Thoreaus’ Campaign against Blind Obedience to the Government

Led by his disgust against the slavery and the war of the United States against Mexico, Henry David Thoreau (1848) called on men and women to stand up against a government that perpetuates injustices through his essay Resistance to Civil Government, also known as Civil Disobedience. The central tenet of this essay is his pronouncement that â€Å"that government is best, which governs least. † He expounded on the role of the government as being more harmful than helpful to the overall condition of the people in the society.He said that even democracy is not an answer to this, because democracy simply highlights the decision of the majority, which is not necessarily seasoned by wisdom. One of the important expressions of the will of the government is through its laws. Thoreau, however, favors the cultivation of respect towards what is right since the law does not make humans more just. In this essay, he also used the metaphor of the machine in depicting the kind of agency the go vernment is.Moreover, he referred to people who blindly follow the government as robots without conscience. Thoreau also raised his voice against paying taxes and even voting for justice since, according to him, these activities only contribute to the injustices committed by the government. He conceded, however, that he is willing to pay taxes which will directly contribute to the upholding of his neighbor’s good.In a bold statement, he also called for the breaking of the law if the law is unjust. Being put in jail is but another means to assert one man’s freedom since the government cannot really take away from him who he is. Simple living is another value exemplified by Thoreau in his essay. By being simple, he does not have great anxieties. Thoreau’s essay has had far-reaching consequences and influence on subsequent leaders who used civil disobedience. Reference Thoreau, H. D. (1848). On the Duty of Civil Disobedience. Retrieved 19 July 2007 from http://www.panarchy.org/thoreau/disobedience.1848.html.

Comparison of High School and College Essay

I could go on and on about how many similarities high school and college have, but I’d rather interest you in their differences. The three main differences between these two educations are homework, tests, and rules of attendance. I would personally prefer college over high school any day. In high school, homework is pretty ridiculous. Teachers would assign homework every day and not only that, but they would check it every day as well. If it wasn’t perfect we would get points taken off and we would have to re-do the problems we got wrong. Teachers are also unreasonably lenient in high school too. For example, the â€Å"I left my paper at home, can I turn it in next class?† excuse is okay in high school. This is because they will and always will. Teachers know what college is like and want to give students the benefit of the doubt as much as they can before they get crushed in college. College as you would expect, is much harder than high school responsibility wise. In my math class, homework isn’t even assigned, let alone checked. It is my own responsibility to do it so that I will do well on tests and quizzes. Nobody is going to check on you to make sure you are doing what you are supposed to be doing. Honestly, it almost seems that nobody cares either. Of course teachers care if you fail their class, but they only care if you tried extremely hard and worked really hard. Nine times out of ten, a student failed due to laziness and irresponsibility to get assignments into their teachers on time which is when a teacher won’t care. If you do happen to get a teacher who assigns homework and checks it, you better have it done by the due date. If you don’t, unless you are dying, no excuse is persuasive to a teacher in college. There really is no excuse for late work in college because it is preparing you for the job world. Tests and quizzes in high school pretty much expect the teachers to give students study guides and so forth. If you miss a test or quiz in high school you can make it up in your resource time or whenever the teacher says so. If you are an idiot and decide to cheat on a high school level test you might get a warning, or you might even get a zero. In college the testing strategy and rules along with it are different. The only course that usually requires a lot from personal experience would be math. Every other course basically only has a final exam at the end of the semester and possibly a few quizzes along the way. If you miss these final exams or quizzes they are automatically zeros and you just wasted a lot of money. Another difference in college is that some tests or quizzes are online whereas in high school everything takes place in the classroom. The last major difference between tests in high school and college is that if you get caught cheating in any way at the collegiate level you won’t get a zero, or a warning. You will get thrown out of the institution without a refund. This last cool difference could be the deciding factor whether you pass or fail. In high school your teacher is required to take attendance of every student in class every day. If you are late to class you must get a pass and if you don’t show up at all it counts as an absence on your report card. Sometimes excuses work with some teachers but that usually isn’t the case. However, when you reach college you will find that some professors could care less if you come to class late or don’t come at all. You won’t be marked down as an absence or anything. This is because professors get paid regardless if you show up or not. Ideally, as you would expect, college is much different than high school. I was always the kid who turned assignments in late and every time I got away with it. Sometimes I wouldn’t show up to class and made up a stupid excuse for it and nobody questioned me. Now I’m in college and things are very different for me. I used to hate having to do homework assignments every day and having to do them right knowing they would be checked for correction. I just never realized the importance of being forced to do them and how much it would help me learn the information. So when a professor tells me I don’t have to do homework and it won’t be checked I listened to him and now I don’t know how to do the chapter we are learning in math. Now that I’ve realized the importance of doing the homework instead of waiting to be asked to do it and checked I just do it so that I won’t suffer on the test or quiz due to my own ignorance. I’ll be okay in college as long as I remember what’s important to me which am getting a job when finally getting my engineering degree. You always have to remember what’s important to you because if you don’t then you will fall behind in life and you don’t want to fall behind in anything you do. It’s pretty unnecessary and unneeded but either way you won’t be successful. High school and college are very different in a couple senses but they are different for a reason. If you don’t take advantage of these reasons then they will take advantage of you. Homework, test and attendance policies are the 3 main differences between high school and college. There is more homework, more tests and stricter attendance policy in high school.

Bookbinders Book Club Essay

1. Before beginning any case, students should familiarize themselves with the model being used. Marketing Engineering for Excel comes with tutorials that demonstrate the capability of each model. The tutorial can be found under each model within the ME>XL menu after starting Excel. These tutorials are designed to work with our OfficeStar examples which are located in the My Marketing Engineering directory, usually installed in My Documents during software installation. The data required for this case is located in two files in the My Marketing Engineering directory (usually located within My Documents): Bookbinders Book Club Data (Customer Choice). xls Bookbinders Book Club Data (Customer Choice) Holdout Sample. xls 2. Introduction About 50,000 new titles, including new editions, are published in the United States each year, giving rise to a $20+ billion book publishing industry. About 10 percent of the books are sold through mail order. Book retailing in the 1970s was characterized by the growth of chain bookstore operations in concert with the development of shopping malls. Traffic in bookstores in the 1980s was enhanced by the spread of discounting. In the 1990s, the superstore concept of book retailing was responsible for the double-digit growth of the book industry. Generally situated near large shopping centers, superstores maintain large inventories of anywhere from 30,000 to 80,000 titles. Superstores are putting intense competitive pressure on book clubs, mail-order firms and retail outlets. Recently, online superstores, such as www. amazon. com, have emerged, carrying 1–2. 5 million titles and further intensifying the pressure on book clubs and mail-order firms. In response to these pressures, book clubs are starting to look at alternative business models that will make them more responsive to their customers’ preferences. Historically, book clubs offered their readers continuity and negative option programs that were based on an extended contractual relationship between the club and its subscribers. In a continuity program, popular in such genres as children’s books, a reader signs up for an offer of several books for a few dollars each (plus shipping and handling on each book) and agrees to receive Copyright  © 2008 by DecisionPro, Inc. To order copies or request permission to reproduce materials, go to www. decisionpro. biz. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, used in a spreadsheet, or transmitted in any form or by any means – electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise – without the permission of DecisionPro, Inc. a shipment of one or two books each month thereafter. In a negative option program, subscribers get to choose which and how many additional books they will receive, but the default option is that the club’s selection will be delivered to them each month. The club informs them of the monthly selection and they must mark â€Å"no† on their order forms if they do not want to receive it. Some firms are now beginning to offer books on a positive-option basis, but only to selected segments of their customer lists that they deem receptive to specific offers. Book clubs are also beginning to use database marketing techniques to work smarter rather than expand the coverage of their mailings. According to Doubleday president Marcus Willhelm, â€Å"The database is the key to what we are doing†¦. We have to understand what our customers want and be more flexible. I doubt book clubs can survive if they offer the same 16 offers, the same fulfillment to everybody. †2 Doubleday uses modeling techniques to look at more than 80 variables, including geography and the types of books customers purchase, and selects three to five variables that are the most influential predictors. The Bookbinders Book Club The BBB Club was established in 1986 for the purpose of selling specialty books through direct marketing. BBBC is strictly a distributor and does not publish any of the books it sells. In anticipation of using database marketing, BBBC made a strategic decision right from the start to build and maintain a detailed database about its members containing all the relevant information about them. Readers fill out an insert and return it to BBBC which then enters the data into the database. The company currently has a database of 500,000 readers and sends out a mailing about once a month. BBBC is exploring whether to use predictive modeling approaches to improve the efficacy of its direct mail program. For a recent mailing, the company selected 20,000 customers in Pennsylvania, New York and Ohio from its database and included with their regular mailing a specially produced brochure for the book The Art History of Florence. This resulted in a 9. 03 percent response rate (1806 orders) for the purchase of the book. BBBC then developed a database to calibrate a response model to identify the factors that influenced these purchases. For this case analysis, we will use a subset of the database available to BBBC. It consists of data for 400 customers who purchased the book, and 1,200 customers who did not, thereby over-representing the response group. The dependent variable for the analysis is Choice — purchase or no purchase of The Art History of Florence. BBBC also selected several independent variables that it thought might explain the observed choice behavior. Below is a description of the variables used for the analysis: Choice: Whether the customer purchased the The Art History of Florence. 1 corresponds to a purchase and 0 corresponds to a nonpurchase. Gender: 0 = Female and 1 = Male. Amount purchased: Total money spent on BBBC books. Frequency: Total number of purchases in the chosen period (used as a proxy for frequency. ) Last purchase (recency of purchase): Months since last purchase. First purchase: Months since first purchase. P_Child: Number of children’s books purchased. BOOKBINDERS BOOK CLUB CASE 2/4 P_Youth: Number of youth books purchased. P_Cook: Number of cookbooks purchased. P_DIY: Number of do-it-yourself books purchased. P_Art: Number of art books purchased. To assess the performance of the model, the data set includes a second sheet with 2300 customers–a holdout sample representative of the entire target market. The use of such a validation sample is an appropriate way to compare alternative models. BOOKBINDERS BOOK CLUB CASE 3/4 EXERCISES BBBC is evaluating three different modeling methods to isolate the factors that most influenced customers to order The Art History of Florence: an RFM (Recency, Frequency and Monetary Value) model, an ordinary linear regression model, and a binary logit model. 1. Summarize the results of your analysis for all three models. Develop your models using the case data files and then assess them on the holdout data sample. Interpret the results of these models. In particular, highlight which factors most influenced the customers’ decision to buy or not to buy the book. Bookbinders is considering a similar mail campaign in the Midwest where it has data for 50,000 customers. Such mailings typically promote several books. The allocated cost of the mailing is $0. 65/addressee (including postage) for the art book, and the book costs Bookbinders $15 to purchase and mail. The company allocates overhead to each book at 45 percent of cost. The selling price of the book is $31. 95. Based on the model, which customers should Bookbinders target? How much more profit would you expect the company to generate using these models as compared to sending the mail offer to the entire list? Based on the insights you gained from this modeling exercise, summarize the advantages and limitations of each of the modeling approaches. Look at both similar and dissimilar results. As part of your recommendations to the company, indicate whether it should invest in developing expertise in any of these methods to develop an in-house capability to evaluate its direct mail campaigns. How would you simplify and automate your recommended method(s) for future modeling efforts at the company. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 1 The case and the database were developed by Professors Nissan Levin and Jacob Zahavi at Tel Aviv University. We have adapted these materials for use with our software, with their permission. 2 DM News, May 23, 1994. BOOKBINDERS BOOK CLUB CASE 4/4

Biblical Criticism Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Biblical Criticism - Essay Example Biblical criticism is the general term referring to the scholarly investigation and study of biblical scriptures seeking to base grounds for discerning judgment concerning the writings. The discipline studies compositional, historical, and textual questions concerning the Old and New Testaments. In the preceding century, biblical criticism was divided into higher and lower criticism. Higher criticism concerns the study of the history and composition of biblical passages, while lower criticism concerns with closer examination of biblical texts to determine their correct or original meaning (Frigge 15). This paper seeks to discuss the forms of criticism in five ways: source, form, narrative (textual), historical and redaction. Initially, the scholars of the bible tried to harmonize the scriptures and gospels, an argument evident from the harmonization of the two narratives. Instead of harmonizing the gospels, Griesbach established parallel synoptic. The result was an ensuing question r egarding the accountability of the difference and similarities of the two gospels. This led to source criticism, with scholars trying to pin down the relationship between the sources and the synoptic gospels. Griesbach put forth an argument that Matthew was written before Mark citing the Jewish contents as the basis of the argument, but many scholars opposed the argument arguing that the book of Mark abbreviates Matthew (Frigge 68). The theory of Griesbach follows that of St Augustine, a Matthean priority proponent. On the other hand, modern scholars uphold the Markan priority and the source or framework being Mark. According to Taylor, Mark is more probable to be the source, as Luke is a quarry of stone for expanding an already existing establishment. Nevertheless, the proposal did not accurately account for the similarities between Luke and Matthew, which eventfully do not appear in Mark. H. J. Holtzmann put another source criticism theory forth in 1863. The two-source theory, Mar k Source ‘Q’ Luke Matthew, suggested that Matthew and Luke used marks to denote sources, and another common source ‘Q’. B. H. Streeter based his four-source theory on Holtzmann’s theory, with the additional argument that Matthew and Luke had some original contents in them. The four source include Mark, source ‘Q’, special M (unique material by Matthew), and special L (material unique to Luke). These theories however do not solve the mystery in its entirety. Occasionally, Matthew and Luke tend to agree with each other but against Mark. The explanations to these may be theological, traditional, or probably a different interpretation of ‘Q’ differently by Mark. Another possible argument is that one (most likely Luke) was more dependent, unlike Mark. There are also scholarly questions regarding the omission of some parts of Mark in Matthew and Luke, like the account of Jesus walking on water. Some scholars in theology, like Russ ell, believe that the omissions are not surprising. According to them, there is a possibility that each evangelist did some omission to best suit their Christological and theological needs and perspectives (Frigge 93). Another major setback in source criticism is the lack of evidence for source ‘Q’. A majority of theology specialists agree that Luke was using Matthew, as there is more Luke in Matthew than the other way round. Nonetheless, there is still the question concerning the reasons why Luke left the additions made by Matthew to Mark. At this point, the only possible conclusion is that there were different interpretations of the same source. However, existence and contents of Paul’

Provide a compelling conclusion to my thesis which answers beyond Essay

Provide a compelling conclusion to my thesis which answers beyond doubt the question, - Essay Example ce the early 1980s may have made it more likely that financial factors in general, and the booms and busts in credit and asset prices in particular, act as drivers of economic fluctuations; as a result, the current environment may be more vulnerable to the occasional build-up of financial imbalances†. Because of the above turbulences, the strategies followed by the companies regarding the security of their assets have to be formulated accordingly. The impact of globalization in this case is extensive. As Stiglitz (2004, 57) states â€Å"one of the most controversial aspects of globalization is capital-market liberalization—not so much the liberalization of rules governing foreign direct investment, but those affecting short-term capital flows, speculative hot capital that can come into and out of a country†. However, despite the existence of common rules in the regulation of financial markets internationally, each country follows its own regulations in all issues related with commercial activities. International rules can have just a ‘supplementary’ role and only in cases where there is no appropriate national framework of rules regulating the commercial activities in all their aspects. Regarding this issue it has been supported by Pagano et al. (2001, 502) that â€Å"the regulations that shape the design and operations of corporations and credit and securities markets differ vastly from country to country while even similar regulations are often unequally enforced in different countries; economists still have an imperfect understanding of why these international differences exist and of whether they tend to persist over time†. On the other hand, the existence of these differentiations could be limited because of the existence of Internet which impose specific rules and principles on the transactions made. The structure of business operations can be also influenced in case that a particular business operates online. Indeed, the study of Ellam et al. (2002,

International Distribution and Supply Chain Management Essay

International Distribution and Supply Chain Management - Essay Example Two key technological developments that have enabled customers to transfer and vendors to process consumption data are Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) and high-speed, batch-processing forecasting software. Coincident with the advent of these innovations was the evolution of cooperative customer-vendor business programs including Vendor Managed Inventory (VMI), Continuous Replenishment Planning (CRP), and Collaborative Planning, Forecasting and Replenishment (CPFAR) which became the hallmarks of 1990s supply chain management. The combination of new information technology and cooperative supply chain partnerships has made possible the sharing of consumption-based forecasting information in near real time. The results of these developments have been dramatic: improvements in product-forecast accuracy, reductions in supply chain inventories, and efficiencies in product distribution. Instead of monthly factory shipment information, vendors have begun to use four other types of demand data to drive demand planning systems. These alternative data streams are (1) customer forecasts, (2) consumer purchases, (3) customer warehouse withdrawals, and (4) customer orders. Collectively, these customer-supplied data can be used to form the basis for bottom-up product forecasts which, when aggregated and rolled back up the supply chain, more accurately predict independent demand than do factory shipment-based forecasts. Independent demand is the requirement for items that is influenced by factors that are external to the firms that comprise the supply chain. These external factors bring about random variation in demand for such items. Consequently, independent demand forecasts are typically projections of historical demand patterns. As such, it is assumed here that independent demand is derived from point-of-sale (POS) based consumption data, since consumption is outside of the control of suppliers, vendors, and retail customers. The primary reason for using

A Critical Analysis of Own Video Work. Hush (2013) Essay

A Critical Analysis of Own Video Work. Hush (2013) - Essay Example The movie focuses on the illustration of the psychological disintegration of the lead character, Alice, who bereaves the death of her son, Jason. She appears obsessed with her son and while doing the chores in the course of her daily life, her attention goes back to her son. Her son’s memories haunt her through his possessions such as his guitar and mask, the room he had used, his pictures and even the â€Å"Spiderman Song† from his favourite cartoon. She also seems to be haunted by her own childhood, which reflects on the fragmented manner in which the thoughts about her son come to her. She lives alone and the movie makes no reference to her husband or any other relatives. Thus, it transpires that her son was the only person she loved and cared for and this explains her obsession for him. This obsession with her dead child destabilizes her present life and finally erodes her sanity and she ends up in a mental hospital. The movie eloquently portrays the disintegration of the young mother by relying purely on the actions of the protagonist within 4 consecutive days inside her house and using distorted images of her daily routines. In doing this, the movie seems to have drawn inspiration from many acclaimed directors of the horror and psychological thriller movies, especially from David Lynch and Sharon Maguire. The movie has several elements that conform to the concepts of horror and psychological thriller movies, including its theme, the sequences of action, setting, sound and music. Rather than revealing characterization through dialogue or plot development, the movie focuses on simple and routine actions of the protagonist to reveal her psychological condition, trauma and obsession with her son. It, however, follows a systematic approach albeit through the depiction of the changes in the character’s routine to illustrate how her behavioural pattern keeps changing within a matter of a few days, due to her disintegrating mental state. Thus , the movie, through illustrating the changes in the behavioural pattern of the protagonist portrays her mental state and shows how the obsessions can devastate the lives of human beings. The creative minds of people can sometimes follow a similar line of thinking and, as a result, one artist may perceive the same method for illustrating a particular in the same way that another has done. David Lynch is a highly popular and critically acclaimed director who has created many a masterpieces that have been celebrated as epoch making events in movie history. He is also known for his style of depicting the psychological traumas in individuals by showing distorted images from their daily lives to allude to their deteriorating mental states. The movie Hush also displays several traits that are typical attributes of Lynch’s style of representing the psychological problems in his characters. This can be evidenced from how the character in this movie displays the disintegration of her mind through the variations in her actions. The audience initially sees Alice in the movie when she does her make up in a leisurely manner, paying sharp attention to the details. She works on her eyelashes and cheeks in an unhurried manner and the cosmetics and other items are kept neat and tidy. Thus, the movie creates in the audience the understanding that things are normal for Alice and she is in a relaxed mood. In the next scene she is again shown tidying up the house, slowly dusting the surfaces and then she wipes the framed photograph of Jason, pauses to take a look at him, touches the picture and then moves off. But the memory lingers in her mind, as suggested by the tune of the lullaby with its ending note. Alice prepares tea and sits down and stirs it when the camera zooms to the door of Jason’

Risks in the Project Management Case Study Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Risks in the Project Management - Case Study Example The author of the paper states that project management helps avoid problems associated with the project (Reiss, 2007, p.2). Hence in order to accomplish a project successfully role of a project manager is significant (Gido and Clements, 2008, p.303). In general, a project is faced with three constraints result, budget and time (Thomsett, 2009, p.7). Therefore to overcome these limitations the control process must have to strong. The case entails about two companies namely ACME fabricators and Arbor industries. ACME fabricator is in the process of setting their new factory and office at a semi-semi-rural. The company is socially responsible and would like their premises to be cleaner and greener. Hence in order to carry out landscaping activities, the company invited tender. Arbor industries, a company involved in the activities of landscaping was selected for the project. In order to ensure representations from both the sides Arbor has appointed a project manager to administer the wh ole process while the finance manager of ACME was given the role of overseeing the project. The project was running smoothly until the newly leveled lawns got damaged due to heavy vehicles. Due to this phenomenon, the first meeting between the two parties took place to decide the issue pertaining to damaging of the lawn. However, to sort out the issue there were verbal agreements between the two representatives. As things started to roll on smoothly, the finance manager suddenly left the company. The new representative who came from the side of ACME was unaware of the verbal contracts and several other internal matters. This has led to huge confusions between the two companies and created dissatisfaction. Nevertheless, the project ended before the deadline but with an exceeding budget. After the completion of the project, the senior executives found that the results were unsatisfactory, and did not resemble the proposed sketch. The next half of the report will discuss the issues rai sed in the case. A post-project review is necessary for the evaluation of project performance (Hedeman, Haren & Heemst, 2006, p.103). In this context, it will mainly sort out differences between the two parties. A post-project review is defined as the ultimate formal evaluation of the project that examines any new lessons which might benefit the future projects (Zedtwitz, 2002, p.256). How would you set about conducting such a review? The assessment is about examining what went wrong with the project and what can be done to enhance the quality of future projects.  

Questions on Social Change Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Questions on Social Change - Assignment Example But all the same, these changes have given women a more equal position to men in families and marriage thereby democratizing families and marriages Mooney, Knox and Schacht, 154-155). The gain involved with these phenomena is that human rights of women are better protected, and the major loss is that children of divorced parents lack the care of one parent. Should all countries insist that all children be in school?   To what level?   What is the answer for families who insist they need their children to help with the work?   Do a web search.  Ã‚   Are there any international groups which promote education and literacy in developing countries? All the countries should insist that all children be in school but the level varies according to the socio-economic conditions of the societies of those nations. For example, a developed country can show some flexibility in this regard by allowing children to choose home study or some other kind of informal education system because such a country might have wiped out social discrimination in the matter of education and also parental awareness about the importance of education will be higher.

Enhancement of Learning and Development Strategies Essay

Enhancement of Learning and Development Strategies - Essay Example As the essay stresses Hierarchical organizations are bureaucratic and somewhat rigid, since they only set base in stable environments. Market organizations on the other hand are driven by competition and have strong emphasis on productivity. As for family organizations, operations are very personalized and employees share norms and values. From the three, we chose to do a case study on a market organization that has a global presence, and whose products can be consumed by people of all ages. In addition, the type of organization needed for the case study had to be a well established company, whose history has been characterized by success. Accordingly, Coca Cola became the best option, considering that its employees need to be trained on how to handle a global consumer market, made up of people of diverse cultures and ages. This paper highlights that Coca Cola Company is a global beverage manufacturing company whose headquarters are in Atlanta Georgia. Being a global leader in beverage manufacture, the Coca Cola Company has had to deal with its fairs share of challenges and problems. For example, Coca Cola there have been issues of contaminated products, competition, allegations of racial discrimination, trouble with bottlers, and human resource management issues stemming from incompetent and untrustworthy employees. Most employees working within the company are not sure about the vision of the company, thus putting the future of Coca Cola at stake.

Mayella Violet Ewell Essay Example for Free

Mayella Violet Ewell Essay Mayella Violet Ewell is Tom Robinsons 19-and-a-half-year-old accuser and the eldest daughter of Bob Ewell; she has to take care of her siblings (such as Burris Ewell) due to Bob Ewells alcoholism. Before the trial, Mayella is noted for growing red geraniums outside her otherwise dirty home. Due to her familys living situation, Mayella has no opportunity for human contact or love, and she eventually gets so desperate that she attempts to seduce a black man, Tom Robinson. Her father sees this through a window, and in punishment he beats her. Ewell then finds the sheriff, Heck Tate, and tells him that his daughter has been raped and beaten by Tom. At the trial, Atticus proves that it was her father who beat her by pointing out that the bruises are on the right side of her face only. This is important because Toms left hand is mangled and useless, while Bob Ewell is left handed. When Atticus Finch asks her if she has any friends, she becomes confused because she does not know what a friend is. During her testimony, she is confused by Atticus polite speech and thinks that his use of Miss Mayella is meant to mock her.  By testifying against Tom Robinson, Mayella is trying to destroy the evidence suggesting that she had attempted to seduce him, and to do what her father wants her to do so that he wont hurt her — to eliminate her own guilt and fear of breaking a rigid and time-honored code. Mayella is played by Collin Wilcox in the movie.

Effect of Working Practices on Efficiency and Productivity

Effect of Working Practices on Efficiency and Productivity Abstract Aim The aim of this project is to identify why current working practices and procedures are affecting workshop efficiency (class contact time) and productivity (hands on time) during the daily running of an educational motor vehicle workshop. Objective The main objective of the report will be to make recommendations on work area design and workshop layout and the proposal of new working practices and procedures to help improve the efficiency and productivity within the motor vehicle workshop. Chapter 1 Introduction Chapter 2 Background Clydebank College first opened as a technical college in 1965 its aim was to support the training needs of apprentices in the local manufacturing companies and the shipyards. The economic activity in the area has changed over the years so the courses offered by the college have had to change to meet the local employment needs. The original college was in a severe state of disrepair and as a result of this Clydebank College opened a brand new  £34 million campus at Queens Quay on the riverside at Clydebank in the summer of 2007. The college delivers education and training from its main campus in Clydebank, and from community outreach centres in Dumbarton and Faifley. Most of the colleges learners come from areas of high unemployment, where there is a low participation in further education and a lower proportion of school leavers than average progress into higher education. 2.1 Existing Laboratory The motor vehicle workshop at Clydebank College is a single room, open plan, workshop approximately 25 x 20 metres (500m ²) in size. The workshop was designed to accommodate up to 6 classes of approximately 12 students and one lecturer per class. 2.1.1 Workshop Layout The laboratory has work bays laid out for 23 motor vehicles it also has to hold motorcycles, quads, buggies and associated workshop tools and equipment. There are workbenches and lockers situated at various points around the workshop, two communal sinks are plumbed in at one end and a moveable rolling road is installed in the corner of the workshop, cleaning equipment and large workshop tools are also stored in the main workshop area, all these facilities are shared between all motor vehicle classes. Open plan design allows a work area to be easily changed into a different workspace with limited costs should the need arise. The workspace is more adaptable and with no internal walls etc. the initial build costs are much lower. This open plan design of the motor vehicle workshop is a new concept for the college and most of the policies and procedures that are in place have been brought over from the old campus, whilst some of these policies and procedures do work there have been a number of issues develop over the last year as a result of this change in workshop design. 2.2 Automotive Curriculum The motor vehicle courses offered at Clydebank College are as follows: * City Guilds 3901 * City Guilds 4101 (Level 1,2 3) * HNC/D Automotive engineering 2.2.1 City Guilds 3901 Aimed at students with no previous qualification or knowledge of the subject area it is suitable for the 14+ age range. This qualification is ideal for secondary school students or as a pre-entry level to the modern apprenticeship program it focuses mainly on developing students practical skills with some oral questioning to test underpinning knowledge. 2.2.2 City Guilds 4101 Level 1, 2 3 and the modern apprenticeship program is an introduction to the maintenance, repair and diagnosis of automotive vehicles it has routes for tyre fitting, general fitting, light vehicle, heavy vehicle and motorcycle maintenance. The starting point for students with no prior experience of the subject area is Level 1 this level is suitable for 14+ year olds. Level 2 recognises that the learner will now be in a position to carry out routine tasks with a lower level of supervision and Level 3 focuses on developing students diagnostic techniques. 2.2.3 Higher National Certificate/Diploma HNC/D automotive engineering is delivered over 2.5 days per week for 2 years it focuses mainly on the theoretical side of automotive engineering but also has practically assessed diagnostic units. 2.3 Staffing The delivery of the motor vehicle curriculum is carried out by 13 members of staff in total. The motor vehicle section consists of a curriculum leader and assistant curriculum leader, 7 full time lecturers, two part time lecturers, a store person and two technicians. 2.3.1 Course equipment requirements The motor vehicle courses delivered at Clydebank College require various workshop equipments to facilitate the completion of practical assessments. See appendix A for a list of the equipment holding for the motor vehicle workshop. The majority of the workshop tools and equipment are centralised within the motor vehicle store and as such are not part of the problem that this report is trying to address. The equipment that is stored within the main workshop area is only to be considered during this report. 2.3.2 Health Safety Health and safety policies and procedures will not be analysed during this report, any issues found in this area will be passed onto the college HS officer for further investigation. 2.4 Literature Review The Design Council (About: Workplace Design, no date) have identified that there are a number of key challenges faced in developing a more innovative workplace strategy through a change in workplace design. The credibility of new ideas is usually always questioned because most people dont like change, especially people that have been in an organisation for many years. People in this situation have become comfortable with what they know and usually have a mentality of â€Å"what works now will always work† or â€Å"whats the point† or â€Å"if it aint broke dont fix it†. Most people have little idea that the working environment affects our attitudes and performance, (Strange and Banning, ) pointed out that â€Å"although features of the physical environment lend themselves theoretically to all possibilities, the layout, location and arrangement of space and facilities render some behaviours much more likely, and thus more probable than others.† â€Å"Educational institutes should learn to understand that spatial arrangements can support retention and improve student performances; they must also understand that good space is not a luxury but a key determinant of good learning environments.† (Oblinger, 2006) Any proposals to change the spatial arrangements within an organisation should firstly be discussed with the current employees. Management should seriously consider ideas from staff on workplace remodelling before imposing their decisions upon the workforce, it must be remembered that its the employees that have to work in the environment being changed every day of the week. It would also be wise to ask for employees to be involved at various stages of the process to assist in making the changes work. Keeping the facility or equipment in an operational condition can be difficult in a training facility due to an educational establishments varied hours and rates of occupancy. These can impact on the facilities operations and maintenance schedules. A proactive facility management program should be employed to anticipate facility problems rather than reacting to them when they occur (WBDG, 2009). This will ensure optimal long and short term use of the facility and if integrated early enough in the design process can improve productivity and reduce operating costs (Manuele, Christensen, 1999). Maintaining a training facility and its equipment in a clean and tidy condition will promote good engineering hygiene practises in its students. (Strange and Banning) highlighted ways in which the physical appearance of a campus convey a non verbal message, they cited research that links the physical appearance of a space to the motivation and task performance of those working in that space. The (Whole Building Design Guide, 2009) point out that training facilities, courses and timetables vary frequently and that instructors have different and evolving training methods. Flexibility, therefore, should be a huge consideration of any proposed spatial design change and is critical to the continuing success of an enduring training facility. (WBDG, 2009) also recommend strategies to assist in achieving an improved training facility such as clustering instructional areas around shared support and resource spaces and the use of an appropriate combination of stand alone moveable partitions between classrooms and shared spaces. Partitions that can be adjusted in height are a good idea to ensure some visual contact can be kept with the rest of the activities going on around, but a degree of privacy is maintained (Evans and Lovell, 1979). Research into partitioning in the nursery school suggests that young children prefer social contexts rather than the privacy of small activity spaces but as they get older it found they retain this preference but also realise that they need more peace and quiet to think!! It is also important to realise that partitioning can aid the control of the children where their own ability to control themselves is limited; as with younger children or children with learning difficulties. Workspaces should be arranged in line with the educational goals of the training facility but should also ensure a moderate openness but with acoustical privacy; allowing students to hear their instructors clearly but with a low ambient background noise and few distractions. This would be achieved with some form of room partitioning. (Hudson Valley Community College, 2009) agreed that their proposed new automotive training facility would have mini-labs with lab space for three cars as well as two vehicle lifts and an area with work benches and tool storage areas. This facility design, they believe, would improve the educational environment and enhance the students workforce readiness by working in a space that is similar to the space they will experience in the workplace. (Klatte and others, 1997) also emphasized that a standardised, ergonomically designed workspace as the basis for an improvement in working and (Govindaraju, 2001) stated that ergonomic considerations improve human performance. Kletz (1991) wrote that it is difficult for engineers to change human nature and, therefore, instead of trying to persuade people not to make mistakes, we should accept people as we find them and try to remove opportunities for error by changing the work situation, that is, equipment design or the method of working. Like many other organisations, Cisco concluded that their workplace environment was at odds with the way they worked. They believed a flexible, collaborative workspace would improve employee satisfaction and increase productivity. Some solutions that were introduced were unassigned workspaces, small individual workstations, highly mobile furnishings and space dividers and lockers for personal items. (Cisco-Connected workspace enhances work experience) Changes to spatial layouts can be costly, complex and highly disruptive when changing the physical layout or the fabric of the building. This level of cost is not relevant to all organisations and all proposed changes and with some smart thinking design ideas to improve efficiency can be implemented with a prudent level of expenditure. Any changes made to a workplace should be measurable. Deciding on the evaluation criteria at an early stage will allow changes to be measured. Measurement criteria should be sensible and simple, such as staff absences, running costs, replacing damaged/lost equipment, the intensity of space occupancy or error reporting, staff and student morale. (Kuh et al,) discovered that the physical environment is an important characteristic of institutions that do exceptionally well in engaging with their students and that spatial arrangements support learner retention and are a key factor in a quality learning environment. If a superior quality product or result is wanted then it must be designed into new systems and processes (Deming, 1986). Process improvement is a never ending cycle that requires continuous efforts to bring new ideas to improve performance. Changes in customer needs, changes in technology and competitors speed up these efforts (Kumru, Kilicogullari, 2007). Chapter 3 Laboratory Issues The motor vehicle workshop is an extremely difficult area to manage in its current form mainly due to its size, number of staff, the quantity of equipment and the number of activities undertaken within. The assistant curriculum leader is responsible for managing the workshop in its entirety on a daily basis. The ACL must ensure that vehicles are not being damaged and that they are put back together fully following classroom activities; that shared resources are maintained in a serviceable condition and are returned to their correct locations. The ACL must also ensure that the workshop in general is kept in a clean and well maintained condition and is responsible for the health and safety of staff and students within. All these tasks must be done whilst still being committed to a full teaching timetable that very rarely takes place in the workshop. Workshop practical time is at a premium for students and is essential for completing a motor vehicle course successfully. Full time students would expect to receive 9 hours tuition per week in the classroom for technology theory and 9 hours per week tuition in the vehicle workshop on practical tasks and assessment. A typical schools class would normally spend approximately 80 hours per week in the workshop and is assessed on practical competencies only. Students whilst in the motor vehicle workshop can and do spend a lot of time collecting hand tools, finding equipment, finding serviceable equipment, waiting for shared resources to become available, travelling through other classes to find shared resources, rectifying unreported vehicle faults and a lot of time can be spend standing around or misbehaving whilst a lecturers time is spent elsewhere remedying one or more of the above. Student lab time is normally affected by one or more of the problems listed below. 3.1 Work areas There are no designated classroom areas within the workshop, bay allocation is on a first come first serve basis and lecturers must liaise with each other to obtain suitable class workspace. Lecturers can also find it difficult to keep track of their students in such a busy environment with no defined classroom areas, this can lead to health safety concerns and child protection issues given the number of students under the age of 16 years that attend classes within the motor vehicle engineering department. Workshop cleanliness and general housekeeping tends to suffer in or around the common areas currently there is no way of pinpointing who is responsible for the mess. 3.1.1 Mezzanine area The workshop mezzanine area is currently a disorganised storage point for most of the shared workshop equipment this equipment is getting damaged and is eating into valuable class space. Shelving has been ordered to alleviate some of the storage problems although there is no lifting facility to move objects to the upper level of the mezzanine. The mezzanine area is also used to store motorcycles, quads, off-road buggies etc for other specialist classes within the curriculum area, these assets act as a distraction to most students, and are sustaining damage when students ‘play on them. 3.2 Shared resources Most of the shared workshop equipment does not have designated storage points and are currently stored at random around the vehicle workshop; shared resources are not signed for and when finished with have no official storage area to be returned to; all this equipment is used on a first come first serve basis. Staff and students requiring the use shared workshop equipment usually have to travel through other classes to locate often causing a disturbance. When two or more classes within the workshop are using shared equipment such as jacks, axle stands or cleaning equipment there are not always enough units to go around this can leave some classes in a position were they must wait idly for this equipment to become available. Unproductive students can often misbehave or wander around the workshop through other classes causing a distraction trying to find equipment that is no longer being used or has not been returned to its original location. Shared resources also tend not to be reported by students when they become damaged or unserviceable because it is too much of a hassle and they have no responsibility for it. Presently there are four badly equipped tool chests for students and lecturers in the workshop to share. Tools regularly go missing from these toolboxes due to them being left lying around the various work areas or tools can become damaged without being replaced. Workshop vehicle keys are issued from the main storeroom to students as and when they are required; these keys can mistakenly get taken home and cars can get started unnecessarily, sometimes dangerously as most of the motor vehicle students are not competent enough technically or yet hold a valid driving licence. Damage to equipment, unproductive students, class disturbances, HS issues 3.3 Fault reporting Vehicle faults, damaged equipment and work requests to the technicians are passed through a paper based work request slip, only the technician and lecturer requesting the work know that the job exists, there is no way of informing other lecturers that a job on a vehicle has not been completed in time other than by word of mouth this can sometimes lead to a class having to put a vehicle back together before they start their own work or a class expecting to start work on a vehicle but find that the car has been broken and nobody knows about it. There is also no system to inform other lecturers that a vehicle has been set up for an assessment, again, other than by word of mouth. 3.3.1 Welfare Lockers are not issued permanently to motor vehicle students but are issued by lecturing staff at the start of each lesson and keys receipted at the end. There are not always enough lockers for students when the workshop is busy as presently locker keys are owned by lecturing staff and not shared, some lecturing staff have no access to lockers unless they are borrowed from colleagues. 3.3.2 Learner Retention and Pass Rates The problems highlighted can and do affect the students learning experience they stretch workshop resources, reduce the students practical time on vehicles and impact on the lecturers contact time with the class, this will affect learner retention and ultimately student pass rates. Very little has been written on improving efficiency and productivity in an educational vehicle workshop. Work study Method study Motion study Motion economy Time study Work measurement Why are the indentified problems a problem? Poor citing of shared resources, inability to find equipment, lack of fault reporting, etc. all lead to a reduction in efficiency and productivity. What would stop the problems from being problems? Having lecturers take responsibility for areas of the workshop. Better citing of, and designated areas for, shared resources, more classroom resources or better citing of existing classroom equipment. An effective fault reporting mechanism put in place. Equipment in designated areas with workshop plan and equipment lists at each base to easily guide students to equipment location. How are we going to implement or manage the change? Break the workshop down into smaller workshop or classroom areas, equip each classroom individually and assign a lecturer or two to manage each classroom. Colour coded equipment within each classroom for ease of identification. What has happened as a result of the changes? All equipment within each classroom is sufficient to complete tasks within it. Equipment is placed back at its storage point at the end of each lesson. Faults are reported to lecturers as they happen and dealt with or serviceable classroom equipment is compromised. Chapter 4 Preferred Setup It has been proven since the opening of the new college that a workshop of this size cannot be managed effectively without a full time workshop manager in place. This appointment will never happen in an educational institution so other forms of managing the work space must be found. The workshop should be organised in such a way that it is self managing but it must also be able to be used as an efficient reporting mechanism for informing the assistant curriculum leader/curriculum leader of issues arising in the workshop to enable them to be acted upon. Individual members of staff should have a clear understanding of what is expected of them and be accountable for their own and their students actions. The preferred arrangement in any motor vehicle workshop should see that it is adequately equipped and that the equipment is suitably positioned in such a way that it provides an efficient means of working. Where similar workshop tasks are being performed the equipment and mechanisms for management should be identical so that all staff members are clear about what is expected and that there is no ambiguity or confusion when staff are timetabled to work in various areas of the workshop. When part time members of staff are employed there is only one system of work to learn, all advice or questions will be responded to with the same answer as each permanent member of staff will be working to the same set of procedures. 4.1 Proposed Changes to the Laboratory To rectify the problem of workspace allocation it is proposed that the interior of the workshop be split into 6 classroom areas excluding the mezzanine area. The six workshop areas should be timetabled individually from the college central timetabling system. Timetabling each area separately will prevent the workshop from becoming overloaded and will ensure that each class has a designated work area for the duration of their allocated slot. Splitting the laboratory from one large area into six smaller areas will ease the burden of its day to day management. One person will not be required to continually oversee the daily operation of the workshop instead they will only need to be reported to. Each individual lecturer within the department by being centrally allocated a work area will be required to take ownership for it and will therefore be accountable for all that goes on within that area. The six classroom areas should be partitioned by some form of barrier i.e. moveable boards or screens, the barriers will provide a clear indication of classroom boundaries and assist with identifying class areas of responsibility. The barriers will help prevent pupils from straying away from their work areas making it easier for lecturers to keep track of their students. The barriers should also assist in preventing students from disturbing other class lectures. Dividing classrooms within the workshop will assist in the control of school aged pupils; closer supervision is required for these class groups due to their maturity levels and inability to relate to health and safety requirements. Child protection concerns will also be easier to identify and manage. Human traffic, within the motor vehicle laboratory, would be easier to direct onto designated walkways away from the work areas and vehicles further reducing the risk of injury, class disturbance and damage to vehicles and equipment. Classroom barriers would also provide additional space for diagrams or posters and allow electronic lectures or demonstrations to be projected onto. 4.2 Classroom Work Areas Timetabling classes to work areas within the laboratory will introduce a fairer system of workspace allocation. It will ensure that lecturers and students always have a space to work in and vehicles to work on. This system will make lecturers accountable for the space in which they are working and encourage them to ensure students are completing tasks fully, that tools and equipment are always kept serviceable or reported when faults develop, it will ensure that tools and equipment are put away in there designated areas after each class and reduce equipment losses and it will also improve the general housekeeping of the workshop. Any issues arising in the workshop for a specific time period can be addressed by looking up the class and lecturer that were working in the area when the problems occurred. 4.3 Classroom Equipment It is recommended that each classroom area within the workshop is issued with a selection of regularly used tools and equipment. This will increase the time available to students for working on vehicles by reducing the time that they spend looking for this type of equipment in the workshop. It will also provide a means of conveniently being able to perform a daily stock check of equipment and will provide a mechanism for reporting on the condition of tools and equipment within each of the classes. Below is a recommended list of equipment that should be issued to each classroom area within the workshop: * A lecturers locker would enable the secure storage of student folders, lesson notes, specialist, valuable or loaned equipment, etc. * 12-16 lockers for students personal effects * 1x Workbench per vehicle bay * 1x black drip tray for oil per work bay * 2x 3 litre oil filling jugs * 1x green drip tray for coolant/water per bay * 1x vehicle jack per work bay * 4x axle stands per work bay * 1x wheel braces per work bay * 1x watering can per class * 1x wash bucket per bay * 1x dust pan and brush per bay * 2x mop and mop bucket per class * 1x Bench vice per work bay * 1x desk per classroom for diagnostic work; paperwork, laptop citing, projector etc. * 1x rubbish bin per class * 1x shelving unit to store tools and equipment * 1x fault report book 4.4 Technician work area As part of the workshops reorganisation and to assist the technicians with fault rectification and preparation work it is recommended that the motor vehicle technicians be given a vehicle bay as a designated work area; this work area should be situated in the corner of the workshop and allow for easy access into the technicians workroom. This designated bay will enable vehicles, which require work to be done, to be taken out of the class room area and worked on without disruption to students, lecturers and the technicians. This work bay should be screened off, preferably by welding screens, to prevent access by non authorised personnel, to reduce disturbances to both classes and technicians and to allow welding tasks etc. to be carried out at any time of the day. The technicians work bay should be equipped independently of the rest of the workshop with equipment such as: * 1x jack * 4x axle stands * 1x complete tool kit in roller cabinet * 1x complete set of air tools * 1x set of power tools (grinder, drill, etc) * MIG welder and associated equipment * Oxy-Acetylene welding equipment * 1x oil drip tray * 1x coolant drip tray * 1x metal bench with vice * 1x watering can * 1x rubbish bin * 1x soft brush and dust pan * 1x shelving unit to store tools and equipment 4.5 Identifying and Controlling Equipment To help identify and control tools and equipment within the six workshop areas it is recommended that each classroom is designated a colour. All equipment that is issued to and contained within each of the classroom areas should be painted the colour that has been designated to that classroom for ease of identification. All classroom equipment that is able to be shelved should be stored on a colour coded shelving unit. The shelving unit should be labelled with the equipment that is to be stored upon it and a laminated sheet attached as a guide for students as to where each item of equipment should be stored and its quantities. Colour coding will assist both staff and students with daily equipment checks, locating equipment and will improve the reporting of equipment faults or losses. Classroom equipment should only be used within its designated classroom area. Student locker keys should be stored in the main store room in a colour coded container. This will ensure that all lecturers have the ability to issue a locker to each student in their class wherever they are working in the workshop. Lecturers will collect keys from the main store at the start of the morning or afternoon period when work bays are identified and will be returned to the store complete at the end of each slot. Locker keys will be issued to students in exchange for a valid student ID card. Student ID cards will be returned to each student when lecturers are happy that all tools signed out have been returned to the main store and when the locker has been emptied and the key returned, this will accurately identify students that have not returned tools to the store or returned locker keys and will also ensure that student ID cards are brought to college. 4.6 Mezzanine Area The area below the mezzanine should be separated into designated work or storage areas to better utilise the workshop floor space. The individual work areas should be separated by a barrier or partition wall of some kind to act as a clear boundary to make work space housekeeping easier to manage and as somewhere to place posters/instructions/diagrams etc. Work areas should consist of a tyre fitting bay, a bench fitting area, a storage area for removed vehicle parts, a storage area for large shared resources and a recycling/waste area. The tyre fitting bay should contain the workshops tyre removal machine and wheel balancing equipment. Both these items should be secured to the floor to prevent them from moving or tipping whilst students work on them, the items should also be permanently wired into the workshop electrical supply to reduce the risk of electrocution from coming into contact with a 240v mains supply. This area should also be fitted with a dedicated tyre shelving unit to provide a storage solution for the tyre clutter that amasses regularly on the upper mezzanine area. Storing the tyres at ground level will eliminate the need to visit the upper mezzanine area, will allow the tyres to be better managed and reduce the risk of fire. A dedicated bench fitting area will provide students with a place to take components stripped from vehicles to be examined or worked on. It will provide lecturers with a suitable space to teach and develop students basic metal fitting skills prior to working on vehicles. The area should contain workbenches and vices for an entire class to work productively, a bench mounted grinder should be located in this area along with a floor mounted pillar drill and a floor mounted hydraulic press. The pillar drill and hydraulic press should be secured to the floor to prevent them from

Descartes Vs. Pascal Essay -- essays research papers

Descartes vs. Pascal   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  For centuries, human beings have been debating over the validity of the use of reason. This is a very, very difficult subject to discuss, as one is forced to study something which is at that moment being used in their study. Two classic thinkers who contrasted on their view of reason were Descartes and Pascal. Though both saw reason as the primary source of knowledge, they disagreed over the competence of human reason. Descartes, the skeptic, said that we could use reason to find certain truth if we used it correctly, while Pascal said that we can't know certain truth, but reason is the best source of knowledge that we have. Descartes:   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Reason is the tool by which we know everything that we know. But most people make the mistake of basing their reasoning on assumptions which are not known with 100% certainty. As I've said, â€Å"I am greatly astonished when I consider [the great feebleness of mind] and its proneness to fall [insensibly] into error† (K&B, p. 409). But it is possible to avoid falling into error if we use the valuable tool of reason correctly. In order to do this and find certainty, we must find something that we cannot doubt. This is impossible, as we can logically doubt anything. A certain truth must be something that is not logically possible to be false.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  We must doubt, as that is the only way to find certain truth. It is the only way to wipe the slate clean of all of the uncertain assumptions which are believed and taught in the universities today. Just as mathematics will lead to uncertain assumptions if it is not built on certain truths, so will all use of reason lead to uncertain assumptions if it is not built on certain truths. There is a way to use doubt, though, to find certainty. If 100% certainty equals 0% doubt and we are certain that we can doubt everything, then we can use doubt as our certainty. We cannot doubt that we are doubting.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  With our one certainty, we can now methodically use reason to find more certainties. For example, we can use the certainty â€Å"I am doubting† to find out that â€Å"I exist.† If I am doubting, than there must be an â€Å"I† who is doubting, which means that I must be. Like I've often said, â€Å"I think, therefore I am.† We can continue building on our certainties using rationa... ...e knowledge. Watson:   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  I agree with Pascal on his view of the capabilities of reason. We are feeble, misled creatures in the midst of a reality which we cannot know. Descartes was correct in his attempt to use mathematical logic to get rid of uncertain assumptions and find truth, but he needs to realize that most truth is beyond our reach. We, as thinking humans, do have the remarkable ability to study ourselves. Yet we have limitations in this study and cannot expect to be able to get a complete grasp of ourselves. Pascal was right on when he said that there are no complete skeptics. There are many things which we must accept, using reason, that we cannot prove with certainty.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  I don't lean quite as far in Pascal's direction on his view of intuitionism. I believe that there is intuitive knowledge which we know with our heart. But this knowledge is only believed correctly when it is rationally processed. As with almost everything, we must find a balance between the use of reason and intuition. We err on the side of believing unreasonably if we use too much intuition, we become too skeptical if we ignore intuitive knowledge.

Urban Parks Essay -- New Urban Landscape

Like most Americans, I expect to find in every city, every town, even in every village in the country, an outdoor recreation area or what is usually called a park; and I am seldom disappointed. No matter how new and unfinished a town may be, or however old and poor, I know that it will contain, wedged in among the crowded blocks of buildings, a rectangular space with grass and trees and meandering paths and perhaps a bandstand or a flagpole. --John B. Jackson, â€Å"The Past and Future Park† in Denatured Visions    Urban parks are defined in their comparative and contrastive relationships to the urban environments surrounding them. Although frequently conceptualized as natural landscapes, the physical and social uses of parks give proof to their inherently cultural â€Å"nature.† For the purpose of this paper, I will use the term â€Å"culture† to refer to human implemented social objects and actions; nature, then, as a written word and a concept circulated in culture, becomes a cultural construction. The idea of â€Å"nature† or â€Å"natural,† I will attempt to argue, refers to a certain set of cultural concepts as constructed through a discourse that is centered away from humans and characterized by irrationality, purity, and vitality. Differently stated, nature functions as a cultural construct of anti-culture, providing an escape from the confines of culture in the sense of civilization, but does not entirely evade the conceptual framework inherent to the social, discursive formation of human ideas. This intermingling relationship between nature and culture is well illustrated in the example of urban parks. Parks are constructed as natural environments but literally and figuratively constructed by human cultural proc... ...el, B. and Cecil D. Elliott. Designing America: Creating Urban Identity. New York: Van Nostrand Reinhold, 1994. Groth, Paul. â€Å"Vernacular Parks.† Wrede and Adams 135-137. Jackson, John B. â€Å"The Past and Future Park.† Wrede and Adams 129-134 Peck, Robert McCraken. â€Å"The Museum that Never Was.† Natural History July 1994: 62-7. Platt, Rutherford H. â€Å"Conclusion† in The Ecological City, Rutherford H. Platt, Rowan A. Rowntree and Pamela C. Muick, eds. Amherst: The University of Massachusetts Press, 1994. Schultz, Stanley K. Constructing Urban Culture. Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1989. Schuyler, David. The New Urban Landscape. Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 1986. Wrede, Stuart and William Howard Adams, eds. Denatured Visions: Landscape and Culture in the Twentieth Century. New York: The Museum of Modern Art, 1991.

My Philosophy of Education Essay -- Philosophy of Education Statement

My Philosophy of Education I want to become a teacher for three reasons. The first is, I love children of all ages and want to help them in any way that I can. The second is, I want to influence children in a positive way and help them be all they can be, much like some of my teachers did me. Finally, I enjoy the feeling that I receive when a child's face lights up, because they understand something that I am explaining to them. That feeling is enough to make me teach, regardless of the paycheck. My philosophy of education is an eclectic one in that I am mainly pragmatist, but I am also slightly idealistic. I am pragmatic in that I believe the classroom should consist of a community of learners. I believe the classroom rules should be established democratically, and that problem solving should be encouraged. Furthermore, I believe that students learn by engaging in activities that are first-hand, and I believe that concrete experiences should be encouraged. I am idealistic in that I believe that my love for the content area will be passed onto the students, which will cause fewer, if any, discipline problems. I believe the disciplinary action should be taken by the teacher, and I will enjoy not only teaching my well known content area, but will also serve as a role model for the students. My classroom will be whatever color the school in which I am working chooses it to be. However, I will add things to it that are full ...

Experience Economy

Lecture 1. EXPERIENCE ECONOMY – when the person buys experience, he pays to spend time enjoying a series of memorable events that a company stages -> as in theatrical – businesses must orchestrate play memorable events for their customers [pic] – EE is applied- new experience concept, experience included ins services and products, experience venues, additional offerings supporting memory of the experience – The anatomy of an Experience 1. The First part/ BEFORE : The expectation 2. The Second part/ DURING: Breakaway from the everyday life 3. The Third part/ AFTER : The memorable experience EXPERIENCE HYBRID – combination of 2 different sectors/products; creating a unique experience to the customer ( for example cafe with a travel store and a book store) Lecture 2 The 4 Realms of Experience ENTERTAIMENT †¢ Something that entertain the customer, and something that is relaxing and enjoyable without being to thorough. †¢ An active professional communication to a passive receiver/customer †¢ is a passive aspect of an experience †¢ when the customers are entertained, they are not really doing except to responding to the experience ( enjoying, laughing, etc. †¢ customers passively absorbed through the senses †¢ EXAMPLE: cinema, concert, sport event †¢ What entertainment would help your guests to enjoy the experience better? How can you make the time more fun and more enjoyable? EDUCATIONAL †¢ Learning takes place during everyones life and in all situations. †¢ It can be the learning based on experiences, called †learning by doing† and it can also be the learning that takes place in an interaction between the person and its surroundings †¢ is essentially active aspect †¢ the guests absorb the events unfolding before them the educational events must actively engage the mind †¢ What do you want your guests to learn from experience? What interaction or activities wil l help engage them in the exploration of certain knowledge and skills? ESTHETIC †¢ Is the sensuous realisation. †¢ Is subjective and determined by culture and is often about art, nature, music and food. †¢ passive aspect of an experience †¢ to create an atmosphere where the guests will feel free † to be â€Å" †¢ the guests immerse themselves in an event or environment; when the event has only little or no effect on it, they leave the environment untouched What can be done to enhance the esthetic value of the experience? What would make your guests want to come in, sit down, and just hang out? How you can do to make the environment more inviting and comfortable ESCAPIST †¢ Is the escape from the reality †¢ It can be an intentional or unconsious escape from the reality †¢ In both cases there is a huge degree of empathy †¢ is an active aspect †¢ the guest of this experience is completely immersed in it †¢ the guest becomes an actor able to affect the actual performance †¢ EXAMPLE : cyberspace is a great place for escapism What you should encourage guests to do if they are to become active participants in the experience -experiences can be built around one or more of elements. -where the strongest experiences consist of more than one of these elements. The more elements included in a experience, the stronger and more memorable the experience gets. THE EXPERIENCE ROOM – is a place where we alive our experience-> the stage, the staff, other customers and waiting time – these factors are affected whole experience for the customers ? THE STAGE – Where, How long, visual picture, differentiation, attracts customers, affect feelings and behavior the visual place where the people alive the experience; decoration, details are very important-> memorable experience ? THE STAFF Meeting new customer Create an experience Disney World ( Mickey Mouse figureoutfit) ? OTHER CUSTOMERS- positive or negative sites of many other customers ? WAITING TIME – often like a negative aspect EXPERIENCE OVER TIME The Pre-experience †¢ Planning the trip or experience †¢ Expectations The experience ( during ) †¢ The four realms The After-experience †¢ Memory (pictures) †¢ Expectations ( are they met) †¢ Narrative of the experience The involvement of sensesSmell, Taste, Sound, Feel, View [pic] Lecture 3 Variety -means producing and distributing product choices to outlets in the hope that some customer will come along and buy them Customization – customizing a service can be a sure route to staging a positive experience – customizing a good automatically turns it into a service Mass customization ? is supported by several conditions: increased demands for individualized products, information- and production techniques allow mass customization COLLABORATING Cust. – The Exploring Experience – the consumers are helped to take t he choice and actively NIKE,Ikea ADAPTIVE Cust. – The Experimenting Experience – helps customer to find the right configuration – does not change the product – the selection of TV-channels COSMETIC Cust. – The Gratifying Experience – the packing is adapted to the consumer, not the exact product- personalized – delivered as the consumers want – Interflora TRANSPARENT Cust. -The Discovering Experience -the product is adapted to the consumer and the consumer do not have to do anything Lecture 4 EVENTS – an event is a single or periodic returning event defined by time and space are planned in preparation for observation and participation Types of events ? as a product – World Cup, The Olympics , The local city party, Eurovision Song Contest ? in marketing and sales – diesel, penthouse, product samples The model for an events DNA -unique, historical, unpredictable, predictable, star quality, audience interaction , history narrative, media friendly, forging identity 5 CATHEGORIES OF THE AUTHENTICITY †¢ Natural authenticity (the original) †¢ Original authenticity (original in design, first on market) †¢ Exceptional authenticity (implemented with ideal empathy and compassion) Referential authenticity (the product has a context which is linked to the history/culture) †¢ Influential authenticity (the product which to take the customer to a higher level) 4 PRINCIPLES OF THE ACTING †¢ PLAY †¢ MAKE THEIR DAY †¢ BE THERE †¢ CHOOSE YOUR ATTITUDE Lecture 5 IT- Information technology – this is one of the central aspects in the experience economy since more and more types of experiences become IT-based – is an important tool used to make experiences efficient The purpose of experience economy The transformation economy [pic][pic]

Note Tasting Wine and Beer

note teasti1/ Morgan’s Bay Chardonnay _ Largely unoaked, this is intentionally crafted in an ‘approachable style' which translates into something light and easy going – in theory at least. In reality it's just a bit cheap tasting. 2/ Morgans Bay Shiraz Cabernet, S. E. Australia _ Classic Australian style, fruit forward easy drinking red 3/ Richmond grove bay of Stone, NV brut _ Freshness of fruit flavors and yeast complexity, are achieved by the inclusion of more than one vintage during assemblage (blending). Gentle pressing produced fresh clean juice with delicate fruit flavors.Harmonious aromas of fresh lemon citrus and red fruits. Intense lemon citrus flavors are balanced with rich creamy yeast characters that lead to a soft, clean finish. 4/ Long Gully Estate Brut Cuvee _Flavours from the classic varieties using a range of winemaking and oak management techniques, creating distinctive cool climate wine styles, marked by their complexity and aging ability. A po rtion of reserve base wine adds a touch of creamy complexity to what is essentially a zesty easy drinking Sparkling. 5/ Pettavel Evening Star Chardonnay 2008 (Geelong, VIC) Warm summer days and cool nights allow our Chardonnay grapes to retain vibrant and complex fruit flavours. After gentle pressing 35 percent of the juice was transferred to second fill French oak barrels for fermentation, the remaining juice was tank fermented to retain crisp youthful aromas and flavours. Upfront melon and peach flavours are enhanced with subtle oak characters and lingering tropical fruit with a citrus acid finish that ensures the wine will reward both immediate consumption or medium term cellaring. 6/ Heart of Stone Sauvignon Blanc 2009 (Marlborough, NZ) This is a punchy style of savvy with deliciously intense tropical fruit, capsicum and citrus flavours. It’s a weighty and juicy wine to taste – mango, passion fruit, red bell pepper and grapefruit with refreshing acidity and strong personality. 7/ Second Nature Sauvignon Blanc 2010 (Adelaide Hills, South Australia) _ Very pale, almost water white. A very fragrant bouquet of passionfruit, lemon peel and gooseberry. The palate follows through with more gooseberry, passionfruit and lemon peel before a lingering, zesty, mouth filling finish. Excellent crisp acidity made for drinking young and fresh alongside seafood, goat's cheese and sushi. Like you're really there. Bouquets of meadow, lemons and lime, grasses, racy and vital, so crisp that it goes crunch, crunch all the way down. Finishing dry and clean, chargrilled fishes are the perfect match! † -Wineweekly. com. au, â€Å"Blond and beautiful, bang for your buck, a whoosh of south seas fruit and green pastures awaken the senses for shrimp, shucked oysters and crustacea! † -Vinicraft. com 8/ Riesling Tahbilk Riesling 2009 (Nagambie Lakes, Central Victoria) _ Tahbilk’s style is more traditional but quite exotic, with aromas of cinnamon and ot her sweet spices, citrus and white peach.Concentrated, smooth and dry, it’s not as piercing as many young Rieslings but very satisfying. 9/ Neagles Rock Riesling 2010 (Clare Valley, South Australia) _ Expressive, lime-tinged, tangy Riesling whose zesty style is protected by screw-cap closure. 10/ Koonara Cabernet Sauvignon 2004 (Coonawarra, South Australia) _ 18 months in French & American barrels have developed a rich, chocolaty Cabernet full of deep mulberries & blackberries finishing with a long blackcurrants & cream palate. 1/ Angoves Cabernet Sauvignon 2009 (Varies Vineyards, South Australia) _ This wine is deep red in colour, with some purple hues. Complex aromas of red berry integrate with more savoury and red pepper notes and a gentle touch of oak. The palate is rich and mouth filling with flavours following through from the initial impression of berries and more complex capsicum family characters. 12/ Sedona Estate Shiraz 2008 (Yea Valley, Victoria) _ This Shiraz was matured for 20 months in a combination of French and American oak. Opaque dark red colour with deep dark brick red hue.The nose displays aromas of plum, dark chocolate and liquorice allsorts which are followed by some confectionary end notes, showing excellent intensity. Medium to full bodied with generous flavours of dark chocolate, mocha and confectionary with some spice on the back palate. Fleshy texture with fine grained soft tannins. Aftertaste of dark chocolate, confectionary and spice. 13/Water Wheel Shiraz 2008 (Bendigo, Victoria) _ A rustic red in the glass and with a delicious rhubarb and berry nose, the Shiraz exquisitely blends spice, plums and red berries with a regional touch of cinnamon.Fine tannins see the wine out without overstaying their welcome. A gorgeously well crafted wine from a vintage renowned for its big fruit flavours 14/ Oyster Bay Merlot 2009 (Hawkes Bay 2008, New Zealand) _ Ripe plum and currant, embraced by blackberry and subtle spice with lingering fine grained tannins. The philosophy of Oyster Bay is to produce fine, distinctly regional wines that are elegant and assertive with glorious fruit flavours. 15/ Gibbston Valley Gold River Pinot Noir 2008 (Central Otago, New Zealand) _ Svelte and sensous – a wine of true pleasure.This is a joyful, young, vibrant Pinot that delivers strong varietal flavours. Semi translucent mauve purple colour with mauve purple hue. Lifted nose, freshly macerated strawberry, spice and cherry showing very good varietal lift. Youthful palate flavours of spice and ripe strawberry over ripe joosy dark cherries. Soft and velvet smooth. Youthful and a delight for the short term. 16/ Sedona Estate Cabernet/Merlot 2008 (Yea Valley, Victoria) _The wine has a dense deep red hue with cedar and bramble aromas making up the bouquet. The palate is filled with flavours of plums, blackcurrant and persistent fine tannins.

Matt Moreau’s Dilemma Essay

Introduction Chuck Mackness, the president of Bantings department stores recently appointed Matt Moreau as head of customer services due to customer complaints at the other department stores. To help Matt in the staffing of his newly created department, Steven Judson, corporate personnel manager, refers Sally Armitage, an ideal candidate who holds many years of management experience at other department stores. After calling Tony Abbott, regional manager, who worked with Sally and gave her performance appraisal, Matt finds out that Sally recovered from cancer a few years ago and is unsure whether Sally would be capable for the high demanding position. This paper will analyze the ethical issues and alternatives for this case. Identify the Stakeholders Matt Moreau is the newly appointed manager to improve the quality of customer service. His task is difficult and demanding because the stores are managed through an operations department who reports to the president. This means Matt will have little authority to implement new programs unless he hires people with line management experience that have developed credibility with the operations department. Chuck Mackness is the president of Bantings and appointed Matt as head of customer service as a result of customers complaining at other department stores. He expects Matt to implement new programs for the staff and stores and wants to see results by Christmas. On his last field visit, he met Sally and she indicated that she would benefit from head office experience. Chuck mentions this to Steven Judson who passes onto Matt. Tony Abbot is the regional manager that encompasses Chute Hill store where Sally is working. Tony worked with Sally when she was the assistant manager at Eastland Mall store and together they turned the store around from being the worst performer. Afterwards, he gave a performance appraisal of Sally giving her much of the credit. Tony is affected by the decision because if Matt promotes Sally, he will have to work with a different manager at Chute Hill store. Sally Armitage is a highly competent manager at Bantings who started out as a clerk and worked her way into management. She always had good or excellent performance appraisals and has management experience at various department stores. Although she is in good health, her medical history shows that she had cancer a few years ago and she still goes every three months for regular checkups. Her current position at Chute Hill store is only 10 minutes away from her home whom she lives with her teenage daughter. Despite the high performance, her medical history will be factored into Matt’s decision. Other stakeholders include Sally’s teenage daughter and the other departments in Bantings. Sally is divorced and if she does get hired, she will have less time for her daughter because she would have to commute on the road longer. The other departments in Bantings will be affected because with Sally’s ambition and her creditability to the president, the customer service department will be able to implement organization-wide programs. Stakeholders’ Frame of Reference Matt is interested in adding Sally to his staff because of her experience and her relationship with Chuck but also understands the risk of hiring an employee with her medical history. The risk is if Sally’s health deteriorates halfway through, there won’t be someone else to fill her position. It is also important to consider the cost of training and how detrimental it would be to the department especially when it is a very demanding position. Chuck Mackness, the president of the company is indirectly involved. He mentions Sally to Steven because he must have noticed her ambition to climb the corporate ladder and that he may have seen some personal traits in her. That way, Matt would of consider Sally as an candidate and the possibility of hiring her may lead to Chuck working with Sally someday. Tony Abbott does not want Sally to leave her job because he understands the health issues after working with her at the Eastland Mall store. Although Tony gave her a performance appraisal, he understands the absences Sally took were serious. During the conversation with Matt, Tony believes Sally should not be hired because of her current state of health. He believes Sally is able to cope with her current position because she lives only 10 minutes away and that she has got a good staff when she’s not feeling 100 percent so she can coast a little bit. Sally is looking for a position in head office because she is ambitious. She does not consider the factors that would affect her if she does get hired. Her commute to work would increase to one hour each way unless she moves closer to downtown. The job would take a toll on her health and she would not have much time for her daughter with the late nights, meetings and traveling. Even if her illness comes back, she believes she can cope with the demanding job by working even harder to prove to herself that she can do anything. Sally’s daughter would not want her mother to be hired because that would lead to less time spent together and if they do move to downtown, Sally’s daughter would be one hour away from school or she would have to change schools. The other departments in Banting would not want any change in operations because they would have to learn new procedures and software. Ethical Issues Matt is obligated to make decisions in the interest of the company. If Sally is hired and her illness comes back, this decision would lose money for the company and Matt’s position to improve customer service would be hampered. Also the fact that Chuck wants to see results by Christmas would put even more pressure on the department if Sally becomes ill. Because Matt knows about her medical history, he should make the best decision in her interest. By hiring Sally to the demanding position could potentially endanger her health. If her illness comes back, it would be detrimental to her and Matt. It is also important to consider her daughter and the toll it would take on their family. Alternative #1 – Hire Sally The first alternative is to hire Sally. This option has the highest risk and highest reward. The risk is by promoting Sally, her health could deteriorate and she would not be able to perform at a high level. At that point the company would have invested into her training and would not be able to train another employee in the time. The company would be at a loss and the original objective of improving customer service would not be executed properly. The upside of this is that Sally is able to cope with the stress and excels at her position. Her proven management experience and her drive to perform at a high level would ensure the improvement of customer service. Alternative #2 – Hire somebody else The second alternative is to hire somebody else with a clean medical history. This is the safest alternative because the company would not risk the possibility of the employee not able to perform the job. This option would not lose the company money as the employee would not have any sudden medical problem. There would most likely be other employees who are interested in the head office environment and are as qualified as Sally. Alternative #3 – Rent an apartment suite in downtown for Sally The third alternative is to rent an apartment suite close to downtown so the burden of the long commute for Sally is gone. The company would incur additional expenses but as long as Sally’s benefit to the company is greater than the expense, the company would go with this decision. However the risk that the job is too stressful for Sally is still present. The late nights, meetings and tensions could prove too stressful for her. Choice of Alternative The second alternative is the best option for Matt. He is able to control the fact that whoever he hires will be not have any major health issues that would ensue later on. Although Sally is the ideal candidate for the position, there are other candidates with years of management experience and have developed credibility with the operations types. In the other two alternatives, where Sally does become ill due to the demanding job, she could file a lawsuit for employee negligence. This would not happen and this alternative is also in the best interest of Sally because her current position is optimal for her health and her family.

Product Development Specifications

1)a. When making patterns, they can either be produced in house or be outsourced. Both types have their advantages and disadvantages. The advantage to using in house pattern making is that the fit of the garment can be more customized. When a company makes its own patterns, it has years of experience with their target market and their needs. Also, companies that produce their own patterns can base new patterns off of previous seasons. However, a disadvantage is that is expensive, and a smaller company may not have the resources to use their own pattern makers.When outsourcing pattern making, a company can either use pattern making services, or full service contractors. Pattern making services create patterns without the product developer having to invest in their own computerized pattern making system. The other type of out sourced pattern making, full service contractors, are usually used by product developers looking to knock off a design. The product developer sends an already mad e sample to the pattern maker with size specifications. Full service contractors are more difficult to use when making original designs.Some disadvantages to outsourcing pattern making are that different countries have different methods of pattern making and different perceptions of the body. Also it takes time to check samples, and language and measurement system are usually different in other countries. b. When choosing materials, specifications can either be open or closed. Open specs are when the information provided is more generic and only contains basic facts. Closed specs are when the specifications are very detailed and specify an exact material and supplier.A disadvantage to closed specs is that they can become very expensive. However an advantage is that they ensure consistency of the end product. Some advantages to open specs are that they are cheaper and less time consuming, however the end product could be less accurate. c. Tolerances are variations from criteria that will be allowed when producing a product. If a product does not meet tolerances, it will be rejected. Tolerances can either be tight or loose. Tight tolerances have less room for variation.The advantages to tight tolerances are that products will be more consistent, and fit better. However, the disadvantages are that it is costly, and time consuming as it may take a few tries to meet tight standards. Loose tolerances are when specs have a wider variation. Products that have loose tolerances vary more often, but are cheaper and faster to produce. 3) Standards and specifications in the product development process are very important because they affect quality, cost, and the time it takes to produce an item.In general, when a product has more standards and specifications it takes longer to produce and is more costly, but it will be a more consistent, high quality product that fits better. When there are less standards and looser specifications, products can be made faster and for cheap er but will be of a lower quality. When choosing standards and specifications it is important for the product developer to keep the company and its end target market in mind. For instance, when developing product for companies such as Zara or Forever 21, the focus is on producing products quickly as fashion is always changing and trending up or down.These companies would use looser specifications with lower standards to get their product produced as quickly as possible. Since the product is at a lower price point, the quality of products is not taken into as much consideration. However, for products that set the trends and are sold at higher price points, more time would be taken on specs and standards as the target market expects quality. LIM College. (2010). Chapter 9: Translating Concept to Product. Product Development (pp. 262-279). United States of America: Fairchild Books, a Division of Conde Nast Publications.

Eisenhower's Farewell Address Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words - 1

Eisenhower's Farewell Address - Essay Example However, the subsequent events, including the Vietnam war, the Cold War, and the Gulf wars, have created dilemma in the minds of intellectual citizens who want to live with peace, liberty, and security. It seems that some nations consider the mighty armaments industry of the USA as a threat, which also jeopardizes global security, liberty, and peaceful harmony. The cold war still persists between Russia and the USA, and the two countries consider each other as enemies even though many agreements have been signed in the past (Pesov, 2010). The message of Eisenhower reiterated expansion of military to support the peaceful goals, but it seems that the USA has invited more jealousy and animosity. North Korea, Iran, Lebanon, and several Muslim countries are increasing their military strength to match the mightiness of the American military establishment. Isn’t the peaceful goal lost somewhere? Haven’t the desires of American leaders to manufacture sophisticated arms and to s ell them at profit to other countries subdued the peaceful goals of American citizens? The recent wars in Iraq and Afghanistan have claimed the lives of millions of innocent civilians in addition to killing soldiers.