Idealism and Realism Essay - 1792 Words

â€Å"In the place where idealism and realism meet, that is where there is the greatest evolutionary tension.† Idealism prioritizes ideals, social reforms and morals, by wanting to benefit not just yourself, but the world around you, believing people are generally good. On the contrary, realism gives priority to national interest and security with emphasis on promoting one’s own power and influence by assuming that people are egocentric by nature. Based on the definitions stated above, idealism and realism are significantly different from each other and their divergence of thought is more apparent when various proponents of each such as Woodrow Wilson, Henry Lodge, Barack Obama and George W. Bush have varied outlooks on comparable issues in†¦show more content†¦His idea of the League of Nations was significant because he believed if various countries worked together, there were fewer chances of violent conflicts such as wars. However, Wilson’s goals we re long term, but for the most part he did not present a clear way to achieve those goals. Tragically, his Fourteen Points were not accepted by Congress. Congress did not pass the proposal to join the League of Nations because Wilson had not included Congress in the negotiations. More importantly, the US did not join the League of Nations because the Senate was strictly against it, since they were more realists than idealists in the Senate and most people did not agree with Wilson’s ideas. Ultimately, Wilson did come up with the idea of the League of Nations, but the US never joined, which some say contributed to its’ failure. The biggest opposition to the US joining the League of Nations came from Senator Henry Cabot Lodge. His being a realist was very opposing to many of Wilson’s idealist concepts, which is why he was out front against the League of Nations. In particular, Lodge believed involvement in the League would compromise US sovereignty by necessitating the US to take part in international conflicts while it was not in the national interest of the US to do so. In addition, he also believed that being a part of the League of Nations would threaten the political freedom because the United States would be constricted byShow MoreRelatedIdealism, Realism, And Marxism1559 Words   |  7 PagesWhat do the theories we have looked at to this point (idealism, realism, Marxism) tell us about the prospects, and necessary conditions, for cooperation in international politics? International politics have been in our nation since the beginning of time. Nations have tried to work together and international politics have given many tries a cooperation. In today’s world conflict is always occurring. Many different world issues pop up every single day. Through looking at international relations andRead MoreRealism and Idealism for the Godfather1166 Words   |  5 PagesRealism and Idealism for the Godfather I will never forget what I felt when I first seen my first mobster movie, I was about 12 years old, it was real late at night and I just could not fall asleep. I was flipping the channels looking for something to watch, and that is when I encountered my first mobster movie. I was intrigued from beginning to end; it was like nothing I had ever seen before. The way they talked so confident and cool to the way they looked so sharp and sophisticated. AlthoughRead MoreDifferences Between Idealism and Realism3232 Words   |  13 Pagesled emergence of idealism and realism as two major traditional philosophical schools of thought in the realm of philosophy. So this paper projects the meaning of idealism and meaning of realism then discusses in detail the basic assumptions of idealism and those of realism and how these two traditional schools of thought differ and their implications within the educational setting. Meaning of idealism Idealism is one of the traditional philosophical schools of thought, idealism as describe by IshumiRead More Realism and Idealism for the Godfather Essay1173 Words   |  5 Pages Realism and Idealism for the Godfather I will never forget what I felt when I first seen my first mobster movie, I was about 12 years old, it was real late at night and I just could not fall asleep. I was flipping the channels looking for something to watch, and that is when I encountered my first mobster movie. I was intrigued from beginning to end; it was like nothing I had ever seen before. The way they talked so confident and cool to the way they looked so sharp and sophisticated. AlthoughRead MoreDifferences Between Idealism and Realism3232 Words   |  13 Pagesled emergence of idealism and realism as two major traditional philosophical schools of thought in the realm of philosophy. So this paper projects the meaning of idealism and meaning of realism then discusses in detail the basic assumptions of idealism and those of realism and how these two traditional schools of thought differ and their implications within the educational setting. Meaning of idealism Idealism is one of the traditional philosophical schools of thought, idealism as describe by IshumiRead MoreIdealism and Realism in International Relations Essay1318 Words   |  6 Pagesdiplomacy, international law, international finance, etc. Within this field of study, idealism and realism are two main theories. The two rivaling theories have been on a great debate, or discussion, since the emergence of international relations. From interpretation to decision-making, they are on distinctive stand from each other. On one hand, idealism focus on what ‘should’ be rather than the reality, while realism focus on what ‘is’ rather than the ideal outcome. In this essay, I will discuss aboutRead MoreMachiavelli: Realism over Idealism Essay1084 Words   |  5 PagesLuke Pelagio Due 5/27/2011 Period 4 Machiavelli: Realism Over Idealism Nicolo Machiavelli is known as being an archetypical realist; in other words, he was someone who originated the idea that we should not try to figure out how people should be, but rather accept and deal with the world as it literally is. Unlike Machiavelli, Plato posited an idealist view of a philosopher king reigning through virtue. To Machiavelli, this is an extremely dangerous delusion for it ignores what he considersRead MoreExploring the Differences Between Idealism and Representative Realism695 Words   |  3 Pagesthe Differences Between Idealism and Representative Realism The two differences between idealism and representative realism are, realists believe that objects properties such as smell and taste exist in the object but representative realists disagree and believe that these need to perceive to exist. The second difference between idealism and representative realism is for idealists things only exist when perceived, whereas representative realism means things exist ifRead More Idealism and Realism in Bernard Shaw’s Major Barbara Essay1280 Words   |  6 PagesIdealism and Realism in Bernard Shaw’s Major Barbara Submerged in their own ideas about idealism and realism, Barbara and her father Undershaft are at odds with one another in Major Barbara. In this Bernard Shaw play, minor characters are important in exemplifying these conflicting values. The moral perplexities of capitalism and charity are explored through the words and actions of Undershaft’s family, his future sons-in-law, and the common folks at the Shelter. ThrivingRead MoreHow Does Realism And Idealism Affect Our International Political Landscape?1275 Words   |  6 PagesAmidst Political Idealism, Realism The theories of realism and idealism are as old as politics, itself. There has always been one group looking as things as they are, asking finite questions like how much will it cost, examining actions over intentions and another group aiming for how things should be while asking is this morally right, just or conscionable?. How does realism and idealism affect our international political landscape? Although theory suggests that politicians operate from one camp

High School Dropouts Essay - 2453 Words

High School Dropouts Entering high school is the beginning of a whole new learning experience. Transitioning from middle school, high school presents more classes, students, and a bigger campus. It brings new expectations and responsibilities to each of us. High school also offers fresh chances to make new friends, try new sports and activities, and really explore who we are as individuals. The goal is to maintain good grades, score high on the SAT test, and keep a positive attitude so colleges and universities will accept you. Of course its not as easy at sounds, but its achievable. It requires a lot of work and dedication to every subject. Some students breeze their way through while others live in misery trying to pass their†¦show more content†¦Studies have also found that dropping out is more likely to occur among students from single-parent families and students with an older sibling who has already dropped out than among counterparts without these characteristics. Other aspects of a stude nts home life such as level of parental involvement and support, parents educational expectations, parents attitudes about school, and stability of the family environment can also influence a youths decision to stay in school. For example, results from the NCES study found that students whose parents were not actively involved in the students school, whose parents infrequently talked to them about school-related matters, or whose parents held low expectations for their childs future educational achievement were more likely to drop out. Another reason why a lot of students drop out of school is simply because they dont like it. High school, through its control over many decisions that are made for students, still seems to be restrictive. Many aspects of a students life are pre-set and cannot be changed by the student to fit his needs. For example, a students time schedule is set every year. Every student must go the same amount of hours every year. In most cases, school is from 8:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. every day, whether he or she actually needs all the time or not. Students have to spend more time in some filler classes that they think they probably did not need to take but still hadShow MoreRelatedHigh School Dropouts1578 Words   |  7 Pagestrying to live a good life are what most dropouts go through. Education is a key factor in succeeding in life. However, not all students get to complete their high school and continue on to a college. Completing high school and getting a degree from college is the ticket to a better lifestyle. As we look around us, people are still living and paying off their bills even as dropouts from high school. However, they are living at a hand-to-mouth situation. Most dropouts probably work several jobs to justRead MoreHigh School Dropouts897 Words   |  4 Pagesthird of all students that enter high school don’t always graduate, therefore they become unemployed and can’t afford living. To live a better life and achieve better goals, finish school make good decisions. Graduate high school is the most important start. There are many ways to prevent high school dropouts. Some student’s dropout because they have to take care of their family members, Solutions are starting to exist to help young people stay focused in high school education. Results are saying thatRead MoreHigh School Dropouts and Crime3694 Words   |  15 PagesWHAT FACTORS INFLUENCE HIGH SCHOOL DROPOUTS TO LEAD CRIMINAL LIVES? Michael Webbers 13APRIL2013 Criminology ADJ 107 Spring 2013 Professor George D. McMillan Purpose:It is extremely important to get an education and graduate high school. Without obtaining a high school diploma, a GED or College Degree, an individual will likely experience great difficulties in finding and obtaining a job. As a result of such basic educational requirements enforced by society and more specifically employersRead MoreHigh School Dropout Research1722 Words   |  7 PagesGrowing Trends in High School Drop-outs One of the major concerns of education is the rate of students who are dropping out of school. Statistically, the dropout rate has decreased from a national average of 15 percent in 1972 to 10 percent in 2003, according to the National Center for Education Statistics, which rated 16-24 year olds (Child Trend, 2003). Though, there has been signs of a decrease, drop out rates continue to be a concern to the public because of the potential consequencesRead MoreThe High School Dropout Rate1430 Words   |  6 Pagessociety were to reduce the local high school dropout rate, then I believe that society could progress rapidly with more skilled thinkers in the workforce. When a student drops out of high school, he or she is far less likely to succeed. This is due to the fact that most, if not all, skilled jobs that earn a decent living salary require a high school diploma at the very least. By decreasing the local high school dropout rate, our society would be giving those would be d ropouts an opportunity to succeed andRead MoreHigh School Dropout Essay1354 Words   |  6 PagesThroughout the years it seems as though the graduation rates among high school students have increased, but there is still a huge underlying problem in the U.S. with high school drop outs. There have been many half brained reasons for these students dropping out and many people believe the reason for these drop outs is the students faults themselves. But as I know as a student and as a student who has graduated, it is not only the students fault. There are many outside factors and influences thatRead MoreHigh School Dropouts: Finishing School or Not? Essay1628 Words   |  7 Pagesdrops out of high school, there are many reasons behind their decision. Whether it is a matter of not having enough money to attend high school, or the person just does not have the desire to attend. Behind all these apprehensions, there are many people suffering since they abandoned high school. In Sanchezâ €™s article, â€Å"A High School Dropout’s Midlife Hardships,† he reveals the hardships of a high school dropout. Kenny Buchanan, a 44-year old from Pennsylvania, withdrew from high school when he wasRead MorePersuasive Essay On High School Dropout869 Words   |  4 Pages High School Dropout The dropout rate among high school students has became rising issue in the recent years. The dropout rate has fallen 3% from 1990 to 2010 (12.1% to 7.4%). Every year, over 1.2 million students drop out of high school in the United States alone. That’s a student every 26 seconds – or 7,000 a day. (Dosomething.org) This is such a huge problem due to the key education can provide in so many different aspects. People who dont receive a high school education, thatRead MoreDropping Out Of High School Dropouts Essay987 Words   |  4 PagesI’ve heard a lot about high school dropouts. through my years in highschool this topic had always popped up. I wonder is dropping out of high school bad as some make it seem? My opinion is that dropping out high school isn’t as bad as some people make it seem. A lot of smart people drop out of high school, people like Einstein dropped out at age 16 and still accomplished many things in life. I discovered a lot about high school dropouts and the many reasons on why students make this decision.Read MoreAlternative Education For High School Dropouts1698 Words   |  7 PagesAlternative Education for High School Dropouts Allison V. Alvizuri University of La VerneAbstract This study examined high school dropouts and what the long term consequences, major factors, and characteristics of a student who drops out are.The findings suggest that a school counselor plays an integral role in keeping students in school or finding an alternative choice to finish their education. Effective school program such as Opportunities for Learning Public Charter Schools has been identified as

Different books, despite different storylines, may Essay Example For Students

Different books, despite different storylines, may Essay Bo still address similar themes. What similarities of themes did you find in your paired texts, and how are they obvious in the characters behaviour?Throughout two of F Scott Fitzgeralds books, The Great Gatsby and Tender is the Night, comparisons can be made between the themes that are dealt with in each book. These themes that are portrayed, include materialism, the corruption of dreams and idealism, which all come under the larger theme of searching for human fulfilment. Materialism is a theme that is very common through both of the books. In The Great Gatsby we are constantly seeing characters living a hedonistic lifestyle, where the importance of reaching their full potential is over-shadowed by the trend to live life to the fullest by the partying constantly and having fun. Many characters in The Great Gatsby could be labelled as being materialistic. Tom, Daisy, Jordan and Myrtle all seem to value materialistic possessions. They all believe that success comes from the way you appear to others and how much money you have in you wallet. An example of when a character does something solely to keep up appearances, is when Myrtle says to Tom as they are driving past a man selling dogs I want one of those dogs, she says I want one of those for the apartment. This comment shows her irresponsible behaviour towards possessions as well as her need to give a certain image to others. In Tender is the Night, although not as obvious, materialism is also a major aspect to the book. The initial description of the characters lazing around on the shore of the French Riviera without any sign of direction in their lives, shows that the characters within Tender is the Night are also very hedonistic. Abe Norths drinking problem symbolised that lack of direction in life, and Mrs McKiscos somewhat nosy attitude shows that the characters had very little to do. Many times through the book, you find that Dick and Nicole have returned to the French Riviera or are in some other part of the world relaxing and having a great time. The difference between Dick and Nicole and the corrupt characters in The Great Gatsby however, is that they believe that they are doing something. Dick is constantly talking about the book that he is writing, but it is all talk. He is only ever bragging about it to others so that they will respect him; he never actually puts in the effort to complete his book. This book that Dick is writing also symbolises the corruption of drea ms and the idealism. Dicks ideal, was to marry the perfect woman, Nicole, write his fantastic book psychology for psychiatrists and be the best psychiatrist in the world. At the beginning of his career all of these things were attainable, but slowly each one of these things slipped away to falter his life. These things were not only just an ideal or a plan in life, they were a necessity for Dick. He dreamed of them all and it was from then on that it became an obsession. This lead to Dicks belief that his life couldnt be fulfilled unless all of these things were obtained. Nicole, although beautiful and elegant, was flawed. Described by Dick as a beautiful empty shell, she was the object of Dick Divers romantic imagination. He took it upon himself, to obtain this beautiful shell, despite the obvious problems and warnings from his associates. Looking at his need for her, it wasnt just love; it was also the need for a challenge and he put his entire effort into proving that Nicole could be changed. When he met Rosemary, things started to look up. Finally he had met a woman, although not as beautiful as Nicole, that was stable and independent. He took advantage of her love for him to experience what a relationship with two equal participants would be like. After he had tasted what a relationship like this was like, his dream became more and more clearer to him. The reality of what Nicole was really like suddenly dawned on him, and he realised that the dream that he had been striving for so long was impossible to achieve. It is at this point that his dream started to die and so did he. .uab846f8902ab51c9896e502488528b8d , .uab846f8902ab51c9896e502488528b8d .postImageUrl , .uab846f8902ab51c9896e502488528b8d .centered-text-area { min-height: 80px; position: relative; } .uab846f8902ab51c9896e502488528b8d , .uab846f8902ab51c9896e502488528b8d:hover , .uab846f8902ab51c9896e502488528b8d:visited , .uab846f8902ab51c9896e502488528b8d:active { border:0!important; } .uab846f8902ab51c9896e502488528b8d .clearfix:after { content: ""; display: table; clear: both; } .uab846f8902ab51c9896e502488528b8d { display: block; transition: background-color 250ms; webkit-transition: background-color 250ms; width: 100%; opacity: 1; transition: opacity 250ms; webkit-transition: opacity 250ms; background-color: #95A5A6; } .uab846f8902ab51c9896e502488528b8d:active , .uab846f8902ab51c9896e502488528b8d:hover { opacity: 1; transition: opacity 250ms; webkit-transition: opacity 250ms; background-color: #2C3E50; } .uab846f8902ab51c9896e502488528b8d .centered-text-area { width: 100%; position: relative ; } .uab846f8902ab51c9896e502488528b8d .ctaText { border-bottom: 0 solid #fff; color: #2980B9; font-size: 16px; font-weight: bold; margin: 0; padding: 0; text-decoration: underline; } .uab846f8902ab51c9896e502488528b8d .postTitle { color: #FFFFFF; font-size: 16px; font-weight: 600; margin: 0; padding: 0; width: 100%; } .uab846f8902ab51c9896e502488528b8d .ctaButton { background-color: #7F8C8D!important; color: #2980B9; border: none; border-radius: 3px; box-shadow: none; font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold; line-height: 26px; moz-border-radius: 3px; text-align: center; text-decoration: none; text-shadow: none; width: 80px; min-height: 80px; background: url(https://artscolumbia.org/wp-content/plugins/intelly-related-posts/assets/images/simple-arrow.png)no-repeat; position: absolute; right: 0; top: 0; } .uab846f8902ab51c9896e502488528b8d:hover .ctaButton { background-color: #34495E!important; } .uab846f8902ab51c9896e502488528b8d .centered-text { display: table; height: 80px; padding-left : 18px; top: 0; } .uab846f8902ab51c9896e502488528b8d .uab846f8902ab51c9896e502488528b8d-content { display: table-cell; margin: 0; padding: 0; padding-right: 108px; position: relative; vertical-align: middle; width: 100%; } .uab846f8902ab51c9896e502488528b8d:after { content: ""; display: block; clear: both; } READ: Ryan A. Hittle EssayJay Gatsby was said to have had a romantic readiness. He devoted his life to his idealism, his faith in lifes possibilities. He refused to accept himself as he was and instead tried to portray the image of him as being the most wealthy, popular man in New York. Like Dick however, he devoted his life to a dream that was tainted by his own obsession. Daisy represented everything that he had ever wanted. She was the woman that he loved, she was the upper class that he had fought so long to be accepted by and she was also a married woman. Similar to Dick, Gatsby also liked a challenge. He liked the thought of obtaining a married woman, as this also represented his ultimate success in life. Daisy, just like Nicole however, was flawed. Although not through a mental illness like Nicole, Daisy was flawed in the way that she did not appreciate the attention that she received from Gatsby and basically was unable to follow a path that lead to uncertainty. This failure of Gatsbys dream that he had devoted his life to, just like Dick, was what lead to his death, both physically and spiritually. Another theme that is dealt with during the books through symbolism, is that of choosing not too see the truth. The billboard of Dr T.J Eckleburg in The Great Gatsby that intrusively watches over the decay and corruption in The Valley of Ashes, repre sents the way that everyone sees everything that is happening around them, but refuses to take any responsibility for it. This is proven in the way that Gatsby sees Tom and the child but refuses to believe that they will be any problem in winning Daisy over for himself, and how Daisy can see that Tom is having an affair but isnt strong enough to stand up for herself and leave. In Tender is the Night we have the reference of Dick saying at specific times Do you mind if I pull down the curtain? This represents the fact that Dick doesnt want to see anything that could change his opinion about someone or something. Dick has a very straight forward life and always expects himself to be the one with the power. When this isnt the case, he doesnt want to know about it. An example of his use of this phrase is when he hears about Rosemary on the train with another man. He cant accept the fact that she isnt as innocent as he first perceived her to be, and therefore says this so that he doesnt have to accept the truth and can simply continue his relationship with the innocent girl that he has. Although not obvious at first, it is quite apparent that both of these books contain similar themes. Looking at the story lines, it is hard to imagine that these two books are actually similar at all. But after closer observations, you can start to notice the subtle similarities between the characters, the settings and even the language that F Scott Fitzgerald writes. Overall, both these books are able to teach us lessons in life about morality and the importance of having dreams.Words/ Pages : 1,312 / 24

The Thrill of the Grass Essay Example

The Thrill of the Grass Essay The way people react and feel to an event can depend on the environment or wherever this event occurs. This event can be anything from a life changing to a simple event such as grass. The Thrill of the Grass shows how passionate people can be for the simple pleasures in life and what they will do to protect it, where an event takes place can also effect how one would react to the simple pleasures in life. The narrator in this story is so passionate about the new artificial turf and how it is not the right way to play the game of baseball. He (the narrator) actually gets into the abandoned stadium with relative ease because of the baseball strike that was going on in the summer of 1981 and the fact that he has been a locksmith for over forty years. He sees the artificially grass as a malevolent entity that would scorch players that slide on it in the orange glowing sun of the evening. He knows that the right thing to do would have to be replacing the artificial turf with natural grass. Always in the night does the narrator work to get rid of all the artificial grass and replace it with natural grass. He always tries to work at night or at any other time of the day when not many people are up. When he is in the baseball field at these secretive times he only wants those who also believe in his cause of having real, fresh grass for playing baseball. We will write a custom essay sample on The Thrill of the Grass specifically for you for only $16.38 $13.9/page Order now We will write a custom essay sample on The Thrill of the Grass specifically for you FOR ONLY $16.38 $13.9/page Hire Writer We will write a custom essay sample on The Thrill of the Grass specifically for you FOR ONLY $16.38 $13.9/page Hire Writer His cohorts and himself would enjoy working at night lying down row-by-row of sod and slowly returning the field back into what it once was. The simple pleasures in life in the right environment can drive one to the extreme and even make one stand up and try to defend what they think is right even it is as simple as grass. The place where an event happens can also change how one would normally react to that event. T

Conservatism essays

Conservatism essays Conservatism evokes strong feelings of patriotism, since support for the established institutions are greatly promoted and each person serves his/her country with consistency and loyalty. This patriotism leads to an increased trust to in the military forces in cases of external threat, rather than in diplomacy. The liberal, now, view of human nature is highly egalitarian and can be strongly contrasted with that of the conservative, since it suggests an elevated perspective of human beings and diminishes the importance of the social unit. Human rights and liberties constitute a political necessity. Political systems must contribute to individual happiness and their role must be restricted. In a liberal society, the individual is a rational being and, according to classical economists, rationality is expressed in a materialistic way. That is the rational allocation of energy in an effort to maximize profit. This is the economic man in a liberal society. The political man is the one who makes critical choices when participating in democratic procedures. Liberalism has many times been identified with democracy and the ideal government should be pluralistic and not paternalistic. The essential principle of liberalism is individual freedom, which must be expanded and served in all levels of life, political and economic. ...

Freewriting in English Composition

Freewriting in English Composition In composition, freewriting is a discovery (or prewriting) strategy intended to encourage the development of ideas without concern for the conventional rules of writing. Also called  stream-of-consciousness writing. Put another way, freewriting is like warming-up on a pitcher’s mound or tossing a few baskets before the real game begins. There’s no pressure because there are no rules, and nobody is keeping score. When freewriting, advises Peter Elbow in Writing Without Teachers, Never stop to look back, to cross something out, to wonder how to spell something, to wonder what word or thought to use, or to think about what you are doing. Freewriting Freewriting is the easiest way to get words on paper and the best all-around practice in writing that I know. To do a freewriting exercise, simply force yourself to write without stopping for ten minutes. Sometimes you will produce good writing, but that’s not the goal. Sometimes you will produce garbage, but that’s not the goal either. You may stay on one topic; you may flip repeatedly from one to another: it doesn’t matter. Sometimes you will produce a good record of your stream of consciousness, but often you can’t keep up. Speed is not the goal, though sometimes the process revs you up. If you can’t think of anything to write, write about how that feels or repeat over and over I have nothing to write or Nonsense or No. If you get stuck in the middle of a sentence or thought, just repeat the last word or phrase till something comes along. The only point is to keep writing. . . .The goal of freewriting is in the process, not the product.(Peter Elb ow, Writing With Power: Techniques for Mastering the Writing Process, 2nd ed. Oxford Univ. Press, 1998) Start Writing You can sit there, tense and worried, freezing the creative energies, or you can start writing something, perhaps something silly. It simply doesnt matter what you write; it only matters that you write. In five or ten minutes, the imagination will heat, the tightness will fade, and a certain spirit and rhythm will take over.(Leonard S. Bernstein,  Getting Published: The Writer in the Combat Zone. William Morrow, 1986) Planners and Plungers Roy Peter Clark of the Poynter Institute, a midcareer school for journalists, and Don Fry, a freelance writing coach, divide writers into planners and plungers. Like Don, Im a planner who likes to know the central point and general organization of what hes about to write before he types the first line. Roys a plunger. So sometimes he just jumps into a topic and starts writing whatever comes to mind. After a while, a focus emerges. Then he backs out, throws away most of what hes written, and starts over. He calls that first round of writing a vomit draft.In more polite circles, thats called freewriting.(Jack R. Hart, A Writers Coach: An Editors Guide to Words That Work. Random House, 2006) Freewriting in a Journal Freewriting can be compared to the warming-up exercises that athletes perform; freewriting limbers up the muscles of your mind gets you in the mood, undams the stream of language.  Here is a bit of practical advice: if you have mental writers cramp, merely sit down with your  journal  and start entering words in it, just as they pop into your mind; dont even think about sentences necessarily, but fill a complete page of your journal with spontaneously discovered words. There is a good chance that this uncontrolled, effortless writing will begin to assume a direction that you can follow.(W. Ross Winterowd,  The Contemporary Writer: A Practical Rhetoric, 2nd ed., Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1981) Freespeaking If you are better at talking out than writing out your ideas, try freespeaking, the talking version of freewriting. Begin by speaking into a tape recorder or into a computer with voice-recognition software, and just keep talking about your topic for at least seven to ten minutes. Say whatever comes to your mind, and dont stop talking. You can then listen to or read the results of your freespeaking and look for an idea to pursue at greater length.(Andrea Lunsford, The St. Martins Handbook, Bedford/St. Martins, 2008)

Gay and Lesbian Marriage Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Gay and Lesbian Marriage - Essay Example This is clearly a situation where, while actions are happening on the micro level of society, the response is being created by the macro level of society. Gidden's Theory of Structuration looks in detail at how all levels of society interact and help to create the responses of the other levels. Gidden's suggests that no social structure is permanent; rather it is built upon the actions of those who reside inside of it. While society can not be explained from the macro level, it can also not be explained without it. By reviewing the concept of gay/lesbian marriage from through Gidden's theory, a clearer view of society emerges. Gidden's argues that there is a duality to social structure. While it is created by those who live in it, they are also bound to follow its' rules (Fuchs 1). While it is clearly ever changing, there are also certain areas which remain static, based upon the culture that is being reviewed. Gay/lesbian marriage is an issue that is currently affecting all cultures, causing slow changes to the status quo. In European nations, gay marriage is slowly gaining in acceptance. However, it still meets with strong disapproval in the United States. A key difference between the two societies is the religious factor. While most European countries claim Christianity as their religion, there is also a certain lax feature about religion. It is accepted that a person may or may not be religious, and that therefore not all people should be bound by religious ideals. At the same time, the United States claims

Crime Prevention and Community Policing Coursework

Crime Prevention and Community Policing - Coursework Example We will examine this topic, not just as a mutually exclusive evolutionary process; rather, we will examine it within the social context of the culture of the time in order to understand how law and order and formalised policing have developed. According to Wall (2002) one of the earliest formalised laws was the Asisze of Clarendon in 1166. This law required all citizens "to report any suspicions about each other to the sheriffs people" (part 1:2). As demonstrated by the vagueness of the above, there was much room for interpretation as to what was considered 'suspicious' behaviour. It becomes easier to see that individual towns and villages had their own set of unwritten codes based on the social mores of the community to which the definition of 'crime' was determined. However, the earliest forms of 'policing' can be traced back to as early as the reign of King Alfred the Great who was monarch between 871 and 901 A.D with his introduction of the 'King's Peace' (Back, 2005). "Acting on the dictum 'What ye will that other men should not do to you, that do ye not to other men', he compiled a series of flexible laws. Basically, in return for being allowed to reign and to expect their unswerving allegiance, he promised them pea ce and security" (Back, 2005, screen 1). The early form of 'policing' was known as the Frankpledge or 'Hue and Cry'. The system was introduced by the Anglo-Saxons ("Our history", 2006, screen 1). When villagers came upon someone breaking the law, they would literally shout out, hence the 'hue and cry'. It became every citizen's duty then to give chase and capture the offending party. In these 12th century villages there was not formalised government as we understand it today. Alfred's great-grandson, Edgar, saw the benefit of such a system and made several changes which included dividing the country into shires. Local governance was based on loosely defined units of rule called 'tything'. These tythings were made up of a set of ten families (Back, 2005). Within each community the tything was made up several sets of families where their primary responsibility was to ensure the laws were observed within the village. In effect, "the decision to arrest and take before the court was basically a community decision" (Wall, 2002, part1.2). Additionally it was the responsibility of the entire community to protect the village from groups or bands of criminals. When the hue and cry went out letting the village know that a gang of outlaws were breaking laws within the village, the men of the village would form a posse comitatus ("Our history", 2006, screen 1). This posse would attempt to track down the offending parties and bring them to justice. The posse consisted of all able bodied men over the age of 12. As the weaponry became more modernised in the Middle Ages (i.e. archery), the age limit for all males required to take part in the posse comitatus was lowered to seven (Back, 2005). Within the tything, one person was made responsible for taking the law breaker, when captured, before the court to exact their punishment. This person came to be known as a Tythingman. Unlike police in modern society, the Tythingman

Compare and contrast the Lady of Shalott with In Westminster Abby Essay Example for Free

Compare and contrast the Lady of Shalott with In Westminster Abby Essay Consider * The context * The depiction of the women * Form * The poets use of language * Your response Both of the poems are about a woman. From the outset the two women appear very different, but when you study them more closely and we can begin to discover similarities. I think that both the woman in The Lady of Shalott and the women in West Minister Abbey are prisoners in some way or form. It is maybe more obvious in The Lady of Shalott where she is actually imprisoned inside a tower which is on an island and more than that she is also imprisoned by a curse which is upon her. The woman in Westminster Abbey is imprisoned by her lack of connection with reality and is so out of touch with the real world that I would say she is a prisoner within her self. The main difference between the two women is that one of them knows she is a prisoner and eventually in the end breaks away (even though it kills her) yet the other is blaitinly unaware. The tradition is which they are written is very different. The Lady of Shalott tells a story therefore it is a Narrative poem. In Westminster is about self-revelation so it is a dramatic monologue. The Lady of Shalott is set in the era of King Author and the Knights of the Round Table. The poem features Sir Lancelot (one of the greatest of the Knights) who is a key character. I think he symbolizes the male system that was very dominant back in the Victorian times. In short Lancelot represents to her all that she cant have and accepting death is better than being locked up. The poem is split into four parts, which build a kind of chapter formation. Part one gives us a bit of insight to what her surroundings are like and the fact she lives in a tower and that no one really knows very much about her. Down to towerd Camelot: And by the moon the reaper weary, Piling sheaves in uplands airy, Listening, whispers Tis the fairy Lady of Shalott. This quote from the poem (which is the last four lines of part 1) tells us that she is perceived almost like some kind of super natural being. In part two the lady of Shalott never stops working. She is weaving a picture of the things she sees reflected by a mirror so what she sees is 2-d and fickle. (Notice the contrast, her surroundings are drab yet her tapestry is colourful) A funeral, with plumes and lights and music, went to Camelot: Or when the moon was overhead, Came two young lovers lately wed The above statement connects the funeral with a wedding like both are equal and that love is equivalent to death. The lady then realizes that there is something unsubstantial about her life and proclaims Im half sick of shadows In Part three Lancelot appears and she sees his attractive reflection in the mirror, it appeals to her so much that she stops her work and looks out through the window at him. SHOCK the mirror breaks and the curse has come upon her. We can see how the lady almost becomes a mirror in herself with the glassy expression on her face. In this chapter the rhyming pattern changes when Lancelot appears, usually every verse ends with the word Shalott but one of the verses ends with Camelot instead. This is symbolic of how much devastation he actually causes, the whole form of the poem alters when he appears. In part four she wonders from the tower down to Camelot. And down the rivers dim expanse Like some bold seer in a trance, Seeing all his own mischance With a glassy countenance. These lines tell of the ladys trance like gaze possibly cause by thoughts of passion and desire (Lancelot). This could indicate that she is not responsible for her own actions. The changes of weather in the chapter indicate the change in mood. She comes down to Camelot and finds a boat that is her final resting-place. She does not kill her self, nor is she evil because her last song is said to be mournful and holy. All the people gather round her and in the crowd, totally oblivious to the fact he caused her death Lancelot proclaims that god has mercy on her as she has a lovely face. In Westminster Abbey is set during a war against Germany in the church in Westminster abbey. A woman is talking the whole time, which makes this, distinctly different from the last. In fact she is doing more than talking, she is praying. Once we discover that the audience is God we become very shocked by the things she is coming out with, especially when she says if he makes a mistake she will forgive him! She is being incredibly selfish and asking for special treatment i.e. that she should be protected more than anyone else. The woman is being greedy and praying for silly things like that her shares down go down and such like. In one of the verses she is talking about why England should win. There is great juxtaposition in the list that she gives placing things like democracy and class distinction together and then bringing in the fact they have proper drains, which just shows her snobbery. In other parts she is racist telling god to protect the blacks but to protect the whites more, which is saying that whites are more important just because they are more sophisticated and probably more civilized that the blacks she was talking about. The last verse gives us real insight into her character. She asks God for what she wants and expects to have her prayers answered in return for doing things she should have been doing any way. I.e. helping the war effort and going to church when ever she got the time. The poem ends with her having to leave for a social occasion- A now dear lord I cannot wait, Because I have a luncheon date She is a snob and she thinks God is one too, instead of praying to him in her local church she comes all the was to Westminster because she thinks God will view her prayer as more important. The end line of every verse deflates to what she has said (exposes the selfishness). The poet uses irony to show her up so you cant help laughing because you become almost astonished by the things that she says. The womans actions dont co-inside with her words and the language doesnt fit. This makes her seem like a walking contradiction. I think there is great contrast in both the context and styles of these poems but there still are similarities. They are both poems with a message; the message in The Lady of Shalott is that if you strive for more freedom you might end up dead. The message in the second poem is that we arent always aware of our faults etc. but they are always there.

The Future Of Education: On-Line Classes Essays -- School Internet Tec

The Future Of Education: On-Line Classes "The future is outside the traditional campus, outside the traditional classroom. Distance learning is coming on fast," says management philosopher Peter Drucker (qtd. in Ebeling and Gubernick). One form of distance learning, on-line education (courses offered over the Internet), has caught the eye of the public and is forcing educators to reevaluate the present state of the educational system. Because of their convenience, cost, and amount of and access to readily-available information, these on-line classes, specifically those in math and computer science, are becoming more and more prevalent throughout the Internet community. TARGET TECHNOLOGY Description On-line math and computer science classes are educational courses offered over the Internet. They differ from traditionally taught classes in that they offer a wealth of information which can be easily and quickly accessed with the right equipment (i.e. a computer and Internet connection) and knowledge. They also allow the user to log on to and participate in the class at any time of day at his/her convenience. This may prove advantageous to those with strict work schedules, to those with families, or to those who learn best at their own rate or at different times of day. "This format [on-line classes] is really good for older, nontraditional students who work full-time and have families," says Xeturah Woodley-Tillman, an on-line instructor at Metropolitan State College of Denver (qtd. in Brown). History The presence of and participation in on-line math and computer science classes has been rising ever since the Internet became readily available to the public. For example, four years ago Peterson's college guide li... ...lemented and fully utilized. While they alone may not change the current state of the educational system, on-line math and computer science classes should be a welcomed addition and should continue to grow in use far into the future. WORKS CITED Brown, Jacquelyn A. "Big Modem On Campus." Essence Oct. 1997: 150. Brown, John Seely, and Paul Duguid. "Universities In The Digital Age." Change July/Aug. 1996: 11+. Ebeling, Ashlea, and Lisa Gubernick. "I Got My Degree Through E-Mail." Forbes 16 June 1997: 84+. Natale, Jo Anna. "On-Line School For Home Learners." Education Digest Dec. 1995: 36+. Schutte, Jerald G. "Virtual Teaching in Higher Education: The New Intellectual Superhighway or Just Another Traffic Jam?" [http://www.csun.edu][/sociology/virexp.htm][30 April 1999]. Tillson, Tamsen. "High-Grade Opportunity." Canadian Business Dec. 1996: 53+.

Formalism and Realism in the Movie Hero

Movie: Hero Director: Zhang Yimou Cast : Jet Li, Tony Leung Chiu Wai and Maggie Cheung Year of production: 2002 Country of production: China Language: Mandarin Film synopsis: The Qin King was obsessed with conquering all of China and becoming the first Emperor. He had been the target of assassins throughout the other states. Among them none inspired as much fear as the three legendary assassins, Broken Sword, Flying Snow and Sky. To anyone who defeated the three assassins, the King of Qin promised great power, mountains of gold and a private audience with the King himself. Following this Nameless came to the palace bearing the legendary weapons of the slain assassins, sitting in the palace, and told his extraordinary tale. Journal question: How does the colour cinematography of Hero (Zhang Yimou, 2002) contribute to formalism? â€Å"In art theory, formalism is the concept that a work’s artistic value is entirely determined by its form—the way it is made, its purely visual aspects, and its medium. Formalism emphasizes compositional elements such as color, line, shape and texture rather than realism, context, and content. . In Hero, Zhang Yimou combines cinematography with mise en scene to bring his own vision of the story, particularly with the use of certain colours. There are a total of five colours in this movie which choosed to express different versions or point of views ; black, white, red, blue, and green. Zhang Yimou uses the four colours, Red, Green, Blue and White, to tie in four different segments of the story. On the other han d, each of them also contains a different story The King of Qin’s palace is black, enlivened only by splashes of red. This forms the beginning and the end of the story and the overall feel of this sequence extends into the first fight between Nameless and Sky. The chosen colour metaphorically represents the battle between good and evil. Red dominates the first version of the story by Nameless in which he describes the calligraphy school, the attack by the Qin army, the stabbing of Broken Sword and the subsequent fight between Flying Snow and Moon. The color of red brings emotion, such as love, anger, passion nd romance. It portrays the tension between lovers and their passion for revenge to the King Qin. The costumes of the characters are in red, as well as the props. The red is a Kodak red as said by the film’s cinematographer. It's a much more saturated solid red. Blue becomes the colour for the second version of the story by the King himself. During the part of the story telled by the King, it evolved some fighting sequence in a lake. Since the colour of water is blue, so this section of story surrounded by blue colour with costumes and props and also location as well as the lake. Blue also represents peace, calmness and detachment. The colour suits the King as he shows peace in discovering Nameless true plan, which is to kill the King. The story version of the king surrounded with blue colour as well. Green is the colour for the story that Nameless doesn’t necessarily know since it covers the first meeting of Broken Sword and Flying Snow and also the failed assassination attempt. Since green colour known for memories and knowledge, it used to portray the flashback scene which evolve broken sword and flying snow. Broken Sword believes that the King of Qin has the power to unite these kingdoms for the greater good of the future. White is the final colour, dominating the deaths of Flying Snow and Broken Sword and alternating with the black sequences back in the palace. this scene is achieved through mise en scene, cinematography and post-production. The characters wear white and the props are in white colour. The lighting is over exposed to highlight the white colour . The scene reflects truth of the characters’ intentions. Reading synopsis: The Language of Film Mise en scene, cinematography, editing and sound can be combined to form a language that is used to tell stories and express meanings. Reference: Abrams, Bell and Udris (2001) â€Å"The Language of Film†, Studying Film, London: Arnold, 92-116. Emily Gems: Joyful Crystals ; Gemstones Retrieved 15th August, 2011, from http://crystal-cure. com/black. html

Prevention and Control of Pollution Essay

The enhanced pace of developmental activities and rapid urbanization have resulted in stress on natural resources and quality of life. The trend of increasing pollution in various environmental media is evident from the deteriorating air and water quality, higher noise levels, increasing vehicular emission etc. Realising the urgent need for arresting the trend, Ministry adopted policy for Abatement of Pollution which provides for several mechanisms in the form of regulations, legislation, agreements, fiscal incentives and other measures to prevent and abate pollution. Further, realizing that conventional pollution control approach by treatment at the end of the pipe is not delivering the desired benefits in terms of resource conservation, the thrust has been shifted to pollution prevention and control through promotion of clean and low waste technology, re-use and recycling, natural resource accounting, Environmental Audit and Institutional and Human Resource Development. To give effect to various measures and policies on ground, multi-pronged approach is adopted which includes stringent regulations, Development of Environmental Standards, Control of Vehicular Pollution, preparation of Zoning Atlas for Spatial Environmental Planning including Industrial Estates etc. Major activities carried out under several programmes/schemes during the year are as follows : Industrial Pollution Abatement through preventive strategies This scheme is an amalgamation of the three on-going schemes viz. Environmental Audit, Adoption of Clean Technologies in Small Scale Industries and Environmental Statistics and Mapping, which have been continuing since eighth Five Year Plan. Due to encouraging results and benefits to various small scale units, these schemes are being continued during the 10th Five Year Plan also: Environmental Statement (As a part of Environmental Audit) Environmental audit is a management tool and provides a structure and comprehensive mechanism for ensuring that the activities and products of an enterprise do no cause unacceptable effects on the environment. Submission of an Environmental Statement by polluting units seeking consent either under the Water (Prevention and Control of Pollution) Act, 1974 or the Air (Prevention and Control of Pollution) Act, 1981 or both and the Authorization under the Hazardous Wastes (Management and Handling) Rules, 1989 has been made mandatory through a Gazette Notification of April, 1993 under the Environment (Protection) Act, 1986. The Environmental Statement enables the units to undertake a comprehensive look at their industrial operations and facilities, understanding of material flows and focus on areas where waste reduction and consequently saving in-put cost if possible. The primary benefit of environmental audit is that it ensures cost effective compliance of laws, standards, regulations, company policies etc. During the year, action has been initiated to evolve model environmental statements in various sectors for facilitating comparison in use of raw material, water conservation, energy consumption etc. A project has been sponsored to Central Pollution Control Board for evolving model environmental statement in the eight sectors viz. Sugar, Thermal Power Projects, Cement, Paper and Pulp, Pesticides, Bulk Drugs, Tanneries and Textiles Activities. Waste Minimisation/Cleaner Production Waste minimization is one of the strategies adopted for minimizing the industrial pollution. The objective of the scheme is to assist the small and medium scale industry in adoption of cleaner production practices. A project has been sponsored to National Productivity Council on â€Å"Waste Minimisation in Small Scale Industries† for establishment and running of waste minimization circles in clusters of small scale industries, capacity building in areas of cleaner production, establishment of demonstration units in selected industrial sectors etc. So far 115 waste minimization circles have been established through out the country and a large number of Organizations and Institutions have been trained in waste minimization activities. The project was executed till November, 2002 under the World Bank project on Industrial Pollution Prevention (IPP) as Phase-I and Phase-II is now being continued with Ministry’s internal funds. Implementation of this project has helped in identification of more than 200 options for resource and energy conservation in various small scale industries. Environmental Statistics and Mapping For sound Environmental Management, reliable information base and the mapping of areas needing special attention for pollution prevention and control are a pre-requisite. As a step in the direction, projects and pilot studies have been initiated through various research institutions and organizations. Under this program, following studies have been initiated and are in various stages of completion : – GIS based Hydrological Modelling for Water Quality and Quantity in Cauvery River Basin by IIT, Delhi. – Geochemical baseline Mapping for Environmental Management by National Geophysical Research Institute, Hyderabad. Development and Promotion of Cleaner Technologies Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) Life Cycle Assessment is a decision cum management tool which provides information on the environmental effects of various products and processes so as to arrive at necessary corrective measures to make the entire process efficient with optimal utilization of resources and minimal wastes generation. LCA studies have been initiated in various sectors namely; Steel, Pulp and Paper and Thermal Power. The study in the Steel Sector was completed earlier and the report is under preparation. The study relating to the Thermal Power Sector has been completed during the year while the study in the Pulp and Paper Sector is progressing as per schedule. Industrial Ecology Opportunities in Ankleshwar and Nandesari Industrial Estates, Gujarat A study was undertaken to develop and implement Industrial Ecology Opportunities in Ankleshwar and Nandesari Industrial Estates of Gujarat. The study has examined technologies used by industries in this region and suggested possible approach to achieve eco-efficiency within the industrial estates to reuse and recycle wastes and effluents generated from different industrial units. The recommendations of the study have been discussed in a workshop with all stakeholders including State Government Agencies for their implementation and an Action Plan is being drawnup by them. Development of Market Based Instruments for Regional Environmental Management in the Kawas-Hazira Region in Gujarat The ongoing project on Development of Market Based Instruments for Kawas-Hazira Region of Gujarat has been completed. The study report has observed that the taxes and incentives based on efficiency improvements align the pollution control agencies better with the polluters than the Command and Control (CAC) regime. Such an instrument also facilitates prescribing incentives for achieving the triple bottom line, viz economic-efficiency, environment-responsibility, and social-relevance entitling the Corporate to Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) and other cleaner-production benefits. The recommendations of the study have been discussed in a workshop with all concerned. Field Demonstration and Development of Bamboo Based Composites/Panels The ongoing project on field demonstration and development of bamboo based composites/panels was continued during the year. Under this project, commercial production of horizontal and vertical laminates have been made using Bambusa bamboo Species. Construction of demonstration houses will be taken up during the current year. Recycling of Marble Slurry in Udaipur, Rajasthan A two years duration project has been sponsored for the manufacture of bricks and tiles from marble slurry in Udaipur, Rajasthan with the aim of utilizing wastes arising out of marble cutting and processing for the purpose of improving the local environment. Bio-remediation of Railadevi Lake in Thane, Maharashtra A project relating to cleaning of Railadevi Lake in Thane District in Maharashtra using bio-remediation technique has been sponsored to Thane Municipal Corporation.

10 Tips for a Better Sleep Essay Example

10 Tips for a Better Sleep Essay Example 10 Tips for a Better Sleep Essay 10 Tips for a Better Sleep Essay Essay Topic: Blankets It could be you arent getting enough sleep. Work, household responsibilities and child care can make sleep difficult to come by. Factor in other unexpected challenges, such as financial worries, layoffs, relationship issues or an illness, and quality sleep may be even more elusive. You may not be able to control or eliminate all of the factors that interfere with your sleep, but you can create an environment and adopt habits that encourage a more restful night. Try these suggestions if you have trouble falling asleep or staying asleep: Go to bed and get up at about the same time every day, even on the weekends. Sticking to a schedule helps reinforce your bodys sleep-wake cycle and can help you fall asleep more easily at night. Dont eat or drink large amounts before bedtime. Eat a light dinner at least two hours before sleeping. If youre prone to heartburn, avoid spicy or fatty foods, which can make your heartburn flare and prevent a restful sleep. Also, limit how much you drink before bed. Too much liquid can cause you to wake up repeatedly during the night for trips to the toilet. Avoid nicotine, caffeine and alcohol in the evening. These are stimulants that can keep you awake. Smokers often experience withdrawal symptoms at night, and smoking in bed is dangerous. Avoid caffeine for eight hours before your planned bedtime. Your body doesnt store caffeine, but it takes many hours to eliminate the stimulant and its effects. And although often believed to be a sedative, alcohol actually disrupts sleep. Exercise regularly. Regular physical activity, especially aerobic exercise, can help you fall asleep faster and make your sleep more restful. However, for some people, exercising right before bed may make getting to sleep more difficult. Make your bedroom cool, dark, quiet and comfortable. Create a room thats ideal for sleeping. Adjust the lighting, temperature, humidity and noise level to your preferences. Use blackout curtains, eye covers, earplugs, extra blankets, a fan or white-noise generator, a humidifier or other devices to create an environment that suits your needs. Sleep primarily at night. Daytime naps may steal hours from nighttime slumber. Limit daytime sleep to about a half-hour and make it during midafternoon. If you work nights, keep your window coverings closed so that sunlight, which adjusts the bodys internal clock, doesnt interrupt your sleep. If you have a day job and sleep at night, but still have trouble waking up, leave the window coverings open and let the sunlight help awaken you. Choose a comfortable mattress and pillow. Features of a good bed are subjective and differ for each person. But make sure you have a bed thats comfortable. If you share your bed, make sure theres enough room for two. Children and pets are often disruptive, so you may need to set limits on how often they sleep in bed with you. Start a relaxing bedtime routine. Do the same things each night to tell your body its time to wind down. This may include taking a warm bath or shower, reading a book, or listening to soothing music. Relaxing activities done with lowered lights can help ease the transition between wakefulness and sleepiness. Go to bed when youre tired and turn out the lights. If you dont fall asleep within 15 to 20 minutes, get up and do something else. Go back to bed when youre tired. Dont agonize over falling asleep. The stress will only prevent sleep. Use sleeping pills only as a last resort. Check with your doctor before taking any sleep medications. He or she can make sure the pills wont interact with your other medications or with an existing medical condition. Your doctor can also help you determine the best dosage. If you do take a sleep medication, reduce the dosage gradually when you want to quit, and never mix alcohol and sleeping pills. If you feel sleepy or dizzy during the day, talk to your doctor about changing the dosage or discontinuing the pills.

Overloading While

Overloading While Overloading While Overloading While By Maeve Maddox Because English is blessed with so many subordinating conjunctions, there’s no need to overuse any of them. The conjunction while, for example, tends to pop up in contexts in which a different conjunction may be the better choice. The first and most obvious use of while is as a temporal conjunction to introduce a clause that has something to do with time: While I was sleeping, the cat ate the canary. (Here while means â€Å"during the time that.†) While is used to introduce clauses that express opposition: While she was quite attractive, she believed that she was ugly. (Here while means â€Å"despite the fact that.†) While is also used to introduce a clause that provides a contrast: Mary dressed in princess clothing, while her brother dressed in cowboy costume. It is this use of while that leads to ambiguity. Does the while clause express contrast, or does it express time? The sentence could be interpreted to mean that Mary dressed as a princess during the time that her brother dressed as a cowboy. If contrast is intended, the conjunction whereas would make the meaning clearer. Sometimes while is used as if it were a coordinating conjunction like and, as in this description of a motorcycle: New, soft palm grips provide nice comfort, while broad mirrors are neatly placed for clear rear vision. Here are some â€Å"adversative† conjunctions that you may wish to substitute for while when appropriate: even though although though whereas where Here are some additional temporal conjunctions to use when while is not quite what you want: until after before when since once whenever as soon as as long as by the time 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 Style category, check our popular posts, or choose a related post below:Useful Stock Phrases for Your Business Emails60 Synonyms for â€Å"Trip†Using "zeitgeist" Coherently

Xerox Corporation - Cause of Failure Competition Essay

Xerox Corporation - Cause of Failure Competition - Essay Example These factors increased competition enhancing the need of new technological innovations and new ways to compete. "In the 1980s, Xerox Corporation's revenue share of the copier business declined from 90 percent to 43 percent as a result of increased competition from Ricoh, Sharp, and Canon in Japan and Kodak and IBM in the United States" (Contemporary Trends in Human Resources Management, n.s.). The industry of competition can be characterized as follows: "Xerox compete in the market for service of Xerox high volume copiers" (Xerox Corporation. Creative Copier services. 2004). In general, competition theory has been developed, described and analyzed by such gurus as M. Porter, C.K. Prahalad and G. Hamel, R.M. Hodgetts, H. Mitzberg, R. D'Aveni. They describe that to be effective, competition should not always be a formal process. Studies of the planning practices of actual organizations suggest that the real value of competition may be more in the future orientation of the planning process itself than in any resulting written strategic plan. The failure Xerox Corporation proves the fact that competition is not always "a safe" way to obtain a strong market position. Michael Porter contends that a corporation is most concerned with the intensity of competition within its industry. "The collective strength of these forces," he contends, "determines the ultimate profit potential in the industry, where profit potential is measured in terms of long-run return on invested capital." (Porter, 1980). The stronger each of these forces is, the more companies are limited in their ability to raise prices and earn greater profits. According to the case study "started from year 2000, Xerox's share price had fallen below $4, from a high of $64 a year earlier. Moreover, the copying and printing giants around the world were taking chunks of its market share" (Case Study: Xerox Corporation, n.d.). This failure was caused by the fact that intense competition and management strategy aimed to overcome "temporal" decline resulted in failure. A strong market position obtained by Xerox Corporation resulted in "less concern for US competitiveness" (Kato, n.d.). Globalization and international integration presents Xerox Corporation with enticing opportunities and challenges to reconfigure itself. New horizons allowed Xerox Corporation to maximize its global sales, in the belief that those that offer a global service and have a worldwide success through regional policy will be in the strongest competitive position (Xerox Corporation, 2005). Nevertheless, Xerox Corporation paid less attention to such important issues as technological changes and innovations. In his book "Competitive Advantage" Porter identifies five forces that drive competition within an industry: 1. The threat of entry by new competitors. 2. The intensity of rivalry among existing competitors. 3. Pressure from substitute products. 4. The bargaining power of buyers. 5. The bargaining power of suppliers (Porter, 1985). It is important, that a strong force can be regarded as a threat because it is likely to reduce profits. In contrast, a weak force can be viewed as an opportunity because it may allow the company to earn greater profits. In the short run, these forces act as constraints on a company's activities. In the long run, however, it may be possible for a company, through its choice of strategy, to change the strength of one or more of the forces to the company's advantage. The company states that: "We developed a comprehensive process

European Integration Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2250 words - 3

European Integration - Essay Example It was through this European Integration Roundtable of Industrialists is that the transnational corporations tried to influence the European integration process, the nineteen eighties. It was this ERT forum from where a number of industrialists of Europe helped in the forming of agenda and the re-launching of the single market program. This also led to the development of transnational elite capitalists you brought in a number of neo-liberal concepts and ideas which eventually helped the formation of a single market program. Adriaan H. Dierx(2004, p. 237) states ‘The process of European integration and the past decade has been closely associated with the single market program (now evolved into the internal market strategy) and economic and monetary union. This process has been pushed forward by highly publicized deadlines and target dates giving the first impression of abrupt change in the economic environment. In practice, however, businesses and consumers tend to anticipate such change and modify their behavior even before the formal change is made. On the other hand, often the full impact of the economic reform is felt only years after their introduction. This implies that European integration as a continuous process, one in which the speed of progress may be affected by policy initiatives such as the SMP and the EMU and which takes place in conjunction with other events influencing the behavior of economic agents and the performances of the economy, such as globalization or the ICT revolution.à ¢â‚¬â„¢ The ERT can be viewed as an elite comprising of trans-national capitalists who have neoliberal concepts and who occasionally takes part in the social struggle for dominance in the European culture. Europe is not is becoming a part of the global economy, politically and financially. Therefore the businesses in Europe are transforming to globalized and transnationalised businesses. There are basically three large economic blocks in the world:  USA, Japan, and Europe.  

Is Monogamy a More Sustainable Relationship Style than Polyamory Research Paper

Is Monogamy a More Sustainable Relationship Style than Polyamory - Research Paper Example However, the circumstances are rapidly changing and the institution of marriage has been brought into great disrepute by the rising number of divorces worldwide. This has raised the question of whether monogamy is still relevant in the modern times or people should instead embrace the various forms of non-monogamous relationship styles such as polyamory (Barker, 2005). On this backdrop, this paper seeks to determine whether monogamy is a more sustainable relationship style than polyamory. The paper proposes and roots for polyamory and more specifically egalitarian polyamory as the most sustainable relationship style in the prevailing circumstances. Monogamy is the relationship style where a person has one spouse. For so long, monogamy has been upheld by the Western culture as the ideal and the right relationship style (Gourdreau, 2012). Strassberg (2003) asserts that the most significant benefit of monogamy is fidelity. The partners in the relationship uphold sexual faithfulness. Sexual fidelity implies that neither spouse could get into a sexual interaction that potentially makes the other partner feel uncomfortable (Goudreau, 2012). The emphasis is thus on sexual, emotional and spiritual exclusivity with the spouse. Monogamy has, however, come under close scrutiny in the recent past due to the increased cases of divorce. It is estimated that around 53% of marriages in the US end up in divorce before the fifth year of marriage (Mitchell, Bartholomew and Cobb, 2014). According to Ashbee (2007), a significant percentage of these divorces are grounded on sexual infidelity. Furthermore, incidences of cheating scandals among celebrities, political and power elites have also increased remarkably. Monogamy has, thus, showed that it is less sustainable in contemporary times where people are demanding to get their needs satisfied be it by a single or multiple partners. Given the evident

Concepts and Applications of Deep Learning

Concepts and Applications of Deep Learning Abstract: Since 2006, Deep Learning, also known as Hierarchal Leaning has been evolved as a new field of Machine Learning Research. The deep learning model deals with problems on which shallow architectures (e.g. Regression) are affected by the curse of dimensionality. As part of a two-stage learning scheme involving multiple layers of nonlinear processing a set of statistically robust features is automatically extracted from the data. The present tutorial introducing the deep learning special session details the state-of-the-art models and summarizes the current understanding of this learning approach which is a reference for many difficult classification tasks. Deep Learning is a new area of Machine Learning research, which has been introduced with the objective of moving Machine Learning closer to one of its original goals: Artificial Intelligence. Deep Learning is about learning multiple levels of representation and abstraction that help to make sense of data such as images, sound, and tex t. Introduction: Just consider we have to identify someone’s handwriting. The people have different ways of writing, for example, the numbers-Whether they write a ‘7’ or a ‘9’. We know that if there is a close loop on the top of the vertical line then we named it as ‘9’ and if it contains a horizontal line instead of loop then we think it is ‘7’. The thing we used for exact recognition of digit is a smart display of setting smaller features together to make the whole detecting distinguished edges to make lines, observing a horizontal vs. vertical line, seeing the positioning of the vertical section under the horizontal section, detecting a loop in the horizontal section, etc. The idea of the deep learning is the same: find out multiple levels of features that work jointly to define increasingly more abstract aspects of the data. So, Deep Learning is defined as follows: â€Å"A sub-field of machine learning that is based on learning several levels of representations, corresponding to a hierarchy of features or factors or concepts, where higher-level concepts are defined from lower-level ones, and the same lower-level concepts can help to define many higher-level concepts. Deep learning is part of a broader family of machine learning methods based on learning representations. An observation (e.g., an image) can be represented in many ways (e.g., a vector of pixels), but some representations make it easier to learn tasks of interest (e.g., is this the image of a human face?) from examples, and research in this area attempts to define what makes better representations and how to learn them.† see Wikipedia on â€Å"Deep Learning† as of this writing in February 2013; see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deep_learning. The performance of recent machine learning algorithms relies greatly on the particular features of the input data. As for example marking emails as spam or not spam, can be performed by breaking down the input document intowords. Selecting the exact feature representation of input data, or feature engineering, is a technique that people can recall previous knowledge of an area to enhance an algorithms computational performance and accuracy. Moving towards general artificial intelligence, algorithms need to be less dependent on this feature engineering and better learn to classify the descriptive factors of input data on their own. Deep learning approaches is useful among many domains: it has had great commercial success powering most of Google and Microsofts current speech recognition, digital image processing, natural language processing, object recognition, etc. Facebook is also planning on using deep learning approaches to understand its users. How to build a deep representation of input data? The main idea is to learn a hierarchy of features one level at a time where the input to one computational level is the output of the previous level for an arbitrary number of levels. Otherwise, shallow representations (most current algorithms like regression) go directly from input data to output classification. Inspirations for Deep Architectures The main inspirations for studying learning algorithms for deep architectures are the following: The brain has a deep architecture The visual cortex is considered and demonstrates an order of regions all of them have a representation of the input, and signals move from one to the next. In case there are also miss connections and at some level parallel paths, so the picture is more complicated). Each level of this feature hierarchy represents the input at a different level of concept, with more abstract features further up in the hierarchy, defined in terms of the lower-level ones. Note that representations in the brain are in between dense distributed and purely local: they arelight: about 1% of neurons are active concurrently in the brain. Given the vast number of neurons, this is still a very efficient (exponentially efficient) representation. Cognitive processes seem deep Humans organize their ideas and concepts hierarchically. Humans first learn simpler concepts and then compose them to represent more abstract ones. Engineers break-up solutions into multiple levels of abstraction and processing. Introspection of linguistically expressible concepts also suggests alightrepresentation: only a small fraction of all possible words/concepts are applicable to a particular input (say a visual scene). One good analogue for deep representations is neurons in the brain (a motivation for ANN) the output of a group of neurons is given as the input to more neurons to form a hierarchical layer structure. Each layerNis composed ofh computational nodes that connect to each computational node in layerN+1. See the image below for an example: Related Work: Historically, the concept of deep learning was originated from artificial neural network research. (Hence, one may occasionally hear the discussion of â€Å"new-generation neural networks†.) Feed-forward neural networks or MLPs with many hidden layers, which are often referred to as deep neural networks (DNNs), are good examples of the models with a deep architecture. Back-propagation (BP), popularized in 1980’s, has been a well-known algorithm for learning the parameters of these networks. Unfortunately back-propagation alone did not work well in practice then for learning networks with more than a small number of hidden layers (see a review and analysis in (Bengio, 2009; Glorot and Bengio, 2010). The pervasive presence of local optima in the non-convex objective function of the deep networks is the main source of difficulties in the learning. Back-propagation is based on local gradient descent, and starts usually at some random initial points. It often gets trapped in poor local optima when the batch-mode BP algorithm is used, and the severity increases significantly as the depth of the networks increases. This difficulty is partially responsible for steering away most of the machine learning and signal processing research from neural networks to shallow models that have convex loss functions (e.g., SVMs, CRFs, and MaxEnt models), for which global optimum can be efficiently obtained at the cost of less modeling power. The applicative domains for deep learning: In natural language processing, a very interesting approach gives a proof that deep architectures can perform multi-task learning, giving state-of-the-art results on difficult tasks like semantic role labeling. Deep architectures can also be applied to regression with Gaussian processes [37] and time series prediction. Another interesting application area is highly nonlinear data compression. To reduce the dimensionality of an input instance, it is sufficient for a deep architecture that the number of units in its last layer is smaller than its input dimensionality. Moreover, adding layers to a neural network can lead to learning more abstract features, from which input instances can be coded with high accuracy in a more compact form. Reducing the dimensionality of data has been presented as one of the first application of deep learning. This approach is very efficient to perform semantic hashing on text documents, where the codes generated by the deepest layer are used to build a hash table from a set of documents. A similar approach for a large scale image database is presented in this special session. Conclusion: Deep learning is about creating an abstract hierarchical representation of the input data to create useful features for traditional machine learning algorithms. Each layer in the hierarchy learns a more abstract and complex feature of the data, such as edges to eyes to faces. This representation gets its power of abstraction by stacking nonlinear functions, where the output of one layer becomes the input to the next. The two main schools of thought for analyzing deep architectures areprobabilisticvs.direct encoding. The probabilistic interpretation means that each layer defines a distribution of hidden units given the observed input,P(h|x). The direct encoding interpretation learns two separate functions theencoderanddecoder- to transform the observed input to the feature space and then back to the observed space. These architectures have had great commercial success so far, powering many natural language processing and image recognition tasks at companies like Google and Microsoft.

The Blah of Blah :: essays papers

The Blah of Blah The 6-pounder field gun was a lightweight, mobile piece that was a favorite of the field artillery in the first half of the nineteenth century. Rapid changes in technology and design had largely superseded it by the beginning of the American Civil War, but when superior weaponry was not available, some 6-pounders saw action. NOTE: While some of the guns illustrated here may have played little or no part in the Civil War, they are included here because photos of them have been published nowhere else. 6-pounder iron field gun, Model of 1819. Total length, 71.6 inches; weight, 742 pounds; total production, approximately 100 by Fort Pitt Foundry; known survivors, 30. Known as a "Walking Stick" for its slimness, this is the first identified model with full rimbases. It pioneered simplicity of design that was not to be fully accepted for another forty years. Its 10-inch diameter reinforce, combined with the unreliable cast iron of that period, proved notoriously fragile. 6-pounder iro n field gun, Pattern of 1827. Total length, 57 inches; weight, 780 pounds; total production, 98 by Fort Pitt Foundry; known survivors, 7. A stubbier version of the Model of 1819. 6-pounder iron field gun, Model of 1834. Total length, 60.5 inches; weight, 835 pounds; total production, 134 by Columbia and Fort Pitt Foundries; known survivors, 16. The guns of this pattern were the last fieldpieces made by either foundry. 6-pounder bronze field gun, Model of 1835. Total length, 65.6 inches; weight, 740 pounds; total production, 57 by Cyrus Alger and N.P. Ames; known survivors, 19. This slimmer version of the later Model of 1841 represents the return to bronze as the preferred material for fieldpieces. 6-pounder iron field gun, Model of 1836. Total length, 65.6 inches; weight, 785 pounds; total production, 13 by Alger; known survivors, 3. Identical in design to the bronze Model of 1835 above. 6-pounder bronze field gun, Model of 1838. Total length, 59.3 inches; weight, 690 pounds; total production, 96 by Cyrus Alger and N.P. Ames; known survivors, 29. A shorter version of the bronze Model of 1835 above with the same Registry Number series continuing from it for both foundries. Markings on bronze Models of 1835 and 1838 fieldpieces. Unlike the markings on earlier and later cannon, the Registry Number, weight and inspectors' initials are located on the upper breech.

Johannes Vermeer: the Procuress and Woman Holding a Balance

Johannes Vermeer: The Procuress and Woman Holding a Balance Johannes Vermeer was born in 1632 in the Dutch city of Delft where he lived his whole life. His early childhood has not been documented; however, he was the son of a silk worker. It is suspected that at an early age, Vermeer took apprenticeship under a man named LeonartBramer, a local artist. Vermeer created his first painting in 1656called, The Procuress,Oil on Canvas,which appears hanging on the wall in some of his later paintings(Wheelock).In his twenties, Vermeer was wealthy enough to own a large house with an attached inn, he probably sold paintings here. When his father died in 1952, it is assumed that Vermeer inherited his father’s business (National Gallery of Art). Vermeer was married in 1653 to a woman of the Catholic religion, Catharina Bolenes. It is suggested that Vermeer might have converted to Catholicism in order to marry the young woman. Vermeer was raised as a protestant by his parents as he was bapt ized in 1632 in the Reformed Church of Delft (Konig).It might have also been a possibility that the parents of the maiden convinced Vermeer to become Catholic in order to marry their daughter to him. A particular painting called, The Allegory of Faith. Oil on Canvas, was a very religious painting made by Vermeer in approximately 1670. Having 14 children by his wife, four of them died at birth(Wheelock). Vermeer painted approximately 35 paintings his whole career. Most of his paintings were interior style paintings with people portrayed in them. His first paintings were mainly historical paintings.Later on in his life, he produced mostly interiors with just one or two people contained in them, mostly women. Most of these paintings featured either a woman alone by herself completing some sort of everyday task or a very symbolic painting such as Woman Holding a Balance. c. 1664. Oil on Canvas, which will be discussed later. Often the light enters Vermeer's paintings from a window. He w as quite a well-organized artist when it came to the way light is depicted as bouncing off of the objects contained within his paintings(National Gallery of Art). Vermeer became a member of the local guild in 1653; a guild is a sort of lub or apprenticeship program for painters in the early modern Europe region. Some of Vermeer’s first works were historical or religious in nature when he first joined the local guild (Wadum). It seems that Vermeer’s style changed a few years after joining the guild into what we now know his works as, interior paintings of figures. Vermeer was highly recognized in Delft as a well-established artist, however, he was sparsely known elsewhere while he was still alive(Scottish National Gallery). In the final stages of Vermeer’s life, he was heavily in debt.This was probably attributed to the invasion of the Dutch Republic, in which, Delft was located, by the French. This sent the economy into a downward spiral and many people did not have the money or the need to buy art. The lack of sales of his artwork made Vermeer and his wife become heavily indebted. In 1675, probably induced by the rough economic times, Vermeer died and was buried in Delft, he was 43 years old (National Gallery of Art). Vermeer’s wife auctioned off a couple of his paintings after his death in order to pay for the debts that the family owed. Mrs.Vermeer also filed for bankruptcy so that she could recover from the heavy debt burden which was left from her husband. The ending to Vermeer’s life seems like a sad story, however, centuries later his work went recognized globally(Liedtke). Many of Vermeer’s paintings were not even credited to him until 200 years after his death. A French critic in 1866 declared most of the 35 paintings we know to be created by Vermeer today as his originals. It seems that Vermeer’s paintings never left the small town of Delft until a couple hundred years after his death(Wheelock).Today, one may recognize Vermeer’s paintings all around the world and we celebrate his delicate balance of light and tones to create mostly quiet and peaceful paintings. The Procuress. c. 1656. Oil on Canvas,was one of Vermeer’s first paintings and it is also one of the most controversial because many scholars believe that Vermeer himself is pictured in this painting because of the style in which the smiling young man is inserted into the painting. The figure of a smiling young man seems to be inserted into the left hand side of a sort of provocative scene, this figure is assumed to be Vermeer.The setting seems to be in a dimly lit room with the background having a cave or tavern like appearance to it. The background is gray and sort of blurred with one dimly lit light that radiates out of the background from behind a person. One person is dressed in black with a hood wrapped around his head and appears both between the background and in the foreground adding the feel of dept h to the painting. It is hard to tell what this person’s gender is except that he seems to be gawking at a woman across the painting, therefore, one may assume the person must be male.There are four people that appear in this painting. The people, starting from the left side of the painting are: first, the supposed Vermeer himself, second, the man dressed in black in the background behind everyone else, third, a man who may have been in the military and lastly, a woman upon whom all the men, except Vermer, are gawking. The theme of the painting seems to be a drunken scene in which men are paying a woman to perform provocative things. The man dressed in red appears to be in the military because of his hat and the fact that most people in the military during this time wore red.His long brown hair is covered by a hat which appears either dirty or is colored brown. The hat seems to have a ribbon wrapped around it and a feather sticking from it; it seems to be one of the typical D utch hats of this era. The man’s long flowing red coat has a gold stripe which runs down each sleeve. As one’s eyes follow down this man’s sleeve, which seems to be the natural flow of the painting,one may reach the center or focal point of the painting. The man in the red coat is holding out a golden coin in the kind of hand gesture that indicates that he is about to flip the coin out of his hand.Then, one may follow the view down below the centered coin and see a woman, who is sitting in front of the red coated man, holding out her hand as if she is about to receive the golden coin that the red coated man is about to flip out of his hand. Looking at the woman, she is wearing a bright yellow sweater and a white bonnet. Her right breast is being handled by the man wearing the red coat. The man is either paying the woman to fondle her breast or for some kind of later services. In the woman’s right hand she is holding a glass, probably containing some kind of alcohol, due to the nature of the scene.Immediately next to the woman’s glass, sits a fancy looking vase or pitcher of some sort. In the foreground, is a fancy carpet with painted leaves of gold, flowing red lines and black symbols appear to be draped over a rail which covers all of the figure’s legs. Over this carpet, on the left side, directly in front of Vermeer is someone’s long overcoat draped over the rail and the carpet. As we come back to the supposed figure of Vermeer, appearing on the left side, we notice in his hand a glass filled with alcohol.We can come to the conclusion that the glass contains alcohol because he is holding his glass up as if giving a toast. His smile seems to be like that of happy drunken man. He must be enjoying the company of the woman pictured across the painting and also his alcoholic beverage. He seems to be the narrator of the painting as he is the only figure starring directly at the viewer (Wheelock). All lines and shape s of this colorful, yet dark back grounded painting seem to be flowing outward in all directions from the center point or core of the painting.The core of the painting is the golden coin being transacted into the woman’s hand as all objects seem to flow from it. As Vermeer’s first painting, The Procuress. c 1656. Oil on Canvas, is very flowing and action-packed. The last painting the writer will discuss is also by Johannes Vermeer. Woman Holding a Balance. c. 1664. Oil on Canvas, contained in the text book on p. 65 (Getlein). This quiet, sort of still, painting seems very simple at first glance. A woman in a dark room appearing to play with a scale and the only light coming through a small window makes for a sort of calm, peaceful painting.However, it is not as quiet and peaceful as it appears at first glance. The jeweler’s balance is the core of the painting as it is in the dead center of the painting with a small amount of light reflected off its metal edges f rom the window. The jeweler’s balance is also the object of the theme of the painting which is a question of life’s vanities balanced against the coming judgment(Getlein). After taking one’s eyes off of the jeweler’s balance,one may follow down to the table beneath and see the light reflected off of golden or pearl necklaces and other types of jewels.On the left side of the painting,one may see a mirror with light reflected from it directly, in front of the woman. If she looked up she would be able to see herself. Than we see the window’s light flow in onto the woman, and also a painting hanging on the wall behind the woman. The painting is very dark looking, but upon further examination, it is the seen to be the Last Judgment and Jesus in the painting is depicted as directly over the woman’s head. The woman is either fat or pregnant. According to Getlein, her form is that of a pregnant woman and the writer agrees. Her face and arms are oo s kinny in proportion to her body, if she were just overweight. She is wearing a black and white garment that looks similar to a winter coat with a hood over her head. She is wearing this coat over her long, flowing dress. The lines of this painting flow from the window to the jeweler’s balance, down to the jewels, up to the woman’s face and beyond to the painting of the Last Judgment. The background of this painting contains a grey wall with the painting of the last judgment contained on it and the light from the window shining across both the wall and the painting.One may barely notice the painting contained within this painting at first glance, except for, the slight glimmer of light upon the right side of the frame. The darkness of this painting may indicate to the viewer that the coming judgment encroaches upon a person quickly and that one may do well to notice the object of the painting, within the painting, which is the coming Savior. The foreground of the painti ng is the pregnant woman; a table and jewelslayingon the table and in front of it, represent the objects of vanity.The idea of the painting is supposed to be birth, death and the balancing of objects of vanity against things that matter like one’s ultimate judgment by Christ. The mirror also reveals a personal evaluation. This mirror is symbolic of one’s self-knowledge, the writer supposes that this self-knowledge is the knowledge of what a person knows is right and wrong and their choice between the two. The writer believesthe ultimate message of this painting to be that one must balance their everyday lives and not get too caught up in the everyday riches of life.Things which are eternal and unseen matter more than the objects one sees glimmering in the sunlight of the window, at any given moment. The way that the room appears totally dark, except for, the small amount of sunlight shining through the window, the way that the light reflects upon the woman and shines o ff of the jewels and the frame of the Last Judgment, the way that the light scatters throughout the painting makes this one of the most interesting and captivating works by Vermeer.The way Vermeer makes the picture appear dark at first glance, but then, gently and with flow, one is able to see all the objects contained within. A delicate balance of light and dark truly brings the theme of this painting to life out of its overall gloominess. In conclusion, the writer has chosen this artist because he was impressed with Vermeer’sWoman Holding a Balance. c. 1664. Oil on Canvas. He was impressed with the symbolism of the painting, the flow of it and the realistic nature it presents.He then chose another interesting work by Vermeer and analyzed it and became impressed with Vermeer’s The Procuress. c. 1656. Oil on Canvas. Upon further study of Vermeer, the writer is glad he has chosen such a talented artist of this era. The writer is amazed with the progression of skill that Vermeer seemed to have accomplished from his first painting, The Procuress. c. 1656. Oil on Canvas to one of his latter day paintings Woman Holding a Balance. c. 1664. Oil on Canvas. The progressions of symbolism as Vermeer’s life had matured are reflected in his paintings.The writer has noticed that in the early stages of Vermeer’s career, he tended to paint more provocative styled works, whereas, as he matured his paintings became gentler, quaint and often had religious themes. It is interesting to note that like Vermeer’s life, one often finds their own life to be progressing into maturity as the years move on. The writer is glad that Vermeer has documented his maturity, unknowingly, through his works of art. Works Cited Getlein, Mark. Living with Art, 9th ed. New York: McGraw-Hill, 2010. pp. 64-65 Koning, Hans. 1977. The World of Vermeer.Time-Life Books, New York Liedtke, Walter. â€Å"The Cambridge Companion to Vermeer (Cambridge Companions to the History of Art). † 2001. Essential Vermeer. com. 11 September 2012 ;http://www. essentialvermeer. com/cat_about/christ. html;. National Gallery of Art. Vermeer- Biography. n. d. 04 September 2012 ;http://www. nga. gov/feature/vermeer/bio. shtm;. National Gallery of Scotland. Johannes Vermeer Biography. n. d. 01 September 2012 ;http://www. artbible. info/art/large/169. html;. Scottish National Gallery. â€Å"The Young Vermeer. † n. d. National Galleries. org. 05 September 2012