Honor System a Professional Responsibility Essay - 1

Honor System a Professional Responsibility - Essay Example They cannot afford any blunder in their behavior which may lead others to think anything in contrast to the behavior and belief which was expected of that person. This set of rules, this guideline that is there to direct members on how to act or more specifically, how NOT to act, is called the honor code. In simple terms, it is there to uphold the honor of the community by avoiding any action which goes against its teachings. There are majorly two types of honor codes. One is academic and the other is for forces. The academic honor code is highly evolved into becoming perfect now. All major colleges and universities have their own honor codes which have been perfected to their own standards by trial and error. Students have found loopholes in each one of them and when discovered, the holes were filled by re writing the code for the new students. The result is that the present honor codes, though different, are very well defined and do not give any excuse to any student to behave in a way regarded as unacceptable. The honor codes for forces are present for all three, the Naval, Air Force and Military. At the heart of these honor codes, is the military honor code. Being trusted by the public for the welfare and security of that whole country, the military honor code is well defined and comprises of the essence of responsibility. It reads that "A cadet will not lie, cheat, or steal, nor tolerate those who do." (USAF Academy, 1985) This is all very interesting. Surely it shows how thoroughly the code encompasses the whole idea of the organization. The soldier knows by reading the code what his duties and responsibilities are and how to go about fulfilling them. This will help shape his life at the academies. From the very start he knows what is required of him and he will be following a clear cut path towards becoming the sort of soldier and commander that is required and expected of him by the nation.

Measuring the Enthalpy Change for the reaction Essay Example for Free

Measuring the Enthalpy Change for the reaction Essay Observation: 1) To start with, the copper sulphate solution is transparent blue colour. 2) At the fourth minute, using the glass rod to stir the solution as the Zinc powder is placed into the solution, the colour changes into dark turquoise and the solution fizzes due to the chemical change. 3) The Zinc powder then dissolves in the solution. 4) As I stir the solution, the colour changes to grey with black precipitate. 5) Then, the solution gradually changes from grey to black with black precipitate. At the twelfth minute, the black precipitate dissolves yet the solution continues to fizz showing the chemical reaction is still taking place. After collecting the data and recording my observations, I then draw a linear graph in order to work out the temperature rise which occurred at the fourth minute. I decided to draw my graph landscape as I figured out that drawing the graph landscape is the best method to draw the conclusion and working out the temperature rise as the data are more spread out so I can draw out a more accurate measurement. After working out the change in temperature from the graph, I will then use the value to calculate the heat given out (in Joules) during the experiment. The equation that I will be using is: q = mc ?T Hence, q = 4.18 x 28.1 x 50.0 = 5872.9 J Moles of aq copper sulphate used in the experiment: Volume x concentration = 50.0 x 0.500 = 0.0250 moles 1000 1000 Moles of Zinc power used in the experiment: Mass = 4.761 = 0.07283 mr 65.37 =0.0728(3s.f) In the method given, I was asked to weigh out the mass of the Zinc powder between 4.5g and 5g. This shows that the reagent Zinc is in excess as the mass of Zinc does not effect the outcome of the results. The limiting reagent for this experiment is copper sulphate solution. Hence, I will be using the moles of copper sulphate to work out the rest of the calculation in the experiment. I will then use the values that I have worked out from the previous calculation to work out that molar enthalpy change for the reaction: ?H = -q = -5872.9 = -234.9 Moles x 1000 0.0250 x 1000 = -235(3s.f) Note: This is assuming that the experiment is under standard condititions. During this experiment, I must also consider the errors into account as they could affect the overall results. The apparatus that I used for this experiment is the most likely cause of error for example, transferring the Zinc powder from the weighing boat to the polystyrene cup is an error as there would be Zinc powder leftover on the weighing boat but in this investigation, it would not be the case as Zinc powder is in excess so the error would not take into account. First of all, I will work out the maximum percentage error in using each piece of the apparatus. This is to ensure that I have include all the possible errors in the apparatus and so that I can comment on whether if the apparatus contributes in affecting the overall results. The maximum percentage error in apparatus: Error in balance = à ¯Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ ½0.001g = 0.001 X 100 4.761 = 0.02100 %( 4s.f) Error in the thermometer = à ¯Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ ½0.2 = 0.2 X 100 28.1 = 0.7117 %( 4s.f) Error in 50ml burette pipette= à ¯Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ ½0.05 = 0.05 X100 50.0 = 0.1% Overall maximum percentage error= 0.8327% = 0.833% (3s.f) Hence, after working out the maximum percentage error, I can use the figure to estimate the degree of uncertainty in my enthalpy change. The enthalpy change is -235 in 3s.f. I have decided to use 3s.f as an appropriate degree of accuracy so the maximum percentage error 0.8327% will be 0.833% in s.f. In my opinion, the maximum percentage error is small so therefore I dont think it will effect my enthalpy change to an extent as the smaller the number of the maximum percentage error, then the more accurate my enthalpy change will be. I also thought of including the error of the stopwatch but it wouldnt affect the maximum percentage error much so therefore I decided to exclude it from my calculation as the error is tiny and can be discarded. Conclusion The reaction between Zinc and Copper Sulphate solution is an exothermic reaction meaning that the reaction releases heat to its surrounding. Therefore, theoretically, the temperature of the solution would increase when the reaction is taking place. This is proven in my results table as when I added the Zinc powder to Copper Sulphate solution at the fourth minute, the temperature dramatically increase from 19.2à ¯Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ ½C to 40.2à ¯Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ ½C. The reaction is spontaneous as the temperature increase very rapidly and then gradually slowing down in the later time interval. From my graph, I have drawn the best fit line for the data that I plotted onto the graph to show a trend that the temperature gradually decrease after a set amount of time. The best fit line proves the accuracy of my results as the best fit line crosses most of the data that I plotted which shows that the data that I collected is reasonably reliable. The best fit line also helps me to identify the anomalies of my values as I can clearly distinguish the anomalies from my values by using the best fit line. However, I must also take into account of the two anomalies which I circled on the graph and these points do not respond to the trend of the values. This may be due to the possible errors that could have taken place during the experiment. For example, at the fifth minute after that Zinc powder has been added, the temperature that I collected (40.2à ¯Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ ½C) is an anomaly as it does not fit into the best fit line. This may be due to the fact that I havent stirred the solution properly with the glass rod so the heat may not spread through some parts of the solution so by recording the solution with the thermometer, I may receive an unreliable value so therefore I must take into account that it is important to stir the solution vigorously to ensure that the heat is spread out throughout the solution and to ensure that the precipitate has completely dissolved and no sludge remained. In order to see how well the performance of my results are, I will need to use the theoretical value of the enthalpy change and compare it with the value of my enthalpy change so that I can see how far my value is from the correct value. The theoretical values that I used are from the chemistry data book; JG Stark, H G Wallace, 1982, Chemistry data book, page 57. The values that are used for Copper aq and Zinc aq are: By using the Hess Law, I will work out the theoretical enthalpy change by using these values from the data book. = -(+64.4) + (-152.4) = -216.8 Kjmolà ¯Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ ½Ãƒ ¯Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ ½ I will then compare my value with the theoretical value of the enthalpy change. To do this, i will work out the percentage difference between my experimental value and the theoretical value. This is to see how big the percentage difference between my value and the theoretical value as the smaller the percentage, the more accurate my value will be to the theoretical value. So first, I will work out the difference between my experimental value and the theoretical value. -216.8-(-234.916) = 18.116 Kjmolà ¯Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ ½Ãƒ ¯Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ ½ Then, I will use this value to find the percentage difference between my experimental value and the theoretical value.

Stereotypies: Antecedents and Consequences in Domestic Dog

Stereotypies: Antecedents and Consequences in Domestic Dog Stereotypies their antecedents and consequences in the domestic dog (Canis Familiaris) 1 Chapter 1: Introduction (2000 words) 1424 1.1 Repetitive Behaviours 2 The simplest behaviours are repetitive including normal play but this usually has a challenge, an example is avoiding cracks in the pavement (Williams and Hill, 2012). There are many kinds of repetitive behaviour, when learning a trick the behaviour is practiced until the whole trick is flawless. Many believe that the young play as a way of practicing the skills needed when adults; however research by Fagen (1981) and Smith (1982) found that â€Å"play is not practice†. 1.1.1 Normal behaviours Normal behaviour is essential to promote an animal’s psychological and physical homeostasis so the animal can interact with and modify its environment. One of the five freedoms used to assess animal welfare is the ability to express normal behaviours (FAWC, 2009). However, the definition of normal behaviours in human terms is relative to a person’s culture and age and may be related to an animal’s culture. Kilgour (2012) asserts the definition of normal behaviour is not straightforward; however, an ethogram of domestic animals nearest wild relatives gives some idea of an animal’s different behaviours and time budgets. Lindsay (2001:pp.40-42) provides a dog ethogram of ‘normal behaviours’. Daily activity for dogs and their owners tends to vary day to day but over the seven days affords a more constant estimate of activity (Dow et al., 2009) this indicates that many companion dogs’ activities tend to be routine. Stressed dogs frequently find grooming calming, if the stress is long term this can lead to over grooming causing hair loss and damage to the skin. 1.1.2 Abnormal behaviours Abnormal behaviours are those that are atypical of animal’s in the wild (Birkett and Newton-Fisher, 2011). Abnormal repetitive behaviours are unvarying and apparently functionless that can be readily interrupted, whereas for stereotypy the behaviour must be difficult to interrupt (Mason and Latham, 2004; Haverbeke et al., 2008) these can be either impulsive/compulsive or stereotypies (Garner, 2006). 1.1.3 Stereotypic behaviours Stereotypic behaviours are all repetitive unexplained behaviours but are not necessarily predictable (Bergeron et al., 2006). Repetitive stereotypic behaviours may be symptomatic of stress but may not necessarily be a problem (Rooney et al., 2009), in the dog this could be grooming to relieve stress and only becomes a problem if it results in hair loss or damage to the skin. 1.1.4 Stereotypies Many people understand the term stereotypy to indicate that an individual exhibits a problem behaviour. 1.1.5 The Evolutionary view of Stereotypy Japyassà º and Malange (2014) write that from the evolutionary view the term abnormal behaviour should be avoided, because phenotypic diversity in genes, morphology and behaviour are major forces driving evolution. Phenotypic diversity is important as enables an organism to adapt to new environments; those behaviours that seem abnormal now could become the new normal depending upon evolutionary selection. The apparent lack of function in behaviour is questionable as eventually some function may be determined, or help in coping with stress or a means of communication. The function of stereotypes may also be revealed in unexpectedly perhaps related to communication (Japyassà º and Malange, 2014). 1.1.6 The Ethological and Animal Welfare view of Stereotypy The animal welfare view is that stereotypies are abnormal, functionless repetitive behaviours (Japyassà º and Malange, 2014). look for another ref. The ethological view is that stereotypies are repetitive behaviours that are unchanging irrespective of the context (Japyassà º and Malange, 2014). These views are drawn together by Mason (1991) defining stereotypy as repetitive, unvarying, uninterruptable behaviours with no apparent proximate or ultimate function. However, Rapp and Vollmer (2005) write that frequently stereotypic behaviours provides their own reinforcement and not social consequences. 1.1.7 What are Impulsive/Compulsive Behaviours Impulsive/compulsive repetitive behaviours are variable and have a goal directed; but the behaviour persists even after the achieving the goal or the goal becomes inappropriate (Garner, 2006). 1.1.8 Impulsive repetitive behaviours Impulsive repetitive behaviours are identified in humans with Tourette’s syndrome manifesting as complex tics, or as trichotillomania, hair plucking. 1.1.9 Difference between Impulsive/Compulsive Behaviours Clinically the distinction between impulsive and compulsive repetitive behaviours is important, however differentiating them is more complex in animals than in humans (Garner, 2006). 1.1.10 Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD) Mills and Luescher (2006) state that stereotypy and obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) are hard to differentiate Eilam et al. (2012) add that OCD is a disabling condition affecting the sufferer’s quality of life. Ethology is the study of animal behaviour aiming to understand proximate and the ultimate causes of behaviours; the concept of the ethogram methodology is extended to the study of OCD behaviour (Eilam et al., 2012). Observations by Eilam et al. (2006) showed animals performing rigid behaviour sequences in specific locations, according to Kalueff et al. (2007) these are the spatiotemporal and locomotor characteristics of OCD. 1.1.11 What is the difference between OCB and stereotypy Chok and Koesler (2014) used functional analysis to assess the differences between stereotypy and obsessive compulsive behaviours (OCB) by identifying physiological states internal (heart rate) and external (defined by facial expression or vocalisations). Signs of pleasure were regarded as a measure positive reinforcement, hence stereotypy and of displeasure regarded as signs of OCB. 1.1.12 Obsessive-Compulsive Behaviours (OCB) Humans exhibiting obsessive-compulsive behaviours (OCB) are aware that these behaviours are irrational but are unable to resist their compulsion to continue to perform the behaviour. 1.2 Stereotypies and the environment 1.2.1 Maternal Deprivation Captive animals particularly in commercial environments but including companion animals are frequently removed from their mothers earlier than would occur in the wild (Latham and Mason, 2008). Maternal deprivation leads to an increase in the frequency and severity stereotypes these can be short term as with belly-nosing in piglets or can cause neural changes inducing later persistent stereotypes (Latham and Mason, 2008). The relationship between the animal’s stereotypic behaviour and the environmental deficit is not always clear. Wiedenmayer (1997) found that providing a substrate suitable for digging did not reduce stereotypies in gerbils but providing a tunnel system did. Digging was not the controlling motivation just means to achieve a burrow. 1.2.2 Stereotypy: Interdisciplinary Communication The term stereotypy has different uses in different research areas ethological, medical and animal welfare; there is not even an agreement about including lack of function or abnormality in the definition (Japyassà º and Malange, 2014). Edwards et al. (2012) asserts the lack of a consistent definition for stereotypies is insufficient for both academic and medical diagnostic purposes. 1.3 Stereotypies Behaviours 1.3.1 Ungulate stereotypies Ungulates are the most common mammal exhibiting stereotypy; many ungulate stereotypies tend to resemble species typical feeding and foraging behaviours (Bergeron et al., 2006). Examples of typical stereotypies for ungulates are given in Table 1. Cattle at pasture spend between 7 to 9 hours grazing and similar time ruminating; possibly herbivores have evolved to require a minimum feeding period each day (Redbo and Nordblad,1997). This could explain the number of oral stereotypies reported for animals fed on a concentrate food with restricted roughage as their time budget eating and ruminating is less that at pasture. Table 1: Examples of ungulate stereotypy 1.3.2 Carnivore stereotypies Some species of carnivores do well in captivity do not exhibit abnormal behaviours and breed successfully. While carnivores that have high activity levels and patrol large ranges have high levels of stereotypy. Vickery and Mason (2005) found carnivore stereotypies are mostly locomotory pacing and weaving, other reported stereotypies was some oral and head swaying. Clubb and Mason (2007) found the carnivore stereotypy levels are significantly predicted by their typical travel distances and natural home-range size. Perhaps some species are unsuitable for zoos and should be conserved in large areas that enable their natural behaviours. 1.4 Overall Research Aims 1.4.1 Relationship between breed type and stereotypy To try to measure the spread of different stereotypies across breed groups. It has been found that some breeds have their own particular set of stereotypes for example flack sucking in Doberman Pinchers (Houpt, 1992). 1.5 Outline Research Methods and Timescales 1.5.1 Research method A questionnaire will be used to measure the relationship between breed type and the stereotypy emitted. The survey was initially created using several survey software programs available online; many were restricted either the number of questions asked or the variety of question types was limited, or the resultant output file was not in a format readily converted for SPSS. Eventually Google Docs was selected and the survey created and was piloted on social media the resulting file of about 20 responses was downloaded in text format that could be readily input into a spreadsheet which then needs to be reformatted for input into SPSS for processing. The questionnaire included some questions that had open questions in the form of the ‘other’ option a free text input area. This was to allow flexibility and for respondents to feel empowered and encourage more accurate replies. This means these responses need interpreting and the formation of new categories or allocated to avai lable options for processing (Questionnaire, 2015). These questions are qualitative but once the responses have been interpreted in allocated to categories, the subsequent treatment of the data will be quantitative and analysed using quantitative statistical methods. The social environment shared by the domestic dog and their human companions unique and investigating the environment care must be taken not introduce bias by the questions asked. 1.5.2 Comparability of Responses 1.5.2.1 Outline Research Method 1 Timescales During May 2015 the survey was deployed in several different social media and forums across a number of interest groups including relating to dogs: trainers, problems, breed categories and general chat forums. The number of respondents stalled by June and further locations sort.

Thomas Edison Essay example -- History Biography

I decided to do my report on Thomas Alva Edison because he brought a lot of things into our world. He invented the light bulb, the alkaline battery, the phonograph, and many other things. Many of our modern electronics origins came from Thomas A. Edison. I thought he was very interesting. That is why I chose him. Thomas Alva Edison was born in Milan, Ohio, on February 11, 1847, and lived with his middle class parents, Samuel Edison (his father) and Nancy Edison (his mother). Surprisingly, the young boy did not even talk until he was four years old. In 1854, at age seven, Tom and his parents moved to Port Huron, Michigan. There, near the beginning of the year in a noisy schoolhouse with 38 other kids, his teacher lost his patience with Tom's behavior and endless questions. So, his mother pulled him out of school and home taught him very well, for she used to be a teacher. But, Tom's parents were not educated enough to home teach Tom, for his growing interest in things dealing with physics found his parents stumped. Luckily, his parents had enough money to hire a tutor. By age twelve, he had persuaded his parents to let him sell snacks and newspaper on the railroad. By age fourteen, he had published his first newspaper called the "Weekly Herald." At its high point, Tom sold 400 copies per day and was getting $10 per day (which was a lot back then). Because of the newspaper, he now had enough money to focus more on experiments. Tom now had one lab in the basement of his home and kept things for experiments in his locker on the train. One day, while crossing a bumpy section of the track, the train jerked, letting a chemical from Tom's experiment fall on the floor and set fire to the train. The conductor was so mad he hit... ...three more children. When Thomas grew older, so did his deafness. Mina told Tom what people were saying by tapping the words on his knee in Morse code. All in all, Thomas Edison was not a very good father because he was busy all the time. However, this busyness and hard work changed our lives with his many inventions. One of his famous quotes describes his attitude, "Invention is one percent inspiration and ninety-nine percent perspiration." Thomas Edison died on October 18, 1931 in West Orange, New Jersey. At his funeral, these words were spoken, "Picture an electric-lightless, an electric-powerless, a telephoneless, a motion-pictureless, a phonographless world, and a faint realization of his greatness dawns upon us." Bibliography Kevles, D., Keysarr A., Maier P., & Smith, M. (2002) A History of the United States: Inventing America. New York: W.W. Norton.

Best kept secret of the church

What is the â€Å"best kept secret† of the church? Why? According to the clip, the â€Å"best kept secret' of the church is the Church's Catholic Social Teachings. It is God's special love for the poor and called God's people to a covenant of love and justice. I think it is the best kept secret of the church because the church has helped the poor in many ways and because of authoritative statements-?whether from church or government-?have less attraction today than acts of authentic witness.Also is it will also make social sues which will make the Catholic church receive not so good comments so they do not let other people know the secret of the church. And doing good doesn't need to be rewarded by other people, but to be rewarded by God alone. 2. Give at least 5 issues presented by the clip. A. Poverty because many Filipinos are â€Å"kapok† and uneducated b. Concentration of Wealth Because the poor thinks they are poor, they remain poor. C. Environmental Abuse The co ntinuity of illegal logging that makes the Earth worse. D. Inequality in land distributionThere are many informal settlers in our country because they don't have their own land and they can't buy because they don't have that kind of money. E. Social inequality The government doesn't entertain the poor people because they know that they won't gain anything from them, and the higher people or rich people help but only a few times. 3. Chi arch responses/actions on the given issues. In our recent times, the church response to this by having an outreach program or sometimes ask for donations to offer foods for those who are in deed. B.Concentration of Wealth Because the poor doesn't think they can survive and have a better life if they work, they don't work. But then the church gives seminar to help those people to carry on with their lives so they don't have any more excuses. C. Environmental Abuse Due to the continuation of the doings of the illegal loggers, the church and its people d ecided to have a checkpoint and the people were there to secure their place and to reduce the risk of the earth being destroyed wherein due to his action they were able to capture illegal loggers and to take back the logs they got.Also the priests help in planting trees, which is also a good thing. D. Inequality in land distribution The church tried to help and give the poor people voice and maybe encouraged them to appeal to the court about their current situation of the land where they are staying now. Another is that the church provided the church to be the place where the people can have their meeting. E.Social inequality When inside the church, there are no social inequality shown wherein all the people are together and are happy with being together and they all share foods to eat and it helped them improve their social relations. 4. Do you agree or not in the church's doings? Why? Yes agree. Because the church are doing their best to help or to provide proper action in regards to those situation and it need not to be publicized. Doing something good does not need someone to commend you but to make the other person feel good and to know that God with reward you as well is what really matters.

Christianity and Islam Essay

A few months ago, when a Vatican official announced that Catholicism was surpassed by Islam as the world’s largest faith, many news agencies around the world carried what seemed to have been a largely unnoticed issue for this present generation – religion. At least for some time, renewed debates about whether or not one should indeed consider Islam as a religion that commands world’s largest followers surfaced one after another. The issue many people think should not be dismissed is the fact that Christianity – a religion which combines an array of all its offshoots namely Roman Catholicism, Orthodox, Protestantism, Anglicanism, Evangelicals, among others – still has the largest adherents compared to any other religion, including Islam. Even if Christianity may be broken down into some larger or other smaller denominations, many people subscribe to idea that since all Christians root their belief in Christ, one must take them as belonging to a singular religion, the largest in the world to be exact. To consider Christianity as a single religion involves rounds of new separate debates. Surely, when the differences between the mainstream Christian blocks and the thousand of other minor denominations are brought into the fore, their respective beliefs will manifest diversity, resemblance, opposition, and even contradiction. Tedious as this process may appear, one may not yet consider the fact that even in the Islam religion itself there are further classifications of membership that must be taken into careful account. Again, it is legitimate to inquire whether it is proper to take Islam as a unitary religion, or they too must be broken down into their finer types. As one may correctly observe, inner divisions within the world’s largest religions – Christianity, Islam, Judaism, Hinduism, etc. – appear to be a fundamentally given fact. One can perhaps inquire whether it is possible to identify a major religion with millions, if not a billion of adherents, which does not have any, or have not suffered from any inner rift at any given point of its history. It may be interesting to ask therefore, what accounts for the eventual internal fall out of world religions in history? Better yet, how must we attempt to understand what happens in a religion that has been divided into smaller aggregate types in the course of history? II. Rationale and Scope This brief study presents a case for divisions transpiring within world religions. But since the scope of studying the issue is broad (considering that there are many major world religions to cite), this research shall be restricted at tackling Christianity and Islam as chosen types. Specifically, the study shall describe the events that transpired during the Catholic-Protestant divide of the mid 1500’s for Christianity, and the Shiite-Sunni divide for Islam. To be sure, there are other identifiable divisions which can be noted in the history of Christianity. While there are small schisms involving â€Å"heretics† who refuse to accept fundamental Christian teachings, Christianity is said to have been divided into two major blocks during the 11th century. It produced the dichotomization between the Roman Catholics and the Eastern Orthodox, which until the present still exists. For the purposes of limiting this study, the Christian division which shall be discussed in this study shall dwell on the Luther-led Reformation of the 1500’s. Meanwhile, it is also insightful to note even in the Islam religion, there have been various types of smaller divisions and schisms. For the purposes of this study too, the rift between the Shiites and the Sunnis that was created in the early years of Islam religion shall be the one in focus. A short analysis and interpretation of the sample religions used shall comprise the conclusion of this study. III. Discussion Proper a. Nature of Religion Before relating the events defining the divisions that were experienced both by Christianity and Islam, it will be helpful to cite some theories to help explain the dynamics of religion. This is important since it shall provide a working perspective which is to be used later on in the analysis. Religion is a phenomenon which may be understood in many ways. Basically speaking, it refers to the common innate feeling or â€Å"belief in a Supreme Being† (McCutcheon, 2007, p. 22). Religion obviously stems from a belief that there is a higher being that must be worshiped or adored. But religion does not pertain to kind of personal belief alone. It also describes how a believer finds the need to belong to a community which shares the same belief, and thus obey a given set of rules within it. Thus, another definition for religion may also be expressed as a â€Å"unified system of belief and practices relative to sacred things† which â€Å"unites (believers) into one single moral community† (McCutcheon, 2007, p. 22). Combing both definitions enable one to fully appreciate the fact that religion pertains to both a personal ascent to God, and a commitment to a community, a set of rules and a specific set rituals. When seen under the lenses of scientific inquiry (e. g. anthropology, sociology, philosophy, etc. ) religion reveals patterns and dynamism consistent with human belief system, knowledge, interest and relationships. This means that religion is molded into the belief system of the believers. For instance, if Christians hold that Christ in his lifetime was compassionate to the poor, it follows that they too, since they follow Christ, must do something good for their less fortunate brethren. Or if Moslems take Mohammad as their example, and Mohammad was a deeply spiritual man, they too must not take spirituality lightly in their lives. Religious mindset is committed to certain courses of action (Slater, 1978, p. 6); and these actions are meaningful only because believers draw their identities from a person or a belief system they embrace – be it the Lordship of Christ, or the greatness of the Prophet Muhammad (Slater, 1978, p. 82). This is one of the primary reasons why religions possess their â€Å"continuing identities† (Slater, 1978, p. 82). So long as a group of Christians identify themselves to the teachings of their religion, say Catholic Church, they will remain to be Catholics. As indeed, so long as a group of Moslems identify themselves to the teachings of their religion, say Shiite group, they will remain to be identified with it. What explains the shift in a belief system is when one cannot anymore identify either with a teaching, or specific religious structures. It is a general rule that key to a religion’s perpetuity is establishing an identity. When people start to feel alienated with what they used to hold or believe it, it can explain why a group of believers create their own groups to accommodate their otherwise alienated belief system. To help establish the point, it may be good to lay down two glaring examples. b. The Shiite-Sunnis Divide Islam was born at least five hundred years after Christianity was already an institutionalized religion. But what started out only as a small community following Muhammad, Islam grew in exponential proportion in just a short span of time. Within the rapid growth came bitter disputes and eventual breakaways. Although Islam is a religion which does not readily recognize that there are divisions within them, scholars are almost unanimous in agreeing that some factions already broke from within the Moslem community dating back to the days when the religion itself was merely beginning to be established. In a sense, Islam is a religion broken down into at least two major divisions even before it got to be formally established as a religious phenomenon. It all started when a certain man named Muhammad, who by the way was born in 570 to a very poor family, begun to attract followers after experiencing visions and revelations (Renard, 1998, p. 7). His reputation spread in neighboring places, and soon found himself at odds with ruling empires for the large number of followers he had gathered. After this increasingly expanding community finally settled in Mecca in 630, Muhammad would die two years after (Renard, 1998, p. 7). His death would then see his community figure in a prolonged tug-of-war for rightful succession, and would officially begin the drift within the newly established religious community. One group claimed that Muhammad chose his rightful successor in the person of his son named Ali before he died. The other group contested the claim and said, no instructions were made by the Prophet whatsoever. Instead, they held that it was appropriate for to appoint leaders themselves, and eventually chose Abu Bakr, Muhammad’s father-in-law, as the first of the four caliphs (meaning head), to rule the Islam community. Those who embraced the leadership of Ali were eventually known as the Shiites, while the followers who believed Abu Bakr’s caliphate eventually came to be known as Sunnis. As such, the neat separation within the just-emerging Islamic religion has been established. Since it exists up until today, it can be described as the â€Å"largest institutional division within the Muslim community† so far (Renard, 1998, p. 13; Ayoub, 2004, 72). c. The Catholic-Protestant Divide The era that colored the Catholic-Protestant divide was a Church marred with controversies, silent disenchantment and an ever growing discontent among Christian faithful. As history would show, it was through and because of Martin Luther – and his whole ebb generating protests against the Church – that the radical break from Catholicism was to be established. But hundreds of years before the supposed break, there had already been numerous events that point to the restlessness within the membership of the Church which it tried to quell. What were the controversies about? As early as the 1300’s, roughly two hundred years before Luther was born, an ordained priest by the name of John Wycliffe started to publish series of attacks against some of the major teachings and traditions of the Church. In 1372, he was summoned and reprimanded by Church authorities for his teachings that dwelled on the following: his denial of the doctrine of transubstantiation (a belief that the bread and wine used in celebrating the Eucharist is transformed into the real body and blood of Christ), attacks on the authority of the Pope as the head of the Church, corrupt practices within the Church, and emphasis on preaching and the use of Scriptures for teaching the doctrines of the Church (Cook, 2008, p. 95). Wycliffe probably represented the first courageous voices which tried to confront what’s wrong with the Church. In fact, he did try to raise legitimate concerns about both the divisive doctrines and lamentable discipline which the Church at that time practiced. Years after, Luther would pick up from where his predecessors had left out. In 1517, he released his Ninety-Five Theses to the public – a collection of ninety-five protests against many Church teachings – both doctrinal and moral – and Church practices, such as indulgences (spiritual merits obtained in return for monetary donations), celibacy (the promise for priests not to marry), Eucharist, among others (Cook, 2008, p. 100). Since the general religious atmosphere at that time was already ripe for reforms, his ninety-five theses were easily duplicated and spread throughout the German empire – a testament, as it were, to a huge popular support he enjoyed for the risks he took. Luther’s break from the Church was formally established when he burned the Papal bull Exsurge Domine (a decree which threatened him of excommunication if he did not recant his protests) in front of many people in a public square (Cook, 2008, 101). After which, he did subsequently ask the authorities of the German kingdom to support his cause for Church reform. Luther is remembered as a man who broke the Catholic Church apart. True enough, even before he died, he already saw the far reaching effects of his call for reforms he perhaps initially did not intended to jumpstart. Thanks to Luther, Christianity would never be the same again. The â€Å"Germany after (the) Reformation† movement in the mid 1500’s became a home to a new breed of Christians who came to be branded as Lutherans, Calvinist, Reformers, or even Protestants (Pennock, 2007, p. 168). In principle, Luther earned the reputation of being an agent of division within the Christian religion. IV. Conclusion To be sure, Christianity and Islam are not the only major religions in the world which had suffered a kind of break-up from within. Religious divisions are commonplace, and that variations sprouting from within large communities may be brought about by various factors. When divisions occur, one normally observes that differences pertaining to a host of issues including (but not limited to) doctrines, practices, or even recognized leadership become patent. As earlier mentioned, the dynamics of religion may help explain why a feeling of alienation (or a loss of identity) can push a believer or a group to break-away from mainstream religion to form their own set of practices and norms independently. Christianity and Islam were taken as exemplifications. In the points that were developed, it was seen that they share a history with lots of bitter disputes, which in turn led to an eventual division. But both religions suffered from internal rifts quite differently as well. Islam’s division was more political in nature, as two major factions with their respective claims to rightful succession to their now-dead Prophet-leader tore the emerging community apart – thus, the Sunnis and the Shiites. Christianity on the other hand, after experiencing many breakaway groups in the course of history, had to suffer yet another major blow from internal disputes led by Martin Luther in the 1500’s on account of doctrine and practices. What followed was a Christian religion torn once again, which ushered the creation of a big faction named Protestants. Religious divisions can be put under rigorous inquiry. There are viewpoints that consider these divisions as something that separate one group after another, while there are those who propose to see the same divisions as something that merely distinguish (but not separate). While the two viewpoints may be valid in their respective senses, this study places much interest not on their â€Å"distinguishability† or â€Å"separability†, but on the fact that, truly, religious divisions from within happen. References Ayoub, M. (2004). Islam. Faith and History. Oxford: Oneworld. Cook, C.. (2008) The Routledge Companion to Christian History. New York: Routledge. McCutcheon, R. (2007). Studying Religion. An Introduction. London: Equinox. Pennock, M. (2007) This is Our Church. A History of Catholicism. Notre Dame, Indiana: Ave Maria Press. Renard, J. (1998)101 Questions and Answers on Islam. New York: Paulist Press. Slater, P. (1978). The Dynamics of Religion. Meaning and Change in Religious Traditions. San Francisco: Harper and Row. (Also consulted) http://ca. news. yahoo. com/s/capress/080330/world/vatican_muslims

Dead salmon study by Craig Bennett Essays - Neuroimaging

Dead salmon study by Craig Bennett Essays - Neuroimaging "Dead salmon study" by Craig Bennett What happened in the study? i.e the procedure Neuroscientist Craig Bennett purchased a whole Atlantic salmon, took it to a lab at Dartmouth, and put it into an fMRI machine used to study the brain. The fish sat in the scanner, they showed it "a series of photographs depicting human individuals in social situations." To maintain the rigor of the protocol, the salmon, just like a human test subject, "was asked to determine what emotion the individual in the photo must have been experiencing." The salmon "was not alive at the time of scanning." 33978858382000What did the study show? i.e. the findings When they got around to analysing the voxel (think: 3-D or "volumetric" pixel) data, the voxels representing the area where the salmon's tiny brain sat showed evidence of activity. In the fMRI scan, it looked like the dead salmon was actually thinking about the pictures it had been shown. What the implications are for brain imaging research The result is completely nuts but that's actually exactly the point. Bennett, who is now a post-doc at the University of California, Santa Barbara, and his adviser, George Wolford, wrote up the work as a warning about the dangers of false positives in fMRI data. They wanted to call attention to ways the field could improve its statistical methods. Researchers get up to 130,000 voxels from each set of scans they do of a brain. They have to comb all that data for signals that indicate something is happening in a particular region of the brain. The fMRI data has a lot of natural noise, though, and with the amounts of data generated in the work, chance can play some tricks.

Renault FT Tank in World War I

Renault FT Tank in World War I The Renault FT, often referred to as the FT-17, was a ground-breaking tank design which entered service in 1918. A French light tank, the FT was the first tank to incorporate many design aspects which are now considered standard such as a fully-rotating turret and rear engine compartment. Small by World War I standards, the FT was intended to swarm through the enemys lines and overwhelm defenders. Used by French and American forces on the Western Front, the design was produced in large numbers and retained by many nations until the early days of World War II. Development The origins of the Renault FT may be traced to an early meeting between Louis Renault and Colonel Jean-Baptiste Eugà ¨ne Estienne in 1915. Overseeing the fledgling French tank corps which had been created during the early years of World War I, Estienne hoped to have Renault design and build an armored vehicle based on the Holt tractor. Operating with the backing of General Joseph Joffre, he was seeking firms to moved the project forward. Though intrigued, Renault declined citing a lack of experience with tracked vehicles and commenting that his factories were already operating at capacity. Not to be demurred, Estienne took his project to Schneider-Creusot which created the French Armys first tank, the Schneider CA1. Though he had declined the initial tank project, Renault commenced developing a design for a light tank that would be relatively simple to produce. Assessing the landscape of the time, he concluded that existing engines lacked the necessary power-to-weight ratio to allow armored vehicles to successfully clear trenches, shell holes, and other obstacles. As a result, Renault sought to limit his design to 7 tons. As he continued to refine his thoughts on a light tank design, he had another meeting with Estienne in July 1916. Increasingly interested in smaller, lighter tanks which he believed could overwhelm defenders in ways that larger, heavier tanks could not, Estienne encouraged Renaults work. While this support would proved critical, Renault struggled to gain acceptance of his design from Minister of Munitions Albert Thomas and the French high command. After extensive work, Renault received permission to build a single prototype. Design Working with his talented industrial designer Rodolphe Ernst-Metzmaier, Renault sought to bring his theories into reality. The resulting design  set the pattern for all future tanks. Though fully-revolving turrets had been used on a variety of French armored cars, the FT was the first tank to incorporate this feature. This allowed the smaller tank to fully utilize a single weapon rather than needing multiple guns mounted in sponsons with limited fields of fire. The FT also set the precedent for placing the driver in the front and the engine in the rear. The incorporation of these features made the FT a radical departure from previous French designs, such as the Schneider CA1 and the St. Chamond, which were little more than armored boxes. Operated by a crew of two, the FT mounted a rounded tail piece to aid in crossing trenches and included automatically tensioned tacks to help prevent derailments. Crew positions in a Renault FT-17 tank. National Archives and Records Administration To ensure that engine power would be maintained, the power plant was designed to operate effectively when slanted to allow the tank to traverse steep slopes. For crew comfort, ventilation was provided by the engines radiator fan. Though in close proximity, no provision was made for crew communication during operations. As a result, gunners devised a system of kicking the driver in the shoulders, back, and head to transmit directions. Armament for the FT typically consisted of either a Puteaux SA 18 37 mm gun or a 7.92 mm Hotchkiss machine gun.   Renault FT - Specifications Dimensions Length: 16.4 ft.Width: 4.8 ft.Height: 7 ft.Weight: 7.2 tons Armor Armament Armor: 0.86 in.Armament: 37 mm Puteaux gun or a 7.92 mm Hotchkiss machine gunAmmunition: 238 x 37mm projectiles or 4,200 x 7.62mm ammunition Engine Engine: 39 hp gasoline engineSpeed: 4.35 mphRange: 40 milesSuspension: Vertical SpringsCrew: 2 Production Despite its advanced design, Renault continued to have difficulty getting approval for the FT. Ironically, its chief competition came from the heavy Char 2C which was also designed by Ernst-Metzmaier. With the relentless support Estienne, Renault was able to move the FT into production. Though he had Estiennes support, Renault competed for resources with the Char 2C for the remainder of the war. Development continued through the first half of 1917, as Renault and Ernst-Metzmaier sought to refine the design. By the end of the year, only 84 FTs had been produced, however 2,613 were built in 1918, before the end of hostilities. All told, 3,694 were constructed by French factories with 3,177 going to the French Army, 514 to the US Army, and 3 to the Italians. The tank was also built under license in the US under the name Six Ton Tank M1917. While only 64 were finished before the armistice, 950 were eventually constructed. When the tank first entered production, it had a round cast turret, however this varied depending on the manufacturer. Other variants included an octagonal turret or one made from bent steel plate. French Renault FTs advance through Vaux, 1918. Library of Congress Combat Service The FT first entered combat on May 31, 1918, at Foret de Retz, south-west of Soissons, and aided the 10th Army in slowing the German drive on Paris. In short order, the FTs small size increased its value as it was capable of traversing terrain, such as forests, that other heavy tanks were incapable of negotiating. As the tide turned in the Allies favor, Estienne finally received large numbers of the tank, which allowed for effective counterattacks against German positions. The FT saw use at the Second Battle of the Marne as well as during the Saint-Mihiel and Meuse-Argonne Offensives. Widely used by French and American forces, the FT ultimately participated in 4,356 engagements with 746 being lost to enemy action. Postwar Following the war, the FT formed the armored backbone for many nations, including the United States. The tank saw subsequent action in the Russian Civil War, Polish-Soviet War, Chinese Civil War, and Spanish Civil War. In addition it remained in the reserve forces for several countries. During the early days of World War II, the French still had 534 operating in various capacities. In 1940, following the German drive to the Channel which isolated many of Frances best armored units, the entire French reserve force was committed, including 575 FTs. With the fall of France, the Wehrmacht captured 1,704 FTs. These were redeployed across Europe for airbase defense and occupation duty. In Britain and the United States, the FT was retained for use as a training vehicle. Additional FTs were retained by Vichy French forces in North Africa. These were encountered by American and British forces during the Operation Torch landings in late 1942 and were easily defeated by the Allies modern M3 Stuart and M4 Sherman tanks.

BUSINESS AND SOCIETY Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

BUSINESS AND SOCIETY - Essay Example Furthermore, I am able to give the appropriate pre-screening tests for shortlisting candidates in view of the job nature. Following this, I may now proceed with the recruitment process. To be able to minimize the hassles relative to recruiting, I may opt to contract the services of a recruitment agency which has the database or pool of potential employees. However, such recruitment method entails relatively higher cost as compared to other methods. Aside from this, I may also choose to advertise the job opening in the newspaper or internet job websites to attract prospective applicants. I can also resort to the referrals of my colleagues, friends or relatives. After the recruitment stage, I may now proceed with the selection process. To ensure that candidates' qualifications match the job requirements, shortlisted applicants would be asked to fill-up application forms or submit their resumes. In this forms, they may be asked to provide references such as previous employers so that I may be able to conduct character check. At this stage, it is also common to conduct interviews and psychometric testing in order to gauge the abilities and attitude of applicants. These procedures are vital in evaluating whether an applicant is fit for the job and able to adapt to the organizational culture. As a small business owner, I would need t... This payment method, I believe, is the most convenient for me since this would easily settle transactions. Furthermore, this has no extra cost on me unlike the other payment methods. However, cash payments may not be the most secure mode since it increases the risk of theft and tempts criminals and dishonest employees. Apart from this, I will also be accepting credit card/debit card payment. This is said to be the most secure payment mode for merchants because payments are backed up by bank guarantee. The downside to using this payment scheme is that credit card companies or banks charge merchants about 2-3% for processing payments. In a way, this contributes to revenue risk because it is an additional cost to be burdened by merchants like me and deplete our earnings. I will also be accepting postal or money order and wire transfers like Western Union. By offering this payment method, I will be able to attract those customers who do not reside in proximity to my store and those distrustful of or not well verse in doing online payments. However, this may take some time, thus, product delivery or service rendering may be delayed. Furthermore, customers who opt for this payment mode may charge extra fees on top of the product or service price. For online orders, I will offer all the payment modes mentioned above excluding the cash payment since it would be physically impossible to pay cash over the internet. Instead, I will be considering accepting person-to-person payments such as PayPal. This mode is advantageous for customers especially those who prefer to transact online. They only need to have an email and deposit funds on their person-to-person account. Similar to credit cards, merchants would be charged payment processing

Woman and Human Rights Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Woman and Human Rights - Essay Example It was acclaimed in New York on18 December 1979 (Haan, 2010). This document proclaims that women should be protected by the government against discrimination. Numerous aspects connected with gender discrimination are considered in this document. Another regulative document is Declaration on the Protection of Women and Children in Emergency and Armed Conflict acclaimed on 14 December 1974 (Haan, 2010). This document guarantees protection of women and children rights in armed conflicts. Thus inhuman acts violating the rights of women and children are considered to be destructive in this document. Very often civilians suffer from armed conflicts for liberation or a struggle against an enemy. This issue is considered in the document in detail. Another document is Declaration on the Elimination of Violence against Women acclaimed by General Assembly resolution 48/104 on 20 December 1993 (Haan, 2010). This document propagates that â€Å"the rights and principles with regard to equality, s ecurity, liberty, integrity and dignity of all human beings† are practically and legally applied to women. Basically, the violence against women is understood as violation of rights and basic freedoms of women. As far as this document propagates non-violation against women it can be claimed that this document would practically help a ‘full advancement’ of women.... In accordance with world’s analysts, â€Å"unless we empower and render justice to women we stand little chance of making a dent on the problems of conflicts, underdevelopment and injustice† (Women Gaining Voice). Therefore there is a need to focus attention of the International Commission on human rights and other related organs on the necessity to centralize women interests and rights. On their behalf, Women’s organizations around the world should proclaim their rights and appeal to the society to support all women in the world. The situation is better in EU and America, but the countries of the Third World experience even greater complexities connected with women’s rights regulations (Pillai et al, 1999). For example, in Africa there is a fast development of women’s movement directed on development of women’s partnership with media, educational and training institutions etc. Thus, it is evident that hindering factors of promotion and prote ction of human rights in Africa are facilitated by active participation of women’s organizations in that country. The African Women’s Development and Communication Network (FEMNET) is a non-governmental organization though it has a strong goal: â€Å"to participate effectively the development of our continent and †¦ensuring that African women voices influence decisions made at different levels that impact of their lives† (Women Gaining Voice). Therefore it is evident that a struggle against oppression of human rights in Africa conducted locally is a sign of advancement of ‘women’s empowerment, development, equality and peace in Africa’ (Women Gaining Voice). Basically, reforms of women’s attitudes to their rights

Global Warming is real Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Global Warming is real - Essay Example The earth’s atmosphere contains these trace gases, whose purpose is to prevent some of the heat of the sun to escape into the atmosphere when it is reflected by the Earth. This helps maintaining a certain degree of acceptable temperature on the Earth. When these gases rise in concentration, they start absorbing sun’s heat which results in rise in temperature to an unacceptable degree. Due to the rise in temperature, much of the living organisms are affected, most of which die. The rise in the concentration of these greenhouse gases results in the Earth getting warmer gradually. The debate whether global warming is real or not is going on, and it is being researched whether increase in the level of greenhouse gases like CO2 will eventually lead to man’s death by warming up the Earth to an unacceptable level. It is argued that: global warming is as important an environment issue as air pollution or ozone depletion is, and needs serious consideration so as to save t he Earth and the life. Global warming is real because there are many stakeholders. Humans are being affected by this problem, and will continue to get affected if it is not solved. Human beings are the most important stakeholders of global warming, and are also the cause of it. They will have to understand that their communities are at stake due to abrupt rise in sea level, massive storms and hurricanes, and heat and cold waves. To state some facts, the year 2007 brought worst floods in the history of many countries like Malaysia, UK, North Korea, and other African countries. Pakistan saw the worst flood in 2010, which took millions of lives and took the shelter of thousands of people. After human beings, the next important stakeholders are the animals and plants. Some animals are able to move to places of acceptable temperature, but some are not able to cross the mountain barriers and waters. Plants cannot move, so they die. Another stakeholder is the global governments whose visio n toward solving the issue of global warming depends upon the views of their citizens. Many of these governments have not taken satisfactory moves toward the solution of global warming, but there are other examples like Kyoto Protocol of 1997 which planned to counter the climate change issue (Cooper, para.3). The Southern Baptist Convention of June 2007, which was considered as the country’s largest Protestant denomination, raised concerns about the fact that global warming will continue to affect the poor of the country, because even if steps are taken to counter global warming by reducing the number of factories that emit CO2, this will result in an increase in the cost of energy that will ultimately affect the poor. Global warming is real also because it is resulting in many climate changes. Earth, today, is much warmer than it was 100 years ago. The Earth's average temperature has risen above 1 degree Fahrenheit during the last century, and nearly twice in many parts of t he Arctic. One way the increasing warmth of the Earth can be observed is by observing the trees. In warmer conditions, the trees get thicker and form thick rings. Comparing new trees with older ones can help us understand the difference. Other ways include experimentation with the sediment that rests in the bottom of the oceans and seas. Scientists observe these sediments which contain particles and fossils that tell a lot of information about the climate the time when they settle down at the bottom. Global warming also increases the sea level. High sea level is dangerous for communities living at coastal line because there would be constant fear of flooding. Rise in temperature will result in the melting of ice on the ice pole. These climate changes are

How Would You Value a Firm That You Were Trying To Purchase Research Paper

How Would You Value a Firm That You Were Trying To Purchase - Research Paper Example Holton and Bates 2009, elucidates that there are a number of methods through which a potential purchaser of a particular firm may apply in an effort to realize the value of that firm. The methods may include: Free Cash Flow Methods, Asset-Based Methods, Option-Based Valuation method, and the method of using Comparables, These tools or methods of valuations would in return assist the potential purchaser of the firm to analyze and make an informed purchasing choice. Discussion To begin with, the asset-based method can be efficiently used be an intending purchaser to value a give firm. This method reveals the book value of a firm’s equity. In simpler terms, the asset based method shows the asset value of a firm or a company, less the debts of the firm. According to Strauss, 2011, a potential purchaser of a firm may find this method of valuation helpful since a company’s equity is all that a firm can be left with in an instance where it suddenly halt its selling its product s or making money. This equity may be current assets, shareholders equity, and cash as tangible things, as well as brand name and management as intangible qualities. The shortcomings of this method however is that there are some hidden assets that cannot be revealed. This may happen in instances where a piece of a firm land was purchased years ago and the value of that land has been kept as it was despite the appreciation that has dramatically taken place. Another method may be used to value a firm is by using comparables. This method is one of the most common means through which a company valuation is done by simply using the earnings that a company gets. The earnings of a firm sometimes referred to as the net profit or net income can be said to be the amount of money that a firm is left with after it has paid all its bills or debts. In most cases, earning of a firm is measured according to the earnings per share. Earnings per share can be calculated by dividing the amount of earni ng a firm reports by the outstanding number of shares the firm has. Even though this method may be helpful to an individual intending to purchase a given firm, it falls short of other aspects of valuing a firm such as the firm assets which are an importance aspect of valuation in any business (Mayo 2010) Further, free cash flow method may be used in an attempt to value the worth of a given firm. Even though most of the individual investors are not conversant with cash flow, this method is commonly used for valuation of both private and public firms especially by the bankers. Cash flow can be described as the company’s earnings before taxes, interest amortization and depreciation. This method may however be ineffective in valuing a firm worth and the actual business earnings since the taxes and other costs are not subtracted from the general earning. Taxes payable by a given firm may vary depending on the laws governing taxation in a particular financial year and even though t he earnings of a given firm may be hefty the amount of taxes may be large thus the secondary costs or company’s profits may be uncertain. Finally, a person may opt to use the option based method to value the worth of a firm before purchasing that firm. There are several other techniques of firm valuation as aforementioned

Chateau de Versailles Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Chateau de Versailles - Essay Example Among the most visited historical structures in France, is the Palace of Versailles, (known as Chateau of Versailles in French) which attaches with it a high degree of historical and political significance. The Chateau comes under the head of most visited monuments in France. The vital aspect of preservation of national treasures has been in focus and castles can not be excluded from being so. The rehabilitation of the Versailles shows the keen interest of the country in preserving the presence of such a unique treasure. The basic thought for constructing the Versailles was that it was supposed to be a personal dominion of gratification for Louis, but with its expansion, it was altered into a public centerpiece, displaying the gloire of both the ruler of France and the country itself. Although Versailles lacks the resolutely symbolic proportions, the geometrical planned layout and the utter scale of the gardens show that the intention had been to reflect the brilliantness and constancy of the monarchy which had never been portrayed. The architecture and the expert development along with its rehabilitation has made the castle a masterpiece which has attracted tourist to the site. Even though the chateau has had large queues, people are more than willing to spend hours waiting to explore the structure and ascertain its significance. The history of the chateau started from Louis XIII, on invitation from Gondi, the owner of seigneury of Versailles, went on several hunting trips in the forests of Versailles. Subsequently he ordered construction of a chateau in 1624. In 1632, Louis XIII purchased the seigneury and made extensions to the chateau. The work was limited to the extent that it allowed for mere alterations to the existing chateau. Further, to evade the busy life of Paris and to uphold the dignity under his control, Louis XIV, the Sun king, ordered the construction of the chateau in which he mounted the government. The second construction phase began in 1664 and lasted until Louis XIV's death (1715), this made the chateau into an entirely new building, which was shaped about the Royal Court. Louis le vau was assigned to refurbish expand an antique hunting lodge. From slough land the gardens were created by Le Notre and the hydraulic flaunt of fountains was exercised by Mansart.It was never meant to be a ho me for the King.Versailles was the headquarters of every limb of the state. However, the chateau was deserted after the death of Louis XIV. After Louis XV moved in, it remained as residence of the royal family and there were plans made for extension under Louis XVI, but these never succeeded as the French Revolution intervened, and thereafter it was ruined as the priceless furniture was sold, the pictures were sent away and the palace was turned into a museum. There came a time when it was nearly annihilated by Louis-Philippe. The Chateau now demonstrates on the one hand what remains of the former royal residence, which has an approximate of one hundred and twenty room, and on the other, the Muse d'Histoire (Museum of History) which Louis-Philippe called "Les Galeries Historiques" (Historical Galleries), compromising one hundred and twenty halls. The acts of Louis Philippe can be seen as a huge blow suffered by the monument. However, in 1871 during the Paris commune, it was recogniz ed as a seat for the nationalist government, and so the French parliament met in Louis XV's opera building, up until 1879, which

Adolescent girls and depression Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Adolescent girls and depression - Essay Example A research carried out by Blyth, Simmons and Carlton-Ford on the adolescents show that the adolescence period is characterized by intense hormonal influence on the young minded teenagers coupled with a strong urge for self-identity and self-dependence among the adolescents (Blyth et al 109). This often results in the change in their behavior, likes and dislikes as well as emotional vagaries as these teenagers struggle along the long bridge of transition into adulthood. The High school age is characterized by numerous complexities as it marks a period of transition from childhood into adolescence, for the girls, this is often an issue that seeks to define and affect her perceptions and self image. These perceptions go beyond her and also affect those around her including her teenage friends, parents and other adults and require a sound understanding and proper management of one’s self. The teenage high school girl is faced with many challenges during her struggle with the adolescence stage. First is the much workload at school and academic excellence to join best college. This is always the greatest stress causing feeling in the high school adolescents and is the prime cause of heir wanting to withdraw from everyone especially those of their own families in order for them to concentrate fully in shaping their future lives. Baltes in his journal Longitudinal and cross-sectional sequences in the study of age during early adolescence, notes that, alongside all these the teen is also faced with the need to recognize and identify herself with responsibilities in the society as far as her social life is concerned. This is always accompanied with mixed reactions and emotional influences on the young girl. The aspect of moods change and mixed reaction then sets in as the teen girl is unable to fully identify herself amidst the intense struggle (Baltes 163). The need to make strong and mature decisions continuously battle with the

How Would You Value a Firm That You Were Trying To Purchase Research Paper

How Would You Value a Firm That You Were Trying To Purchase - Research Paper Example Holton and Bates 2009, elucidates that there are a number of methods through which a potential purchaser of a particular firm may apply in an effort to realize the value of that firm. The methods may include: Free Cash Flow Methods, Asset-Based Methods, Option-Based Valuation method, and the method of using Comparables, These tools or methods of valuations would in return assist the potential purchaser of the firm to analyze and make an informed purchasing choice. Discussion To begin with, the asset-based method can be efficiently used be an intending purchaser to value a give firm. This method reveals the book value of a firm’s equity. In simpler terms, the asset based method shows the asset value of a firm or a company, less the debts of the firm. According to Strauss, 2011, a potential purchaser of a firm may find this method of valuation helpful since a company’s equity is all that a firm can be left with in an instance where it suddenly halt its selling its product s or making money. This equity may be current assets, shareholders equity, and cash as tangible things, as well as brand name and management as intangible qualities. The shortcomings of this method however is that there are some hidden assets that cannot be revealed. This may happen in instances where a piece of a firm land was purchased years ago and the value of that land has been kept as it was despite the appreciation that has dramatically taken place. Another method may be used to value a firm is by using comparables. This method is one of the most common means through which a company valuation is done by simply using the earnings that a company gets. The earnings of a firm sometimes referred to as the net profit or net income can be said to be the amount of money that a firm is left with after it has paid all its bills or debts. In most cases, earning of a firm is measured according to the earnings per share. Earnings per share can be calculated by dividing the amount of earni ng a firm reports by the outstanding number of shares the firm has. Even though this method may be helpful to an individual intending to purchase a given firm, it falls short of other aspects of valuing a firm such as the firm assets which are an importance aspect of valuation in any business (Mayo 2010) Further, free cash flow method may be used in an attempt to value the worth of a given firm. Even though most of the individual investors are not conversant with cash flow, this method is commonly used for valuation of both private and public firms especially by the bankers. Cash flow can be described as the company’s earnings before taxes, interest amortization and depreciation. This method may however be ineffective in valuing a firm worth and the actual business earnings since the taxes and other costs are not subtracted from the general earning. Taxes payable by a given firm may vary depending on the laws governing taxation in a particular financial year and even though t he earnings of a given firm may be hefty the amount of taxes may be large thus the secondary costs or company’s profits may be uncertain. Finally, a person may opt to use the option based method to value the worth of a firm before purchasing that firm. There are several other techniques of firm valuation as aforementioned

Adolescent girls and depression Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Adolescent girls and depression - Essay Example A research carried out by Blyth, Simmons and Carlton-Ford on the adolescents show that the adolescence period is characterized by intense hormonal influence on the young minded teenagers coupled with a strong urge for self-identity and self-dependence among the adolescents (Blyth et al 109). This often results in the change in their behavior, likes and dislikes as well as emotional vagaries as these teenagers struggle along the long bridge of transition into adulthood. The High school age is characterized by numerous complexities as it marks a period of transition from childhood into adolescence, for the girls, this is often an issue that seeks to define and affect her perceptions and self image. These perceptions go beyond her and also affect those around her including her teenage friends, parents and other adults and require a sound understanding and proper management of one’s self. The teenage high school girl is faced with many challenges during her struggle with the adolescence stage. First is the much workload at school and academic excellence to join best college. This is always the greatest stress causing feeling in the high school adolescents and is the prime cause of heir wanting to withdraw from everyone especially those of their own families in order for them to concentrate fully in shaping their future lives. Baltes in his journal Longitudinal and cross-sectional sequences in the study of age during early adolescence, notes that, alongside all these the teen is also faced with the need to recognize and identify herself with responsibilities in the society as far as her social life is concerned. This is always accompanied with mixed reactions and emotional influences on the young girl. The aspect of moods change and mixed reaction then sets in as the teen girl is unable to fully identify herself amidst the intense struggle (Baltes 163). The need to make strong and mature decisions continuously battle with the

Network Diagram Essay Example for Free

Network Diagram Essay 2. A medium-sized engineering firm has three separate engineering offices. In each office, a local LAN supports all the engineers in that office. Due to the requirement for collaboration among the offices, all the computers should be able to view and update the data from any of the three offices. In other words, the data storage server within each LAN should be accessible to all computers, no matter where they are located. Draw a network diagram that will support this configuration. 3. A small start-up company has a Web-based customer sales system that is written by using PHP and JavaScript. The company is deciding whether to host the system on its own servers, contract with a hosting company for a virtual server, or go to amazon’s cloud. Volumes are expected to be low at the beginning, and it is hard to predict the growth patterns, although there is a potential for rapid growth. Decide which alternative the company should choose. Defend your decision by giving advantages and disadvantages of each solution based on the characteristics of the start-up company. I would recommend them to get a contract from a hosting company that can suffice all their needs. There are lots of web hosts that support companies for sales system; they even give additional functionalities for a reasonable price. Online threats are emerging nowadays, it is not safe to host a system yourself especially if you’re company is still new and needs more experience. Most hosting companies are almost invulnerable to threats and that should be your priority for your company. 4. Find four separate hosting providers and compare their offerings, including prices. Put your answer in a table showing the results of your research. Add additional row for the sources/references. HostPapa http://www.hostpapa.com/ Price Value At HostPapa, you truly feel like youre getting the family discount, what with so much being offered for less than $4 a month. Enjoy unlimited storage and bandwidth for unlimited sites, all Softaculous-enabled and equipped with HostPapa Website Builder. Beyond that, youll also receive online stats and  reporting tools, full email versatility, developers tools and extensive third party web design and multimedia software support. Dont forget, HostPapa web hosting gives you free domain registration for the first year, and free setup. Reliability HostPapa web hosting guarantees youll get maximum uptime (99.9% uptime guarantee and 99.9% network uptime guarantee) and promises to provide around the clock/around the calendar server monitoring. They regularly perform secure and reliable backups of all your data to protect against unforeseen emergencies. Control Panel Joy of joys, all HostPapa customers get the full benefits of the industrys most popular and user-acclaimed control panel: cPanel. Large, intuitively organized icon-based buttons empower you to perform any number of administrative tasks. The main menu includes a real-time display of every stat and figure relevant to your web hosting account and your websites activity and performance. Customer Support At HostPapa, youll get all the one-on-one help setting up and getting started that you need as well as dedicated customer service any time you need it. Choose from phone, live chat, and email support, or do-it-yourself with the HostPapa library of helpful and easy to follow video tutorials and online help docs. iPage http://www.ipage.com/ Price Value The web experts at iPage.com have managed to compile an eye-popping list of services and value-added extras and package them neatly into a all-encompassing web hosting package. Currently on promotion for just $1.99 a month, iPage.com is proving that sometimes you actually get more than you pay for. Reliability iPage.com uses a system of pooled servers so there is always server space available to you. The first and fastest machine available will serve your website. A pool of servers provides redundancy, streamlined service, and maximum uptime. Control Panel The iPage control panel offers users tools to create, enhance and manage their websites simple and effectively. iPage.com has also worked closely with Google to integrate the industry-leading Google Tools for Websites right into your control panel. Customer Support iPage.com makes a remarkable promise: when you contact their customer service department, theyll put you in touch with an agent within two minutes. iPage offers around the clock support via live chat, phone and e-mail. HostGator http://www.hostgator.com/ Price Value Host Gators shared web hosting plans start at $3.96 a month (the recently upgraded Hatchling plan) and include unlimited disk space and bandwidth. Their reseller plans are offered for prices ranging from $24.95 to $99.95 per month, and their dedicated server plans range from $174.00 to $374.00 per month. Put it all together and you have one company that wants to remain competitive in the web-hosting market. Reliability HostGator has chosen The Planet, located in Dallas, Texas, to house their data center. The Planet boasts over 35,000 square feet of raised floor space, and features state-of-the-art security, safety, and cooling systems. This facility is accompanied with Multiple TXU electrical grids, 4800 volts of input power, DataTrax monitoring software for the whole data center infrastructure, and a fully meshed and redundant Certified Cisco Network  featuring 10 backbone providers. Control Panel Host Gator employs the industry standard control panel, cPanel. This control panel is one of the best in the industry, and has over 39 scripts that can be installed. It is easy to learn and use, as it provides more than one million end users the ability to install dozens of leading open source programs, accompanied with flash movies for instant tutorials. Customer Support Host Gator is becoming one of the leading companies offering quick responses and a personal touch to their support system. They present 24/7/365 phone support, online chat, fax, peer support forums, and a wide variety of cPanel flash video tutorials. Their knowledgebase is also quite extensive and useful. JustHost http://www.justhost.com/ Price Value Unlimited disk space, unlimited bandwidth, unlimited domain hosting, unlimited email accounts, unlimited MySQL databases, has it priced at just $2.25 per month. And that fee includes a free domain for life, a free point-and-click SiteBuilder with templates, a free e-Commerce shopping cart, and a free Spam Assassin for your email. Reliability At JustHost you get a 99.9% uptime guarantee on service. Just Host s reliability is guaranteed, in part, thanks to their unique load balancing technology and super fast backbone connections. With load balancing, your site is available from multiple servers, so if one server becomes unavailable, your site will still be live on the other server, virtually eliminating site downtime. Control Panel If we had to pick just one web hosting control panel to use and forgo all  others, it would be the very same control panel that just so happens to come with Just Host web hosting plan. Its cPanel, of course, the industry leader for mastering user-friendliness and ease-of use. All the resources, tools, and even web statistics are right there in one place, at your disposal. Plus you can personalize and customize your cPanel for an even easier webmastering experience. Customer Support The JustHost support center offers a full range of help features, from assisted support 24/7 via live web chat, 1-888 toll-free telephone, and email support ticket system to self-guided help via searchable and categorized online FAQ and articles, web tutorials, and an active user community. Source: http://www.hosting-review.com/web-hosting.php?aff_sub=H-R-Revised-Legacy-Hosting-International ENaff_sub2=web%20hosting%20reviewsaff_sub3=bgclid={gclid}gclid=COqOnOXH-sACFYeSvQodIHsAHg

Monomania Psychology Analysis: Ideal Ego and Ego Ideal

Monomania Psychology Analysis: Ideal Ego and Ego Ideal Abstract: This paper Moby Dick: Obsession, Evil and the Passion of Ignorance, argues that monomania is a passion of ignorance. It contends that this passion of ignorance is situated precisely between the ideal ego and the ego ideal. The ideal ego is the fantasy an individual has of themselves, a narcissistic illusion of completeness. It is a representation based on an image of the self fixed at the infantile period. The ego ideal is the goal of a process, a movement towards an idealized self based on internalised significant early role models, people admired and preferred in favour of the self. In monomania, the ideal ego seeks to eradicate the other, the ego ideal. This is an act of envy, an attempt to kill and steal the others good because it represents what one should be or could have been. Such an act is never conscious. It is a passion of ignorance. The saga of Captain Ahab and his obsessive desire to obliterate the Great White Whale is illustrative of this dynamic. The yearning for absolutes is a hall-mark of monomania. Monomania is a passion of ignorance and is to be found in the boundary between love and hate. It is inherently evil because it excludes and destroys reality. In monomania, ignorance functions as a parochial and universalised concept of reality, marked by a certainty and rectitude which enables the harming of others with humanitarian conviction and moral purpose. The passion of ignorance is situated precisely between the subject and the fantasy of himself. The ideal ego wishes to eradicate the other, the ego ideal, What is at the heart all psychopathological behaviour is an incapacity to communicate with aspects of the self that have, as part of the self protective mechanism of the psyche, been obscured because they are too painful to be addressed. At the time of obfuscation, the only perceived path for survival has been the isolation and dissociation of something intrinsic. Analytical psychology recognizes that there are dark recesses people carry deep within in which lurk forbidden secrets which are treated as unapproachable. These dark places and forbidden secrets are not passive, they pulsate with the presence of malignant, carnivorous forces that reek of fear and anarchy. It is no accident that the developmental arm of analytical psychology is preoccupied to the determining effects of family history, for it is in the family setting that people experience the strongest and most primitive feelings, where relationships take on their most stark and forceful forms. A persons experience within the context of family has its genesis at a time before coping mechanisms are developed, before and independent sense of security and stability has had time to consolidate. Analytical psychology understands that the individual is deeply affected by the net of past experiences. They impact on the way in which present experiences are assimilated or repressed. They determine what may be allowed to come to consciousness and what must be assigned to the unconscious. The unconscious is occasioned by a number of factors, by repression, instinctual inheritance, social conditioning and repressed trauma. It can be personal or collective. In all its aspects, the unconscious represents that part of an individuals psychic existence that is, by multiple strategies, consigned to function without conscious control. Thus analytical psychology attempts inexorably to draw one deeper and deeper into a journey of confrontation with ones self. It calls on the individual to overcome his defences, to transcend the bounds of secure systems he has established to keep full and immediate experience at bay. In the tale of Moby Dick, Ahab misuses his power, disregards the safety of his crew and the profitability of the voyage, even forfeits his own life in order to avenge himself on the whale who robbed him of his leg. He does this, all to avoid a confrontation with himself and his own vulnerabilities. The Story: The tale of Moby Dick begins with the enigmatic words of the narrator, Having little or no money in my purse, and nothing particular to interest me on shore, I thought I would sail about a little and see the watery part of the world. It is a way I have of driving off the spleen, and regulating the circulation. Whenever I find myself growing grim about the mouth; whenever it is a damp drizzly November in my soul; whenever I find myself involuntary pausing before coffin warehouses, and bringing up the rear of every funeral I meet, and especially whenever my hypos get such an upper hand of me that it requires a strong moral principle to prevent me from deliberately stepping onto the street and methodically knocking peoples hats off – then, I account it high time to get to see as soon as I can. (Melville 1992 p. 1) With these words Ishmael the story teller announces his intention to go to sea. He makes the journey to New Bedford, Massachusetts where he takes accommodation at a whalers inn, but as the inn is very full he finds himself sharing a bed with a stranger, Queequeg, a harpooner from the South Pacific. Queequeg is a cannibal from a South Sea Island. His strange physical form appears bizarre to Ishmael. He is covered in strange tattoos and apart from his alien appearance has strange habits and customs. Ishmael is terrified by the encounter but as time passes he is able to move beyond the outward exterior of Queequeg to understand that they are both men, and this strange creature from the South Seas, far from being a terrifying beast is human, and one with a particularly kind heart and generous spirit. The two men join forces and set out to seek work together as whalers. They secure work on the Pequod, a whaling vessel decked out with the bones and teeth of its victims, Peleg and Bildad, t he Pequods Quaker owners, tell them of their Captain, Ahab, who on his last voyage found that sperm whales are not defenceless victims, but creatures with teeth; Ahab has had his leg ripped from him by an enormous white whale. The hunted became the hunter and had struck back. The Pequod leaves the safety of the harbour in Nantucket on a bitterly cold Christmas Day, its crew a diverse mixture of nationalities and cultures. Days later, as the ship makes into warmer waters, Ahab finally appears on deck, balancing unsteadily on his prostheses carved from the jaw bone of a sperm whale. Ahabs intention: to pursue and kill Moby Dick, the great white whale who took his leg. To Ahab, this whale is the embodiment of evil. He must be killed and killed by Ahab. To this end he nails a gold doubloon to the mast and announces to all that the man who first sights Moby Dick will have the coin. Aboard one of these ships is a crazed prophet called Gabriel who predicts doom to all who pursue Moby Dick and the superstitious crew of the Pequod share their sea-stories of how those who hunted the whale met with ill fortune. It is not long before misfortune is seen and known by the crew. While butchering their catch, the harpooner Tashtego falls into the mouth of a dead whale which tears free of the Pequod and sinks. Queequeg dives after the drowning man, slashes into the slowly sinking head with his knife and frees the seaman. During another whale hunt, the black cabin boy Pip, jumps from a whaleboat and is left stranded at sea. He is rescued but the trauma renders him mentally disturbed. He is left mindless and uncanny, a prophetic jester onboard the ship. Still the hunt continues. One day, the Pequod encounters the whaler, the Samuel Enderby. Captain Boomer the skipper has lost an arm in a chance meeting with Moby Dick. As the two captains discuss the whale the contrast becomes evident. Boomer is happy simply to have survived his encounter, and he cannot understand Ahabs lust for vengeance. Queequeg becomes ill and asks the carpenter on board the Pequod to make him a coffin in preparation of his death but he does recover, and the coffin becomes the Pequods replacement life buoy. In expectation of finding Moby Dick, Ahab orders a harpoon to be forged and baptizes this harpoon with the blood of the Pequod harpooners, and his own. Although the Pequod is still hunting whales, it is the hunt for Moby Dick that always hangs over the life of the ship. Then, one day, Fedallah makes a prophesy regarding the death of Ahab. Ahab will see two hearses, the second made from American wood and he will be killed by hemp rope. To Ahab, this means he will not die at sea, for at sea there are no hangings and no hearses. A tropical storm encompasses the Pequod, illuminating it with electrical fire. To Ahab this is a sign of imminent confrontation and success. To Starbuck, the ships first mate, it is a bad omen and he contemplates murdering Ahab to end the obsession. The tempest ends, but then one of the sailors plummets from the ships masthead and drowns—a grave forewarning of what lies ahead. As Ahabs obsessive desire to find and destroy Moby Dick intensifies, the mad Pip becomes his constant companion. It is near the equator that Ahab expects to find Moby Dick, and it is here that the Pequod meets two whalers, the Rachel and the Delight; both have had recent fatal encounters with the Great Whale. The Captain of the Rachel pleads with Ahab to help him find his son, lost in the battle with Moby Dick, but Ahab has only one goal, to find and kill the whale. Days pass, and then, finally, Ahab sights Moby Dick. The harpoon boats are launched. Moby Dick rams Ahabs harpoon boat, destroying it but Ahab is saved by his crew. The next day, Moby Dick is sighted once more. The whale is harpooned but again, Moby dick strikes back and once again rams Ahabs boat. Fedallah is trapped in the harpoon line, is dragged overboard to his death. Starbuck saves his Captain by manoeuvring the Pequod between Ahab and the enraged beast. On the third day, the boats are launched once again and are sent after Moby Dick. The whale turns and attacks the boats, and they see that Fedallahs corpse is still lashed to the whale by the harpoon line. In the ensuing battle, Moby Dick rams the Pequod and she begins to sinks. Ahab, caught in a harpoon line, is hurled out of his whale boat to his death. The remaining whaleboats and crew are caught in the vortex of the sinking Pequod and dragged to their deaths. Ishmael, thrown from his boat at the beginning of the hunt, is the only man to survive. He floats, alone on Queequegs coffin, the only remaining flotsam from the wreckage, an isolated figure in a watery world. On the second day, a sail drew near, nearer, and picked me up at last. It was the devious-cruising Rachel that in her retracing search after her missing children, only found another orphan. (Melville 1992 p. 583) An Uncanny Tale In telling the story of Moby Dick, Melvilles narrator, Ishmael, engages in a process of repetition that brings the dead back to life. His narrator offers what appears to be a sober account of his real experience but in the recounting it is immediately evident that this experience is anything but commonplace. Melvilles combination of reality and the fantastic, the credible and the incredible, compel the reader to accept the narrative on its own terms. The tale confronts the reader with narratorial anxiety in both the telling of the tale and in the horror of its content. Melvilles narrative method exemplifies the de-familiarisation of the familiar, the domestication of terror that characterises the uncanny. Freud characterises the uncanny as that which arouses dread and horror; (Freud 1919 p. 339) it is that class of things which lead us back to what is known of the old and familiar. (Freud 1919 p.340) It is precarious, this combination of the familiar and the unfamiliar, where the opposites of the homely, customary and congenial also denote the secret that is concealed and kept from sight. (Freud 1919 p. 347) We believe we are at home in the immediate circle of beings. That which is, is familiar, reliable, ordinary. Nevertheless, the clearing is pervaded by a constant concealment in the double form of refusal and dissembling. At the bottom, the ordinary is not ordinary; it is extra-ordinary, uncanny. (Heidegger 1971 p. 53) Freud argues that one of the most anxiety-producing devices of the uncanny is the double. Freud considers the uncanniness of the double to be the effect of the egos projection of the object ‘outwardly as something foreign to itself. What is inside is experienced as coming from outside, (Freud 1919 p.358) split off and isolated through a process of repression and dissociation. The subject may identify with another to the extent that he is not sure which identity he is or he may substitute the extraneous self for his own. In the tale of Moby Dick it is this lack of difference which dominates Ahabs relationship to the whale. While Ahab may try to establish himself as a saviour, he too, deep down, is dangerous and destructive. It is this sameness that is problematic. When it becomes too obvious that the other is contained in the self, the other becomes an object for irrational hostility. In this dynamic, both the object (the whale) and the subject (Ahab) become doubles of each othe r in the psyche of the person who is enmeshed in the projection. The notion of the double always inspires the subject with dread and can be summed up as a dividing and interchanging of the ego. There is an inevitable cyclic repetition of the initial trauma. It is an inescapable loop until the doubling is concluded. Aboard ship, Ahab imposes an irresistible dictatorship in order to pursue his obsession. Moby Dick had injured him and that fact contravened Ahabs entire view of how the world should be ordered. The self-righteous, imposing Captain of the Pequod smoulders with the fires of hell. His all consuming pride and rage against the white whale blaze in the great speech before his crew where he proclaims, That inscrutable thing is chiefly what I hate; and be the white whale agent, or the white whale principal, I will wreak my hate upon him Talk to me not of blasphemy, man, Id strike the sun if it insulted me. (Melville 1992 p. 167) Ahab cannot see Moby Dick for what the great while whale is, because the reality of the animal is subsumed under the passion of Ahabs projection. But because this ‘relationship is skewed, the rest of Ahabs world suffers. Ahab has no connection to any other person or thing beyond the white whale. It is inevitable that the whale proves to be his nemesis; it is the whale that inflicts retribution and vengeance, not Ahab. The Orphan With the first sentence of Moby Dick we are confronted with the complex figure of Ishmael. The narrative begins with the words Call me Ishmael. The name has come to symbolize orphans and social outcasts but it has another aspect to it. The word literally means ‘God hears. Ishmael, according to the Hebrew Scriptures, was the first son of Abraham, born to a slave woman, Hagar because Abraham believed his wife Sarah to be infertile. But when God granted Sarah a son of her own, Ishmael and his mother were turned out of Abrahams household. Isaac inherited the birthright from Abraham. Ishmael was left to die under a bush in the wilderness by his distraught and starving mother. But in her distress she cried out and God heard her cry and the cry of the child. 15When the water in the skin was gone, she cast the child under one of the bushes. 16 And God heard the voice of the boy; and the angel of God called to Hagar from heaven, and said to her, What troubles you, Hagar? Do not be afraid; for God has heard the voice of the boy where he is. 18Come, lift up the boy and hold him fast with your hand, for I will make a great nation of him. 19Then God opened her eyes and she saw a well of water. She went, and filled the skin with water, and gave the boy a drink. 20God was with the boy, and he grew up; he lived in the wilderness, and became an expert with the bow. (Genesis 21: 15 – 20 The Bible NRSV 1988) From a Judeo-Christian perspective Ishmael was an outcast, the result of his fathers failure to believe and obey YHWHs promise to give him a son through his wife Sarah. As a consequence, Ishmael was the one repressed and rejected. But Ishmael was heard and taken care of by God. Throughout his life, Melville was preoccupied with the imagery of orphans and in particular with the character Ishmael. In Mardi he writes, But as sailors are mostly foundlings and castaways, and carry all their kith and kin in their arms and legs, there hardly ever appears any heir-at-law to claim their estate. (Melville 2004 p. 139) In Redburn, Melville writes, at last I have found myself a sort of Ishmael on the ship, without a single friend or companion. (Melville 1957 p. 60) In Pierre Melville writes, so that once more he might not feel himself driven out, an Ishmael into the desert, with no maternal Hagar to accompany him and comfort him. (Melville 1962 p. 125) Edward Edinger argues that Melville had an Ishmael complex which had two sources; personal life experience and identification with an archetypal image. (Edinger 1995 p. 23) The personal cause would be the insanity and death of his father and the ensuing hardships this caused. Melville was twelve and a half when his father died, close to the age of the biblical Ishmael who was thirteen. In addition, he was rejected by his mother, who favoured her first son. According to Arvin Newton, Melville, as an elderly man, once remarked to his niece that his mother had hated him. (Arvin 1950 p.30) The pain of his rejection is poignantly evident in the tale of Mob y Dick Most of the action is seen through the eyes of Ishmael. He will thus represent the authors ego (Edinger 1995 p. 24) Ishmael, the lone survivor of this misadventure is the story teller. At the outset of the story, Ishmael presents as one who is in pain and internal distress. He is impoverished, hostile, depressed and potentially suicidal. He heads for the sea, to Nantucket to find work on a whaler. In the past he has found sea voyages as a way of containing his internal conflict and pain. But before he can find a ship, his poverty forces him to find accommodation in a squalid inn, sharing a bed with a harpooner. When the harpooner enters the room in which Ishmael is sleeping he awakes in horror at the apparition before him, a man who appears to have just returned from the ministrations of a surgeon, his face covered with sticking plaster. But that is not the reality. The harpooner is a cannibal from the pacific, tattooed in his native islander tradition. He carries a tomahawk, a seal skin purse with the hair still attached and a shrunken head. The overall impression is alien, bizarre and terrifying to Ishmael. He watches from beneath the counterpane as the stranger uses the tomahawk as a pipe, then quietly turns into the bed with Ishmael. He is unaware of Ishmaels presence and reacts with instinctive aggression. In the fracas that follows Ishmael calls out in terror to the landlord for help. ‘Landlord! Watch! Coffin! Angels! Save me! (Melville 1992 p. 25) Peter Coffin, the landlord, soothes the moment. He introduces the men to each other and Ishmael is suddenly aware that this frightening apparition is a person, with a name. Queequeg is no longer a nameless savage, a cannibal with a shrunken head and a death dealing tomahawk. The tomahawk is also a peace pipe, and he shares the smoke from this unique instrument with Ishmael. The tomahawk-pipe has now become a symbol for both life and death, a symbol of reconciliation and peace. In this initial encounter with Queequeg a transformation is begun in Ishmael. In symbolic terms, he has embraced, in the symbolic form of Queequ eg, both death and life as indivisible partners, and when he wakes the following morning he begins to see the world from a different perspective. Ishmael understands the mixture of life and death that Queequegs tomahawk-come-pipe represents, and realizes, at least in that moment, that such experience can lead to renewal. The Obsession, Ahab demonstrates the dangers of an all consuming focus; the object of his obsession is the solitary great white whale, nicknamed Moby-Dick by the whalers. On his previous voyage, Ahab had his leg ripped off by Moby-Dick, and at the Ishmaels story begins, he has sworn to take his vengeance by hunting down and killing the great whale. It never occurs to Ahab that he lost his leg while trying to take the whales life and while in the process of killing countless other whales for monetary gain. Ahabs obsession has more to do with what Moby Dick represents than with the great whale himself. He saw Moby Dick as the prey and could not cope with the idea that he was not omnipotent in this relationship, that he was outdone by another creature. As Ahab reasons in a fiery speech to the crew of the Pequod, all visible objects are like pasteboard masks that hide some unknown but still reasoning thing. Ahab hates that inscrutable thing that hides behind the mask of appearance. The only way to figh t against it, he proclaims is to strike through the mask! Moby Dick, as a mysterious force of nature, represents the most outrageous, malevolent aspect of natures mask. To kill it, in the mind of Ahab, is to reach for and seize the unknowable truth that is hidden from all people. He cannot conceive of the concept that there is a simpler reality; he is not the master of all other species. He sees his failure to be able to take life at will as a reversal of his role as the predator and therefore can only conceive of himself now as the one preyed upon. This he cannot accept and so is driven to destroy that which in his mind denies his appropriated reality. Ahabs insane obsession and hunt for Moby Dick describes the consequences of viewing the world as a mask that hides unknowable truth. It is Ahabs frustration with the limits of human knowledge and power that lead him to reject both science and logic and instead embrace violence and the dark magic of Fedallah his demonic advisor. Like Christopher Marlowes Doctor Faustus, he has made a pact with the devil. Thinking he is immortal, Ahab attacks Moby Dick, striking at the mask of appearance that supposedly hides ultimate truth. His devotion to the idea that truth exists behind or beyond the physical world forces him to destroy himself in the attempt to reach it. Ahab can only relinquish his illusion by dying, or killing the object upon which his illusion has rested. Ahabs ideal ego, that is the fantasy he has of himself as one who is in control and omnipotent, is in the process of destroying his ego ideal, that is, his potential as man, captain and hunter. He believes he must eradicate the evil of the whale, but in reality, because he is caught in this doubling with the whale, he is intent on murdering himself. His passion of ignorance has overwhelmed his reason, blinded him to his own creative potential. All that is left is the passion and it knows no reason People thus reduced inflict the traumatic pain of their void on others. The evil they engender is not just about destruction but emerges from the chaotic principle of pure drive which has loss at its centre and therefore must occasion more loss. The important point is not that the symbolism of what Ahab lost, but the symbolism of the loss itself. Revenge is only sought when there has been a great loss, a loss that is seen to embody an injustice, and an injustice imposed by an enemy over whom victory should have been assured. Ahab lost his leg to a beast, an inferior creature. His quest for revenge could just as easily have been instituted by the loss of an arm, a child, or a father. The loss implies inferiority to a foe that is deemed to be unworthy of such a victory. Revenge becomes obsession because only with revenge can the world become again that which supports the adopted perception of order. For Ahab, revenge can only be perceived as the re-imposition of superiority and ascenda ncy. It is the adoption of this delusional sense of what order is, that gives rise to the monomania that attends a thirst for revenge. Ahabs loss of limb is immediate and it is personal but despite losing a leg he can still walk, he can still captain, he can still go on a whaleboat and harpoon. It is the greater loss which is the mechanism standing behind the driving revenge and his monomaniacal pursuit of it. As if to be human is forever to be prey to turning your corner of the human race, hence perhaps all of it, into some new species of the genus of humanity, for the better or for the worse. (Cavell 1998 p.154) For this reason Ahab must inflate the object of his revenge and recreate it as something larger in context. To accomplish this, Ahab must imbue Moby Dick massive power, power beyond comprehension. By placing the capacity of evil upon the whale, Ahab can fool himself into thinking that Moby Dick is a greater being than he really is and therefore his own loss appears greater than it really is. For Ahab, the delusion attendant to the psychosis of revenge suppresses the reality that he is merely a man bent on attempting to restore his lost sense of superiority. This reality is replaced with a grandiose vision of one who is a redeemer for humanity. But it is not humanity Ahab is attempting to redeem; it is his own inflated ego whose ascendancy has been usurped. By imputing to Moby-Dick a demonic power he does not really possess Ahab, blinds himself to any reality of what Moby Dick actually is, to any real strength and intelligence that the whale possesses. This blindness springs not from mere ignorance, but from a consciously willed ignorance, from the desire not to know, from the ambition not to understand. In order to sustain his delusional conception of himself, he must appoint concomitant distortion to the world which surrounds him, and particularly to the object of his obsession. Ahab desperately wants Moby Dick to be inscrutable. He wants him to be a thing that is incapable of being understood, because that enables him to categorize his nemesis as sheer evil. Therefore he is compelled to refuse any effort at understanding and it is this iron-willed ambition to remain ignorant, to label this thing as ultimate evil that generates the ironic twist whereby Ahab himself becomes the ultimate danger, the evil which he imagines he is seeking to eradicate. It is Ahab who causes the complete destruction of all that surrounds him. Evil and the Passion of Ignorance Ahab desires to attach to Moby Dick all the evil that exists in the world. Moby Dick is a creation of his infantile envious omnipotent sadistic phantasies. Ahab himself identifies the ultimately personal source of what he sees as a universal evil when he says, It was Moby-Dick that dismasted me; Moby-Dick that brought me to this dead stump I stand on now it was that accursed white whale that razeed me; made a poor pegging lubber of me for ever and a day! (Melville 1992 p.166). Moby Dick took away Ahabs ability to literally stand on his own two feet. The loss of his leg can also be seen as a symbolic emasculation and that symbolism is made all the more apparent by the fact that Ahabs quest is for a sperm whale. Moby-Dick contains sperm; Ahab does not. In his quest for revenge, all of Ahabs creative potential is voided because he cannot accept that there is a reality that is greater and stronger than himself. It is in the attempt to deny the reality and existence of that which surpasses him that he divorces himself from his own creative life potential. Captain Ahab is both the psychotic parent in command of the infant and the infant overwhelmed with his own omnipotent phantasy. In the tale of Moby Dick, Herman Melville created a character whose motives of vengeance typify the behaviour of a psychotic person. Captain Ahab, in his delusion, could not allow Moby Dick to share the same space in his paranoid and infantile world. Ahab experienced the loss of his leg as a lethal wound that was potentially reparable only by a copy-cat act of vengeance taken upon the alleged guilty Moby Dick. That intangible malignity which has been there from the beginning Ahab did not fall down and worship it, but deliriously transferring its idea to the abhorred white whale, he pitted himself, all mutilated, against it He piled upon the whales hump the sum of all the general rage and hate felt by his whole race from Adam down; and then as if his chest had been a mortar, he burst his hot hearts shell upon. (Melville 1991 p. 187) We Cannibals must help these poor Christians. The relationship between Ishmael and Queequeg is the antithesis of the relationship between Ahab and Moby Dick. Ishmael and Queequeg develop a relationship that is based on the recognition of their dissimilarity and separateness. Ahab and Moby Dick are joined together by Ahabs projection and obsession. With Queequeg and Ishmael, the difference is something to be explored. The relationship between Queequeg and Ishmael has a germ of creativity; that between Ahab and Moby Dick is founded on destruction and butchery. The initial encounter between Queequeg and Ishmael provokes both terror and aggression. The landlord intervenes, calming the situation and bringing them both to an awareness of the necessity of living alongside of each other. This generates a realisation in both Ishmael and Queequeg that they are both men despite the visual and cultural dissimilarities. As time passes and conversation is enjoined, they begin to comprehend both their differences and their commonly shared objectives. According to the customs of Queequegs home, Ishmael and Queequeg are married after a social smoke out of the tomahawk pipe. Queequeg gives Ishmael half of his belongings, and the two men continue to share a bed. The tattooed body of Queequeg is much like the patchwork quilt that covers them both as they sleep. These tattoos are a written narrative of the universe but no one, save the prophet who inscribed them can decipher their meaning, not even Queequeg. And this tattooing had been the work of a departed prophet and seer of his island, who, by those hieroglyphic marks, had written out on his body a complete theory of the heavens and the earth, and a mystical treatise on the art of attaining truth; so that Queequeg in his own proper person was a riddle to unfold; a wondrous work in one volume; but whose mysteries not even himself could read, though his own live heart beat against them; and these mysteries were therefore destined in the end to moulder away with the living parchment whereon they were inscribed, and so be unsolved to the last.(Melville 1992 p. 491) For Ishmael, Queequeg represents the dangerous and the forbidden for which Ishmael secretly yearns. Queequeg also symbolizes the explorative and adventurous aspect of Ishmaels personality. Once Ishmael recognizes this, his fears lessen and he embraces the savage into his life. Ishmaels initial hostility to Queequeg is a projection of the suppression of a part of his own personality. Exotic and unique, Queequeg represents the unknown. Ishmael is able to recognise this, to admit it, and to realise that his fear is due to ignorance. With this awareness comes the further realisation that he, Ishmael, must travel to the sea in order to gain life experience by exploring and embracing the unknown. The friendship between the two men, although troubled by prejudice and slow to develop into a full understanding of one anothers character, is solidified with their ‘marriage contract. They effectively become one person, illustrating the full integration of Queequegs otherness into Ishmaels personality. At the end of the book, Ishmael survives because of Queequegs coffin. In accordance with their marriage contract, Queequeg offers Ishmael protection from the sea-hawks, sharks and sea in the form of his coffin. In turn, Ishmael carries on Queequegs spirit, carved into the wood of the coffin. Queequeg represents that part of Ishmael which