Frankenstein †Who is the real monster? Essay

The novel Frankenstein was written by Mary Shelley when she was only eighteen years old, after a nightmare she had. It was published on 1st January 1818 and became a great success. Mary Shelley used the style of gothic horror in this novel, introducing Frankenstein as perhaps the first science fiction book ever written in this genre. Almost two centuries later it has become a widely read classic novel, but also one of the most influential novels ever written. One of the influences on Mary Shelley when she wrote Frankenstein was the scientific experiments of the time. Scientists were researching the effects of electricity on dead animals and humans; they were striving to control powers of life and death. They had discovered that an electric current could galvanise the limbs, making them move. Not only does Dr. Frankenstein bring his creature to life by using an electrical current, but also Mary Shelley describes numerous storms, which include lightening, when the monster appears to Frankenstein at various points throughout the book. Frankenstein is a moral tale that deals with issues and ethics of medical and scientific progression and how far humans should go when tampering with nature. The story raises questions as to who should have final power over life and human nature; God or humans. Shelley calls her book a ‘Modern Prometheus’. Prometheus is a story of a Greek God who gave the human race fire, out of pity so they could eat, but also brought them danger, and was therefore punished for it. Frankenstein is also punished by several horrific deaths in his family. He soon finds out that playing God has horrendous consequences. This story tells the tale of Dr Frankenstein, an optimistic student of natural philosophy who makes a manlike monster from parts of dead bodies and brings it to life by using an electrical current. Frankenstein’s monster is larger than most men and equally as strong. This superhuman creature seems to be the godfather of many a comic villain. It may be that Shelley wanted to explore what it feels like to be classed as a villain, when really you have a gentle heart that is considerably misunderstood. I think that because Mary Shelley had many fears and insecurities in her own life, including blaming herself for her inability to prevent her children’s deaths, it caused her to become concerned about the issues of creation which led to her writing Frankenstein. During this essay I will be writing about where my sympathy lies as a reader and also looking at the techniques Shelley uses to engage our attention as a reader and manipulate our sympathies. Throughout the novel Frankenstein’s role varies from being a victim to becoming a villain. Half of the time Frankenstein is a victim of the creature he so carelessly restored to life, because of his obsession with nature’s genetics. This obsession leads to his destruction but everything he love goes first, leaving him with nothing to fight for, only the desperate hope that someday his creature will die. At the beginning of chapter five Frankenstein portrays himself as a hero as he says â€Å"I beheld the accomplishment of my toils† and also † the wretch whom with such infinite pains and cares I had endeavoured to form†. This suggests that Frankenstein looked beyond the horror of what he was doing and found some sort of glory in his ability to create this monster. He was blinded by his ambition as a scientist and believed he had created a monster with such â€Å"beautiful features†. However when the creature finally â€Å"awoke† he suddenly realised the mistake he had made. He could not â€Å"describe his emotions as this catastrophe†. This is the point at which the reader too, becomes fully aware for the first time of what Frankenstein has really done in creating such a terrifying monster. Shelley uses a range of techniques to enforce a sense of terror in the opening of chapter five. Her first reference to the creature that Frankenstein is making is a â€Å"lifeless thing†. When we read on, we find out that not only is it a corpse, but also one in which the eyes are a â€Å"dull yellow† colour, its â€Å"yellow skin scarcely covering the work of muscles and arteries†, and its teeth a â€Å"pearly whiteness†. All these things add to the prolonged sense of catastrophe that Frankenstein’s life will turn out to be; what’s more it adds to the feeling of disgust and horror that the readers’ thoughts so rapidly turn to. The image of the candle being half extinguished represents Frankenstein’s life of peace drawing to an end. This is the very opposite of what Frankenstein was trying to achieve. When Shelley describes the process that Frankenstein has undergone to â€Å"infuse life into an inanimate body†, we are further horrified at the thought of bringing about something so terrible. Frankenstein had also deprived himself of his own health in order to create this monster. He has destroyed himself for the sake of his creation; this suggests that he has almost given his own life for the creation of his monster and leads us to question the consequences of such an action. Mary Shelley examines the consequences of creating a human frame without a soul or conscience. She suggests that as humans pursue science they may discover things about themselves that they do not like. When Frankenstein is asleep his creation comes to him in the night, terrifying him and forcing him to run from the house. Once outside he is â€Å"drenched by the rain which poured from the black and comfortless sky†. Here Shelley uses nature to create a sense of eeriness in her writing and build tension. This is nature’s punishment for Frankenstein because of his obsession to create a monster, destroying the laws of nature. The sky is described as â€Å"comfortless†, Frankenstein cannot expect to receive any comfort or solace from nature because of his destruction of the laws of nature and his blatant disregard of them. Nature therefore rejects him. During this chapter Shelley uses a poem by Colendge to show how Frankenstein feels. It states that he is on a â€Å"lonesome road† and walks in † fear and dread† because â€Å"he knows a frightful fiend doth close behind him tread†. It suggests that he has forced himself into a situation where he is alone and beyond the help of others because of his own actions. He stops outside an inn where he meets an old school friend â€Å"who on seeing him instantly sprung out†. This meeting is fate as the friend is then murdered, towards the end of the book, by the monster. Previously Frankenstein has repeatedly referred to the creature as a ‘miserable wretch’. He now goes further towards giving the creature an identity by claiming that he is his â€Å"enemy†. Part of Frankenstein’s rejection of his creature is that he does not even give it a name. Frankenstein is pushed to insanity by the fear of â€Å"his enemy†. He is so consumed by fear and despair that he even implies that his friend should not have nursed him back to health, but have let him die so that he could get away from the creature and the dreadful consequences of his birth. This is shown when Frankenstein says, â€Å"firm in the hope he felt of my recovery, he did not doubt that, instead of doing harm, he performed the kindest action that he could towards them†.

Economics Of The Movie Business Essay

In this section I provide a review of the movie business with an emphasis on how blind bidding evolved from the Golden Age of Hollywood in the 1930‘s and 1940‘s until its demise in the beginning of 1986. For many decades blind bidding was not a concern for theater owners, because it was not the dominant method by which films were licensed. During the Golden Age, block booking was the way a majority of films were licensed. With this method, high and low quality films were sold together in a bundle to theater owners, without an opportunity to trade screen them. The landmark United States vs. Paramount et al. decision by the Supreme Court in 1948 altered the motion picture distribution system. The five major movie companies that produced, distributed, and operated theaters as well as the three studios which did not own theaters were all found in violation of the Sherman Act for attempting to monopolize the industry. One of the major consequences of this decision was the elimination of block booking. After the Paramount decision, films were licensed by product splitting, open bidding, or blind bidding. Product splitting was when theater owners decided among themselves which one had the first opportunity to negotiate for a film with a movie studio in a given market. Open bidding referred to a situation in which theater owners had the opportunity to trade screen films before bidding. Blind bidding was used infrequently until the 1960‘s, which prompted a two-year agreement from January 1, 1969 to January 1, 1971 between the movie companies and the Department of Justice. This agreement limited 1 9 the number of films which could be blind bid to three per studio per year. The two-year agreement was renewed twice, which limited the practice through January 1, 1975. However, the Department of Justice revoked all restrictions limiting blind bidding after this date and the practice accelerated rapidly. Movie companies perceived blind bidding as a necessary way to finance blockbuster films, and it persisted for an eleven year period from 1975-1985. Chapter 2 LITERATURE REVIEW In this chapter, I will review the economic literature on blind bidding, exit, and natural experiments. The selected papers motivate my empirical model of the effects of blind bidding. Section 2. 1 discusses the blind bidding literature. Section 2. 2 surveys natural experiments testing the impact of a policy change. 2. 1 Blind Bidding In this section, I discuss two studies which arrive at different conclusions about the impact of the anti-blind bidding laws. Although neither study addresses explicitly the issues of exit, admission prices, and delays, the empirical findings are relevent. Blumenthal (1998) finds that average bids are lower for blind bid theater owners and as a result their returns are higher. However, since the returns of blind bid theater owners are more volatile, she concludes risk averse theater owners are worse off under blind bidding, legitimizing their efforts to pass anti-blind bidding laws. Forsythe, Isaac, and Palfrey (1989) model the behavior of n buyers and one seller in a sealed-bid, first-price auction. They conclude that the anti-blind bidding laws were unnecessary as buyers would learn that a seller withholds information when it is unfavorable. A seller would abandon blind bidding once all buyers learn that withholding information was in the seller‘s best interest and not theirs. I find that practices in the motion picture industry were not consistent with this prediction, because the movie companies trade screened unfavorable films and blind bid highly anticipated films. Blumenthal (1988) justifies theater owners‘ rationale to seek relief from blind bidding by showing that they experience lower utility in blind-bid environments than preview ones. The author uses generalized least squares to test three hypotheses about film bids or film returns for blind-bid and trade screen theaters using the rental terms of 18 films from a national theater chain in 1982. First, she hypothesizes that theater owners in blind-bid states submit lower bids, because in accordance with economic theory, bidders reduce their bids on average in an auction where there is uncertainty about the value of a product. Second, blind-bid theater owners place a greater emphasis on the limited information contained in a bid letter. Therefore, bid letter information will explain a larger percentage of the variance for bids in blind-bid theaters than trade screen ones. Third, mean returns are higher for blind-bid theaters, but they experience greater volatility than trade screen theaters. Depending on the hypothesis in question, the dependent variable is either film bids or film returns. 1 She includes film budget and saturation as predictor variables, since higher budgeted films and wider released films would be an indication of larger expected returns by the movie companies. Other independent variables include theater operating expenses, an indicator variable signifying theaters in blind bid states, and the number of movie theaters located within the metropolitan area. The Film returns are the box office revenue less the price paid for the film. blind bidding dummy variable was interacted with film budget and saturation to test the second hypothesis. The author finds theater owners submit lower average bids in blind bidding states than in trade screen ones. With regards to the second hypothesis, blindbid theater owners place a greater emphasis on bid letter information: for every million dollar increase in film cost, blind bid theater owners bid an additional $8,900 while trade screen ones bid an additional $5,100. Regarding the final hypothesis, Blumenthal models utility as a function of the mean and variance of film returns which measures the degree of risk aversion among theater owners. In terms of utility, risk averse theater owners are worse off, because higher revenues are accompanied by greater volatility. Theater owners are unable to reduce their bids enough to offset the extra volatility because of competitive forces. Using a laboratory experiment in several markets, Forsythe, Isaac, and Palfrey (1989) consider the anti-blind bidding laws unnecessary. They find an equilibrium where buyers learn to assume the worst about a seller‘s decision to blind bid items causing most items to no longer be blind bid. The game has a single seller versus n buyers, and the former must decide whether to reveal information about the item to all buyers. A seller reveals his information to buyers if the news is favorable, and does not if it is unfavorable. A seller obtains the highest bid if he reveals his information. The auctioned item has both a common value and private value component. After a seller decides whether to reveal their information, the item is auctioned in a sealed bid first price auction. Several possible Nash equilibria are considered in the game, but the authors focus on the ? assume the worst? solution, because all other outcomes cannot be obtained so long as the auction follows a sequential equilibrium. This type of equilibrium occurs when buyers make conjectures about a seller‘s motives when they adopt a strategy which is consistent with the seller‘s best interest. To obtain an ?assume the worst? solution, a seller continues to blind bid items as long as there is at least one unsophisticated buyer: a buyer who bids the average of all quality levels, rather than assumes the worst about no revealed information. With the passage of time, buyers learn that when a seller withholds information it is not in their interest, forcing sellers to reveal information for lower quality levels. Eventually, the market reaches a point where no items are blind bid. In five of the six blind-bid auctions, the average winning bid declines over time. Although blind bidding is not eliminated by the conclusion of the auctions, it is practiced less frequently and buyers dramatically lower their expectations for the value for the auctioned item. The authors conclude the anti-blind bidding laws are unnecessary, because with the passage of time, blind bidding would have been phased out completely. These two studies offer two important insights. Although Blumenthal (1988) concludes theater owners are worse off under blind bidding, she does not consider that theater owners can diversify the risk of films by converting to the multiplex theater. In this manner, theater owners can pool the risk of mediocre and blockbuster films rather than run the risk of exhibiting a single inferior film. Regarding Forsythe, Isaac and Palfrey (1989), if the movie companies did not reveal their information for blockbuster films, they were not obtaining the highest auction price. Since the movie companies must have acted in their own self-interest, I assume blind bidding provided some cost benefits which outweighed the decision to trade screen films. 2. 2 Natural Experiments In this section, I discuss three natural experiments which provide a reference for testing the effects of the anti-blind bidding laws on exit, admission prices, and delays. Natural experiments are often used to examine the effect of a policy change. A researcher examines two groups which have similar characteristics, one of which is exposed to a policy change while the other is not, and observes how the outcome differs between the two. Natural experiments are called quasi experiments, because the researcher has little or no control over the observed situation, which is in contrast to social experiments where researchers implement proper experimental design. Card and Krueger (1994), Milyo and Wardfogel (1999), and Bergen, Levy, Rubin and Zeliger (2004), conduct natural experiments assuming an exogenous change in a law. All three natural experiments assume the treatment effect is not correlated with the outcome variable and any uncontrolled independent variables correlated with it. Card and Krueger (1994) investigate the effect on employment of a 50 cent raise in the New Jersey minimum wage in the fast food industry. Milyo and Wardfogel (1999) examine the impact on prices of advertised and non-advertised items after a ban on liquor advertising is lifted in Rhode Island. The ban permitted retailers to charge higher prices which was considered especially helpful to small ? mom and pop‘ retailers that could not offer the price discounts of larger chains. Bergen et tal. (2004) investigate the net effects of item pricing laws for supermarkets which require that retailers label every item individually with a price tag to help ensure that consumers are not overcharged at the register. The three empirical studies conduct natural experiments in similar geographic regions. Card and Krueger (1994) compare the neighboring states of New Jersey and Pennsylvania. The authors use descriptive statistics from their data to argue that wages, prices, and employment measures are similar. For example, the mean starting wage for New Jersey and Pennsylvania is $4. 61 and $4. 63, respectively, before New Jersey‘s increase in the minimum wage. Bergen et tal. (2004) target a narrow tri-state region of Clifton, New Jersey, Tarrytown, New York, and Greenwich, Connecticut to study the impact of item pricing laws. Close geographic proximity is one factor for the selected towns as the greatest distance that separates the towns is only approximately 50 miles. In addition, these towns have similar population size, population densities, and access to quality public schools. Milyo and Wardforgel (1999) follow a similar strategy to Bergen et tal. (2004) by comparing adjacent states but narrowing their focus to three areas: Southern Rhode Island, Northwest Boston suburbs, and the Rhode Island and Massachusetts border. In addition, the three studies utilize multiple control groups which provide the benefit of observing how sensitive the results are to different controls. Card and Krueger (1994) compare full-time-equivalent employment (FTE) for New Jersey and Pennsylvania, but also compare FTE in New Jersey fast food stores which already paid at least the new minimum wage to those in New Jersey that paid under the new minimum. Milyo and Wardforgel (1999) compare retail prices in Rhode Island with those from Massachusetts, but also use Rhode Island wholesale prices as a second control. Bergen et tal. (2004) compare prices in New Jersey with two controls New York and Connecticut both of which have item pricing laws. However, Connecticut exempted stores from the law which installed the electronic shelf label system because it ensured that the price at the shelf was the same as the price at the register. Therefore, the authors used Connecticut stores to observe how prices differed among non item pricing law stores and those which used the electronic shelf system. I adopt the idea of multiple control groups when I examine the exit of theater owners. The Card and Krueger (1994) study has additional significance to my study because they use the difference-in-differences estimator, and I adopt this method for the analysis of admission prices. The primary benefit of this method is that the researcher is able to cancel out other industry factors which are common to the treatment and control group through second differencing. Therefore, the difference-in-differences measures the impact on the outcome solely from the policy change. These empirical studies provided some important insights on how to conduct my natural experiment on the anti-blind bidding laws. When selecting treatment and control groups, it is important to select homogenous regions so that there is a believable rationale that the control group will behave like the treatment group. Use of multiple control groups is encouraged in natural experiments to test the robustness of the results. In addition, I follow the method of Card and Krueger (1994) and use the difference-in-differences estimator to examine admission prices. Chapter 3 ADMISSION PRICES In this paper, I investigate the claims made by theater owners and movie companies about the impact of the anti-blind bidding laws on admission prices. I examine the impact of the strictest laws of Ohio and Pennsylvania, which eliminated blind bidding and placed severe restrictions on guarantees. I selected these states, because they present the strongest case for the laws having an impact according to theater owners‘ claims. I compare average admission prices in these states before and after the passage of the law with prices in two states that never had such a law. For Ohio, I compare average prices in Cleveland with those in Detroit. For Pennsylvania, I compare average prices from Philadelphia and Pittsburgh with those of Detroit. 1 Using the difference-in-differences estimator, I find some evidence that the laws raised admission prices. Theater owners argued that admission prices were higher under blind bidding, because they had to increase their prices to cover losses incurred from inferior films and to compensate for the guarantees they paid. According to theater owners, the anti-blind bidding laws would eliminate the burden of blind bidding, and in some states also guarantees, so that lower prices would follow. Movie companies claimed initially considered comparing average Philadelphia and Pittsburgh prices with those in Manhattan. I decided against using New York City as a control because prices were consistently higher there than in any other market because of the high cost of living in the area. The laws would have the opposite effect for two reasons. Theater owners would identify blockbuster films after viewing the preview, and a bidding war would ensue. Since film rentals were bid higher, this cost would be passed along to moviegoers. In addition, movie companies claimed that the anti-blind bidding laws would cause delays in the release of films, and this cost would be passed on to consumers. 3. 1 Model I consider the claims of theater owners and movie companies about admission prices to be invalid because of what is universally accepted in economics about the demand for factor inputs. The demand for a factor input (e. g. labor or capital) is a derived demand in that demand for the factor and its price is contingent upon the demand for the final product. For example, the demand for movie stars depends not only on their current salaries, but also the total tickets sold. Movie stars would be unable to command high salaries if there is not an overwhelming demand for motion pictures. Therefore, prices charged at movie theaters, an input, are determined by demand. On the other hand, admission prices are likely to differ across cities due to costs outside the control of the industry. For example, theater owners in New York City had higher rent or mortgage payments than those in Atlanta, Georgia because of the relatively high cost of land. Another factor that varied regionally was the price of labor. Theater owners facing higher minimum wages had greater variable costs than those in states with lower minimums. I expect the anti-blind bidding laws to influence admission prices if they impacted marginal costs, or if they restrict the supply of films. Although the laws did not affect theater owners‘ marginal costs, they may have impacted the movie companies‘. Additional expenses were incurred because sales prints had to be specially made for the purposes of trade screening. This cost was not present in blind bidding states. 3. 2 Data and Methods I obtained the data from Variety, which reported theaters from 15 cities on a weekly basis. Variety sampled most cities once a month with about 10 to 20 theaters per sample. The same theaters were generally sampled, but over longer periods of time, the sample changed as some exited the marketplace. I sampled each city quarterly. On occasion, Variety reported theaters which charged one dollar for admission. These observations were dropped from the data set, since they were second-run movie houses. Table 5. 1 shows the descriptive statistics for the data. Any city sampled was a representation of the metropolitan area. Therefore, the sample contained some downtown theaters as well as many suburban theaters. For example, Detroit included downtown theaters such as the Adams, Fox, and Renaissance, and theaters such as the Dearborn, Americana West, and Macomb Mall from surrounding areas of Wayne, Oakland, and Macomb counties. During the first year that the ant-blind bidding laws were in effect, it is not clear which films were blind bid. This is because theater owners bid on films six months to one year in advance of the release date. For example, Ohio enacted the law in October 1978, but theater owners may have been bidding for films to be released in ___________________________________________________________________________ 2 According to Barry Reardon, distributional president at Warner Brothers, the additional expense to trade screen amounted to approximately $50,000 per film in Jim Robbins, ? Distribs Adapt to AntiBlind Bid Laws? , Variety, July 3, 1985, 80. 3 A sales print is a reel of film with the movie preview. April 1979 or as far away as October 1979. The Pennsylvania law became effective in May 1980. At that date, theater owners would bid on films for November 1980 up to May 1981. I address the lagged effect of an anti-blind bidding law on films by examining average admission prices using two different treatment and control groups: 1) two years before and after a law, and 2) three years before and after a law. Table 3. 1 provides the descriptive statistics for these variables. For the Ohio law, I calculate average prices in 1976 and 1977 (pre-treatment group) and average prices in 1979 and 1980 (post-treatment group). This measures the immediate effect of the law even though some of the admission prices in 1979 will be for films which were not trade screened. For three years before and after the law, I use average prices in 1975 and 1976 compared with those in 1980 and 1981. In this case, all films in the posttreatment group were trade screened. For the Pennsylvania law, I use the same procedure for selecting the pre and post-treatment groups. I consider the passage of the Ohio and Pennsylvania laws a natural experiment, and I proceed to measure the impact of a law by using the difference-indifferences estimator defined as the change in the population means from the treatment group less the change in population means from the control group. This method has an advantage over comparing the means of the treatment and control group after the laws because the latter assumes the treatment and control groups are identical in every way except for the law. The difference-in-differences estimator makes the weaker assumption that regardless of the overall factors affecting admission prices, they affected the treatment and control groups in the same way. In order to understand the meaning of the difference-in-differences estimator, consider the interpretation of first differences between the treatment and control. The change in price in the control group informs us how prices would have behaved in the treatment group if the law was not implemented. The change in price in the treatment group tells us how the average price behaved given the enactment of the law. By taking second differences, I obtain the difference-in-differences estimator which measures the effect of the law by taking the difference in what happened with average prices compared with what would have happened to them. 3. 3 Cleveland and Detroit Figure 5. 1 displays average admission prices for Cleveland and Detroit from 1975-1981. Detroit‘s average prices remain consistently above Cleveland‘s by approximately 59 cents throughout the observed period. I examine average admission prices over time to see if the assumption that overall factors that affect them are the same for both treatment and control groups. Unobserved factors are more likely to be different if the trend in prices diverges before the treatment effect. Average admission prices for Cleveland and Detroit remain relatively steady before the implementation of the law implying the assumption of a common trend appears valid. The results for the difference-in-differences estimator are shown in Table 3. 2. Comparing average prices two years before and after the law, I find Detroit‘s prices increase by seven cents and Cleveland‘s rise by 16 cents. The seven cent increase in average prices represents how Cleveland prices would have behaved in the absence of the anti-blind bidding law. After taking second differences, I find that the Ohio law significantly increases Cleveland‘s average prices by nine cents. Examining admission prices three years before and after the law does not produce the same conclusion. Cleveland‘s and Detroit‘s average prices increase by 20 and 21 cents, respectively. The difference-in-differences estimator shows that Cleveland‘s average prices are significantly lower by one cent. 3. 4 Philadelphia, Pittsburgh and Detroit Figure 5. 2 shows average prices in Philadelphia and Pittsburgh versus those in Detroit from 1977-1983. For the first two years, prices are nearly identical. In 1979 and 1980, the difference in average prices remains relatively steady at 10 and 15 cents, respectively. Beyond 1980, the difference in average prices increases, ranging from 36 to 41 cents. The assumption that factors have a common trend appears satisfied because the difference in average prices maintains itself in 1979 and 1980. The first and second differences for average admission prices are shown in Table 5. 3. Comparing average prices two years before and after the Pennsylvania law, I find Philadelphia‘s and Pittsburgh‘s average prices rise by 43 cents while Detroit‘s increases by 11 cents. Detroit‘s prices are assumed to be behaving like Philadelphia‘s and Pittsburgh‘s if Pennsylvania had never passed an anti-blind bidding law. The difference-in-differences estimator shows that the law results in a statistically significant 32 cent increase in admission prices. Comparing three years before and after the law produces a similar result, the law causes higher average admission prices for Philadelphia and Pittsburgh by 53 cents. 3. 5 Conclusion I examine the impact of the Ohio and Pennsylvania anti-blind bidding laws on admission prices and I find higher admission prices in Cleveland, Philadelphia, and Pittsburgh in three of the four difference-in-differences estimators. The impact of the Pennsylvania law is more robust than the Ohio law because in one case, average admission prices decline by one cent. A potential explanation for higher average admission prices is that the movie companies‘ marginal costs increased in anti-blind bidding states, because sales prints had to be produced exclusively for trade screening films.

Though Melville’s Moby Dick

Though Melville’s â€Å"Moby Dick† has been amply explicated as an allegorical novel engaged in metaphysical and philosophical themes, the richness and density of Melville’s narrative scope in Moby Dick demands close scrutiny, not only for its forthright allegorical connotations, but also for its arcane and esoteric connotations, which provide a variety of meta-fictional comments and divulgences regarding the novel’s radically experimental narrative form.  Ã‚   â€Å"As almost anyone who has ever looked closely into Melville's novel knows, Moby-Dick is an incredibly rich and complex work with as intricate a set of symbols, image patterns, and motifs as is to be found in a work of literature anywhere in the world.† (Sten 5) Particularly peculiar to many readers of â€Å"Moby Dick† are the generous discourses on cetology and whaling included in the novel. â€Å"An abrupt change of direction in Moby-Dick takes place at the thirty-second chapter. From the sharp, swift description of New Bedford and Nantucket and from the narrative speed of the adventures of the seaport, we move suddenly into bibliographical considerations of a pseudo-scholarly nature.† (Vincent 121) Though the cetological references in â€Å"Moby Dick† may, at first appear to be naggingly incongruous with the hitherto established adventure-tragedy, as we will see in the following discussion, the narrative form and structure of â€Å"Moby Dick† is, in fact, can be shown to comprise a literary facsimile of the cetological science as Melville understood it in his time-period. While it would be misleadingly simple to describe the narrative form of â€Å"Moby Dick† as â€Å"a whale,† this description, with slight modification, can be justified by a close reading of the novel and by an inquiry into the compositional ideas and influences that inspired Melville during the novel’s composition.   The aforementioned modification is this: that the narrative form of â€Å"Moby Dick† is constructed to evoke the anatomical composition of cetaceans insofar as the Moby Dick â€Å"Great White Whale† comprises the central allegorical symbol in the novel, and, therefore, also symbolizes the creative urge of the artist from initial inspiration to final completion: â€Å"the extracts are the epic material–â€Å"fragmentary, scattered, loosely related, sometimes contradictory†Ã¢â‚¬â€œout of which Melville's epic poetry was made.   (Sten 4) It is essential that â€Å"Moby Dick† be regarded as possessing a solid, harmonious structure, despite the initial oddness and experimentalism of its surface level appearance. Nowhere is there â€Å"waste in Moby-Dick; every concrete detail serves a double and triple purpose[†¦] No detail is unleavened[†¦]   even such a chapter as â€Å"The Specksynder,† at first seemingly irrelevant, contributes to the designed effect of the whole novel. (Vincent 125) To understand the utter necessity of Melville’s inclusion of detailed cetological material in â€Å"Moby Dick† it is useful to appraise some of the immediate influences on his thought and artistic philosophy during the time of the novel’s initial composition and extensive revisions. As is well known, two of the most profound influences on Melville during the composition of â€Å"Moby Dick† were William Shakespeare and Nathaniel Hawthorne. Despite the gulf of centuries between these two writers, both were recent discoveries for Melville at the time of his writing â€Å"Moby Dick.† Foremost among Melville’s appreciations for each of these writers was his conviction that each of them had accomplished a confrontation with endemic evil in their works. â€Å"To understand the power of blackness at work in Melville's imagination, we need to note that even while he was composing Moby-Dick, this omnivorous reader, the novelist, was discovering the plays of Shakespeare, especially King Lear, {†¦} and the allegorical fiction of Nathaniel Hawthorne. (Tuttleton) Shakespeare’s influence on Melville exerts itself in the inclusion of actual playscript in the course of the novel, frequent asides and soliloquies, and most profoundly, on the tragic scope and figure of Captain Ahab. Hawthorne’s influence claims a much stronger relationship to the novel’s symbolic and allegorical structures. In fact, Hawthorne’s own pioneering allegorical techniques may have provided the single most influential power on Melville’s conception of â€Å"Moby Dick.† If Hawthorne had shown Melville that â€Å"one American was expressively aware of the evil at the core of life,: he had also provided a narrative strategy suitable for Melville’s own literary confrontation with evil, â€Å"a perception toward which Melville had been groping for seven years of authorship and of self-scrutiny, but which he had not completely realized nor dared to disclose.† (Vincent 37) This narrative strategy relied most heavily on Hawthorne’s allegorical techniques. By investing traditional elements of storytelling with deeper, more symbolically complex meanings, Hawthorne achieved an idiom which is both moralistic and confessional in nature. An example of Hawthorne’s allegorical technique is his novel â€Å"The Scarlet Letter.† In this novel, a struggle between spiritual faith and evil temptation comprises a central theme.† This struggle is represented allegorically in the story by a careful employment of symbolism, character development, and plotting. Lacking an established literary idiom which was wide enough to directly confront the duality of his own ambiguous feelings toward Puritanism and human morality, Hawthorne developed an intricate set of symbols and allegorical references   simultaneously conceal and explicate the confessional elements of the story. Individual objects, characters, and elements of the story thus function in â€Å"dual† roles, providing, so to speak, overt and covert information. In constructing a self-sustaining iconography within the confines of a short story, Hawthorne was obliged to lean somewhat on the commonly accepted symbolism of certain objects, places, and characteristics. The allegorical method, by articulating thematic ideas which challenge â€Å"cut and dried† explanations of such profound realities as faith, morality, innocence, and the nature of good and evil, allowed Hawthorne to delve into issues of the utmost personal profundity, but to express them within a language and symbolic structure that anyone could understand. By reaching through his own personal doubt, guilt, and religious ambivalence to find expression for the irony and injustice of Puritanical dogma, Hawthorne was able to embrace ambiguity, rather than stolid religious fervor, as a moral and spiritual reality. By using the symbolic resonances of everyday objects, places, and people in his fiction, Hawthorne was able to show the duality – the good and evil – in a ll things, and in all people, thus reconciling the sheer division of good and evil as represented by the edicts of his (and America’s) Puritanical heritage. Melville’s admiration for Hawthorne’s successful development of a narrative form capable of expressing profound spiritual and philosophical themes of inspired him to elevate the first draft of his whaling adventure story, which hitherto had closely resembled his popular â€Å"travelogue† writings, such as â€Å"Typee.†Ã‚   Moby-Dick took six years to complete. â€Å" It was not until a signally successful reputation had been established that Melville was ready, as he put it, to â€Å"turn blubber into poetry.† (Vincent 15) What Melville intended was to craft his erstwhile adventure story, along with his comprehensive notes and observations and researches into cetology and whaling into an allegorical novel on par with what he esteemed Hawthorne to have done in his own novels and short stories. Upon completion of â€Å"Moby Dick† Melville made his artistic debt to Hawthorne quite clear. â€Å"The godfather of Moby-Dick was guaranteed additional fame when Melville gratefully dedicated his whaling epic to Hawthorne â€Å"In Token of my Admiration for his Genius.†Ã¢â‚¬  (Vincent 39) Melville’s most obvious gesture toward Hawthorne-inspired allegory is, of course, the development of Moby Dick himself: the whale as the pervading, all-important and central symbol of the novel. This central symbol connects deeply with the archetypal symbolism of the ocean, representing form emerging from watery chaos or the primeval unconscious: â€Å"In Moby-Dick this inner realm is of course represented by the sea, a universal image of the unconscious, where all the monsters and helping figures of childhood are to be found, along with the many talents and other powers that lie dormant within every adult. Chief among these, in Ishmael's case, is the complicated image of the Whale itself, which is all these things and more and also serves as the â€Å"herald† that calls him to his adventure. (Sten 7) Regarded in this light, the cetological details of â€Å"Moby Dick† acquire an additional power and connotative dimensions, as the initial â€Å"call to adventure† and the primary form which rises from the sea of the unconscious, the whale symbol stands not only for the complex physical universe (form) but also as the explicative symbol for the narrative construction of the novel itself. â€Å" The cetological center recognizes the truth of Thoreau's dictum: â€Å"we are enabled to apprehend at all what is sublime and noble only by the perpetual instilling and drenching of the reality that surrounds us.† [†¦] The cetological center of Moby-Dick is the keel to Melville's  artistic craft.† (Vincent 122)  Ã‚   Even as technical descriptions of the whale’s anatomies are given in the novel, the non-scientific, anecdotal experiences of whales at sea as narrated by Ishmael, forward the marriage of whale-symbolism to the novel’s narrative form. Upon his discourse of the â€Å"spirit-spout,† Ishmael remarks: â€Å"advancing still further and further in our van, this solitary jet seemed forever alluring us on.† This relates to the lure of inspiration, of the need for self-expression, for the first intimations of the ensuing artistic expression. The signal-spout of inspiration leads the artist (writer) toward his form. But it is first, formless: simply a haze of imaginative impulse and intuition: a signal on the horizon.   Ishmael further notes that â€Å"that unnearable spout was cast by one self-same whale, and that whale, Moby Dick.† This latter connotation indicates that inspiration flows form the eventual harmonious conclusion; that is urge and objective are one, but that the objective form is also merged tightly with theme. As Ishmael gains a closer, more intimate apprehension of whales, the development of his character and spiritual insight are correspondingly elevated. The more detailed are the cetological experiences and catalogues, the more wholly expressive and self-possessed and sure becomes Ishmael. â€Å"Moby-Dick is, among other things, an encyclopedia of cetological lore having to do with every aspect of the whale–the scientific, zoological, oceanographic, mythic, and philological. And it recounts Ishmael's slow recovery from melancholia{†¦} These thematic elements are interspersed with chapters detailing Captain Ahab's pursuit of the white whale† (Tuttleton). Still deeper correspondences between the cetological material and Melville’s narrative form are established in Ishmael’s descriptions of the whales â€Å"blubber† and â€Å"skin† which he posits as being indistinguishable. This is reflected in the narrative structure of â€Å"Moby Dick† where it is equally as difficult to apprehend where the â€Å"skin† (overt theme and storyline) of the novel ends and the â€Å"blubber† (cetological and whaling discourses and catalogues) begin. Melville makes it perfectly clear that the â€Å"blubber† is an as indispensable part of his novel as it is for the whale’s body. â€Å"For the whale is indeed wrapt up in his blubber as in a real blanket or counterpane; or, still better, an Indian poncho slipt over his head;†therefore, too, is the expository material, the â€Å"blubber† of the novel wrapped around its central, allegorical aspects. The realism of the cetological details in â€Å"Moby Dick† is impressive. Many critics account it as a reliable source as any known from Melville’s time-period on cetology or whaling. This realism provides a concrete grounding for the novel’s adventure and theatrical demonstrations, as well as for the highly concentrated symbolism that forwards Melville’s powerful themes. Again, like a whale, Melville’s narrative form is massive and sprawling, but capable of dynamic flow and incredible speed. Seen in this regard, the cetological materials are not only deeply necessary to give the novel â€Å"ballast;† they also provide for its eventual â€Å"sounding† or ability to probe great depth of theme and profundity. The detailed cetological aspects of â€Å"Moby Dick† may, indeed, prevent the reader from an easy, and immediate grasp of the novel’s â€Å"meaning† or even its astounding climax. Just as the whale’s hump is believed by Ishmael to conceal the whale’s â€Å"true brain† while the more easily accessed â€Å"brain† know to whalers is merely a know of nerves, the secret â€Å"core† of â€Å"Moby Dick† can only be pursued with patience and close, deep â€Å"cutting†due to the organic and harmonious nature of its narrative form. By keeping in mind the previously discussed aspects of the relationship between â€Å"Moby Dick’s† comprehensive cetological materials and their symbolic relationship to the novel itself, its form and themes, Ishmael, while discoursing on the  desirability of whale meat as fit food for humans, offers an ironic gesture toward the novel’s probable audiences. â€Å"But what further depreciates the whale as a civilized dish, is his exceeding richness. He is the great prize ox of the sea, too fat to be delicately good.† The radically experimental form of â€Å"Moby Dick† is a successful form which owes a debt to its conception to the allegorical techniques of Nathaniel Hawthorne. By building on Hawthorne’s idiom, Melville achieved a rigorously complex, but exactly realized idiom, one which still challenges the sensibilities and sensitivities of readers and critics to this day. Works Cited Sten, Christopher. Sounding the Whale: Moby-Dick as Epic Novel. Kent, OH: Kent State University Press, 1996. Tuttleton, James W. â€Å"The Character of Captain Ahab in Melville's ‘Moby Dick.'.† World and I Feb. 1998: 290+. Vincent, Howard P. The Trying-Out of Moby-Dick. Boston: Houghton, Mifflin, 1949.         

I must write a after action review (AAR) based off my deployment to Essay

I must write a after action review (AAR) based off my deployment to Afghanistan - Essay Example It therefore exposed me to various aspects of combat missions and on strategic management of operations while on such deployment missions. Among the main areas that the deployment gave me an exposure in are together with the concept of acquisition, concept of command and control, MTOE (modified table of organization and equipment) as well as on power efforts within Afghanistan. Besides, I learned a lot on the responsibilities and the main competences that an acquisition officer within such missions is expected to have in order to realize effectiveness in the entire operations. First, I must admit that the tour served a great learning experience especially in practice of what military science class had taught me. For instance, unlike what theory supposes, that current field operations influence much the concept of acquisition, the tour taught me that the concept of acquisition is and should be centered on the old (tradition) garrison operations. Concerning the command controls, it is worth noting that as much as a command coronel has the power to command the teams he/she leads, other vested interests in pleasing the project managers and the superiors end up confusing and hence effectiveness is compromised on such missions. This could not be well phrased while in the class context but when one is given such a responsibility in the field as I had, I managed to have the practical aspect in the command and control within military science. Moreover, the field experience showed me that the MTOE does not necessarily support the war that the fighters need. It was also through this trip that I understood that redundant operational energy power efforts within Afghanistan could be blamed on the multiple power providing organizations that were in operation within the country. Among most other things learnt from the places visited and over the tasks assigned were on strategic planning, roles assignment and responding to emergencies whenever need arises. When I went out for

I'll attach it Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words - 1

I'll attach it - Essay Example watched carefully, for instance, Windows Internet Control Board, subcontracted Mac service called internet configuration, as well as MacOSs Configuration Manager (McCandlish). While browsing, one must not go for searching their private information, such as username, address, and other sensitive information like social security number and credit card number. Such searches provide a way to access the user’s doorway. And thus, the hackers can easily attack, and users face the issues like identity theft as well as other phishing problems (Eckersley, Schoen and Bankston). As the ISP has the information regarding the user’s identity, so it can connect this information with the user’s searches or also it can bundle up all the user’s searches within a solo search history. One must be careful or must not use URL like http://search.comcast.net, when the user have the subscription from Comcast Broadband. In the same way, if the user is AOL subscriber, then it should avoid using the search icon within the AOL client software or URL http://search.aol.com (Eckersley, Schoen and Bankston). Usually, the search engines provide the user with option to form a private account and go for searching. However, it also happens that these search engines are linked to further services, which creates a situation where the user either login to search engine or any linked service, then these services are associated to one another or all in all, to the private account of the user. Examples of such affiliations include the association of MSN with the MSN messenger and Hotmail, Google with Google Chat and Gmail, as well as A9 links with Amazon. Thus, if the users are using the services like Hotmail or Gmail, then they must not use their linking search engines, for example, using a Hotmail account, the user should search from MSN, particularly when they are using that account (Eckersley, Schoen and Bankston; McCandlish). Additionally, there are some small pieces of information named

Project Management, Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Project Management, - Essay Example The involvement of the other tenderer that would assist to reduce the gap between the tender and the budget by offering a better solution out of experience from working with different types of tendering items. The tenderer can give directions of acquiring cheaper tools. At the same time, the tenderer can promise to offer a cheaper tender for the same contract. If there is a significant discrepancy noted between the new tenderer and the other tenders, adjustments should therefore be made to seek convenience in the contract. A notification of the tenders- This is to inform you that the scope of the tender has experienced some alterations. According to the budget issued by the principle of the contract, we comprehended that the tenders exceed the budget. Due to lack of enough funds to pay for the project, the project directors have called for the adjustments on the costs of the tender. In that response, I as the contractor, through the guidance of an electrical engineer, have decided to change the scope of the tender so as to reduce the amount of expenditure. The standing mixers in our water plant can be fitted with renovated electrical motors. This would assist the company to achieve some net saving. Legal bases that support this idea can be; according to the distinctions given in section nine, the quality of the materials of work can be changed relatively by the electrical engineer. Any advice given to the contractor by his adviser is adjustable and therefore the contractor has the right to change the scope of the tender. The adviser can change the order or direction in which the work is to be carried out (Engineering and construction, 2004, pg. 34). The specific recommended client can be informed through a notification letter which would provide the strategy arrived ay the contractor and their advisor. A notification to the client would read; After evaluating the three available tenders, PPK Ltd is placed forward with much recommendation. The tender is three hu ndred and sixty five dollars plus GST and comprises twenty tags. Upon the PPK recommendation; the tender has more tags that are accepted without any issue. It consists of the large number of tags yet there does not exist in a large difference in cost between PPK and LMN. ZXK Ltd. is the cheapest tender but has the lowest number of tags. Although the PPK tender is the best for this contract, it would require the highest amount of money. We can make much investment on the PPK so that we can get the best service that would meet our expectations. A notification letter to the tenderer. Kindly note that you, LMN and PPK Ltd, has been selected to perform the contract offered by our company. With respect to the featured information in the tender description, the company considered the PPK tender due to its reasonable number of tags provided in the description. With this response, the company wishes to invite you to a pre-contract meeting, which is programmed for date fourteen of this month. The company shall not violate the available rights of protection towards your tender. The pre-contract meeting shall discuss matters concerning cost, any payments and the reduction in scope of this tender. You will also be expected to provide a specific date for the start of your contract. Letter to LMN The XYZ company has accepted the revised tender amount with the revised contract period. In addition, the company holds much

International accounting standards Research Paper

International accounting standards - Research Paper Example The purpose of this paper is to try and understand the implications the prevalent global financial crisis will have on the organizations that are placed in order to determine the accounting standards for firms to follow Now,in the U.S.,the applicable regulations are Generally Accepted Accounting Principles,while in Europe they are the International Financial Reporting Standards. However, we will be focusing more on the International Financial Reporting Standards in Europe which are surveyed and controlled by the International Accounting Standards Board; if nothing but merely due to a lack of space. Now, our strategy in dealing with this topic is going to be as follows: the inner workings of the global financial crisis and what it has become in the present will be critically analyzed as quite frankly, that lies outside the bounds of this topic. Rather, we will pick out some International Accounting Standards that are currently in place and actively applied throughout the world. We wil l then try to analyze whether a change needs to be made to these standards in order to make them more holistic with regards to the contemporary global financial landscape. [1]For the purpose of this paper, we have chosen International Accounting Standard 1 and 24. Now the reason for choosing these standards is very simple: the first international accounting standard is related to the proper documentation of the financial statements and their proper release to the public. This has been a major talking point during the recent global financial crisis i.e. firms have been alleged by all quarters to have misread and subsequently withheld important information from their investors which led to the escalation of a minute problem; which was the sub-prime mortgage crisis into this global financial crisis. [2] The other International Accounting Standard that we have chosen for our paper is IAS 24 which basically concerns the related party transactions. The choice of this specific standard had been geared by consistent notions running around the financial markets that organizations have used their related ventures of key partners in bailing out an firms which have been in financial distress as part of a setup which may not be wrong according to the letter of the law but is certainly ethically immoral and perhaps socially not optimal; given that such transactions of bailout have occurred. Based on our analysis of these two standards, we will try to rationalize a hypothesis for the question that has been posed to us at the start of the paper. [3] International Accounting Standard 1: The main purpose of the International Accounting Standard 1 is to formulate a sort of best practice for the manner in which financial statements of different companies are prepared for final presentation. This is largely in order to ascertain the seamless comparison vis--vis the financial statements of the organization that have been produced in the preceding years and with the financial statements of other organizations. To achieve this goal, this standard demarcates a holistic set of prerequisites with regards to the presentation of financial statements, principles governing their configuration and the least necessities that have to be present in the reports vis--vis their specific subject matter. A complete set of financials must include a Balance Sheet, an Income Statement, a Statement of changes in Owner's Equity demonstrating all the changes in the equity or changes in equity beside those transactions which have been conducted by equity holders whilst they used their position a s equity holders, a Cash Flow Statement and a Notes for Guidance [4] In addition to this, the standard is also very clear on the other issues with regards to the presentation of the financial statements in that these statements must be unmistakably demarcated and

Collaboration Technologies Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Collaboration Technologies - Essay Example Groupware minimises interference by technology while maximising interaction among several persons. Laudon and Laudon (2007, p. 287) indicates that groupware provides the required capabilities for collaborative work and communication across an enterprise of between persons and groups. It is used to write and comment on group projects, share important ideas and documents, conducting meetings electronically, tracking projects, scheduling activities and sending e-mails. WordiQ,com (2010) indicates that there are three levels of collaboration and by so doing makes collaboration technologies synonymous with groupware. The three levels of groupware which are dependent on the level of collaboration are communication tools, conferencing tools and collaborative management tools. Electronic communication tools transmit messages, files, data and documents between persons in order to facilitate information sharing. These tools include: email, web publishing and voice mail. Electronic conferencing tools facilitate interaction between persons in the transmission of information. These tools include video conferencing systems, voice conferencing, video conferencing, discussion forums, chat rooms and electronic meeting systems. Collaborative management tools both facilitate as well as manage group activities. They include project management systems workflow systems, electronic calendars and knowledge management systems.

Role of Social Media in Public Relation Development Essay - 2

Role of Social Media in Public Relation Development - Essay Example The growth of social networking sites and an increasing population of internet users around the globe have made a significant impact on PR sectors. Advanced Desktop Publishing (DTP) is one such development in this sector which has immensely helped in spreading information in an attractive manner without spending much time of reader’s (Sriramesh & Versis, n.d.). Advanced DTP is a tool which makes it possible to create newsletters, reports and even books with the help of a personal computer and proper software. The basic idea of DTP is to publish attractive and unambiguous documentation of particular information so that any user can be conversant of the article with ease. I strongly believe that it is an effective way of spreading information within a short period of time (Wang, n.d.). Correspondingly, the main advantages of adopting advanced DTP by any organization in its PR strategies can be illustrated as cost and efficiency. In my point of view, one of the potential advantag es of advanced DTP can be associated with a limited requirement of experts to perform the task. The use of advanced DTP can be performed by any individual having minimum knowledge of computer applications. Consequently, it saves significant cost by minimizing the need for assistance from professionals in involving information communication technology as a tool for PR (Wang, n.d.). Similarly, another benefit of advanced DTP can be attributed to the time factor. In this context, it can be postulated that instead of spending time on having a correction with the outside printer, with the use of advanced DTP the documents can be previewed resulting in minimized wastage of resources as well as time efficiency to communicate the intended message (Wang, n.d.). The new forms of media have undoubtedly turned out to be vital aspects for any organization in spreading messages or communicating with the general public through effective PR strategies. Apparently, as per my understanding, the relat ion between the PR industry and the news media is continually strengthening. The development of modern information and communication technology has changed many of the dynamics between PR and traditional way of communicating with publics (Larsson, 2009). I firmly admit that the development of information and communication technology has benefited the PR industry to a great extent. Development in sectors like a database, DTP, and e-mail technologies have provided ease to PR department by making the communication process much faster and more effective than the past. Apparently, PR, as an industry, has become much important than it was in the traditional era. Today, the increase in the media sector is generally seen through the PR industry. It can be said that a decade ago, the media was less dependent on the PR industry as there were only a few newspapers, television channels and few occasional magazines to be published. However, the condition today has dramatically changed over the y ears. Consequently, the need of PR has increased to a great extent where technology has become one of the many considerable factors that have significantly facilitated the PR industry to rapidly grow in the 21st century (Trotman Publishing, 2001). The knowledge of advanced DTP is considered as one of the most important aspects for a PR publisher.  

MediaSpark Case Study Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

MediaSpark - Case Study Example The estimated target market left the company with no choice, but to choose America and Canada due to the large number of elementary schools. The major problem on the marketing strategy to be used in selling and distributing the product was the main concern. Georghiou felt that it was going to be difficult to convince the educators about the product without trial; they needed to see and try the product before making decisions. The market price of the product was; however, going to vary depending on the country and the user. Further to this, they identified various distribution channels that would handle the distribution and advertising duties (Lionais et al. 24). Although the product sell was successful, the solutions came with various advantages and disadvantages. The use of educational catalogue enabled selling several products to the educational institutions through online catalogues and publications; however, they would not sell Go Venture Entrepreneur in North America through any other channel because he had reached the teachers he had wished to reach. The use of software distribution as an indirect distribution channel was going to give the product a high profile than the text books and catalogues; however, the software distribution channel was highly fragmented with no companies operating in both the U.S. and Canada market. The choice of MarkED was disadvantaged because it lacked a sales force that would complement the catalogue. Furthermore, Georghiou was not sure if it was going to reach the teachers. On the other hand, IBM was technology-based and was already making distributions to schools (Lionais et al. 26). They then made an ag reement on a distribution that would last two years. He also had the choice of using an in-house distribution channel. He was going to hire sales representatives in the two countries to conduct sales, email campaigns, CD demos, public speaking, direct mails, seminars, and catalogue sales. Here, he would make a much

Leadership 1 Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Leadership 1 - Assignment Example This paper compares and contrasts these two leadership models. In addition, this paper also explicates under what conditions these theories would be utilized, what is important about them, and how they would be significant to the nursing profession. In defining leadership, Couig (2012) elucidates the four elements that make up leadership. Firstly, there must be a procedure or course of action between a leader and his or her adherents. Secondly, the leader must have authority or control over the adherents. Thirdly, leadership must occur in a group set-up with a universal target, and fourthly, projected objectives must be achieved. Leadership theories are based on these elements. Situational leadership theory was coined in by Hersey and Blanchard in the 1970s and was originally referred to as life-cycle theory. At first Ledlow and Coppola (2010. p. 73) notes that "Hersey and Blanchard identified four possible styles of leadership: telling, selling, participating, and delegating". Telling involves giving instructions to the followers on how to behave and conduct their activities; selling denotes giving directions while at the same time encouraging followers; participating involve crating connections or affiliations; and delegating involve allocating specific roles to followers but at the same time offer supervision (Ledlow and Coppola, 2010). According to this theory, the leader is obliged to consider the range of attributes available in a particular state of affairs in order to make an informed decision. According to Couig (2010), the leader is also obligated to alter or transform his leadership approach and align it with the level of preparedness of adheren ts, their level of motivation, and capability. For instance, employees with low levels of motivation require a different approach as compared to those with high motivation levels. The second leadership theory is

Classical and Humanist Management Theories Essay Example for Free

Classical and Humanist Management Theories Essay â€Å"Classical and humanist management theories have had a major influenced on modern theories of leadership. Making effective use of appropriate models and theories critically examine whether this is actually the case. † Civilization is the product of those who came before us. The evolution of today’s modern management thinking has grown and developed since nineteenth century and flourished during twentieth. The twentieth century is just part of revolution management theory which started from classical theory, ranging to human relation approaches and last flourishing now. Management theory is out coming result of the interdisciplinary efforts of many people. Today the new modern theories of leadership, come up based on classical and humanist management theories, still develop and grow as an organisation. Leadership is setting a new path or vision for a cluster that they follow; a leader is the spearhead for that new direction. Management controls or directs people/resources in a group according to principles or values that have already been established. The main difference between them comes from what happen if there is one without another. If leadership comes without management then sets a track or visualization that others follow, without considering too much how the new direction is going to be achieved. Other people then have to work hard in the trail that is left behind, picking up the pieces and making it work. Management without leadership; controls resources to uphold the current situation or confirm things happen according to already-established plans. In Organizing Genius (Addison-Wesley, 1997) Bennis and Patricia Ward Biederman point out those leaders of great teams pick talent on the basis of excellence and ability to work with others. Good leaders are not afraid to hire people who know more than they do. Jack Welch has said that his biggest accomplishment has been finding great people. A leader should project responsibilities that involve a person’s competence and values. A good leader also reinforces motivation and develops ability through coaching. Leaders know how to keep their people focused. Good leaders can build incredible relationship and can build trust. The interest of leadership come in the early 20, when was considered that great leaders are born not made. The ideas and theories started developed after then. On the other hand those irreplaceable qualities of good leaders are based on beginning of management. The first management ideas, actually, were record in 3000-4000 B. C, when the pyramids were about to be build. Then the beginning of the modern organisation occurred with the theory called The Founders during the middle of the nineteenth century with the rise of the factory system. After came Pre-Classicism with Robert Owen (1771-1858) and Charles Babbage (1792-1871). And then the twentieth century becomes witness on the most memorable theories called Classical School. The Classical School of Management was period of management theory ferment and activity. It was based on improvement of management effectiveness in organisations. It wasn’t only about effectiveness in worker please but they also seek to provide needed tool for more effective work and satisfied workers. Within the classical school there are the bureaucratic management, administrative management and scientific management branches. The era of the ideas of Modern theories started with Scientific Management. Frederick Taylor put the beginning of the contemporary and still improving management. He advocated a change from the old system of personal management to a new system of scientific management. His theory argues that, each person’s job should be broken down into elements and a scientific way to perform each element should be determinate. Workers need to be careful selected and properly trained for particular job. The good corporation between management and workers is compulsory. His theory was accepted with many positive fatbacks and negativism as well. But to modern readers, he stands convicted by his own words (1975): â€Å"†¦ in almost all of the mechanic arts, the science which underlies each act of each workman is so great and amounts to so much that the workman who is best suited to actually doing the work is incapable of fully understanding this science, without the guidance and help of those who are working with him or over him, either through lack of education or through insufficient mental capacity. Scientific management come across with significant success. Taylor bring a success and to economic standpoints. Productivity met improvement because of his methods. After Scientific management come Human Relations Movement with Elton Mayos experiences in the Hawthorne Works Experiments. Mayo’s theory met success; his impacts were the creation of the industrial engineering. Max Weber – Bureaucracy come after Mayo’s scientific management. Max Weber believed that civilization was changing to pursue technically best outcomes at the outflow of emotional or humanistic content. Weber did not advocate bureaucracy; indeed, his writings show a strong caution for its excesses: †¦the more fully realized, the more bureaucracy depersonalizes itself, i. e. , the more completely it succeeds in achieving the exclusion of love, hatred, and every purely personal, especially irrational and incalculable, feeling from the execution of official tasks While Weber was basically a spectator rather than a stylish, it is pure that his forecasts have come true. His principles of an ideal bureaucracy still circle true today and many of the evils of todays bureaucracies come from their different from those ideal principles. Unfortunately, Weber was also successful in predicting that bureaucracies would have extreme difficulties dealing with individual cases. It would have been captivating to realize how Weber would have combined Mayos results into his theories. It is probable that he would have seen the group dynamics as noise in the system, warning the bureaucracys potential for both efficiency and inhumanity. In 1970s and 1980s, Charismatic Leadership states Effective leaders inspire assistants to obligate themselves to goals by interactive a visualisation, exhibiting magnetic behaviour, and setting an influential individual case, described by Weber as long with bureaucracy. He put the development of leadership based on well-known management. Henri Fayol – Administration. Fayol’s administration theories dovetail into the bureaucratic superstructure described by Weber. He believed that management has five principle roles; to control, to organise, to forecast and plan, to command and to coordinate. Fayol developed fourteen principles of administration to go along with management’s five main roles. Fayol’s five principle roles of management are still actively practiced today. Development of management and leadership had continued with Frederick Herzberg (1923-) , Abraham Maslow (1908 – 1970) and on. Mary Parker Follett supported for a human relations importance equal to a mechanical or operational emphasis in management. Her work contrasted with the scientific management of Frederick W. Taylor (1856-1915) and evolved by Frank and Lillian Gilbert, which stressed time and motion studies. Apart of all that, in mid-1970th the Hersey–Blanchard situational leadership theory was introduced as situational leadership theory. It is a leadership theory conceived by Paul Hersey (professor) and Ken Blanchard (author). The theory argues active leadership is task-relevant and there is no solo best flair of leadership. The theory contained the following qualities as the main qualities of a good leader; telling, selling, participating and delegating. According to Hersey and Blanchard (1980); â€Å"Effective leaders need to be flexible, and must adapt themselves according to the situation†. They had separated their theory into two fundamental concepts; Leadership Style and the individual or groups Maturity level. First described above and second describes below. The individual or groups Maturity level: M1 – They absence the exact services vital for the work in pointer and are powerless and reluctant to do or to take duty for this job or task. M2 – They are still incapable to take on responsibility for the task being done; they are keen to work at the task. M3 – They are knowledgeable and talented to do the chore but nonexistence the poise to take on charge. M4 – They are experienced at the task, and relaxed with their own skill to do it well. They need to be clever and willing to not only do the task, but to take responsibility for them. In conclusion, management include and put the base on organisations, it is that organisation which makes functions, such as planning, budgeting, evaluating and facilitating. On the other hand leadership is a relationship, an essential part of an organisation. They are response for selecting talents, motivating, coaching and building trust. From Classical human approaches to the modern leader theory there were a big different, the theories will last to change and improve, but on based on the main management theories. It is clear that modern organizations are powerfully influenced by the theories of Taylor, Mayo, Weber and Fayol. Their principles have become such a solid part of modern management that it is hard to believe that these perceptions were unique and new at some opinion in history. The current idea that these impressions are common sense is strong compliment to these creators.

Migration of Ducati Virtualization Servers to Private Cloud

Migration of Ducati Virtualization Servers to Private Cloud Ducati Motor Holding limited is a motorcycle designers and manufactures based in Italy. It owned by German automobile manufacturer Audi and Lamborghini which all comes under Volksvogen. It has rapidly moved to virtualization in past few years thus reducing the capital costs and had flexibility in applications, Ducati moved to 100% cloud due to high utilization of server virtualization; So Ducati has also embraced to Private cloud automation across both in racing and street bike business. Ducati collaborated with Aruba for a cloud automation thus signing the three-year agreement. Aruba is an Italys web hosting Services Company and has improved its activities in Europe with Aruba cloud, it offers the cloud based services on data centres in France, UK and Czech Republic. Aruba decided to have collaboration with Ducati as it Shares a significant values with Bologna-based manufacturer, operating with competence and passion to guarantee the satisfaction of their clients and users across the world. Those values led to the sign an agreement of this prestigious partnership. Total Cost of Ownership was considered before moving to Private Cloud. CAPITAL EXPENSES OPERATIONAL EXPENSES. Cost of Migration to Cloud Platforms: Moving data to the cloud is one of the most important steps of any migration. Aruba charges fees for transferring data to Cloud. Yet its likely that number is smaller than all of the costs which Ducati currently paying for on-premise infrastructure. Reliability and Availability: Aruba offers guaranteed performance of 99, 95% uptime in a month for private cloud operations and offers services throughout the agreement period of time. Resources: Aruba provides, Maximum of 32 cores per Virtual Machines, 256GB of ram per Virtual Machines, Unlimited disk space, Network resources as per requirements. Privacy and Security: Aruba uses VMware NSX and VMware VCloud Director for managing the network and securities. Operations can all be done by password protected log-in. Scalability: Aruba offers upgrading and downgrading at anytime, which allows the users to expand or reduce the resources as per the requirements. Maintenance, Monitoring and Other Services: Aruba provides the features of uptime monitoring and usage monitoring to manage the storage and other resources. Capital Expenses and Operational Expenses For On-Premise Virtualization Servers. VARIABLES INITIAL YEAR 1 YEAR 2 YEAR 3 Cost of Migration to Cloud Platforms Reliability and Availability $0 $300000 $400000 $500000 Privacy and Security $500000 $100000 $100000 $100000 Resources $3000000 $150000 $190000 $250000 Maintenance, Monitoring and Other Services $0 $200000 $200000 $300000 Scalability $0 $30000 $70000 $150000 Total One Time Expenses $3500000 $550000 $690000 $850000 Capital Expenses and Operational Expenses For Private Cloud. VARIABLES INITIAL YEAR 1 YEAR 2 YEAR 3 Cost of Migration to Cloud Platforms 200000 $0 $0 $0 Reliability and Availability $0 $0 $0 $0 Privacy and Security $0 $0 $0 $0 Resources $0 $0 $0 $0 Maintenance, Monitoring and Other Services $0 $300000 $300000 $300000 Scalability $0 $10000 $10000 $10000 Total One Time Expenses $200000 $310000 $310000 $310000 Total cost for On-Premise Virtualization Server Vs Private Cloud. Total One Time Costs INITIAL YEAR 1 YEAR 2 YEAR 3 Total Cost for On-Premise Virtualization server $3500000 $550000 $690000 $850000 Total Cost of Private Cloud Costs $200000 $310000 $310000 $310000 Conclusion: Moving to the cloud from On-Premise Virtualization server, Ducati able to deploy the Design, New Architectures, Applications and Solutions in a incredibly shorter period of time. The Private Cloud also enables Ducati to support the business and growth of the company with the low cost of investments compare to On-Premise Virtualization Server. Ref: http://www.zdnet.com/article/learn-why-ducati-races-ahead-with-private-cloud-and-a-virtualization-rate-approaching-100-percent/

Different Types Of Faults and Viruses Essay

Different Types Of Faults and Viruses Essay In todays modern society the use of technology is vastly increasing. Technology is progressively becoming a obligatory system that we use in everyday life whether thats using laptops, phones or computers, we use these types of devices mainly due to the implausible service technology provides such the different types of applications and also the well known internet. Statistics suggest that laptops and computers are a very common type of technological device than any other gadget mainly due to its stability, capacity, simplicity, and portability. Having a computer requires a lot of care; computers may come across different types of faults which can be time consuming and frustrating to endure. There are several symptoms a computer/laptop can experience when being under threat such has not being able to download anything, very slow browsing or computer wont come on but this can be avoided by installing firewalls/anti-virus software. P3: Different types of faults Viruses- Viruses are very common in interrupting a computer while it is used in an activity of some sought, Viruses inflict damage by multiplying its self on to another programme without the users allowance which then results in the virus doing anything it wants such as destroying a programme and downloading inappropriate content. A virus can occur by surfing a non- trustworthy site, opening spam mail or clicking on fake adverts. A typical virus would mainly access the hard drive of a computer which can result in deleting important information/data. There are many viruses that can penetrate a computer such as macro viruses, File infectors etc. Error messaging- Error messages imply that a computer has rejected a certain demand that a user has issued for a specific reason, for example when trying to load or save files you may get an out of memory dialogue box, or when trying to access websites the computer may respond with an access denied dialogue box. Loss of service- Loss of service is a certain malfunction while trying performing an operation. Example of Loss of service can be failure in accessing the internet or the system shutting down, or a certain component of the computer is not responding such as the printer, scanner, unable to share resources with other computers or that you cannot interact with other computers. Poor performance- Poor performance is the slow response from the system such as on the internet a certain webpage may take a long time to load or a computer is unable to obey a specific command. In my opinion the internet is the most successful and useful resource in order to find a solution for faults because the internet has unlimited data so if you were looking for information the internet will almost guarantee you a worthy find. How to resolve these faults Viruses: Viruses can damage your system in many ways, shape or form, you should contact a help desk in which you will be consulted by an experienced technician if not then visiting forums where people are in the same situation can help, FAQS (frequently asked questions). Another solution can be downloading anti software or firewalls such as Norton. If you are determined to succeed without having to invest then you may consider opening up the computer and trying to adjust the issue. FAQ Loss of service: A certain component of a computer may not be functioning e.g. scanner, if this issue occurs the user should refer to the manual given with the scanner at purchase or looking at informative books on a possible solution, or maybe reading trouble shooting guides, you may need to contact your manufacturer for assistance. Error messages- This type of fault is very frequent when trying to perform a particular procedure, reading trouble shooting guides may be helpful, reading manuals upon the issue or maybe notifying a technician. Poor performance: a computer may take a long time to load an application such as the internet; a user should contact the local administrator for assistance. When buying a computer a user should always make sure they have the essential package to adjust faults such as having firewalls and antivirus software etc, and they should always have the links on where to go if these types of problems occur P4- Source technical information to provide advice and guidance for a variety of faults. Viewing different sources of information can always help to find a solution to different types of faults, when buying a computer you should consider analyzing what the computer does, its security etc. A user is always given instruction manuals at purchase which are very important because a user may find out how to solve the problems they are having such as poor performance. Alternatively if a manual does solve the issue then a user should consider other options. Below are explanations of each type of sources of information Sources of technical information FAQs: Frequently asked questions or FAQs is an online source which lists the most common questions and answers that are based on a problematic situation. FAQs can be written concerning any subject, they are written by users who have become some sought of an expert in a particular field which they have been in themselves in which they have found the solution. Fault records: it keeps a register of all of the faults that occur, it includes when a fault occurs, why it occurred what do to do solve it. Specialist expertise: an expert can be the best source to cure a fault because they can gain a better understanding when they have visual indication and then they can solve the issue. User manuals: The main purpose of user manuals which can also be known as user guide is to provide assistance and clarity when using a particular system, object or item. The information a manual supplies is usually written by a professional technological writer. Technical forums: Technical forums can be known as an online conversation between different users regarding a specific issue they have experienced. This can be an efficient method when finding a solution because there are millions of internet users throughout the world so you are bound to find someone who has had the same issue and that you can seek advice and help from them but you can come across answers that may be biased. Product specification: A product specification consists of a document that includes the raw material that will be used to make this product, and all the required characteristics If a users computer fails to operate, viewing FAQs can help and actually going to the official company of your computer can help, manufacture lend a major hand in going in to depth with these issues. For example if you have a Compaq laptop or computer and are experiencing difficulties such as faults you can contact the company on their website and address them about this particular situation. http://www.compaq.com/cpq-country/uk/en/cpq_support.html. A computer is almost guaranteed to experience poor performance once which is when a web page does not load or that something is not loading. When a users computer lacks speed it is best to notify a professional technician to make adjustments to the system or possibly upgrading your computer can increase speed. Since my computer is from the company Compaq I would use this source of information on how to increase speed/clearing any junk off the system, http://www.compaq.com/country/articles/index.html. Browsing sites, opening spam mail can occasionally allow viruses to enter the system mainly the hard drive which can result in deleting important data. Re booting the system can be an option if a user does not want antivirus software but this action may result in data being deleted. Downloading antivirus software or firewalls are the biggest help to defend against viruses. A common anti virus software used by many can be Norton since they provide outstanding protection against spyware and virus programs. http://us.norton.com/antivirus. Loss of service can be very time consuming and costly if a device of your computer does not work such as printer. A solution can be reading the manual you got with the device at purchase, contacting a specialist or maybe opening up the device yourself and trying to solve the issue. The best solution can be contacting the manufacturer of your computer and inform them. Error message dialogue boxes are often displayed when you try to perform a certain operation, there are different types of phrases which show an error message has occurred such as access denied and File not found. Reading trouble shooting guides can help, open user forums, but in a different scenario, if you are using a Microsoft application and it fails to obey your demand, you may come across a send error report dialogue box in which you can actually address Microsoft regarding this issue, I believe this is the best cure if you are experiencing these type of faults with Microsoft. But when experiencing error messages while using windows, I believe this source of information may be able to satisfy a users needs. http://en.kioskea.net/faq/113-windows-error-codes-and-how-to-fix-them P5 and P6: Use different communication routes to provide advice and guidance, respond to end users. Communication is a vital ingredient needed in everyday life, lack of communication can disrupt many people/ organizations in their bid to achieve to their full potential. Communication is a method primarily used to distribute information for a certain purpose whether that can be physically, orally, verbally etc; communication can deliver a users factual material, opinions, theory, predictions through to the public. The most common methods of communicating can be through telephones, email and face to face. Communication can be categorized into three main categories which are telephone, email and face to face: Communication passing through telephone can be known as verbal communication, because as a technician a user is not visible through the telephone but words are still used to communicate with the user. It is easy to distribute information through telephone because a user can hear your advice on how to address a specific issue, but through this process there are many issues that a user and technician can encounter such as connection failure and loss of signal. In some cases communication via telephone will not help due to the user having only some degree of knowledge on how to solve an issue. This therefore concludes that it is best for a technician to tackle the matter themselves. Communication through face to face talking can also be known as verbal communication. This type of communication is a more efficient method of solving an issue than any other because a user can show visually the full extent of the issue. A user can give an in-depth insight regarding the problem through talking face to face. This type of communication enables the technician to gain a visual and physical understanding of the issue e.g. printer not connecting, which then can lead to technician taking away the computer and addressing the subject. Below is an example of a face to face conversation: User: hello Technician Hi, so what is the issue regarding your computer? User: I installed a certain programme on my computer (Microsoft word older version) and it seems to keep freezing every often, it keeps saying not responding Technician: do you use your computer very often if so how long? User: yes I use my computer for all sorts of studies and also my nephews play a lot of computer games on the PC. Technician: first of all if your nephews are playing on the computer, always make sure you close the game windows because this can take up the processing power, memory or maybe even try uninstalling them because they can contain harmful viruses. And also make sure that the software you are using is compatible with your windows. Confirm that your PC holds the minimum requests for the software you are using for example the base score of your computer must exceed the software score, if it barely exceeds the software this may cause your computer software to be erratic, the following link describes the base score for a computer and how to match a specific software you would like to use. http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows7/What-is-the-Windows-Experience-Index User: Thank you very much for your help, I believe if have found the solution to my issue Email communication is a written type of communication which demonstrates an issue through a written document. This type of communication media is very different from the others because the user or technician does not have the benefit of voice modulation nor can the recipient receive any form of visual indication, providing the user with a source of technical information may not be certified to use can be an issue, when emailing a user should always be specific about the issue they are enduring if not then a response from a technician can provide information best suited for a different problem. End users query concerning a fault A technicians reply regarding the fault FAQ Why does my computer freeze overtime? What do i do to clean my system? How often should I clean my system? Why cant i run more than 3 applications at once? Information for technicians reply obtained from http://www.microsoft.com/atwork/maintenance/speed.aspx http://cobweb2.louisville.edu/faculty/regbruce/bruce//mgmtwebs/commun_f98/Verbal.htm http://www.computerhope.com/issues/ch000528.htm Bottom of Form http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows7/What-is-the-Windows-Experience-Index

Punishment :: essays research papers

Effective Punishment for America Violence in our world is getting ever more vicious. We see people brutally killing other people. In every country this is a problem. The real problem is that ninety percent of the ones committing these crimes are children. The question is discipline. We need to take the necessary steps in effective discipline for children. Children should be disciplined by strict punishment in cases such as murder, rape, and drugs. The disciplining of children has come a long way from where it has been. We as society, have lost the idea of effective discipline. That is discipline that teaches a person how wrong the action was. It should also teach a person not to every want to do the action again. We as society must stand up for the cause of discipline. For example, if a sixteen-year old walks into a school and opens fire on students, strict punishment should be acted upon by the courts. Our jails have become more of a hotel for criminals. Murder is a vicious crime and the consequences of this crime, especially if it is a child, should have serious attributes to these crimes. Rape has become a serious crime in America today. We hear of rape crimes at least one every five minutes here in America. Like murder most of these crimes are committed by teenagers. I think that convicting a young teenager of this crime and declaring them mentally insane is ludicrous. They should ban such ways for escaping the punishment of such a brutal crime. As the saying from the Bible goes, "Spare the rod and spoil the child." We must stop the ways of escaping the system and get back to the basics of disciplinary action. Drugs is a problem no matter where one goes in America. We see them in schools, colleges, homes, streets, everywhere. The actions taken against drug abusers are not cruel ones. We usually give them a second chance. This second chance is fine, but when the second time comes action must take place. To effectively get rid of this problem, parents need to effectively punish if they catch there kids. If the authorities catch the children, then parents need to come and take the punishment out after they get home. We need to stop these crimes and the only way to let someone know the extent of punishment they deserve is to punish one the first offense.

A Character Comparison: Nora Vs. Antigone Essay -- Dolls House Antigo

A Character Comparison: Nora Vs. Antigone In the novels A Doll's House and Antigone, Ibsen and Sophocles respectively create two lead female characters, Nora and Antigone, who confront society's expectations of women in fundamentally different ways. Nora goes against the grain of middle class society by first forging her father's signature and then deceiving her husband, Torvald, throughout their marriage; Antigone, on the other hand, openly challenges and defies the rule of men, including her uncle and King of Thebes, Creon. Although Nora and Antigone share some comparable personality traits, like being strong willed and motivated, they confront the men in their lives and their comparable societies in two distinctive ways, which, as a result, leads to two differing denouements. Nearly every society, Nora and Antigone's are no exception, dictates a specific place or purpose for women, and while Nora and Antigone's respective societies possess some similarities regarding women's place and purpose, they contain several important differences. In Antigone, for example, the relative worth and status of women in Thebian society seems clear; women are to submit to the rule of man. Ismene suggests this submissive attribute of women in Thebian society when she begs Antigone not to defy Creon's commands, "Remind ourselves that we are women and as such are not made to fight with men." (193) Evidently the Thebian society controlled by men has kept a lid on women's individuality so much so that even a member of the royal family, Ismene, speaks of the futility in attempting to clash with the rule of man. Furthermore, Creon asks Antigone if she is "ashamed to differ from such men [the Chorus]?" (212) This suggests that in Thebian society w... ...igone respectively. Both plays focus on women's place in society and the struggle of two women to discover the repression of women latent in society and to break free of that repression. Surprisingly enough the two societies maintain similar expectations of women, but Nora and Antigone break those expectations via different methods unique to their situations. Nora is repressed by her husband and society, whereas Antigone is repressed by Creon and Thebian society, and while Nora deceives her husband for the majority of their marriage, Antigone's strong will allows her to openly confront Creon's superiority. Thus, the conclusions or denouements of the plays are to some extent different; while Nora survives in theoretical 'perfect freedom' in her society, Antigone is given death, and in a way 'frees' herself from the repressive society in which she has been subjected to.