with any examples of good deeds. In conclusion, Mr. Allen, the author did his best to defend his community to anyone that read his text. He was very clear, easy to understand, and didn’t seem to present a biased view. He presented his account, both the good as well as the bad, and made me feel like Mr. Carey was not a credible author. Works Cited Crowley, Sharon, and Michael Stancliff. â€Å"A narrative of the proceedings of the black people during the late awful calamity in Philadelphia. † Critical Situations a Rhetoric for Writing in Communities. Lauren A. Finn. Penguin Academics, 2008. 281-95. Print. Carey, Matthew. â€Å"A short account of the malignant fever. † 1794. P. 63 web. Retrieved June 20 2013. Winch, Julie. â€Å"on Jones and Allen’s responses to Carey. † Part 3. Philadelphia, Yellow Fever Epidemics. PBS. org. 1998. Retrieved June 20 2013.

Sunday, September 15, 2019

LAN and Network Mangements

Imagine yourself as a network administrator, responsible for a 2000 user network. This network reaches from California to New York, and some branches over seas. In this situation, anything can, and usually does go wrong, but it would be your job as a system administrator to resolve the problem with it arises as quickly as possible. The last thing you would want is for your boss to call you up, asking why you haven†t done anything to fix the 2 major systems that have been down for several hours. How do you explain to him that you didn†t even know about it? Would you even want to tell him that? So now, picture yourself in the same situation, only this time, you were using a network monitoring program. Sitting in front of a large screen displaying a map of the world, leaning back gently in your chair. A gentle warning tone sounds, and looking at your display, you see that California is now glowing a soft red in color, in place of the green glow just moments before. You select the state of California, and it zooms in for a closer look. You see a network diagram overview of all the computers your company has within California. Two systems are flashing, with an X on top of them indicating that they are experiencing problems. Tagging the two systems, you press enter, and with a flash, the screen displays all the statitics of the two systems, including anything they might have in common causing the problem. Seeing that both systems are linked to the same card of a network switch, you pick up the phone and give that branch office a call, notifying them not only that they have a problem, but how to fix it as well. Early in the days of computers, a central computer (called a mainframe) was connected to a bunch of dumb terminals using a standard copper wire. Not much thought was put into how this was done because there was only one way to do it: they ere either connected, or they weren†t. Figure 1 shows a diagram of these early systems. If something went wrong with this type of system, it was fairly easy to troubleshoot, the blame almost always fell on the mainframe system. Shortly after the introduction of Personal Computers (PC), came Local Area Networks (LANS), forever changing the way in which we look at networked systems. LANS originally consisted of just PC†s connected into groups of computers, but soon after, there came a need to connect those individual LANS together forming what is known as a Wide Area Network, or WAN, the result was a complex connection of omputers joined together using various types of interfaces and protocols. Figure 2 shows a modern day WAN. Last year, a survey of Fortune 500 companies showed that 15% of their total computer budget, 1. 6 Million dollars, was spent on network management (Rose, 115). Because of this, much attention has focused on two families of network management protocols: The Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP), which comes from a de facto standards based background of TCP/IP communication, and the Common Management Information Protocol (CMIP), which derives from a de jure standards-based background associated with the Open Systems Interconnection (OSI) (Fisher, 183). In this report I will cover advantages and disadvantages of both Common Management Information Protocol (CMIP) and Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP). , as well as discuss a new protocol for the future. I will also give some good reasons supporting why I believe that SNMP is a protocol that all network SNMP is a protocol that enables a management station to configure, monitor, and receive trap (alarm) messages from network devices. (Feit, 12). It is formally specified in a series of related Request for Comment (RFC) documents, listed here. The first protocol developed was the Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP). It was commonly considered to be a quickly designed â€Å"band-aid† solution to internetwork management difficulties while other, larger and better protocols were being designed. (Miller, 46). However, no better choice became available, and SNMP soon became the network management protocol of choice. It works very simply (as the name suggests): it exchanges network packets through messages (known as protocol data units (PDU)). The PDU contains variables that have both titles and values. There are five types of PDU†s which SNMP uses to onitor a network: two deal with reading terminal data, two with setting terminal data, and one called the trap, used for monitoring network events, such as terminal start-ups By far the largest advantage of SNMP over CMIP is that its design is simple, so it is as easy to use on a small network as well as on a large one, with ease of setup, and lack of stress on system resources. Also, the simple design makes it simple for the user to program system variables that they would like to monitor. Another major advantage to SNMP is that is in wide use today around the world. Because of it†s evelopment during a time when no other protocol of this type existed, it became very popular, and is a built in protocol supported by most major vendors of networking hardware, such as hubs, bridges, and routers, as well as majoring operating systems. It has even been put to use inside the Coca-Cola machines at Stanford University, in Palo Alto, California (Borsook, 48). Because of SNMP†s smaller size, it has even been implemented in such devices as toasters, compact disc players, and battery-operated barking dogs. In the 1990 Interop show, John Romkey, vice president of engineering or Epilogue, demonstrated that through an SNMP program running on a PC, you could control a standard toaster through a network (Miller, 57). SNMP is by no means a perfect network manager. But because of it†s simple design, these flaws can be fixed. The first problem realized by most companies is that there are some rather large security problems related with SNMP. Any decent hacker can easily access SNMP information, giving them any information about the network, and also the ability to potentially shut down systems on the network. The latest version of SNMP, called SNMPv2, has added some security measures that were left out of SNMP, to combat the 3 largest problems plaguing SNMP: Privacy of Data (to prevent intruders from gaining access to information carried along the network), authentication (to prevent intruders from sending false data across the network), and access control (which restricts access of particular variables to certain users, thus removing the possibility of a user accidentally crashing the network). (Stallings, 213) The largest problem with SNMP, ironically enough, is the same thing that made it great; it†s simple design. Because it is so simple, the information it deals with is either detailed, nor well organized enough to deal with the growing networks of the This is mainly due to the quick creation of SNMP, because it was never designed to be the network management protocol of the 1990†³s. Like the previous flaw, this one too has been corrected with the new version, SNMPv2. This new version allows for more in-detail specification of variables, including the use of the table data structure for easier data retrieval. Also added are two new PDU†s that are used to manipulate the tabled objects. In fact, so many new features have been added that the formal pecifications for SNMP have expanded from 36 pages (with v1) to 416 pages with SNMPv2. (Stallings, 153) Some people might say that SNMPv2 has lost the simplicity, but the truth is that the changes were necessary, and could not have been avoided. A management station relies on the agent at a device to retrieve or update the information at the device. The information is viewed as a logical database, called a Management Information Base, or MIB. MIB modules describe MIB variables for a large variety of device types, computer hardware, and software components. The original MIB for Managing a TCP/IP internet (now called MIB-I) was defined in RFC 066 in August of 1988. It was updated in RFC 1156 in May of 1990. The MIB-II version published in RFC 1213 in May of 1991, contained some improvements, and has proved that it can do a good job of meeting basic TCP/IP management needs. MIB-II added many useful variables missing from MIB-I (Feit, 85). MIB files are common variables used not only by SNMP, but CMIP as well. In the late 1980†³s a project began, funded by governments, and large corporations. Common Management Information Protocol (CMIP) was born. Many thought that because of it†s nearly infinite development budget, that it would quickly become in idespread use, and overthrow SNMP from it†s throne. Unfortunately, problems with its implementation have delayed its use, and it is now only available in limited form from developers themselves. (SNMP, Part 2 of 2, III. 40. ) CMIP was designed to be better than SNMP in every way by repairing all flaws, and expanding on what was good about it, making it a bigger and more detailed network manager. It†s design is similar to SNMP, where PDU†s are used as variables to monitor the network. CMIP however contains 11 types of PDU†s (compared to SNMP†s 5). In CMIP, the variables are seen as very complex and sophisticated data tructures with three attributes. These include: 1) Variable attributes: which represent the variables characteristics (its data 2) variable behaviors: what actions of that variable can be triggered. 3) Notifications: the variable generates an event report whenever a specified event occurs (eg. A terminal shutdown would cause a variable notification As a comparison, SNMP only employs variable properties from one and three above. The biggest feature of the CMIP protocol is that its variables not only relay information to and from the terminal (as in SNMP) , but they can also be used to perform tasks that would be impossible under SNMP. For instance, if a terminal on a network cannot reach the fileserver a pre-determined amount of times, then CMIP can notify appropriate personnel of the event. With SNMP however, a user would have to specifically tell it to keep track of unsuccessful attempts to reach the server, and then what to do when that variable reaches a limit. CMIP therefore results in a more efficient management system, and less work is required from the user to keep updated on the status of the network. CMIP also contains the security measures left out by SNMP. Because of the large development budget, when it becomes available, CMIP ill be widely used by the government, and the corporations that funded it. After reading the above paragraph, you might wonder why, if CMIP is this wonderful, is it not being used already? (after all, it had been in development for nearly 10 years) The answer is that possibly CMIP†s only major disadvantage, is enough in my opinion to render it useless. CMIP requires about ten times the system resources that are needed for SNMP. In other words, very few systems in the world would able to handle a full implementation on CMIP without undergoing massive network modifications. This disadvantage has no inexpensive fix to it. For that reason, many believe CMIP is doomed to fail. The other flaw in CMIP is that it is very difficult to program. Its complex nature requires so many different variables that only a few skilled programmers are able to use it to it†s full potential. Considering the above information, one can see that both management systems have their advantages and disadvantages. However the deciding factor between the two, lies with their implementation, for now, it is almost impossible to find a system with the necessary resources to support the CMIP model, even though it is superior to SNMP (v1 and v2) in both design and operation. Many people believe that the growing power of modern systems will soon fit well with CMIP model, and might result in it†s widespread use, but I believe by the time that day comes, SNMP could very well have adapted itself to become what CMIP currently offers, and more. As we†ve seen with other products, once a technology achieves critical mass, and a substantial installed base, it†s quite difficult to convince users to rip it out and start fresh with an new and unproven technology (Borsook, 48). It is then recommend that SNMP be used in a situation where minimial security is needed, and SNMPv2 be used Borsook, Paulina.

Saturday, September 14, 2019

Portrayal of society in Oedipus the king Essay

People and society have been significant principles in every civilization. We gain power through it, stay on top because of it and are a part of it. In Sophocles’ time people were of great importance for the Greeks, it was the time of the establishment of democracy, the country was governed for and by the people. Antigone was written in France during the German occupation and contains political messages to the people. This essay tends to investigate how society is portrayed in Sophocles’ Oedipus the King and Jean Anouilh’s Antigone, and briefly how and for what purpose this is done. The portrayal of society depicts the society in the play, and how that reflects the contemporary society of the author. One way of portraying society in Oedipus the King is through the chorus. In this play the chorus is a group of Theban people who express their ideas and thoughts, and pray to the Gods. By doing this they show how the Theban people react to what happens during the play. In the chorus’ first appearance we see them praying to the gods describing the horrors of the plague. The people of Thebes are suffering and they turn to Zeus, Apollo, Athena and Artemis for deliverance. This shows their strong faith in and devotion to the deities. The second time the chorus appears it is confused about Tiresias’ accusations. In spite of their conviction of the omniscience of the Gods, they decide to stay loyal to their king and not believe the prophecy until they see proof. This shows great loyalty to the king as does the finishing sentence â€Å"Never will I convict my king, never in my heart.†(l. 572) At the end of the ode the chorus is open to both possibilites, that of the deities being wrong and of Oedipus having killed his father. This is although they believe in them and respect them deeply. This demonstrates their open-mindedness and openness to new ideas. Sophocles’ contemporaneous Athenian society is also twined into the story. Oedipus’ character reflects that of the Athenian people. Bernard MacGregor Walke Knox writes1 â€Å"The poet’s language presents him to the audience not as a figure of the mystical past but as one fully contemporary; in fact he is easily recognizable as an epitome of the Athenian character as they themselves conceived it and as their enemies saw it too. One trait after another in the character of Sophocles’ Oedipus corresponds to Athenian qualities praised by Pericles in his Funeral Speech or denounced by the Corinthians in their attack on Athenian imperialism at the progress in Sparta before the war.† He goes on to explain that these characteristics are: being a man of swift and vigorous action, having experience as a result of constant action especially in naval warfare, courage, swiftness and rationality in action and decision, intelligence, adaptability to circumstances, and his dedication to the interests and needs of the city. Knox concludes with â€Å"Oedipus the King is a dramatic embodiment of the creative vigor and intellectual daring of the fifth-century Athenian spirit.† The preoccupations of the Athenians are also reflected in the play. During the fifth century B.C. when Sophocles wrote the play great changes were taking place in Athens. The old respect and attention given to the deities were eroding as the result of the intellectual, social and scientific progress of the time. About this Knox writes â€Å"The figure1 of Oedipus represents not only the techniques of the transition from savagery to civilization and the political achievements of the newly settled society but also the temper and methods of the fifth-century intellectual revolution. His speeches are full of words, phrases and attitudes that link him with the â€Å"enlightenment† of Sophocles’ own Athens.† This change in society is reflected when Oedipus ridicules and offends Tiresias who represents prophecy and spiritual power. In fact Sophocles expresses his conservative ideas by setting up the double irony of the blind man who can see the truth and the future and the seeing man who is blind to his past, present and even to his own identity. As the story goes on we see the proud man who rejected the prophetic power descend to total humiliation and destruction. Knox puts it this way: † The catastrophe of the tragic hero thus becomes the catastrophe of fifth-century man; all his furious energy and intellectual daring drive him on to this terrible discovery of his fundamental ignorance – he is not the measure of all things†¦Ã¢â‚¬  Anouilh wrote a new version of Antigone during World War II. His writing therefore contained political messages against the Vichy government. Most of the depiction of society happens through Creon and not the chorus. They are not Anouilh’s opinions but rather what he thought the Germans and the Vichy government’s view of people. By conveying this to the people he could motivate them to join the resistance. As opposed to Oedipus who loves and cares for his people, Creon does not respect or care about the people he governs. He refers to them as â€Å"the featherheaded rabble I govern† and says that if they â€Å"are to understand what’s what, that stench has got to fill the town for a month!† Clearly he doesn’t think much of their intelligence. He has only taken the position because he thought it would be cowardly not to and he thinks the country is on the brink of destruction. As he himself explains to Antigone he thought â€Å"Someone had to agree to captain the ship. She had sprung a hundred leaks; she was loaded to the water-line with crime, ignorance, poverty. The wheel was swinging with the wind. The crew refused to work and were looting the cargo. The officers were building a raft, ready to slip overboard and desert the ship. The mast was splitting, the wind was howling, the sails were beginning to rip. Every man-jack on board was about to drown – and only because the only thing they thought of was their own skins and their cheap little day-to-day traffic.† In these few lines Creon has called people criminal, ignorant, poor, thieves, lazy, quitters and egocentric. He is also giving a very dark picture of the country when he came in charge. He is implying that the government before him, be it Oedipus causing a plague and Eteocles and Polynices’ civil war or France’s third republic’s failure to deal with the depression, has destroyed the country and he is the one making amendments and restoring order. He describes people as hypocritical and makes them look stupid when describing Eteocles’ funeral. He sarchastically explains how â€Å"schoolchildren emptied their savings-boxes to buy wreathes for him. Old men, orating in quavering, hypocritical voices †¦and every temple priest was present with an appropriate show of sorrow and solemnity in his stupid face.† This also shows that he has no respect for religion or people’s beliefs, earlier he also uses phrases like â€Å"flummery about religious burial†, â€Å"priestly abracadabra†, â€Å"jibber-jabber† and â€Å"dreary bureaucrats†. At one point Antigone exclaims † Animals, eh, Creon! What a king you could be if only men were animals†. This can be Anouilh using Antigone’s voice to say that not all people are animals, but docile and obedient people are. In general one can say that society is portrayed as better in Oedipus the King than in Antigone. Sophocles describes society as loyal, pious, open-minded and Oedipus and the Athenians as active, rational, courageous, intelligent, experienced, good at adapting to new circumstances and compassionate. The only portrayal of society in Antigone, which is through Creon, describes it as criminal, hypocritical, stupid, lazy, self-centred and ignorant. That does not necessarily say anything about the people, but more about the ruler himself. The writers describe two successive generations of the Theban people, but through them write to and about people more than 2000 years apart. 1 Introduction to Oedipus the King in The Three Theban plays, Penguin Classics. Notes by Bernard MacGregor Walke Knox.