Proof of a Physical World essays

Proof of a Physical World essays Proof of a Physical World (i.e. Were not just floating brains) 1) The mind perceives or creates the physical world 2) The mind cannot create anything original A) The mind did not originate the ideas of the physical world, but still creates it 1) The mind can only borrow ideas from experience to create something 2) If an idea is borrowed, than the idea is not original A1) The mind cannot create anything original 1) I think, therefore I am: the mind is the only thing thus far that can be proven to exist 2) By necessity, it is our mind then, that creates the world A2) The mind perceives or creates the physical world 1) If something is not original, the idea has existed before 2) The mind did not originate the ideas of the world B) The ideas of the physical world existed before our mind perceived them 1) If our mind alone exists, then the physical world and its ideas could not exist before our mind perceived them 2) The ideas of the physical world existed before our mind perceived them C) Our mind alone does not exist Im not sure if this is the proper layout you want, so please give me some feedback on that. Further, Im not entirely sure if the words original and originate can be swapped as in Argument B. Any input would be super swell. Thanks. The idea exists that we are floating brains, and that the physical world is only existent because our mind perceives it. The argument is that there is no physical world, only our minds and their creations. I disagree: Regardless of whether our mind alone exists, it is our mind that perceives the physical world: a fact that cannot be argued. However, our mind is incapable of creating anything original. If I were to give a child a crayon and ask him to draw something who ...

Free Essays on Grandparents

When I hear friends complain about having to spend time with their grandparents it thoroughly upsets me because I know what a loss it is when finally you have them no more. They don’t seem to realize how special they are or the significant impact they will have on their future. My realization of this came all too late when the last surviving of my grandparents passed almost three years ago. As a child I was unbelievably close to the three living grandparents I was blessed with. I lived next door to my father’s parents from birth. My grandfather was a tall, full-bodied man with thick gray hair, a thin Clark Gable style mustache, and crystal blue eyes, which I inherited. As a deacon of the Catholic Church for almost 18 years, he taught me about god, patients, and most importantly about love and respect for others. He made the largest impact on my life. My grandmother, a small, strong-minded, witty, gray haired woman, taught me how to be a refined gentleman. She pushed man ners on me so that if one day I had the chance, I would be suitable for tea with the queen. The one saying of hers which stands out the most for me was â€Å"you’ll never have tea with the queen with manners like that†. She taught me how to properly set the dinner table. Also, that I should be overly appreciative for all of the provisions my parents sought for me because there was a million other children my age who weren’t nearly as lucky as I. Most importantly they taught me what a true loving relationship was all about. They would have been married for fifty-five glorious years if it hadn’t been for my grandmother’s death. On my mother’s side of the family I only knew her father since her mother passed on my first Christmas. My grandfather whom I called paw, was a full-blooded 2 American Indian with white hair and almost orange skin. His wrinkled skin and steel blue eyes told the story of a child who worked the fields to support his famil y and also the sto... Free Essays on Grandparents Free Essays on Grandparents When I hear friends complain about having to spend time with their grandparents it thoroughly upsets me because I know what a loss it is when finally you have them no more. They don’t seem to realize how special they are or the significant impact they will have on their future. My realization of this came all too late when the last surviving of my grandparents passed almost three years ago. As a child I was unbelievably close to the three living grandparents I was blessed with. I lived next door to my father’s parents from birth. My grandfather was a tall, full-bodied man with thick gray hair, a thin Clark Gable style mustache, and crystal blue eyes, which I inherited. As a deacon of the Catholic Church for almost 18 years, he taught me about god, patients, and most importantly about love and respect for others. He made the largest impact on my life. My grandmother, a small, strong-minded, witty, gray haired woman, taught me how to be a refined gentleman. She pushed man ners on me so that if one day I had the chance, I would be suitable for tea with the queen. The one saying of hers which stands out the most for me was â€Å"you’ll never have tea with the queen with manners like that†. She taught me how to properly set the dinner table. Also, that I should be overly appreciative for all of the provisions my parents sought for me because there was a million other children my age who weren’t nearly as lucky as I. Most importantly they taught me what a true loving relationship was all about. They would have been married for fifty-five glorious years if it hadn’t been for my grandmother’s death. On my mother’s side of the family I only knew her father since her mother passed on my first Christmas. My grandfather whom I called paw, was a full-blooded 2 American Indian with white hair and almost orange skin. His wrinkled skin and steel blue eyes told the story of a child who worked the fields to support his famil y and also the sto...

Professional Issue Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2250 words

Professional Issue - Essay Example About 50 per cent of the total population of children in Britain between 9 and 12 years of age use the social networking sites in spite of the established limits of minimum age. According to EUKidsOnline, at least one in every five children has a profile on Facebook despite the fact that the rules require children to be 13 years old to have a Facebook profile (BBC, 2011). The matter of safety of the innocent users of social networking sites like children is debatable. This paper draws a critical analysis of the argument that social networking sites pose threats to the safety of children. An Overview of the Laws in UK related to Social Networking Sites Data Protection Act (DPA) 1998 Organizations in the UK that deal with the information about living as well as the identifiable people are obliged to show compliance with the DPA 1998 provisions. Service providers have to be very careful while processing children’s information to comply with the DPA 1998 provisions. This includes the providers of social networking sites that gather the users’ personal data to enable the registration. ... However, the new requirements of notification also include the email addresses’ registration. The government has proposed that these blacklisted email addresses be forwarded to the social networking sites so that they can check the email addresses against the ones in their user base and accordingly, deactivate the matching accounts. Guidance Report by the Home Office Task Force on Child Protection The Home Office Task Force on Child Protection published a note of guidance on the Internet in April, 2008 whose objective was to enhance the safety of children using the social networking sites. Along with serving as a resource of education for the parents, the guidance provides the providers of the social networking services with recommendations on ways to operate the sites in such a way that safety of the users is maximized. The guidance report of the Home Office acknowledges the fact that no environment is completely safe for children in any circumstances, though risks can be red uced by changing the default settings of privacy for the users under 18 years of age to private, making the private profiles of the users below 18 years of age non-searchable without the users’ consent, clear declaration of the information that would be publicly available that what would be private at the time of registration, declaration of simple and user-friendly ways of reporting abuse, discouragement for children to provide excessive information about themselves, and establishment of a system of sharing of reports of abuse between the law enforcement agencies and the industry (The In-House Lawyer, 2008, p. 82). In addition to that, the government of the UK â€Å"set guidelines requiring the sharing of the ‘email addresses’ of registered sex offenders to

Discussion Board #6 Cool Jazz Article Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Discussion Board #6 Cool Jazz - Article Example Pure musical devices have been used in the production of the recording and emotional expressions are correctly used. The recording is accompanied by a cool and detached concentration which encircles the performances that happens alongside the recording. In the recording, the rhythm section’s role is to provide the foundation over which the improvisers could drape melodies to accompany the recording or the album. The drummers and bassist have efficiently played their role in the recording as they have not interacted with the soloists; therefore, intensity in the recording has been controlled. The recording also posses’ incredible lines sound making it be a perfect match of the 21st century, this is because of the rhythmic activity used by instrumentalist in the recording. The recording thus reveals subconscious-Lee as musician of the past who has allowed and incorporated changes in the twenty first century to produce a form of music that is appealing to the present and future

Prima facie Essay Example for Free

Prima facie Essay Introduction According to the article, Rhino poaching is in no way shown as moral. The ethical issues I see are that people are ignoring the fact that this horrible act is occurring and many people who do know about it won’t do anything about it, but are able to waste time watching pointless videos. The You Tube interventions took a moral approach to help with the petition. Although some were offended, the majority signed the petition and became more aware of the world around them. Utilitarianism When studying the supreme principle of morality as utility, we must first examine the definition of utilitarianism. Utilitarianism the effort to answer the question of man ought to do. For a utilitarian, the answer is simple: Act to produce the best consequences possible for the greatest number of people possible. In this, liberty and harm are treated as an equal. The end goal is to produce a general welfare or Arthur’s collective well- being. Jeremy Bentham, one philosophical view we examined defined utilitarianism as the ethical system that judges actions to be moral to the extent they maximize happiness, producing pleasures, and preventing pains. According to Bentham, there is a possibility of good and bad consequences however; preventing suffering is what matters through pleasure and the avoidance of pain. John Stuart Mill was a follower of Benthams, and he came up with the principle of utility. He stated that â€Å"Nature has places mankind under the governance of two sovereign masters† these masters are pain and pleasure. This is an experience based principle. We learn through experience that we are governed through pleasure and pain. According to Brandt’s view on utilitarianism, if all you do is add up numbers, there still a possibility of producing an immoral outcome. Singer’s principles also exemplified this. In the article â€Å"YouTube Interventions to Save the Rhino†, Utilitarianism is exemplified in that there was a greater outcome for a greater number of people. Sure, some were offended, however in the cases that the petition was signed, the rhinos and animal activists were impacted positively. Also, the new act allowing this method of communication will help when it come t other disastrous situations. Also, the whole world was able to be impacted. This effort had a mass effect on the petition. In the end, rhinos could be saved and a great idea was introduced, even the offended learned that their time was not being used effectively and therefore had somewhat of a positive outcome. Deontology In the study of deontology, we use Kant and Foot’s philosophical views. Deontology can be considered duty-based ethics, and reason alone should be used when finding the moral duty this concerns and reason in turn will cause a respect for rationality. Kant believed that morally you should act so that the maxim of your actions can and should be considered a universal law; morally you should have respect for human dignity. In this principle one should never for any reason intentionally harm someone who is believed to be innocent. Philippa Foot expands of Kant’s principle of hypothetical imperatives in an argument. She argues the Kant contrasts acting out of respect for moral law with acting from an alterior motive. Taking this into consideration she believes is crucial to shape Kant’s moral Philosophy. All in all, morality can only involve rational beings because only rationa l beings have the capacity to reason the way things are and should be and the ability to exercise freedom. Perfect categorical duties allow for no if’s and’s or but’s. Others are not, under any circumstances, to be used just as a means to acquire morality. In summary of this moral standing and the three forms of hypothetical morality according to Foot and Kant, â€Å"If you want x, you should do y, Because you want x you should do y, and because x is in your best interest, you should do y†. For Kant the second and third principles are one in the same. The article answers the supreme moral question â€Å"Did anyone use anyone merely as a means? † The answer is simply yes. The multiple videos that were altered were used as a means to get the communication across about animal poaching. The You Tube interventions had a positive outcome however in that a mass majority was made aware of what was going on in the world and how much time the viewers were actually wasting watching the highly viewed frivolous viral videos. Deontologists would agree with the interventions campaign. They wanted people to be aware of the issue of rhino poaching and wanted a petition signed so they included a link to the petition and urged people to sign it by noting that it wouldn’t take much time. They also wanted people to be aware that the silly videos were simply a waste of time and that was noted. Deontologists would have resolved these issues in a very similar manner because no one was hurt, they were just helped. Prima Facie Duties The prima facie duties introduced by W. D. Ross, a professor from Oxford University, argued that the right and the good are properties known intuitively and these duties may conflict holding only prima facie. There are no supreme principles involved. All focal points in the argument of what makes right acts right and wrong acts wrong are taken into account when looking into prima facie duty. Prima facie is judgment based on considered opinion. The article doesn’t really exemplify prima facie duties in that the article agrees completely with the study of deontology, and Ross argues with deontology. The duty to sign the petition however did arise from the obligation to save the rhino’s from poaching. This exemplifies the opinion Ross had on duty in itself. Conclusion I thought that the approach this article took was completely effective and I agree that the awareness of rhino poaching was done morally. When others want to make you aware of things like the animal fur industry, they walk down runways with imitation blood dripping from a fur coat. This was done in a way where most were not offended, a majority of people were impacted and action was taken. The petition was signed and an increase of 400% of the signatures was reached. I think that deontology supports the article the most. The x and y principles were exemplified as Foot and Kant had demonstrated. I think that all of the principles we studied in this section can be applied to the article. The article least agrees with prima facie ideas however. There are ways to apply it which I stated earlier in this essay. So what makes right acts right and wrong acts wrong? How many are influenced, how they are influenced, and act to include intent of agent and consent of person affected by act.

Love in Desires Baby, The Passionate Shepherd to His Love, and The Nym

Love in Desire's Baby by Kate Chopin, The Passionate Shepherd to His Love by Christopher Marlowe, and The Nymph's Reply to the Shepherd by Sir Walter Raleigh The socioeconomic condition and status of a person greatly impacts whether or not love will be reciprocated. That is evidenced by the story of â€Å"Dà ©sirà ©e’s Baby†, by Kate Chopin and the poems â€Å"The Passionate Shepherd to His Love†, by Christopher Marlowe and â€Å"The Nymph’s Reply to the Shepherd†, by Sir Walter Raleigh. All these literary works relate love with socioeconomic status and how love is subordinated to society’s norms. â€Å"Dà ©sirà ©e’s Baby† is clearly a story about the clash of love and social status. It takes place in Louisiana in a time where slavery was still present and dictated the way of life. It is a story about love and how it can be plagued by racial divide. Armand did not care that Dà ©sirà ©e’s past was unknown and decided to marry her. He probably didn’t care that much because as the saying goes: â€Å"what you don’t know can’t hurt you†. At the time Dà ©sirà ©e had her baby things started to change. When Madame Valmondà © visited Dà ©sirà ©e and the baby it was already obvious by her reaction that race and status were going to affect the love and the marriage. When Armand figured out that the baby wasn’t 100% white the marriage fell apart and it all ended. The fact that his wife was part black was to hard for him to bear, it was something unacceptable in society in those days. In an ironic twist of fa ith Armand then found out through a letter from his mother to his father that he was the one who was actually part black. The story clearly shows how status can interfere with love. As this passage shows it Armand loved Dà ©sirà ©e: The pass... ...gh love is a personal feeling it still needs, most of the time, society’s acceptance to become concrete. If society and its norms judge that a love shouldn’t happen and that it isn’t real (even if it is) it usually will not work out, it will be destined to fail. It is said that â€Å"all you need is love†, but that is rarely the case. Most people feel like they need acceptance and that will not happen if they break society’s norms, even love is subordinate to those norms. Works Cited Schilb, John, and John Clifford, eds. Making Literature Matter: An Anthology for Readers and Writers. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2003. Marlowe, Christopher. â€Å"The Passionate Shepherd to His Love.† Schilb and Clifford 846-847. Raleigh, Sir Walter. â€Å"The Nymph’s Reply to the Shepherd.† Schilb and Clifford 848. Chopin, Kate. â€Å"Dà ©sirà ©e’s Baby.† Schilb and Clifford 864-868.

Media’s Portraits of Guns and Violence Essay

Discuss the connection between the portrayal of guns, violence, and victims and the crime-fighting policies that are implied in these portrayals. What criminal justice policies are encouraged by the above portraits and which ones are discouraged? The media distorts the public’s view of violence, guns, and victims, and helps shape the criminal justice policies by doing so. Their portrayal of guns, violence, and victims is of law enforcement or private citizens fighting a constant war against crime, usually with an overabundance of violence from both the perpetrators and the crime fighters. One example of the violence that the media shows is how many of the crimes committed have guns involved. The media makes it seem like it is easy to get a gun, that all criminals have one, and that all citizens need one for protection. â€Å"Whoever has the biggest gun wins†. Then they show the crime fighter coming after the criminal very aggressively, and they violently battle it out. The more the media sensationalizes gun violence, and keeps it fresh in the viewer’s minds, the more the public will believe it is the biggest problem in crime control, whether it is true or not, and public opinion will lead to many debates over the issue of gun control, and other policies that could lessen violence. These media portrayals make it seem ok for private citizens to take the law into their own hands, even violently, as long as they stop the â€Å"bad guy†. A current media example of this is the television show â€Å"Arrow†. The Arrow would be a rogue, although he was never a cop. Criminal Justice policies that discourage these media portraits are gun buy-back programs stricter gun laws, and harsher sentencing for those caught with unlawful guns.

Sophia Coppola’s Marie Antoinette and the Traces of History

This paper probes in the historical events included in the Sophia Coppola’s Marie Antoinette. At the offset, the movie presented the events that have transpired in French history with fresh eyes. The result is both interesting and engaging. It is interesting in the sense that the form (which is film) through which history was rendered provided entertainment to the viewers. At the same time, the movie is engaging as it was able to capture the historical events that, to me, challenged the viewers to analyze history deeper. In this paper, I will highlight the historical allusions in the movie that coincide in the last instance with the actual events that occurred in France more than two centuries ago. I will show that, among others, the film articulated the extravagant life of Marie Antoinette, the French Revolution, the â€Å"human† side of the queen, and the period of Enlightenment. The fifth element that I will focus on is what the film unwittingly revealed in its precise attempt to conceal – that is the fact that Marie Antoinette and King Louis XVI are not innocent victims.   I will argue that the tenuous conflation of film and history proved a success (and failure) in the case of Marie Antoinette. . Music as Social Critique Of all its features, â€Å"Marie Antoinette† was an interesting cinematic experience because of the music. It is through music that the film was able to convey a historical account of Marie Antoinette’s life. It is already commonplace that Marie Antoinette lived a life of luxury, and the film showed this from the beginning until the end. According to historical records, Marie Antoinette’s lifestyle was too extravagant that the general populace suffered (see Fraser 2001).   This affluence of French royalty was showcased in the film with the help of music. It was a joy to watch French royalty in their elaborate garb cavorting with their consorts and ladies-in-waiting to the sound of 80s post-punk. Perhaps to evoke the ironic joie de vivre of the 80s juxtaposed to the dionysian lifestyle (as opposed to hedonism) of the French king and queen and her court, they danced to an adaptation of Siouxsie and the Banshee’s â€Å"Hong Kong Garden† which was played by a string ensemble. The song then segued into the original post-punk version signifying a higher level of joy and abandon for everyone. In one scene, The Cure’s â€Å"Plainsong† was played during the couple’s coronation – an important and extensive shot taken on the steps of the Versailles. I’ve always thought that the music of The Cure was cinematic but the band evoked visions of modern dystopia for me- of highways, electric poles and sad abandoned factories; instead of men wearing wigs and tights and women with exposed bosoms under dainty parasols during the last gasps of European feudalism. The forlorn but quintessential New Order song, â€Å"Ceremony† is played in another party scene to create a contrast to the revelry of the French royal upperclass. Jarring as these may have been, these clever bits of musical scoring not only comprise the best thing about the film but also serve as its ideological heart. Of course, the average listener is not expected to recognize many of these songs. In fact, in most parts, what one hears are just instrumental excerpts from some obscure track of a particular musical genre from the 90s labeled as â€Å"shoegaze† music. While this cultural referencing from the early 90s in film is unusual (only Araki has done this to much success in â€Å"The Doom Generation† which was made during the early 90s), it is also apt since these attempts highlight all the more the cinematic traits of the dated but enduring genre. The contribution of Kevin Shields (who also did work for Lost in Translation) from the legendary shoegaze band My Bloody Valentine as well as the excellent selections from current Swedish band The Radio Dept. attest to the â€Å"hip† and â€Å"cred† consistency in Sofia Coppola’s work as well as indicating her appreciation for the lost musical genre. Remember that in her first critically acclaimed oeuvre, â€Å"The Virgin Suicides,† she also featured in the soundtrack the French duo with high â€Å"cred† points – Air. However, this time around, I believe that the clever use of contemporary music serves a purpose beyond achieving the â€Å"coolness factor† that the director is known for. It foregrounds an interesting but controversial take on a pivotal moment in the history of western society. History in/through Cinema Not only did the film powerfully show the frivolous existence of Marie Antoinette and the French Monarchy but also the manner by which this existence was put to an end by the French people. The French Revolution was only shown at the last scenes of the film yet it serves a potent reminder of how the oppressed classes of French society stood up and fought. If only for this, the film briefly yet powerfully captured the historical change that transpired during the French Revolution of 1793. It must be noted though that the death of Marie Antoinette and other French royalties indeed sparked hope, however brief a moment. I say this since the French monarchy was soon after replaced by the rule of the bourgeois (see Doyle 2001). This transition was no longer included in the film yet the fact remains that the vital force of the French Revolution served as a compelling conclusion in the life of Marie Antoinette. Marie Antoinette and the Louis-Auguste were the King and Queen of France at the onset of the historic French Revolution. This event marked the political culmination of the unprecedented social and economic changes that began with the Renaissance and the Enlightenment. It represented the victory of an emerging economic order whose political form was represented by the French Republicans. At the prodding of the bourgeois liberals who pushed for the republican ideals of the right to suffrage and democratic leadership, the peasants stormed the Bastille and later the royal palace of Versailles effectively heralding the demise of the French monarchy. The defeat of the royalists as manifested in the violent deaths of Queen Marie Antoinette and King Louis XVI by the guillotine and the subsequent rise of the French Republic meant new political and social arrangements that to some represent the defining shift from the â€Å"Dark Ages† to the Modern Era. One of this epoch’s key features is the ascendancy of the belief that, finally, man’s destiny is in its own hands and not under the control of some sovereign and God-ordained power as represented by the monarchy and the Roman Catholic Church. Simultaneous, therefore, with the film’s showing of the French Revolution is the showing of the period of Enlightenment.   This includes the understanding that societies are wholly human artifacts subject to the collective will and power of the people that ideologically challenged the class structure of not only the monarchy and its feudal base but also early capitalism and its liberal pretensions. Many therefore, including Marie Antoinette, interpret the French revolution as a progressive step away from the extreme inequities of feudal society and monarchical political formations and some quarters even regard it as an event that points to the possibility of egalitarian human societies (see also Lancaster 1953). Marie Antoinette and Modernity However, the film â€Å"Marie Antoinette† takes on a different stance regarding modernity. For Coppola and Antonia Fraser, whose book the film was based on, to depict the relatively unknown but human story of the Princess of Vienna who became Queen of France from the other side of â€Å"his-tory† so-to-speak, is in itself an important statement. More so because Marie Antoinette is mistakenly vilified in history texts as the callous Queen who, in the midst of France’s bread shortage and general economic crisis, allegedly quipped â€Å"let them eat cake† in all her regal pomposity (see Thomas 1999). Coppola shows to us instead a sympathetic and unknown side to the lives of these pampered royalties. The film takes great pains to show the struggle of Marie Antoinette and the King as they fit in to the unreasonable demands of being royalties as well as the privileges that they enjoyed. We are made to understand their humanity as they recapture their innocence in the Dionysian abandon of royal masquerades, deal with deaths in the family, and even suffer the distinct boredom of the rich and spoiled. Some historians have also tried to present us this â€Å"human† side of Marie Antoinette and the French Monarchy. According to their studies, Marie Antoinette is not as evil as popularly presupposed (see Fraser 2001). Apparently, this is the same point the movie is trying to make. That is why when the mob arrived at the palace gates, we are immediately herded by the film to the side of royalty since it is they who we are more familiar with; it is they who we found funny and endearing. Never mind that it is the moment of justice for the angry multitude as they vent out their anger after centuries of carrying the feudal yoke in order to provide the monarchs with the resources for their grand lifestyle and capricious wars. Never mind that it is modernity and human progress that is, in a manner of speaking, knocking on the gates of Versailles and that this singular event would inspire movements of liberation throughout the world including our country’s own struggle against colonizers. Coppola deftly avoids all these issues by framing this historical narrative through Marie Antoinette’s eyes. What is presented to us instead is the consistent template in film of how individuals, in the general sense, are victimized by history’s unsentimental march. It subtly laments Maria Antoinette and Louis XVI’s persecution since they were merely thrown into circumstances they did not choose. The reach of the royal imagination, the film seemingly apologizes, cannot go beyond the intricate pastries, the petticoats and the other regal accoutrements of their regal existence. Thus, when the mob, who was comprised of the first liberals in their original incarnation, demanded the King and Queen’s literal heads, a degree of sadness was warranted. There was no indignation expressed in the film akin to the moral appeal of the liberal critique against Stalin (â€Å"the revolution will devour its own children,† and it seems that the liberals also had an appetite for pale monarchs), but through a somewhat Nietzschean lamentation for the lost of dionysian beauty and innocence. This was expressed in the film in a lingering shot of a defiled royal salon after the mob stormed the palace. The room was once full of vibrant life, colors, opulence and laughter. Now, it was a drab grey room of broken furniture and torn curtains perhaps anticipating the abandoned factories of Manchester. Was Coppola intimating the view that history’s march towards modernity must be interpreted in this way? Does she share the same dystopic vision of modern society as those espoused by this band of angsty and socially dysfunctional philosophers in the persons of Nietzsche, Heidegger, and Foucault whose disdain for modernity is legendary and influential to this day? The Element of Ahistoricity in Marie Antoinette By focusing therefore with the intricacies in the life of Marie Antoinette and Louis XVI, the film was able make the audience sympathize with them. The possible danger here is the dilution of the revolution which culminated in the reign of Maria Antoinette and Louis XVI. Some studies have also pointed out the quirks of the royal couple without dismissing the crime that they have committed (see Cronin 1989). The use of contemporary cultural references for an otherwise period setting is therefore an important element in the light of these observations. The film achieves an ahistorical sheen as if insisting that its lessons are timeless if not enduring to this day. It seems to argue an interesting point – that the fate of Maria Antoinette and Louis XVI, who also danced to Siouxsie and the Banshee’s â€Å"Hong Kong Garden† – they in an elaborate ball and we in our dingy night clubs – are also our shared destinies. We are, in a manner of speaking, modernity’s common victims. If the two were hanged by a vengeful mob at the cusp of modernity, we are its sad disenfranchised heirs existing in the rubble of modernity as a failed experiment two centuries hence. This is the shared stance of thinkers such as Nietzsche, Heidegger and Foucault. Modern life is synonymous to mediocrity, alienation (or inauthenticity) and debilitating bio-power (that society is one big prison and there is no escape). Our only refuge is towards individualism, introspection, and caring for the self. What better way to drive home this point through music than to employ the sensibility of post-punk’s true heirs – shoegaze. There are some interesting parallelisms between developments in social theory and popular culture. There was an attempt by the counter-cultural folk movement of the 60s in translating its agenda into a potent political force. However, the failure of the Paris Commune coincided with the cooptation of folk into â€Å"hippie†-dom and later corporate arena rock. In the academe, a post-political (or post-socialist condition) also assumed an influential position wherein the likes of Nietzsche, Heidegger and Foucault became the gurus of a veiled individualism that places in its diametrical opposite society and history. Punk presented a brief respite attracting a wide section of Britain’s disaffected and unemployed youth under Thatcherism but eventually folded because of its nihilism and absence of class politics. This resignation is now embodied in the broad post-punk category that includes a variety of styles – self-referential and heavily sentimental at times while being angular and loud in others. Most of these bands eschewed the political and even anarchic stance of punk and insisted on appropriating an introspective tone while salvaging the innocent harmonies of The Beach Boys and the pop songcraft of the Beatles from the 60s. Of course, in the larger context, mass culture was the more dominant cultural form where artists such as Madonna and Michael Jackson represented the new apex in consumerist popular culture. In the sub-cultural field, however, the post-punk ethos was eventually adapted by a new musical movement that melded together the dark undertones of cult bands such as Joy Division and The Cure with the ethereal pop sound of The Cocteau Twins and the drone of The Velvet Underground in the late 80s to early 90s. The result is a musical movement that has come be labeled as shoegaze because of the penchant of these genre’s guitar players to look down on their effects boxes to create their complex and dense signature guitar sound. Meanwhile, in the academe, the same sensibilities are also gaining ground with the fashionable rise of postmodernism and its celebration of eclecticism, ahistoricity, identity politics and a deep and unrelenting individualism. It is, thus, no accident that these post-punk and the shoegaze movements found its most rabid supporters among the college set. By the 90s, the cult status of these sub-genres has imploded into the mainstream with the rise of the â€Å"alternative† and Nirvana. With its wall of feedback, unintelligible vocals and sweeping melancholia, shoegaze’s sound performs the sad and confused resignation of the post-political era. Marie Antoinette now follows a long line of fashionably sad cultural icons that include Kurt Cobain and the wind-swept plastic bag in â€Å"American Beauty.† These films make a claim for sadness as the universal currency of modernity whether you be of royal lineage or a working class clone (or even an inanimate object) and our only balm or remedy is to wallow in Kevin Shield’s eloquent but loud and beautiful sound of sadness as we mourn the death of all-too-human Marie Antoinette – our new postmodern pop icon. But of course we know better. Therefore, what the film tried to do was paint Marie Antoinette as a victim of history. What strikes us as suspicious is our knowledge that she had the choice to change the social system. What prevented them for doing so was perhaps their passionate attachment to what the French people are asking them to give up. It was of course tremendously difficult for Marie Antoinette to give up her lifestyle that rests on the wretchedness of the general populace since it was perhaps what she has been used to all her life. This is precisely the problem with the ideological stakes raised by the film and the philosophical persuasions that side with such a dystopic reading of humanity’s past, present and future. For that matter, these also draw attention to the utter lack of radical promise among the educated American youth because an assessment of even indie culture indicates that they are either too emo, fragmented and individualist to wield any form of potent politics unlike their French forbearers who were willing to destroy the monarchy in order to build liberal democracy. Modernity continues to be a necessary human project in the light of the continuing inequalities of our modern life. Men and women must not relent in the political task of charting the direction of human history, the sadness and violence of the struggle notwithstanding. Works Cited: Cronin, Vincent, Louis and Antoinette. London: The Harvill Press, 1989. Doyle, William The Oxford history of the French Revolution. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1989. Fraser, Lady Antonia. Marie Antoinette, The Journey. New York: Anchor, 2006. Lancaster, Carrington. French Tragedy in the Reign of Louis XVI: And the Early Years of the French Revolution, 1774-1792. Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins Press, 1953. Thomas, Chantal. The Wicked Queen: The Origins of the Myth of Marie-Antoinette. trans. by Julie Rose. London: Zone Books, 2001.

Spanish Expressions of Frequency

Spanish Expressions of Frequency How often do you study Spanish? Never? Once a day? Always? Regardless, sooner or later youll need to be able to answer such a question. Here are some, but certainly not all, of the common ways that Spanish indicates how often an event occurs: nunca, jams (never) Examples: Nunca te olvidarà ©. (I will never forget you.) En mi casa jams comemos carne. (In my house we never eat meat.) casi nunca, casi jams (almost never) Examples: Casi nunca te he dicho que eres bella. (I have almost never told you that youre beautiful.) En el norte de Chile, donde casi jams llueve, la situacià ³n es diferente. (In northern Chile, where it almost never rains, the situation is different.) raras veces, raramente (seldom) Examples: Estos efectos secundarios raras veces son severos. (These secondary effects are seldom severe.) Raramente pensamos en lo que tenemos. (We seldom think about what we have.) de vez en cuando, ocasionalmente, a veces (occasionally, at times, sometimes, from time to time) Examples: Es posible que de vez en cuando nuestras pginas tengan enlaces a sitios de terceros. (It is possible that sometimes our pages have links to third-party sites.) Le recomendamos que visite esta pgina ocasionalmente para verificar si est disponible. (We recommend that you visit this page occasionally in order to verify that it is available.) A veces ocurre. (Sometimes it happens.) a menudo, frecuentemente, con frecuencia (frequently, often) Examples: El cncer de piel ms mortal a menudo no se diagnostica. (The most deadly type of skin cancer is often not diagnosed.) La oficina de correos de Jerusalà ©n recibe frecuentemente cartas dirigidas a Dios. (The post office in Jerusalem often receives letters sent to God.) Estos medicamentos con frecuencia se vuelven menos efectivos con el paso del tiempo.) (These medicines often become less effective over time. cada ____ (each ____ ) Examples: Te ofrecemos cada dà ­a 25 fotos. (Each day we offer you 25 photos.) Este sitio se actualiza cada semana. (This site is updated each week.) todos los ____, todas las ____ (every - ) Examples: La vacuna se prepara todos los aà ±os. (The vaccine is prepared every year.) Todas las noches yo estaba listo. (Every night I was ready.) casi siempre (almost always) Example: Casi siempre estoy pensando en ti. (I am almost always thinking about you.) siempre, en todo caso (always, in every case) Examples: Siempre vamos a estar con ellos. (We always go to be with them.) En todo caso, los nià ±os debe hacer el deporte que ms le guste. (Children should always do the sport they like best.)

Executive Order 9835 Demanded Loyalty

Executive Order 9835 Demanded Loyalty In 1947, World War II had just ended, the Cold War had just begun, and Americans were seeing communists everywhere. It was in that politically-charged atmosphere of fear that President Harry S. Truman on March 21, 1947, issued an executive order establishing an official â€Å"Loyalty Program† intended to identify and eliminate communists in the U.S. government. Key Takeaways: Executive Order 9835 Executive Order 9835 was a presidential executive order issued by President Harry S. Truman on March 21, 1947. The so-called â€Å"Loyalty Order† created a controversial â€Å"Federal Employee Loyalty Program† charged with eliminating communists from all areas of the U.S. government. The order empowered the FBI to investigate federal employees and created presidentially-appointed Loyalty Review Boards to act on reports from the FBI.Between 1947 and 1953, more than 3 million federal employees were investigated, with 308 fired after being declared security risks by the Loyalty Review Boards.   Truman’s Executive Order 9835, often called the â€Å"Loyalty Order,† created the Federal Employee Loyalty Program, which authorized the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) to conduct initial background checks on federal employees and carry out more in-depth investigations when warranted. The order also created Presidentially-appointed Loyalty Review Boards to investigate and act on the findings of the FBI. â€Å"There shall be a loyalty investigation of every person entering the civilian employment of any department or agency of the executive branch of the Federal Government,† the Loyalty Order decreed, also providing that, â€Å"equal protection from unfounded accusations of disloyalty must be afforded the loyal employees.† According to the paper The Second Red Scare, Digital History, Post-War America 1945-1960 from the University of Houston, the Loyalty Program investigated over 3 million federal employees, 308 of whom were fired after being declared security risks. Background: Rise of the Communist Threat Shortly after the end of World War II, not only had the entire world learned the horrors of nuclear weapons, America’s relationship with the Soviet Union had deteriorated from wartime allies to staunch enemies. Based on reports that the USSR had succeeded in developing its own nuclear weapons, Americans, including government leaders, were gripped by a fear of the Soviets and communists in general, whoever and wherever they might be.  Ã‚   Growing economic tension between the two nations, along with fears of uncontrolled Soviet spy activity in America began to influence ​U.S. foreign policy and, of course, politics. Conservative groups and the Republican Party sought to use the so-called â€Å"Red Scare† threat of Communism to their advantage in the 1946 midterm Congressional elections by claiming that President Truman and his Democratic Party were â€Å"soft on Communism.† Eventually, the fear that communists were beginning to infiltrate the U.S. government itself became a key campaign issue. In November 1946, Republican candidates won sweeping victories nationwide resulting in Republican control of both the House of Representatives and the Senate.   Truman Responds to the Red Scare Two weeks after the election, on November 25, 1946, President Truman responded to his Republican critics by creating the Presidents Temporary Commission on Employee Loyalty or TCEL. Made up of representatives from six Cabinet-level government departments under the chairmanship of a Special Assistant to the U.S. Attorney General, TCEL was intended to create federal loyalty standards and procedures for the removal of disloyal or subversive individuals from federal government positions. The New York Times printed the TCEL announcement on its front page under the headline, â€Å"President orders purge of disloyal from U.S. posts.† Truman demanded that the TCEL report its findings to the White House by February 1, 1947, less than two months before he issued his Executive Order 9835 creating the Loyalty Program. Did Politics Force Truman’s Hand? Historians contend that the timing of Truman’s actions, taken so soon after the Republican Congressional victories, show that both the TCEL and the subsequent Loyalty Order had been politically motivated.   Truman, it seems, was not as worried about Communist infiltration as the terms of his Loyalty Order indicated. In February 1947, he wrote to Pennsylvania’s Democratic Governor George Earle, â€Å"People are very much wrought up about the communist bugaboo but I am of the opinion that the country is perfectly safe so far as Communism is concerned- we have too many sane people.† How the Loyalty Program Worked Truman’s Loyalty Order directed the FBI to investigate the backgrounds, associations, and beliefs of any of the approximately 2 million executive branch federal employees. The FBI reported the results of their investigations to one or more of the 150 Loyalty Review Boards in various government agencies. The Loyalty Review Boards were authorized to conduct their own investigations and to collect and consider testimony from witnesses whose names were not disclosed. Notably, the employees being targeted by the loyalty investigations were not allowed to confront the witnesses testifying against them. Employees could be fired if the loyalty board found â€Å"reasonable doubt† regarding their loyalty to the U.S. government or ties to communist organizations. The Loyalty Order defined five specific categories of disloyalty for which employees or applicants could be fired or rejected for employment. These were: Sabotage, espionage, spying or the advocacy thereofTreason, sedition or the advocacy thereof;Intentional, unauthorized disclosure of confidential informationAdvocacy of the violent overthrow of the U.S. governmentMembership in, affiliation with or sympathetic association with any organization labeled as totalitarian, fascist, Communist or subversive The Subversive Organization List and McCarthyism Truman’s Loyalty Order resulted in the controversial â€Å"Attorney Generals List of Subversive Organizations† (AGLOSO), which contributed the second American Red Scare from 1948 to 1958 and the phenomenon known as â€Å"McCarthyism.† Between 1949 and 1950, the Soviet Union demonstrated that it had indeed developed nuclear weapons, China fell to Communism, and Republican Senator Joseph McCarthy famously declared that the U.S. Department of State employed more than 200 â€Å"known communists.† Despite having issued his Loyalty Order, President Truman again faced charges that his administration was â€Å"coddling† communists. Results and Demise  of Truman’s Loyalty Order According to historian Robert H. Ferrell’s book Harry S. Truman: A Life, by mid-1952, the Loyalty Review Boards created by Truman’s Loyalty Order had investigated more than 4 million actual or prospective federal employees, of which 378 were fired or denied employment. â€Å"None of the discharged cases led to discovery of espionage,† noted Ferrell. Truman’s Loyalty program has been widely criticized as an unwarranted attack on innocent Americans,  driven by the Red Scare. As the Cold War’s threat of nuclear attack grew more serious during the 1950s, Loyalty Order investigations became more common. According to the book Civil Liberties and the Legacy of Harry S. Truman, edited by Richard S. Kirkendall, â€Å"the program exerted its chilling effect on a far larger number of employees than those who were dismissed.† In April 1953, Republican President Dwight D. Eisenhower issued Executive Order 10450 revoking Truman’s Loyalty Order and dismantling the Loyalty Review Boards. Instead, Eisenhower’s order directed the heads of federal agencies and the U.S. Office of Personnel Management, supported by the FBI, to investigate federal employees to determine whether they posed security risks.

Information Communication Technologies Strategies Essay

Information Communication Technologies Strategies - Essay Example Management Information System is the solution to streamline a business through effective information management and decision making. The aim of this project is to design and implement a new improved management information system to serve Chelsea Hotel is owned by Crimson Hotels, which is a fast-growing hotel group, with properties in key locations in the UK, Portugal and UAE currently encompass a prototype management information system, however, its not as effective and efficient as it should be. There are many faults for instance; it doesn't provide all required information and documents, and inefficient data storage space. In addition Chelsea Hotel is finding difficulties in upgrading and solving solutions faced with the software due to its prototype nature Chelsea's current management information system doesn't contain a help wizard to assist in tasks and problem solving. In an environment of increasing regulation and litigation establishing transparent, reliable and complete information management practices and quality information is critical for business success and sustainability Computers are probably the most efficient and effective place to store and manage information. Managing information effectively is a powerful strategy for businesses to perform effectively and successfully. When information is managed in a strategic manner, they enhance the process of streamlining business and improve chances of successfulness. For instance, it enhances decision making, allows coordination, stores files and data in an effective manner which is time efficient whilst accessing required data, and it ensures all data is saved and backed up. The management of such system is referred to as 'Management Information System (MIS)'. Furthermore, Management Information Systems enhance organization performance in numerous ways that will be discussed throughout further chapters of this project. To achieve my project objective of designing a Management Information System for Chelsea Hotel, I had to research and obtain maximum knowledge regarding Management Information Systems. This was initially done, through researching the background and purpose of Management Information Systems and its advantages. Subsequent to my first research, I viewed Chelsea Hotel's current Management Information System and attended several meetings with managers throughout the company, to obtain knowledge regarding their problems and requirements. Finally I researched several methods and softwares to deploy, in order to find the most suitable software for my current project.After meeting with Chelsea Hotel Co. managerial personnel, and proposing several proposals regarding system deploying, we came to a conclusion of using popular market software called Clarity Professional, which will be discussed in further chapters of this project. 2 Information Communication Systems 2.1 Background of Management Information Systems Management Information Systems (MIS) were introduced in the 1640's, with the intent to process data and provide information. In the 1960's Management Information system started to become visible and gained popularity within the business world to

Franchise business and none-franchise business Essay - 2

Franchise business and none-franchise business - Essay Example Block Real Estate Brokerage firm interviewed obtains its materials and supplies exclusively from the franchisor. One of the company’s managing directors interviewed asserted that due to the gap created by the ever growing demand for houses in the urban areas contributed to the development of the company specializing in real estate. Since different people have different tastes in terms of houses within which they would like to live, customer satisfaction is guaranteed by providing information on all types of houses to enable quick decision making. The working population formed the majority of urban dwellers who needed quality housing facilities and this was the rational for starting Block real estate brokerage firm (Cross and Miller 56). What started as Block Consultancy in real estate eventually turned into a full-fledged firm. The quick pace of developments was attributed to the vision and objectives set by the parent organization. Initially the organization only depended on a single individual to manage meetings with customers, persuading them to accept their housing brokerage services. With the ever increasing population the demand for housing facilities also increased leading to an increased customer base. This caused further expansion of its business operations incorporating technological advancements like the internet, phones and fax machines in order to effectively manage the business. The firm’s structure and size increased in order to meet the new demands. The benefits of a franchise type of business are that; (1) it requires less capital to begin than other businesses as it allows the company to grow capital invested by the individual franchise; (2) It also allows multiple units to be opened at the same time which are supported by the parent organization in terms of advertisements and other promotional activities; (3) such a business has a greater market because of the availability of the availability of the