Proposal Assignment Essays - Ancient Greek Philosophy, Philosophy

Proposal Assignment Plato's theory against democracy is explained in Richard D. Parry's, "The Craft of Ruling in Plato's Euthydemus and Republic." Plato's theory against democracy is based on "craft". Plato doesn't believe that the general public should matter in making decisions, he believes that no matter which craft we do, it is the opinion of the experts in such craft that matter. On the topic of democracy, politics is a craft therefore not everyone can be a leader, you need experience and certain traits that qualify you to be a successful leader. However, Plato's theory is that "an expert with the skill of ruling will not be elected because citizens tend to vote for the most popular candidate" (Class Notes). When he mentions the most popular candidate, he is referring to a candidate that has good personal skills, says what people want to hear, true knowledge of the economy, etc. Parry states in his article that "craft analogy implies that craft is an instrumental good, not good in itself. Since Soc rates holds that virtue is good in itself, his account of virtue - in this case wisdom - in terms of craft is inconsistent" (2). This is basically explaining that Socrates had his virtue is good and that he had good wisdom but that his performance in his craft was inconsistent. The source I used to explain craft analogy is credible because it is an academic journal that was written by an author who received his Ph.D. and is a professor who's teaching and scholarly interests included the history of ancient Greek philosophy, philosophy of Plato, philosophy of Aristotle, medieval philosophy, and contemporary analytic philosophy. It is relevant to my proposal because it explain Plato's craft of ruling in depth. To object to Plato's theory, Dr. Kazuya Fukuoka explains why democracy works in his article "What Makes Democracy Work?". This is a credible source because it is written by a professor who received his Ph.D. and teaches "Introduction to Comparative Politics" at Saint Joseph's University. This helps my proposal because it is explaining why Democracy works which goes against Plato's theory of "craft ruling". He explains that democracy "is a system of government implemented with the intent that no one branch or department of government can ever gain too much power. There are limitations of power placed on each part of the government, thus forcing each department to work together, ensuring that the best interest of the people is maintained". This goes against Plato because Plato wants experts to make decisions and not the best interest of the people. He also states that "Democracy is also institutionalized through the voting process. Democracies are denoted by having free and fair electi ons (Linz and Stepan 1996, 15). This means that the voting process is for the most part untainted. Those running for offices are to run clean campaigns. No one person should have a monopoly of the media during their campaign. Each person should have the same ability to get there name and beliefs out there for the public to know". This also helps me go against Plato because this is the complete opposite of what Plato believed in and despised the idea of everybody having the same ability of becoming a leader. This can help me write my paper because it gives me an idea of why democracy works. It educates me on the functionality of democracy and how it works. So when comparing this to Plato's idea to democracy, it is very useful. These ideas presented in this article are all facts and don't involve any opinion to them so it is a credible source to use.

Austria 17Th & 18Th Centuries Essays - Knights Of The Golden Fleece

Austria 17Th & 18Th Centuries Essays - Knights Of The Golden Fleece Austria 17Th & 18Th Centuries Austria Keith Henriques History 21 August 22, 1999 In my paper I will examine the absolute monarchy of Austria during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. I shall focus on the on the power of Austria, its foundation, preservation, and expansion. Lastly I will take into consideration the relationship between the classes, the growth of the power of state institutions, and some of the consequential figures in the evolution of absolute monarchy in Austria. The foundation of absolutism was the theory of the divine right of kings. This theory maintained that the monarch was God's representative on earth. In reality absolutism was a closer working relationship with the nobles in order to maintain control. Ensuring the power of the nobles meant solidifying his authority. The bureaucracy began to reorganize, making it more effective on the local level. Local and national government began to meet on a regular basis. This was done by dividing the monarchy into ten units, then dividing it further into ten subdistricts. Kreishauptmann were the administrative heads of each district, appointed by the King to work at the local level. All this helped to extend the monarch's power to the far reaches of the domain. To the people this basically meant that not only was the king a supreme ruler but he could emphasize his will with armies of unmatched size giving the idea of absolutism an illustration and an authenticity never seen before. With this need for a standing army came the need for new funds. These new funds gave way to a new system of tax collection. Throughout history the war and taxes have gone hand in hand. The goal of every monarch was to have independent power and only economic independence could make that possible. Maria Teresa (r. 1740-1780) won approval of the realm to administer property tax on all subjects. These new funds were used to reform and build up Austria's depleted military. She expanded military academies, increased the size of her standing army, and even created a Hungarian army. The very nature of absolute monarchies created the need for state religion. If the people were to believe God had appointed the king, they better all believe in the same god. One of the few successes of the Counter Reformation was that all of Austria's nobility was converted back to Catholicism. Finally religious predominance could be used for the creation of an Austrian state. Then later on in Austrian history you'll see that the state even goes as far as to begin taxing the church. During Maria Theresa's reign the church was no longer exempt from taxation. The government then began to issue regulations to the amount men and women to enter in monastic institutes. This was a ploy by the government to tap into the wealth of the nobility. No longer could the nobles hide their money under the shroud of the church. Then under Joseph the II (r. 1780-1790) all non-productive religious institutions were closed. All together there were 700 monastic orders closed, leaving only the charitable, nursing, and educational institutions continuing to function. This freed up church funds for philanthropic endeavors. Priests then became state employees. While across the Atlantic they were trying to separate church and state, Austria was making the bond even stronger. Another way that the absolutist monarchs of Austria maintained their power was the creation of a court at Vienna. Beginning with Leopold I (r. 1658-1705), there was a promotion of the court as the center of political and social life. This turned Vienna into a city not only for the nobles but for businessmen as well. Leopold, unlike the Hapsburg rulers before him, was not a great ruler. He was a deeply religious man with no interest in the grandiosity of the great European Kings before him. He himself was a composer and his benefaction was a main reason for Vienna becoming the great musical center that it was renowned for. Leopold had plans for a grand palace, Schonbrunn, which was to surpass Versailles. These all contributed to the centralization of the government. The King finally could seek counsel of entrusted nobles and yet keep a watchful eye on those that would do him harm. Early on during Leopold's rule

128 Words with Senses That Started Out as Underworld Slang

128 Words with Senses That Started Out as Underworld Slang 128 Words with Senses That Started Out as Underworld Slang 128 Words with Senses That Started Out as Underworld Slang By Mark Nichol The slang senses of many words we use in conversation and in informal writing originated in jargon employed by criminals, often coined to disguise the activities they were describing when they spoke among one another. This post lists and defines a number of those words. action: bet, or betting, or criminal activity aggro: aggressive behavior angle: approach, or plan bananas: crazy (originally, â€Å"sexually perverted†) beat: escape, avoid beef: quarrel blow: leave boob: stupid person boost: steal bought: bribed break it up: stop argument or fight broad: woman buddy: man (as in addressing a person the speaker does not know) bum’s rush: act of being forcibly removed bump/bump off: kill bunk: nonsense buy: bribe case: check the site of a potential robbery chisel: cheat clam up: stop talking, or refuse to talk, to avoid giving information con: scheme to trick someone into relinquishing money con man: person who steals through trickery cop/copper: police officer or private detective crew: group of rank-and-file criminals subordinate to a leader; by extension, a group of people with whom one associates crumb: worthless person; originally, a noncriminal deep-six: bury dive: low-quality establishment, such as a dark, dingy bar doll: attractive woman dope: drugs, or information dough: money dump: see dive Feds: federal law-enforcement personnel fence: trade stolen items, or one who does so finger: identify fix: situation in which law-enforcement personnel have been bribed to overlook criminal activity fruit: homosexual (derogatory) fuzz: police glom: steal (by extension, â€Å"grab†) go straight: cease criminal activity goofy: crazy (by extension, â€Å"silly†) goon: low-level criminal graft: see con grand: thousand (dollars) grease: see buy grill: interrogate grifter: see â€Å"con man† haywire: mentally unbalanced heat: attention from law-enforcement personnel, or a gun (by extension, â€Å"psychological pressure†) heel: an incompetent criminal (by extension, â€Å"a villain or someone who takes on a villainous persona or role,† as in professional wrestling) hit: planned murder (by extension, â€Å"an attack on someone’s reputation†) hood(lum): see goon horn: telephone hot: stolen hype: cheat by short-changing, or hypodermic needle jam: trouble, or a troublesome situation jaw: talk joe: coffee joint: place junkie: drug user keister: buttocks, or a safe kisser: mouth knock off: see bump/â€Å"bump off† knock over: rob large: see grand lay low: remain out of sight so as to avoid attention after committing a crime legit: pertaining to legal business activities lit: drunk loan shark: one who loans money at high rates of interest looker: see doll lug: stupid person (by extension, â€Å"clumsy person†- often used affectionately and jocularly) mark: person targeted to be a victim of criminal activity marker: IOU, note acknowledging a debt mitt: hand muscle: force, or intimidate, or someone who forces or intimidates mug: face nail: capture nick: steal nix: no, or say no to something on the carpet: situation in which a criminal is called on the carpet, or disciplined, by a leader (by extension, pertains to any similar event) on the lam: moving secretly to avoid arrest after committing a crime on the spot: targeted for assassination (by extension, pertaining to being held accountable for a failure or mistake) packing heat: armed with a gun patsy: person framed for a crime (by extension, â€Å"fool†) paw: hand piece: share of the proceeds from criminal activity (see action), or a gun pig: police officer pinch: arrest pop: see bump/â€Å"bump off† punk: see goon (originally, a submissive homosexual) put the screws on: see grill queer: counterfeit rap: criminal charge rat: give information about associates’ criminal activities to law-enforcement personnel, or someone who does so ringer: fake rub out: see bump/â€Å"bump off† rube: easy victim sap: stupid person score: succeed in obtaining stolen money or goods scram: see blow scratch: money sing: see rat (verb) skip out: leave without paying skirt: woman slug: punch, or knock unconscious, or a bullet snatch: kidnap sock: punch spill: see rat (verb), or talk (verb) square: honest stiff: corpse sting: see con (by extension, â€Å"a law-enforcement operation to prompt and observe criminal behavior†) stir: jail stir-crazy: mentally disturbed because of incarceration stool pigeon/stoolie: see rat (noun) straighten out: resolve a dispute string along: deceive sucker: see rube swag: stolen goods (by extension, â€Å"gifts offered to promote through publicity†) tag: designation (by extension, â€Å"graffiti signature†) tail: track a criminal’s activities, or a law-enforcement official who does so take: share of profits from criminal activity take a powder: leave take (someone) for a ride: see bump/â€Å"bump off† take the fall: be targeted for blame for a crime tighten the screws: pressure trap: see kisser two bits: twenty-five cents vendetta: vow of vengeance (by extension, â€Å"a passionate, sustained effort to avenge oneself or one’s family or group†) yap: see kisser Want to improve your English in five minutes a day? Get a subscription and start receiving our writing tips and exercises daily! Keep learning! Browse the Vocabulary category, check our popular posts, or choose a related post below:4 Types of Gerunds and Gerund PhrasesHow to Pronounce Mobile15 Idioms for Periods of Time

INTERPRETING FINANCIAL STATEMENTS Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

INTERPRETING FINANCIAL STATEMENTS - Essay Example (b) Chieftain has a large volume of cash balance which can be helpful for the company to pay off its current obligations easily. It improves the liquidity position of the company. However, it can be disadvantageous for the company too because idle cash would not earn any return for the company and would limit the company’s growth in future. (c) Chieftain has $4.6 million as accounts payable instead of having so much cash balance. It is so because the company might be finding difficulties to generate sufficient cash from its operations or might have higher inventory levels. (a) According to Kranhold (2007), the employees of General Electric (GE) were engaged in the practice of using improper accounting methods to record the revenues generated by the company during the years 2000 to 2003. (b) The possible reasons behind these activities being conducted by the employees of GE can be some personal incentives for the managers if they are able to generate higher revenues for the company. Another possibility can be that the employees might have been instructed by the top level managers of the company to conduct such activities so that it can mislead its investors by showing a better financial position of the organization. (d) Restating the financial results mean reviewing the previously published financial statements of the company to make adjustments for any kinds of errors that might be present in the disclosed financial information or may be due to some changes in accounting policies made by the company. GE did not restate its financial results in order to rectify its reported locomotive sales because the related changes were not that significant as compared to the total revenues generated by GE or the income generated by them. Restating the financial results would have resulted in only 0.2% change in its reported

Introduction to fiction Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words - 1

Introduction to fiction - Essay Example Whilst searching for symbolism in the story, I cam across a few points like, â€Å"It was large enough so that it didn’t seem fragile, or particularly vulnerable if anyone sideswiped the table or Mondo blundered into it during play. She asked her husband to please not drop his house key in it. It was meant to be empty† (207). This excerpt primarily describes the fact that her husband, Andrea’s, was someone was not part of the bowl theory and could not identify with the symbol. When mentioning that she had bought the bowl at a craft fair in secret with her lover, it further signifies that she has been looking for her lost love and continuing affairs with him through the bowl. She must have not acted quickly enough to seize the moment with her lover, hence the line, â€Å"Her lover had said that she was always too slow to know what she really loved† (209). Through this we get the impression that perhaps she was too obsessed with the bowl to continue on with her affair. At one point it is shared that she even â€Å"†¦dreamed of the bowl. Twice in a waking dream-early in the morning, between sleep and the last nap before rising-she had a clear vision of it† (208). The bowl represented her affair and eventually it would be the bowl that ends her marriage. When looking back on the story, it opens with â€Å"The bowl was perfect† (206). Andrea feels like she made a mistake not admitting her affair and starting a life with her lover; therefore she loves the bowl as if it were her ex-lover and obsesses over it because to her, it is all she has left of him. She explains her guilt in this manner, â€Å"Sometimes in the morning, she would look at him (her husband) and feel guilty that she had such a constant secret† (208). She is continuing her affair through the bowl and is still having feelings of guilt. This further signifies her inertia with her ex-lover and clings on to the bowl in memory

Brazil Economy Essay Example for Free

Brazil Economy Essay A New Contender in the Global Economy? Throughout the latest research, newspaper or political science journal articles Brazil has been termed â€Å"an upcoming global power† or â€Å"international player†. This being seen specifically in Brazils global economic position. Brazil is the largest national economy in Latin America, the worlds seventh largest economy at market exchange rates and the seventh largest purchasing power parity, according to the international Monetarty Fund and the world bank. Brazil has a mixed economy with abundant natural resources. Brazil is rapidly becoming a large contender in the Global economy partly due to being one of the 17 mega diverse countries in the world, home to a variety of wildlife, natural environment and extensive natural resources in a variety of protected habitats. O’Neil sees Brazil as a powerhouse â€Å"because of its economic strength, its hemispheric leadership and its growing strategic role through multilateral international forums† (O’Neil 2010). The economy of Brazil is the worlds seventh largest by nominal GDP. Brazils economy is the largest in Latin American nations and comes in second best in the western hemisphere. With an average annual GDP growth rate over over 5 percent, Brazil comes in as one of the fastest- growing major economies in the world. In Brazilian real’s, Its GDP was estimated at R$4. 403 trillion in 2013. The Brazilian economy is predicted to become one of the five largest economies in the world in the decades to come. This is due to many factors including brazils involvement in a number of diverse economic organizations such as the mercosur, Unasul, G8+5, G20, WTO and the Cairns group. Its trade partner’s number in the hundreds, with 60 percent of exports mostly of manufactures or semi manufactures goods. Brazils main trade partners in 2008 were: Mercosul and Latin America (25. 9 percent of trade), EU (23. 4 percent), Asia (18. 9 percent), the United States (14. 0 percent), and the others (17. 8 percent). â€Å"Brazils economy has yet again become an object of fascination and speculation for international investors, academics, pundits and policymakers in the United States and Europe. As a country replete with natural resources, endowed with a large internal market and home to dynamic and increasingly global corporations, Brazil has been famously anoints as a ‘BRIS’- thus identified along with Russia, India and China as one of the four very large, rapidly emerging economies that are key growth engines of the global economy. † (Brainard 2009) Brazil is the largest economy of Latin America and its trade with the EU accounts for 37% of the EUs total trade with the Latin American region (2011). As regards investments, Brazil holds 43% of the entire EU Investment stocks in Latin America. The EU is Brazils first trading partner, accounting for 21. 7% of its total trade (2010). During the last 5 years bilateral trade between the EU and Brazil has grown on average by 8. 4% per year, showing the dynamism and complementarity of our trade relationship. EU imports from Brazil are dominated by primary products, in particular agricultural products (41%) and fuels and mining products (31%). But manufactured products such as machinery, transport equipment and miscellaneous manufactured products are also important: they represent around one fourth of Brazilian exports to the EU. Brazil is the single biggest exporter of agricultural products to the EU. EUs exports to Brazil consist mainly of manufactured products, such as machinery, transport equipment and chemicals. In goods, the EU runs an overall trade deficit with Brazil but has a surplus in commercial services trade. The EU is the biggest foreign investor in Brazil with investments in many sectors of the Brazilian economy. Around 50% of the  FDI  flows received by Brazil during the last 5 years was originating from the EU. Dilma Vana Rousseff  Ã‚  born 14 December 1947) is a  Brazilian  politician  who has been the  President of Brazil  since 1 January 2011. She is the first woman to hold the office. In October 2010, Rousseff was included in the  Forbes  list of the most powerful people in the world, at the 16th position. Rousseff powerful leadership has continued to keep Brazil a strong contender in the global economy since her election in 2011. â€Å"And perhaps most impressive, she has maintained a remarkable approval rating even with a three percent drop in economic growth.† (Freeman, 2012) It can be seen that Petrobras discovery of the lula oil field in 2006 was the concrete set up for Brazils global economic uprise. The  Lula oil field  (formerly  Tupi oil field) is a large oil field located in the  Santos Basin, 250 kilometres off the coast of  Rio de Janeiro,Brazil The field was nicknamed in honor of the  Tupi people  and later named after former Brazilian p resident  Luiz Inacio da Silva. It is considered to be the  Western Hemispheres largest oil discovery of the last 30 years. â€Å"BRAZIL’S discovery of oodles of offshore oil in 2006 felt like a transformative moment. † (Paulo 2012) The Lula field was discovered in October 2006 by Petrobras, with the well flowing 4,900 barrels per day of sweet 30 degrees API crude oil, 0. 7 sulphur content and 4. 3  million cubic feet per day (120,000 cubic metres per day) of gas from a deep sub-salt reservoir on a  16  mm choke. The former president of Brazil,  Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva  called the field second independence for Brazil. The field was originally named Tupi but in 2010 it was renamed Lula. The name Lula means a mollusc in Portuguese but also refers to Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva. The upper estimate of 8  billion barrels (1. 3 billion cubic metres) of recoverable oil would be enough to meet the total global demand for crude oil for about three months at the 2008 global extraction rate of around 85 million barrels per day. In January 2008 Petrobras announced the discovery of the  Jupiter field, a huge  natural gas  andcondensate  field which could equal the Lula oil field in size. It lies 37 kilometres east of Lula. Block BM-S-11, which contains the Lula field, is operated by  Petrobras  with a 65% controlling stake while  BG Group  holds 25% and  Galp Energia  has the remaining 10% interest. According to Bear Stearns  estimates, the value of the oil in the block ranges from $25 billion to $60 billion. BM-S-11 also includes  Tupi Sul,  Iara  and  Iracema  fields. REFERENCE LIST Brainard, L, 2009. Brazil as an economic superpower. 1st ed. Washington DC: The Brookings institution. Medeiros, V, 2010. Interview: Jim ONeil. Interview: Jim ONeil, 62, 1-4. Roett, R, 2010. New Brazil.1st ed. Washington DC: The Brookings institution. Hay, D. A, 2001. The Post-1990 Brazilian Trade Liberalisation and the Performance of Large Manufacturing Firms. The Post-1990 Brazilian Trade Liberalisation and the Performance of Large Manufacturing Firms: Productivity, Market Share and Profits, 111, 620-641. Freeman, M, 2012. Brazil Pres. Dilma Rousseff a Model of Leadership U. S. Politicians Should Follow. Brazil Pres. Dilma Rousseff a Model of Leadership U. S. Politicians Should Follow, 1, 1. Paulo, S, 2012. Oil in Brazil. The perils of Petrobras, 1, 1.

Their Eyes Were Watching God :: essays research papers

From the time Janie was a child she had problems fitting in with her peers. This was partly because of her nice clothing, wonderful complexion, and long beautiful hair. Janie's grandmother encouraged her to be different from her peers. She wanted to make up for her past mistakes raising children by having Janie become the person that she never was able to be.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  During Janie's early childhood she plays with the grandchildren of Ms. Washburn. It isn't until Janie is six years old that she realizes that she is black and different from Ms. Washburn's grandchildren. When Janie starts to attend school she is treated differently. Her classmates do not give Janie a chance to be friendly instead they decide Janie considers herself better than they are. This attitude causes Janie to make no friends at school.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚     Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  When Janie is sixteen years old her grandmother marries her off to a potato farmer named Logan Killicks. Janie's grandmother feels that Janie needs to be married to a man that can take care of her so that she isn't wasted on someone who can not support her. The marriage to Logan does not work out for Janie. Logan sees her as a spoiled child who needs to learn to be a farm wife. Logan becomes one of the many people who do not give Janie a chance to be herself.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  During her marriage to Logan Janie meets Joe Starks and runs off with him. Janie desperately wants Joe to be the one person to understand her and love her. However, what Joe sees in Janie is that she has class and he wants to make her one of his possessions. Janie's marriage to Joe looks ideal to many of the townspeople but on the inside she is very unhappy and still yearning to be loved.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  When Joe dies many years later Janie meets a younger man named Tea Cake. She leaves the small town to Eatonville with him and they are married. It is with Tea Cake that Janie is finally happy. Living with him in the muck with the migrant workers Janie is able to discover her self, what she can do, and how fulfilling true love is.

Physical therapy intervention with a stroke patient Essay

The clinical manifestations of neurologic disease are as varied as the disease processes themselves. Symptoms can be subtle or intense, fluctuating or permanent, an inconvenience or devastating. First clinical manifestation is Pain, it is considered an unpleasant sensory perception and emotional experience associated with actual or potential tissue damage or described in terms of such damage. Pain is therefore considered multidimensional and entirely subjective. Seizures are the result of abnormal paroxysmal discharges in the cerebral cortex, which then manifest as an alteration in sensation, behavior, movement, perception, or consciousness. The alteration may be short, as in a blank stare lasting only a second, or of longer duration, such as tonic- clonic grand mal seizure that can last several minutes. Dizziness, an abnormal sensation of imbalance or movement. It is fairly common in the elderly and one of the most common complaints encountered by health professionals. Visual Disturbances, visual defects that cause people to seek health care can range from the decreased visual acuity associated with aging to sudden blindness. Weakness, specifically muscle weakness is a common manifestation of CVA. Weakness frequently co exists with other symptoms of disease and can affect a variety of muscles, causing a wide range of disability. Weakness can be sudden and permanent, a sin stroke, or progressive, as in many neuromuscular diseases. Abnormal sensation, numbness, abnormal sensation, or loss of sensation is a manifestation of cerebrovascular accident. Altered sensation can affect small or large areas of the body. It is frequently associated with weakness or pain and is potentially disabling. Both numbness and weakness can significantly affect balance and coordination.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Assessment of cortical motor integration is carried out by asking the patient to perform a skilled act like asking a patient to throw a ball, move a chair. Successful performance requires the ability to understand the activity desired and normal motor strength. Failure signals cerebral dysfunction. Examining the Motor System, a thorough examination of the motor system includes an assessment of the muscle size, tone and strength, coordination, and balance. The patient is instructed to walk across the room while the examiner observes posture and gait. The muscles are inspected, and palpated if necessary, for their size and symmetry. Resistance and Abnormalities are documented after. Assessing the patient’s ability to flex or extend the extremities against resistance test muscle strength. Once the leg is straightened, it is exceedingly difficult for the examiner to flex the knee. Conversely, if the knee of the patient is flexed and is asked to straighten the leg against resistance, a more subtle disability can be elicited. For example, the right upper extremity is compared to the left upper extremity. In this way, subtle differences in muscle strength can be more easily detected and accurately described. Coordination in the hands and upper extremities is tested by having the patient perform rapid, alternating movements and point-to-point testing. First the patient is instructed to pat his or her thigh as fast as possible with each hand separately. Then the patient is instructed to alternately pronate and supinate the hand as rapidly as possible. The n lastly, the patient is asked to touch each of the fingers with the thumb in a consecutive motion. Speed, symmetry, and degree of difficulty are noted. Coordination in the lower extremities is tested by having the patient run the heel down the anterior surface of the tibia of the other leg. Each leg is tested in turn. The motor reflexes are involuntary contractions of muscles or muscle groups in response to abrupt stretching near the site of the muscle’s insertion. The tendon is struck directly with a reflex hammer or indirectly by striking the examiner’s thumb, which is placed firmly against the tendon. Testing these reflexes enables the examiner to assess involuntary reflex arcs that depend on the presence of afferent stretch receptors, spinal synapses, efferent motor fibers, and a variety of modifying influences from higher levels. Common reflexes that maybe tested include the deep tendon reflexes like biceps, brachioradialis, triceps, patellar, and ankle reflexes and superficial or cutaneous reflexes like abdominal reflexes and plantar or Babinski response.    References: Brunner, K., Suddarith, L. (2003) Medical- Surgical Nursing.   J. G. Ferguson Publishing Company.

1950’s Nostalgia

1950s Nostalgia Real and Imagined Stephanie Coontz is a professor of Family History at the Evergreen State College in Olympia Washington. She is a nationally recognized expert on the family and an award winning writer. In her 1997 book â€Å"The Way We Really Are: Coming to Terms with America’s Changing Families†, Stephanie Coontz wrote an essay entitled â€Å"What We Really Miss about the 1950s†. In Stephanie Coontz’s â€Å"What We Really Miss about the 1950s†, she argues that we as a country collectively remember the 1950s with a nostalgic tone, but we are not remembering this era in its entirety, nor are we completely accurate.She explains that the family and economic life that we remember and long for does not represent the whole truth of that era by any means. Coontz keeps a semi-formal tone throughout this essay. She begins by acknowledging the nostalgia that America feels toward the 1950s era. She continues by reminding us that there are also things that we do not miss about that time period in America. She elaborates on several points that we do specifically miss about the 1950s, such as the nuclear focus of family life and the profound wage increases.Coontz talks about how in the 1950s, employers and the government did a lot to help families prosper, including offering housing and employment assistance, as well as offering the GI Bill to armed services veterans who wanted to go back to school. Booming economic prosperity and the downturn in the economy that occurred in the 1970s, these were, she states, the real reasons behind the end of the 1950s family experiment.People sometimes reminisce on the past with nostalgia, remembering the â€Å"Good Old Days† and how values and ethics have seemed to disappear. In the 1950’s, like in no other decade, people became homeowners; prosperity was plentiful and bad times were thought to be something of the past. Capitalism was working and it was working well, to hav e a better life than one’s parents was only matter of willingness. Clearly it is evident why â€Å"Americans chose the 1950’s than any other single decade as the best time for children to grow up. † (Coontz, 32).In the essay â€Å"What We really Miss About the 1950’s† Stephanie Coontz has made several observations that â€Å"The Golden Age† was not brought by a thriving free-market competition but by large government spending to provide jobs and benefits to millions of Americans that which resembled a socialistic nation. Coontz implies that Americans miss high taxes and large government spending, because of the prosperity they brought. â€Å"40 percent of young men were eligible for veteran’s benefits, and these benefits were far more extensive than those available to Vietnam-era vets. (Coontz, 42). Apart from these benefits people began to have high paying jobs, many provided by government programs. The government also made it easie r for Americans to finance a house by â€Å"creating two new national institutions to facilitate home loans, allowed veterans to put down payments as low as a dollar on a house, and offered tax breaks to people who bought homes†(Coontz,42,43). WWII brought the highest level of taxation the United States has ever experienced; â€Å"top earning Americans paid 87 percent of their income while corporate taxes were 52 percent† (Coontz, 42). hese rates were kept well thru the 1950’s. Coontz argues that this extra revenue made it possible for many veterans to go to college almost tuition-free, doubling the percentage of college students from prewar levels. Throughout the 20th Century, families have radically changed. After WWI, a large transitional phase began and all the women that worked to support the war effort now had their jobs stripped from them. During the 1950's, there was a lifestyle in America that was essentially set in stone from birth. Television portraye d an image that women were to stay to home with the children.Shows such as, Leave it to Beaver, and Father Knows Best displayed a stereotypical way of life and structure in a family. â€Å"The sitcoms were simultaneously advertisements, etiquette manuals, and how-to lessons for a new way of organizing marriage and child rising† (Coontz, 39). Although television shows of the 1950's were not true reality, it seemed to be a good model at the time. Family life in the 50's era differs greatly from today's family unit. Children of that generation didn't have many choices when they were growing up. They typically followed the â€Å"blueprint† presented to them by their family and societal norms.Boys and girls went to school together throughout their youth, and upon completion, they would typically follow in their families’ footsteps. They were mainly interested in marriage. Starting a â€Å"functional† family was considered successful. An idle family to them was not only getting along, but focused also on appearance. Like the show Leave it to Beaver where the mother is â€Å"decked out in earrings and a pearl necklace. † (Soto, 29). The children and father also had to look prim and proper with their hair neatly combed and their clothes ironed.Women would stay at home caring for the children and household duties, while men would go to work and insure the family’s financial stability. The father would have full demeanor of the family and women were not expected to work outside. The issue that the â€Å"perfect† family is present in an important part of the advertisement, represent the idea that the people still want to live in that way, because the reality as Gary Soto show us is very different and difficult, and in the other hand as Coontz explain the ideal of this perfect family represented in the 50s generate more nostalgic and desire of any other idea if family lived in other decade.The perfect family is different of the real family in that the perfect family live in a scenario in which are no major problems with a very structured routine as Gary Soto explain, living a life which is not affected by external variables, and the real family in the other hand has different nuances in which are observed everyday problems and where it has be to solved, besides being a participant in a number of variables that affect daily living.There is a trend to idealize the past as Coontz says, being idealized the decade of the 50s by the presence of this perfect family, however, this perfect family hide problems as serious as sexism, racism and intolerance among others, being exposed that the existence of the perfect family is nothing more than a myth. At present, the perfect family is idealized because it offers a utopian alternative in which people can live better, although there is evidence that even in the best case in the pursuit of the perfect family are presented important collateral effects in other topi cs.The publicity that is currently being developed provides recurring images of the perfect family, showing that the idealization of the perfect family and the aspirational sense that it represents remains as a constant in the advertising in time as an effort to associate products with the perfect family because it is an important driver of purchase. Stephanie Coontz mention a show called Leave it to Beaver. They watched them to see how families were suppose to live – and also to get a little reassurance that they were headed in the right direction† (Coontz 39). This image led to the most common dream myths about America that, most people seem to be in agreements is that everyone can achieve the dream, everyone has equal playing field to obtain the dream, and the American dream is obtainable no matter what race the person is. This is not the case once here; many people soon find this out in their race for happiness.

E.B. White on Writing

E.B. White on Writing Meet essayist E.B. White- and consider the advice he has to offer on writing and the writing process. Andy, as he was known to friends and family, spent the last 50 years of his life in an old white farmhouse overlooking the sea in North Brooklin, Maine. Thats where he wrote most of his best-known essays, three childrens books, and a best-selling style guide. Introduction to E.B. White A generation has grown up since E.B. White died in that farmhouse in 1985, and yet his sly, self-deprecating voice speaks more forcefully than ever. In recent years, Stuart Little has been turned into a franchise by Sony Pictures, and in 2006 a second film adaptation of Charlottes Web was released. More significantly, Whites novel about some pig and a spider who was a true friend and a good writer has sold more than 50 million copies over the past half-century. Yet unlike the authors of most childrens books, E.B. White is not a writer to be discarded once we slip out of childhood. The best of his casually eloquent essays- which first appeared in Harpers, The New Yorker, and The Atlantic in the 1930s, 40s, and 50s- have been reprinted in Essays of E.B. White (Harper Perennial, 1999). In Death of a Pig, for instance, we can enjoy the adult version of the tale that was eventually shaped into Charlottes Web. In Once More to the Lake, White transformed the hoariest of essay topics- How I Spent My Summer Vacation- into a startling meditation on mortality.   For readers with ambitions to improve their own writing, White provided The Elements of Style (Penguin, 2005)- a lively revision of the modest guide first composed in 1918 by Cornell University professor William Strunk, Jr. It appears in our short list of essential Reference Works for Writers. White was awarded the Gold Medal for Essays and Criticism of the American Academy of Arts and Letters, the Laura Ingalls Wilder Award, the National Medal for Literature, and the Presidential Medal of Freedom. In 1973 he was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Letters. E.B. Whites Advice to a Young Writer What do you do when youre 17 years old, baffled by life, and certain only of your dream to become a professional writer? If you had been Miss R 35 years ago, you would have composed a letter to your favorite author, seeking his advice. And 35 years ago, you would have received this reply from E. B. White: Dear Miss R:At seventeen, the future is apt to seem formidable, even depressing. You should see the pages of my journal circa 1916.You asked me about writing- how I did it. There is no trick to it. If you like to write and want to write, you write, no matter where you are or what else you are doing or whether anyone pays any heed. I must have written half a million words (mostly in my journal) before I had anything published, save for a couple of short items in St. Nicholas. If you want to write about feelings, about the end of summer, about growing, write about it. A great deal of writing is not plotted- most of my essays have no plot structure, they are a ramble in the woods, or a ramble in the basement of my mind. You ask, Who cares? Everybody cares. You say, Its been written before. Everything has been written before. I went to college but not direct from high school; there was an interval of six or eight months. Sometimes it works out well to take a short vacation from the academic world- I have a grandson who took a year off and got a job in Aspen, Colorado. After a year of skiing and working, he is now settled into Colby College as a freshman. But I cant advise you, or wont advise you, on any such decision. If you have a counselor at school, Id seek the counselors advice. In college (Cornell), I got on the daily newspaper and ended up as editor of it. It enabled me to do a lot of writing and gave me a good journalistic experience. You are right that a persons real duty in life is to save his dream, but dont worry about it and dont let them scare you. Henry Thoreau, who wrote Walden, said, I learned this at least by my experiment: that if one advances confidently in the direction of his dreams, and endeavors to live the life which he has imagined, he will meet with a success unexpected in common hours. The sentence, after more than a hundred years, is still alive. So, advance confidently. And when you write something, send it (neatly typed) to a magazine or a publishing house. Not all magazines read unsolicited contributions, but some do. The New Yorker is always looking for new talent. Write a short piece for them, send it to The Editor. Thats what I did forty-some years ago. Good luck.Sincerely,E. B. White Whether youre a young writer like Miss R or an older one, Whites counsel still holds. Advance confidently, and good luck. E.B. White on a Writers Responsibility In an interview for The Paris Review in 1969, White was asked to express his views about the writers commitment to politics, international affairs. His response: A writer should concern himself with whatever absorbs his fancy, stirs his heart, and unlimbers his typewriter. I feel no obligation to deal with politics. I do feel a responsibility to society because of going into print: a writer has the duty to be good, not lousy; true, not false; lively, not dull; accurate, not full of error. He should tend to lift people up, not lower them down. Writers do not merely reflect and interpret life, they inform and shape life. E.B. White on Writing for the Average Reader In an essay titled Calculating Machine, White wrote disparagingly about the Reading-Ease Calculator, a device that presumed to measure the readability of an individuals writing style. There is, of course, no such thing as reading ease of written matter. There is the ease with which matter can be read, but that is a condition of the reader, not of the matter. There is no average reader, and to reach down toward this mythical character is to deny that each of us is on the way up, is ascending. It is my belief that no writer can improve his work until he discards the dulcet notion that the reader is feebleminded, for writing is an act of faith, not of grammar. Ascent is at the heart of the matter. A country whose writers are following the calculating machine downstairs is not ascending- if you will pardon the expression- and a writer who questions the capacity of the person at the other end of the line is not a writer at all, merely a schemer. The movies long ago decided that a wider communication could be achieved by a deliberate descent to a lower level, and they walked proudly down until they reached the cellar. Now they are groping for the light switch, hoping to find the way out. E.B. White on Writing With Style In the final chapter of The Elements of Style (Allyn Bacon, 1999), White presented 21 suggestions and cautionary hints to help writers develop an effective style. He prefaced those hints with this warning: Young writers often suppose that style is a garnish for the meat of prose, a sauce by which a dull dish is made palatable. Style has no such separate entity; is nondetachable, unfilterable. The beginner should approach style warily, realizing that it is himself he is approaching, no other; and he should begin by turning resolutely away from all devices that are popularly believed to indicate style- all mannerisms, tricks, adornments. The approach to style is by way of plainness, simplicity, orderliness, sincerity. Writing is, for most, laborious and slow. The mind travels faster than the pen; consequently, writing becomes a question of learning to make occasional wing shots, bringing down the bird of thought as it flashes by. A writer is a gunner, sometimes waiting in his blind for something to come in, sometimes roaming the countryside hoping to scare something up. Like other gunners, he must cultivate patience; he may have to work many covers to bring down one partridge. Youll notice that while advocating a plain and simple style, White conveyed his thoughts through artful metaphors. E.B. White on Grammar Despite the prescriptive tone of The Elements of Style, Whites own applications of grammar and syntax were primarily intuitive, as he once explained in The New Yorker: Usage seems to us peculiarly a matter of ear. Everyone has his own prejudices, his own set of rules, his own list of horribles. The English language is always sticking a foot out to trip a man. Every week we get thrown, writing merrily along. English usage is sometimes more than mere taste, judgment, and education- sometimes its sheer luck, like getting across a street. E.B. White on Not Writing In a book review titled Writers at Work, White described his own writing habits- or rather, his habit of putting off writing. The thought of writing hangs over our mind like an ugly cloud, making us apprehensive and depressed, as before a summer storm, so that we begin the day by subsiding after breakfast, or by going away, often to seedy and inconclusive destinations: the nearest zoo, or a branch post office to buy a few stamped envelopes. Our professional life has been a long shameless exercise in avoidance. Our home is designed for the maximum of interruption, our office is the place where we never are. Yet the record is there. Not even lying down and closing the blinds stops us from writing; not even our family, and our preoccupation with same, stops us.

How Nail Polish Works and What Its Made Of

How Nail Polish Works and What It's Made Of Nail polish is a type of lacquer thats used to decorate fingernails and toenails. Because it has to be strong, flexible and resist chipping and peeling, nail polish contains a number of chemicals. Heres a look at the chemical composition of nail polish and the function of each of the ingredients. Chemical Composition of Nail Polish Basic clear nail polish can be made from nitrocellulose dissolved in butyl acetate or ethyl acetate. The nitrocellulose forms a shiny film as the acetate solvent evaporates. However, most polishes contain an extensive list of ingredients. Solvents Solvents are liquids used to mix other ingredients in nail polish to yield a uniform product. Usually, the first ingredient(s) in nail polish are solvents. Once you apply the polish, the solvents evaporate away. The amount and type of solvent determine how thick a polish is and how long it will take to dry. Examples of solvents include ethyl acetate, butyl acetate,  and alcohol. Toluene, xylene,  and formalin or formaldehyde are toxic chemicals that were once common in nail polish but are rarely found now or found only in low concentrations. Film Formers Film formers are chemicals that form the smooth surface on a coat of nail polish. The most common film former is nitrocellulose. Resins Resins make the film adhere to the nail bed. Resins are ingredients that add depth, gloss,  and hardness to the film of nail polish. An example of a polymer used as a resin in nail polish is tosylamide-formaldehyde resin. Plasticizers While resins and film formers give polish strength and gloss, they produce a brittle lacquer. Plasticizers are chemicals that help keep polish flexible and reduce the chance that it will crack or chip, which they do by linking to polymer chains and increasing the distance between them. Camphor is a common plasticizer. Pigments Pigments are chemicals that add color to nail polish. An astonishing variety of chemicals may be used as nail polish pigments. Common pigments include iron oxides and other colorants, such as youd find in paint or varnish. Pearls Nail polish that has a shimmery or glittery effect may contain pearlescent minerals, such as titanium dioxide or ground mica. Some polishes may contain bits of plastic glitter or other additives that produce a special effect.   Additional Ingredients Nail polishes may contain thickening agents, such as stearalkonium hectorite, to keep the other ingredients from separating and to make the polish easier to apply. Some polishes contain ultraviolet filters, such as benozophenone-1, which help prevent discoloration when the polish is exposed to sunlight or other forms of ultraviolet light.

Strategic Financial Management Master Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3500 words

Strategic Financial Management Master - Essay Example Another school of thought believes that dividends are adverse for the average shareholder as they attract taxes and cause fiscal disadvantages. Last but not the least the third group lauds large dividends as positive signal to shareholders that all is well. So where does the modern shareholder satisfaction stand in relation to dividend policies This is the main issue which I will review in my paper below. This question relates to a consideration of the corporate dividend policy as to whether shareholders should be paid sufficient dividends or whether or not they are making sizeable profits on the stock market. Over the last half century academics have spoken in great depth over this issue and suggested conflicting theoretical frameworks to explain their points of view.(Frankfurter 2002).The problem is that these assertions often lack empirical depth to the criticism and stumble upon self contradictions in an attempt to explain corporate dividend behaviour.(Frankfurter 2002).Today academic opinion is divided as to whether dividends are attractive to shareholders and will have a positive impact in stock prices.(Frankfurter 2002 )Another school of thought contends that prices are negatively correlated with dividend payout levels.(Frankfurter 2002).The third view is that firm dividend policy is irrelevant in stock price valuation. (Frankfurter 2002).My paper will discuss and try to recon cile all these views towards a better theory and understanding of this issue. These views are best summed up as being based upon, the tax effect ( Litzenberger and Ramaswamy (1980),)Clientele effects explanations (Elton and Gruber, 1970), Agency theory explanations(Easterbrook 1984), Signalling models(John and Williams (1985), and psychological/sociological explanations (Frankfurter and Lane 1992). Frankfurter and Wood (2002) have even gone ahead to suggest that none of the dividend theories are unequivocally verified. Academics and theorists like (Adam Smith 1937) have recognised that there will always be agency costs related to taking care of shareholder priorities and controlling unruly management staff.(Corporate Governance issues). 2- Definitions and views from academics Dividend policy has a large bearing on agency costs and many academics have recognised this (Fama and Fama) but their belief that payments of large dividends would potentially compensate for the shareholders are often ignored during decision making in a company according to John and Kalay 1982 "Debt covenants to minimize dividend payments are necessary to prevent bondholder wealth transfers to shareholders .Although potentially substantial in precipitation of agency costs, its dividend policy is not a major source of bondholder wealth expropriation. In firms where dividend payouts are limited by bondholder covenants, dividend payout levels are still below the maximum level allowed by the constraints" (Frankfurter