Oedipus Essays (502 words) - Antigone, Civil Disobedience, Creon

Oedipus Just as it was with Oedipus, Creon is also a victim of his own arrogance. To say he is a victim is somewhat gracious, but he is after all, human. Arrogance being a chief means of suffering throughout these plays, it continued its role in the third episode via Creon. But of course, he doesn't realize the destruction in the making until it is too late. Not only does he lose the respect of his country, but he also loses his wife and his son. Obviously, he isnot the only victim, but he is the source. The conflict between Creon and Antigone is significant in that it shows just how pompous Creon really is. He is under the impression that he has the right to establish such edicts as those that restrict someone from honouring a family member. It is clear to many of his poeple, and even to the guards of the body, as the sentry mentions at one point, that Antigone has not done such a horrible thing. Also, Antigone brings up the fact that what she has done is not unlawful as far as the gods are concerned, which to many of Creon's own poeple, is the rule of all. This does not, by any means, help Creon in acquiring the respect and support of his country. On accord of this conflict with Antigone, Creon is faced with another problem, his son. Haemon can see something that Creon cannot and that is Creon's overbearing pride. A number of times he begs with his father to reconsider Antigone's punishment of death, but he has no effect on him. At one point he says this to Creon, Don't entrench yourself in your opinion as if everyone else was wrong (pg222). A very valid point because Creon has been so stubborn that he cannot see that others have logic in what they have said and done. Creon will still have none of it because after all, he is king and he knows what is best for his country. In the ending complications, he loses his son. His wife is the next thing to exhaust. She held Creon as being a double filicidal killer (pg 250) and apparently no longer wants to be a witness to whatever else he is going to do. She labels him as the source of her own death, as well. This is where something finally clicks with Creon and for the first time he has a moment to mourn for his own repugnant actions and the consequences that came with them. Finally, he understands that he is nothing but a rash weak foolish man (pg 252). This entire play is quite the example of cause and effect, one loss led to another, all of which was caused by Creon's insolence. But he was after all, doing what was best for his country. A 'selfless' act that was really anything but. His pride was the undoing of his whole world and the play ends on a tragic note. For him, it's hard to eat my words but harder still to court catastrophe through overriding pride (pg240). Maybe sometimes you need to compromise. Mythology Essays

Buffy essays

Buffy essays BUFFY: THE SUPREME KICKER OF EVIL BUTT AND TELEVISION RATINGS. The television series Buffy the Vampire Slayer, derived from an early 1990's film by the same name, has given birth to the new figure in popular teen culture: The Slayer. Joss Whedon's teen vampire slayer, Buffy, and her band of accomplices are appealing because they operate within the boundaries of our own culture, albeit with our anxieties taking the form of demons. The slayer has become a metaphor for taking control in the all-too-confusing world of Teenage Youth. This essay will explore this theme and how it contributes to the show's popularity on television. In doing so, it will also examine the "Girl Power" wave of the mid-nineties, and its impact on the character of Buffy as part of its larger media impact, as well as Buffy's impact on the portrayal of young women on television and beyond. Added to this girl power, is the popular eternal theme used to obvious effect is good conquering evil. In the past women have been restricted to roles that are considered traditional. Roles associated with traits including emotionality, prudence and compliance, where the males were portrayed through their rationality, efficiency, individualism and ruthlessness. Buffy the Vampire Slayer has changed this, Buffy sharing those characteristics and displaying them dominantly and powerfully. Buffy occupies a position, which invites us to both identify with and to desire. Strong, sexy, and fashionably clad Buffy has the ability to impact both sexes and a wide span of ages, from young teenagers to adults reaching their forties. It is the fact that in battle, whether it be physical or emotional, Buffy always manages to end up on top, which is appealing to both genders. Sarah Michelle Gellers (Buffy) main appeal, especially to teen females, is her accompanying efficiency as an empowering feminist model. She kicks demon butt and she ...

Human Resource Management Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words - 1

Human Resource Management - Essay Example Assessing the effectiveness of the HR practitioners, the evaluation of the HR should be paramount in all the employees. The assessment should look at the basic human resource functions including the management of performance, recognition and reward, and compensation. The assessment should also involve the employee handbook and his or her policies, the workforce planning, development and training, work climate and employee engagements among other functions. It should be by interviewing the staffs, using questionnaires to collect data, review of relevant documentation, compiling the data, making a written report, and making recommendations. The assessments above are for managers and employees get to know the impact the organization will have if they pursue the organizational goals in performance. For example, taking the case of Pauline, the management should provide training to employees regarding social matters and its implications to the organizations. Such also applies the case 5 wh ere the company should train employees on the use of office equipments and infrastructure. Question One (b). If the HR practitioners come to the attention to be lacking in strategic skills, the management should come up with incentives that will give such HR practitioners to strive to attain the set standards of the organization. One of the incentives that will give evidence in the effectiveness of the HR practitioners is the recognition and reward, and the compensation or promotion. In addition, the management should demonstrate evidence by offering training and development in the areas the practitioners lack in skills, and devising some plans of employee engagements in order to improve the sharing of skills amongst the workforce. This will also improve the work climate as conducive. The incentives will provide employees with the necessary skills that the organization requires, and for the organization competence. It enables them also to improve in their personal skills that will b e of advantage to them in wherever they purpose to pursue their dreams. A good example from the case studies involves the OZ international, whereby the company is under embroil in employee low morale. This is significant in demonstrating that the employees lack some strategic skills to propel the goals of the company. Therefore, the management should come up with training and development incentives, including coming with incentives such as rewards in recognitions of their efforts in performance. The management should also provide training to the employees concerning the several laws that they might violate if they take should actions like firing the old employees, which in any case will bring negative implications to the company. Question Two. Appraising and Managing Employee Performance This involves the systematic and periodic process in which the assessment takes place in each employee’s performance and efficiency. This is in relation to some pre-established organizationâ €™s goals and criteria. It may also involve the assessing such aspects as organization’s citizenship behavior, strengths and weaknesses, accomplishments, the possibility of future improvements among other aspects. Some of the methods that are in use in the collection of the data include the objective productions, judgmental evaluation

Arguments for and against Foreign Direct Investment In Developing Essay

Arguments for and against Foreign Direct Investment In Developing Countries - Essay Example According to the research findings it can therefore be said that foreign direct investment (FDI) is direct venture into business in a country by a company from another country. This can be either by buying a company in the intended country or by increasing operations of an open business in that country. In actual practice, FDI attraction may be  different in various countries. In this respect, technology, market access, growth, poverty reduction and the foreign direct investment outcomes of a country are extremely significant. Other aspects such as damages to the environment, regions and local capabilities are considered to be negative in a countries economy. For the last two decades, increased technological and liberalization advances have resulted into increased growth in the flow of FDI. This means that foreign direct investment gained in share of domestic investment and gross domestic product (GDP) in many countries. It is done for numerous reasons that involve taking advantage of low cost wages or for exceptional investment privileges like rewards to obtain a link that is tariff-free towards the countries markets or the regional market through the use of tax holidays granted to the company. Foreign direct investment is the submissiveness in security investments of various countries such that it comes in the form of securities and other investments being contrast with portfolio investments. The national accounts of a country, that relate to the equation of national income (Y=C+I+G+(X-M)) where I is investment plus foreign investment, The inflow minus outflow that amount to Net inflows of investment, is at least 10% or more of voting stash in an enterprise operating in an economy apart from that of the investor. It is the sum of other long-term capital, short-term capital and owners’ capital as frequently shown in the balance of payment. Transfer of technology & expertise, management involvement and joint venture are means used. The FDI may be both inward and outward, resulting in a net inflow that is positive or negative and "stock of foreign direct investment" that sums up the number for a given period. International factor investment is one example of FDI. Perspective FDI is the form of FDI that arises whenever a company ensures that its country-based income is duplicated using the similar stage chain in the hosting country by use of FDI. Podium FDI, and Vertical FDI that arises whenever a firm shifts upstream through FDI and downstream in various chain value through performing activities that adds value in a vertical fashion stage of a host country. The reduction in the international trade is attributed to the horizontal FDI as the most of them is usually move towards the host country while other two types generally act as a stimulus for it. Foreign direct investor gives out the power of voting of an enterprise within an economy by incorporating a wholly owned subsidiary / company anywhere, acquire shares in an associated enterprise, merger or acquire an unrelated enterprise, or participating in an equity joint venture with another financier or enterprise (Borensztein & De Gregorio, 2008). FDI incentives may take the following forms; Low individual income tax & corporation tax rates, tax holidays, preferential tariffs, which could be, a tax on a countries’ exports or imports inside and outside of a country, or a price schedule for services like as train service, buses route, and electricity usage, special economic zones(It involves a geographical region having economic and different laws that encourage the free-market. Export processing zones, bonded warehouses, â€Å"Maquiladoras† which is a Mexican name for manufacturing operations within a free trade zone(FTZ), where firms import material and equipment on a duty & tariff- free assembly basis, and manufacturing processing. After this, the assembled export are manufactured, and processed to give out finished products. In other situatio ns, raw materials are send to the origin country. Investment financial subsidies, soft loan or guarantees, free land or subsidies, relocation

Chinese Room Argument as a Response to the Behaviourist's Claim that Research Paper

Chinese Room Argument as a Response to the Behaviourist's Claim that Computers Can Think - Research Paper Example Consequently, the behaviorists extend this theory to the functioning of computers suggesting that computers can think if they are programmed in a certain way, in which the input/output behavior of a computer is connected to its mental status. However, the Chinese Room argument does not agree with the behaviorist’s claim, which illustrates that thinking is far from a mere production of an output from a given stimulus (Martin 175). Therefore, in support of the Chinese Room argument, I will argue that computers do not have mental states because they are incapable of thinking, thus, are not intelligent as a human. The Chinese Room argument is one of the examples that present premises to disagree with the notion that computers have a mental state. This argument uses an experiment involving a computer input, output activities of a programmed computer whereby a person who does not speak Chinese completely somehow manages to manipulate Chinese symbols and produce right responses (Mart in 178). In this argument, Searle points out a discussion about cognitive science and artificial intelligence. He argues that artificial intelligence is without any doubt artificial. Therefore, the big question here is, are computers intelligent? I agree with Searle’s argument that there is no true intelligence for computers. Unlike beings with mental state, computers do understand language, syntax they are just incapable of understanding (semantics) and emotion. This is because these activities require consciousness lacking in computers. In addition, for computers to be intelligent it would mean that they have beliefs and other mental states like fear, and hope among other emotions. However, this is not true for computers and machines in general.  

Direct-sequence spread spectrum

Direct-sequence spread spectrum Direct-sequence spread spectrum Direct-sequence spread spectrum (DSSS) is a modulation technique used in telecommunications. In this modulation technique, as with other spread spectrum technologies, more bandwidth is occupied by the transmitted signal than the information signal that is being modulated. In Spread spectrum modulation technique the carrier signals occur over the full bandwidth (spectrum) of a devices transmitting frequency and that is where the name Spread Features of Direct-sequence spread spectrum Ø In DSSS a sine wave is pseudo randomly phase-modulated with a continuous string of pseudo noise (PN) code symbols called chips. Each of these chips has a much shorter duration than an information bit. In effect information signal is modulated by chips sequence which is much faster. Therefore, the chip rate is much higher than information signal bit rate. Ø In DSSS the chip sequences produced by the transmitter to modulate the signal is known at receiver end and receiver uses the same chip sequences to demodulate. As same sequence chips are used at transmitter and receiver, both have to be in sync with respect to chip sequence. Transmission method of Direct-sequence spread spectrum In Direct-sequence spread-spectrum transmissions the data being transmitted is multiplied by a noise signal. The noise signal used is a pseudorandom sequence of 1 and −1 values. Also the frequency of noise signal is much higher than that of the information signal. In effect we can say that the energy of original data is spread to a much higher bandwidth than the bandwidth of information signal. We can say that the resulting signal will look like white noise, like an audio recording of static. But this noise signal will be used to reconstruct the original data at the receiver end where it will be multiplied with pseudorandom sequence of 1 and −1 values which is exactly the same sequence which was used to modulate the data signal. As 1 Ãâ€" 1 = 1, and −1 Ãâ€" −1 = 1 so multiplying two times the data signal with pseudo random sequence will restore the original signal. The process of multiplying the signal at receiving end with same chip sequence used at transmitter end is known as de-spreading. In De-spreading a mathematical correlation of the transmitted PN sequence with the PN sequence at receiver is constituted. As it would have been clear by now that to reconstruct data at receiver end, transmit and receive sequences must be synchronized. It is done via some timing search process. This requirement of synchronization of transmitter and receiver can be considered as drawback. But this drawback gives a significant benefit also. If we synchronize sequences of various transmitters, the relative synchronization which we will do for receiver can be used to determine relative timing. This relative timing can be used to determine receivers position if transmitters position is known. This is used in many satellite navigation systems. Process gain is effect of enhancing signal to noise ratio on the channel. The process gain can be increased by using a longer PN sequence and more chips per bit. But there is a constraint here that physical devices which are used to generate the PN sequence have practical limits on attainable processing gain. If a transmitter transmits a signal with a PN sequence the de-spreading process give a process gain if we demodulate it with same PN sequence. It does not provide any process gain for the signals transmitted by other transmitters on the same channel but with a different PN sequence or no sequence. This is the basis of for the code division multiple access (CDMA) property of Direct-sequence spread spectrum. This property allows multiple transmitters to share the same channel. But this is limited by cross-correlation properties of PN sequences. We can consider the transmitted signal will be roughly a bell shaped enveloped centered on the carrier frequency (same as in AM transmission) but the noise which we add causes the distribution to be wider. As this description suggests, a plot of the transmitted waveform has a roughly bell-shaped envelope centered on the carrier frequency, just like a normal AM transmission, except that the added noise causes the distribution to be much wider than that of an AM transmission. If we compare frequency-hopping spread spectrum with Direct-sequence spread spectrum then we will find that frequency-hopping spread spectrum pseudo-randomly re-tunes the carrier, instead of adding pseudo-random noise to the data. This retuning of carrier results in a uniform frequency distribution whose width will be determined by the output range of the pseudo-random number generator. Benefits of Direct-sequence spread spectrum Jamming resistance for intended or unintended jamming. A single channel is shared among multiple users. Interception is hampered due to reduced signal/background-noise level. Relative timing between transmitter and receiver is determined. Uses of Direct-sequence spread spectrum Used by European Galileo satellite navigation systems and The United States GPS systems DS-CDMA (Direct-Sequence Code Division Multiple Access) is a multiple access scheme based on Direct-sequence spread spectrum, by spreading the signals from/to different users with different codes. It is the most widely used type of CDMA. Used in Cordless phones operating in the 900 MHz, 2.4 GHz and 5.8 GHz bands Used in IEEE 802.11b 2.4 GHz Wi-Fi, and its predecessor 802.11-1999. (Their successor 802.11g uses OFDM instead) Used in Automatic meter reading Used in IEEE 802.15.4 (PHY and MAC layer for ZigBee)

Drug Abuse Among Teens :: Drug Abuse, Substance Abuse

Introduction Drugs abuse is serious problem in the United States, especially among teenagers. According to National Drug Intelligence Center (2003) 7.5 million American adolescents aged 12 to 17 used drugs at least once during their lifetime. Teens start to experiment with drugs from a young age and do not think about drugs’ negative consequences. Butler (2010) claims that drug addiction will lead to problems at university or school and loss of alertness, which can cause to injury. Also it will affect mood, change system of values and lead to depression. As a result, teenagers who use drugs have a risk for suicide. Nowadays, they abuse both legal and illegal drugs. Also drug accessibility is one of the causes of adolescent abuse. The majority of teenagers aged 12-17 get it easily from friends or relatives. (Office of National Drug Control Policy 2007). Moreover there are other possible factors, such as pressure from friends, low self-appraisal, stress, relationships with parents. This essa y will look at drug abusing problem among teenagers in the United States and analyse in detail possible reasons and solutions for drug addiction. Background Teenagers abuse a variety of drugs. Any of them both legal and illegal can have immediate or long term health consequences. As reported by NIDA in 2003 year 40.2 percent of high school students had used marijuana. Majuana is the illegal narcotic. Youths who used it before 17-years-olds indicated smaller brain and they are smaller in height and weight than teens who used marijuana after age 17. In addition, marijuana adversely affect on memory, distorts the perception of sound, time, touch for short term. American teens use inhalant as well. Adolescent find it in spray paint, glue and shoe polish. TeenDrugAbuse.us states, that regular use of inhalants can result in heart disease, liver and kidney damages. Also the most common drugs among youth in United States are ecstasy, cocaine, crack, speed and heroin. Legal drugs such as prescribed medications and alcohol is popular today. Moreover, according to the Office of National Drug Control Policy in 2005 year 2.1 million teenagers abus ed prescription drugs and these drugs are the most common among 12-13-years-olds. Also American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry claim that drug use is increased risk poor judgment which may lead to accidents, violence, suicide and unplanned, unsafe sex, which may cause HIV. Factors That Influence Teenagers to Drug Abuse Firstly, home and family are major factor.