Thursday, October 31, 2019

Writing a response letter to the author Assignment

Writing a response letter to the author - Assignment Example The response to my letter was welcome, and I appreciate your concern regarding editing your article. I took note of the points you highlighted about the proposals I made in my previous letter. Consequently, aspects about changing the font to one uniform one will be done away with in the editing to conform to the magazines requirements.  Another point I took note of regards the use of bullets and numbering. On this, I would still consider using bullets for the technique in discussion and numbers for the steps involved in that technique. This is because bullets are for single unrelated points while numbers are for a chronology of related ideas. Nonetheless, I would still appreciate your guidance on the matter as your views are principal in the matter.  The other changes that involve the spacing between paragraphs are to remain in the revised draft in order that the article looks more readable and well structured. This is because a well structured article appeals more to a reader th an even a well written one (Cargill & O’Connor 25). Alternatively, your guidance on the matter is still highly welcome.   Despite all these, I appreciate your response on the matter and look forward to hearing from you soon. Your cooperation in the subject of editing your article is highly esteemed and I am willing to effect any changes you will authorize. On this, I would still consider using bullets for the technique in discussion and numbers for the steps involved in that technique. This is because bullets are for single unrelated points.

Tuesday, October 29, 2019

Indian Middle Class And Shopping Essay Example for Free

Indian Middle Class And Shopping Essay For the current generation of consumers, the meaning of shopping has changed. It is not just a mere necessity, as it was earlier, but much more than that. The factors that affect store choice and draw customers to the shopping centre include space, ambience, and convenience and moreover an array of choice under one roof. The growth of integrated shopping malls, retail chains and multi-brand outlets is evidence of consumer behaviour being favourable to the growing organized segment of the business. Space, ambience and convenience are beginning to play an important role in drawing customers. Malls, which are now anchored by large outlets such as Westside and Lifestyle and are resided by a lot of Indian and international brands, are also being seen as image benchmarks for communities. Today retailing in India is done through a vast number of unorganized retailers with over 12 million retails outlets spread across the country in various sizes and formats. India has the largest retail density with 9 stores available for every 1000 people. The Indian retail industry is providing 8% of the countries employment with its vast distribution of retail stores across the country. The retailing in India is undergoing a gradual change as market conditions and technological developments combined with affluent, highly mobile and time starved consumers are playing an important role in the changes happening in the retail sector in India. Marketplaces in urban demographic settings attract large number of buyers and sellers, which can be termed as market thickness. Co-existence of many shopping malls along with traditional markets in a marketplace causes market congestion. The co-existence of street markets and the rise of shopping malls have been major trends of retailing in developing countries for decades. However, the increasing emphasis on growing cities with contemporary marketplaces have induced shift of agglomeration format (AF) from a marketing perspective, including the consumer preferences on routes to market. There are some generic similarities and conceptual differences between street markets and shopping malls. The AF-specific characteristics perceived by consumers lead to the change in consumer behavior towards markets preferences for shopping. In centrally managed and enclosed shopping centers in the retailing sector, eight underlying factors of varying character that drive customer satisfaction are selection of market outlet, atmosphere, convenience, sales people, refreshments, location, promotional activities and merchandising policy. FACTORS THAT AFFECT / INFLUENCE CONSUMERS BEHAVIOUR TO BUY IN MALLS. A person is likely to be influenced in making his/ her purchase decisions if he/ she is accompanied by another individual while making a shopping trip. There are many factors that play a vital role in consumers â€Å"decision making†. Some of the prominent among the factors are the image of the store, risk associated with the consumers in purchasing the product and the price perception of consumers on the store or about the product category. Store image contain by many elements like the stores opening and closing time, the availability. The risk factor plays an important role in making the decisions for the product that are new or untried by the consumers so far. Perceived risk is the expected negative utility associated with the purchase of a particular brand.

Sunday, October 27, 2019

Levelized Cost of Energy (LCOE) Model for Wind Farms

Levelized Cost of Energy (LCOE) Model for Wind Farms A Levelized Cost of Energy (LCOE) Model for Wind Farms with Power Purchase Agreements (PPAs) The cost of energy is an important issue in the world as demand for renewable energy resources is growing. Performance-based energy contracts are designed to keep the price of energy as low as possible while controlling the risk for both the Buyer and the Seller. Price and risk are often balanced using Power Purchase Agreements (PPAs). Since wind is not a constant supply source, in order to keep risk low, wind PPAs contain clauses that require the purchase and sale of the energy to fall within reasonable limits. However, the existence of those limits creates pressure on prices, causing increases in the Levelized Cost of Energy (LCOE). Depending on the variation in capacity factor (CF), the power generator (the Seller) may find that the limitations on power purchases required by the utility (the Buyer) are not favorable and will result in higher costs of energy than predicted. Existing LCOE models do not take into account energy purchase limitations or variations in energy production when calculating an LCOE. The challenge addressed in this paper is that the price schedule in a PPA is determined using the LCOE provided by the Seller, but the energy delivery limits imposed within the PPA impact the LCOE in ways that are not accommodated by existing models. A new cost model has been developed to evaluate the price of electricity from wind energy under a PPA contract. This paper presents a method that an energy Seller can use to develop an appropriate Cost of Energy (COE) based on desired energy delivery quantities. The new cost model can then be used as a basis for setting an appropriate PPA price schedule. During the PPA negotiations, LCOE is calculated and used by the seller to determine an appropriate COE for each unit of energy that falls within the conditions set within the contract. As the COE isnegotiated and determined to be too high or too low by either party, the PPA terms are changed to adjust for the desired PPA prices. PPA energy purchase limitations can change the LCOE by as much as a factor of two depending on the energy limitations. The application of the model on real wind farms shows that the actual LCOE depends on the limitations on energy purchase within a PPA contract as well as the expected performance characterist ics associated with wind farms. Cost of Energy (COE) becomes a major concern for the public and utilities as the demand for power from renewable energy sources, such as wind, increases. Utilities may become reluctant to purchase more renewable energy than they are required to purchase if the COE is too high. COE is the actual cost to buy energy while LCOE is the break-even cost to generate the energy. The LCOE is a commonly accepted calculation of the Total Life-Cycle Cost (TLCC) for each unit of energy produced in the lifetime of a project[1]. In addition to the increase in the use of renewable energy sources, there is an increase in the use of PPAs for all sources of energy. PPAs are Performance-Based Contracts (PBCs) that aim to create a fair agreement for the purchase and sale of energy between a utility (the Buyer) and a generator (the Seller). The use of PPAs has been increasing around the world and they are commonly used in Europe, the U.S., and in Latin America. In Germany alone, offshore wind projects with PPAs totaled over 1.2 GW in capacity in 2013[2]. In the U.S. there existed a total of 29,632 MW of capacity in 343 signed or planned PPAs in 2014-2015[3]. Between 2008 and 2016, 650 MW of new capacity was signed in the U.S. and in 2015 the use of PPAs in the U.S. grew to 1.6 GW[4]. In Latin America, the government typically awards PPAs. In 2014, the government of Peru awarded PPAs to projects with a total of 232 MW of capacity[5]. ` PPAs use an LCOE calculation to determine a fair price of energy, much like a standard retail energy contract[1]. However, Buyers in a PPA can create terms that limit the annual purchase of energy, thereby affecting the actual LCOE. Buyers can create a limit for the minimum annual amount of energy that needs to be delivered and/or the maximum amount that energy will be bought at full price. The PPA contract limits create penalties; a penalty is incurred when the Seller does not fall within the energy delivery requirements. In a normal energy contract (such as a standard retail contract, a market retail contract, and in a PPA), the LCOE is calculated over the period of the contract and energy is purchased as it arrives at the agreed upon point of delivery. PPAs are used to share and reduce the risks of added costs, however, in some cases the costs are not accounted for within LCOE models. Conventional LCOE models include all the costs associated with an energy project. PPAs address and outline the capital costs, operational costs over the lifetime of the project, the energy produced, tax credits, and the weighted average cost of capital (WACC) within a specific project.[2] The National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) and others have developed and used LCOE models that typically consider all or most of these parameters [6][7][8]. The terms of the PPA are important because they create costs that affect the actual LCOE. However, current LCOE models do not include the effects of the energy delivery limits and their penalty costs imposed by PPAs as a cost to the wind farms. If the LCOE does not reflect the break-even cost, the Seller risks the projects failure and the Buyer risks the loss in profit from not providing enough energy to its end-use consumers. A more accurate LCOE could prevent the failure of a wind farm and benefit the Seller, the Buyer, and consumers. In this paper, a new LCOE model is proposed to address the PPA annual energy delivery limits, which we refer to as penalties. Although the application of penalties as a cost appears to be straightforward (because of their direct and indirect costs to the Seller), the penalties are more complex to analyze when uncertainties are introduced. The difference between the LCOE with and without penalties can be significant (see the Wind Farm Case Study). The effect of penalties on the LCOE can vary depending on the capacity factor (CF), the variation in CF, as well as the limits on the purchase of energy. Determining the best limits in a PPA depends on the needs of the Buyer in conjunction with a desire for a COE that reflects the actual LCOE for the Seller within the contract. This paper develops a method that provides a tool that the Seller can use to negotiate penalties and an appropriate COE within their PPAs. PPAs define every aspect of the project including: the terms for the entire projects construction, operation and maintenance (OM), insurance, the interconnection and grid, government involvement in the project, the delivery of energy, and any other third party involvement in the project[9]. Each of these aspects is a responsibility of the Seller that affects the cost of the wind farm. Normally, PPAs are viewed as just the relationship between the utility (Buyer) and the generator (Seller), however, this paper views the PPA as a plan with specific features defined for the success of the wind farm and all parties involved. During the negotiation of the PPA, the length of the agreement, the PPA price and the price schedule are determined[10]. All the costs determined during negotiations are reviewed to calculate the LCOE for the whole project and then the LCOE is used to determine a fair value for each unit of energy. The negotiation of the COE and PPA terms is iterated until both parties are satisfied. If the COE is too high, the terms are negotiated to drop the cost and if the terms create extra costs the COE is negotiated to a higher value. Although the PPA attempts to cover all the costs in the contract, the conventional LCOE models used do not consider the penalties on annual energy delivery limits as a cost. The purpose of creating annual energy delivery requirements is to be fair to the Buyer who takes on risk in acquiring negative profits by joining a new contract. The Buyer may not want to buy more expensive and unpredictable renewable energy, but may be required to by renewable energy requirem ents set by the government. This leads the Buyer to create limits on the amount of energy they are willing to purchase. However, the costs associated with these penalties are also a risk that could increase the LCOE without increasing the COE or the PPA price. Thus, causing a loss in profit for the Seller. The effect of penalties must be considered within the LCOE to ensure the fairness in the contract. In some cases, PPAs create minimum energy delivery requirements. If there is not enough energy being provided by the Seller, then the Buyer has to look for energy elsewhere at, possibly, spot-market prices. Spot-market prices vary daily (hourly) due to changing demand for energy buying and selling energy on the spot market is a risk that neither the Buyer nor the Seller wish to be exposed to. The Buyer creates the minimum energy delivery requirement to reduce their risk and the Seller has to pay at the PPA COE for every unit of energy under-delivered. Not all PPAs have minimum energy requirements and some that have a minimum requirement also have a maximum energy delivery requirement. The maximum energy delivery requirement has been used in locations that have renewable energy requirements mandated by customers or the government (and the Buyers would not otherwise purchase energy from renewable sources due to higher costs, e.g., the United States). Within a PPA, there are three diff erent requirements the Buyer can establish once the Seller has delivered the maximum energy delivery limit before the end of the contracted period. The Buyer could require that the energy generated cannot be sold, the energy could be sold at a fraction of the COE, or the energy could be sold in the spot-market. Both the spot-market and wind energy production are unpredictable. Energy could be produced during a period of very low demand and as such low spot-market prices would apply (e.g., at a faction of the LCOE). Although wind farms have energy that is bought and paid for monthly, the actual revenue is calculated at the end of the year. At the end of each year, the Sellers account is reviewed for penalty costs and the over purchase of energy to rectify the account balance. It is important to note that the LCOE model needs to review the annual CF and not the monthly CF and energy generation to determine the actual LCOE of a wind farm due to the PPA billing conditions stated above.[3] The levelized cost of energy, also known the levelized cost of electricity, or the levelized energy cost, is an economic assessment of the average total cost to build and operate a power-generating system over its lifetime divided by the total power generated of the system over that lifetime. LCOE is often used as an alternative to the average price that the power generating system must receive in a market to break even over its lifetime. LCOE is a first-order economic assessment of the cost competitiveness of an electricity-generating system that incorporates all costs over its lifetime accounting for the initial investment, the OM cost, the cost of fuel, and the cost of capital. The definition of LCOE is the cost that, if assigned to every unit of energy produced by the system over the analysis period, will equal the Total Life-Cycle Cost (TLCC) when discounted back to the base year [1][1], (1) where discrete compounding is assumed, Ei is the amount of energy produced in year i, r is the WACC (or discount rate), and n is the number of years over which the LCOE is calculated. E in year i is calculated as, (2) where RP is rated power, and CFiis the average capacity factor in year i. The TLCC in this model can be expressed as [11], (3) where I is the initial investment, and the Present Value of the total OM costs (PVOM) is given by[11], (4) where OMi is the OM costs in year i. LCOE is an equation that assigns a value for every unit produced during the given lifetime of a project. Traditionally, PPAs treat the contract length as the whole lifetime of the project, making short-term PPAs more expensive than long-term[11][12]. Since LCOE is by definition constant once calculated, it can be factored out of the summation in Equation (1) and the LCOE is given as, (5) Although the denominator of Equation (5) appears to be discounting the energy (and some authors have characterize it as such), the discounting is actually a result of the algebra carried through from Equation (1) in which revenues were discounted (energy is not discounted, only cost can be discounted). Based on the derivation of LCOE, the LCOE model must incorporate all financial parameters that contribute to the TLCC. Given this definition, this paper presents a model that includes PPA penalties in the TLCC. Several LCOE models currently exist and are used to determine fair prices for wind energy. NREL uses SAM (System Advisor Model) to compute the LCOE using wind farm data for PPAs[7]. Equation 6shows the LCOE model used in SAM (6) where CPEi is the cost to generate energy in year i and each parameter is given in the ith year.In the SAM model, the LCOE is calculated based on expected cash flows for OM and capital expenditures. Although cash flow is important for determining the actual money spent and costs involved in a wind farm project, SAM does not recognize the implementation of penalties or tax credits in its wind LCOE model[7]. The SAM model does calculate a PPA price within its financial model that includes tax credits, but the PPA price is only a discounted value from the calculated LCOE and does not consider penalties. Similar to SAM, the most commonly used LCOE models do not include tax credits, production losses, or penalties. Some LCOE models, such as Equation (7)[8], (7) explicitly include the following costs: fuel cost (F), production tax credit (PTC), depreciation (D), tax levy (T), and royalties (R).[4] Equation (7) recognizes that the tax credits reduce costs, but it does not recognize PPA penalties as a cost. Other models, such as Equation (8)[6], (8) where CRF is the capital recovery factor, consider the LCOE as a direct project cost and not the sum of TLCC of wind farms, which should include tax credits and PPA penalty costs in the TLCC. PPAs typically consider tax credits as a part of LCOE as seen in the Delmarva-Bluewater PPA[13] and explicitly in Equation (7). However, within PPAs, the LCOE calculation does not consider the cost of penalties in the life-cycle cost. Current LCOE models do not consider all the cost parameters in a wind farm managed via a PPA. PPAs may define a maximum annual energy delivery quantity, a minimum annual energy delivery quantity, both of these limits, or neither. The energy delivery limits are cost parameters that are typically not considered in a conventional LCOE model. The terms generally follow the rule that after the maximum delivery is reached, energy will no longer is purchased by the Buyer, the energy will be sold at a reduced price, or it will be sold on the spot-market[14]. This is generally considered a cost/penalty for the Seller since they lose some value of the energy that is produced after the maximum delivery quantity is reached. Similarly, there is a direct cost/penalty in the minimum energy delivery defined in the PPA, as every unit of under-produced energy must be paid back at the agreed upon COE. We model the minimum delivery penalty based on the PacifiCorp draft PPA, which included the liquidated damages from output shortfall[15]. In Fig. 1, the Maximum and Minimum energy limits demonstrate how the penalties are applied. Each year that the energy production is above or below the limits as shown in Fig. 1, the penalty is applied. The new model reflects the costs of energy production that is above the maximum or below the minimum energy delivery limits. The model begins with an existing LCOE model (Equation (7)) and alters it to include the delivery penalties and tax credits.The cost for under-delivering energy (PN), is the difference between the energy that was generated and delivered (E) and the threshold for the minimum penalty (Minlim)based on expected energy production (Pexp). E is calculated by, (9) where Eiis the sum of all the energy produced in the wind farm from N turbines in year i, CFi,j is the average capacity factor in year i for turbine j, and RPj is the rated power of turbine j. Using this calculation for energy, the production loss and the penalty from the minimum energy delivery limit can be calculated. PN is then calculated by, (10) In Equation (10), Minlim is smallest fraction of expected energy production (Pexp) that the Buyer requires. The purpose of the minimum limit is for the benefit of the Buyer. The Buyer expects a minimum amount of energy to meet the demands of the consumers. If the energy does not meet the requirement, then the Buyer has to go to an outside source (e.g., the spot-market) and will may have to purchase energy at a higher cost, which the Buyer will require the Seller to compensate them for. Similarly, the production loss (PL) is the difference between the energy that was generated (E) in that year and the threshold for the maximum penalty (Maxlim) based on the Pexp. (1-PPAterm) (11) In Equation (11), Maxlimis the largest fraction of expected energy production that the Buyer is willing to purchase. PN is only applied during the years that actual energy production is less than the quantity of energy determined by MinlimPexp,when EilimPexp. PL is only applied when the energy produced exceeds the amount of energy determined by MaxlimPexp,when Ei>MaxlimPexp. PPA ­Ã‚ ­Ã‚ ­Ã‚ ­term is a fraction that represents the type of penalty placed on the Seller after the maximum energy limit has been reached. In a PPA with no outside sell option the PPAterm has a value of0. When all the energy is purchased by the Buyer regardless of the limit the PPAtermis 1 and therefore PL is never applied.[5] The LCOE model including all the unaccounted for cost variables that exist in PPAs is given by, (12) where PL and PN are only included in the total penalty cost (Pen) when the calculated cost in either of those variables in a year is more than $0. In Equation (12) the sums in the numerator and denominator start at i = 0 under the assumption that the investment cost (Ii) comes from a depreciation schedule. In the case where the PPA allows for the Buyer to sell into the spot-market, the PL be a negative value. The Peni in year i is the sum of the production loss and the penalty cost, (13) and the tax credit in year i (TCi) is given by, (14) where all types of tax credits that can be applied to a wind farm are included (see nomenclature for specific tax credit contributions). Both of the Pen and the TC depend on the conditions imposed by the PPA. A controlled study of wind farms was conducted to explore the effects of CF variation and energy delivery requirements on the LCOE. LCOEs were calculated based on four types of PPAs for farms with an annual CF that ranged in decreasing and increasing in fractions of 0 to 0.4 of the average CF around the average CF of 0.4. The four types of PPAs are: a PPA with just a minimum penalty, a PPA with just a maximum penalty where no energy can be bought above the limit, a PPA with just a maximum penalty where the energy is purchased at a fraction of 0.1 (PPAterm= 0.1) of the COE value for each unit of energy above the limit (the value of PPAterm= 0.1 was based on the Pakistan PPA[17]), and a PPA with just a maximum penalty where the energy above the maximum energy delivery limit has to be sold into the spot-market. Although the average CF = 0.4 is the same in all the cases considered, the COE for each wind farm is different since the LCOE differs for each wind farm due to the variations in CF. The costs and energy produced in each year varies, thus creating differences in the discounted total costs for each farm in the years that the CF varies. Each LCOE was calculated for a duration of 5 years. The following data was used to calculate the LCOE, I = $1500 per installed kW[18] OM = $0.01 per kWh produced[18] F = $0[8] TC = $0.05 per kWh sold[19] r = 0.089 per year[20] COE = Calculated LCOE from a PPA without penalties[21] I, although shown as a single value, is a value that is depreciated over the lifetime of the wind farm and changes for every year i. The COE in a PPA is generally calculated from an LCOE that does not consider delivery penalties as a cost. For this reason, the cost calculated from penalties in the new model uses the calculated LCOE (for an individual wind farm) under a PPA without penalties as the COE. Pexpis calculated as the average annual expected energy production from a specific farm. In these cases the expected energy production is calculated using a CF of 0.4 for every year as Danish wind farms averaged 0.41 in 2012 and NREL has predicted that between 2005 and 2030, wind farms will be operating at capacity factors between 0.36 and 0.43[22]. Ei is calculated using a CF that is based on the variability around the average CF. The values of Minlim, Maxlim,and Ei, are then used to calculated penalties. CF variation is the fraction of energy that is produced in year i that falls around the average CF of a project. Fig. 2 demonstrates this effect with two farms that have an average CF of 0.4 and a rated power of 2000 kW over 5 years. Wind farm 1 in this case has a CF variation of 0.05, this means that 0.05 more energy is produced in one year and 0.05 less is produced in another. Wind farm 2 in Fig. 2is similar as it portrays a CF variation of 0.15. The algorithm used in this study valued year 2 as the unexpected higher CF year and year 4 as the lower than expected CF year. It is possible to change the algorithm for other schedules of uncertainty that would yield different results and to make the schedule more complicated with random variations in random years. In all of the LCOE verification tests, the LCOE follows a similar trend. Fig. 3 shows the results from a PPA with only a minimum energy delivery limit. In this case, as the fraction of expected energy production increases, more energy is likely to fall below the annual requirement, thus increasing the LCOE. The variation in CF determines the quantity below the minimum that the energy can fall to and how much the penalty cost will be to the Seller. The greater the variation, the more likely the LCOE will be effected by the minimum energy delivery limits. Fig. 4shows a PPA where once the energy goes above the maximum annual energy delivery requirement that energy can be sold into the spot-market. The spot market is difficult to predict, therefore this study used spot-market prices from 2014 given by the EIA and used a Monte-Carlo simulation to randomly develop a normal distribution with a mean of $52.32 and a standard deviation of 38.75. Those values were then used to determine an expected value for the PPAtermfraction used in the produce the production loss calculation. In Fig. 4 the PPAterm = 1.1, which means that it was cheaper to sell into the spot-market then to sell to the Buyer under the PPA contract (i.e., cheaper to sell means more money for the Seller).[6] The results from Fig. 4 show that the LCOE drops when more energy is sold into the spot-market under these conditions. As the required energy fraction increased, only high variation farms have a lower LCOE because they are still producing above the maximum energy delivery limit and selling into the more profitable spot-market. Fig. 5 and 6 show very similar trends for two different PPAs. Fig. 5contains results from a PPA with a PPA ­term= 0.1 and Fig. 6contains results from a PPA with no outside sell option. Fig. 5allows for energy to be purchased after the maximum energy delivery limit has been reached, but only at PPAterm = 0.1 the value of the COE. This means that production loss is 0.9 of the COE for each unit of energy produced above the maximum energy delivery limit. Fig. 6 is similar because the production loss is the whole COE value for each unit of energy sold above the maximum energy delivery requirement because all the energy produced above the maximum limit cannot be sold, but is still being produced. Both figures show that as the Maxlimis increased, meaning that the maximum energy delivery requirement is increasing, less energy is being produced outside of the limit. Higher variations in the CF are more effected by the Maxlim than those with less variation. The only difference between Fig. 5 and Fig. 6 is that in Fig. 5 the LCOE values are slightly lower than those in Fig. 6 This is due to the low value for the PPAterm. A simulation was run to determine the resulting LCOEs from the four different PPA options. The first is a PPA with no energy delivery limits, where the energy is bought and sold as it is produced. The first type of PPA reflects a conventional LCOE where the PPA energy delivery limits are not applied. The second PPA has just a minimum delivery limit, the third has just a maximum delivery limits, and the fourth PPA has both delivery limits. Real data was collected from 7 different wind farms (Table 1[23]) that varied in the number of turbines, manufacturer, year built, rated power and country (Germany or Denmark). To simplify the differences in costs across the wind farms, the same cost variable values used in the model verification tests were used. The only difference in costs used from the model verification tests and the wind farm case study is that the wind farm case study uses a fixed COE for each farm at $0.25 per kWh, based on NRELs highest expected COE[24]. These wind farms com pared the four different PPA types with a fixed Maxlim = 0.75 and a Minlim = 0.52.[7] The LCOE of each turbine was calculated from the sum of LCOE costs at the end of 5 years. Fig. 7 shows the differences in the LCOEs based on the different annual energy delivery requirements and the selection of penalties that were applied. Each wind farm was given a number because the given data did not contain the name of the farms and only serial numbers for the turbines to identify that the turbines were a part of the same farm. The results show that in most data sets, while using the same Maxlimand/or Minlim parameters, just having a maximum penalty produced LCOEs closest to the LCOEs with no penalties. The results also showed that LCOEs with both penalties or those with just minimum penalties produced higher LCOEs. Based on the results from the model verification tests, for wind farms with the same turbine types and year manufactured, it can be assumed that the different clusters of LCOEs are caused by the differences in CF. Lower CFs cause larger differences between a PPA with just a maximum penalty and a PPA with just a minimum penalty as produced by wind farm datasets 1 and 2. While datasets 4 and 7 show closer clusters of LCOE due to higher CFs that less frequently fall below the threshold for the minimum annual energy delivery limit, but more frequently have production loss by producing energy above the maximum annual energy delivery limit. Wind Farm Dataset/ Manufacturer/ Rated Power<

Friday, October 25, 2019

Abortion: Points Of View :: essays research papers

Abortion: Points of View   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  It is nearly impossible anymore to find someone who doesn't have an opinion about abortion, and probably a strong opinion at that. Yet the endless debates on the topic usually go nowhere, leaving the opponents even more committed to their positions and the open-minded observers confused. Both sides make a good case. An unwanted child is a pitiful thing, and the attendant social problems (single motherhood, financial destitution, child neglect, and urban overcrowding, to name just a few) do not have easy solutions. On the other hand, the thought of terminating something that, if left to run its natural course, would ultimately result in the birth of a human being gives all but the most hard-hearted among us cause for serious introspection.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  One reason the debate goes nowhere is that each side focuses on a different topic. We make no progress because we are not talking about the same thing. The pro-abortionist prefers to discuss choice, and to dwell on all of the social problems inherent in an unwanted child. The anti-abortionist is interested primarily in protecting the life of the fetus. In simple terms, the pro-abortionist focuses on a woman's rights and the anti-abortionist focuses on a fetus' rights. Though interrelated, these are basically different topics.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Though neither side realizes it, there is actually much more agreement than disagreement between the opposing views. The majority on both sides would agree that social problems like child neglect and urban overcrowding are serious issues. Most would also agree that the life of a child is a precious thing that deserves the full protection of the law. There would even be nearly universal agreement that it is a woman's exclusive right to make decisions concerning her body. So where's the disagreement? The entire complex issue comes down to one question:  Ã‚  Is the fetus a person? If you believe it is not a person, then it is simply part of the woman's body and subject to her exclusive control. From this point of view, any attempt to diminish that control is a cruel infringement upon a woman's rights. If, however, you believe the fetus is a person, then you are obligated to protect it, even to the point of delimiting the actions of the woman carrying it. For you, the suggestion that this issue is a matter of personal choice is like saying that whether or not a parent kills a two-year-old is a matter of personal choice. The goal of these pages is to examine the abortion debate from several perspectives, focusing on the question of when the fetus' life as a person

Thursday, October 24, 2019

Nokia’s Blue Ocean Strategy Essay

In today’s overcrowded industries, competing head-on results in nothing but a bloody â€Å"red ocean† of rivals fighting over a shrinking profit pool. Some Companies are fighting for a competitive advantage or over market share while others are struggling for differentiation. This strategy is increasingly unlikely to create profitable growth in the future. Nokia , the Finland’s falling mobile phone company has seen its market share and share price tumbling dramatically by 90% since 2007 and the company is yet to achieve the comeback it hopes. Instead of competing in such red ocean of bloody competition, Nokia should make smart strategic moves by creating uncontested market space that would make the competition irrelevant. Blue ocean is then concerned with unknown markets where opportunities abound. First of all, this study will critically be evaluating Blue Ocean Strategy by highlighting the six principles that Nokia can use to successfully formulate and execute Blue Ocean Strategies. Secondly, we will be focusing on the comparison and contrast of red and Blue Ocean, and finally, this assignment will concentrate on an explanation of the benefit and problems of Group Work. Blue Ocean Strategy Blue Ocean strategy challenges Nokia to break out of the red ocean of bloody competition by creating uncontested market space that makes the competition irrelevant. Instead of dividing up existing and often shrinking demand and benchmarking competition, blue ocean strategy is about growing demand and breaking away from competition. This involves creating blue oceans in a smart and responsible way that is both opportunity maximising and risk minimising. Creating uncontested new market space To win in the future, Nokia must stop competing with rival firms in the battle of smartphones because the only way to beat the competition is to stop trying to beat the competition since the rules of the game are yet to be set. Because operations improve, markets expand, and players come and go, it is a big challenge for Nokia to continuing creation of blue oceans. Here, the strategic move would be the right unit of analysis for explaining the creation of blue oceans and sustained high performance. A strategic move is the set of managerial actions and decisions involved in making a major market-creating business offering. Also, Nokia has to focus on value innovation which is the cornerstone of blue ocean strategy. But again, instead of beating the competition, Nokia should focus on making the competition irrelevant by creating a leap in value for buyers and the company, thereby opening up new and uncontested market space. Formulating and executing Blue Ocean Strategy  To succeed in Blue Ocean, Nokia has to take into account the principles and analytical frameworks that are essential for creating and capturing the strategy. Nokia’s executives have to be brave and entrepreneurial, they should learn from failure, and seek out revolutionaries. Effective blue ocean strategy should be about risk minimisation and not risk taking. The tools and frameworks presented include: * The strategy canvas: it a diagnostic and an action framework for building a compelling blue ocean strategy which serves two purposes. First, capturing the current state of play in the known market space, allowing you to understand where the competition is currently investing, the factors the industry currently competes on in products, service, and delivery, and what customers receive from the existing competing offerings on the market. Second, Nokia’s executives should fundamentally shift the strategy canvas of its operations by reorienting the strategic focus from competitors to alternatives, and from customers to non customers of the business. * The four actions framework consists of reconstructing buyer value elements in crafting a new value curve. These actions consist of eliminating the factors that Nokia takes for granted, reducing factors well below Nokia’s standard, raising factors well above Nokia’s standard, and creating factors that Nokia has never offered. * The Eliminate-Reduce-Raise-Create Grid is key to creation of blue oceans. The grid will push Nokia to act on all four to create a new value curve. By doing it, the grid will give four immediate benefits: * Pushing Nokia to simultaneously pursue differentiation and low costs to break the value-cost trade-off. * Lifting its cost structure and overengineering products and services * Creating a high level of engagement in its application since it is easily understood by managers. * Scrutinising every factor Nokia competes on, making it discover the range of implicit assumptions they make unconsciously in competing. An effective blue ocean strategy has three complementary qualities: focus, divergence, and a compelling tagline. To make its competition irrelevant, Nokia should then apply the principles of Blue Ocean Strategy to succeed. Principles of Blue Ocean Strategy Six principles will guide Nokia Corporation through the formulation and execution of its Blue Ocean Strategy in a systematic risk minimizing and opportunity maximizing way. The first four principles address Blue Ocean Strategy formulation. * Reconstruct market boundaries. This principle identifies the paths by which Nokia’s management can systematically create uncontested market space across diverse industry fields, thus attenuating search risk. It will teach Nokia’s management how to make the competition irrelevant by looking across the six conventional boundaries of competition to open up commercially important blue oceans. The six paths focus on looking across alternative industries, across strategic groups, across buyer groups, across complementary product and service offerings, across the functional-emotional orientation of an industry, and even across time. * Focus on the big picture, not the numbers. This illustrates how Nokia’s management can design the business’s strategic planning process to go beyond incremental improvements to create value innovation. It portrays an option to the current strategic planning process, which is often criticized as a number-crunching exercise that keeps companies engaged into making incremental improvements. This principle challenges risk planning. Using a visualizing approach that drives managers to focus on the big picture rather than to be submerged in numbers and jargon, this principle suggests a four-step planning action whereby Nokia could build a strategy that will create and capture blue ocean opportunities. * Reach beyond existing demand. To create the largest market of new demand, Nokia’s management must challenge the conventional practice of embracing customer preferences through finer segmentation. This practice often results in increasingly small target markets. Instead, this principle shows how to aggregate demand, not by focusing on the differences that separate customers but by building on the powerful commonalities across noncustomers to maximize the size of the blue ocean being created and new demand being unlocked, thus minimizing scale risk. * Get the strategic sequence right. This principle describes a sequence which Nokia should follow to ensure that the business model they build will be able to produce and maintain profitable growth. When it will meet the sequence of utility, price, cost and adoption requirements, it will then address the business model risk and the blue ocean ideas it created will be a commercially viable one. The remaining two principles address the execution risks of Blue Ocean Strategy. * Overcome key organizational hurdles. Tipping point leadership shows how Nokia’s management can mobilise an organisation to overcome the key organisational hurdles that block the implementation of a blue ocean strategy. This principle addresses organisational risk. It sets out how Nokia’s executives likewise can overcome the cognitive, resource, motivational, and political hurdles despite limited time and resources in executing blue ocean strategy. * Build execution into strategy. By integrating execution into strategy making, Nokia’s personnel are motivated to pursue and execute a blue ocean strategy in a sustained manner inscrutable in an organisation. This principle introduces fair process. Since a blue ocean strategy by force of necessity represents a departure from the status quo, fair process is needed to facilitate both strategy making and execution by rallying people for the voluntary cooperation required to accomplish blue ocean strategy. It deals with management risk associated with people’s postures and conduct. Red and Blue Ocean strategies Competition-based red ocean strategy assumes that an industry’s structural conditions are given and that firms are forced to compete within them. Simply stated, red ocean strategy is all about outpacing competitors in existing market. The strategic choices for firms are to pursue either differentiation or low cost. Conversely, blue ocean strategy is based on the view that market boundaries and industry structure are not given and can be reconstructed by the actions and beliefs of industry players. Clearly, blue ocean strategy teaches how to get out of established market boundaries to leave the competition behind, making it irrelevant. The table below outlines the key defining features of red and blue ocean strategies.

Wednesday, October 23, 2019

Does God Exist Essay

In this busy world where almost everything is explained by Science and evidence, no one seems to bother questioning the existence of God. They are either apathetic or simply decided to be atheists or agnostics. Many people, especially the youth, are apathetic. They would rather preoccupy themselves with the newest game of Playstation 3, Hollywood blockbuster movies, sexy music videos of Paris Hilton, sports car, and other more exciting things. Topics of religion and faith are none of their businesses for these are the problems of the priests, pastors, and other faith defenders. They believe that they are too young to care and the important thing is that they do belong to a certain religion, attend some religious obligations, and those would be enough and will serve as â€Å"tickets† to their salvation. But do they understand what they are doing? Do they know what God they are worshipping to? Do they really reflect if they really want the religion they’re into, or they just go with the flow? Others would simply negate that there is a God. These are the atheists. They do not believe in a Supreme Being who creates and controls everything simply because they do not want to. Then, there are those who play safe, the agnostics. They do not confirm nor deny the existence of God just because no one can prove both arguments. Another belief is that of Scientology. Their stand is the only things that are true in this world are those, which can be explained by Science and supported by evidences. Obviously, they do not have a God. The question now is what do we get with these different views. What happens if we believe in God or not? Are we free from the sufferings of this world if we chose to believe in Him? The answer is no. Mr.  Tom Cruise, who is in Scientology, seems to get all the luck in the world even if he does not believe in God. Mother Theresa of Calcutta, who devoted her life caring for the unfortunate, suffered and died as a poor nun. Has she changed the lives of the poor she took cared of? No. The Philippines, a Catholic country, belongs to the Third World where people die of hunger, experience heinous crimes, and suffer from poverty. On the other hand, parts of Europe and United States, where religion and faith seem to be buried under material aspirations, are among the 1st World countries. Ironically, those who have deep faith are the ones who bear all the cruelties in this world, while those who do not have been quite lucky. How unfair life is, isn’t it? But our religious leaders are ready for their standard answers – â€Å"Better suffer here on earth! The more you suffer, the greater the reward awaiting for you in your after life! † So, let’s all suffer despite our goodness. Isn’t it logical? One day a child asked me if there’s a God and I said yes. Then, she asked again why could not she see Him? I couldn’t simply tell her to close her eyes, just have faith, and believe for this won’t answer her question. I couldn’t just tell her that I have Master Yoda’s â€Å"Force† with me and she should believe it. I have to show it to her and let her feel it. I have to give her something that she would understand. It was not the atheists or agnostics, who are closed to the fact that God exists I had to convince, it was a curious girl wanting to know God’s existence. I have to give her a logical explanation for all of these. St. Thomas Aquinas offered 5 reasonable ways to prove God’s existence. First, he believes that there has to be an â€Å"Unmoved Mover. † At this point, I picked up a stone and threw it away. Then, I asked the girl if who made the stone moved. She eagerly replied, â€Å"You! † I said she was very smart. Then I asked her again who moved me to pick up the stone and threw it. She replied, â€Å"God? † The first argument of St. Thomas has 3 basic facts – one, that nothing can move itself; two, if an object is dependent on another in order for it to move, then the first object in motion also needed a mover; and three, the first mover should be unmoved, and this could be God. Tired of walking, we sat on a wooden bench. I asked the girl if she knew the maker of that beautiful bench, the replied she made was it’s the carpenter. I then asked her if she had an idea who made the carpenter. She frowned and whispered, â€Å"his parents? † Again, I asked her who made the carpenter’s parents’ ancestors? Isn’t it God? St. Aquinas’ second way is the causation of existence. He believes that there must have been an â€Å"Uncaused First Cause† who created everything and began the chain of existence. Related to this is St. Aquinas’ 3rd way or the â€Å"contingent and necessary beings. A bench is a contingent being made by wood that came from a tree; man planted that, and who was created by whom? There must be something/someone at the end who created all contingents. St. Thomas Aquinas believes that every contingent being should be dependent form a necessary being for them to exist and that there must exist a being which is necessary to cause contingent beings – this could be God. The small girl looked perplexed with all of the explanations I was giving her. I diverted her attention by asking him to compare Mr. Brad Pitt and Mr. Tom Cruise, of which of the two were more handsome. She immediately replied, â€Å"Brad Pitt! † I then told her that even if Mr. Pitt has a slight edge over Mr. Cruise, there has to be someone more handsome than Pitt or this may even be the most handsome of all handsome. This is the gradient of beauty or perfection. One has to be compared to another that may have more or less. And this is the 4th way of St. Thomas, the â€Å"argument from degrees of perfection. † He believes that there are grades or degrees of perfection and that there must be a perfect standard by which all qualities are measured and compared with, this could be God. While resting, I asked her if she has been taught in her school about the different human systems, i. e. circulatory, nervous, digestive, and others. She said no. I asked then how about symbiotic relationships, photosynthesis, and formation of clouds, which she again had no knowledge in. But she said that she knew where the food goes after it was eaten. Then, I asked her if she was not perplexed by how systematic nature works. It is easier to accept that there must be an â€Å"Intelligent Engineer† who planned all of these rather than these were all products of a big explosion. St. Thomas last way talks about an â€Å"Intelligent Designer†, someone or something must have done these, and this could be God. I am not sure if all of my explanations were enough for the girl to believe in God, but what I have presented, based on St. Aquinas’ 5 Ways, were all basics in life. We experience them daily. These are evidences just enough to convince ourselves that someone or something must be in control, caused things, and moved things. This someone may be the creator of everything, including love, happiness, pain, and suffering. These logical evidences may be still absorbed by a child, but not for atheists. Non-believers would argue that, granting there is a God, who is all-powerful, all good, and all knowing, why does he let certain things happen. Why does he let the plane with a suicide bomber inside to land in the World Trade Center killing a lot of innocent people? If Superman, a fictional character, can stop a plane from crashing, so why cannot this Someone who is omnipotent? If this Someone is all good, why can he let this happen? If he’s all-knowing, then he knew that it was bound to happen and he didn’t do anything to prevent it. I cannot personally provide an answer to all of these doubts that are sufficient for them to believe. But what I do believe is that maybe, crimes like this, were part of the â€Å"master plan† of the Intelligent Designer. † Maybe, what is â€Å"perfect† for him is different from our own concept here on earth. Every abstract painting must look chaotic and one cannot figure it out easily. But when you see its meaning, you begin to appreciate and treat it as an art. Maybe, this is really what life should be. Probably, the beauty of life includes sufferings, cruelties, chaos, and other unacceptable facts. Relative to why God allowed such crime to happen, I believe that He is just respecting the law of nature. He created man to be intelligent and free, thus, he has all the freedom to do whatever he wants to. But of course, in every action there is a consequence, and man should face that. If he decided to eat more then he’ll have himself full and a possibility of stomach ache. The same goes with killing. If one wants to take others lives into his own hands then he can. But this act does not differentiate man from animals or other lower beings. An additional feature was given by the Intelligent Designer exclusive to man, which is conscience. After we knew the rightness or wrongness of an act, we have this conscience if we feel we have done something wrong. That’s the way it is, that’s human nature. And God respects it. God does not want the plane to crash, the suicide bomber wanted it. God, maybe, allowed it for He has a greater plan and there’s something good coming from that crime. The crash was terrible, people died, but it made Americans pray hard at least for a day. It caused them to unite to fight against terrorism. It caused them their humility that they do not control their lives even though their powerful. Proving God’s existence is almost impossible if you’re convincing an atheist or an agnostic. But it is not our duties to force others to believe in each of our own faiths. There are so much complexities in a religion, whether its Catholic, Moslem, Scientology, or even Atheists. Perpetual debates are heard daily claiming that their religion is the legitimate one, often times causing a fight between its pastors. But we tend to forget the basic and primal fact of being a human, which is to cause harmony to all mankind. Being human is to show love, respect, and service to everyone. I think in the end, when we face our Creator, religion would not be our only pass to salvation, but on how many lives we inspired and changed for the betterment of the world. Aren’t we tired of proving God’s existence? People spend a lot of time and resources looking for evidences of His existence just to correlate Science and Faith. Yes, there are unexplainable things such as violence, crimes, cruelties, and other unfairness of this world, that cast doubts to His existence, but we still manage to live. There is still air to breathe, food to eat, and water to drink. We don’t need a grand miracle of dead people rising to life and water turning into wine. Miracles happen daily from the moment we wake up and live for another day. It is not God who should prove His existence to us because it is obvious thru the wonders of this world. It is we, man, who should prove our existence to Him. Let us prove to Him that despite the materialistic and busy world we live in, human goodness still exists.

Tuesday, October 22, 2019

Philip Zimbardo and the Stanford Prison Experiment

Philip Zimbardo and the Stanford Prison Experiment Philip G. Zimbardo, born March 23, 1933, is an influential social psychologist.  He is best known for the influential- yet controversial- study known   as the â€Å"Stanford Prison Experiment,† a study in which research participants were â€Å"prisoners† and â€Å"guards† in a mock prison. In addition to the Stanford Prison Experiment, Zimbardo has worked on a wide range of research topics and has written over 50 books and published over 300 articles. Currently, he is a professor emeritus at Stanford University and president of the Heroic Imagination Project, an organization aimed at increasing heroic behavior among everyday people. Early Life and Education Zimbardo was born in 1933 and grew up in the South Bronx in New York City. Zimbardo writes  that living in an impoverished neighborhood as a child influenced his interest in psychology: â€Å"My interest in understanding the dynamics of human aggression and violence stems from early personal experiences† of living in a rough, violent neighborhood. Zimbardo credits his teachers with helping to encourage his interest in school and motivating him to become successful. After graduating from high school, he attended Brooklyn College, where he graduated in 1954 with a triple major in psychology, anthropology, and sociology. He studied psychology in graduate school at Yale, where he earned his MA in 1955 and his PhD in 1959.  After graduating, Zimbardo taught at Yale, New York University, and Columbia, before moving to Stanford in 1968. The Stanford Prison Study In 1971, Zimbardo conducted his most famous and controversial study- the Stanford Prison Experiment. In this study, college-age men participated in a mock prison. Some  of the men were randomly chosen to be prisoners and even went through mock â€Å"arrests† at their homes by local police before being brought to the mock prison on the Stanford campus. The other participants were chosen to be prison guards. Zimbardo assigned himself the role of the superintendent of the prison. Although the study was originally planned to last two weeks, it was ended early- after just six days- because events at the prison took an unexpected turn. The guards began to act in cruel, abusive ways towards prisoners and forced them to engage in degrading and humiliating behaviors. Prisoners in the study began to show signs of depression, and some even experienced nervous breakdowns. On the fifth day of the study, Zimbardo’s girlfriend at the time, psychologist Christina Maslach, visited the mock prison and was shocked by what she saw.  Maslach (who is now Zimbardo’s wife) told him, â€Å"You know what, its terrible what youre doing to those boys.†Ã‚  After seeing the events of the prison from an outside perspective, Zimbardo stopped the study. The Prison Experiments Impact Why did people behave the way they did in the prison experiment? What was it about the experiment that made the prison guards behave so differently from how they did in everyday life? According to Zimbardo, the Stanford Prison Experiment speaks to the powerful way that social contexts can shape our actions and cause us to behave in ways that would have been unthinkable to us even a few short days before. Even Zimbardo himself found that his behavior changed when he took on the role of prison superintendent. Once he identified with his role, he found that he had trouble recognizing the abuses happening in his own prison: â€Å"I lost my sense of compassion,†Ã‚  he explains in an interview with Pacific Standard. Zimbardo explains that the prison experiment offers a surprising and unsettling finding about human nature. Because our behaviors are partially determined by the systems and situations we find ourselves in, we are capable of behaving in unexpected and alarming ways in extreme situations. He explains that, although people like to think of their behaviors as relatively stable and predictable, we sometimes act in ways that surprise even ourselves.  Writing about the prison experiment in The New Yorker, Maria Konnikova offers another possible explanation for the results: she suggests that the environment of the prison was a powerful situation, and that people often change their behavior to match what they think is expected of them in situations such as this. In other words, the prison experiment shows that our behavior can change drastically depending on the environment we find ourselves in. Critiques of the Prison Experiment Although the Stanford Prison Experiment has had a significant influence (it was even the inspiration for a film), some people have questioned the validity of the experiment. Instead of simply being an outside observer of the study, Zimbardo served as the prison superintendent and had one of his students serve as the prison warden. Zimbardo himself has admitted that he regrets being the prison superintendent and should have remained more objective. In a 2018 article for Medium, writer Ben Blum argues that the study suffers from several key flaws. First, he reports that several of the prisoners claimed being unable to leave the study (Zimbardo denies this allegation). Second, he suggests that Zimbardo’s student David Jaffe (the prison warden) may have influenced the behavior of the guards by encouraging them to treat prisoners more harshly. It’s been pointed out that the Stanford Prison Experiment demonstrates the importance of reviewing the ethics of each research project before the study goes forward, and for researchers to think carefully about the study methods that they use. However, despite the controversies, the Stanford Prison Experiment raises a fascinating question: how much does the social context influence our behavior? Other Work by Zimbardo After conducting the Stanford Prison Experiment, Zimbardo went on to conduct research on several other topics, such as how we think about time  and how people can overcome shyness.   Zimbardo has also worked to share his research with audiences outside of academia. In 2007, he wrote The Lucifer Effect: Understanding How Good People Turn Evil, based on what he learned about human nature through his research in the Stanford Prison Experiment. In 2008, he wrote The Time Paradox: The New Psychology of Time That Will Change Your Life about his research on time perspectives. He has also hosted a series of educational videos titled Discovering Psychology. After the humanitarian abuses at Abu Ghraib came to light, Zimbardo has also spoken about the causes of abuse in prisons. Zimbardo was an expert witness  for one of the guards at Abu Ghraib, and he explained that he believed the cause of events at the prison were systemic.  In other words, he argues that, rather than being due to the behavior of a â€Å"few bad apples,† the abuses at Abu Ghraib occurred because of the system organizing the prison.  In a 2008 TED talk, he explains why he believes the events occurred at Abu Ghraib: â€Å"If you give people power without oversight, its a prescription for abuse.†Ã‚  Zimbardo has also spoken about the need for prison reform in order to prevent future abuses at prisons: for example, in a 2015 interview with Newsweek, he explained the importance of having better oversight of prison guards in order to prevent abuses from happening at prisons. Recent Research: Understanding Heroes One of Zimbardo’s most recent projects involves researching the psychology of heroism.   Why is it that some people are willing to risk their own safety to help others, and how can we encourage more people to stand up to injustice? Although the prison experiment shows how situations can powerfully shape our behavior, Zimbardo’s current research suggests that challenging situations don’t always cause us to behave in antisocial ways. Based on  his research on heroes, Zimbardo writes that difficult situations can sometimes actually cause people to act as heroes:   Ã¢â‚¬Å"A key insight from research on heroism so far is that the very same situations that inflame the hostile imagination in some people, making them villains, can also instill the heroic imagination in other people, prompting them to perform heroic deeds.†Ã‚   Currently, Zimbardo is president of the Heroic Imagination Project, a program that works to study heroic behavior and train people in strategies to behave heroically. Recently, for example, he has studied the frequency of heroic behaviors and the factors that cause people to act heroically. Importantly, Zimbardo has found from this research that everyday people can behave in heroic ways. In other words, despite the results of the Stanford Prison Experiment, his research has shown that negative behavior isn’t inevitable- instead, we are also capable of using challenging experiences as an opportunity to behave in ways that help other people. Zimbardo writes, â€Å"Some people argue humans are born good or born bad; I think that’s nonsense. We are all born with this tremendous capacity to be anything.† References Bekiempis, Victoria.   â€Å"What Philip Zimbardo and the Stanford Prison Experiment Tell Us About the Abuse of Power.†Ã‚   Newsweek, 4 Aug. 2015, www.newsweek.com/stanford-prison-experiment-age-justice-reform-359247.Blum, Ben. â€Å"The Lifespan of a Lie.† Medium: Trust Issues. https://medium.com/s/trustissues/the-lifespan-of-a-lie-d869212b1f62.Kilkenny, Katie.   â€Å"‘It’s Painful’: Dr. Philip Zimbardo Revisits the Stanford Prison Experiment.†Ã‚   Pacific Standard, 20 Jul. 2015, psmag.com/social-justice/philip-zimbardo-revisits-the-stanford-prison-experiment.Konnikova, Maria.   â€Å"The Real Lesson of the Stanford Prison Experiment.†Ã‚   The New Yorker, 12 June 2015, www.newyorker.com/science/maria-konnikova/the-real-lesson-of-the-stanford-prison-experiment.â€Å"Philip G. Zimbardo: Stanford Prison Experiment.†Ã‚   Stanford Libraries, exhibits.stanford.edu/spe/about/philip-g-zimbardo.Ratnesar, Romesh.   â€Å"The Men ace Within.†Ã‚   Stanford Alumni, July/Aug. 2011, alumni.stanford.edu/get/page/magazine/article/?article_id40741.Slavich, George M.   â€Å"On 50 Years of Giving Psychology Away: An Interview with Philip Zimbardo.†Ã‚   Teaching of Psychology, vol. 36, no. 4, 2009, pp. 278-284, DOI: 10.1080/00986280903175772, www.georgeslavich.com/pubs/Slavich_ToP_2009.pdf. Toppo, Greg. â€Å"Time to Dismiss the Stanford Prison Experiment?† Inside Higher Ed,  2018, June 20,  https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2018/06/20/new-stanford-prison-experiment-revelations-question-findings.Zimbardo, Philip G.   â€Å"Philip G. Zimbardo.†Ã‚   Social Psychology Network, 8 Sep. 2016, zimbardo.socialpsychology.org/.Zimbardo, Philip G.   â€Å"The Psychology of Evil.†Ã‚   TED, Feb. 2008, www.ted.com/talks/philip_zimbardo_on_the_psychology_of_evil.Zimbardo, Philip G.   â€Å"The Psychology of Time.†Ã‚   TED, Feb. 2009, www.ted.com/talks/philip_zimbardo_prescribes_a_healthy_take_on_time.Zimbardo, Philip G.   â€Å"What Makes a Hero?†Ã‚   Greater Good Science Center, 18 Jan. 2011, greatergood.berkeley.edu/article/item/what_makes_a_hero.

Sunday, October 20, 2019

Romanticism in Art History From 1800-1880

Romanticism in Art History From 1800-1880 Romanticism is precisely situated neither in choice of subject nor in exact truth, but in a way of feeling. Charles Baudelaire (1821-1867) Right there, courtesy of Baudelaire, you have the first and largest problem with Romanticism: it is nearly impossible to concisely define what it was. When we talk about Romanticism the Movement, we arent using the root word romance in the sense of hearts and flowers or infatuation. Instead, we use romance in the sense of glorification. Romantic visual and literary artists glorified things ... which takes us to thorny problem number two: the things they glorified were hardly ever physical. They glorified huge, complex concepts such as liberty, survival, ideals, hope, awe, heroism, despair, and the various sensations that nature evokes in humans. All of these are felt- and felt on an individual, highly subjective level. Aside from promoting intangible ideas, Romanticism may also be loosely defined by what it stood against. The movement championed spiritualism over science, instinct over deliberation, nature over industry, democracy over subjugation, and the rusticity over the aristocracy. Again, these are all concepts open to extremely personalized interpretation. How Long Was the Movement? Keep in mind that Romanticism affected literature and music, as well as visual art. The German Sturm und Drang movement (the late 1760s to early 1780s) was predominantly revenge-driven literary and minor-key musically but led to a handful of visual artists painting terrifying scenes. Romantic art truly got underway at the turn of the century and had its greatest number of practitioners for the next 40 years. If you are taking notes, that is an 1800 to 1840 heyday. As with any other movement, though, there were artists who were young when Romanticism was old. Some of them stuck with the movement until their respective ends, while others retained aspects of Romanticism as they moved in new directions. It is not really too much of a stretch to say 1800-1880 and cover all of the hold-outs like Franz Xaver Winterhalter (1805-1873). After that point Romantic painting was definitely stone cold dead, even though the movement brought about lasting changes going forward. Emotional Emphasis The paintings of the Romantic period were emotional powder kegs. Artists expressed as much feeling and passion as could be loaded on to a canvas. A landscape had to evoke a mood, a crowd scene had to show expressions on every face, an animal painting had to depict some, preferably majestic, trait of that animal. Even portraits were not totally straightforward representations the sitter would be given eyes meant to be mirrors of the soul, a smile, a grimace, or a certain tilt of the head. With little touches, the artist could portray his subject surrounded by an atmosphere of innocence, madness, virtue, loneliness, altruism or greed. Current Events In addition to the emotionally-charged feelings one got from looking at Romantic paintings, contemporary viewers were usually quite knowledgeable of the story behind the subject matter. Why? Because the artists frequently took their inspiration from current events. For example, when Thà ©odore Gà ©ricault unveiled his gigantic masterpiece The Raft of the Medusa (1818-19), the French public was already well acquainted with the gory details following the 1816 shipwreck of the naval frigate Mà ©duse. Similarly, Eugà ¨ne Delacroix painted Liberty Leading the People (1830) fully aware that every adult in France was already familiar with the July Revolution of 1830. Of course, not every Romantic work related to current events. For those that did, however, the benefits were a receptive, informed viewership, and increased name recognition for their creators. Lack of Unifying Style, Technique, or Subject Matter Romanticism wasnt like Rococo art, in which fashionable, attractive people engaged in fashionable, attractive pastimes while courtly love lurked around every corner and all of these goings-on were captured in a light-hearted, whimsical style. Instead, Romanticism included William Blakes disquieting apparition The Ghost of a Flea (1819-20), sitting in close chronological proximity to John Constables comfortably rural landscape The Hay Wain (1821). Pick a mood, any mood, and there was some Romantic artist that conveyed it on canvas. Romanticism wasnt like Impressionism, where everyone concentrated on painting the effects of light using loose brushwork. Romantic art ranged from the smooth-as-glass, highly-detailed, monumental canvas Death of Sardanapalus (1827) by Eugà ¨ne Delacroix, to J. M. W. Turners indistinct watercolor washes in The Lake of Zug (1843), and everything in between. The technique was all over the map; execution was completely up to the artist. Romanticism wasnt like Dada, whose artists were making specific statements about WWI and/or the pretentious absurdities of the Art World. Romantic artists were apt to make statements about anything (or nothing), dependent on how an individual artist felt about any given topic on any given day. Francisco de Goyas work explored madness and oppression, while Caspar David Friedrich found endless inspiration in moonlight and fog. The will of the Romantic artist had the final say on the subject matter. Influences of Romanticism The most direct influence of Romanticism was Neoclassicism, but there is a twist to this. Romanticism was a type of reaction to Neoclassicism, in that Romantic artists found the rational, mathematical, reasoned elements of classical art (i.e.: the art of Ancient Greece and Rome, by way of the Renaissance) too confining. Not that they didnt borrow heavily from it when it came to things like perspective, proportions, and symmetry. No, the Romantics kept those parts. It was just that they ventured beyond the prevailing Neoclassic sense of calm rationalism to inject a heaping helping of drama. Movements Romanticism Influenced The best example is the American Hudson River School, which got underway in the 1850s. Founder Thomas Cole, Asher Durand, Frederic Edwin Church, et. al., were directly influenced by European Romantic landscapes. Luminism, an offshoot of the Hudson River School, also focused on Romantic landscapes. The Dà ¼sseldorf School, which concentrated on imaginative and allegorical landscapes, was a direct descendant of German Romanticism. Certain Romantic artists made innovations that later movements incorporated as crucial elements. John Constable (1776-1837) had a tendency to use tiny brushstrokes of pure pigments to emphasize dappled light in his landscapes. He discovered that, when viewed from a distance, his dots of color merged. This development was taken up with great enthusiasm by the Barbizon School, the Impressionists, and the Pointillists. Constable and, to a much greater degree, J. M. W. Turner often produced studies and finished works that were abstract art in everything but name. They heavily influenced the first practitioners of modern art beginning with Impressionism which in turn influenced nearly every modernist movement that followed it. Visual Artists Associated With Romanticism Antoine-Louis BaryeWilliam BlakeThà ©odore Chassà ©riauJohn ConstableJohn Sell CotmanJohn Robert CozensEugà ¨ne DelacroixPaul DelarocheAsher Brown DurandCaspar David FriedrichThà ©odore Gà ©ricaultAnne-Louis GirodetThomas GirtinFrancisco de GoyaWilliam Morris HuntEdwin LandseerThomas LawrenceSamuel PalmerPierre-Paul PrudhonFranà §ois RudeJohn RuskinJ. M. W. TurnerHorace VernetFranz Xaver Winterhalter Sources Brown, David Blaney. Romanticism.New York: Phaidon, 2001.Engell, James. The Creative Imagination: Enlightenment to Romanticism.Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1981.Honour, Hugh. Romanticism.New York: Fleming Honour Ltd, 1979.Ives, Colta, with Elizabeth E. Barker. Romanticism the School of Nature (exh. cat.).New Haven and New York: Yale University Press and The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2000.

Saturday, October 19, 2019

To what extent do markets pose a threat to democracy Essay - 1

To what extent do markets pose a threat to democracy - Essay Example (Barnhill 91-92) Moreover, a neglected side f democracy and growth is the question f what facilitates flexible, consensual responses to rapidly changing economic situations and the qualitative aspects f responses by governments to the day-to-day policy matters demanded by a democratic polity. More often than not, institutions are viewed as static and inanimate, devoid f political content. The standard views are that institutions provide security from intrusive government and insure the effective functioning f markets. Property rights are secure where institutions prevent arbitrary acts by government, providing a system f checks and balances, or a system f multiple veto points so that political power remains checked. Efficiency is a question f how well institutions perform and the extent to which rent seeking is prevented. Much f the discussion around differing forms f democracy has centered around presidentialism versus parliamentarism, focusing heavily on the developed countries. As some find, there is little heterogeneity among the richer countries where the presidential and parliamentary forms share many features in common and where outcomes may in fact be similar despite different organizational form. (Moltedo 30-31) Moreover, others have s... In other words, social norms, such as civic virtue and norms f reciprocity, and trust are also thought to be crucial. (Pierson 83-98) Globalization has become one f the biggest issues in the economic world today. In the past few years, the gradual processes that gave companies time to adjust have gone. The pace f globalization has increased dramatically, meaning that in probably less than twenty years; our economy will be virtually completely global. What exactly is "the common good" More recently, Velasquez et al (2005) cited the contemporary ethicist, john Rawls who defined the common good as "certain general conditions that are... equally to everyone's advantage". While the Catholic religious tradition, defines the common good as "the sum f those conditions f social life which allow social groups and their individual members relatively thorough and ready access to their own fulfillment". The concept f Globalization is frequently utilized but rarely defined. According to United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), Globalization broadly refers to the explosion f global linkages, the organization f social life on a global scale, and the growth f global consciousness, hence the consolidation f world markets. (Seaton 110-115) The common good, consists primarily f the social systems, institutions, and environments on which MNCs operate, MNCs thereafter have liabilities to make commitment to develop the common good. Background information f economic globalization and Corporations will be discussed, followed by the context f the common good and its implications under the circumstance f globalization and MNCs' activities. Then the discussion will remain the present existence f both "positive" and "negative" outcomes, environmental

Friday, October 18, 2019

Business Environment and the Analysis of the Financial Health of Bank Essay - 1

Business Environment and the Analysis of the Financial Health of Bank of America Corporation - Essay Example The study discusses the impact of globalization on the business strategies of Bank of America Corporation (BAC). The Bank of America Corporation is a Delaware Corporation in addition to being a ‘bank holding company’ as well as a financial holding company. It is headquartered in Charlotte in North California. BAC provides a varying array of banking as well as nonbanking financial products and services all over the United States in addition to certain overseas markets, through their banking and nonbanking subsidiaries. BAC functions in six business divisions, namely, Deposits, Global Commercial Banking, Global Card Services, Global Banking & Markets, Home Loans & Insurance, and Global Wealth & Investment Management. As of December 2010, BAC operates in all the states of the United States of America and 40 other countries across the world. BAC caters around 80% of the population of the United States through their retail banking segment. The business environment and the mar kets in which the BAC carries out its business are dynamically influenced by the developments in the economies of the US and other countries. In the year 2010, the worldwide economy continued to recuperate, though the growth was not even across the various regions. The US, the UK, and Europe showed modest growth, while the countries like China, Brazil, and India demonstrated rapid expansion. The US economy started to improve at the beginning of 2010 as a result of reasonable development in consumption level as well as inventory rebuilding in the nation. However, the growth slowed down in the mid of 2010 as a result of the escalation of the financial calamity in Europe. Nevertheless, notwithstanding the modest economic augmentation in 2010, BAC generated free cash flows worth $1.5 trillion from their nonfinancial businesses as a result of their vigilant financial practices in the business. Furthermore, the credit quality of bank loans improved considerably in the year 2010 and the co ntinuous economic revival enhanced the atmosphere for bank lending. Since the latter part of 2010, bank commercial as well as industrial loans amplified, illustrating augmented loan demand as a result of stronger production and capital spending in addition to inventory building.

Nursing Leadership Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Nursing Leadership - Essay Example As the patient fell from the bed and broke his arm, the nurse and hospital were liable for damages. This paper aims to identify nursing policies that were not followed so as to prevent such a scenario from occurring. Firstly, nursing leadership and managerial qualities in regards to the present situation shall be outlined. Secondly, issues of nursing accountability shall be detailed. Next, the concept of team-work as pertains to the scenario shall be highlighted. Following, the topics of clinical governance, as well as teaching and facilitating of nurses in general, shall be outlined as relevant to the present scenario. Some of the areas that leadership and management incorporate are finances, business focus, information management, and marketing (Baker, 2000a; Kelly-Hayes, 2003). When a patient falls from a bed because procedures have not been followed, it is clear that nursing leadership and management training is lacking. In the current scenario, additional costs were created within the hospital to care for the patient, in regards to the broken limb, as well as consultation with attorney's to establish their legal obligations, and in administration costs to report the incident, and to process ongoing documentation relevant to the complaint made by the family. From the point of view of nursing being a business, the scenario i... The information management that was lacking was that the nurse did not have available protocols to compare her patient care to. In regards to marketing, the hospital as well as the nurse has provisioned the patient and family with an image of being incompetent and neglectful in their care for the patient.Recent studies point to a distinct lack of leadership qualities amongst nurses in general, and attribute this to a lack of training in the area (Laukkanen, 2005). Unfortunately, this is a waste of resources as nurses are in key position to influence hospital care policies, as well as state and national legislation (Sullivan, 2001). It is contended that student nurses need to be encouraged to develop their leadership and managerial skills, as well as their clinical skills (Baker, 200b). For example, a more salient awareness of cost-containment issues could have motivated the hospital to have set protocols for the bed-care of elderly patients (Antrobus, 1999). Additionally, the use of job re-design amongst the nursing staff could have provided the hospital with a critical evaluation of the sequential tasks of each job a nurse undertakes, and provided solutions for combining tasks to improve patient care (e.g., saying goodnight/see you later to a patient also includes the action of the hands checking the bed-rail is up) (Sullivan, 2001).Quality management important to nursing as it allows for an evaluation of the outcomes of practices. In turn, this style of management provides for a preventative approach to nursing that identifies potential problems quickly, and facilitates research into viable alternative solutions (Belcher, 2000; Hendel & Steinmann, 2002). As such,

Enterprise Applications Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Enterprise Applications - Research Paper Example From this paper it is clear that  supply chain management (SCM) information flow management among and between the supply chain stages with the view of maximizing profitability and supply chain effectiveness. In this case, the supply chain includes all the parties that are either indirectly or directly involved in the purchase of raw materials or products. Unlike in the past where organizations were more focused on quality improvements and manufacturing, a shift has been experienced in the current corporate world towards influencing SCM to include suppliers and customers. Thus, organizations are expected to embrace technologies that would have an effective impact on the management of the supply chains.  As the discussion stresses virtually seamless links of information between and within organizations form an essential part of integrated supply chains. The major role of Information Technology (IT) in the supply chain is thus to establish tight process and information linkages or c reate integrations between organizational functions. Technological advances made in the recent past have made integrated SCM possible. SCM is driven by various factors including visibility, consumer behavior, speed, and competition. Visibility refers to having a clear view of all the areas of the supply chain, up and down.  Changes in consumer behavior are also evident in the market environment as consumer demands have increased, and so has the need for organizations to respond to such needs faster and effectively by enhancing the supply chain.

Thursday, October 17, 2019

Sex Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Sex - Essay Example Kant considered sex outside of marriage as immoral and perceived it as fulfillment of sexual desires. Kantian ethics however dictate that a sexual union is needed merely for self-preservation and procreation.  Kant’s theory is based on a  categorical imperative, which regards it as something necessary with some association to pleasure. Kant’s has complex views about sexuality, and views a sexual union in a bizarre way and insists that when one makes another individual their spouse; they are harming the society since they take that particular individual away. Kant saw marriage as acquisition of another human being for society. The sexual union of marriage nonetheless seems bit absurd as it Kant just extends it a transfer of â€Å"bodily fluid.† The question remains- why is sex permissible and possible? Utilitarian ethics dictate that sex should be taken as strict sense. A Utilitarian argument tends to produce overall happiness than doing anything else. The Uti litarian is not a moral theory that believes everything should be done for moral reasons. Since an egoistic person only cares about himself, utilitarian argument proposes that pleasure and pain arises form actions. However, utilitarian ethics possesses a very absurd view.

Week 3 Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words - 2

Week 3 - Essay Example Helen has suffered the ordeal twice on campus by the same person. She has the right to report the matter to the university. She fears the punishment the university may execute on the perpetrator. On the other hand, she is at ease opening up to the psychologist as she counts on her right of confidentiality assured by psychotherapy (Pope & Vasquez, 2011). Ethically, individuals need to protect the welfare of others. The psychologist complies with the code of ethics of psychotherapy and the universitys policy. Among other ethical principles, psychotherapy upholds confidentiality, honesty, respect and mandatory disclosure. Respect demands the psychologist to regard Helen’s dignity and openness with him. The psychologist needs to be honest about his take on the issue. Confidentiality entails treating a patient’s information with privacy and discretion. Situations of potential harm to the individual or on others require mandatory disclosure to relevant authorities (Garber, 2008). Several options are available to the psychologist. He can support Helen in keeping the information secret so as to maintain her trust in him (Pope & Vasquez, 2011). He has the choice to report the case to the university to meet his obligation to the university policy and uphold professionalism. Supporting Helen to keep the sexual-harassment secret will mean dealing with the uncertainty that the culprit will not attempt to harass her again. They would not know whether the individual has harassed others. Helens abuser can continue with his ordeal if not reported. On the other hand, reporting the case to the university authorities may cost Helen’s trust in the psychologist. It will also demonstrate that the psychologist upholds university policy and the code of ethics of psychotherapy (Garber, 2008). It may help discipline Helen’s abuser and stop him from harassing her and others on campus. Respecting Helen and her initiative to seek help

Wednesday, October 16, 2019

Enterprise Applications Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Enterprise Applications - Research Paper Example From this paper it is clear that  supply chain management (SCM) information flow management among and between the supply chain stages with the view of maximizing profitability and supply chain effectiveness. In this case, the supply chain includes all the parties that are either indirectly or directly involved in the purchase of raw materials or products. Unlike in the past where organizations were more focused on quality improvements and manufacturing, a shift has been experienced in the current corporate world towards influencing SCM to include suppliers and customers. Thus, organizations are expected to embrace technologies that would have an effective impact on the management of the supply chains.  As the discussion stresses virtually seamless links of information between and within organizations form an essential part of integrated supply chains. The major role of Information Technology (IT) in the supply chain is thus to establish tight process and information linkages or c reate integrations between organizational functions. Technological advances made in the recent past have made integrated SCM possible. SCM is driven by various factors including visibility, consumer behavior, speed, and competition. Visibility refers to having a clear view of all the areas of the supply chain, up and down.  Changes in consumer behavior are also evident in the market environment as consumer demands have increased, and so has the need for organizations to respond to such needs faster and effectively by enhancing the supply chain.

Tuesday, October 15, 2019

Week 3 Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words - 2

Week 3 - Essay Example Helen has suffered the ordeal twice on campus by the same person. She has the right to report the matter to the university. She fears the punishment the university may execute on the perpetrator. On the other hand, she is at ease opening up to the psychologist as she counts on her right of confidentiality assured by psychotherapy (Pope & Vasquez, 2011). Ethically, individuals need to protect the welfare of others. The psychologist complies with the code of ethics of psychotherapy and the universitys policy. Among other ethical principles, psychotherapy upholds confidentiality, honesty, respect and mandatory disclosure. Respect demands the psychologist to regard Helen’s dignity and openness with him. The psychologist needs to be honest about his take on the issue. Confidentiality entails treating a patient’s information with privacy and discretion. Situations of potential harm to the individual or on others require mandatory disclosure to relevant authorities (Garber, 2008). Several options are available to the psychologist. He can support Helen in keeping the information secret so as to maintain her trust in him (Pope & Vasquez, 2011). He has the choice to report the case to the university to meet his obligation to the university policy and uphold professionalism. Supporting Helen to keep the sexual-harassment secret will mean dealing with the uncertainty that the culprit will not attempt to harass her again. They would not know whether the individual has harassed others. Helens abuser can continue with his ordeal if not reported. On the other hand, reporting the case to the university authorities may cost Helen’s trust in the psychologist. It will also demonstrate that the psychologist upholds university policy and the code of ethics of psychotherapy (Garber, 2008). It may help discipline Helen’s abuser and stop him from harassing her and others on campus. Respecting Helen and her initiative to seek help

Jfk Cuban Missile Crisis Essay Example for Free

Jfk Cuban Missile Crisis Essay The speech made people aware that action was being taken to prevent any unexpected attacks and that every aspect of the crisis was being looked into. The speech itself upset many Americans and put them into a state of fear, but it also reassured them that Kennedy was aware and ready to take control to protect his country. Kennedy’s impact on the United States was not as remembered for what he did, but more for what he could have done. This particular speech helps illustrate the greater aspects of American history and shows why we are still a united nation. The Kennedy family had a passion for success. The public attention and fame that the family possessed came from â€Å"personal wealth and politics. † (Gale, 1994. Biography In Context) John Kennedy’s father, Joseph P. Kennedy, was ambassador of the United States and the United Kingdom. His wife, Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy, was an American philanthropist. The couple had nine children together, John F. Kennedy being the second oldest son. He was born on May 29, 1917. His father put a great deal of his faith into his first born, Joseph P. Kennedy Jr. , his goal being to make him president of the United States. With the family’s competitive nature, this caused a lot of rivalry between the two brothers. This issue followed them into their adult lives where â€Å"Jack,† as John was called, and his older brother both went to Choate and Harvard. Kennedy had not had a set plan for pursuing a career, but he was â€Å"certain of eventual American involvement in the expanding war. † (Gale, 1994. Biography In Context) He was assigned to Naval Intelligence in Washington when the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor. He was reassigned to sea duty on PT boats. On August 2, 1943, after a Japanese destroyer crashed into Kennedy’s PT-109, he was declared a â€Å"hero† by The New York Times for rescuing the surviving crew members. This story was circulated in each of Kennedy’s campaigns helping him move up as a politician. A year later his older brother, Joseph was killed while on a dangerous volunteer mission in Europe. He died instantly do to the explosion of an aircraft carrying dynamite. Kennedy’s political career really started up around this time because of his feelings of an â€Å"unnamed responsibility† to his parents, brothers, and sisters. In 1946, his father felt it was necessary to have John Kennedy take his brothers place and run for the same seat in Congress John’s grandfather â€Å"Honey Fitz† held nearly five decades earlier. (Gale, 1994. Biography In Context) Kennedy went into politics with no plan or philosophy. Even without direction in his campaign he still did win. People looked at him indifferently due to the fact that he wasn’t very involved in the debates. His health started depleting and it was obvious to the public that he was suffering from illness. He was diagnosed with Addison’s disease in 1947. It is a disease that occurs when the adrenal glands do not produce enough hormones. He was then given only a few years to live, but when he started his cortisone treatments in 1950, his health improved along with his spirits. In the 1960 Presidential election, Kennedy defeated Richard Nixon by 12,000 votes. Kennedy began his presidency with grace and huge expectations for the nation. His inaugural speech focused on what America’s role was with the rest of the world and his obligations as â€Å"Leader of the Free World. † The Cuban Missile Crisis came about when Premier Nikita Khrushchev announced that Soviets plan to support â€Å"wars of national liberation† against noncommunist regimes around the globe. Kennedy sharpened the American military’s watch on communist rebellion against the government. In April, 1961 he authorized a CIA plan to invade Cuba. The invasion failed horribly at the Bay of Pigs and the U. S. was on the edge of war when President Kennedy confronted Khrushchev about the presence of missile sites in Cuba. After two weeks they had reached a compromise: Soviets would withdraw their missiles in Cuba and the U. S. would withdraw its missiles in Turkey. The Cuban Missile Crisis speech was given on October 22, 1962 at the White House. It addressed our nation’s allies and enemies along with all American citizens. Kennedy used logos, pathos, and ethos in his address. He used logos by stating â€Å"unmistakable evidence that a series of offensive missile sites are in preparation. He let everybody know that the evidence was proven true and that no lies are coming from the address.

Monday, October 14, 2019

Beliefs of Malcolm X

Beliefs of Malcolm X Cheyanne Ratliff 1. When Malcolm X believes when he receives an X is that it is an ex form of himself. He elaborated by saying that it is supposed to [replace] the white slave master name of little which some blue-eyed devil named Little had imposed on my paternal forebears, (MX, 229). His statement is correct because many of the African Americans in America were brought over from Africa by Europeans. This means that it was not the identity of his oppressor, but of the black man himself. Although they used this excuse, there was a bit of a social privilege to not being truly African. On page 4, Malcolm X states that [m]ost Negro parents in those days would almost instinctively treat any lighter children better than they did the darker ones. It came directly from the slavery tradition that the mulatto, because he was visibly nearer to white, was therefore better, (MX, 4-5). What this suggests is the impact the white slave owners have had on the ancestors of blacks and how they have been raised to thin k like that. It means that those who are lighter tend to have a higher social privilege because of how slave owners implied that if you were lighter, you were whiter. 2. Malcolm describes how the black people are tired of the treatment of colored men and women by the police, also known as police brutality. In MX, he states that [i]t is a miracle that 22 million black people have not risen up against their oppressors-in which they would have been justified by all moral criteria, and even by the democratic tradition, (MX, 251). This states that Malcolm is surprised about how the black Americans have not risen up yet against their oppressors the police. Although it seems as if the police have been nothing but brutal towards black Americans, that does not always seem to be the case. In the chapter Black Muslims, Malcolm states that [l]aw agencies once had scoffed at our nation as black crackpots; now they took special pains to safeguard against some white crackpots causing any incidents or accidents, (MX, 252). This supports the rebuttal because it shows how although the police always seemed more hostile and aggressive towards the black people of that time, they eventually managed to see that black people needed protection too, just as the white man needed. 3. What Malcolm X is doing is he is finding the differences between segregation and separation. On page 250 of MX, he describes segregation as when your life and liberty are controlled, regulated, by someone else, (MX, 251) and separation as that which is done voluntarily, by two equals- for the good of both, (MX, 251). The difference that Malcolm X is pointing out is that with segregation, you are regulated by somebody else, compared to separation, which is when you are regulated by yourself. This conveys the wishes that many black Americans have because many of them wish to not be controlled by the white man. Although they were segregated, they still had control over their own lives. Theoretically, they let the white man back them into a corner, which then calls for them to attack and lash back in order to protect themselves and/or their community. In the book Things Fall Apart, Okonkwo let the white Christian missionaries back him into a corner, which then caused him to lash out a nd kill himself in order to protect himself and his community. Theoretically, if they had refused the push of the white man towards that corner, they could have easily been on a faster track to equality. 4. This statement is valid because it shows how the black Americans have never been free to actually act for themselves in the sense of controlling their own communities. Similar to the last question, they have been backed into a corner. He states that separation is when that which is done voluntarily, by two equals- for the good of both, (MX, 251). Because the blacks are not able to completely separate from the white people, they cannot reach their full potential and power. This relates to when a dog is abused by its owner, then they can never really function by their own means. 5. Malcom X is describing how the black hustler in the ghetto jungles has to survive. By saying the ghetto hustler is the most dangerous black man in America (MX, 318), he is talking from experience AND what he has observed. On page 173, Malcolm X describes his observations as scary because it had taught [him] in a very few minutes to have a whole lot of respect for the human combustion that is packed among the hustlers and their young admirers who live in the ghettoes where the Northern white man has sealed-off the Negro-away from whites-for a hundred years, (MX, 318-319). What quotation suggests is that these young people who admire the hustlers, those who are considered the most dangerous black [men] in America (MX, 318) are considered that because they have the most influence upon the youth, which is the next generation. This means that because the black hustlers depend on the youth, this is how they survive and keep that black hustler legacy going. Although this may suggest that this is where all of their power comes from in order to survive, it is not. Earlier in the book, Malcom X describes his own accord of how it works; I was a true hustler-uneducated, unskilled at anything honorable, and I considered myself nervy and cunning enough to live by my own wits, exploiting any prey that presented itself, (MX, 111). This quote from himself suggests that he lived by his own wits because he thought he was all that, and he became very popular among the ranks. What this quote makes people realize is that power comes from within, and that when you create an image of yourself, that power inside of you is what causes that image to come true. 6. What Malcolm X is differentiating between is the stereotype of how a white man acts like, and what a black man acts like. What this suggests is that black people, in order to be accepted, they depend upon the stereotype of the white man and decide to try and follow that to be accepted. An example of this is when Malcolm X states that [t]he only difference was that the ones in Boston had been brainwashed even more thoroughly. They prided themselves on being incomparably more cultured, cultivated, dignified, and better off than their black brethren down in the ghetto, which was no further away than you could throw a rock. Under pitiful misapprehension that it would make then better, these Hill Negroes were breaking their backs trying to imitate white people, (MX, 42). This suggests that black people will try to imitate white people in order to seem more appealing to them. The quotation describes how societal pressures were even more severe than they are today. Before coming to a con clusion though, we must consider how the white man did not always intentionally discriminate. On page 174 of MX, he describes the cause of the black mans condition was because of the white mans society [being] responsible for the black mans condition in this wilderness of North America. This quotation says that although there is social pressures from the white man, his society implements even more social pressures than the white man does himself. It suggests that the black community itself is more socially pressuring than the white mans community is at times. A connection to this is from the book The Pearl by John Steinbeck, when the richer society who lived inside the gate had societal pressures pushed upon those who live outside the wall, those who lived outside of the wall developed even stronger, negative societal pressure that basically said if you dont live inside the wall youre unsuccessful. This eventually pushed Kino to go crazy, just because he wanted money to get into the inside of the wall. Those snooty black brethren who stuck their noses up at their brothers and sisters in the ghettoes were like Kino, and they drove themselves crazy trying to fit into an ideal placed in their heads by themselves and those around them. 7. To begin with, Hajj means pilgrimage. In order for Malcolm X and all separationists (in MXs eyes) to achieve their goal, they must remain united. In the book, Malcolm X says that for the black man in America the only solution is complete separation from the white man, (MX, 250) and that Islam is the hope for justice and equality in the world we must build tomorrow, (MX, 241). Malcolm X here basically says that we must separate from the white men and all join Islam in order to complete their destined pilgrimage. Although this seems like the perfect solution, this is far from it. This was similar to when Hitler believed that there was only one pure race and that they should all be separated to be perfect, just as Malcolm X believed that there was only one way that black people could be perfect, and that was separated under the state of Islam. This is a one right way mindset that could potentially be dangerous if it is not handled properly. 8. America is seem as a major place full of discrimination in all parts of the world. To support this, Malcolm X states that they called them [h]ate teachers violence seekersblack racists black fascists anti-Christian possibly communist inspired, (MX, 243). This all started because of a few racist whites had collected footage and lied about the intentions of Malcolm X and Mr. Muhammad. This is a prime example of how the Americans perceived them beause they were not only black, but also Muslim. Although this produced hate and more discrimination, it made black Muslims stronger and more powerful. This is similar to how people saw the Baton Rouge bus boycott of 1953 as a bad thing, but really it made those boycotting even stronger and more powerful. It did that because it eventually made people realize hey maybe this is wrong. Although this is not the case in MX, the amount of attention is similar to the amount pf attention that the bus boycott got in 1953. 9. When Malcolm X suggests when he says thinking internally is that the American power structure does not want them to realize how powerful they could be. Malcolm X describes this behavior as selfish when he says he loves himself so much that he is startled if he discovers that his victims dont share his vainglorious self-opinion, (MX 243). What this means is that if the white man pressures black people into believing one thing about themselves, and the black people do not agree, then the white man would lash out, almost like an angry toddler. A connection to this is similar to when Donald Trump tries to convince people of one thing, and when they dont believe it, he turns into a crybaby. But, this is not always the case. On page 318, MX describes the ghettoes, and how the people within them are preconditioned to think that they must fight to survive. What this suggests is that the white mans tactics had been successful and basically cornered them into believing this is where they be long. This is a similar example to when you keep telling a dog that it is a bad dog. It is eventually going to believe that and not try to change that mindset. 10. When Malcolm X writes that the seeds of racism are so deeply rooted many whites are even unaware of their own racism( MX, 369-370) , he is basically saying that the hate of blacks has been passed on for so long, it has practically become tradition. And with tradition, there is always a wish for change, so blacks were always pushed to become lighter or to act more white. In The Autobiography of Malcolm X, Malcolm X says I remember that I thought that it looked as if my fathers strong black face had been dusted with flour, and I wished they hadnt put on such a lot of it (MX, 11). What MX is saying by this is that he wished that they wouldnt have tried to have his father look lighter because it strayed the thought of his strong, deep ebony father he had etched into his mind. This could be related to how when certain family members die, their kids do not want certain things done to those family members because it takes away from the thought of them they already have in their heads. B ut, sometimes the families will go against embracing their loved ones wishes. For example, on page 8 of The Autobiography of Malcolm X, MX talks about how his ) mom would make him go outside to [l]et the sun shine on [him] so [he] can get some color. (MX, 8). What this suggests is that even though MX was okay with his skin color and the lightness/darkness of it, his mother still pressured him to get MORE color because that was her tradition, or hoe she was raised. This is similar to how President Obama had to think about his traditions and values before he made any decisions, like all presidents have done/ will do. 11. MX is basically suggesting that this mass genocide had welcomed them into the system, and now they needed to be accepted. The best way to be accepted though, in MXs eyes, was to revolt. On page 375 he praises the revolt saying that the negroes so-called revolt is merely an asking to be accepted into the existing system! (MX, 375). This suggests that the black people believe that they have to fight their way to earn recognition and respect within the system, like they grew up believing. This is similar to how many of the young hustlers grew up seeing pimps and hustlers fighting in the streets to survive, learning from them how they need to fight to survive like that too. But, even though they needed to fight to get into the system, there were many placed throughout the U.S that had accepted the black people into their systems. This proved good, but few people saw it. 12. MX is basically calling to arms for the black people to take no shit. He believes, through the massive rallies that were [an] astounding success he had helped raise awareness, and now they needed to do whatever possible to keep that awareness up and continue with pursuing equal rights. Even though there isnt really a rebuttal for this, I feel as if MX had to convince himself of that too, considering when the press came at him after the film The Hate That Hate Produced aired, he had to consult Mr. Muhammad on what to do because he hadnt stayed confident enough in himself OR his followers to believe that they were strong enough to keep earning those rights. This is similar to when he believed that things would not get better for him in jail, so he had to depend on his God for help and guidance. 13. What Malcom X is saying is that the white man has preconditioned the black man for a life of crime and discrimination! To support this, he states on page 248 that many black men were converted to the white mans way of thinking because of money or promises of a better life, so they became black bodies with white heads (MX 248). This means that they would give up anything for a better life, because they knew that the one that they were living at that moment wouldntve gotten them anywhere in life, so they became one with the enemy. Although this was the case, many black people had switched sides due to all of the negativity towards MX and Elijah Muhammad and their teachings due to The Hate That Hate Produced. This is similar to when you are in a car crash and hurt your neck, so if you try to move it or anything, you will just hurt it more because of the problems that are already there. Reflection 1. The most novel claim was that traditions could be pressured onto other people who werent associated with those people to begin with. It was novel because it was true, otherwise racism and discrimination would not have occurred. 2. page 243 and 251 (Questions 9+2) 3. Danyas explaination of how the blacks were preconditioned to live and think a certain way, and Lizs which piggybacked upon that. 4. This is similar to when you are in a car crash and hurt your neck, so if you try to move it or anything, you will just hurt it more because of the problems that are already there. 5. Question two because it provided a lot of discussion. 6. Question twelve because I went so in depth with it because it interested me.