How Influential Is Macbeth’s Ambition? Essay

In ‘Macbeth’, a play set in Scotland, William Shakespeare wrote a tragedy of one man’s ambition. It is the shortest of Shakespeare’s tragedies, and has a very fast pace. It tells the story of Macbeth’s ambition to be king, and the chain of damage he causes by pursuing this ambition. This ambition is the fatal flaw that causes his ultimate downfall. Once Macbeth’s lifelong ambition seems to be fulfilled, it causes consequences that his mind cannot handle. The play shows that one may get easily influenced by other people when he/she is over- ambitious. Ambition is something that everyone can identify with, and ‘Macbeth’ is a compelling study of how ambition can destroy you, so the audience are automatically interested in Macbeth’s character. When we are first introduced to Macbeth, he is already ambitious. But by being tempted to the extremes by two sources of external evil – the witches and his wife, his ambitions are only increased by making them seem like they could be a reality. The witches and Lady Macbeth, whom are both truly evil figures, influence Macbeth heavily throughout the play, and both exploit his ambition to become king. Their influence is the reason Macbeth’s ambition spirals so out of control and ends in tragedy. Our first impression of Macbeth is of a heroic, famous, popular man who is well liked by the king – In Act 1 Scene 2 Duncan refers to Macbeth as â€Å"noble Macbeth†. We first meet Macbeth in Act 1 Scene 3, when he and Banquo have arrived to meet the witches. Macbeth’s first words; â€Å"So foul and fair a day I have not seen† immediately associate him with the witches, because they say in Act 1 Scene 1; â€Å"Fair is foul and foul is fair†, so evil is brought to mind. Macbeth is connected with the supernatural in the audience’s mind from the onset. This is the first thing that is not consistent with Macbeth’s image of a war hero. In this scene, the witches declare that Macbeth will become Thane of Cawdor and also king of Scotland. Macbeth strongly believes the witches words, especially after the first part of the prophecy comes true, he begins to think the second part may also come true. Their prophecies influence his ambition as seen in an aside, when he begins to consider murdering Duncan, the current king of Scotland. The aside follows closely Macbeth’s desires and doubts – he does not know whether these prophecies are good or bad, but he dearly wants to be king. â€Å"If good, why do I yield to that suggestion/ whose horrid image doth unfix my hair/ and make my seated heart knock at my ribs,/ against the use of nature?†. However, we can sense that Macbeth doesn’t actually want to murder Duncan, as he is horrified by these murderous thoughts. But Macbeth cannot stop thinking about what the witches have said, showing that he is considering the idea and is drawn to it, and that he has ambitions to be king within him already. In Act 1 Scene 5, Macbeth’s wife, Lady Macbeth, also influences Macbeth’s ambition. She is revealed to be very driven and ruthless, and she clearly wants Macbeth to be king. She says; â€Å"Art not without ambition, but without the illness should attend it†, meaning that Macbeth is not without ambition, but lack of ruthlessness that is needed to become king. She influences him to kill Duncan. She also encourages him to conceal his feelings, telling him to; â€Å"Look like the innocent flower but be the serpent under’t†. Lady Macbeth is telling Macbeth to look respectful and welcoming and happy on the outside, but to hide his plotting and scheming and evils inside. Lady Macbeth’s ability to influence her husband leads us to believe that she is the primary cause for the destruction of Macbeth. She is the biggest encouragement to his ambition, since she uses her husbands trust to change her own future. In Act 1 Scene 7, evidence that Macbeth has a human side and is very worried is found in a long soliloquy – a speech where Macbeth is alone on stage so we can again see what Macbeth is thinking. He is worried about his eternal soul, and what his punishment will be in heaven if he kills Duncan. He thinks of reasons why he should not kill Duncan, and comes to the conclusion that the only reason he is doing it is because of his strong ambition. When Macbeth decides not to continue with their plan to murder Duncan, Lady Macbeth urges him to act on his desires and ambition or he will think of himself as a coward. She exploits his ambition by questioning it when she says; â€Å"Art thou afeard/ To be the same in thine own act and valour As thou art in desire?† She manipulates him further, calling him a coward and insulting his manhood, knowing that Macbeth will want to prove himself. This shows that Lady Macbeth is somewhat responsible for Macbeth’s downfall because, she drives him to go through with the murder and makes up the details of the plan to kill Duncan, while Macbeth was considering not even going through with the it. Although Macbeth had the thought of killing Duncan, he would not have acted on that thought unless Lady Macbeth persuaded him. Lady Macbeth is a sly person, able to manipulate her husband, and this ability to manipulate Macbeth makes her partially responsible for the destruction of Macbeth. She makes sure he will perform the deed by taking an active role in preparing for the murder: framing the two chamberlains and cleaning up afterwards. As Macbeth worries about failing to carry out the plan, Lady Macbeth tells him to screw up his courage and they wouldnt fail. Encouraged by his wife, Macbeth murders King Duncan who stays as a guest in his castle. Macbeth then becomes king of Scotland. Although Macbeth becomes king, he cannot have peace. His endless ambitions lead him into misery. Being obsessed by the witches’s prophecies, he even tries to control his future. He remembers the witches’s predictions that his friend Banquo’s sons will be kings of Scotland. Macbeth considers Banquo and his son Fleance as threats to his security as King. Although outwardly friendly to Banquo, Macbeth is jealous and fearful of him. Plagued by worry and to prevent this from happening, Macbeth orders three men to kill Banquo and his son. Macbeth’s desire to gain wealth and status completely overpowers him. He becomes more ambitious than his wife, and finds himself drained and drained of emotion, as we see in Act 3 Scene 1. â€Å"He hath a wisdom that doth guide his valour to act in safety. There is none but he Whose being I do fear; and under him My genius is rebuked, as it is said Mark Antonys was by Caesar. Upon my head they placed a fruitless crown, And put a barren scepter in my gripe, Thence to be wrenched with an unlineal hand, No son of mine succeeding †. Throughout the play Macbeth is undermined by his insatiable ambition. Macbeth was at first reasonable enough to keep his ambition in check, however it eventually became too strong for even Macbeth and therefore over-powered him. Reasoning was abandoned after the decision to kill Duncan was made. At that point we see no serious questioning of the motives of the three witches when he is told of their cunning and misleading predictions. The decision to kill Duncan also signified the last serious attempt at moral contemplation on the part of Macbeth. Throughout the novel we see that the Macbeth’s ambition completely subverted their reasoning abilities and eventually lead to his downfall. Macbeth, whom initially was a very reasonable and moral man, could not hold off the lure of ambition. Macbeth’s excessive ambition motivates him to murder Duncan, and once the evil act is accomplished, he sets into motion a series of sinister events that ultimately lead to his downfall. We see this when he says; â€Å"I am in blood stepped in so far that should I wade no more, Returning were as tedious as go o’er†. Macbeth is saying that he is so accustomed to the idea of murder that he will now be able to wade through a sea of blood. This is very ironic, as previously in the play, Macbeth had feared that he would never be able to wash the blood from Dunca’s murder off his hands. During the course of the play, Macbeth changes from a person with some moral sense to a man who will stop at nothing to get and keep what he wants. Although we are presented with his deterioration from good to evil, we can see his human side throughout the play, which makes it a tragedy. Once Macbeth’s ambition has ‘set the ball rolling’, events happen quickly in the play as it gathers momentum. This intense ambition leads to his downfall.

Database Final Exam

1. (Chapter 06): Describe a relational DBMS (RDBMS), its underlying data model, data storage structures, and manner of establishing data relationships: a. A relational DBMS (or RDMBS) is a data management system that implements a relational data model, one where data are stored in a collection of tables and the data relationships are represented by common valves, not links. Pg. 247 b. Data are stored in a collection of tables and the data relationships are represented by common values not links.String| CARACTER (CHAR)CHARACTER VARYING (VARCHAR or VARCHAR2)BINARY LARGE OBJECT (BLOB)| Stores string values containing any character in a character set. CHAR is defined to be a fixed length. Stores string values containing any characters in a character set but of definable variable length. Stores binary string values in hexadecimal format. BLOB is defined to be a variable length. (Oracle also has CLOB and NCLOB, as well as BFILE for storing unstructured data outside the database. )| Number| NUMERICINTERGER(INT)| Stores exact numbers with a defined precision and scale.Stores exact numbers with a predefined precision and scale of zero| Temporal| TIMESTAMPTIMESTAMP WITH LOCAL TIME ZON| Stores a moment an event occurs, using a definable fraction-of-a-second precision. Value adjusted to the user’s session time zone (available in Oracle and MySQL)| Boolean| BOOLEAN| Stores truth values: TRUE, FALSE or UNKNOWN| c. The relational data model assumes that you have completed the activity ‘An ER Model d. The power of the RDBMS is realized through†¦. The relationship existing between the tables. The relationships are established by including common column or columns in every table where a relationship is needed. . (Chapter 06): What are six potential benefits of achieving an SQL standard? Pg. 245-246 a. Reduce training cost b. Productivity c. Application portability d. Application longevity e. Reduce dependence on a single vendor f. Cross-system communication 3. (Chapter 07): Define each of the following key terms: a. Dynamic SQL: Specific SQL code generated on the fly while an application is processing. Pg. 326 b. Correlated subquery: Use the result of the outer query to determine the processing of the inner query. Pg. 303 c. Embedded SQL: Hard-coded SQL statements included in a program written in another language, such as C or Java.Pg. 323 d. Procedure: A collection of procedural and SQL statements that are assigned a unique name within the schema and stored in the database. Pg. 323 e. Join: A relational operation that causes two tables with a common domain to be combined into a single table or view. Pg. 290 f. Equi-join: A join in which the joining condition is based on equality between vales in the common columns. Common columns appear (redundantly) in the result table. P 291 g. Self-join: There are times when a join requires matching rows in a table with other rows in that same table – that is, joining table with itself. Pg. 297 . Outer join: A join in which rows that do not have matching values in common columns are nevertheless included in the result table. Pg. 293 i. Function: A stored subroutine that returns one value and has only input parameters. Pg323 j. Persistent Stored Modules (SQL/PSM): Extensions defined in SQL:1999 that include the capability to create and drop modules of code stored in the database schema across user sessions. Pg. 319 4. (Chapter 07): Write the SQL Query needed to: Display CourseID and CourseName for all courses in the Course Table where the CourseID has an ‘ISM’ prefix: Query: SELECT [CourseTable].CourseID, [CourseTable]. CourseName FROM CourseTable WHERE((([CourseTable]. CourseID)=†ISM†)); 5. (Chapter 08): What are the advantages/disadvantages of two-tier architectures? Pg. 339 An advantage of two-tier architecture The advantage of the two-tier design is its simplicity. The TopLink database session that builds the two-tier architecture provides all the TopLink features in a single session type, thereby making the two-tier architecture simple to build and use. A disadvantage of the two-tier architecture is The most important limitation of the two-tier architecture is that it is not scalable, ecause each client requires its own database session. * 6. (Chapter 08): What are six common steps to access databases? Pg. 340 * a. Identify and register a database driver b. Open a connection to a database c. Execute a query against the database d. Process the results of a query e. Repeat step 3-4 as necessary f. Close the connection to the database * * * 7. (Chapter 09): What are the three major components of Data Warehouse architecture? Pg. 389 a. Operational data are stored in the various operational systems of record throughout the organization (and sometimes in external systems). . Reconciled data are the type of data stored in the enterprise data warehouse and an operational data stored. c. Derived data are the type of data stored i n each of the data marts. * * 8. (Chapter 09): What are the four characteristics of a data warehouse? a. Subject Orientation: Data organized by subject b. Integration: Consistency of defining parameters c. Non-volatility: Stable data storage medium d. Time-variance: Timeliness of data and access terms * 9. (Chapter 09): What are the five claimed limitations of independent data marts? Pg. 384 . A separate ETL process is developed for each data mart, which can yield costly redundant data and processing efforts. b. Data marts may not be consistent with one another because they are often developed with different technologies, and thus they may not provide a clear enterprise-wide view of data concerning important subjects such as customers, suppliers, and products. c. There is no capability to drill down into greater detail or into related facts in other data marts or a shared data repository, so analysis is limited, or at best very difficult. . Scaling costs are excessive because every new application that creates a separate data mart repeats all the extract and load steps. e. if there is an attempt to make the separate data marts consistent, the cost to do so is quite high. * 10. (Chapter 09): What are the three types of operations that can be easily performed with OLAP tools? Pg. 214-215 a. Relational OLAP (ROLAP) –Star Schema based b. Multidimensional OLAP (MOLAP) –Cube based c. Hybrid OLAP (HOLAP) * 11. (Chapter 10): What are the four key components of a data governance program? Pg. 435 . Sponsorship from both senior management and business units b. A data steward manager to support, train, and coordinate the data stewards c. Data stewards for different business units, data subjects, source systems, or combinations of these elements d. A governance committee, headed by one person, but composed of data steward managers, executives and senior vice presidents, IT leadership and others business leaders, to set strategic goals, coordinate activities, and provide guidelines and standards for all data management activities. * * 12. Chapter 10): What are the four ways that data capture processes can be improved to improve data quality? According to Inmon (2004), there are several actions that can be taken at the original data capture step: Pg. 441 a. Enter as much of the data as possible via automatic, not human, means (e. g. , from data stored in a smart card or pulled from a database, such as retrieving current values for addresses, account numbers, and other personal characteristics). b. Where data must be entered manually, ensure that it is selected from preset options (e. . , drop-down menus of selections pulled from the database), if possible. c. Use trained operators when possible (help systems and good prompts/examples can assist end users in proper data entry). d. Follow good user interface design principles that create consistent screen layouts, easy to follow navigation paths, clear data entry masks and formats (which ca n be defined in DDL), minimal use of obscure codes can be looked up and displayed from the database, not in the application programs), etc. . Immediately check entered data for quality against data in the database, so use triggers and user-defined procedures liberally to make sure that only high-quality data enter the database; wen questionable data are entered (e. g. , â€Å"T for gender), immediate and understandable feedback should be given to the operator, questioning the validity of the data.

Introduction to the Humanities, question question # 4 Essay

Introduction to the Humanities, question question # 4 - Essay Example He thus copied statues and reconstructed classical paintings from contemporary, ancient descriptions. His patrons would also occasionally dictate what would be painted. Sandro Botticelli exemplified this in his painting â€Å"The marriage of Alexander to Roxana†, based on the descriptions of a 2nd century Greek writer. Renaissance artists tended to idealize physical beauty and endowed their subjects with perfect proportions that did not mirror real life. Botticelli also portrayed his Venus as being perfectly symmetrical. There seems to be an instinctive yearning to illustrate and look at romanticized and unachievable skin effects and bodies. The renaissance artist simply showed the alleged representation of beauty exacted by his values, epoch, and physical settings. The solo artist who savored in taxing the conventional blueprint of beauty and techniques of painting was Leonardo da Vinci. When painting Mona Lisa, he purportedly set up orchestra and performers in his studio to ensure that she did not get bored and was amused by his efforts as depicted in the final painting. Leonardo managed to capture a deeper and more genuine beauty that is rarely depicted by artists (Bishop, 2010). In Rome, renaissance artists, while adopting the same concentration on beauty as their counterparts in Florence, portrayed an improved concentration on musculature as depicted in Antonio del Pollaiuolo’s â€Å"The Martyrdom of Saint Sebastian†. Another painter, Antonio del Verrocchio also closely explored the complexities of the human anatomy. Donato Bramante, a Romish architect of the period, produced works such as â€Å"Tempietto†, a miniaturized classical temple. Renaissance artists in Rome tended to stress on the horizontal plane and the earth rather than depicting heavenly subjects. This was in contrast to Florentine painters who concentrated on depicting divine subjects in various earthly endeavors. The vanishing point of the perspective is

Reaction paper 2 parts 7 and 8 Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Reaction paper 2 parts 7 and 8 - Essay Example Given this second viewpoint, I would say that this hardly contributes to the definition of masculinity, because it informs on what women are based on what men are, but does not establish what being a man is. Recent research into masculinity has underscored this male-female polarity. In the American setting, cultural masculinity studies have dealt nearly exclusively in heterosexual masculinity behaviour and attributes (Traister, 2000, p. 274), which precludes homosexual masculinity as a seeming misnomer since it does not fit into the polar male-female model. Cultural changes are at the center of an evolving meaning given to â€Å"masculinity†, with the socio-economic developments in Europe defining the directions of Western thought in this regard. When Renaissance secular culture spread, interest in sexuality broke free of its strict regulation during the monastic period. When European monarchies embarked on overseas conquests and commerce prospered, the male role became identified with business, finance, and overall economic success. The fact that a man had more, and more expensive, possessions made him more of a man, better able to provide for his wife, their children, and his household members. The patriarchal system was further strengthened by the imperial monarchy where the power of men over women was further institutionalised (Connell, 1995, p. 248), formalising men’s domestic authority over women and enforcing the latter’s dependence upon the former’s economic property, not because the women did nothin g to contribute to it, as they often managed the running of the estate and the network of alliances among the gentry (p. 249), but because they could not legally own property. The Western image of masculinity is an ideal that was fostered upon the colonial East as a means of further strengthening the rule of the colonizers upon the conquered (Krishnaswamy, 2002, p. 292). Primary among these ideals is the image of the white, elegantly proportioned,

Class Action Lawsuit Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Class Action Lawsuit - Research Paper Example Player safety has long been a highly controversial issue in American football and traumatic injuries have been in the center of the causes. Prevention of injuries in this support has caught media attention and has been on public service messages and being dealt with on different training levels. Unfortunately, this has not been enough. The number of players suffering is large enough this time again to make a joinder impracticable; hence the class action lawsuit was filed, while others still continue to sue the league individually. The lawsuits accuse the National Football League of fraudulent concealment, material misrepresentation, conspiracy, negligence, obfuscation and negligent misrepresentation. The players claim that, whether or not they had played differently, if they were fully informed, the league’s failures would not get an excuse. They allege that the league failed to take proper precaution for the protection of its players from repeated hits on the head which resulted in brain injuries later in life. Players cite short term memory loss, depression, mood swings, long term brain injuries, dementia and chronic traumatic encephalopathy being suffered by many of them as a result of what was the National Football League’s responsibility. A master complaint has been filed, consisting of over 100 lawsuits at the moment involving over a 1000 ex-players, while the league vehemently denies the accusations. Being the plaintiffs’ attorney, it is natural to make the first move and make use of the tactical advantage and build the lawsuit based on the inherent advantage of acting first. Keeping the timing in control and handling the sequence of discovery accordingly, it is most appropriate to keep the defendant in a defensive position for the entire lawsuit and keep the players’ perspective dominating. The best course of action would be to take the steps to schedule the discovery and keep the defendant’s hands on to producing discovery which they cannot lawfully resist; a step further on requiring full details and a full paper discovery in depositions would enhance the chance for a favorable settlement or verdict (Coffee 677-678). A case filed when everything is set and ready is to be good enough to challenge the defendant's sufficiency in each of the answers to make it possible for a move to strike as an insufficient defense under US Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 12(f). The next step would be to keep the defendants on a firm deadline, be it the scheduling of discovery or trial dates, and get what you require in waves or groups of interrogatories and requests starting from the documents relating to the league’s information on head injuries and prevention followed by a wave of depositions of the league’s current and former employees and designates. The essential part in this approach would be to wait till completely making your case before producing the players in the court for testimony or deposition, not only keeping the defense lawyers anxious to get at the plaintiffs by raising comparative faults and judgment errors on behalf of players but also not giving them the opportunity to have a re-deposition. Producing the experts for opinion and fact verification and then questioning the defendant’s experts would maintain the initial advantage on the case, giving you the chance to question the defendant's documents and experts after they have had to question yours. Keeping a systematic approach towards the case

There is no such thing as a neutral question. Evaluate this statement Essay - 3

There is no such thing as a neutral question. Evaluate this statement with reference to two areas of knowledge - Essay Example For instance, â€Å"Why do you think he is leaving the company?† This is apparently a neutral question since the best answer is obviously known to the person who is leaving the company. The questioner’s interest is superficial or mere curiosity or else the question would have been placed with the person concerned. In the most elementary form, neutral questions are those which are asked by innocent children who express their curiosity over anything they see or hear. Questions like â€Å"From where does babies come?† are common neutral questions since the children who frame these questions do not have any pre-conceived notions and can be satisfied by any random answer. In such cases, the questioner, i.e. the children have no inherent interest in the questions other than curiosity. Since, as already explained, in a case of a neutral question there is no apparent interest in the mind of the questioner therefore such questions are generally unemotional and open. However, this paper is concerned with the statement that there is no such thing as a neutral question. In the sociological perspective, the weight of a question is determined by the social context, i.e. answers can vary depending on whom the question is targeted. Therefore, â€Å"a sociologist who does not subject his own questioning to sociological questioning will be incapable of making a truly neutral sociological analysis of the answer it receives† (Bourdieu, 41). In the realm of science, knowledge is based on real questions with concrete and experimentally proven answers. A question cannot be neutral since the questioner expects a pre-conceived answer, i.e. a hypothesis based on which his future work will be constructed. The most critical aspect of scientific knowledge is that a scientist can ask a question of whys and hows for the reason that he will be seeking an explanation for his question. Now, the question remains whether in science it is

Chinatown Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Chinatown - Assignment Example This report will be based on two major aspects of planning in Chinatown namely politics in planning and urban growth and suburbanization. In regard to the aspect of environmental issues, the role of water in the city will be analyzed. The planning and future of Chinatown is based upon how these many Chinatown roles on politics in planning are weighed. These roles make the area a community since a community is defined as a group of people habitation in the same place or having characteristics in common. Therefore, any planning should be done to benefit the existing and future residents of the area, which is not as the case in Chinatown. Planning politics commenced with the issue of water, then general welfare. Since the Chinese architecture has not changed over the centuries, the same architectural uniqueness is seen in the movie’s buildings. Most buildings are erected on raised platforms as their foundations making them higher than normal buildings. Pillars are also common in most buildings as they give support to vertical structural beams. The roofs are the most interesting part of the buildings where they have roof apexes; that are usually topped with a crest of tiles and statues for both decorative purposes and to weigh down the layer of roofing tiles for stability. The ridges are often well decorated especially for religious buildings or sometimes extended or incorporated from the walls of the buildings to form matouqiung (horse-head walls), which serve as a fire deterrent from drifting embers. These building’s designs are what gives the area it’s name because of the famous Chinese architecture that has been displayed on not only the buildings but also the gates, business premises, sculptures among other things (Chinese chamber of Commerce, 1). According to a proposed plan by the Chinese Chamber of Commerce to preserve and improve existing housing, there are certain prohibitions like conversion of upper-story housing to other uses. It a lso ensures that new buildings enhance Chinatown’s special characteristic. Parts of the area have also been designated a historic district while also setting up strict conditions before housing can be demolished. This ensures that the area maintains its identity of ‘china town’. Water in Chinatown signifies the impact on urbanization and expansion of Los Angeles. Water is a natural resource necessary for daily consumption by man; associated with political issues. In regard to The influence of the Regional Planning Association, the role of water is essential in city planning. (Southworth & Eran 72). According to Southworth (1995) an argument ensued among the officials on the costs of a through-street pavement and mainline utilities; which were not clearly understood (p. 72). According to Chinatown, water symbolizes a substantial and figurative longing which must be relieved. The longing of Los Angeles city is very self-motivated; based on water planning. This is b ecause; locating the water to the city would be very beneficial to the populace, and finances. The role of water in the movie is seen when an isolated part of Los Angeles is all dried up, and a child on a horseback who seems very thirsty is searching for water. Officials are seen in the movie using the allocated water spots as a cover for political actions; disregarding the physical state of the region. Mr. Cross decided to bring water to Los Angeles; with an intention of

Employment law 5 Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Employment law 5 - Essay Example minating potential employees especially with the belief that those involved in unions has a better and strong voice when it comes to airing their grievances. Moreover, it shows that the employer does not respect the employment law at all cost. The Labor Management Relations (Taft -Hartley) Act of 1947 dictates that employees should be allowed to join labor organizations with a collective bargain. Moreover, it does not permit the employers and unions from involving themselves in specific labor practices that are unfair hence, ensures and pursued employers and unions in engaging in collective bargaining, in good faith. In essence, the employers are proscribed from intimidating, coercing or even firing employees for exercising their rights to form unions or even become members of various unions especially when hiring them (Goldman, and Corrada 74). State â€Å"sunshine† laws require the release of all documents relating to state business. Are employees’ personal emails subject to public disclosure? Or do state employees retain privacy in personal emails? Although the sunshine laws of the United States dictate that all documents relating to state business should be released. Employee’ personal emails are not subject to public disclosure not unless the emails are related to a criminal offence that should only be handled by the Law enforcement act. In essence, Goldman, and Corrada 87 argues that, the federal and state law does not allow employers to ask or compel the employees to give details that are not related to work or state business. This is seen as a way of intimidation or intrusion of private life. Hence, state employees’ have a right to retain privacy in personal emails away from their state business a fact that has been echoed by the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 all based in the United States of

Assignment Essay Example for Free

Assignment Essay Practice of Management Assignment Individual assignment to be done as homework To be done in Word with a cover page Watch the full interview from the link below with Indra Nooyi, CEO of Pepsi Co and answer the following questions based on the Interview Interview link: http://www. youtube. com/watch? v=Ft7G549GF3Y Answer the questions with as much detail as possible Question 1 How do you feel about a boss who makes the strong connections with their staff and heir staffs families as Indra Nooyi does? Question 2 What is the operating philosophy of Pepsi Co? (explain in detail) Question 3 What was the specific initiative Indra Nooyi did to get ready for her first Job as a product manager for a textile company? Question 4 What are the characteristics that Indra Nooyi looks for when recruiting for the Pepsi co? Question 5 What does Mrs. Nooyi mean by dont run for office? Question 6 How did Pepsi Co handle the acquisition of Tropicana? Co? Question 5

Faith is believing what you know not Essay Example for Free

Faith is believing what you know not Essay â€Å"If Christ were here now, there is one thing he would not be, a Christian† (Berge, par 1). These are the words of Mark Twain as quoted by Berge in an article on Mark Twain’s View On Christianity-Changing Christian Thinking. Looking at the present day religion and in particular Christianity one is left in doubt as to whether the vision that Christ had for the society is what is happening today. Are the over 33,000 Christian Religions the kind of Christianity that Jesus expected 2,000 years ago? Mark Twain in his quotation did not mean that Jesus was a bad person that no one wanted to associate with. Looking critically at the present day Christianity, it is the other way round; Jesus was as Berge puts it â€Å"an exceptional person and believed in living a life as example towards others with kindness, forgiveness and love† (Berge, par 1-3). The true meaning of Christianity and that of religion in general has been manipulated to address the needs of man and it is currently totally opposite of what it stands for. It is not a surprise therefore that Mark Twain finds religion a huge joke. This essay looks at the negativism of religion as viewed by the great American author Mark Twain. Background information of Mark Twain To better understand the religious view of Mark Twain, it is important to first get an insight of his historical background. Mark was born in Florida on 30th November in the year 1835. He was by then called Samuel Langhorne Clemens. His father, John Marshall Clemens died when Samuel was only twelve. The mother Jane could not manage to support the large family of six and young Samuel no longer could enjoy childhood luxuries. Additionally, he could not proceed with his education and instead began working at Hannibal Printer William Ament. Division of labor was never practiced in Ament and Samuel did all sorts of work such as printing, editing, type setting, press-work, distribution of products among other tasks. Orion his elder brother was a journeyman printer in a print shop. However wanted to be a master of his own and in 1851 bought one Hannibal’s newspapers, Western Union. He took his younger brothers Henry and Samuel with him. When things did not work out well for Orion, Samuel worked his way out as a river pilot (Gradesaver, par 1-6). Samuel became one of the Staff of Virginia City Territorial Enterprise. He became a reporter or when said in the right terms a humorist and in 1863 adopted the name Mark Twain. In 1869 his first book, Innocent Abroad, was published. Due to its criticism, Mark was discouraged from pushing forth his literary call. However, he continued to publish articles and making lectures. Few years later, the Innocent Abroad made great sales and Twain was requested to produce another book. Twain composed Roughing It in 1872. He became an acknowledged writer after several other books were published such as The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, The Prince and the Pauper, Life on the Mississippi, A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court, The Adventure of Huckleberry Finn and The Gilded Age among others. He died on 21st April of 1910 as a prominent American writer (Gradesaver, par 7-12). Religious Affiliation and Activities of Mark Twain Mark Twain was a Christian by religion. His parents were Presbyterians and he was therefore introduced to church and the Christian teachings when he was very young. He grew up to become a Presbyterian. He was therefore a Presbyterian by religion, a religion of Calvinist Protestantism in the United States of America. Calvinist had a great Impact in the life of Clemen, the famous Mark Twain. As Dempsey puts it on Mark Twin’s Religion: Book Review â€Å"It was the religion of his upbringing, the religion of his wife’s family, and the religion of some of his important friends†¦many of whom were leading northern Presbyterian and Congregationalist clergy of the day† (Dempsey, par 4). Twain was brought up in a deeply Presbyterian family and as a religious obligation he had to grow up as a good Presbyterian boy (Dempsey, par 4). Twain was religious. Religion was part and parcel of his world and he could not evade it. Twain actively participated in dialogues on religion and attended religious services. From this base, it can be argued that Twain was a monotheist (Dempsey, par 9). However his criticism of religion in his literary works would make one doubt whether Twain was a true religious man. Twain was perhaps an atheist. He was not opposed to religion as such but the religion that had been manipulated to mean otherwise; a religion in which people played holy yet they are not, a religion that preached of morality when it did not uphold any moral values. Twain for this reason rejected religion. As Dempsey in the Mark Twain’s Religion: Book Review quotes the inscription on the statue of Twain, â€Å"His religion was humanity and a whole world mourned for him when he died† (Dempsey, par 1). At one time in a Holy Land expedition, one of his colleagues had introduced him as Reverend Mark Twain and a reverend he became. The author of The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calvary used to accompany psalm-singing Easterners as a way of assisting Reverend Henry Ward Beecher (The Ohio State University, pp. 1-2). He was so much into the religious activities such that he at times imagined he was a preacher, a prophet and a saint (The Ohio State University, p. 7). Mark Twain’s and Religion in his Literary Works His Huckleberry Finn The literary works of Mark Twain clearly reflects his negative views towards religion. Twain is opposed to religion and has no patience at all for either religion or for the subscribers of the religion (Example Essays. com, par 1). To him, â€Å"Religion is useless, worthless, and mindless and for those not grounded in reality† (Example Essays. com, par 1). This is a quotation picked from Huckleberry Finn by Example Essays. com in their article on Twain’s View Of Religion In Huck Finn. In this novel, the attitude of Twain towards religion is that of mockery and cynicism (Example Essays. com, par 1). Twain is at a far distance from the devoted Bible believers. He has much respect for superstitious things than he has for religion. This his clearly brought out in one of his characters Huck in Huckleberry Finn. Huck had great expectations that there would be bad luck in his wake when he killed a spider by accident and later touched the skin of a rattlesnake. Everything had come true as bad luck follows when Huck’s father returns and the snake did bite Jim. Huck makes a prayer to the Lord but nothing happens. This leaves Twain with a conclusion that religion is not helpful at all, it is worthless, more worthless in fact than what would seem to be an irrational superstation (Example Essays. com, par 2-3). As Example Essays. com points out in their essay on Twain’s View Of Religion In Huck Finn â€Å"Twain holds no punches in his merciless pounding of religion† (Example Essays. com, par 4). Twain in Huck attacks the believers of religion as well as religion itself. He has a strong distaste for religion as revealed by this book. No skepticism, no doubt, and no question can be raised regarding the aversion of religion of Twain. He neither tolerates religion nor the believers (Example Essays. com, par 4). Every religious character that Twain creates in the novel is covered with hypocrisy. It is true that religious people have a soft spot; a warm generous heart like Widow Douglas and Grangerfords. They show hospitality but they are full of hypocrisy. This of course is what makes Twain hate religion from the deepest point of his heart (Example Essays. com, par 5). Mark Twain is opposed to religion because religious people are hypocrites; they are fake and insincere so that they can impress everyone (BookRags, par 6). The Adventures Of Tom Sawyer In the book The Adventures Of Tom Sawyer, religion is a caricature. It forms an integral part in the society that the Character Tom lives in. However, Tom does not hold religion with the dignity that other people hold it with. Instead, it is a boring obligation and tiresome to him. For instance, Tom does not say his prayers before going to bed which is a powerful defiant act in regard to his forced religion (BookRags, par 1). Tom is a religious sycophant. His religious stand is for formalities. He works vey hard in trade to buy a Bible not because he is so much interested in religion but for his status in the society. Being religious is not his care but the status that the Bible will place him in is (BookRags, par 2). Tom is actually bored by the routine of going to church. He is however not alone in this but is in the company of many others. The monotonous sermons wear them out and their hearts yearn for anything that would cause interruption to the screaming preacher. They are all in stitches when the sermon is finally interrupted by such things as a yelping dog. His boredom and that of other puppet believers is a side-effect of formalities of having to go to church. Through this character, Mark Twain reveals his hate of going to church as an obligation. People go to church not because they want to but because it is an obligation (BookRags, par 3-5). Twain expresses his criticism on church revivals. In deed they are powerful tools to win people to religion and at the end leave everyone thrilled. However their effects are short lived as portrayed by the characters Huck and Joe. At the revival, they are fighting tooth and nail to seek the face of God but after a short time, they turn back to their earlier lives where they find lots of happiness. To Twain revivals and anything religious do not have any lasting effect and for this respect are worthless (BookRags, par 7). Twain sees religion as one big piece of humor. Widow Douglas is so religious and fervently prays that the sinful Tom is found. She is serious and absolutely honest in her prayers wishing for hope and miracle at a desperation time. Looking at the character of Tom, it leaves one in doubt as to whether her prayers are answered. In addition, the funeral of Injun Joe turns out to be an entertaining event rather than a religious event. Completely, it lacks real religiousness. It sounds funny that from miles and miles, people come to witness his burial. This is in the inclusion of people who had with their sincere hearts tried to plead for his crimes’ pardon. After he is buried the pardon is forgotten. He is also forgotten (BookRags, par 8-9). Twain hates religion for conflicting with people’s lifestyles. Huck does not understand anything that is religious; it never allows him to enjoy his lifestyle. Church is what the society uses to set limits for people. The widow that Tom lives with is deep down rooted in religion and wants Huck to be a very good church-going boy. Huck is however on the other side; Tom had just given him the promise of them becoming robbers. Religion in itself makes adherents caricatures to be laughed at (BookRags, par 10). A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court The greatest fear and enemy of Twain as expressed by Yankee is the Roman Catholic Church. He seems to have a strong distaste for the Roman Catholic Church for manipulating religion for the sake of politics. To Mark Twain, the church is a political machine. The Roman Catholic Church in particular is embodied in other functions other than spiritual functions that it deeply claims to advocate for. Through the character Hank, Twain accuses the overall church for upholding the 16th century ills in the society such as, social inequality, superstations, tradition, hereditary nobility, and subservience of masses. Twain is opposed to these practices and the Roman Catholic Church as portrayed in this book seems to be lenient on these vices (Gradesaver LLC, par 2). Still on religion Twain condemns the acts of those who uphold morality only at a superficial level. These people cannot take any action unless they are faced with a real experience. Hank and King Arthur fail to abolish slavery and they only come to realize the dehumanizing effects and oppression that slavery has on those in it when they themselves become slaves. The leaders claim to uphold the moral values of the society yet they fail to practice morality. This is what makes Twain suffer from a horse voice in condemnation of religion and its hypocritical moral practices. In all his literary work, Twain looks at religion from a negative point of view (Gradesaver LLC, par 2). In A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court, Twain views the Catholic Church as atavistic survival that has been transported into the modern era. Hank Morgan, a Presbyterian by religion for instance introduces many denominations for the fear of unity in the church. He fears a Christian family that is united perhaps because of the damage that it would cause to a hypocrite like him (The Ohio State University, p. 24). Twain makes use of the environmental determinism to make religion humorous as depicted by his books: Adventure of Huckleberry Finn, The Prince and the Pauper, A Connecticut Yankee In King Arthur’s Court, Life on Mississippi and many others. Twain in these works uses religious words that do have a negative connotation such as ‘infernal’ and ‘unchristian’. In this he suggests that there is danger in religion. The great American writer suggests that religious as well as denominations are deviant and unfair (The Ohio State University, P. 26). Twain’s religious faith was far much wide for any doctrine and too limitless for any creed. Mark was ignorant and disinterested in Christian creeds as well as doctrines. They in fact provide him with a creative spark for his literary works. His views on religious are clearly brought out by his literary works (The Ohio State University, P. 27). Conclusion Mark Twain was a realist thinking atheist. Though he was a Presbyterian by birth, he was opposed to religion. However, as depicted in his literary works, religion had been manipulated to fit the needs of the few. Religion in itself failed to stand for what it actually presents. Many of his works in literature such as The Adventure of Huckleberry Finn, The Adventure of Tom Sawyer, The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County and many others are grounded on religious criticism. He satirizes religion in the most humorous way. Despite the fact that he was brought up in a Christian family, his negative beliefs in religion isolates him from being a Christian or a religious person. He is an atheist who does not see anything good in religion. References Berge, Gregory. Mark Twain’s View On Christianity-Changing Christian Thinking. Ezine Articles. nd 2010. Web. 5 Aug. 2010 http://ezinearticles. com/? Mark-Twains-View-on-ChristianityChanging-Christian-Thinkingid=2012922 BookRags. (2009). The Adventures Of Tom Sawyer Book Notes Summary. Bookrags. com. nd 2009. Web 4 Aug. 2010 http://www. bookrags. com/notes/ts/TOP3. html Dempsy, Terrel. Mark Twin’s Religion: Book Review. Bochynski. com. 15 Jan. 2004. Web. 5 Aug. 2010 http://www. bochynski. com/twainweb/reviews/phipps. html Gradesaver. Biography Of Mark Twain. Gradesaver. com. nd 2010. Web. 4 Aug. 2010 http://www. gradesaver. com/author/mark-twain/ Gradesaver LLC. Connecticut Yankee In King Arthur’s Court Study Guide. Gradesaver. com. nd 2010. Web. 4 Aug. 2010 http://www. gradesaver. com/connecticut-yankee-in-king-arthurs-court/study-guide/major-themes/ Example Essays. com. (2010). Twain’s View Of Religion In Huck Finn. Exampleessays. com. nd 2010. Web 4 Aug. 2010 http://www. exampleessays. com/viewpaper/81878. html The Ohio State University. The Reverend Mark Twain. The Ohiostatepress. org. nd 2006. Web. 5 Aug. 2010 http://www. ohiostatepress. org/Books/Book%20PDFs/Fulton%20Reverend. pdf

What Is Postmodern Culture Religion Essay

What Is Postmodern Culture Religion Essay Some people see postmodern culture as liberating because it has broken away from the limitations of modern culture. Others see postmodern culture as superficial and pastiche of the worst aspects of modernism. Before we can explore these cultural themes and what they stand for, we must first define them. For the purpose of this essay I will not be going into much detail about the origins, features and differences when considering the concept of culture. But I will be focusing on the differences of modern-and post modern culture. To start with a simple definition according to Kidd (2003), culture means the way of life of a group of people. The patterns of social organisation and the normal ways in which we are supposed to behave in society touch all aspects of our daily lives. For obvious reasons not all cultures are similar, for example, just because social life, for us, happens to be structured in a certain way, does not mean that it has to be like this, nor that it was like this in the past or even like this in other societies around the world (Kidd, 2003:5-6). The sociologist Raymond Williams (1983), in his book Key Words: a vocabulary of culture and society, says: Culture is one of the two or three most complicated words in the English language. This is partly so because of its intricate historical development, in several European languages, but mainly because it now come to be used for important concepts in several distinct and incompatible systems of thought(Kidd, 2003:9). Two of these incompatible systems of thought can be considered to be modern- and postmodern culture. Modernity According to Kidd (2003), what we call modernity is usually associated with the era of industrialisation and the time when sociology was developed by its founders. Modernity-the period of the modern-comes from the Latin word modo, which means just now, and this key feature in the modernist spirit is: the founders idea that life and society had changed. Their times their just now were totally different from those of the traditional preindustrial societies of the past (Kidd, 2003:85). Modernity can be characterised by the following elements: industrialisation; urbanisation; a rise in the importance of science; the growth of the manufacturing industry, secularisation (the decline of religion); the invention of more advanced technology; rationalisation (Kidd, 2003:85). Modernity was the age of science, sociologists and discovery, based on the belief that humans could understand and control everything. The world of nature (uncertainty) was the slave and humans were now in charge. The mission statements of these scientists and sociologists were to find absolute truth, develop universal and general laws, to control the present, to predict the future and to control the shape and direction of the future (Kidd, 2003:85-86). Modernity was based on what is called the spirit of the Enlightenment- the eighteenth-century philosophical movement that addressed the importance of reason and the replacement of religion and superstition with science and rationality. According to Kidd (2003), Max Weber provided an excellent illustration of the modernists preoccupation with rationalisation in his sociology of music (1968, originally written in 1910-110). Weber saw the historical development of society as the development of rationality in all spheres of social life and social organisation. In this context rationalisation means the breaking down of an object of study into constituent parts in order better to understand the whole. Rationality is thus seen as a fundamental part of the rise of both science and technology in the industrial era, and as providing the momentum for industrialisation itself a highly modernist image of social change. Weber illustrated the historical development of rationality with reference to musical notation. For example in preindustrial traditional society, music was passed down the generations as part of folk culture. Songs were passed down by word of mouth and instrument making was the task of skilled people. With the onset of rationalisation there developed a concern to analyse what music actually was to break it down in order better to control it. Hence the creation of a universal system of notation, scales, tabs and so on. Just like the documentation and notation of music, the making of music instruments became a matter of mass production. The rationalisation process was seen as helping people to control the world around them: to seek out absolute truth and to make order out of the chaos of nature (Kidd, 2003: 86-87). Postmodernism It is very difficult to define the term postmodernism in one short definition because it covers such a large academic field and so much has been written on the subject. Let`s begin with a few short definitions and take it from there. Postmodernism refers to the intellectual mood and cultural expressions that are becoming increasingly dominant in contemporary society. These expressions questions the ideals, principles and values that lay at the heart of the modern mind-set. Post modernity, in turn, refers to the era in which we are living, the time when the postmodern outlook increasingly shapes our society. The adjective postmodern, then, refers to the mind-set and its products. Post modernity is the era in which postmodern ideas, attitudes, and values reign-when the mood of postmodernism is moulding culture. This is the era of the postmodern society. (Grenz, 1996: 12-13) According to Klages (2003) Postmodernism, which became an area of academic study in the mid eighties, is a term used to define the era after modernity. The Premodern (medieval) age was labelled the age of faith and superstition, followed by the modern age, the age of reason, empiricism and science. The postmodern age of relativity and, recently, the newest form of postmodernism, the age of holism and interdependence, followed. Respectively, the guiding metaphors are the created organism, the machine, the text, and the self-organizing system (de Quincy, 2002). Modernism has been introduced as a benchmark for the discussion of postmodernism, and two related terms, postmodern and postmodernist. One of the first writers to use the term postmodern was the American literary critic Ihab Hassan. In the second edition of his groundbreaking book from 1971, The Dismemberment of Orpheus: Toward a Postmodern Literature (1982), he draws up a list of differences between modernism and postmodernism. This list tries to present the focus between modernism and postmodernism and the terms used. Although many of the categories have remained highly controversial, it still is worth reproducing here as a guideline between the difference in mindsets between the two eras: Postmodernism Pataphysics/Dadaism Antiform (disjuctive, open) Play Chance Anarchy Exhaustion/Silence Process/Performance/Happening Participation Decreation/Deconstruction Antithesis Absence Dispersal Text/Intertext Rhetoric Syntagm Parataxis Metonymy Combination Rhizome/Surface Against Interpretation/Misreading Signifier Scriptible (writerly) Antinarrative/Petite histoire Idiolect Desire Modernism Romanticism/Symbolism Form (conjunctive, closed) Purpose Design Hierarchy Mastery/Logos Art object/Finished work Distance Creation/Totalization Synthesis Presence Centring Genre/Boundary Semantics Paradigm Hypotaxis Metaphor Selection Root/Depth Interpretation/Reading Signified Lisible (readerly) Narrative/Grande histoire Master code Symptom Mutant Polymorphous/Androgynous Schizophrenia Difference-differance/trace The Holy Ghost Irony Indeterminacy Immanence Type Genital/Phallic Paranoia Origin/Cause God the Father Metaphysics Determinacy Transcendence (Hassan, 1982: 267-8; Malpas, 2005: 7-8) According to Anderson (1996) we are living in a new world, a world that does not know how to define itself by what it is, but only by what it has just-now ceased to be. This view takes the position that the world has changed so drastically that confusion has taken over from certainty. The modernist world was fixed and it had a definite character. The post modern perspective explains that the absolute truth and definite standards, that modernity held, has collapsed. In post modernity truth, certainty and reality are provisional and relativistic. This is the case according to Kidd (2003), not just for morality, but also for the knowledge we have about the world around us. There are too many choices out there, all claiming to be the real version of the truth. Religion, politics, the sciences and so on all claim special access to the truth, but how can we tell which is correct? Knowledge has become a commodity and a form of power, rather than an absolute, a truth. Just as truth fragments into a plurality of truths, so the traditional means of identity formation based on class, gender, ethnicity and so on has been replaced by an individual search for meaning, and life-style has become a matter of choice. Ultimately, uncertainty, confusion, ambiguity and plurality will be all that is left. The French thinker Jean-Francois Lyotard, in his book The Post modern Condition (1984: xxiv), defines postmodern as incredulity toward metanarratives. What he means by this that in the postmodern age knowledge has become provisional and as humans we see the old claims to truth for they really are fictions, stories or narratives. Leyotard suggested that science and scientific knowledge have been exposed for what they are once powerful illusions that are powerful no longer. Hope can no longer be placed on the highly modernist notions of progress or reason since what claims to be knowledge depends on where one is, and how one chooses to see what is around one. There is no such thing as a single truth nothing more than a commodity. Knowledge can be bought and sold, and in the age of computer technology those who have the most knowledge have the most power (Kidd, 2003:90-91). According to Kidd (2003) a great deal of postmodern thinking is characterised by a belief called relativism. Relativism in postmodernism suggests that there are no absolute standards of truth, reality, morality and correctness, instead everything comes down to a matter of choice. This concept of relativism is in direct opposition to the modernist thinking discussed in the Modernity section of this paper. The founders believed in progress, development and objectivity but these are seen by postmodernists as nothing but stories, which in their time were powerful and shaped our thinking, but no longer. Critique of postmodernism While post modernism in itself serves as a critique on the principals of modernism, we havent explored any critique on post modernism yet. While many have embraced postmodern ideas, some have rejected them. According to Kidd (2003) the critics of postmodernism are concerned about the implications of these ideas for the future of sociology itself. If there is no such thing as truth, then what is the point of sociology trying to determine what the world is like? There are five main criticisms of postmodernism. First, according to Kidd (2003) is Norris (1992,1993), he considers that postmodernism is far too sceptical and relativistic to be of any use. Norris (1992) quotes an observation made by Tony Bennett: If narratives are all that we can have and if all narratives are, in principle, of equal value as it seems they must be if there is no touchstone of reality to which they can be referred for the adjudication of their truth-claims then rational debate would seem to be pointless. Secondly, according to Kidd (2003), Giddens (1990, 1991) notes with some concern that postmodernism does not give sociology a future. It denies the very Enlightenment spirit that led to the creation of sociology. For Giddens the postmodern denial of truth and reason leaves us with nothing upon which to gain knowledge and truth about the world. Third, according to Kidd (2003), many Marxists have showed that postmodernism may preach about the individual freedom and liberation from the modernists` past, but this freedom is an illusion since it is based on consumption. Given that consumption cost money, then surely some people are going to be more free than others? Postmodernism is said to provide a thinly veiled justification for the false needs created by the capitalist economy these simply ensures more profits for the capitalists themselves and thus ensures the perpetuation of an exploitative society. Fourth, according to Kidd (2003), if morality is indeed relative then this leaves us with no means of challenging, discrimination and prejudice in society. Finally According to Aylesworth (2005) the most prominent critic of postmodernism is Jà ¼rgen Habermas. In  The Philosophical Discourse of Modernity  (Habermas:1987), he criticises postmodernism at the level of society and communicative action. He defends modernists` argumentative reason in inter-subjective communication against postmodernism`s experimental, avant-garde strategies. For example, Habermans claims postmodernists commit a performative contradiction in their critiques of modernism by employing concepts and methods that only modern reason can provide. Which positions do I agree with? To conceptualize these two culture phenomenas in simple terms it would seem that modernism tends to be much more conservative than the liberal postmodernism. I will explain my position using the controversial animated TV show, South Park as example, from the view point of the episode I`m little bit country(Parker:2003). This episode originally aired during the build-up to the  2003 U.S. invasion of Iraq. The people of the town South Park are divided about the war. After splitting in two groups, both groups plan rallies: one pro-war (conservative: modernist), one anti-war (liberal: postmodernist), both on the same day in the same street. They end up having a great argument during both rallies, and in the end they get into a huge fight where they begin to kill each other. Benjamin Franklin (one of the founding fathers)  appears in the charracter, Eric Cartmans coma-dream and explains to him that the new country must not seem to be a war-monger to the rest of the world; at the same time it cannot seem to be weak either. Therefore it must go to war, but allow protests. The United States will go to war on one hand, and use protest to oppose the war on the other. He refers to the this as saying one thing and doing another. He refers to this as having our cake and eating it too. Cartman wakes up from his coma and delivers this message to the two fighting groups in the town, who see`s the truth of that statement and then break out into song (South Park Studios:2003). Thus my point is that we should apply both cultural phenomenas when living our lives but when doing so we should consider a healthy balance between the two. It would seem unreasonable to consider that everything has an absolute truth about it, because people and things change all the time and not everything is constant and controllable as the modernists would like to believe. On the other hand everything can`t be relative because there has to be absolute truth in world otherwise our lives would be uncertain in so many ways. For example all metals expand when heated is an absolute truth, when you jump of a 50 ft bridge, you are probably going to die. We need truth and freedom to coexist with one another, so if I have to label myself as a modernist or a postmodernist, then I am neither, I will take what I need when I need it . 2501 words

Software Engineering :: essays research papers

Project 5: Good Neighbors Campaign Project Description: Develop a database to keep track of 20 data points for each of USC’s 10,000 employees for the past 10 years (and years to come). This database would need to have the ability to generate reports based on various queries in order to answer questions about donation trends among the University employees. Team Members: David Stark David Jeng Steven Cao Jamal Madni Contact: Aggie Afarinesh Campaign Finance Manager/Program Specialist Office of External Relations University of Southern California (213) 740-7400 afarines@usc.edu CSCI 477—Project Deliverables Operational Concept Description 1.1 Summary The Good Neighbors Campaign (GNC) is an annual giving campaign for the staff and faculty of the University of Southern California. Funds raised by this campaign are granted to nonprofit community organizations located in the University Park and Health Sciences Campus neighborhoods. These funds go toward community development, economic development, health education and support, arts education, and after school programs for children. The University Of Southern California Office Of External Relations (USC OER) is looking for a database that can store all current and historic donations. They would also like a program or system that can streamline data collection as well as generate reports to track campaign effectiveness. Long-term goals include an easy user interface for the donation process. The system is being built because over the past ten years, the OER has collected a plethora of data and needs an efficient method of interacting and analyzing donation trends. They also would like to have this system implemented for the next campaign drive in fall 2005. At the moment, all data entry is done by hand by a single person. Also, the only way to interact with the database is through one administrator’s computer. The current process also poses a large potential of human error that could significantly compromise the database’s integrity. The new system will reduce the error and time of data entry. It will generate reports more easily and flexibly as well as inform department heads about the donation of their employees. It will also provide this functionality through a user friendly web interface. 1.1.1 Original Description from Client The OER is looking for a database that can integrate all of the donation history for the past ten years. This would include data points for each employee for each of the past ten years. All employee information must be accessed through the payroll department. 1.1.2 Organizational Goals Goal Identifier  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  OG-1 Organizational Goal  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Increase donations Measurable  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Since donations are pledged annually, donations will be measured with respect to previous years.

Leukemia Essay -- Health Medical Cancer

Leukemia Leukemia is a disease that affects blood-forming tissues, mainly bone marrow. Leukemia also affects the lymph glands and spleen. Leukemia causes the body to produce an extreme amount of abnormal white blood cells. This causes infections because the abnormal cells cannot stop infections like the normal cells do. Leukemia also causes anemia. Anemia is a disease in which the body makes less blood cells. This happens because the leukemic cells crowd the system. Leukemia also causes excessive bleeding. This happens because the amount of platelets will decrease and clotting will not occur, Researchers think a change in genetic structure causes leukemia. Changes in gene structure could be caused by environmental problems. Some of these problems could be: birth defects, radiation, viruses, and chemicals. Leukemia is not inherited and is not contagious. There are two major types of Leukemia, Lymphocytic and Granulocytic. In Lymphocytic Leukemia white blood cells known as Lymphocytes, which are made in the Lymph glands and bone marrow are abnormal or immature. In Granulocytic Leukemia this causes an increase in white blood cells known as granulocytes. Granulocytes are made in the bone marrow, and other tissue. Granulocytes that are affected by leukemia cannot fight of infections. There are two ways in which leukemia can occur. One is acute, and the other is chronic. Acute leukemia is found most in children. It progresses r...

Network Security Essay

Firewall:- A firewall is a software program or a piece of information that help screen out hackers, virus, worms and Trojan horse that try to reach to your computer over the internet. If you use a computer at home the most efficient and important step to help your computer to protect by turning on your firewall. If you have a more than one computer connects in home. It is important to protect every computer. You should have a hardware firewall (such as router) to protect your network, but you should also use software firewall on each computer to prevent the spread of virus your network. If your computer is a part of business, you should follow the policy established by network administrator. How it works:- When your firewall protection is turned on, everything that goes in and out of the network is monitored. The firewall monitors allows ‘good data’ in and block ‘bad data’ from entering your network. Firewall uses one or combination of the following method to control the traffic in and of the network:- 1) Packet filtering:- The most basic form of firewall software uses pre-determined rules to create different filters. If an incoming packet of data (small chunk of data) is flagged by the filters, it is not allowed through. Packets that make it through the filters are sent to requesting system and all others are discarded. 2) Proxy services:- A proxy service is an application that acts as an intermediary between systems. Information from the internet is received by the firewall and sent to the requesting system and vice versa.   Proxy server operates at the application layer of firewall, where both ends of the connection are forced to conduct session through the proxy. They operate by creating and running a process on the firewall that mirrors a service as if it were running on the host end, and thus centralize all the information transfer to the firewall for scanning. 3) Stateful inspection:- The most modern method of firewall scanning that does not rely on memory intensive examination is ‘Stateful inspection’. A Stateful firewall  holds significant attributes of each connection of trusted information for the duration of session. These attributes which are collectively known as state of the connection may include ip addresses, ports involved in the network and number of packets being transferred. Types:- There are two types of firewall that are as follows:- Hardware firewall. Software firewall. 1) Hardware firewall:- Hardware firewall built into the device such as routers and can protect every single machine on a network and require little configuration for efficient work. They mostly use packet filtering technique to examine the header of the packet, determining source and destination, then comparing the data to a set of predefine rules, they decide whether to ignore the packet or forward to the next step or to its final destination. 2) Software firewall:- Software firewalls are the most popular protection method for home users. They usually come as standalone applications or as a part of complete antivirus protection software. That is why it is mostly used in personal network. Antivirus such as bull guard provides besides providing protection for inbound and outbound traffic. A software firewall also protects against worms and Trojan horses. The software firewall must be regularly protected to keep up the latest technology updates and provides effective protection. NOTE:- Each type has advantages and disadvantages, ranging from ease of implementation to high initial cost. Companies should use the firewall as part of overall information security program that includes data integrity, application integrity and data confidentiality and authentication.

Reform movements of 1820-1860 in the United States Essay

2. How were the reform movements of 1820-1860 in the United States related to the growth of industry and urban life? During the years 1820-1860, America has received a wave of social reformation movements that were in correlation with the growth of industry and urban life. This time period, also known as the antebellum era (time period before the Civil War) brought movements such as: the temperance movement (1826-1840’s), the movement for public asylums (1820’s and 1830’s), the public education movement/reform (1820-1860), the women’s rights movement (1850’s) and the anti-slavery movement. All of these movements were in sync with to the growth of industry and urban life. The temperance movement arose because of the urban life people faced in the city (alcoholics); the movement for public asylums arose because of the countless of people that had disabilities and the number of homeless people in urban areas; the women’s rights movement arose because of the way men treated women in both industry and urban life; and the anti-slavery movement arose because of th e way industry was treating them (such as too much work and no pay). The temperance movement (1826) and the movement for public asylums (1820’s and 1830’s) both arose due to the conditions the people of the urban life were facing. The temperance movement arose because there were too many people drinking liquor excessively after working hours, and strengthened after the Irish immigrated to America during the 1830’s (since many people stereotyped the Irish as excessive drinkers, the temperance movement was mostly aimed towards them). Many of the people that drank liquor claimed that it relieved their stress from working too much in the factories. However, once those people got home, they caused family problems, and sometimes cause crimes. This urban problem was a big dilemma, so people organized themselves and formed a temperance movement to ask for the pledge of people to stay abstinent. Another movement that arose due to urban problems was the amount of people that were homeless and the ones that had  disabilities. Throughout 1820-1840, urban life was full of crime because of the number of homeless people that robbed others. There was also a big number of homeless people living on the streets because the city could did not have enough apartments to allow people in. The number of people that had disabilities also caused a problem in urban life because they had a hard time struggling to survive. That is why people formed the Asylum movement. This movement called for the building of shelters for the homeless, schools for the disabled people and medical centers for them. This movement helped improve urban life to become a more tranquil place. The women’s rights movement arose due to the way they were treated by men. However, the women’s rights movement didn’t begin with the snap of a finger. Since many women were busy taking care of the house and their children, they didn’t have time to involve themselves in movements to support their rights. However, when the Industrial Revolution came to America, men left home to work for salaries, which meant they had less time to spend with their wife. With the addition of birth control, women had fewer children, which meant that they had time for social reform. After entering this â€Å"phase† women came to a realization that they resented the way men neglected them to secondary roles (which was to take care of the house and children) in the movement and preventing them from taking part of anything that had to do with politics. This sort of thinking can be classified as an urban way of thinking because in an everyday urban day, the mother would stay at home while the father would go work to get his salary. Although women fought for their rights during the 1850’s, their movement was obscured by the anti-slavery movement. This movement arose because the industry of America was treating them bad. In the South, many slaves were put into hard labor because around the 1820’s to 1830’s, there was a very high demand for people wanting cotton. The anti-slavery movement was supported by the Second Great Awakening (a time period in America in which religious enlightenment flourished). The Second Great Awakening brought over that slavery was a sin, and since many people were very religious, they didn’t like the fact that they were sinners (urban life ideals). The anti-slavery movement also brought abolitionists together to fight for their  cause and it also brought abolitionist newspapers such as _The Liberator_. Many people also didn’t like the fact that slaves were seen as business (industry), which gave them another reason to form the movement. The antebellum era brought many social reforms to America, and they were all in relation to the way the industry was growing and the way people lived in urban life. The temperance movement was in response to the crimes and the alcoholics that arose during the 1830’s; the movement for public asylums arose because of the number of needy people that were homeless and disabled; the women’s rights movement arose due to the way they were treated by men in their urban life and the growth of industry; and the anti-slavery movement was in response to the unfair treatment of slaves, the idea that slavery was a sin, and the fact that slaves were seen as a market. All these reforms arose because the people were reacting to the things that were happening to urban life and the growth of industry, and in my opinion, I think all these reforms were made for the best of mankind because they led to a safer and secure life.

American Psycho Book to Movie Essay

Allister Baudoin Mr. Jason Raush Lit. of Extreme Situations 8 April 2013 American Psycho Novel and Movie Comparison After the release of Bret Easton Ellis’ American Psycho, and the critical response that soon followed, many would believe that a film version of such a creatively gruesome novel would be an impossible task to undertake. The extended seemingly endless descriptions, stream of conscious narrative, countless scenes of grotesque violence, and not to mention a literary ban in both Germany and Australia are just a few reasons why so many believed a movie could never exist.However in the spring of 2000, director Mary Harron defied the odds and transformed this controversial work from hardcover to the big screen. Remarkably a huge success, the film captures the weaving, often-satirical, themes of the book, while staying true to the not so hidden horrors of a 1980’s New York yuppie turned serial killer Patrick Bateman. Where the book gave readers the eyes and insigh t of a warped Patrick Bateman, the movie displayed a more outward perspective, balancing the darkly comical with hints of insanity that built toward the unraveling of this American Psycho.Some may argue that serial killers are born with the inevitable urge to murder, while others believe these actions are a direct result of environmental culturing. The character of Patrick Bateman would justly cause anyone to question this notion. In the film, Mr. Batman, ingeniously portrayed by Christian Bale, begins the film with a seemingly levelheaded temperament. This illusion is short lived however and is broken when a scene, mirroring that of the second chapter of the book, shows Bateman’s obsessively thorough morning routine.The film quite accurately depicts the various products and processes that were read as lists upon lists of description within the novel. Another point in which Mary Harron illustrates the maddening obsessive tendencies of Bateman occurs during the often one-sided dialogues about his favorite musical artists. Full chapters of the novel are dedicated these shallow ramblings that send readers into an almost absorbed state of psychosis.Although the film could not hold this exact effect, many of these lines were straight from the novel, except for the Phil Collins references, and were stated under a comical tone that stayed true to the satirical nature of the work. Each of these scenes shows the progression of a Patrick Bateman that has become less of a human and more a product of society. The greatest difference from book to film lies in the scenes of abundant violence.Although the film had to alter certain portions to receive an â€Å"R† not â€Å"NC-17† rating, the movie, even with the old cuts in place, would still not even scratch the surface of the horror and revolting actions found within the novel. Events like the killing of an innocent child at a zoo, the pieces of body left in his Hell’s Kitchen apartment, cannibal ism, and other more disgusting ways of torturing women were not visually placed in the movie.Nevertheless many of them were hinted at throughout which allowed audiences to imagine the terrifying acts that Bateman partook in themselves, actors the ability to play with dialogue, and readers to notice the inner most references to scenes from the book. Not all violence and gore was left to the imagination however, but were subtly shown for example by a scrape on a women’s back or by the image of a severed head tucked away inside of Bateman’s fridge until the climax where shots of former bodies are exposed during a chase seen with a women desperately trying to escape.All of the shots are creatively angled to show just enough violence to make you feel the impact of the act while crafting an air of tension that increases until he cracks. The progression of Patrick Bateman’s mental dysfunction and the unreliability of the main characters perspective, hit its peak at the end of the film. Surreal scenes of confusion and dialogue began to cloud the interactions that Bateman had with those around him. A growing sense of urgency in his demeanor countered by the cold glare of the other characters gave a perfect bridge to the theme of the novel.Now that we see Bateman shocked that his sick acts have gone with out consequence, the audience begins to question whether or not his horrid acts are only mere imagination. The end of the book, and most of the novel, give readers the assumption that these acts must be too extreme to have actually happened. The conclusion of the film lets the wall reliability crash down with the realization that you may have just glimpsed into the mind of the main character. Just like in the book, audiences grasp that Bateman may just simply be more psychotic than first perceived.The unraveling of his sophistication being the first sign brings question to the events that occurred and further notions of insanity. Although much of th e story may have been in the mind of Patrick Bateman, the ideas and fantasies that were birthed their and why they came about, are the root of what both Bret Easton Ellis and Mary Harron are trying to being to question. Was it instilled in a man to have these desires, or was it a society that brought him to it?

American Government: U S Democracy

Democracy is a system of governance whereby power vested on leaders is held by the population and leadership is through an accountable and transparent electoral system that respects the choice of the majority while listening to the views of the minority. The path to democracy has been long and vibrant with stiff obstacles that have had to be evaded or crushed in order for equality and equity to prevail under a democratic system of governance that promotes respect for individual and collective rights and freedoms.A radical shift from hereditary and monarchial leadership was necessary since this unitary holding of power vested too much privilege and power upon an individual leading to abuse due to self interest. However though democracy is perceived to exist in some regions due to a free electoral system, the process though accountable may bring about individuals who renege on their promises and completely disregard the pillars of democracy leading to a dictatorial regime that is unjus t and oppressive and does not respect the will of the masses.There are some countries that have endeavored to be a model of democracy by striving to grant all citizens an equal status and ensuring that a supreme constitution exists on which fundamental rights and freedoms are anchored. This is not to say that the democratic records of these countries are clean. For any monumental success on democracy to be achieved, society must be prevailed upon to discard certain moral and legal evils to ensure that freedom and equal opportunity thrives.On this front it is safe to say that the United States of America is a true democracy whereby all citizens and visitors coexist peacefully and all disregarding race are guaranteed equal rights and freedoms in the pursuit of their dreams and aspirations (Miroff, Seidelman, & Swanstrom 2007). The American constitution was formulated on the basis that power must always rest upon the people and so provided that all state and national representatives mu st be elected by the people through a fair and transparent election.The constitution further sought to limit the terms of office of a certain government to ensure that a regime may not abuse its authority to disregard the will of the people in order to selfishly retain power. A democracy is characterized by a view for fair representation and a prudent understanding that a separation of power is important to prevent a conflict of interest that might contravene the intentions of a true democracy.Where such separations do not exist or where those divisions are superficial, rule of law becomes geared toward promoting the will of the ruling minority and justice becomes fleeting since there usually results in a breach of the rights and freedoms of the populace. In this respect it becomes important to have three important branches of government whose mandate is clear and there exists clear guidelines on the powers vested upon each arm of government.In any democracy there should be a legisl ative arm whose mandate comes directly from the people and their primary role the formulation of law to act as a basis for unity, growth and oversight. Secondly a judicial system that is impartial and independent for the proper dispensing of justice and the protection of individual rights and freedoms. Lastly an executive is important to represent the sovereignty of a nation and lead the process of protecting the people and service provision. The United States of America has come a long way to reach democratic maturity.This process was full of radical actions by people like Martin Luther who felt that racial segregation was uncharacteristic of a democratic nation. The civil movements of the 60 have brought equality that was important to propel the nation to great social, economic, political and military dominance. Further more women lobby groups that relentlessly advocated for gender equality saw the broadening of democratic space and women have continued to reach influential politi cal and business positions and prospects are there on the possibility of a woman president in the country.Critics to this notion would need to be reminded that a few decades ago the prospect of a black president would have been unimaginable but 2008 brought a new dawn in American politics and democracy in general with the election of Obama as president. This is a result of a fair and accountable electoral system that ensures that the choice of the American people is respected. Miroff, Seidelman, & Swanstrom (2007) adds that the United States continues to ensure that individual rights and freedoms are respected and several bills have been passed by congress to ensure that .Some include the freedom of movement, information, privacy and expression. A robust security system continues to safeguard the rights of citizens to be protected from harm with strict laws enforced to protect property both tangible and intellectual. American government consists of the national federal government an d the state governments. While these states are subject to national legislation by congress, they however retain the power to make decisions that are of interest to these states on issues ranging from education, health, security and the administration of justice.National government consists of an executive, congress and the judiciary. The power of the executive is vested upon the president who may delegate such powers to the vice president and his cabinet for the smooth execution of government functions. The president is also the commander in chief of the armed forces but is also subject to consult with congress over the deployment of soldiers to wars. The executive can also enter into international treaties with approval form senate. The president is also responsible for signing bills into law and retains to an extent the power to veto certain bills.Executive power in the States is held by an elected governor who is responsible for providing leadership in the state and signing bill s into state laws. The most important arm of government is Congress which is granted several powers by the constitution. Congress however works hand in hand with the Senate but the constitution clearly spells out that congress is supreme in law making. Congress has oversight powers over the executive in issues ranging form taxes, military and security, provision of services, providing guidelines to the administration of justice among others.Lastly the last arm of government is the Judiciary whose core function is the administration of justice and the interpretation of the constitution to ensure that law passed by the legislative and executive arms of government do not contravene the constitution. There are federal courts charged with administration of federal laws and state courts subject to state laws. The highest court in the land is the Supreme Court and its decisions are binding upon all subordinate courts whether federal or state.These courts try both criminal and civil cases t o bring redress where violations occur. There have been this believes through out American politics that there is a great influence of a small minority of rich individuals in the outcome of American elections and in the way that elected leaders make their decisions. It is widely accepted that these individuals who are the core contributors in campaign funding will choose individuals whom they feel will contribute towards continuing with policies that will benefit their causes and make them wealthier.This greatly contravenes what the American constitution envisioned since it takes the power of the greater masses to decide elections since the choice of candidates in the primaries is greatly influenced by minority rich and influential individuals. Therefore Americans simply endorses one of the fronted candidate who is simply one of the two fronted by two different rich factions and the notion that Americans choose a president is jus a sham.It is my opinion therefore that we need to inc rease public funding to parties and independent candidates to counter the effect of the rich on Americas politics. It is also important that we see an entrance of more parties to give Americans more choice during elections to improve democracy. References Miroff, B. , Seidelman, R. , &Swanstrom, T. (2007). The Democratic Debate: An Introduction to American Politics. 4th. ed. New York: Houghton Mifflin.

Analysis of Investment Proposition on Cochlear Limited

Cochlear Limited is a biotechnology-based company with listings in the Australian Securities Exchange and global operations in all five continents. CEO Chris Smith heads the company with its board of directors headed by Chairman Rick Holiday-Smith (Cochlear.com. 2016). Cochlear Limited provides hearing solutions through its implantable surgical and non-surgical hearing products. The company has extensive sets of patents and applications numbering over 1000 upon hearing aid and sound processing technology. The company’s major manufacturing base is located in Australia and Sweden while supplies and distribution chains in over 100 countries with its headquarters located in Sydney (Cochlear.com. 2016). The company’s global operations are mainly segmented onto three different sets of geographical areas comprising of Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA), Americas (both North America and Latin America) and Asia Pacific. The company generated a revenue of A$ 925 million for th e financial period ended 31.12.2016 (Markets.ft.com. 2016).   The company provides solutions ranging from minimal degree of hearing constraints to sensory-neural hearing loss. Its primary products comprises of cochlear implants, bone conduction implants and acoustic implant solutions. In terms of its products that are to be surgically implanted, Nuclear 6 is of primary significance owing to its ability to restore hear-ability in cases of complete hearing loss in both ears. The Cochlear Hybrid offered by the company provides hearing solutions for people unable to hear high frequency sounds through providing simulations using electronic synapses. The Hybrid processor offered by Cochlear assimilates and synthesizes external sounds and converts them into electrical and acoustics outputs for the patient’s ears.   The company develops the Cochlear Baha by taking into account people with high quantum of conductive hearing loss and one-sided deafness. Baha comprises of titanium hearing aids that are implanted surgically at the back of patientà ¢â‚¬â„¢s ears (Bloomberg.com. 2016). In terms of revenue generation, the company has displayed steady growth over the past four financial periods with reported revenues of A$ 752.72 million for 2012-13, A$ 804.94 million for 2013-14, A$ 925.63 million for 2014-15 (Markets.ft.com. 2016).The revenues for the period 2015-16 was to the tune of A$ 1.13 billion. The revenues generated in the current year displayed a increase of 22.14% over the past year, thereby highlighting efficient sales management and product pricing strategy. The forecasted revenues for the years 2017 and 2018 stands at 1.244 billion and 1.37 billion respectively at the average growth rate of 10.17%. Figure 1: Current and Prospective Revenues of Cochlear Limited The beta of a particular stock showcases the degree of volatility that the stock experiences as compared to prevalent market volatility. A beta that equals 1 displays same degree of risks as experienced by the market whereas a beta that is lower that 1 shows lesser degree of volatility and therefore is less susceptible to financial risks. On the other hand, a beta that is above 1 shows a high degree of volatility coupled with high prospects of returns. Figure 2: Stock price volatility between June 2016 and October 2016 Cochlear limited has a beta of 1.2, which specifies the fact that in case the financial markets raises by a margin of 100, the stocks of Cochlear will rise by 120. This also reiterates the fact that a fall in the market by margin of 100 will result in shares of Cochlear falling by 120 points. For investors that are seeking to earn high degree of returns, Cochlear presents prospective investments. Whereas in case of risk averse investors, including Cochlear in their investment portfolio may result in increasing the levels of portfolio risk The company has a market capitalization of A$ 7.234 billion as of October, 2016 with the total number of shares outstanding at 57.42 million. The company has an Altman Z Score of 2.989, thereby leading to an inference that the company is unlikely to be filing for bankruptcy in the near future based upon financial metrics. It is because an Altman score of 1.8 is considered the threshold below which the probability of filing for bankruptcy increases substantially. Whereas, on the other hand, a corporate entity with Z score of 3 or above has low or negligible probability of going bankrupt or filing for insolvency. Therefore, based on the parameters as regards to credit risks it can be construed that the company is likely to display satisfactory levels of solvency during the financial periods. Dividend yield is considered another parameter for taking investment decisions because of the fact that it displays whether the stocks of a particular company are overpriced or not. Hirshleifer, Hsu and Li (2013) mentions that stocks with high dividend yields are overpriced as compared to those having a low degree of dividend yields. Risk averse investors seek investments with low dividend yield thereby at a dividend yield of 1.8% it can be inferred that the stocks of Cochlear are underpriced. However, at dividend of A$ 1.2 for each outstanding share it can be displayed that for investors seeking returns from their investment in Cochlear, the company’s stocks are not an attractive proposition. The analysis upon the revenue generating capability of Cochlear Limited shows that at average revenue growth of over 10% the company has efficient operations and sales management. The genre of providing hearing aid solutions has lesser degree of competition for Cochlear globally. The Altman Z score of nearly 3 shows the fact that the company has virtually negligible risks of going bankrupt. Thereby, investors can be advised towards including shares of Cochlear onto their investment portfolio based upon their degree of solvency. Moreover, analysis of the stock’s beta, belonging to Cochlear, shows that the beta stands at 1.2 which therefore displays the fact that the company’s stocks are subjected to high degree of volatility. Based solely on the beta levels it can be construed that the stocks posses high degree of risks with probability of gaining high degree of returns. Overall, judging by the different sets of parameters it can be concluded that in case of investors seeking lesser degree of risks in their investments Cochlear can be construed as a attractive investment proposition. This is owing to high revenue growth, satisfactory levels of dividend yield and sustainable degree of returns despite a beta of above 1. Allen, E.J., Larson, C.R. and Sloan, R.G., 2013. Accrual reversals, earnings and stock returns.  Journal of Accounting and Economics,  56(1), pp.113-129. Bloomberg.com. (2016). COH:ASE Stock Quote - Cochlear Ltd. [online] Available at: https://www.bloomberg.com/quote/COH:AU [Accessed 31 Oct. 2016]. Cochlear.com. (2016). Cochlear Hearing Implants | Official Website | Cochlear International. [online] Available at: https://www.cochlear.com/wps/wcm/connect/intl/home [Accessed 31 Oct. 2016]. Fama, E.F. and French, K.R., 2012. Size, value, and momentum in international stock returns.  Journal of financial economics,  105(3), pp.457-472. Google.ca. (2016). Cochlear Limited: ASX:COH quotes & news – Google Finance. [online] Available at: https://www.google.ca/finance?cid=671051 [Accessed 31 Oct. 2016]. Hirshleifer, D., Hsu, P.H. and Li, D., 2013. Innovative efficiency and stock returns.  Journal of Financial Economics,  107(3), pp.632-654. Intelligent Investor. (2016). COH. [online] Available at: https://www.intelligentinvestor.com.au/company/Cochlear-Limited-COH-249441 [Accessed 31 Oct. 2016]. Markets.ft.com. (2016). Cochlear Ltd, COH:ASX summary - FT.com. [online] Available at: https://markets.ft.com/data/equities/tearsheet/summary?s=COH:ASX [Accessed 31 Oct. 2016]. Sorescu, A. and Sorescu, S.M., 2016. Customer Satisfaction and Long-Term Stock Returns.  Journal of Marketing,  80(5), pp.110-115. Getting academic assistance from