Why is Algebra so Important free essay sample

This paper discusses the importance of learning algebra. This paper examines why it is necessary to learn algebra. It shows its everyday uses and importance. It uses some basic examples such as calculating the miles per gallon of a car, and solving a calendar riddle. From the paper: Algebra is simply the branch of mathematics in which the operations and procedures of addition and multiplication are applied to variables rather than specific numbers. It is also probably the subject about which schoolchildren are most likely to ask the question: What good will this ever do me when I get out of school. This paper puts forth three different answers to that eternal question of what good will algebra do me?

Japan Council for Sustainable Development

Japan Council for Sustainable Development Free Online Research Papers Even though the small country of Japan only occupies 0.3% of total land area and 2.3 % of our worlds total population, it receives about 20% of the worlds annual shipment carriages. This massive economy is only a recent phenomena brought about in the last 100 years. Although economic growth is good for a country it does bring about problems to the environment. Because of this, and Agenda 21, the Japan Council for Sustainable Development was established. The councils aim is to encourage and facilitate communication between the members concerning major issues of sustainable development. Before the council was even established Japan created the Basic environmental law which is the basis for all of japanese environmental policy. The law has a couple of basics for environmental policy. The enjoyment and succession of environmental blessings, creation of a sustainable society which imposes less burden on the environment, and international cooperation for the conservation of the global environment are three main principles for environmental policy. The National Agenda 21 Action Plan and the Basic Environmental Plan are two proposals devised to help make strong efforts towards effectively implementing and following Agenda 21 in Japan. The Basic Environmental Plan prescribes four long-term objectives which are environmentally-sound material cycle, harmonious coexistence, public participation, and international activities. An environmentally-sound material cycle is fostered by building a socio-economic system where environmental load from human activities is minimized. The relationship between humankind and the diverse wildlife and the natural environment is what Japan strives for to create a harmonious existence. Public Participation is a key to long-term effectiveness of Agenda 21. Participation of all members of a society in environmental conservation activities is major. If the public chooses not to follow the plan then the plan is nothing more than ideas with no actions so it is very important to get the public to agree and participate in environmental conservation. The import-export ratio in Japan is about 8 to 1, which is way higher than any other country. 500 million tons of industrial waste and 50 million tons of house hold wastes are made in Japan. Of the 500 tons of industrial waste 1/3 is recycled while others are incinerated and left to sit in land hills. Because of the huge amounts of wastes that flow into Japan a huge quantity of wastes are also made. Environmental Law in Japan seems to aim Japan in the right direction, but with such massive amounts of wastes produces it is hard to see immediate results. Without all the proposals by Japanese environmental law makers going as planned results will be hard to come by. Research Papers on Japan Council for Sustainable DevelopmentPETSTEL analysis of IndiaRelationship between Media Coverage and Social andDefinition of Export QuotasInfluences of Socio-Economic Status of Married MalesAnalysis of Ebay Expanding into AsiaBionic Assembly System: A New Concept of SelfGenetic EngineeringOpen Architechture a white paperThe Project Managment Office SystemMarketing of Lifeboy Soap A Unilever Product

International Finance Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words - 3

International Finance - Essay Example When used in a data set of 7 major currencies in the post-Bretton Woods age, the JLR test offers strong and credible evidence in support of a unitary cointegrating vector in between forward and corresponding future spot rates. However, the orthogonality condition is met only for 3 major currencies. According to the forward rate unbiasedness hypothesis (FRUH), â€Å"under conditions of risk neutrality and rational expectations on the part of market agents, the forward rate is an unbiased predictor of the corresponding future spot rate†. Assuming the absence of a risk premium in the foreign exchange market, it must hold true that Johansen (1992) puts forward a maximum likelihood technique to establish the number of common trends in a system of unit-root variables. Without any generality being lost, a p -dimensional vector autoregressive (VAR) process of k -th order can be written as: To test the hypothesis in (6), it suffices to test that the smallest of the characteristic roots of ÃŽ   is zero, as a rejection necessarily implies that all characteristic roots of ÃŽ   are nonzero and therefore ÃŽ   possesses full rank. Such a test can be constructed on the basis of the following test statistic, referred to as the Johansen likelihood ratio (JLR) test statistic: The paper analyzed U.S. dollar spot and 90-day forward rates for 8 major currencies: Canadian dollar (CD), Deutsche mark (DM), British pound (BP), French franc (FF), Swiss franc (SF), Netherlands guilder (NG), and the Italian lira (IL). The sample period is from 1974:3 to 1996:4 at a quarterly frequency. Since the maturity date of the forward contract and the sampling frequency are similar, problems emanating from the use of overlapping data are bypassed. The 90-day forward rates are matched with the corresponding future spot rates and

ORGANIZATIONAL BEHAVIOR THEORIES OR MODELS Essay

ORGANIZATIONAL BEHAVIOR THEORIES OR MODELS - Essay Example Diverse individuals or employees behave differently and hence the organizational behavior can be defined as the sum total of the behaviors of the diverse employees. As a result of that, it is logical to assume that no two organizations can be alike in terms of its behavior since no two individuals are alike in their behaviors. The culture, religion, and the attitudes of the employees can play vital roles in shaping organizational behavior. Leadership plays an important role in shaping organizational behavior. Ultimately leaders are responsible for the development of good as well as bad behaviors and attitudes among employees. An employee who gets good treatment from the leader may contribute heavily to the organization whereas an employee who gets bad treatment from the leader may retard the progress of the organization. Strategies necessary to motivate a diverse workforce purely depend on the abilities of the leader. In other words, leadership style plays an important role in shapin g organizational behavior. Some leaders have autocratic in nature whereas some others are democratic in nature. A third segment of leaders adopt a mixed approach; autocratic style blended with democratic style. Based on these leadership styles, plenty of organizational behavior theories or models were developed in the recent past. This paper critically analyses situational leadership theory, the XY theory of motivation and Adam’s equity theory of motivation to know more about the organizational behavior theories or models. Situational Leadership theory and organizational behavior The situational leadership theory, was developed by Paul Hersey, (author of the book Situational Leader), and Ken Blanchard, (author of The One Minute Manager). The core principle of the situational leadership theory is that the leaders should be flexible enough to change their styles based on the demands of the situations (Hersey and Blanchard, 1977). The four different types of situational leadersh ip are: Directing, Coaching, Supporting and Delegating. â€Å"Directing leadership approach is most appropriate when the followers have low willingness and low ability for the task at hand. When the followers cannot do the job and are unwilling or afraid to try, then the leader must take a highly directive role† (The Situational Leadership Model, N.d., p.3). It should be noted that power is extremely important for a military leader. He will exercise it whenever requires. It is the duty of the soldiers or the followers to obey the commands or instructions of the commander or leader, even if they have concerns about the logic and utility of the instructions they got. First obey and then question is the rule followed in military. â€Å"Coaching leadership approach is most appropriate when the followers have high willingness but low ability for the task at hand† (The Situational

Media plan for Nescafe in the United Kingdom Essay

Media plan for Nescafe in the United Kingdom - Essay Example First, the company’s promotional message will be explored to establish the quality of content in Nescafà ©Ã¢â‚¬â„¢s advertising campaign. Second, each identified advertising medium will specify how the advertisements will be implemented. Lastly, the cost of implementation and challenges to the campaign will be discussed as an overview of the plan. As currently stated on their website, Nescafà © UK is launching a worldwide campaign to promote responsible farming, production, and consumption. In this effect, Nescafà © wants to push the message of not only providing the best coffee in a cup, but also to â€Å"go beyond the cup†. With this, it is important that the message for the campaign will focus on this particularly tagline to show the uniformity in concept of the entire campaign message. As such, the theme, â€Å"go beyond the cup†, should represent these three areas which Nescafà © currently puts its focus on. Mixed media advertising means equally utilizing both the traditional and modern media for product promotion. With today’s technology-driven society, Nescafà ©Ã¢â‚¬â„¢s mixed media plan will include the use of internet in targeting young consumers (aged 18 - 45 years old) who mostly subscribe to modern forms of communication. On the other hand, Nescafà © will also continue placing advertisements to radio, print, and television because it recognizes the fact that these traditional forms of media, given their significance in advertising, will become more effective if it is integrated by the new media. Advertisements in print, radio, and television remain a competitive form of product promotion because it gives lasting impression to consumers and establishes a stronger brand identity. Because of this, Nescafà © will showcase in TV, print, and radio advertisements in major broadcast networks in the UK. First, Nescafà © will tap two television companies, ITV2 and SKY1, to showcase the advertisements of the company. These TV networks contain

Theoretical Accounts of Great Power Politics

Theoretical Accounts of Great Power Politics Postcolonialism is primarily concerned with the south, the subaltern and its past because as Abrahamsen argues, Any understanding of contemporary IR requires a careful account of the multiple and diverse power relationships that link the North and the South, both in the colonial past and the postcolonial present. (Abrahamsen, 2007) Postcolonialism finds its origins in work done with a view to give a voice to the history of the south and the subaltern that was not heard as it was silenced, even gagged by the actions of imperialist Europe. Postcolonial theory places the south and the subaltern at the centre of analyses. (Abrahamsen, 2007) It is a contextually new area of theory within the sphere of international relations that has emerged out of literary and cultural studies. The most significant movement that began postcolonial work was (and still is) the subaltern studies group that (re)examined Indian history and historiography. (Goss, 1996) The connection postcolonialism shares wit h Indian historiography stems from the counter hegemonic aspirations shared by both, Postcolonialism has strong affinities with Indian historiography, which has been motivated by a desire to retell history from the counter-hegemonic standpoints of the colonised. (Abrahamsen, 2007) On the whole postcolonialism does not, however, call for the return to a pristine, unspoilt pre-colonial culture, (Abrahamsen, 2007) and many even claim that this would be detrimental if not impossible. I will explore postcolonialism through looking at some of the key contributors to postcolonial study, namely Fanon and Said with a briefer look at Spivak and Bhabha. Within this I will touch upon the influences that came from the field of post-structuralism with writers such as Lacan, Faucault and Derrida. I will then look at the concepts of hybridity, ethnicity and location that have become revised and this more compelling in recent postcolonial work before finally looking at some criticism that has been a imed at postcolonial theory, notably from Hobson. Fanon was a very influential part of early postcolonialism; his work can be divided into three separate sections, investigating black identity, the resisting colonisation and the process of decolonisation. Fanons search for black identity is best demonstrated in his work Black Skin, White Masks. In this work Fanon suggests that colonialism and its deep rooted ideas of white racial superiority (Fanon, 1967) over non-white people has formed a sense of severance and estrangement in the self-identity of the non-white colonised people. The history, culture, language, customs and beliefs of the white coloniser are, under colonial rule, to be regarded as universal, the norm and better or higher than those of the indigenous colonised people. This produces a strong sense of inadequacy throughout the colonised and eventually, in order to counteract these feelings of inadequacy, this leads the colonised to adopt the culture and customs of the colonisers. Within the colonised this forms a divide d sense of self in identity shaping and a feeling of alienation from their own culture. Fanon also suggests that the taking on of the colonisers language and forms of representation is additionally detrimental to the indigenous people as representational stereotypes are created which were more often than not reflected on the colonised as primitive and uncivilised, as Fanon puts it, As I begin to recognize that the Negro is the symbol of sin, I catch myself hating the Negro. But then I recognize that I am a Negro. (Fanon, 1967) It is clear that Fanon is greatly influenced on the subject of identity by post-sctructuralist thinker Lacan. Particularly Lacans concept of the mirror-stage of identity formation, which occurs in early childhood and is linked to the idea of an image of completeness in the body of another person independent of the self. Fanons second phase of work relates to the struggle against colonialism (Fanon, 1967), which has strong links to his involvement in the Algerian War of independence which eventually saw him exiled from Algeria. His work on this area can be found mostly in his books Dying Colonialism and Toward the African Revolution, and with the revolutionary nature and context in which these works were written it is not surprising to discover they were heavily influenced by Karl Marx and Western Marxism. Fanons arguably most significant work on the struggle against colonialism was his interest and concern with history, much of which in his book The Wretched of The Earth. Fanon believed that the struggle against colonialism crucially involved the colonised claiming back their history from the negative or non-existent accounts that had been shaped by the colonisers. He emphasizes the crucial significance of the culture and representations of their past being essential to the formation of both new pos itive forms of identity formation and new forms of social organisation which are required in the newly independent post-colonial era (Fanon, 1967). It is the process of decolonisation which characterises Fanons third stage of critical work. Beside the recovery and reconstruction of their own history and culture as the foundation for the new post-colonial forms of nation and national identity, (Fanon, 1967) Fanon also considers two additional ideas which are of central interest to later postcolonial work. These two ideas are the concepts of colonial space and ideas related to the role of the middle class intelligentsia, sometimes called the comprador bourgeoisie, in new postcolonial nations. Both of these ideas were born out of Fanons belief that it is key for the nations that the world has given birth to in the postcolonial era to create original forms of social democracy instead of using existing colonial institutions and merely swap indigenous people into already existing administrative positions. Fanon uses the example of city structure to suggest that these colonial institutions are fundamentally racist because they replicat e, repeat and (re)create the concepts and ideas of the colonisers. This can be demonstrated through the fact that most colonial cities have areas within them where the colonial administration and businessmen live and work. These are regions of privilege which often reject indigenous people and in doing so reaffirm the ideologies of the colonisers. Fanon believes in a large scale rebuilding (Fanon, 1967) of these urban areas and all other types of colonial administration and government in an approach which will create more democratic, postcolonial forms of social organisation, in order to systematically reject the ideologies which support colonial rule. Fanon also adds that the educated groups of the colonised population need to recognise that their education is founded on the ideologies and the beliefs of those who colonised them and even though they themselves are the indigenous people, they need to be careful not to reproduce the colonisers concepts and beliefs when reconstructing in the postcolonial era. Said is, along with Fanon, one of the most important academics within postcolonial theory, It is Ahmad who has identified Saids lasting contribution, as the first to provide, a whole critical apparatus for defining a postmodern kind of anti-colonialism which, also for the first time, had little (if no) relation to Marxism (Goss, 1996) Saids most famous work, Orientalism, was a pioneering analysis of the stereotypes and colonial assumptions that are inherent in Western representations of the Orient. For Said the Orient was the people and cultures that extended from North Africa and the Middle East. In Orientalism, the argument he makes is that that the representation of the orient in the West has been as the binary opposite of the West or Occident. Said examines the Wests view of the Orient and believes that the way the Orient is seen by the west is as encapsulating everything they find awkward or unsettling to their dominant image. The West projects this fantasy image onto the largel y unknown orient and in this sense it is seen as the occidents other. Said follows this on with a discussion of how the western depictions of the orient work to re-impose colonial domination by using their own western beliefs and culture as a way of counteracting the deficient, potentially harmful qualities of local, inferior cultures. Said also believes that this Orientalism he speaks of comes in two separate forms, drawn from Freudian ideas Said labels them latent and manifest Orientalism. Said describes latent and manifest orientslism respectively as, an unconscious (and certainly an untouchable) positivity and the various stated views about Oriental society, languages, literatures, history, sociology and so forth. (Said, 1973) Essentially latent Orientalism is, as Kennedy puts it, a collective and unconscious shared set of images and attitudes that does not change through time. (Kennedy, 2000) Manifest Orientalism follows on from this as the expression in words and actions of la tent Orientalism. The negative representations and stereotypes touched upon by Said are examined further by McLeod in Beginning Postcolonialism. He looks at the defamatory way in which the Middle-East is portrayed from an orientalist perspective. A summation of the ways in which the East is represented by the West is presented by Mcleod, The orient is timeless i.e. without a concept of history until given one by the west, strange, feminine, and degenerate. In short, the East is everything morally negative in comparison to the Wests moral superiority. (McLeod, 2000) The foundations on which Said builds his work on the representations of the East by those in the West are significantly influenced by French post-structuralist Faucault and his works The Archaeology of Knowledge and Discipline and Punish. Said uses Faucaults ideas on the formulation and use of a discourse to try to firmly establish the concept of orientalism. For Foucault, a discourse is a body of thought and writing that is united by havin g a common object of study, a common methodology, and/or a set of common terms and ideas. (Klages, 2001) The archaeology Foucault undertakes is to unearth the characteristics that underpin certain statements and then try to define the reasons and situations under which these statements go on to form a discourse. There is, what some might call, a formula for identifying these statements as a discourse, I will use Saids work on Postcolonialism as an example to explain each criteria. Primarily and fundamentally the statements making up the discourse should all have a shared element of analysis, in the case of Said the element of analysis is, of course, the orient. Secondly all statements should have a shared style of rhetoric, in the case of Said this is the rhetoric of the colonisers and their belief in the West being over and above the East. Thirdly the statements need to have a logical structure of concepts, in this case concepts such as capitalism and liberalism that have evolved o ut of the Wests supposedly superior rationality. Finally there needs to be a connecting theme that runs through all the statements, within Saids work we can say that this theme is the West over and above the east in their moral, cultural and intellectual standings. Having mentioned Faucault I think it is also necessary to talk about the important influence of another post-structuralist theorist on postcolonial theory, namely Derrida. Derrida is heavily connected with the approach to critical analysis known as deconstruction, which is defined by Chambers dictionary as an approach to critical analysis applied especially to literary texts which asserts that it is impossible for any text to communicate a fixed and stable meaning, and that readers should leave behind all philosophical and other concepts when approaching a text (Chambers Dictionary, 1997) One of the themes of deconstruction is to untangle the dichotomies, or binary oppositions more specifically, that make up Western and Western-derived thought. There are an almost endless number of these binary oppositions; examples would include male-female, mind-body, rational-emotional, north-south and western-eastern. According to Derrida there is a hierarchy present in all binary oppositions with one term being dominant over the other. Importantly Derrida also suggests that the terms on each side of the dichotomy define each other and consequently are not secure. Starting with Fanon postcolonial theory has also paid a great deal of attention to these binary oppositions, particularly the ones closely related to colonialism, and the hierarchy that exists within them. Another two influential postcolonial thinkers come in the form of Spivak and Bhabha; the areas on which they focus, feminism and post-modernism to name two, and have become crucial to the thought within postcolonialism. In looking at their work it is clear that two key themes that yet again turn up are identity and representation. A great deal of work within the postcolonial sphere has been focused upon the relationship between representation and the forming of identity. Within this area there are three concepts that have been used to shed analytical light onto the subject, namely hybridity, ethnicity and cultural location. These concepts are, evidently, connected but postcolonialists dont limit themselves to these areas of critical analysis. Hybridity is essentially the mixing of two, or more, cultures, languages, beliefs or social patterns. It is seen by many, including Bhabha as a form of resistance, Hybridity, for Bhabha , is a sign of resisting domination. Hybrid identities can engender new forms of being that can unsettle and subvert colonial authority. (Abrahamsen, 2007) Hybridity can be linked with previous ideas in postcolonialism, the idea of retrieving postcolonial forms of history, culture and language in order to create new national identities is mentioned throughout postcolonial works. However, the migrations that occur inside and outside the colonies i.e. colonisers migrating into the colonies and the colonised migrating out to the colonial powers, has resulted in a much higher level of hybridity within national identities than initially thought. It had been in many early postcolonial works that one of the most prominent forms of collective resistance was the focus on a separate identity and being culturall y distinct from the colonisers. It has recently been shown how difficult identity construction of this sort is and further investigation is being undertaken in this area. The conditions under which hybridity occurs in postcolonial societies can consist of mass recognition of cultural suppression, a colonial invasion with the purpose of securing control politically and economically, and when colonial settlers migrate into an area and make the indigenous people conform to their new social patterns. It could be argued that an example of the indigenous people conforming to new social patterns can be found with the aborigines in Australia, colonisers introduced them to much stronger alcohol than they had ever been used to and alcohol abuse is now a major issue within aborigine culture, Aborigines are twice as likely to die from the effects of alcohol as their non-indigenous counterparts. (Mecer, 2007) Examples of hybridity within national identity can be seen by means of sport throughout the world, football, rugby and cricket are all of English invention and can be identified as the national sports of countries that used to be British colonies i.e. Football in African countries such as Ghana, Rugby in Australia and Cricket in India. Ethnicity, some would say, is connected directly to the idea that hybridity is strong in national identities within postcolonial areas. Previously in postcolonial theory much of what now falls under the banner of ethnicity used to be labelled race. The main reason for this is centred on the idea of blackness and being black as an identity. This idea of blackness stemmed predominantly from physical characteristics as an indicator of identity. Although this found a use when it came to the fight against racism and colonialism it came to be thought of as homogenising the experiences of all black people. Consequently this view also simplified the assorted and varied cultures within the black community. In addition to this, the idea of being black as an identity was prone to privileging black people by identifying them as the only ones to suffer from racism and colonialism. Subsequently within postcolonial work the term race has been ousted in favour of the term ethnicity. The concept of e thnicity distinguishes between cultures, religions and social activities that comprise a cultural identity whereas the physically based concept of race tends to homogenise. Additionally the move towards ethnicity shows a clear acknowledgement of hybridity and cultural identity and consequently beings them closer to the surface of critical activity within postcolonialism theory. Given the extra focus on the previously mentioned concepts of cultural identity and hybridity coupled with the move from race to ethnicity, the comprehension of the concept of cultural location necessarily becomes more sophisticated. It is no longer concerned with the analysis of a specific geographical area so much as the analysis of the cultures, religions and social activities which interact to produce a cultural identity. This change in focus away from the geographical means that crucially important populations that may have migrated around, or out of, a colonised land, perhaps taking their culture with them, are not left out of postcolonialist work. Consequently a deeper and more complex research can be undertaken on the concepts of racism and colonialism. There has been some criticism thrown at postcolonialism, perhaps as it has many branches the reach into different areas, Hobson for one argues that postcolonialism is plagued by its constant expansion, The term postcolonial seems increasingly to be straining at its seams, incorporating a proliferating series of theories with varying ontologies and epistemologies many of which are incommensurable, as even some postcolonialist recognise. (Hobson, 2007) On top of this he claims that the postcolonialist view point is narrow sighted and overlooks a vast period of time in empires did not cover the world, East/West relations have, for the majority of world historical time existed outside the orbit of empire, thus rendering a central focus on imperialism as inadequate to the task of revealing Eastern agency. (Hobson, 2007) He then argues that even though postcolonialism claims to try and undo, the Eurocentrism produced by the institution of the Wests trajectory, (Goss, 1996) it is still fund amentally flawed and even Eurocentric itself, Postcolonialists refuse to grant subjectivity to Eastern actors and thereby deny them agency. (Hobson, 2007) I have looked at the arguments and ideas put forward by the most influential writers in postcolonial theory. Fanons search for black identity, struggle against colonisation and process of decolonisation investigation, I believe, are very persuasive. Especially his look at black identity as I believe the majority of ones identity is formed through similar concepts to Lacans mirror-stage identity formation. Another convincing argument, for me, is that regarding stereotypes, binary opposition and deconstruction. A great deal is tied up within our languages, evident when there isnt a translation of certain words from one language into another. Consequently it can only lead to false understandings and misinterpretations throughout the world, especially in those places where languages are forced to co-habit such as colonial, and now postcolonial, areas. Essentially I think it is important to tackle the problem and discover the source of Western bias that undeniably exists in the contempora ry world. In addition to this, perhaps more importantly, the countries and people who have been suppressed, silenced and denied a history need to be compensated, if not least through continuing study I this area. The need, in nations, or groups which have been victims of imperialism to achieve an identity uncontaminated by universalist or Eurocentric concepts or images. (During, 1990)

A Story in Technicolor :: Short Story Creative Writing

A Story in Technicolor Standing waist-deep in saw grass, a flawless graysky framing an unrealscene where river and reeds become indistinguishable,Karen gazed unimpressed. The sublime natureof this ecological experience bordering so unbelievably close to herown urban existence did not seep into her mind or psyche. Perhaps the seven applications of gel she had put on her hair that morning in order to prevent as much frizziness as possible was impeding the correct reaction, but that's not likely. Much more probable is the inference that Karen was not an outdoors type of person, in fact, only the most serenely beautiful sunsets ever tempted her to hike outside, and the Everglades with its apparently monotonous landscape was not making even a dent of an impression. Not to mention that it was raining, ruthlessly pouring down on her and the rest of her class, making her gel effort of the morning practically useless. She wasn't even really standing in the saw grass; it felt more like she was imperceptibly sinking into the mucky bottom. Sure, she might imagine that she could move around on the spongy surface but, in truth, she knew that if she remained immobile for more than a minute, the earth would commence to slowly swallow her, drowning her inch by inch. She moved around uncomfortably. Always acutely aware of her lack of balance, ever since a ballet teacher had pointed it out to her, Karen now felt as if her woman-child inadequacies were on full display. Her eyes darted sloppily around to see if anyone noticed her ineptitude in the new terrain and quickly looked down as she realized they were all too enthralled in their own conversations and eloquated experiences of nature to pay any mind to her. "Isn't this great?", she heard one girl say. "I can't believe all of this is so close to where I live and I'd never been here before. There really should be more educational awareness programs. I wonder why I was never taken on a field trip to the Everglades? Wouldn't it be challenging if our school became involved with primary schools to†¦", whether this curly-haired speaker went on a diatribe in response to the first girl's remark or simply for the sake of talking was beyond Karen. She lost interest rather quickly in their conversation and rather unstealthfully moved away from them, refusing to hear the rest of the genuinely exciting questions and remarks.

Linguistics Classes, Verb and Noun

â€Å"Discuss and contrast some of the main features of the classes VERB and NOUN in English and any other language. † In this essay I will make an attempt to discuss differences between two classes of lexemes, which are verb and noun. In order to conduct that analysis in a detailed manner I will refer to two languages, English and Polish (minor references to French will also help my studies). I will start from defining what one can refer to as class in linguistics. I will to refer to certain shadows of doubt that may be casted on that categorization.This will be followed by elaborating subtleties of what constitutes a verb providing examples and showing contrasts between two languages examined. With the help of studying materials I’ll manage to outline empirical criteria for how the concept of verb can be understood by a linguist. Then, I will implement similar methodology to clarify the concept of a noun class. Finally I will arrive at a conclusion that beyond any dou bt those two categories are distinctly different and minor similarities emphasized by two drastically different languages simply make the case more interesting.A scholar is able to divide every language into two diverse, but mutually supplementing, categories. Grammar is a set of closed system that determines how items of the language interact with each other. Lexicon, on the other hand provides a glossary of lexemes. Lexeme is more than a word, as it refers to all possible variations of linguistic items used within language. Its relation to the meaning can sometimes proves difficult to define without implementing a variety of terms in the definition. To fully explain what a given lexeme means it has to be placed in a variety of contexts and supported with examples.An alternative to lexicon is called a thesaurus and it groups words accordingly to their semantic similarities. Lexicon can be further divided into classes of lexemes. Unlike grammar, these systems of lexical concepts are open, which means their content varies depending on the language. Before drawing the line between nouns and verbs I’d like to draw attention to possible blurs of that line. In English language words such as [walk] relate to both a noun and a verb. This is not exactly a homonym (lexeme that has the same form but varies in its meaning) as both words refer to the same activity.Interesting comparison with the Polish language is that it never uses verbs as noun but still has large variety of verb derived nouns such as zapalenie (inflammation) or skojarzenie (association). Despite that fact verb derived noun in Polish such as bieg (a run) is not its noun form of the verb – bieganie (running). It also contains a significantly smaller number of homonyms, most of which either differs in spelling (kot-kod) or has a foreign origin (pilot – tv remote and pilot – one that steers a plane) and is usually a noun. English uses multiple homonyms within different classes a nd semantic distances: pitch, division.As no universal differentiation can be drawn for classes of verb and noun they are most commonly identified by several categories of lexemes. Verb in every language refers to motion, rest, giving, affect, corporeal, attention and speaking. Some languages allow further distinction to nuclear and non-nuclear verbs. Nuclear verb of rest in Polish would be lezec (means to lay, applied to either an object or a person) and the non-nuclear item that can be defined only by a reference to the nuclear verb – zalegac (to lay somewhere for a long time/to stand in the way of everyday activities).English, on the other hand cannot provide a good example of such a lexical item. A scholar can also mark off verbs to be transitive or non-transitive. A transitive verb needs to be completed by an object of the action (We left John. ) while the intransitive is complete without any object to follow (We could not stand it so we left. ). In Polish transitive (pr zesuwac – to move an object) are entirely different words than intransitive verbs (skakac – to jump). Categories that will only refer to verbs class are modality and tense aspect.Both in Polish and English future past and present tenses occur, however in Polish perfect tenses are only implied by the context: Patrze na niego od godziny – I’ve been watching him for an hour. What’s also fascinating is that in past and future continuous tense Polish verbs suddenly have gender. Discussing modality it’s worth mentioning that in Polish imperative mode of a verb is always a different form any regular conjugation (which wouldn’t be the case in French). English modality is most likely to be contained within the context of the sentence.Comparing these languages from the perspective of verbs scholar should also bear in mind that while English has phrasal verbs (put it off) that are quite different from their lexeme of origin (put) Polish does not . I’d risk a statement that this function is associated with a complex system of prefixes (wlaczyc, wylaczyc – turn on, turn off). Following the applied logic one ought to explain the lexical class of noun with its typical references. Nouns describe parts of the human body and components of other things, fauna, flora, sun moon and stars, elements, and artefacts.They also stand for abstract terms such as emotions, colour or time. Latter one often leads to interesting observations when examined from a linguistic perspective. In Polish and French instead of asking for the time, one asks for the number of the hour. A noun could be derived from verbs or adjectives (swim, hatred) or underived (beauty, fish). Dixon stated that transitivity value of verbs is equally important to the gender of the noun. In English nouns don’t have gender, while in Polish and French even objects have gender. Distribution of gender qualities within these lexemes can be conditioned by the c ontext of culture.It’s also often implied by vowel suffix in French and Polish (e in French and a in Polish). Nouns can take singular form or plural form when added a suffix (s in English and i in Polish). There are exceptions both grammatical (fish) and mass-nouns (mud). Some languages include use of a possessive suffix, however neither English nor Polish would be an example. Class of nouns also includes generic terms, which mean a word that can mean a variety of things depending on the implied intention. An example that is close to perfection is the noun â€Å"thing† which can stand for any other noun.It can as well be a feature of speech style. Curious detail is, when translated, the word thing in Polish can take two forms (cos/rzecz), both have a similar meaning but are used in different context and the latter one has a female gender. Less obvious example would be a Polish word wiersz, which can refer to a poem as well as to a single text line. According to scholar s like Marantz certain lexical items can be used in a variety of syntactic structure and implementation of any lexicon, therefore classes such as nouns or verbs are entirely futille.I beg to differ as the summary of my analysis shows multiple differences and distinctive features of each class. Verbs and nouns are defined with a variety of different concepts. Every additional term that refers to categories within a class is like an additional dimension, which outline boundaries of semantic field necessary for understanding the concept. Therefore, provides a valuable methodology for linguistic studies. Blake Lezenski Word Count: 1235 Bibliography: R. M. W. Dixon, 2012. Basic Linguistic Theory Volume 3: Further Grammatical Topics. Edition 1. Oxford University Press, USA. Erkelens, M. A. , 2009.Learning to categorize verbs and nouns: studies on Dutch. Ultrecht: Amsterdam Center for Language and Communication ————————— Ã¢â‚¬â€Ã¢â‚¬â€Ã¢â‚¬â€Ã¢â‚¬â€Ã¢â‚¬â€œ [ 1 ]. Dixon R. M. W. Dixon, 2012. Basic Linguistic Theory Volume 3: Further Grammatical Topics. Edition 1. Oxford University Press, USA, p. 290. [ 2 ]. Ibid 291. [ 3 ]. Ibid 291. [ 4 ]. Ibid 300. [ 5 ]. Ibid 293. [ 6 ]. Ibid 300. [ 7 ]. Ibid 305. [ 8 ]. Ibid 291. [ 9 ]. Ibid 302. [ 10 ]. Ibid 301. [ 11 ]. Erkelens, M. A. , 2009. Learning to categorize verbs and nouns: studies on Dutch. Ultrecht: Amsterdam Center for Language and Communication, p. 26.

John Lewis, Civil Rights Activist and Elected Politician

John Lewis, Civil Rights Activist and Elected Politician John Lewis is currently a United States Representative for the Fifth Congressional District in Georgia. But during the 1960s, Lewis was a college student and served as chairman of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC). Working first with other college students and later with prominent civil rights leaders, Lewis helped to end segregation and discrimination during the Civil Rights Movement. Early Life and Education John Robert Lewis was born in Troy, Ala., on February 21, 1940. His parents, Eddie and Willie Mae both worked as sharecroppers to support their ten children.   Lewis attended the Pike County Training High School in Brundidge, Ala., When Lewis was a teenager, he became inspired by the words of Martin Luther King Jr by listening to his sermons on the radio. Lewis was so inspired by Kings work that he began preaching at local churches. When he graduated from high school, Lewis attended the American Baptist Theological Seminary in Nashville. In 1958, Lewis traveled to Montgomery and met King for the first time. Lewis wanted to attend the all-white Troy State University and sought the civil rights leaders help in suing the institution. Although King, Fred Gray, and Ralph Abernathy offered Lewis legal and financial assistance, his parents were against the lawsuit. As a result, Lewis returned to American Baptist Theological Seminary. That fall, Lewis began attending direct action workshops organized by James Lawson. Lewis also began to follow the Gandhian philosophy of nonviolence, becoming involved in student sit-ins to integrate movie theaters, restaurants, and businesses organized by the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE). Lewis graduated from American Baptist Theological Seminary in 1961. The SCLC considered Lewis one of the most dedicated young men in our movement. Lewis was elected to the board of SCLC in 1962 to encourage more young people to join the organization. And by 1963, Lewis was named chairman of SNCC. Lewis married Lillian Miles in 1968. The couple had one son, John Miles. His wife died in December of 2012. Civil Rights Activist At the height of the Civil Rights Movement, Lewis was the chairman of SNCC. Lewis established Freedom Schools and the Freedom Summer. By 1963, Lewis was considered on the Big Six leaders of the Civil Rights Movement which included Whitney Young, A. Philip Randolph, James Farmer Jr., and Roy Wilkins. That same year, Lewis helped plan the March on Washington and was the youngest speaker at the event. When Lewis left SNCC in 1966, he worked with several community organizations before becoming community affairs director for the National Consumer Co-Op Bank in Atlanta. Lewis' Career in Politics In 1981, Lewis was elected to the Atlanta City Council. In 1986, Lewis was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives. Since his election, he has been reelected 13 times. During his tenure, Lewis ran unopposed in 1996, 2004 and 2008. He is considered a liberal member of the House and in 1998, The Washington Post said that Lewis was a fiercely partisan Democrat but†¦also fiercely independent. Atlanta Journal-Constitution said that Lewis was the only former major civil rights leader who extended his fight for human rights and racial reconciliation to the halls of Congress. And those who know him, from U.S. Senators to 20-something congressional aides, call him conscience of Congress. Lewis serves on the Committee on Ways and Means. He is a member of the Congressional Black Caucus, Congressional Progressive Caucus and Congressional Caucus on Global Road Safety. Lewis' Awards Lewis was awarded the Wallenberg Medal from the University of Michigan in 1999 for his work as an activist of civil and human rights. In 2001, the John F. Kennedy Library Foundation awarded Lewis with the Profile in Courage Award.   The following year Lewis received the Spingarn Medal from the NAACP. In 2012, Lewis was awarded LL.D degrees from Brown University, Harvard University and the University of Connecticut School of Law.

Free Essays on Noras Relationships In “A Doll House“

Nora’s Relationships The story â€Å"A Doll House† by Henrik Ibsen is about a young woman named Nora, who is trying to cope with a secret she has kept away from her husband, Torvald. Torvald thinks that Nora received the money from her father, for medical treatment, to save his life. He does not believe in loans. But the real story is Nora borrowed the money from Krogstad, a person who works for Torvald. Everyone who knows Nora considers her as a helpless young woman, who cannot survive in the world by herself. In â€Å"A Doll House†, Henrik Ibsen uses conflict to show Nora’s subservient relationship with Torvald, Nora’s Hostile relationship with Krogstad, and Nora’s misunderstood relationship with Kristine. The first relationship showing conflict is Nora’s subservient relationship with Torvald. When Torvald talks to Nora he talks to her as if Nora was his child. He calls Nora his â€Å"squirrel† and his little lark. Torvald approaches Nora as if she was his doll telling her what to do and when to do things. Torvald does not like Nora’s â€Å"sweet tooth† eating macaroons, so she hides them from Torvald whenever she knows he is around. With Torvald thinking of Nora as a child, she thought she could persuade him into not firing Krogstad. But her husband thinks that it is nonsense and just ignores Nora and sends a letter for Krogstad’s dismissal. The author shows how much Torvald sees Nora as a doll that is dependent on him and only him. Nora’s hostile relationship with Krogstad was a relationship with many unfriendly visits. Krogstad was the only person who knew about Nora’s secret, because he was the person that she borrowed the money from. When Krogstad heard that Nora’s friend Kristine was going to take Krogstad’s place at his job, he manipulates Nora’s actions and behavior by her influence on her husband to keep his job. He told Nora how he figured out that she forged her father’s signature t... Free Essays on Nora's Relationships In â€Å"A Doll Houseâ€Å" Free Essays on Nora's Relationships In â€Å"A Doll Houseâ€Å" Nora’s Relationships The story â€Å"A Doll House† by Henrik Ibsen is about a young woman named Nora, who is trying to cope with a secret she has kept away from her husband, Torvald. Torvald thinks that Nora received the money from her father, for medical treatment, to save his life. He does not believe in loans. But the real story is Nora borrowed the money from Krogstad, a person who works for Torvald. Everyone who knows Nora considers her as a helpless young woman, who cannot survive in the world by herself. In â€Å"A Doll House†, Henrik Ibsen uses conflict to show Nora’s subservient relationship with Torvald, Nora’s Hostile relationship with Krogstad, and Nora’s misunderstood relationship with Kristine. The first relationship showing conflict is Nora’s subservient relationship with Torvald. When Torvald talks to Nora he talks to her as if Nora was his child. He calls Nora his â€Å"squirrel† and his little lark. Torvald approaches Nora as if she was his doll telling her what to do and when to do things. Torvald does not like Nora’s â€Å"sweet tooth† eating macaroons, so she hides them from Torvald whenever she knows he is around. With Torvald thinking of Nora as a child, she thought she could persuade him into not firing Krogstad. But her husband thinks that it is nonsense and just ignores Nora and sends a letter for Krogstad’s dismissal. The author shows how much Torvald sees Nora as a doll that is dependent on him and only him. Nora’s hostile relationship with Krogstad was a relationship with many unfriendly visits. Krogstad was the only person who knew about Nora’s secret, because he was the person that she borrowed the money from. When Krogstad heard that Nora’s friend Kristine was going to take Krogstad’s place at his job, he manipulates Nora’s actions and behavior by her influence on her husband to keep his job. He told Nora how he figured out that she forged her father’s signature t...

Terrorism and the Law Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

Terrorism and the Law - Essay Example As amended by IRTPA in December 2004 AEDPA section 2339B(a) defines material support as â€Å"any property, tangible or intangible or service, including money, financial services, lodging, training, expert advice or assistance, safehouses, false documentation or identification, communication equipment, facilities, weapons, lethal substance, explosives, personnel, transportation, and with the exemption of medicine or religious materials (Samaha 468). The government must be able to prove that the â€Å"donor defendant acted with culpable intent knowledge† so as it is safe to say that such individual has provided material support to a terrorist organization (Samaha 468). 2. Terrorism is defined by at least four different kinds of laws. Name at least three kinds of laws. There are varying definitions of terrorism which makes it controversial and it is defined by different kinds of laws such as the following: International criminal law, National criminal law (e.g. United States La w Code), and general insurance policies. 3. The United Nations, The Arab Convention and European Convention define terrorism differently. Explain each definition. The United Nations The United Nations and the council on the suppression of terrorism seek to define it by adopting general legislative measures against it which results in serious legal consequences. As a result of this, the United Nations is encouraging every state to define terrorism in the context of National Law (Saul 141). The Arab Convention, On the other hand, the Arab Convention is very particular in excluding armed struggle against oppression from the definition of terrorism and its suppression. The threat to the right of securing self-determination and independence which can be counteracted by an armed struggle in whatever means is particularly excluded in the definition of terrorism (Williamson 59). This, therefore, paves the way for the difficulty in coming up with a universal definition of terrorism. European Convention European Convention on the other hand on its suppression of terrorism encourages States to consider terrorism and its acts not as political offenses or as being inspired by political motives (Dumitriu 587). 4. Yunis, Noriega, and Yousef were progressive rulings on extraterritorial jurisdiction. In a few sentences, what does each case stand for? Why are they considered progressive rulings? The US District Court decision of United States vs. Yunis case stands for the acceptance of certain principles of extraterritorial jurisdiction allowing prosecution of terrorists in the United States (Wegner). In other words, the said case has become the model for the prosecution of terrorists in the US courts. The Noriega case depicts how the head of the state can be brought before trials in the US courts. In the midst of this trial, Noriega case can substantially apply three types of immunity: foreign sovereign immunity, head of state immunity, and the act of state immunity. The case of Yousef, on the other hand, depicts the clash between the Iran Penal Code and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. These two have certain principles that at some point would bring substantial consideration to the progress of the case. These three are considered progressive rulings because from time to time, various modifications, amendments or changes have been implemented on various laws in the world.  

How useful are voluntary codes of practice in achieving corporately Essay

How useful are voluntary codes of practice in achieving corporately responsible behaviour - Essay Example This research will begin with the statement that it has become a necessity for corporations to regulate themselves regardless of the rules and guidelines in place to regulate them. Ability of industries to regulate themselves is composed of programmes that are not actually needed by law, but are meant to supplement the law and provide the necessary conducive environment for corporations to operate in. These programmes consist of initiatives such as policies, environment codes of conduct and consensus with government. These self regulations by corporations can be termed as voluntary corporate initiatives. Nevertheless, voluntary codes of practice are most important as they avail an all-round environment inside and outside the corporation. Responsibility and accountability are two vital terms that are used day in day out in governments and corporations. Government plays very decisive and important roles in monitoring corporations. It does this by structuring regulatory guidelines requi red to protect the society and environment upon which all corporations under its jurisdiction have an influence over. This enables it to solve the intricate challenges that are as a result of development. While the government can formulate, pass, amend and impose rules and regulations governing actions of corporations, it is not omnipresent. Hence, government cannot be everywhere every time to make sure that rules and regulations are followed in equal measure by all corporations.