Marrying for Money

â€Å"I’m a little shocked at t he numbers,† says Pamela Smock, a sociologist at the University of Michigan who has studied marriage and money. â€Å"It’s kind of against the notion of love and soul mates and the main motivations to marry in our culture.† (Frank, 2007). These shocking words that came out from a sociologist only suggests that in modern times, money should still be not the reason for marrying. It is a fact however that money is a big driving force for someone who wants to get married. At the back of their minds, there is the constant reminder of reality like divorce or annulment. However, they should also consider why they got into the relationship in the first place. Relationships are not built based on money. Moreover, one does not dwell into a relationship with the primary concern of money; whereas; it should have been the connection and the love that the partners share. Getting married is not like a hot potato that you can eat and spit out the moment that you discovered that it is too for you to handle. Marriage is a lifetime relationship and commitment; and this very same basis should be built on love, trust and respect. Ultimately, it should not be money because it devoid the vow that they made in front of the authority (may it be religiously or lawfully speaking). No matter how money plays a very important role in our society today, marriage should still be based on the wanting of both people to stay together for the rest of their lives. Additionally, since most of people these days are very agitated into climbing their way into the corporate world. People who want to settle down are the ones that have already made a niche in their fields. This only implies that they have everything they want or could ever want so the concept of money is the least on their priority. In addition, there are such things as pre-nuptial agreements which protect the assets of both parties. And people who sign to such agreements only want to protect their hard-earned money; so it is wrong to say that people want to marry for money. People who want to make money out of marriage are the ones who see it (marriage) as business or a way to get what they want. People who have mindsets like that are very superficial. Their concept of marriage very different from what it really is. Instead, they put a price tag to marriages. However, there are cases wherein people settle down more than once but it is enough to say that they married for money. Take for example Elizabeth Taylor who married five different guys. She is rich on her own that is why she married those guys because she wants to be committed with them for eternity. This only implies that once again, people who want to get married should want to do it because they want to spend the rest of their lives with that special someone. Since most people who want to get married are successful in their chosen field, that is the time that they want someone to spend their life with. Even though the person is really doing well, they cannot be considered truly successful unless they want to achieve real happiness. And marriage, in its purest form, is the only way to achieve that goal. Alongside the desire that you want to share your life with that special someone, the ultimate goal why someone should get married is the happiness that marriage can bring into your life. Marriage is about raising a family and that can give you an ultimate high that not even any achievement can bring. Money is a measure of how successful you are but a happy marriage is also another. Money come and go but family will not. Marrying because of money is a very superficial reason. Marriage is about a commitment of two people to become one which have the same mindset of achieving a happier state in life.   Marriage should be built on trust; respect and love because those really are the basic foundation of a successful future family which ultimately is one of the measurements of how successful you have become. References: Frank, R. (2007). Marrying for Love†¦of money [Electronic Version]. The Wall Street Journal.Retrieved January 16, 2008   from http://online.wsj.com/article/SB119760031991928727.html.                     

John Wooden, Wooden on Leadership

John Wooden on Leadership I am informing the SAI that Wooden on Leadership by John Wooden is a book that demonstrates and shows leadership skills. John Wooden started his leadership in 1932 at football practice in Kentucky as the coach. He then went on to become head coach At UCLA in 1949. While at UCLA Wooden wrote his fifteen steps of leadership. Wooden’s pyramid of success not only helped his team, but his own life. The first block on the pyramid is to be industrious. Wooden grew up on a small farm and learned you had to be up early and work very late.A normal person will complain when tired, but an industrious person will work hard and strive for the best that they can achieve. One should not want to stop when they can, but work all the way through until the job is done even if the person is tired and weak because they strive to complete whatever is needed. A person should be focused on the objective and not what they want to do later. While being industrious, a person als o needs to have enthusiasm. As a leader a person must be filled with energy and love what they are doing. If a leader has enthusiasm for what they are doing their followers will too.Being enthused can make or break whether the job is completed. A person’s enthusiasm can turn a boring or failing job into a well working successful accomplishment. A job should always be done with eagerness to show that you care. Friendship plays a big role in the success of leadership. A person should not bring or hold their â€Å"favorites† above any one when it comes to leadership just because they are your friend doesn’t make them the best person to complete your goal. A person should stay professional when around friends, but still treat the friends equal to the other subordinates.Seek to find the strengths of friendships among the group and do what is necessary to keep the job going. Don’t judge a person’s ability to tribute to the team because you don’t k now them as well as the others around you. When being the leader you should always show loyalty to a fellow member. When you show loyalty to you team, you will receive loyalty back. A leader has to search their people to find loyalty and gain their interest of wanting to succeed. When a person is in a group doing a job, they want to have loyalty spread through the effort.A leader should not only be loyal to their group, but also themselves. To accomplish an objective a person must have cooperation with his/her people. Cooperation is the key to allowing a job to be complete. Nothing can be fully done without cooperation of a team. When cooperation is being executed the job becomes easier because more opinions allow for all the problems to be solved. When I becomes we more is done and more can be dealt with. A leader needs to have a lot of self-control to overcome challenges. Self-control makes a good leader because they set the example.When a leader has self-control, it allows for th e team to have self-control as well. Focusing on controlling yourself when times are hard in completing an objective by controlling yourself can make the outcome easier to obtain in the end. Self-control brings self-discipline which a leader has to show allowing the followers to have a person to reflect from. As a leader works with his/her followers they always need to have alertness. When a leader’s is gifted with alertness, it comes in handy on supervising if and when you need to switch out the jobs of your followers to allow the group to grow as one.Alertness is essential to finding the trend, opportunities, and changes that can or should be made to make a better organization to complete what needs to be done. A leader must evaluate their team to know the advantages and disadvantages so the problem can be faced with the most critical way to strive and obtain the goal. A leader can have a potential weapon if he/she is alert on a constant basis. A leader must be a risk taker and strive for initiative. If a follower fails to take initiative then it falls back on the leader because the leader did not force the player to take initiative and run with it.Failure is necessary to the initiative of ending with successfulness. A leader with initiative also has courage in that his/her group will strive to do the very best. A team that makes the most mistakes to complete the goal usually wins in the end whether it is winning a game or making the deadline. Without intentness the team would soon rather quit and give up on accomplishing what needs to be done. A leader with intentness may not complete all short term goals, but will make up double with the end result. If the leader makes a goal, it may take time because all good things will take time as well as willingness to make the goal.Always fight for the best because you will always come out better in the end. Intentness will make a team strive even when times are hard and seem like all else fails. Conditioning all around is one of the centers of the thing that is demanded from a team. Not only physical condition, but mental plays a big part of the successfulness in a team. When a leader has conditioning all around, he can bend and squeeze his/ her way to show what is best for the team. A team uses moderation to condition the way things are done to allow the best way possible to prevail.Condition from a leader can make a team grow together as one and always succeed. A team always needs skill as well as team spirit. Team spirit comes from the skill of the group. A team’s skill comes from each individual and they work together to succeed. Skill comes from each individual and the leader has to make everyone work together to complete the task. Team spirit only comes when a team’s skill works together. A team’s greatest strength is staying poise and having confidence. Poise is staying calm when under pressure and a leader should make his team just be their selves.When a tea m is poise, they have confidence that they will strive for the best. A leader will always have confidence that his team will do the right thing. Being poise in every situation will, take a group succeed. Competitive greatness is the final step of the pyramid. Always be the best that you can be. Never settle for the least and always strive for the goal and completing the task. Wooden closes with saying that you always work with your team to be successful. A leader has to have these characteristics to be able to lead a group to complete their goals and be the best they can be.

Bleakness and Language in Waiting for Godot

Bleak Tones And Visual Sadness In Waiting For Godot When the Paris curtain opened in 1953 the audience was faced with a minimalist set with a tree and nothing else. The first sight of ‘En Attendant Godot’ suggests its bleakest tones are presented by Beckett through visual sadness and the overall metaphysical state characters are placed in. Already parallels can be drawn between this setting and the inescapably similar picture from T.S. Eliot’s ‘The Wasteland’: â€Å"A heap of broken images, where the sun beats, and the dead tree gives no shelter† The only resemblance to the audience’s world is the tree and the road the characters stand on. This setting creates brooding despair; roads represents journeys and an option to travel away, or towards something and yet characters don’t move, in fact asserting â€Å"We Can’t (leave)†(i). The tree, another prop with apparently monumental importance compared to the rest of the wasteland stage, represents hope and life despite there being no hope and life ebbing away. Beckett demands for the tree to have leaves during Act 2, which symbolises spring to audiences while Vladimir and Estragon realise there’s no hope at all. It isn’t a stretch to claim Beckett had a taste for deeply depressing irony and he plays with elements of comedy and tragedy most aptly through dramatic staging. However, it’s my opinion that Beckett does create some of the most comic, and bleakest, parts of the performance through his unerring ability to manipulate languag e. In Act One the words â€Å"Nothing to be done†(ii) are spoken by both Estragon and Vladimir and the statement goes on to be a crucial philosophy throughout the play of the same importance as â€Å"We’re waiting for Godot†(iii). Audiences initially find the phrase laugh-out-loud funny because it’s paired with the physical sequence of Estragon, who is ‘trying to take off his boot’(iv) whom after an exhausting battle concedes and explains to the audience there’s ‘nothing to be done’. The subtle brilliance of this line is in its most colloquial-sounding ring, which appeals to all audiences as they can relate to finding that a menial task has become so extraordinarily difficult they see no way of solving it. It is laughable that a complex human being cannot actually take off a boot, that in some way the boot has beaten the human and now he’s defeated†¦by a boot. This struggle is universal and appeals to audiences mak ing the underlying question of: Why does Estragon presume that the boot is wrong? Beckett thus highlights humanity’s arrogance and pompousness. Vladimir is the messenger for this question when he tells Estragon, ‘There’s man all over blaming on his boots the fault of his feet’(v). This sentence holds many debating topics because the bootmaker made the boot perfect, as in the bootmaker thought it had no faults or he wouldn’t have sold it, similarly if we’re all in God’s image surely Estragon can have no faults either so who is wrong†¦God or man? After the comic moment Vladimir ushers in undertones of suffering when he explains he too is ‘coming round to that opinion’. Although the line sounds harmless enough, Vladimir performs it away from Estragon as he looks out into space which has the implicit meaning that he’s unaware of Estragon’s physical struggle and that his response is actually more metaphysical. This exchange allows Beckett to introduce the brutal truth of the character’s situation: there’s literally nothing to be done. This corresponds to Esslin’s theory that ‘Waiting for Godot’ contains â€Å"a sense of metaphysical anguish at the absurdity of the human condition†(vi). The characters are trapped in this barren featureless setting, waiting for someone they cannot define as they ‘wouldn’t know him if I saw him’(vii), unable to have any influence on proceedings which govern their lives. Through his exploitation of language Beckett also challenges the way humanity operates in the world, and ultimately how the disjointed confusing plot of the play parallels our place in the universe. In ‘Waiting for Godot’ one conversation that exploits the way humanity operates is: â€Å"Estragon: We always find something, eh Didi, to give us the impression we exist. Vladimir: Yes, yes, we’re magicians.† (viii) Audiences find this hilarious due to Estragon’s optimism in their plight and the sudden shift in mood that can be seen onstage is also humorous because it’s so abstract and unjustified. The added element of Vladimir’s dismissal of Estragon’s comment and the dismissal of optimism is a beautiful contrast which gains audience laughter, but also supports the hypothesis they’re a double act and completely reliant on each other. Another nice example of this double act is: â€Å"Vladimir: What do they say? Estragon: They talk about their lives. Vladimir: To live is not enough for them. Estragon: They have to talk about it.† (ix) The double act is vital as a device to exploit language and the claim of â€Å"The two most important sets of characters in the play occur in pairs†(x). A 1953 audience would have recognised Laurel and Hardy’s silhouettes in Estragon and Vladimir, making their world closer to the audience’s, but still miles away. In this passage Beckett’s technique of the double act is actualised to make a point about the existentialist nature of humanity and our need to rationalise individual experience by explaining it to others. The characters complete each other’s sentences which gives the impression of pondering so the audience understands Beckett wants them to think about the short conversation. The word ‘magician’ carries the bleakest undertones because it carries ideas of illusion and trickery, therefore Beckett wants to portray to audiences that our attempts to maintain the logic that we exist is actually a form of trickery; a skill which weâ⠂¬â„¢ve acquired over the years but is untrue. This eloquent point has history in the movement after World War Two (which Beckett experienced) in which society believed it was decaying. The comforts that help them move through their lives, such as order, could no longer be depended on. Comedy still remains in the dark outlook on society because characters are living in a world they pretend to understand, but actually don’t. There’s a style of dramatic irony at work as the audience looks into the realm of Estragon, Lucky, Pozzo and Vladimir with arrogance as they understand things characters don’t, such as the fact Godot won’t arrive. Interestingly, the world created by the theatrical stage would look into the audience’s world with similar arrogance as they know things the audience doesn’t, this is what Beckett’s trying to explain to us; the audience doesn’t understand their world’s nature as well as they think. However, it could be argued only the bleak undertones com e from the manipulation of language and the comedy comes from the character’s visual display to audiences. One critic argues, â€Å"The stage directions of the play constitute nearly half of the text, suggesting that the actions, expressions, and emotions of the actors are as important as the dialogue†(xi) This is a strong argument because the audience responds mainly to the presentation of the lines, which could be considered the performance rather than the actual language. Beckett once said, â€Å"If by Godot I had meant God I would have said God, and not Godot† (xii) but I don’t believe this is the end of the ‘God is Godot’ debate and I also believe this is one of Beckett’s greatest manipulations of language. The play begins with Estragon explaining he spent the night ‘in a ditch’ (xiii) and a group of people ‘beat’ him. These events are very close to ‘The Good Samaritan’ biblical parable except this time there’s no Samaritan. This carries the explicit meaning that Estragon is without God, he receives no help from outside sources and no redemption. Compare this with Vladimir who takes the ‘Book of Job’ approach and claims Estragon must have done something wrong to get beaten. Estragon goes onto challenge Godot’s, or God’s, power when he tells Vladimir they are ‘not tied?’ (xiv). However, he says it ‘feebly’ and then they both get scared that Godot’s coming, the implication being he will punish them for losing their obedience. Beckett plays with audience ideas on Godot’s nature when the boy describes him as having a ‘white beard’ which is drawing links between Godot and God which is laid out so obviously compared to the rest of the play that audiences are surprised, then they laugh. Beckett continues to make us think about God’s nature using Lucky’s speech. It begins with an almost academic presentation on religion but then descends into rambling nonsensical rubbish which ends ‘in spite of the tennis’. I interpreted this as meaning ‘for reasons unknown’ which is a beautiful way to describe God’s relationship with man as humanity can never draw any definite conclusions about him. In conclusion, Beckett creates the bleakest moments using his manipulation of language because it’s the words that resonate and make us think about the Beckett’s themes. The comedy isn’t brought out by exploitation of language as much as the stage directions and the physical oddities, which are of a more visual element. I) Pg. 6, Vladimir II) Pg.1, Estragon III) Pg. 6, Vladimir IV) Pg. 1 Stage Direction V) Pg. 3 Vladimir VI) Esslin, Theatre of the Absurd VII) Pg. 16, Estragon VIII) Pg. 61 IX) Pg. 54 X) Sparknotes XI) Sparknotes XII) Samuel Beckett , Wikipedia ‘Waiting for Godot’ XIII) Pg. 1 XIV) Pg. 12

Movie What's Eating Gilbert Grape Review Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

What's Eating Gilbert Grape - Movie Review Example The movie portrays that there are a number of issues relating to the nature of the 'difficulties' or 'retardation' in individuals of low ability, sometimes known as the 'delay versus deviance debate'. Following Lustig (1999) that is, are those without and those with learning difficulties following the same developmental trajectory, but with the 'retarded' individual doing so at a slower rate; also, will 'retarded' individuals reach a lower ceiling, or are there qualitative differences in the paths they are. Challenging behavior is not a transient phenomenon. Many people show such behavior throughout their lives. Challenging behavior includes physical assault upon others, the most frequent example, damage to the environment, self-injury, severe noncompliance, persistent screaming, pica, public masturbation, inappropriate sexual behavior and recurrent vomiting (Vanderschie-Bezyak 2003). The analysis of Arnie's behaviour allows to say that mental retardation is characterized by subaverage general intellectual functioning which has originated before the age of 16 years and is associated with impairment in adaptive behavior manifest as: (1) delayed maturation, (2) slowness in learning, and (3) social adjustment. The whole classification had three parts, clinical, behavioral and intellectual. The clinical section was introduced into hospital practice. This statement, although relating specifically to mental capacity can equally be applied to all interactions that health care professionals have with people with learning disability whether it be medical, educational, therapeutic or social (Rimmerman and Raif, 2001). The movie supports research studies and current literature on the topic of mental retardation portraying that siblings and relatives are affected by illness of one family member. in their research Vanderschie-Bezyak (2003) and Rimmerman and Raif (2001) found that for some people, their development may be erratic and at certain times the person may appear to have reached a plateau which continues for a longer period than expected. When this occurs, it is necessary to investigate if there are other contributory factors which have gone undetected. For example, a hearing loss or unrewarding experiences in cases where the person's attempts have been ignored, or conversely where every need of the person is anticipated and met, thus reducing motivation to communicate. In "What's Eating Gilbert Grape", mental retardation results in suicide of the father 17 years ago. It is possible to assume that the father suffered from mental illness and it was the caused of the suicide. The causes of mental retardation are diverse, but critics underline that family history is one of the possible signs of mental illnesses. Also, the movie portrays that, Bonnie, a mother of the ill child, suffers from some kind of the mental illness resulted in obesity and overeating. These life circumstances lead to isolation of the family from society and loneliness (Rimmerman and Raif, 2001). Through the character of Arnie, the movie depicts hat left to themselves, many children spend less time close by their parents and caregivers compared to other children. Those who do tend to stay close may look toward their caregiver to show off what they

Comparison Between the Epic of Gilgamesh and Genesis Essay

Comparison Between the Epic of Gilgamesh and Genesis - Essay Example The King lived approximately between 2750 and 2500 BCE. The first half of the story focuses on the friendship between Gilgamesh-king of Uruk and Enkidu. From the Epic, Enkidu is a wild man created by the gods as Gilgamesh’s peer to relieve him from oppression caused by the people of Uruk. In a joint mission, the two gentlemen began a journey to the Cedar Mountain where they defeated Humbaba. Humbaba was the monstrous guardian to the Cedar Mountain. This victory called for a celebration and they killed the Bull of Heaven for the celebration. However, this did not go well with goddess Ishtar who sentenced Enkidu to death as a punishment for the actions. The second of half of the Epic highlights how Gilgamesh was distressed at the death of Enkidu and this resulted to him taking a long and perilous journey to discover the secret of eternal life. He later learned that you cannot get everything you are looking for in life. He realized upon creation of man, the gods let death be his share and hence life withheld in their own hands. However, it is worth noting that Gilgamesh fame survived the death of Enkidu because of his account of Siduri’s advice, his great building projects and what he was told about the great flood. GENESIS Genesis is a Greek word that means â€Å"origin† or â€Å"birth†. It is the first book of the Torah or Pentateuch. Genesis is also the first book of the Hebrew Bible and the Christian Old Testament. Torah is a Hebrew word for â€Å"instructions† while Pentateuch is a Greek word for â€Å"five scrolls†. In regards to tradition, the Torah was dedicated to Moses by god. However, several scholars are of the opinion that Torah was composed from four different sources between 950 BCE and 500 BCE, which were later joined together around 450 BCE. The book of genesis is structured around ten toledot sections; however, modern commentators see it in terms of a primeval history. The book of Genesis is an example of â€Å"antiquarian history†. That is, a type of literature telling of the first appearance of humans, the origins of culture, the stories of ancestors, cities and heroes. Similarities There are several similarities between the epic of Gilgamesh and the book of genesis. One of the similarities lies on the flood account. The first point of similarities was the fact that God chose a righteous man to build an ark because of an impending great flood. In both cases, animals of all kinds were to be on the ark and birds were used after the rains to determine if floods waters had subsidized. After the rains stop stopped, both arks settled on mountain whereby Noah’s Ark and Utnapishtim’s on Ararat and Nisir respectively. It is worth noting that these mountains were not far from each other and sacrifices took the center stage after the flood. Apart from the floods, there was also the similarity in terms of the themes. Apart from the theme of seduction and civilization as r evealed by Eve and Shamhat; the theme of love and friendship and God’s chosen people also stood out. Themes Love and friendship The greater understanding and great love that emerged between Enkindu and the King; makes King Gilgamesh a better leader to the people of Uruk allowing him to better understand and identify with them. The epic of Gilgamesh may lack a female love interest, but the revelation of erotic love plays a vital role. Love and friendship in the epic is not considered not only as a part of life, but also as a vital part of the poem to

Harlem Renaissance Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Harlem Renaissance - Research Paper Example The participants also wanted to eliminate the influence of Victorian society principles that propagated racial discrimination. The movement created the basis for African American culture development and greatly influenced the attitude towards blacks in the whole world. Harlem, the district of the New York City, was the heart of the movement. The Harlem Renaissance also affected the social life of blacks, because a bit later, in 1940-50, many blacks moved to northern American cities that testified about the improvement of their social influence and the development of their cultural and social life. There were also many organizations created in order to defend and promote the rights and freedoms of African Americans, to inspire blacks and to remind them about their cultural identity (Huggins). As a result, African Americans found the way to such big centers as Paris and New York City and, what is the most important, they managed to unite and support each other on their way to cultural revival. The influence the Harlem Renaissance had on social sphere made this period of cultural development unique in the world history. Not only fiction literature was created during this period but also a great number of social magazines and newspapers were issued. â€Å"The Crisis†, â€Å"Opportunity†, â€Å"Negro World† are among them. ... It is interesting that Harlem was the place of white people residence, and when the movement was created, it turned into a residence of black people. Certainly, this was a kind of a victory and as a result other regions of the New York, which were close to Harlem, also became full of blacks. African American intellectuals from other American cities came to Harlem to live or just to meet each other. Such unity played a very important role as it helped revive African American cultural identity and make whites respect them and their culture (Patton). The Harlem Renaissance presented American history with many outstanding personalities. The poet Langston Hughes (1902-1967)  became famous after his publications in â€Å"The Crisis†, the famous magazine in Harlem Renaissance period. His poems helped shed the light on the real life of African Americans and contained hard critics of the prejudices and racial discrimination. His poems called African Americans upon to stop despise the ir own culture, to start respect themselves, to build their cultural identity and make whites also respect them. He wrote â€Å"the night is beautiful, so the faces of my people, the starts are beautiful, so the eyes of my people. Beautiful also is the sun, beautiful also are the souls of my people† (Hughes, cited in Rampersad, 1988). Such poems were written in order to make black people like the color of their skin and their appearance, to remind them that they have beautiful and wise souls. â€Å"My seeking has been to explain and illuminate the Negro condition in America and obliquely that of all human kind" (Hughes, cited in Rampersad, 1988). Claude McKay is another interesting figure in Harlem

History Of Quality Management As It Relates To The US Air Force Research Paper

History Of Quality Management As It Relates To The US Air Force - Research Paper Example TQM is an approach that can enhance the competitiveness, effectiveness and flexibility of a whole organization that requires planning, organizing and understanding each activity (O’Neill & Sohal, 1999). TQM has been applied to all industries with the focus on quality improvement or achieving overall customer satisfaction. TQM in the US Air Force has its own significance and has been in practice for several decades. As the Federal government realized the need for a smaller military force due to decreasing military threat from the former Soviet Union, the financial support to the military was reduced (Sanchez, 1997). This necessitated the reduction in the size of personnel from each service as well as eliminating many weapon systems. With the reduced number of airmen, seamen and soldiers the need for efficiency became paramount (Moser & Bailey, 1997). TQM training was instituted in all branches of the armed forces and extended to the US defense industries as well. This paper res earches how the application and utility of TQM has evolved and whether it has been able to enhance efficiency in the US Air Force.TQM has further been defined as a process of continuous improvement (Gonsalves, 2002) where continued effort is exerted by everyone in the organization to understand, meet and exceed customer expectations through quality enhancement (Hoang, 2009) where quality includes characteristics such as performance, features, durability, aesthetics and service quality (Lian, 2001). Ho, Duffy and Shih (1999) emphasize that continuous improvement, customer focus, and teamwork form the core of TQM philosophy. TQM is a holistic concept wherein all members of the organization participate in planning and implementing continuous quality improvement (Sanchez, 1997). Deming stated that to achieve success through TQM the managers must whole-heartedly believe in the philosophy and create an environment for the process to function (D’Ron, 1998). Deming also offered sugge stions for the managers to change their traditional mindset which included leadership, training, breaking down the barriers, not focusing on price alone, eliminating quotas and most importantly they should adopt the TQM principles. The Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award (MBNQA) was established by Congress in 1987 to stimulate competition in the US businesses. This is a prestigious award for excellence and quality achievement in the United States. This award was meant to recognize organizations that have outstanding processes and practices, and that focus on continuous improvement and where the practice is measureable. The MBNQA is basically a business review, a formal process to review how the business operates. Its implementation requires visionary leadership, social responsibility, focus on future, focus on results, managing for innovation and valuing employees and other stakeholders (Baldridge Award, 2005). The award is given to organizations that demonstrate exemplary achie vements across seven dimensions - leadership, strategic planning, customer and market focus, measurement, analysis and knowledge management, human resources focus, process management, and business results.

Assignment 2 Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words - 15

Assignment 2 - Essay Example cussion by Timiraos in the journal article is that people who are not credit defaulters or have fairly good credit scores below 620 will have the opportunity to own homes at reduced interest rates as well as reduced percentage required for a down payment from 3.5% to 3% in the two leading financial mortgage organizations: Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. The program by the federal government has ensured that this is possible but not to everybody and not in every financial institutions including banks. What the federal regulation has not shed into light and which if not properly explained might raise hopes of people for nothing is that those qualifying for the 3% down payment are required to not only have perfect credit when it comes to loan payment but are required to have mortgage insurance. Having mortgage insurance is an added cost to the people and hence they are even better off with the 3.5% down payment that was present initially. The banks also offer mortgage loans for the people but they do not do so for everybody and are even afraid to implement the federal regulation as a result of the losses they incur with mortgage defaulters. They are left at losses and in order to avoid this, they select very few people to provide the mortgages to. All is not gloomy about the regulations as is evident from the increase in housing contracts by new home buyers. The sales and contracts from the time the federal regulations were announced have increased by around 0.3% and this is very encouraging. The prices of homes have been increasing which makes buying a house on cash basis very hard for majority of the people. However, with the new regulations, people are bound to get loans to purchase their houses no matter the price. The federal government is trying its best but with the slow reaction and more negative than positive results of the regulations, they are bound to ease the conditions and make better the regulations. The mortgage is most likely to get cheaper and more

The Gospel Of John's View Of The Role Of The Holy Spirit Research Paper

The Gospel Of John's View Of The Role Of The Holy Spirit - Research Paper Example This research aims at studying John's Gospel view of the Holy Spirit using the existing literature. In his article "John 14:17 and the Holy Spirit in the Gospel of John", Sloan gives a breakdown of earthly ministry of Jesus giving the leads to the permanent ‘indwelling of the Holy Spirit’ among his disciples on departure to heaven. Further, Carsons (1991) gives the descriptions of ‘the responsibilities of the Holy Spirit’ during the final discourse of Jesus. It emerges that the Holy Spirit hovers through those baptized in it (known as indwelling). Furthermore, the Holy Spirit is independent of the father and the son due to the nature of the work allocated. The Holy Spirit is responsible of the Christendom and the spread of the church within boundaries and beyond. The institution of the church survives on the mercy of Holy Spirit who is responsible for this valuable task (Stott 2006). The Holy Spirit fills the followers of Christ with the yearning to know God more as the ethics dictate. The responsibilities further stretch towards the power to redeem and reconcile humans and their God whenever they wrong him (Barth 1993). The regeneration of human beings is entirely dependent on the functions of the righteous Spirit as evident from Owen's "Discourse concerning the Holy Spirit.† He has more than one function as Linzey puts it in her book "The Baptism with the Holy Spirit.† The illumination of the human believer's mind depends on the efforts of the divine Spirit as indicated in John 3:5. This is because the Holy Spirit knows better about God's will than any other supernatural power in existence thus engages the believers in their day-to-day activities that related to Godliness (Rogers 2009). 1 Introduction The Holy Spirit in the Gospel of John is first introduced in Chapter 1 verse 33. The functions of the Holy Spirit in a believers’ life are discussed in three chapters (14-16). â€Å"But the helper, the Holy spirit whom the father will send in my name, He will teach you all things.† These verses show the Holy Spirit as a helper and teacher. Other roles that will be discussed in this paper are the Holy Spirit as a comforter, giver of life, living water and as a reminder of Christ among other roles. This paper will also look at who is the Holy Spirit, how does one receive Him and how it is viewed in the Old Testament. This paper has considered the Holly Spirit in the perspective of the gospel of John. We have taken the entire gospel through references to the Lord’s Ministry as provided in the first thirteen chapters. Then, it extends to God’

Lord of the Flies Central Thematic Dichotomy Essay Example for Free

Lord of the Flies Central Thematic Dichotomy Essay The theme of the central thematic dichotomy in lord of the flies is conveyed through many ways through out the first three chapters. The once majestic island has begun to seem as if it is only a mask for the true concealed â€Å"beastie.† The seemingly paradisiacal island is very similar to the Garden of Eden as it obtains beauty by the vast amounts of growing foliage such as the â€Å"blue flowers,† â€Å"candlebuds,† and dense green forest. On the crust the cool, calm and peaceful persona is vivid and clear however just below lies the greed and savagery of all man kind which in the biblical story says that evil was exposed through Eve when she gave into temptation and disobeyed god’s commands however, in Lord of the flies the sinister one who gives into temptations and leads others with him is Jack as he gives into his primal urges and disobeys his civilized upbringing because of his constant rationalizations of the fact that they need meat but, in reality his interest in meat for the boys is clouded by his desire to kill. The garden of Eden references are also foreshadowing devices as at first the Garden is full of joy and laughter and then humans fall because of greed and temptation which is what happens to the boys at first they believe â€Å"this is a good island† but soon they fall to the primal instincts from within. This shows that the island although beautiful on the surface is merely a disguise for the underlying evil that is rooting itself into the boys. Secondly in my opinion I believe the island and the boys is very much like Libya, it has a hierarchy, it has an infrastructure, it has rules and regulations. It seems civilized. However it is not. As we know, the hierarchy is a dictatorship conducted my Gaussian, much like Jack who is urging himself to be a dictator which is shown when he says â€Å"Come on, Follow me!† leaving only Piggy and Raplh alone as well as, his control over the choir boys, even though Ralph is leader. Its infrastructure is weak, as is the shelters built by the boys, and lastly the rules and regulations are kept but enforced in a cruel , barbaric way which is how the boys are beginning to edge towards as shown when Ralph makes the boys stand until one collapses and he is left and teased for his lack of stamina. Although the boys try to stay within the paths of civilization they slowly are drifting onto the trail of savagery. Also the components of civilization they brought or found are slowly being destroyed and replaced with demonist items such as fire. They begin with their clothes. Clothes have been worn for 170,000 years, since the dawn of civilization, at first the purpose of piggy removing his â€Å"school sweater† is because of his desperation to escape the heat and although Raplh strips, during the first chapter he eventually puts his clothes back on, showing that within him he still sides with humanity rather than savagery however, as time continues the boys slowly begin to rip and destroy as well as remove more clothing and the most covered, Jack, who begins wearing his long black cloak in the first chapter becomes the least clothed with his â€Å"bare back† described when he is hunting in the third chapter. This shows the backwards evolution of the boys where they are beginning to strip away all that is civil and proper and go back to the nature they were created with. As if the once civilized island is now manipulating them to become Neanderthal like creatures. Secondly Piggy’s glasses represent intelligence and humans overpowering nature and the boys use them as †burning glasses† which shows that they are starting to lack respect for human kinds inventions and innovations and interchange over to a side where items/technology are not worth what they would be in a civilized town. Also the fact that they took the glasses forcefully without Piggy’s consent is a sign that the children have not only begun to loose respect for items but also for manners which coincides with the theme that the boys are loosing respect for proper behavior and therefore loosing respect for civilization. This again also foreshadows the future because Piggy’s glasses are also broken just like the shattering of civilization on the island. Lastly the fire the boys create begins as a sign of hope, they try to create a signal so someone might rescue them however it slowly turns into a much larger fire than expected and sets fire to some of the trees and eventually kills a young boy. This is Goldings way of saying that even something that has good intentions can quickly turn into something heinous if given the chance. It is foreshadowing the boys development from good natured English school boys to savage, cold, cantankerous monsters of human beings. To conclude on the surface the boys and the island seem, pleasant, empyrean and majestic however, the inner core opposes the outer drastically and surfaces when times are tough. This shows that the primitive barbaric attitudes of our ancestors comes fourth when in a time of crisis and pressure even if we have the greatest of intentions in the end as Golding shows no-one has the ability to deny or defeat our urges even ones as pure as Simon. Our greatest enemy is truly ourselves.

Reflective Account Of Diversity And Team Performance Nursing Essay

Reflective Account Of Diversity And Team Performance Nursing Essay This reflective account concerns my experiences of participating in a diverse team of people from different nationalities, which was formed for the achievement of specific outcomes over a specific period. The opportunity to work in this team arose in the course of an assignment for syndicate group work. The importance of management of team performance is steadily gaining recognition in the area of modern day organisational behaviour. With modern organisations and operations becoming increasingly complex and dynamic, organisational performance is being driven by specialised employees who are organised into and work as teams. Salas, et al, (1992 p 4) defines a team as a distinguishable set of two or more people who interact dynamically, interdependently, and adaptively toward a common and valued goal/objective/mission, who have each been assigned specific roles or functions to perform Organisational experts have for long been intrigued by the fact that whilst team work is now an accepted tool for improvement of organisational efficiency, many firms that arrange their operations around teams with such expectations find, much to their disappointment, that (a) use of teams has little impact on productivity, and (b) such use of teams can furthermore lead to reduction of productivity (Bolin, et al, 2006, p 2). It is also frequently seen that teams with high performing individuals fail, even as teams with far less impressive members greatly exceed expectations. The performance of the Detroit Pistons basketball team in 2004 and 2005, when they won back to back NBA championships with a roster of unimpressive players illustrates the team performance paradox (Bolin, et al, 2006, p 2). The continued performance of the Ferrari racing team would not have been possible without the efforts of its back up staff (Robbins, et al, 2010, p 3). Such team performance paradoxes are evid ent across the world, with innovative start up teams with networking capabilities humbling huge established corporations with far superior technology and resources (Bolin, et al, 2006, p 2). Understanding the mechanisms of team work is an integral component of modern day learning in organisational behaviour. I was required to participate in a team of members from different nations with different academic, cultural and social backgrounds in the course of syndicated group activity for a period of 6 weeks. The experience gave me the opportunity to participate in an actual team environment, even as I was increasing my academic knowledge of team dynamics and processes. This reflective account details my learning experiences during the process of my participation in a diverse multi cultural team that was required to perform specific tasks and achieve particular objectives and outcomes over a specific timeframe. The essay is structured into sequential sections that take up the functioning of teams in its different aspects, the use of the IPO model for assessment of team effectiveness and the working, evolution and outcomes of our team over a specific 6 week period. Whilst academic theory on teams and assessment of team effectiveness is taken up in some detail, greater emphasis is placed upon my practical experience of participating in an interesting and enriching team environment. The essay ends with a concluding section that attempts to sum up my learning experience and details the ways in which I have gained from this experience in team work. Team Work Modern texts on organisational behaviour identify specific characteristics of teams that differentiate them from general groups (Buchanan Huczynski, 2004, p 7). These characteristics include (a) joint sharing of aims and objectives, (b) mutual dependency and trust, (c) overt expression of emotions, feelings and disagreement, (d) consensual decision making, (e) coordination, cooperation and cohesion, (f) management of trust feelings and conflict between team members, and (g) the creation of a collective and synergistic impact (Buchanan Huczynski, 2004, p 7). Hackman (2002, p 11), states that teams also have very clear boundaries for membership, relatively stable memberships and defined authority to manage their activities and processes. Team performance by and large represents the extent to which teams achieve their specific objectives (Hayes, 2002, p 43-46). Whilst such indicators of team performance are important for organisations because they assist in assessment of the extent of achievement of team goals, many teams, more particularly in business situations do not have targets that are clear and quantifiable (Hayes, 2002, p 43-46). Even where such targets are available, team members and managers can improve their performance in future if they are provided with a richer picture of the ways in which teams function (Senior, 1997, p 32-36). Teams, to be truly effective should thus have some understanding, not just of team outputs, but of the ways and means in which team members work together (Senior, 1997, p 32-36). The Input-Process-Output (IPO) model provides an approach to the understanding of team work and team performance. Inputs, in the IPO model, are seen in terms of issues concerned with group composition like leadership, size, term and diversity, along with factors like autonomy, training and resources that are provided to teams (Ilgen, et al, 2005, p 517-522). Internal team processes comprise of factors like the motivation and commitment of team members, the cooperation and communication between them and their skills of leadership, conflict resolution, decision making and problem solving (Ilgen, et al, 2005, p 517-522). Outputs on the other hand are largely depicted as team objectives or the larger concept of team effectiveness that includes a range of interrelated outcomes in areas of attitudes, behaviours and performance. Such outcomes can occur at the level of individuals, teams and organisations (Ilgen, et al, 2005, p 517-522). The theoretical paradigm behind much of research on team effectiveness comes from the application of the open systems theory, which states that team inputs (skills and abilities) are transformed into team outputs (the quality and quantity of team outcomes) through various interaction processes like utilisation of skills, effort and past strategy. The basic IPO model is flexible enough to be applied to a range of team settings and is illustrated in the figure provided below. A general set of factors for assessment of team work in the context of the above discussion thus needs to include (a) the attitudes, behaviours, thinking, roles and skills of individual team members, (b) team objectives and purposes, which include the setting, clarity, commitment and achievement of goals, (c) team processes like generation of ideas, making of decisions, management of controversy and conflict, communication style, allocation of responsibilities, planning of action and leadership style and (d) the organisational context with regard to structure, culture and associated issues. Working and Evolution of our Team Our experience of team work came about on account of participation in group syndicate activity for a period of 6 weeks. Our team was made up of six members and we were required to work together to (a) generate slogans for organisational use, and (b) achieve improvements in team working in areas of attitudes, behaviours and performance. I aim to assess different aspects of the working and functioning of our team, in terms of the IPO model, and deal sequentially with inputs, processes, and outputs. Inputs Our team consisted of six members, A- myself, B, C, D, E and F. As the oldest and most experienced member of the group, I was the automatic choice for its leader. The chart provided below gives basic details and personality types of group members. The personality ratings have been determined by organisational tests conducted on individual members. Member A B C D E F Nationality British Chinese Cyprus Indian Pakistan Nigerian Sex Male Female Female Male Female Female Education BA Hons History International Business And Management Business and Management Bachelor of Technology Graduate in BA BSC Logistics Profession leading public and private businesses Software Engineer Extraversion 3.8 1.9 3.8 3.9 3.7 3.5 Agreeableness 4.6 3.5 4.0 4.1 4.1 4.3 Conscientiousness 4.1 3.9 2.4 3.9 4.3 2.9 Neuroticism 2.7 3.4 3.1 2.4 3.2 4.1 Openness to Experience 4.5 2.8 3.5 3.8 3.9 2.3 As evident, our team was diverse with respect to nationality, gender, education, and work experience and personality types. Contemporary academic literature on organisational behaviour agrees on the advantages of diverse teams in various areas of organisational work. Diversity in teams, organisational experts feel, results in the availability of a range of perspectives and skills, which, if harnessed properly, can result in greater creativity in generation of ideas, alternatives and solutions than with homogenous teams and lead to better performance. Whilst diverse teams by and large have wider and better range of skills and abilities, it is often challenging to make them function in a coordinated and collaborative manner, in comparison with homogeneous teams. Such challenges to collaborative and coordinated working can arise because of differences in language, attitudes and perceptions of team members. The members of our teams came from different parts of Europe, Africa and Asia. Th eir academic backgrounds ranged from disciplines in the liberal arts to applied sciences, technology and management. Two of us, F and I had some working experience, even as the other four were fresh from college. Whilst the personality types of individual group members are different, all of us scored high on the agreeableness index and were happy to work and bond with each other. As the oldest and most experienced member of the group, its leadership automatically devolved upon my shoulders. This development occurred, without my asking for it, because the other group members looked towards me for advice, suggestions and direction on the functioning of the group. We were at the time of formation of the group provided with specific tasks requiring the generation of a number of slogans for ultimate organisational use. Apart from have to deliver such specific services, we were informed that we would be judged twice, once half way during the course, i.e. after three weeks and finally at the end of six weeks; on completion of the group activity. Various group factors like (a) innovative climate, (b) participation, (c) clarity of objectives, (d) reflexivity, (e) interdependence, (f) autonomy, (g) boundedness, (h) role clarity, (i) task conflict, (j) relationship conflict and (k) team satisfaction would be taken up for assessment during these occasions. We were inform ed to us that our progress would be made available to us at the middle and at the end of the syndicate activity in order to help us in organising our activities and improving our processes. Processes Leadership style is an important component of team work processes in the IPO model. Most texts on organisational behaviour stress on the importance of leadership in the efficient successful functioning of teams, even as the majority of both team successes and team failures are attributed to leadership decisions (Robbins, 2005, p 17-21). Fiedlers theory on leadership states that the adoption of leadership styles is often contingent upon situational circumstances and effective leaders alter their styles in line with situations, attributes and skills of team members, and team objectives (Fiedler, 1967, p 4-8).Leaders are otherwise expected to provide clarity regarding roles to members, communicate effectively, and generate feeling of inclusiveness by asking for comment and by expressing appreciation for contributions of team members (Stacey, 2003, p 15-19). Contemporary research on organisational behaviour also indicates that whilst leaders set the tone for definition of group activitie s, their subsequent responses are distinctly affected by their ongoing interaction and communication with team members (Stacey, 2003, p 15-19). Whilst the role of leadership devolved upon me without my asking for it, I did not ignore my responsibilities and worked towards the development of a committed, clear and collaborative team. I allocated responsibilities to each member and made constant efforts to improve and ensure communication with members on various issues associated with our team objectives as well as other areas of common interest. Although my efforts to communicate with group members were made easier by their general agreeableness, I often found B, the Chinese member to be reticent in her communication with the rest of us. She was not just very shy but also disinclined to explore new opportunities and experiences. These difficulties were however greatly made up by her conscientiousness towards her work. Our group activity and objectives required extensive discussions between member, generation and bouncing off of ideas, and long hours of brainstorming. Many of such sessions resulted in small and big disagreements, some of which ended with members refusing to talk to each other for some time. F, the lady from Nigeria whilst otherwise friendly and agreeable, was prone to excessive argumentativeness, and even hysteria, if her views were not supported by others. Conflicts between her and other members also arouse because of her lack of dedication towards group work and occasional proneness to shirk her responsibilities. We were fortunate that conflicts among group members were restricted and did not erupt frequently. Whilst friendly disagreements over work continued to happen, serious conflicts arose only on three occasions, all of them involving F. I felt conflict resolution to be one of my major responsibilities and was constantly looking for signs of disagreement and trouble. Whilst I would let constructive discussions and disagreements continue and sometimes even encourage them further, I took pains to ensure that personal bitterness between members did not set in and they refrained from making offensive statements towards each other. I am happy with the fact that all members, including F started bonding with each other by the end of the fourth week, started respecting each others point of view, and developed a healthy regard for their team mates. Output All our team members were delighted to find out that our group ended the activity practically at the top of the class, both in the number of generated slogans and in the originality of the two selected slogans. The result proved once more that a diverse team can do very well at creative work in an environment of transparency coordination and communication. We were otherwise pleased to know that we had made good progress in all activity areas, except for boundedness, team and relationship conflict and team satisfaction. I feel that our problems in these areas essentially relate to the inability of our team to manage the disputes and disagreements that often surfaced around F. As the leader I take responsibility for such failures and do feel that I should have tried to use my position as leader to communicate more successfully with F and quell her various mental insecurities in working with people who were possibly more hardworking and gifted than she was. Such an approach would have improved group communication, collaboration and outcomes. Conclusions This reflective account deals with my experiences in a diverse team of 6 persons that was formed for the achievement of specific objectives over a particular timeframe. The significance of team performance is progressively increasing in the discipline of organisational behaviour. With contemporary organisations becoming increasingly complex, organisational performance is now ever more driven by specially formed teams. Team performance normally represents the degree to which teams attain their particular objectives. Whilst such gauges of performance are necessary because they help in assessment of attainment of team goals, teams should also achieve some understanding of the ways in which team members work together. The Input-Process-Output (IPO) model represents an approach to understanding team work and has been used by me to assess the functioning of our team. Our team was diverse in many respects. Diversity, it is felt, leads to greater and to better performance. As the oldest and most experienced team, I became the team leader without asking for the position. I tried to live up to my responsibilities and worked towards the development of an effective team. We were fortunate that conflicts among members were limited and I tried to ensure that personal bitterness between members did not set in. Our team ended the activity at the top of the class with regard to set objectives. We also made good progress in all areas except in team relationships and satisfaction, where our progress was average or even less. I feel that such problems arose from our inability to manage disputes and disagreements. I take responsibility for such failures and feel that I should have tried to communicate more successfully with certain members. My experience of team work has however helped me immensely in maturing as an individual and as a professional and I am grateful for the experience.

The Elephant Man Essay -- Elephant Man Essays

The Elephant Man John Merrick, a man so pathetic and helpless because of the curse of his extremely disfigured body he carries around with him. Lots of people are born with some deformity or another, but none such as the case of John Merrick, in other words, ‘The Elephant Man’ who was given this name because he was so deformed he resembled an extremely ugly elephant. The movie shows how John Merrick is marginalized not only by the general public, but also the poorest of people to such an extent that his life was a misery. This movie shows how cynical people can be towards fellow human beings. His abnormalities did not even allow him to take a walk in the garden by day light as the common society looked at him with complete disgust. Although John suffers much, he manages to win a few hearts with the help of his ‘friend’, Dr. Frederick Treves, and when he was content with his life he commits suicide.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  In this story the darker side of society is witnessed and their utterly cynical behaviour is practiced on John, for one reason only – he does not look like any other normal human being. It is seen how the general public reacts in the very beginning of the movie, when Mr. Bytes presents him in the carnival just like an animal would be presented in front of an audience in a circus. In addition to this injustice Mr. Bytes brutally beats him which further disfigures him and then calls him as a ‘freak’. When Dr. Treves takes John to the hospital, a dispute brakes out whether he should be allowed to stay in the hospital, for no other reason, but only because he was so ugly. In one part of the movie it is shown how one nurse is upset with another nurse because the latter had her involved in the care of John Merrick which she did not like, because he was so ugly that it scared her. Amongst all the negative people in John Merrick’s life, the nigh t porter who in one part of the movie refers to himself as ‘Sunny Jim’ is the most cynical character in the entire story. His vile and selfish behavior tempted him to earn an extra income at John Merrick’s expense. He would take money from people and expose them to John, where the women would look at him with awe and fear while the men literally played around with him as if he were nothing but some broken toy. It is noticed how John was marginalized even by the lowest of classes even thought they themselves were amon... ...rson on a bed, which he was not supposed to because of his head being too large, which in turn would kill him. Yet he decided to sleep like a normal person, so he arranged his bed and went into the blanket and slept†¦forever. He committed suicide.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã¢â‚¬ËœThe Elephant Man’ is what John Merrick is referred to due to his physical abnormality which was close to that of an elephant. John had lots of people in his life that looked at him with an evil, selfish and cynical eye thus marginalizing him to the extreme. Due to his pathetic and out of place facial features he was not accepted by society thus he was always indoors unable to have an independent life. Besides all of this John still achieved some happiness with the help of Dr. Treves who helped him to gain the hearts of many people and when he felt that he had lived his life to his heart’s content he committed suicide. John Merrick went down in history books as a legend, because he led a life of extremes, which was filled with sorrow, but happiness towards the end of his life. When he was tired of being pushed around and had achieved sufficient love and happiness he slept to his death thus ending the curse of ‘The Elephant Man’.

Shakespeares Hamlet - Regarding Gertrude Essay -- Essays on Shakespear

Regarding Hamlet’s Gertrude  Ã‚        Ã‚  Ã‚   In William Shakespeare’s most famous tragedy Hamlet, the audience meets a queen who is a former and present queen. She was unhappy before – how does she feel now? Is she evil, guilty, motherly, lascivious? The multiple aspects of her personality deserve our attention.    Angela Pitt in â€Å"Women in Shakespeare’s Tragedies† comments that Shakespeare’s Gertrude in Hamlet is, first and foremost, a mother:    Gertrude evinces no such need to justify her actions and thereby does not betray any sense of guilt. She is concerned with her present good fortune, and neither lingers over the death of her first husband nor analyses her motives in taking another. . . .She seems a kindly, slow-witted, rather self-indulgent woman, in no way the emotional or intellectual equal of her son. . . . Certainly she is fond of Hamlet. Not only is she prepared to listen to him when he storms at her, proof that he is sufficiently close to her to have a right to make comments on   her personal life, but she is unfailingly concerned about him. (46-47)    Gunnar Bokland in â€Å"Hamlet† describes Gertrude’s moral descent during the course of Shakespeare’s Hamlet:    With Queen Gertrude and finally also Laertes deeply involved in a situation of increasing ugliness, it becomes clear that, although Claudius and those who associate with him are not the incarnations of evil that Hamlet sees in them, they are corrupt enough from any balanced point of view, a condition that is also intimated by the â€Å"heavy-headed revel† that distinguishes life at the Danish court. (123)    Gertrude’s â€Å"contamination† does indeed affect the hero. Courtney Lehmann and Lisa S. Starks in "Making Mother Matter: Repression... ...    Lehmann, Courtney and Lisa S. Starks. "Making Mother Matter: Repression, Revision, and the Stakes of 'Reading Psychoanalysis Into' Kenneth Branagh's Hamlet." Early Modern Literary Studies 6.1 (May, 2000): 2.1-24 <URL: http://purl.oclc.org/emls/06-1/lehmhaml.htm>.    Pitt, Angela. â€Å"Women in Shakespeare’s Tragedies.† Readings on The Tragedies. Ed. Clarice Swisher. San Diego: Greenhaven Press, 1996. Reprint of Shakespeare’s Women. N.p.: n.p., 1981.    Shakespeare, William. The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark. Massachusetts Institute of Technology. 1995. http://www.chemicool.com/Shakespeare/hamlet/full.html No line nos.    Smith, Rebecca. â€Å"Gertrude: Scheming Adulteress or Loving Mother?† Readings on Hamlet. Ed. Don Nardo. San Diego: Greenhaven Press, 1999. Rpt. of â€Å"Hamlet†: A User’s Guide. New York: Limelight Editions, 1996.   

Abraham Lincoln and Calamity Jane :: essays research papers

In The Boys’ Life of Abraham Lincoln by Helen Nicolay and Life and Adventures of Calamity Jane, By Herself, tone is employed to more effectively display the purpose of the essays. In The Boys’ Life of Abraham Lincoln, Nicolay uses a tone that demonstrates triumph through tragedy, weaving specifics about Lincoln’s ancestors with the trials he faced. In Life and Adventures of Calamity Jane, By Herself, Mrs. Burk (Calamity Jane) uses a tone that is familiar to the world of documentaries, starting her story at her birth and ending with where she was when she wrote the autobiography. One must remember that The Boys’ Life of Abraham Lincoln is a biography, and Life and Adventures of Calamity Jane, By Herself is an autobiography. The contrasting of these two fine pieces of literature makes some specifics about tone and purpose stick out in one’s mind. The Boys’ Life of Abraham Lincoln uses a tone that is personal and endearing in order to inspire the reader to face circumstances in their life with the notion that a sunnier day will come only if they try their hardest to make the best of their current situation. Tone is also used to display Abraham Lincoln as a man who did just that to become â€Å"the greatest man of his time†. The biography begins nearly 175 years before Abraham Lincoln was born. It traces its way through the pioneering of his forefathers into the â€Å"west† by specifically pointing out hardships faced on the unfriendly trail. (They faced solitude, privation, and all the dangers and hardships that beset men who take up their homes where only beasts and wild men have had their homes before.) However, â€Å"they continued to press steadily forward† even though they lost most of what they had when they started their journey. The determined family continues on through the death of Abraham ’s grandfather, till Abraham is born â€Å"in deep poverty†. Throughout this initial background, it is hinted that Abraham will be â€Å"a wonderful man†, and it is noted how ironic it is that such a great man is to be born and raised in such a humble place. It is stated that of his early childhood â€Å"almost nothing is known†. The author still manages, however, to dig up an anecdote which portrays Abraham as a â€Å"generous child†. He was â€Å"large and strong for his age†, and when a â€Å"severe mysterious sickness† breaks out, Abraham pulls through, though many die around him.

Kudler Fine Foods Frequent Buyer Program Essay

The intent behind the development of Kudler Fine Foods Frequent Buyer Program is to increase the level of customer loyalty. The system will be broken down into two different levels; the frequency of a buyers shopping with Kudler Fine Foods and the amount of money that the buyer spends with each purchase. A program like this is typically used as a marketing strategy that is â€Å"enabled by point-of-sale technology to record and store customer purchases in exchange for rewards’ (Appel, p. 156, 2006). A web-based shopping program will be used to enhance the Frequent Buyer Program for Kudler Fine Foods. This will be achieved by applying web-based advertising. A projection of frequent buyers growth is expected on the initial employment of the frequent buyer program. It is the estimate of the Sales and Marketing Department that there will be a 5% growth within the first 12 months of this program. The department has also conducted an analysis considering what legal courses of actions, if any, Kudler Fine Foods will need to take to ensure the success of this program. Legal Considerations A study of the consumer trends in this area will have to be conducted. The will enable the Sales and Marketing Department to allow for a smooth and functional program and give them an idea on how to better market the product. â€Å"Market research and demographics data can be used to better target products and produce better or customized products; such data are becoming increasingly valuable: (national Research Council, p. 156, 1994). Some of the legal issues that will be taken in to consideration are costumer privacy as this will have an increased attention in response to the initial data that we will be requesting. It is important that Kudler Fine Foods incorporate some sort of privacy statement into the initial request form stating that the information will not be shared with anyone outside of Kudler Fine Foods, and state the basic reason of why Kudler Fine Foods is requesting such data. Employees of Kudler Fine Foods will need to be trained on the proper handling of such data and what ramifications can happen in the event that costumer information is released without the expressed consent of the costumer. Ethical Considerations The intent of the Frequent Buyers Programs with Kudler Fine Foods is to be one of electronic commerce application. An e-commerce program can provide Kudler Fine Foods another level of costumer shopping and potentially receiving new customers for Kudler’s. As the program grows so will be profit margins of the company. However, internet security will have to be in the foremost thought of the IT Department in the development stages through the employment of the Frequent Buyers Program launch. The IT systems employed will â€Å"gather personal data about customer bases, and use it to support vital functions, such as the authentication of individuals requesting service, verification of credit and accounting information, delivery of services and goods, marketing, decision-making and law enforcement† (Appel, p. 156, 2006). Security Considerations The design and development of the database should not solely be focused on the access to and the protection of the personnel identifiable information that is being stored of the database. This information should be considered sensitive as it could be access in the attempt of identification theft or other forms of fraud. Programs of the nature have shown that they release they sensitive information to third party buyers. (Appel, 2006). Purchases that an individual makes should be held in a private and secure location and should not be shared with anyone outside of Kudler Fine Foods. An implementation of this should help ease a buyers concern that we are sharing their information with anyone who does not need to have it. The development of Kudler’s e-commerce site should be designed to fully secure. This is to help any unethical occurrences form happening; however, it will not prevent them from being attempted. Financial Analysis This initial cost of the startup of this program will be a minimal impact on Kudler Fine Foods. The initial advertisement effort will be done via social media; the companies Facebook page and Twitter account, email and word of mouth. Allowing for a reward system for costumer referrals can be used for current and new customers as the programs is employed and continues to grow. Rajiv and bell argue â€Å"customer retention costs are generally lower than customer acquisition costs, companies are better of focusing attention on their more loyal customers especially since the top 20% of customers account for 80% of revenues and often more than 100% of profits† (p. 180, 2003). Kudler Foods could reduce their marketing expenses by using a customer loyalty system through the use of rewards. The sales increase from this program should be reflected by the increase of new customers and the increased returning customers increased spending. The use of seasonal promotions only available to costumers enrolled into the frequent buyers program could also help in increased sales profits. Conclusion A frequent shopper program can be a successful tool is used correctly by a company. The difficult task will always be bringing in new costumers. This program should allow for the retention of existing customers with Kudler Fine Foods. A rewards points system should be used for the exchange of costume items only available to customers enrolled in the frequent shopper program. This will entice customers to remain loyal to the company and refer the friends and family to the program. The increased awareness of the customers privacy should always stressed from the designing of the program, through the implementation and further in the continuing changes of the program. Ensuring that the customers understand that their information is not shared with any third party organizations and that their information will help in the advancement of this program should minimize conflicts. The paramount concern should always be information security and privacy of customers identifying information will help keep this program a success.

Land Cover And Climate Change In Minnesota Environmental Sciences Essay

Anthropogenic land usage alteration is an of import issue in planetary alteration surveies. Population growing has resulted in an of all time increasing demand for nutrient, which is in bend resulted in a world-wide enlargement and intensification of cropland and grazing land ( Turner et al. , 1990 ) . Most of the clip, this enlargement took topographic point at the cost of natural primary grassland and wood ( Goldewijk, 2001 ) . Changes in land screen have considerable impact on local and regional clime, including regional air temperature, hydrological cycling and biogeochemical cycling. Vegetation features like rooting deepness, canopy denseness, flora tallness and evaportranspiration rate ( stomata conductance ) can all impact the regional clime. Land screen alteration can modify the land surface reflective power, therefore change the energy balance of the Earth surface. Both leaf colour and canopy denseness contribute to albedo. If the homo induced cropland/pasture has higher reflective power, so the Earth surface will reflect more solar radiation and absorb less. The surface temperature of the Earth will be reduced, frailty versa. Cropland normally has higher evaportranspiration rate than natural grassland. Thus an country modified from natural grassland to cropland, for illustration, may increase the local H2O vaporization rate. The dirt will be drier due to higher evaportranspiration rate, but it is difficult to state if the precipitation will increase or diminish in this part harmonizing to increased H2O vaporization rate, because it is depending on the air circulation form of this part, excessively. The hydrological rhythm and the energy rhythm are non independent from each other. The stage alteration of H2O affect the energy rhythm through absorbing and let go ofing latent heat. Wind form may alter due to set down screen alteration. When a natural wood is cut down to turn harvests, for illustration, the surface raggedness will be mostly changed. Wind velocity within this part, as a consequence, will increase because of decreased shear emphasis & A ; Acirc ; at the surface. Change of land screen besides affects the green house emanation of the ecosystem to the ambiance.2. Evidences of Land Cover Change of Minnesota over the past 300 old ages2.1 Historical archiveIn 1837, land of Minnesota was purchased from the Sioux Indians around the St. Croix River. Lumbermans and husbandmans settled the first little towns of Minnesota, including St. Paul, St Anthony ( Minneapolis ) , and Stillwater. In late 1800s, wheat farms were started in southern Minnesota and Minneapolis became one of the universe & A ; acirc ; ˆâ„ ¢s taking flour centres. In 1878, 68.98 % of tilled land in Minnesota devoted to wheat production, the high point for wheat husbandmans in Minnesota.2.2 Land SurveySurveyors puting out Minnesota ‘s public land study system in 1848-1907 recorded the size and species of the larger trees they used as markers ( bearing trees ) , every bit good as general descriptions of the physical geographics of the landscape they traversed. Although non a complete flora study, the General Land Office records provide much valuable item about how the province looked at the clip of European colony. Figure 1 describes land screen informations from the mid-1800s, as recorded at the clip of European colony. & A ; Acirc ; The southern and western parts of the province are natural prairie. Oak gaps and aspen-oak lands, in assorted sunglassess of brown, expanse from the Northwest to the sou'-east. The northern wood in northeast portion of the province is a rag carpet of leafy vegetables, blues, violet-pinks, and greies. mnorveg.gif Figure 1 Minnesota Early Settlement Vegetation. Before Settlement, the West lodger and southwest portion of Minnesota is largely covered by prairie. Beginning: hypertext transfer protocol: //www.mngeo.state.mn.us/chouse/land_use_historic.html & A ; Acirc ; This map is besides known as the Marschner map. It outlines merely how much of the province was one time wet prairie, oak gaps, Big Woods, assorted hardwood, or any of a twelve other vegetive types that have been absolutely changed by 19th- and 20th-century human habitation.2.3 Proxy informationsFossil pollen informations are chiefly a placeholder for works copiousnesss and community composing. Pollen records have been used to gauge the flora alterations over North America ( Grimm, 2001 ; Williams et al. , 2007 ; Wright et al. , 2004 ) ; unluckily, pollen informations have been of small usage peculiarly for the appraisal of human impacts on flora and land screen ( Anderson et al. , 2006 ; Gaillard et al. , 2008 ) . Alternatively, Goldewijk 2001 used human population denseness as a proxy index to gauge the planetary cropland distribution and generated a planetary land screen alteration map during last 300 twelvemonth ( Figure 2 ) . past 300 years.png Figure 2 Global Land screen alteration during last 300 old ages adapted from ( Goldewijk, 2001 ) .If expression at Upper Midwest of United States, we can see that the biggest alteration happened between 1800 and 1900, which is precisely the clip of European Settlement.2.4 Modern land screen in Minnesota and decision of Land usage alterationThe land screen of Minnesota in 2000 is shown in Figure 3. Up to 44 % of the province is taken up by agricultural land. Most of the prairie in Figure 1 has been changed into harvest land. We can seldom see original native prairie now in this province. MN2000.png Figure 3 Land Cover of Minnesota in 2000. Beginning: hypertext transfer protocol: //lakesandland.umn.edu/browse.html Based on the historical archive, land study and placeholder informations, we can reason that the land screen of Minnesota experienced a monolithic alteration from native prairie to cropland largely in the West lodger and southwest portion of the province. This is largely due to anthropogenetic alteration during early colony.3. Evidences of Climate Change of Minnesota over past 300 old ages3.1 Historical ArchiveIn 1894, a monolithic wood fire caused by distinct logging dust encompasses Hinckley, MN. In 1899, Minnesota ‘s timber industry reaches its extremum. In 1900, Virginia, Minnesota destroyed by fire once more. In 1918, Cloquet and Moose Lake, Minnesota are destroyed by fire. From historical archive, we can deduce that in early 1900s, Minnesota was dry. Fire frequence additions if the environing air is drier. If this premise is right, so we can inquire the inquiry: Is land screen change the cause of this waterlessness in early 1900 in Minnesota?3.2 Instrumental informationsInstrumental information in this part goes back to 1890. Although there is no clime informations before colony, we can still acquire an thought how the clime looks like after the colony. For air temperature, we can see that the fluctuation of province broad one-year mean temperature has increased from 40.5oC to around 42oC during the last 120 old ages. The inter-annual fluctuation is about 0.4oC. Although the tendency is acquiring heater, the hottest twelvemonth did non demo up late but was 1932, around 0.5oC above normal. instrumental temperature.png Figure Minnesota province averaged one-year temperature. Red line is one-year temperature. Solid green line is mean over the full period. Dashed green line is the standard divergence. The bluish stars are the running means. This information is from Minnesota province climatology office-DNR Division of Ecological and Water Resources, University of Minnesota. Link: hypertext transfer protocol: //www.wrcc.dri.edu/cgi-bin/divplot1_form.pl? 2106 instrumental precipitation.png Figure 5 Instrumental informations of Minnesota one-year precipitation. Symbols are the same as in Figure 4. Precipitation dropped dramatically in the period of 1895 to 1935. After that precipitation bit by bit increased to a normal value. The bead of precipitation in late 1800s and early 1900s may hold something to make with the land screen alteration. However, we need more grounds to turn out that. We need the clime record before colony to compare with the instrumental information to see if this tendency from 1895 to 1935 is caused by land screen alteration or clime fluctuation. In order to reply the inquiry how land screen alteration has an impact on the regional clime in Minnesota, we need to happen alternate tools and proxy informations.4. Possible placeholder informations and tool that could be used in this survey4.1 Stable C isotope of tree rings The inter-annual waterlessness wetness differences and the microclimate displacement during a turning season have impacts on the tree ring stable isotope signature. There are two stable isotopes for C: 12C and 13C. Due to their different neutron Numberss, they have different weight. When workss carry oning photosynthesis, it is easier for them to repair the lighter carbon- 12C, and left more and more 13C in the air. This is called favoritism consequence. This favoritism consequence gives the works a more negative isotope signature: . The isotope signature is calculated as: . Here means the sample we are examine ( e.g. tree pealing fragment ) . is a invariable, which is a planetary criterion that all of the isotope ratios over the universe can compare to. When the environing air becomes drier, the works pore will be smaller to forestall H2O loss. This besides prevents CO2 from come ining the works leaves. Under this circumstance, the works will cut down its favoritism consequence, which makes itself more positive ( Figure 6, Leavitt, 2007 ) . isotope.png Figure 6 The relationship between C isotope ratio and regional waterlessness 4.2 Using Model to imitate how land screen alteration will impact regional clime Numeral surveies have been focused on how land screen alteration will modify local to regional clime. Among other surveies, Bonan 1997 utilizing LSM1.0 coupled with an atmospheric general circulation theoretical account to imitate effects of land usage alteration on the clime of United States. He considered non merely the grassland to cropland transition in cardinal North America, but besides deforestation and harvest planting in the Eastern United States. What he has found, nevertheless, is a small spot different from our hypothesis: dampening of the near-surface ambiance by 0.5 to 1.5 g kg1 over much of the United States in spring and summer. These alterations in surface temperature and wet extend good into the ambiance, up to 500 megabit, and impact the boundary bed and atmospheric circulation.DrumheadTo reason, land usage alteration affects on regional clime from different facets. In order to understand how land usage alteration in Minnesota has modified the regional clime, more proxy information is needed to widen the instrumental information thirster. Besides, theoretical accounts can be used to prove our apprehension of the mechanism, besides give us opportunity to retrace the old clime.

Dante’s Inferno Notes

A huge and powerful warrior-king who virtually embodies defiance against his highest god, Capaneus is an exemplary blasphemer–with blasphemy understood as direct violence against God. Still, it is striking that Dante selects a pagan character to represent one of the few specifically religious sins punished in hell. Dante's portrayal of Capaneus in Inferno 14.43-72–his large size and scornful account of Jove striking him down with thunderbolts–is based on the Thebaid, a late Roman epic (by Statius) treating a war waged by seven kings against the city of Thebes.Capaneus' arrogant defiance of the gods is a running theme in the Thebaid, though Statius' description of the warrior's courage in the scenes leading up to his death reveals elements of Capaneus' nobility as well as his contempt for the gods. For instance, Capaneus refuses to follow his comrades in a deceitful military operation against the Theban forces under the cover of darkness, insisting instead on figh ting fair and square out in the open. Nevertheless, Capaneus' boundless contempt ultimately leads to his demise when he climbs atop the walls protecting the city and directly challenges the gods: â€Å"come now, Jupiter, and strive with all your flames against me! Or are you braver at frightening timid maidens with your thunder, and razing the towers of your father-in-law Cadmus?† (Thebaid 10.904-6).Recalling the similar arrogance displayed by the Giants at Phlegra (and their subsequent defeat), the deity gathers his terrifying weapons and strikes Capaneus with a thunderbolt. His hair and helmet aflame, Capaneus feels the fatal fire burning within and falls from the walls to the ground below. He finally lies outstretched, his lifeless body as immense as that of a giant. This is the image inspiring Dante's depiction of Capaneus as a large figure appearing in the defeated pose of the blasphemers, flat on their backs Ser Brunnetto Latino = Round Three- Violence Against NatureOne of the most important figures in Dante's life and in the Divine Comedy, Brunetto Latini is featured among the sodomites in one of the central cantos of the Inferno. Although the poet imagines Brunetto in hell, Dante-character and Brunetto show great affection and respect for one another during their encounter in Inferno 15.Brunetto (c. 1220 – 1294) was a prominent guelph who spent many years living in exile in Spain and France–where he composed his encyclopedic work, Trà ©sor (â€Å"Treasure†: Inf. 15.119-20)–before returning to Florence in 1266 and assuming positions of great responsibility in the commune and region (notary, scribe, consul, prior). Such was Brunetto's reputation that chroniclers of the time praised him as the â€Å"initiator and master in refining the Florentines.† While Brunetto's own writings–in terms of quality and significance–are far inferior to Dante's, he was perhaps the most influential promoter in the Midd le Ages of the essential idea (derived from the Roman writer Cicero) that eloquence–in both oral and written forms–is beneficial to society only when combined with wisdom.We understand from this episode that Brunetto played a major–if informal–part in Dante's education, most likely as a mentor through his example of using erudition and intelligence in the service of the city. Apart from the reputed frequency of sexual relations among males in this time and place, there is no independent documentation to explain Brunetto's appearance in Dante's poem among the sodomites. Brunetto was married with three–perhaps four–children. Many modern scholarly discussions of Dante's Brunetto either posit a substitute vice for the sexual one–linguistic perversion, unnatural political affiliations, a quasi-Manichean heresy–or emphasize a symbolic form of sodomy over the literal act (e.g., rhetorical perversion, a failed theory of knowledge, a pr oto-humanist pursuit of immortality).Geryon = Round Three- Violence Against Art(fraud) giant with three heads and bodies Geryon, merely described in Virgil's Aeneid as a â€Å"three-bodied shade† (he was a cruel king slain by Hercules), is one of Dante's most complex creatures. With an honest face, a colorful and intricately patterned reptilian hide, hairy paws, and a scorpion's tail, Geryon is an image of fraud (Inf. 17.7-27)–the realm to which he transports Dante and Virgil (circles 8 and 9). Strange as he is, Geryon offers some of the best evidence of Dante's attention to realism. The poet compares Geryon's upward flight to the precise movements of a diver swimming to the surface of the sea (Inf. 16.130-6), and he helps us imagine Geryon's descent by noting the sensation of wind rising from below and striking the face of a traveler in flight (Inf. 17.115-17).By comparing Geryon to a sullen, resentful falcon (Inf.  17.127-36), Dante also adds a touch of psychologic al realism to the episode: Geryon may in fact be bitter because he was tricked–when Virgil used Dante's knotted belt to lure the monster (Inf. 16.106-23)–into helping the travelers. Dante had used this belt–he informs us long after the fact (Inf. 16.106-8)–to try to capture the colorfully patterned leopard who impeded his ascent of the mountain in Inferno 1.31-3. Suggestively associated with the sort of factual truth so wondrous that it appears to be false (Inf. 16.124), Geryon is thought by some readers to represent the poem itself or perhaps a negative double of the poem. Pier della Vigna = Round Two- Violence Against ThemselvesLike Dante, Pier della Vigna (c. 1190 – 1249) was an accomplished poet–part of the â€Å"Sicilian School† of poetry, he wrote sonnets–and a victim of his own faithful service to the state. With a first-rate legal education and ample rhetorical talent, Pier rose quickly through the ranks of public servi ce in the Kingdom of Naples and Sicily, from scribe and notary to judge and official spokesman for the imperial court of Frederick II. But his powers appear to have exceeded even these titles, as Pier claims to have had final say over Frederick's decisions (Inf. 13.58-63).While evidence of corruption casts some doubt on Pier's account of faithful service to the emperor, it is generally believed that he was indeed falsely accused of betraying Frederick's trust by envious colleagues and political enemies (Inf. 13.64-9). In this way, Pier's story recalls that of Boethius, author of the Consolation of Philosophy, a well known book in the Middle Ages (and a favorite of Dante's) recounting the fall from power of another talented individual falsely accused of betraying his emperor. Medieval commentators relate that Frederick, believing the charges against Pier (perhaps for plotting with the pope against the emperor), had him imprisoned and blinded. Unable to accept this wretched fate, Pier brutally took his life by smashing his head against the wall (perhaps of a church) or possibly by leaping from a high window just as the emperor was passing below in the street.Pier's name–Vigna means â€Å"vineyard†Ã¢â‚¬â€œundoubtedly made him an even more attractive candidate for Dante's suicide-trees. As an added part of the contrapasso for the suicides, the souls will not be reunited with their bodies at the Last Judgment but will instead hang their retrieved corpses on the trees (Inf.  13.103-8).MinotaurThe path down to the three rings of circle 7 is covered with a mass of boulders that fell–as Virgil explains (Inf. 12.31-45)–during the earthquake triggered by Christ's harrowing of hell. The Minotaur, a bull-man who appears on this broken slope (Inf. 12.11-15), is most likely a guardian and symbol of the entire circle of violence. Dante does not specify whether the Minotaur has a man's head and bull's body or the other way around (sources support both possibilities), but he clearly underscores the bestial rage of the hybrid creature. At the sight of Dante and Virgil, the Minotaur bites himself, and his frenzied bucking–set off by Virgil's mention of the monster's executioner–allows the travelers to proceed unharmed.Almost everything about the Minotaur's story–from his creation to his demise–contains some form of violence. Pasiphaà «, wife of King Minos of Crete, lusted after a beautiful white bull and asked Daedalus to construct a â€Å"fake cow† (Inf. 12.13) in which she could enter to induce the bull to mate with her; Daedalus obliged and the Minotaur was conceived. Minos wisely had Daedalus build an elaborate labyrinth to conceal and contain this monstrosity.To punish the Athenians, who had killed his son, Minos supplied the Minotaur with an annual sacrificial offering of seven Athenian boys and seven Athenian girls. When Ariadne (the Minotaur's half-sister: Inf. 12.20) fell in love wit h one of these boys (Theseus, Duke of Athens: Inf. 12.16-18), the two of them devised a plan to slay the Minotaur: Theseus entered the labyrinth with a sword and a ball of thread, which he unwound as he proceeded toward the center; having slain the Minotaur, Theseus was thus able to retrace his steps and escape the labyrinth CentaursThe Centaurs–men from the waist up with lower bodies of horses–guard the first ring of circle 7, a river of blood in which the shades of murderers and bandits are immersed to varying depths. Armed with bows and arrows, thousands of Centaurs patrol the bank of the river, using their weapons to keep the souls at their allotted depth (Inf. 12.73-5). In classical mythology, the Centaurs are perhaps best known for their uncouth, violent behavior: guests at a wedding, they attempted–their lust incited by wine–to carry off the bride and other women; a fierce battle ensued, described by Ovid in all its gory detail (Met. 12.210-535), i n which the horse-men suffered the heaviest losses. Two of the three Centaurs who approach Dante and Virgil fully earned this negative reputation.Pholus, whom Virgil describes as â€Å"full of rage† (Inf. 12.72), was one of the combatants at the wedding. Nessus, selected to carry Dante across the river in hell, was killed by Hercules–with a poisoned arrow–for his attempted rape of the hero's beautiful wife, Deianira, after Hercules had entrusted the Centaur to carry her across a river (Nessus avenged his own death: he gave his blood-soaked shirt to Deianira as a â€Å"love-charm,† which she–not knowing the shirt was poisoned–later gave to Hercules when she doubted his love [Inf. 12.67-9].) Chiron, the leader of the Centaurs, enjoyed a more favorable reputation as the wise tutor of both Hercules and Achilles (Inf. 12.71).Punishments of Each Ring -First Ring- For violence against neighbors. Made to boil in blood, and shot by arrows if they et out higher than they are deemed worthy. Fitting because those torturedmust boil in the blood they creted in life by violence.Chief sinner: alexander the great, who was violent against many of his countrymen as a tyrant.  · -Second Ring- For those violent against themselvesthey are turned into trees and are immobile. They are tortured and pecked at by Harpies. They will never be returned to their bodies because they didnt properly appreciate them in the first place.Chief Sinner: Pier della Vigna, who felt so ashamed by the lies of shcemers, took his own life.  · -Third Ring-For those violent against God. Three circles:  · Blasphamers – Just on hot sand · Sodomites – Also rained upon my fire  · Violent against art – also with purses around thier necksChief Sinner: Capaneus, Besieged Thebes. He is very defiant, still, and says hell shall never break him.Allusions  · Phlegethon-Literally a â€Å"river of fire† (Aen. 6.550-1), Phlegethon is the nam e Dante gives to the river of hot blood that serves as the first ring of  circle 7: spillers of blood themselves, violent offenders against others are submerged in the river to a level corresponding to their guilt. Dante does not identify the river–described in detail in Inferno 12.46-54 and 12.100-39–until the travelers have crossed it (Dante on the back of Nessus) and passed through the forest of the suicides. Now they approach a red stream flowing out from the inner circumference of the forest across the plain of sand (Inf. 14.76-84).After Virgil explains the common source of all the rivers in hell, Dante still fails to realize–without further explanation–that the red stream in fact connects to the broader river of blood that he previously crossed, now identified as the Phlegethon (Inf. 14.121-35).  · Polydorus-If Dante had believed what he read in the Aeneid, Virgil would not have had to make him snap one of the branches to know that the suicide-s hades and the trees are one and the same–this, at least, is what Virgil says to the wounded suicide-tree (Inf. 13.46-51). Virgil here alludes to the episode of the â€Å"bleeding bush† from Aeneid 3.22-68. The â€Å"bush† in this case is Polydorus, a young Trojan prince who was sent by his father (Priam, King of Troy) to the neighboring kingdom of Thrace when Troy was besieged by the Greeks.Polydorus arrived bearing a large amount of gold, and the King of Thrace–to whose care the welfare of the young Trojan was entrusted–murdered Polydorus and took possession of his riches. Aeneas unwittingly discovers Polydorus' unburied corpse when he uproots three leafy branches to serve as cover for a sacrificial altar: the first two times, Aeneas freezes with terror when dark blood drips from the uprooted branch; the third time, a voice–rising from the ground–begs Aeneas to stop causing harm and identifies itself as Polydorus. The plant-man expla ins that the flurry of spears that pierced his body eventually took the form of the branches that Aeneas now plucks. The Trojans honor Polydorus with a proper burial before leaving the accursed land.Old Man of Crete-Dante invents the story of the large statue of an old man–located in Mount Ida on the Island of Crete–for both practical and symbolic purposes ( Inf. 14.94-120). Constructed of a descending hierarchy of materials–gold head, silver arms and chest, brass midsection, iron for the rest (except one clay foot)–the statue recalls the various ages of humankind (from the golden age to the iron age: Ovid, Met. 1.89-150) in a pessimistic view of history and civilization devolving from best to worst. Dante's statue also closely  recalls the statue appearing in King Nebuchadnezzar's dream in the Bible; this dream is revealed in a vision to Daniel, who informs the king that the composition of the statue signifies a declining succession of kingdoms all inf erior to the eternal kingdom of God (Daniel 2:31-45).That the statue is off-balance–leaning more heavily on the clay foot–and facing Rome (â€Å"as if in a mirror†) probably reflects Dante's conviction that society suffers from the excessive political power of the pope and the absence of a strong secular ruler. Although the statue is not itself found in hell, the tears that flow down the crack in its body (only the golden head is whole) represent all the suffering of humanity and thus become the river in hell that goes by different names according to region: Acheron, Styx, Phlegethon, Cocytus (Inf. 14.112-20).Phaethon and Icarus-As he descends aboard Geryon through the infernal atmosphere, Dante recalls the classical stories of previous aviators (Inf. 17.106-14). Phaethon, attempting to confirm his genealogy as the son of Apollo, bearer of the sun, took the reins of the sun-chariot against his father's advice. Unable to control the horses, Phaethon scorched a la rge swath of the heavens; with the earth's fate hanging in the balance, Jove killed the boy with a thunderbolt (Ovid, Met. 1.745-79; 2.1-332).Daedalus (see Minotaur above), to escape from the island of Crete, made wings for himself and his son by binding feathers with thread and wax. Icarus, ignoring his father's warnings, flew too close to the sun; the wax melted and the boy crashed to the sea below (Met. 8.203-35). So heartbroken was Daedalus that he was unable to depict Icarus' fall in his carvings upon the gates of a temple he built to honor Apollo (Aen. 6.14-33). Experiencing flight for the first, and presumable only, time in his life–aboard a â€Å"filthy image of fraud,† no less–Dante understandably identifies with these two figures whose reckless flying led to their tragic deaths.