Determinism, Compatibilism, and Libertarianism Essay

Determinism, Compatibilism, and Libertarianism - Essay Example The essay "Determinism, Compatibilism, and Libertarianism" states the concept of determinism, compatibilism, and libertarianism. Free will can be termed as spiritual canon. In that some of our decisions are uncaused and effective at the same time. Absence of causes, conditions is what causes free will. Majority philosophers believe moral responsibility does not seen to require some sort of practical freedom of the will. Time and again free will is interpreted to mean could have done otherwise. There is a primary ethical dilemma that dates back to ancient time, in the sense that controversy arises if it is scientific substance. Total determinism views all events and even individuals actions are as a result of prior conditions, which makes those actions unavoidable. The pre-determined stimuli can either be biological, psychological, scientific environment, or divine forces. However, complete freedom of the mind provides that man is able to come into an agreement independent of natural or metaphysical influencing forces. Sadduceans believed in absolute free will with no godly providence, thus putting every action to mere chance. Ancient Pharisees accepted a notion that brings together free choice with godlike providences, terming it as a form of determinism. God regulates the rules and deeds occurring in the universe and also controls human actions. Sages have summarized the extensive range of human freedom of mind into a simplified eight letter statement. This knowledge was further explained by ancient Jews Sages.... They reported that every individual can opt to be good or evil with no heavenly prearrangement. If this was not the case the entire Torah would be unreasonable with no ground to reprimand, penalize the wrong doers or appreciate the righteous. However, contrary to their earlier remarks they realized the natural conflict between human freedom and Gods knowledge and foresight. In order to bring together common understanding, several ideas were proposed. The ideas were to ascertain a measureable input of each action or behavior. However, these arguments are beyond the range of this article. Jewish point of view summarized free will need not be interpreted as complete libertarianism, whereas determinism need not be comprehended as absolute fashion. With this it would see individual deeds; codes of conduct are not either free or determined. This means they are both free and determined in a relative admixture. Judaism believes in the capacity of freedom of the mind. The acceptance of medici ne in Jewish law is based on the refusal of absolute determinism. According to Talmud practicing medicine is allowed disapproving the idea that by doing one is doing away with Gods deeds. Engelhardt argues that full freedom and autonomy must be guaranteed, even if these appear wrongheaded or downright offensive and evil to others, in order to maintain a peaceable society. The right of autonomy in this libertarian view takes precedence over the good. This retreat to private principles eventually leads to a moral atomism in which each individual’s moral beliefs and actions unless they annoy the easygoing community are unquestionable. Moral debate thus becomes

Foreign Direct Investment Disadvantages Essay Example for Free

Foreign Direct Investment Disadvantages Essay There is a lot to be said for big retail to come to India, but we cannot simply be taken in and mimic something which is being pushed down our throats because those who make the policy appear to not have the faintest clue on how retail really works in India If there were clear answers in black and white to the question, there would really be no need for any debate on the issue, but the truth is that it is simply not that simple. On a philosophical and emotional level, the answer could be that any form of foreign participation in a domestic market is rife with dangers of the colonialism sort, but in this day and age, while the core concept of being wary of foreign dominance may still be true, the fact remains that there are plenty of ways to ensure that it works on a win-win basis for all concerned. The main problem with the current status of foreign direct investment (FDI) in retail in India is that it does not provide a level playing field to other players of the domestic and small sort. In addition, it appears to take a rather naive and simplistic view on certain aspects, which like myths being repeated, tend to become urban legends. On the other hand, no country can afford to take on an isolationist approach. To start with, it may help to go through the background and policy note on the Cabinet decision on FDI in retail, as put up on various places on the internet. Facebook, PIB) As this writer sees it, with a holistic view of the subject and not just based on jingoism of the â€Å"burn down the malls† (right view) and â€Å"bad for farmers† (left view) sort, but on rational evaluation of larger issues, there are some points which need to be straightened out. Large retail is inevitable, and that is a simple truth, but there has to be larger perspective for public good which seems to be missing from this policy. The people of India come first, including those who want a better product or service buying or selling experience, and at the end of the day i t is their wallets which will decide where they go. But at the same time, the government, with the policy as outlined above, cannot sell the baby with the bath-water, and make things worse. Some suggestions: 1) The present Agriculture Produce Market Committee (APMC) Act requires urgent revamp if we really want to help the rural and agricultural sectors with a better go to market scenario. This, along with rapid introduction of the goods and services tax (GST) as well as ease of inter- and intra-state movement of foodgrain, agri products and fresh produce, would do more to improve matters, as well as do wonders for our conomy in a variety of ways—most of all in terms of controlling prices as well as reducing storage and transit losses. 2) The policy shown above makes a case that â€Å"brands† by big FDI retailers need to be carried across borders without in any way making it clear that the quality of those brands needs to be same across borders, too. As of now we see that with these manufacturers and retailers there is on e lower quality for sale in India and there is a better quality for sale in developed countries—case in point being soft drinks, processed foods, confectionery, electronics, motor vehicles and others. If anything is by way of a different quality for India for price or other reasons, then let it be clearly marked as such. 3) Specifically in the case of packaged and processed foods, the policy does not say anything about adherence to best case scenarios in terms of labelling of ingredients and avoiding misleading marketing ploys, thereby leading to a situation where outright dangerous products are foisted on Indian consumers. The amount of product detail available for consumers in developed countries must be matched for India, too. India cannot become a vast chemistry lab for processed foods or anything else. 4) More empirical data needs to be provided on subjects like â€Å"improvement in supply chain†. India is the country where the passenger rail ticket deliveries, fresh hot cooked food by dabbawallas and diamonds as well as other precious stones by angadias have set better than global standards in supply chains, so the same standards need to be quantified and applied to those seeking 100% FDI in retail. It is not too much to ask for them to match the Indian standards—unless those who made the policy are ashamed of our prowess. ) The investments in retail by the FDI route, when they come, should come only through a short-list of recognised tax adherence countries. The misused option of FDI coming in through known or suspect tax havens needs to be blocked—firmly. Likewise, full disclosures of the strictest sort need to be made on who the investors are—again, these cannot be suitcas e corporate identities hiding behind consultants and banks in shady tax havens or other countries. Unlike what happened in, for example, airlines, Indians need to know who is investing and from where. And in case there are legal issues, then we need to know who the faces are who will go through the Indian legal system, unless those who made the policy are ashamed of our legal system. 6) The payment processing and cash management as well as tax adherence part of this industry, both in terms of procurement and sale, need to be through the Indian banking system. And by fully transparent methods, so that float as well as control remains in India at all times, as is the case in developed countries.

Morality and Destiny in Othello Essay -- Othello essays

Morality and Destiny in Othello   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  They are questions as old as civilization itself. Does man have control over his own destiny? Is man ultimately held accountable for his actions by a higher power? Within the plays of William Shakespeare can be found such fundamental questions and conflicts of humanity, as well as situations, attitudes, and problems that continue to hold strong universal meaning to this day. During his lifetime, morality was at the forefront of society's concerns. Outstanding men such as Newton, Copernicus, Bacon, and Locke were leading great advances in science and reason, and these new ways of thinking, combined with the need for order and religious stability provided the perfect foundation for the development of the morality-based style of writing which is especially evident in his powerful tragedies.    ..........Shakespeare's tragic heroes and villains have flaws which are synonymous with Christian sins. Greed, lust, envy, and jealousy are consistently among the issues that arise with these characters. The idea that improper dealings with such evil emotions must surely lead to a terrible fate is consistently demonstrated. Sylvan Barnet notes that after creating this world of certain consequences the author adds a special "twist" to his tragedy "for it insists that the good are rewarded and the bad are punished" (227). In William Shakespeare's classic tragedy, Othello, the playwright emphasizes the belief in man's inability to control his own destiny because of the actions of rivals, the emotional conflict within himself, and the moral guidance of the universe.    ..........From the onset of this tragic play, conflict begins to brew in the soul of the title character's ensign, Iago. ... ...use of the actions of rivals, the emotional conflict within himself, and the moral guidance of the universe. Introduction I......Iago plants the seeds of hate. .......A..... Iago plots against Othello. ......B......Others are affected by Iago's web of revenge. ......C......Coincidence and opportunities for deceit arise. II.....Emotional conflict brews within the minds of the characters. ......A......Othello struggles with trust and honor. ......B......Iago is a product of his own insecurities. ......C......Roderigo, Emelia, and Cassio fight their emotions. III....In a triumph of morality, God's justice prevails. .......A.....Desdemona dies an innocent death, and Othello commits suicide. .......B......Cassio's honor is reinstated. .......C. ....Iago declares his silence and realizes his punishment. Conclusion

The Franco-Prussian War Essay -- Papers

The Franco-Prussian War During the first half of the nineteenth century, Germany was made up of more than 30 small states, the largest and most dominant of which was Prussia. Prussia had decided that all of the states should all be united to create a bigger and better country, Germany. By the end of 1870 it had forced all of the German states to accept its authority and create the German Empire with the King of Prussia at its head (the Hohenzollen's). Everything was going to plan as Chancellor Prince Otto Von Bismarck (person who was behind the unification of Germany) had anticipated apart from the four large states in southern Germany who remained independent. Bismarck now needed a way to unite these states with the German Empire that he was creating, so he decided that in order to do this he believed that it was necessary to defeat France. The French Emperor Napoleon III was the main obstacle in the way of Bismarck as Napoleon distrusted Bismarck and believed that he was trying to dominate Europe. Luckily Bismarck had already motivated wars against Denmark and Austria (1864 and 1866), managing to provoke his enemies declaring war against Prussia. So in the eyes of other countries Prussia was innocent and Denmark and Austria seemed like the perpetrators. Meanwhile in Spain, 1868, there had been a revolution, the outcome of this was that Queen Isabella had been overthrown and now there was a vacancy for the throne of Spain. They reduced this problem by asking Leopold of Hollenzollern (the King of Prussia's nephew) to step in for them, if Leopold accepted then there would be a link between Spain and Prussia, isolating France. .. ...ellor was secured, the four independent states in the South agreed to join the German Empire, Germany was now the most powerful country in Europe, and the German Army had proved itself invincible and the German Economy began to quickly dominate Europe. But what Bismarck feared the most was the French desire for revenge, and planned to keep France isolated. However the effects of the War and the Treaty on France were completely different. Their pride for their army and country was shattered, and the treaty was treated with disgust and rage. As a consequence of this Napoleon III left the country to live in exile in Britain and a republic was set up. The loss of Alsace and Lorraine ashamed France, and was a national disgrace. The French were seething at the Germans for humiliating them and secretly dreamed of revenge.

The Lust Lizard of Melancholy Cove Chapter 26~27

Twenty-six Val and Gabe entered the bar, then stepped out of the doorway and stood by the blinking pinball machine while their eyes adjusted to the darkness. Val wrinkled her nose at the hangover smell of stale beer and cigarettes; Gabe squinted at the sticky floor, looking for signs of interesting wild life. Morning was the darkest part of a day at the Head of the Slug Saloon. It was so dark that the dingy confines of the bar seemed to suck light in from the street every time someone opened the door, causing the daytime regu-lars to cringe and hiss as if a touch of sunshine might vaporize them on their stools. Mavis moved behind the bar with a grim, if wobbly, determin-ation, drinking coffee from a gar-goyle-green mug while a Tarryton extra long dangled from her lips, dropping long ashes down the front of her sweater like the smoking turds of tiny ghost poodles. She went about setting up shots of cheap bourbon at the empty curve of the bar, lining them up like soldiers before a firing squad. Every two or three minutes an old man would enter the bar, bent over and wearing baggy pants – leaning on a four-point cane or the last hope of a painless death – and climb onto one of the empty stools to wrap an arthritic claw around a shot glass and raise it to his lips. The shots wer e nursed, not tossed back, and by the time Mavis had finished her first cup of coffee, the curve of the bar looked like the queue to hell: crooked, wheezing geezers all in a row. Refreshments while you wait? The Reaper will see you now. Occasionally, one of the shots would sit untouched, the stool empty, and Mavis would let an hour pass before sliding the shot down to the next daytime regular and calling Theo to track down her truant. Most often, the ambulance would slide in and out of town as quiet as a vulture riding a thermal, and Mavis would get the news when Theo cracked the door, shook his head, and moved on. â€Å"Hey, cheer up,† Mavis would say. â€Å"You got a free drink out of it, didn't you? That stool won't be empty for long.† There had always been daytime regulars, there always would be. Her new crop started coming in around 9 A.M., younger men who bathed and shaved every third day and spent their days around her snooker table, drinking cheap drafts and keeping a laser focus on the green felt lest they get a glimpse of their lives. Where once were wives and jobs, now were dreams of glorious shots and clever strategies. When their dreams and eyesight faded, they filled the stools at the end of the bar with the day-time regulars. Ironically, the aura of despair that hung over the day-time regulars gave Mavis the closest thing to a thrill she'd felt since she last whacked a cop with her Louisville Slugger. As she pulled the bottle of Old Tennis Shoes from the well and poured it down the bar to refill their shot glasses, a bolt of electric loathing would shoot up her spine and she would scamper back to the other end of the bar and stand there breathless until her stereo pacemakers brought her heartbeat back down from redline. It was like tweaking death's nose, sticking a KICK ME sign on the head of a cobra and getting away with it. Gabe and Val watched this ritual without moving from their spot by the pinball machine. Val was cautious, just waiting for the right moment to move to the bar and ask if Theo had called. Gabe was, as usual, just being socially awkward. Mavis retreated to her spot by the coffeepot, presumably out of death's reach, and called down to the couple. â€Å"You two want something to drink, or you just window-shopping?† Gabe led them down the bar. â€Å"Two coffees please.† He looked quickly to Val for her approval, but she was fixated on Catfish, who was seated across from Mavis near the end of the bar. Just beyond him was another man, an incredibly gaunt gentleman whose skin was so white it appeared translucent under the haze of Mavis's cigarette smoke. â€Å"Hello, uh, Mr. Fish,† Val said. Catfish, who was staring at the bottom of a shot glass, looked up and forced a smile through a face betraying hangdog sorrow. â€Å"It's Jefferson,† he said. â€Å"Catfish is my first name.† â€Å"Sorry,† Val said. Mavis made a mental note of the new couple. She recognized Gabe, he'd been in with Theophilus Crowe a number of times, but the woman was a new face to her. She put the two coffees in front of Gabe and Val. â€Å"Mavis Sand,† Mavis said, but she didn't offer her hand. For years she'd avoided shaking hands because the grip often hurt her arthritis. Now, with her new titanium joints and levers, she had to be careful not to crush the delicate phalanges of her customers. â€Å"I'm sorry,† Gabe said. â€Å"Mavis, this is Dr. Valerie Riordan. She has a psychiatric practice here in town.† Mavis stepped back and Val could see the apparatus in the woman's eye focusing – when the light from over the snooker table caught it right, the eye appeared to glow red. â€Å"Pleased,† Mavis said. â€Å"You know Howard Phillips?† Mavis nodded to the gaunt man at the end of the bar. â€Å"H.P.,† Gabe added, nodding to Howard. â€Å"Of H.P.'s Cafe.† Howard Phillips might have been forty, or sixty, or seventy, or he might have died young for all the animation in his face. He wore a black suit out of the nineteenth century, right down to the button shoes, and he was nursing a glass of Guinness Stout, although he didn't look as if he'd had any caloric intake for months. Val said, â€Å"We just came from your restaurant. Lovely place.† Without changing expression, Howard said, â€Å"As a psychiatrist, does it bother you that Jung was a Nazi sympathizer?† He had a flat, upper-class British accent, and Val felt vaguely as if she'd just been spat upon. â€Å"Ray of sunshine, Howard is,† Mavis said. â€Å"Looks like death, don't he?† Howard cleared his throat and said, â€Å"Mavis has come to mock death, since most of her mortal parts have been replaced with machinery.† Mavis leaned into Gabe and Val as if guarding a secret, even as she raised her voice to make sure Howard could hear. â€Å"He's been cranky for some ten years now – and drunk most of that time.† â€Å"I had hoped to develop a laudanum habit in the tradition of Byron and Shelley,† Howard said, â€Å"but procurement of the substance is, to say the least, difficult.† â€Å"Yeah, that month you drank Nyquil on the rocks didn't help either. He'd drop off at the bar stool sittin' straight up, sit there asleep sometimes for four hours, then wake up and finish his drink. I have to say, though, Howard, you never coughed once.† Again Mavis leaned into the bar. â€Å"He pretends to have consumption sometimes.† â€Å"I'm sure the good doctor is not interested in the particulars of my substance abuse, Mavis.† â€Å"Actually,† Gabe said, â€Å"we're just waiting for a call from Theo.† â€Å"And I think I'd prefer a Bloody Mary to coffee,† Val said. â€Å"Ya'll ain't goin to talk me into chasin no monster, so don't even try,† Catfish said. â€Å"I got the Blues on me and I got some drinkin to do.† â€Å"Don't be a wuss, Catfish,† Mavis said as she mixed Val's cocktail. â€Å"Monsters are no big deal. Howard and me got one, huh, Howard?† â€Å"Walk in the proverbial park,† Howard said. Catfish, Val, and Gabe just stared at Howard, waiting. Mavis said, â€Å"Course your drinking started right after the last one, didn't it?† â€Å"Nonstop,† Howard said. Theo It occurred to Theo, as he tried to keep a safe distance from the sheriff's Caddy turning into the ranch, that he had never been trained in the proper procedure for tailing someone. He'd never really followed anyone. Well, there was a sixth-month period in the seventies when he had followed the Grateful Dead around the country but with them, you just followed the trail of tie-dye and didn't have to worry about them killing you if they found out you were behind them. He also realized that he had no idea why, exactly, he was following Burton, except that it seemed more aggressive than curling into a ball and dying of worry. The black Caddy turned through a cattle gate onto the section of the ranch adjacent the ocean. Theo slowed to a stop under a line of eucalyptus trees beside the ranch road, keeping the sheriff in sight between the tree trunks. The grassy marine terrace that dropped to the shoreline was too open to go onto without Burton noticing. He would have to let the Caddy pass over the next hill, nearly half a mile off the road, before he dared follow. Theo watched the Caddy bump over the deep ruts in the road, the front wheels throwing up mud as it climbed the hill, and suddenly he regretted not having driven the red four-wheel-drive truck. The rear-wheel-drive Mercedes might not be able to follow much farther. When the Caddy topped the hill, Theo pulled out and gunned the Mer-cedes through the cattle gate and into the field. Tall grass thrashed at the underside of the big German car as rocks and holes jarred Theo and threw Skinner around like a toy. Momentum carried them up the side of the first hill. As they approached the crest, Theo let off the gas. The Mercedes settled to a stop. When he applied the gas again, the back wheels of the Mercedes dug into the mud, stuck. Theo left Skinner and the keys in the car and ran to the top of the hill. He could see more than a mile in every direction, east to some rock outcrop-pings by the tree line, west to the ocean, and across the marine terrace to the north, which curved around the coastline and out of sight. South, well, he'd come from the south. Nothing there but his cabin and beyond that the crank lab. What he could not see was the black Cadillac. He checked the battery in his cell phone and both pistols to see that they were loaded, then he set out on foot toward the rocks. It was the only place the Caddy could have gotten out of sight. Burton had to be there. Twenty minutes later he stood at the base of the rock outcroppings, sweating and trying to catch his breath. At least maybe he'd get some lung capacity back, now that he wasn't smoking pot anymore. He bent over with his hands on his knees and scanned the rocks for any movement. These were no gentle sedimentary rocks formed over centuries of settling seas. These craggy bastards looked like gray teeth that had been thrust up through the earth's crust by the violent burp of a volcano and the rasping shift of a fault line. Lichen and seagull crap covered their surfaces and here and there a creosote bush or cypress tried to gain a foothold in the cracks. There was supposed to be a cave around here somewhere, but Theo had never seen it, and he doubted that it was big enough to park a Cadillac in. He stayed low, moving around the edge of the rocks, expecting to see the flash of a black fender at every turn. He drew his service revolver and led around each turn with the barrel of the gun, then changed his strategy. That was like broadcasting a warning. He bent over double before peeking around the next corner, figuring that if Burton heard him or was waiting, he would be aiming high. The vastness of what Theo didn't know about surveillance and combat techniques seemed to be expanding with every step. He just wasn't a sneaky guy. He skirted a narrow path between two fanglike towers of rock. As he prepared to take a quick peek around the next turn, his foot slipped, sending a pile of rocks skittering down the hill like broken glass. He stopped and held his breath, listening for the sound of a reaction somewhere in the rocks. There was only the crashing surf in the distance and a low whistle of coastal wind. He ventured a quick glance around the rock and before he could pull back, the metallic click of a gun cocking behind his head sounded like icicles being driven into his spine. Molly Molly was sorting through the piles of clothing the pilgrims had left by the cave entrance. She had come up with two hundred and fifty-eight dollars in cash, a stack of Gold Cards, and more than a dozen vials of antidepressants. A voice in her head said, â€Å"You haven't seen this many meds since you were on the lock-down ward. They have a lot of gall calling you crazy.† The narrator was back, and Molly wasn't at all happy about it. For the last few days, her thinking had been incredibly clear. â€Å"Yeah, you're helping a lot with my mental health self-image,† she said to the narrator. â€Å"I liked it better when it was just me and Steve.† None of the pilgrims seemed to notice that Molly was talking to herself. They were all in some trancelike state, stark naked, seated in a semicircle around Steve, who lay in the back of the cave, where it was dark, with his head tucked under his forelegs, flashing sullen colors across his flanks: olive drab, rust, and blue so dark that it appeared more like an afterimage on the back of the eyelid than an actual color. â€Å"Oh yeah, you and Steve,† the narrator said snidely. â€Å"There's a healthy couple – the two greatest has-beens of all time. He's sulking, and you're robbing people who are even nuttier than you are. Now you're going to feed them to old lizard lick over there.† â€Å"Am not.† â€Å"Looks like none of these people has had any sun or exercise since high school gym class. Except for that guy who came in Birkenstocks, and he has that Gandhi-tan vegetarian starvation stare that looks like he'd slaughter a whole kindergarten for a Pink's foot-long with sauer-kraut. You feel okay about making them strip and prostrate themselves before the big guy?† â€Å"I thought it would make them go away.† â€Å"The lizard is using you.† â€Å"We care about each other. Now just shut up. I'm trying to think.† â€Å"Oh, like you've been thinking so far.† Molly shook her head violently to try and dislodge the narrator from her mind. Her hair whipped about her face and shoulders and stood out in a wild mess. The narrator was quiet. Molly pulled a compact out of one of the pilgrims' purses and looked at herself in the mirror. She certainly couldn't have looked much crazier. She braced for the narrator's comment, but it didn't come. She tried to get in touch with the warm feeling that had been running through her since Steve had appeared, but it just wasn't there. Maybe the pilgrims were using up his energy. Maybe the magic had just passed. She remembered sitting on a deck in Malibu, waiting for a producer who had just made love to her, only to have his Hispanic maid show up with a glass of wine and an apology that â€Å"The mister had to go to the studio, he very sorry, you call him next week please.† Molly had really liked the guy. She'd broken her foot kicking his spare Ferrari as she left and had to eat painkillers through the filming of her next movie, which eventually put her in detox. She never heard from the producer again. That was being used. This was different. â€Å"Right,† said the narrator sarcastically. â€Å"Shhhhh,† Molly said. She heard someone scuffling on the rocks outside the cave. She snatched up the assault rifle and waited just inside the cave mouth. Twenty-seven Val Val was wishing she had a video recorder to preserve the gargantuan lie that Mavis Sand and Howard Phillips had been telling over the last hour. According to them, ten years ago the village of Pine Cove had been visited by a demon from hell, and only through the combined effort of a handful of drunks were they able to banish the demon whence it came. It was a magnificent delusion, and Val thought that she could at least get an aca-demic paper on shared psychosis out of it. Being around Gabe had ignited her enthusiasm for research. When Mavis and Howard wrapped up their story, Catfish started in with his tale of being pursued through the bayou by a sea monster. Soon Gabe and Val were spouting the details of Gabe's theory that the monster had evolved the ability to affect the brain chemistry of its prey. Tipsy after a few Bloody Marys and taken by the momentum of the tale, Val confessed her replacement of Pine Cove's supply of antidepressants with placebos. Even as she unburdened herself, Val realized that her and Gabe's stories were no more credible than the fairy tale Mavis and Howard had just told. â€Å"That Winston Krauss is a weasel,† Mavis said. â€Å"Comes in here every day acting like his shit don't stink, then overcharges the whole town for something they ain't even gettin. Should'a known he was a fish-fucker.† â€Å"That's in strictest confidence,† Val said. â€Å"I shouldn't have mentioned it.† Mavis cackled. â€Å"Well, it ain't like I'm gonna run tell Sheriff Burton on you. He's weasel with a capital Weas. Besides, girl, you increased my business by eighty percent when you took the wackos off their drugs. And I thought it was old Mopey down there.† Mavis shot a bionic thumb toward Catfish. The Bluesman put down his drink. â€Å"Hey!† Gabe said, â€Å"So you believe that there really is a sea monster on that ranch?† â€Å"What reason would you have to lie?† said Howard. â€Å"It would seem that Mr. Fish is an eyewitness as well.† â€Å"Jefferson,† Catfish said. â€Å"Catfish Jefferson.† â€Å"Shut up, you chickenshit,† Mavis spat. â€Å"You could have helped Theo when he asked you. What's that boy think he's doing following that sheriff out to the ranch anyway? It's not like he can do anything.† Gabe said, â€Å"We don't know. He just left and told us to come here and wait for his call.† â€Å"Ya'll some heartless souls,† Catfish said. â€Å"I lost me a good woman because of all this.† â€Å"She's smarter than she looks,† Mavis said. â€Å"Theo has my Mercedes,† Val added, feeling out of place even as she said it. Suddenly she felt more ashamed of looking down on these people than she did about all of her professional indiscretions. â€Å"I'm getting worried,† said Gabe. â€Å"It's been over an hour.† â€Å"I don't suppose you thought about calling him?† Mavis asked. â€Å"You have his cell phone number?† Gabe asked. â€Å"He's the constable. It's not like he's unlisted.† â€Å"I suppose I should have thought of that,† said Howard. Mavis shook her head and one of her false eyelashes sprung up like a snare trap. â€Å"What, you three got thirty years of college between you and not enough smarts to dial a phone without a blueprint?† â€Å"Astute observation,† Howard said. â€Å"I ain't got no college,† Catfish said. â€Å"Well, cheers to you for being just naturally stupid,† Mavis said, picking up the phone. The daytime regulars at the end of the bar had snapped out of their malaise to have a laugh at Catfish. There's nothing quite so satisfying to the desperate as having someone to look down on. Theo The gun barrel was pushed so hard into the spot behind Theo's ear that he thought he could hear bone cracking. Burton reached around and took the .357 and tossed it aside, then he took the automatic from Theo's waistband and did the same. â€Å"On the ground, facedown.† Burton kicked Theo's feet out from under him, then put his knee in the constable's back and handcuffed him. Theo could taste blood where his lip had split hitting the rock. He turned his head to the side, raking his cheek on some lichen. He was terrified. Every muscle in his body ached with the need to run. Burton smacked him across the back of the head with his pistol, not hard enough to knock him out, but when the white-hot light of the blow faded, Theo could feel blood oozing into his right ear. â€Å"You fucking stoner. How dare you fuck with my business?† â€Å"What business?† Theo said, hoping ignorance might buy his life. â€Å"I saw your car at the lab, Crowe. The last time I talked to Leander he was on his way to see you. Now where is he?† â€Å"I don't know.† The pistol smacked Theo on the other side of the head. â€Å"I don't fucking know!† Theo shrieked. â€Å"He was at the lab, then he was gone. I didn't see him leave.† â€Å"I don't care if he's alive or dead, Crowe. And it doesn't make any difference to you either. But I need to know. Did you kill him? Did he run? What?† â€Å"I think he's dead.† â€Å"You think?† Theo could feel Burton rearing back to hit him again. â€Å"No! He's dead. He's dead. I know it.† â€Å"What happened?† Theo tried to think of a plausible explanation, something that would buy him a minute, a few more seconds even, but he couldn't clear his head. â€Å"I'm not sure,† he said. â€Å"I?CI heard gunfire. I was in the shed. When I came out, he was gone.† â€Å"Then how do you know he's dead?† Theo couldn't see any advantage to telling Burton that Molly had told him. Burton would track her down and put her in the same shallow grave that he was going to end up in. â€Å"Fuck you,† Theo said. â€Å"Figure it out.† The pistol whipped across the back of Theo's head and he nearly passed out this time. He heard a ringing in his ears, but a second later he realized that it wasn't in his ears at all. His cell phone was ringing in his shirt pocket. Burton rolled him over and put the barrel of the gun on Theo's right eyelid. â€Å"We're going to answer this, Crowe. And if you fuck up, the calling party is going to hear a very loud disconnect.† The sheriff bent down until his face was almost touching Theo's and reached for the phone. Suddenly a series of deafening explosions went off a few feet away and bullets whined off the rocks like angry wasps. Burton rolled off Theo and into a shallow crevice just below them. Theo felt someone grab his collar and pull him to his feet. Before he could see who it was, a dozen hands closed on him and dragged him out of the sun. He fell hard on his back and the gunfire stopped. His phone was still ringing. A cloud of bats was swirling above him. He looked up to see Molly Michon standing over him with a smoking assault rifle, and in that second, she looked like what he had always ima-gined an avenging angel might look like, except for the six naked white guys standing behind her. â€Å"Hi, Theo,† she said. â€Å"Hi, Molly.† Molly pointed to the phone in his shirt pocket with the barrel of her rifle. â€Å"You want me to get that?† â€Å"Yeah, it might be important,† Theo said. There was a gunshot and a bullet whined off the edge of the cave entrance and ricocheted into the darkness. Theo could feel the roar that rose up out of the back of the cave vibrating in his ribs. The Sheriff Burton reached over the edge of the crevice and fired a shot in the general direction of the cave, then braced himself for return fire from the AK-47, but instead he heard a roaring that sounded like someone had dropped the entire cast of The Lion King in a deep fryer. Burton was not a coward, not by any means, but a man would have to be insane not to be frightened by that noise. Too much weirdness, too fast. A woman in a leather bikini and thigh-high boots firing an AK-47 while six naked guys dragged Crowe into a cave. He needed time to regroup, call in backup, drink a fifth of Glenlivet. It seemed safe here for the time being. As long as he didn't move, no one could get a firing angle on him without making a target of himself. He pulled his cell phone from his jacket pocket, then paused, trying to figure out who to call. A general officer-in-trouble call could bring anyone, and the last thing he needed was television helicopters hovering around. Besides, his goal wasn't to arrest the suspects, he needed them silenced for good. He could call in the guys from the crank lab, if he could get hold of them, but the vision of a bunch of untrained illegal immigrants running around on this hill with automatic weapons didn't seem like the best strategy either. He had to call SWAT, but only his guys. Eight of the twenty men on the SWAT team were in his pocket. Again, he couldn't go through dispatch. They'd have to be called in on private lines. He dialed the number that rang into the information center deep in the basement of the county justice building. The Spider picked up on the first ring. â€Å"Nailsworth.† â€Å"It's Burton. Listen, don't talk. Call Lopez, Sheridan, Miller, Morales, O'Hara, Crumb, Connelly, and LeMay. Tell them to come in full SWAT to the Beer Bar Ranch north of Pine Cove, the northern access road. There's a cave here. Pull up whatever maps you need and give them directions. Do not use open channels. They are not to log in or report to anyone where they are going. There are at least two suspects in the cave with automatic weapons. I'm pinned down about ten yards from the west-facing entrance. Have them meet south of the rocks, they'll see them, then have Sheridan call me. No aircraft. Find out if there's another entrance to this cave. I need everyone in place ASAP. Can you do it?† â€Å"Of course,† the Spider said. â€Å"It's going to take them a minimum of forty minutes, maybe more if I can't find them all.† Burton could hear the Spider's fat fingers blazing on his keyboard already. â€Å"Send whoever you can find. Tell them to come in separate cars. Tell them to avoid sirens if possible on the way up, definitely once they hit the ranch.† â€Å"Do you have descriptions of the suspects?† â€Å"It's Theophilus Crowe and a woman, five-eight, one twenty, twenty-five to forty years old, gray hair, wearing a leather bikini.† â€Å"Twenty-five to forty? Pretty specific,† the Spider said sarcastically. â€Å"Fuck you, Nailsworth. How many women do you think are running around these hills wearing a leather bikini and shooting an AK? Call me when they are on the way.† Burton disconnected and checked the battery on the phone. It would last. Since the roaring sound had come from the cave, it had been quiet, but he didn't dare peek over the edge of the crevice. â€Å"Crowe!† he shouted. â€Å"It's not too late to work this out!† Theo The naked guys were standing over Theo, wearing dazed smiles, as if they'd all just shared a big pipe of opium. â€Å"Jesus, was that it?† Theo asked, Steve's roar still ringing in his ears. â€Å"Him,† Molly corrected, holding up a finger to shush Theo as she pressed the answer button on his phone. â€Å"Hello,† she said into the phone. â€Å"None of your business. Who is this?† She covered the mouthpiece and said, â€Å"It's Gabe.† â€Å"Tell him I'm okay. Ask him where he is.† â€Å"Theo says he's okay. Where are you?† She listened for a second, then covered the mouthpiece again. â€Å"He's at the Slug.† â€Å"Tell him I'll call him right back.† â€Å"He'll call you back.† She disconnected and tossed the phone in the pile of clothing by the door. Theo looked up at the naked guys. He thought he recognized a couple of them, but didn't want to acknowledge that he did. â€Å"Would you guys back off a little?† Theo said. They didn't move. Theo looked at Molly. â€Å"Can you tell them to go somewhere? They're making me nervous.† â€Å"Why?† â€Å"Molly, I don't know if you've notice, but all these guys are in a – a state of arousal.† â€Å"Maybe they're just glad to see you.† â€Å"Would you tell them to back off, please?† Molly motioned for the naked guys to move away. â€Å"Go. Go. Back to the back of the cave, guys. Go. Go. Go.† She poked at a couple of them with the assault rifle. Slowly they turned and ambled farther back into the cave. â€Å"What in the hell is wrong with them?† â€Å"What do you mean, wrong? They're acting like all guys do, they're just being more honest about it.† â€Å"Molly, seriously, what did you do to them?† â€Å"I didn't do anything. That's how they've been acting since they saw Steve back there.† Theo looked to the back of the cave, but could only see the partially lit backs of a group of people sitting on the cave floor. â€Å"It's like they're in a trance or something.† â€Å"Yeah, isn't it cool? They came to help me get you when I asked, though. So they're not total zombies. I'm, like, in charge.† Blood was dripping out of Theo's scalp, matting his hair and leaving spots on his shirt. â€Å"That's great, Molly. Could you get these handcuffs off me?† â€Å"I was going to ask you about those. Every time I see you, you're in handcuffs. Do you have a fetish or something?† â€Å"Please, Molly, there's a key in my front pocket.† â€Å"He gave you the key?† â€Å"It's my key.† â€Å"I see,† Molly said with a knowing smile. â€Å"Handcuffs all use the same key, Molly. Please help me get out of these.† She knelt and reached into his pocket, keeping her eyes locked on his through the process. His head throbbed when he rolled over so she could get to the cuffs. As she pulled them off, they heard Burton call from outside. â€Å"Crowe! It's not too late to work this out!† Once his hands were free, Theo threw his arms around Molly and pulled her close. She dropped her rifle and returned his embrace. Another roar emanated from the back of the cave. A couple of the pilgrims shrieked and Molly let go of Theo and stood up, gazing back into the darkness. â€Å"It's okay, Steve,† she said. â€Å"What in the hell was that?† Burton shouted from outside. â€Å"That was Steve,† Molly shouted back. â€Å"You were asking what happened to Joseph Leander. Well, that was it. Steve ate him.† â€Å"How many of you are in there?† Burton asked. Molly looked around. â€Å"A bunch.† â€Å"Who in the hell are you?† â€Å"I am Kendra, Warrior Babe of the Outland.† She shot a silly grin at Theo, who was trying to follow what was going on up here, while listening to some disturbing stirring noises going on in the back of the cave. â€Å"What do you want?† Burton asked. Without a beat, Molly said, â€Å"Ten percent of the gross on all my films, retroactive fifteen years, an industrial-strength weed-whacker with gas, and world peace.† â€Å"Seriously. We can work this out.† â€Å"Okay. I want sixty peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, a couple of gallons of Diet Coke, and†¦Ã¢â‚¬  She turned to Theo, â€Å"You want anything?† Theo shrugged. Hell, as long as they were stalling. â€Å"A new Volvo station wagon.† â€Å"And a new Volvo station wagon,† Molly shouted. â€Å"And we want it with two cup holders, you bastard, or the deal's off.† She turned and beamed at Theo. â€Å"Nice touch.† â€Å"You deserve it,† Molly said. Suddenly her eyes went wide as she looked past Theo. â€Å"No, Steve!† she screamed. Theo rolled over to see a huge pair of jaws descending over him.

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Effects of Acid Rain on Ecosystems essays In the past century, one of the greatest threats to North America's aquatic ecosystem has been the widespread acidification of hundreds of thousands of waterways. Acid rain has effected plant and animal life within aquatic ecosystems, as well as microbiologic activity by affecting the rates of decomposition and the accumulation of organic matter. What causes this poisonous rain, and what can be done to improve North America's water quality and prevent future catastrophes? To answer these questions, we must first examine the cause and formation of acid rain, as well as understand ways to decrease or prevent its formation. Acid deposition, more commonly known as acid rain, occurs when emissions of sulfur dioxide (SO2) and nitrogen oxides (NOx) react in the atmosphere with water, oxygen, and oxidants to form acidic compounds. This mixture forms a mild solution of sulfuric and nitric acid which then falls to the earth in either wet (rain, snow, sleet or fog) or dry (gas and particles) form. Approximately one-half of the atmosphere's acidity falls back to earth through dry deposition in the form of particles and gases, and are then spread hundreds of miles by winds where they settle on surfaces of buildings, cars, homes, and trees. When acid rain falls, the dry deposited gases and particles are sometimes washed from buildings, trees and other surfaces making the runoff water combine with the acid rain more acidic than the falling acid rain alone. This new combination is referred to as acid deposition. Strong prevailing winds and public sewer systems into lakes and streams then transport the runoff water. Although some natural sources such as volcanic eruptions, fire and lightening contribute to the emissions of sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxides in the atmosphere, more than 90% is the result of human activities such as coal burning, smelting of metals such as zinc, nickel and copper, and the burning of oil, coal and gas in power plants...

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Cà ³mo se solicita la tarjeta NEXUS En Estados Unidos, aplicar por internet en la pgina oficial del Servicio de Proteccià ³n de Fronteras y Aduanas (CBP, por sus siglas en inglà ©s). Se trata de una pgina que se llama GOES, que son las iniciales del programa Global Online Enrollment System. La pgina, que puede elegirse en los idiomas inglà ©s, espaà ±ol, o francà ©s, da la opcià ³n de enrolarse en cualquiera de los Programas de Viajeros de Confianza, es decir, no solo para NEXUS sino tambià ©n para Global Entry (avià ³n), FAST o SENTRI (terrestre en frontera con Mà ©xico). Debe elegirse y hacer click sobre el icono del programa de interà ©s, en este caso NEXUS. Sin embargo, si es la primera vez que se ingresa al sistema, es necesario crear una cuenta. Para ello, mover el cursor de la pgina hacia abajo y proceder a donde dice Inscripcià ³n de Nuevos Usuarios al GOES. En el caso de familias, debe crearse una cuenta por cada persona. Es decir, incluso los nià ±os pequeà ±os deben tener su propia cuenta. Adems, pagar la cuota de $50 (excepto los menores de 18 aà ±os, para los que es gratis) y enviar copia de los documentos que se solicitan. Durante el proceso de llenado del formulario es posible editar las respuestas. Sin embargo, una vez certificadas ya no ser posible realizar ningà ºn cambio. En estos casos, en el momento de la entrevista es cuando se debe notificar todo tipo de errores que pueda contener el formulario. Ser necesario pasar un examen de historial delictivo y una entrevista en persona. La aplicacià ³n deber ser aprobada conjuntamente por las autoridades de Canad y de los Estados Unidos. Ser rechazada si la persona ha sido condenada por algà ºn delito o ha cometido alguna infraccià ³n migratoria o aduanera en viajes anteriores o si por cualquier razà ³n la persona no es elegible y/o admisible a los Estados Unidos. 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Por el contrario, sà ­ que se pueden traer mascotas e, incluso, piezas de caza. Pero es necesario respetar las reglas. Los residentes permanentes legales deben llevar con ellos, adems de la tarjeta NEXUS, la de residencia (green card) y sus pasaportes ya que se puede pedir que los muestre. Frontera terrestre entre Estados Unidos y Mà ©xico: Los titulares de una tarjeta NEXUS que viajan en un auto registrado y aprobado pueden ingresar a USA desde Mà ©xico utilizando las là ­neas seà ±aladas como SENTRI, disminuyendo asà ­ los tiempos de espera para los cruces por los controles migratorios internacionales. Si el auto no est aprobado, los ciudadanos americanos pueden ingresar de regreso al paà ­s utilizando la tarjeta NEXUS y colocndose en cualquiera de las filas que no es SENTRI. Ingreso a Estados Unidos por aeropuerto: Los ciudadanos americanos que tienen una tarjeta NEXUS pueden acelerar su ingreso al paà ­s dirigià ©ndose en el aeropuerto a los kioskos del programa Global Entry. 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Medical Apartheid - Essay Example Admittedly, remedial steps are being taken on the government level to counter barriers mentioned above.A study was carried out by the National Institute of Health to recheck why disparity occurred in this drug’s efficacy for blacks and Asians but not whites. This research concluded that this was most likely a result chance. Even if there was a small possibility that this drug actually did hold some hope for HIV patients, especially blacks, it definitely called for further research and testing. The reason mostly given for not carrying out further research is that blacks are resistant to being subjects for testing, especially for HIV. However, many researchers have been successful in recruiting a large number of blacks for their work. This clearly implies that there is need for more trust and empathy for blacks to cooperate. It is the right of the African Americans to have more research conducted into AIDSVAX as they do represent the majority of sufferers of this disease. Furthermore, if this drug does indeed prove to be primarily applicable to blacks, these differences will most likely be environmental; even if the differences are determined to be somewhat racial, one successful drug could be made adaptive to whites with further work. The world indeed sits in wait of a miracle drug that could cure the ‘incurable’ AIDS. So far, AIDSVAX is the only drug that has come closest to being it. Our country has a battle with itself right now of overcoming this discrimination against race and color for common good.

Human Resources Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Human Resources - Assignment Example ACAS encourages employees to appeal against unfair dismissals and employers can only lay off workers if there is an existing contractual agreement between he employer and the employer. Accordingly, the redundant temporary employees are entitled to statutory guaranteed payments that include up to five days pay in any three-month period (CIPD 2013). ACAS advocates for an ad-hoc approach, formal policies or formal agreements with trade unions as the possible approaches of implementing redundancies in the organization. The fixed term employment contracts than naturally end will be excluded from the obligations to engage in collective consultations (ACAS 2013). The Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD) require fair selection of employees to be put on redundancy and collective consultations before the redundancy (CIPD 2013). According to CIPD, redundancy rights and obligations are governed by the employment rights act 1996, the Trade union and labour relations (consolidat ion) Act 1992, protection of employment regulations 1995, collective redundancies and the transfer of undertaking (amendment) regulations 1999 and finally collective redundancies (amendment) regulations 2006. ... The concerned employees are eligible for certain rights such as redundancy pay, a reasonable notice period, discussions with the employer and some time off to seek alternative employment (Gilmore and Williams 2012). The redundancy must be fair and discriminatory practices such as age, disability or gender cannot be utilized as the criteria for redundancy (Gilmore and Williams 2012). The redundancy entails more than 20 employees thus Dan Findale must adhere to the redundancy procedure outlined in ACAS code of practice on redundancy consultation process. Accordingly, protection of employment Act 1977-2007 requires the employers to enter in to consultations with the employees at least 30 days before the first redundancy occurs. In addition, the employees (provision of information and consultation) Act 2006 requires the employers with at least 50 employees to enter in to consultations with employees before any changes in workplace including the proposals for collective redundancy (ACAS 2 013). According to the case study, Dan Findale intends to make the 23 employees redundant thus, redundancy is just a dismissal that is not related to the individual employee or the capability of the individual employee, but an overall reorganization of the staff without recruiting new staff. Dan will have to justify his intentions of cost reduction in order to ensure the survival of the charity operations. Dan Findale must follow fair criteria in determining the employees to be made redundant. Some common criteria include last in, first out method that aims at preserving knowledge, skills and experience, staff appraisal rankings and asking for volunteers (Gilmore and Williams 2012). Unfair selection methods such as previous participation in industrial activities,

Chinese restaurants and foods in the USA Research Paper

Chinese restaurants and foods in the USA - Research Paper Example Despite the fact that the Chinese restaurants were one of the founders of the food business in the state of California, it is important to note that there were only a few of them within the state. Most were American restaurants until in the last three decades of 19th century. There were only 14 Chinese restaurants in San Francisco by 1882 when the American congress passed the very first Chinese exclusion act. This was opposed to the over one hundred and seventy-five Chinese laundry stores that were distributed all over the town. One ought to note that it was as a result of the numerous Chinese exclusion laws that were passed between 1882 and 1904 that discouraged the expansion of the Chinese food business despite their spectacular cuisines. The disparity between the Chinese and the American eating culture was evident. It was for this reason that the Americans made rice look like the racial symbol of the Asian inferiority and beef as the American superiority. As a matter of fact, food became a racial ideology and the culture of eating rats in Chinese restaurants made the American doubtful of the hygiene in these restaurants. The Chinese culture of eating rats was perhaps the most stereotyped image in the 19th century. In 1897, a company that advertised a pest control product used an image of a Chinese man with his mouth open ready to eat a rat which was, as a matter of fact, a rodent. This was an illustration that the Chinese were perhaps the most effective in exterminating these rodents from the face of the earth.

Human Resources Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Human Resources - Assignment Example ACAS encourages employees to appeal against unfair dismissals and employers can only lay off workers if there is an existing contractual agreement between he employer and the employer. Accordingly, the redundant temporary employees are entitled to statutory guaranteed payments that include up to five days pay in any three-month period (CIPD 2013). ACAS advocates for an ad-hoc approach, formal policies or formal agreements with trade unions as the possible approaches of implementing redundancies in the organization. The fixed term employment contracts than naturally end will be excluded from the obligations to engage in collective consultations (ACAS 2013). The Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD) require fair selection of employees to be put on redundancy and collective consultations before the redundancy (CIPD 2013). According to CIPD, redundancy rights and obligations are governed by the employment rights act 1996, the Trade union and labour relations (consolidat ion) Act 1992, protection of employment regulations 1995, collective redundancies and the transfer of undertaking (amendment) regulations 1999 and finally collective redundancies (amendment) regulations 2006. ... The concerned employees are eligible for certain rights such as redundancy pay, a reasonable notice period, discussions with the employer and some time off to seek alternative employment (Gilmore and Williams 2012). The redundancy must be fair and discriminatory practices such as age, disability or gender cannot be utilized as the criteria for redundancy (Gilmore and Williams 2012). The redundancy entails more than 20 employees thus Dan Findale must adhere to the redundancy procedure outlined in ACAS code of practice on redundancy consultation process. Accordingly, protection of employment Act 1977-2007 requires the employers to enter in to consultations with the employees at least 30 days before the first redundancy occurs. In addition, the employees (provision of information and consultation) Act 2006 requires the employers with at least 50 employees to enter in to consultations with employees before any changes in workplace including the proposals for collective redundancy (ACAS 2 013). According to the case study, Dan Findale intends to make the 23 employees redundant thus, redundancy is just a dismissal that is not related to the individual employee or the capability of the individual employee, but an overall reorganization of the staff without recruiting new staff. Dan will have to justify his intentions of cost reduction in order to ensure the survival of the charity operations. Dan Findale must follow fair criteria in determining the employees to be made redundant. Some common criteria include last in, first out method that aims at preserving knowledge, skills and experience, staff appraisal rankings and asking for volunteers (Gilmore and Williams 2012). Unfair selection methods such as previous participation in industrial activities,

Indonesian Political History Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Indonesian Political History - Research Paper Example An armed struggle followed between the Dutch and the largely Japanese-trained Indonesians, which culminated in the Netherlands’ recognition of Indonesian independence in 1949, after much loss of lives on both sides. 2. Japanese interests in Indonesia were closely linked to Japan’s colonial ambitions in Asia. It sought to establish itself as the biggest power in Asia after having achieved many victories, on the economic front and on the warfront. Japan also intended to gain an upper hand in the volatile situation that the Second World War presented. They sought to take over the reins of power in Indonesia from the Dutch. They were widely perceived to have dented the power and pride of the white western man and were thus welcomed in many Asian countries struggling under the yoke of colonialism. One of Japan’s main professed objectives in Indonesia was to end the system of administration that was based heavily on race. The objectives of the Japanese were not very di fferent from the Dutch and this can be inferred from the imperialist measures that they undertook while in power. 3. Japanese policies towards Islam in Indonesia were the opposite of those that were followed by the Dutch. While the Dutch believed in imposing restrictions on the practice of Islam through the use of force, the Japanese administration was able to harness the energy of Islamic institutions so as to provide itself with support during the Second World War. Their choice of a course of action was also influenced by the lack of resources available to pursue any alternative strategy. The War had drained tem of the power to pursue any policy that was based on the use of force. Japanese policies were aimed at enabling Islamic structures to be centres of mobilization for the cause of the War and the nation. 4. While a majority of the Indonesian population is Muslim, the constitution does not grant a pre-eminent position to Islam. Based on the principle of Pancasila, the Indonesi an constitution provides its citizens with the freedom to practice whichever religion they choose. The first president of Indonesia, Sukarno, was fearful of the secessionist impulses that may have arisen had Islam been declared the state religion. While there were uprisings for the cause of the inclusion of Islam as the state religion, they were defeated with the defeat that the first elections in Indonesian handed out to parties that were based on the principle of Islamic nationalism. Later on, Sukarno, the second premier of the nation, showed great inclination to grant Islam a prominent position within the constitution but failed. As a result, the Indonesian constitution does not grant any special status to Islam. 5. The establishment of a secular constitution received a mixed response from the Indonesian public. While there were protests demanding the inclusion of Islam within the constitution as the state religion, they were largely unsuccessful owing to the lack of large number s to support the movement. The period of Sukarno’s reign saw a secular government because of the response that the Indonesian public gave to political parties with Islamic nationalism as its main agenda. These parties were able to get only a small portion of the total votes in the first Indonesian elections, signaling the Indonesian public’s aversion to the rise of Islamic politics. Even though Sukarno, during his tenure, tried to appease Muslim powers, the rise

Free

Free Will vs. Determinism Essay Free will and determinism are two opposing beliefs as far as responsibility for outcomes or results is concerned. Free will signifies that as we make choices and decisions by ourselves, we become responsible for the results of our decisions and actions. Determinism, on the other hand, tells that humans have no influence on the future and its events and that human beings’ influence on their future is determined by present and past occurrences. In this writing, we present an analysis of the realities of these two philosophies. We will go through two stories: Daisy Miller, a novel by British author Henry James; and The Yellow Wallpaper, a short story by American writer Charlotte Gilman. Our goal is to find out the extent of free will and determinism. Is reality a mix of these two principles? DAISY MILLER The main characters in this novel are Daisy Miller, a beautiful American girl, and her suitor Winterbourne, also an American. In their encounters in Switzerland and Italy, they fall under the scrutiny of people in the society surrounding them. Daisy’s flirtatious attitude is frowned upon by Mrs. Walker, a fellow American who owns a parlor in Rome. Mrs. Costello, Winterbourne’s conservative aunt, strongly disapproves of Daisy’s because she agreed to date with him after only a half hour of being acquainted with each other. Their Free Will Prevails Over Other People’s Opinions. Daisy is not dissuaded by the disapproving eyes of the other Americans, neither is she affected by the ineffectual attitude of her own mother. Winterbourne, on his part, continues to court Daisy despite the disapproval of his conservative aunt; It is their free will that made them stand against the minds of these other people who could have otherwise, influenced their decisions. Winterbourne could have acceded to his aunt’s desire if he chose to but he followed his own will and pursued courting Daisy. Daisy could have chosen to change her ways to gain the approval of her compatriots considering that they are all in a foreign land but she stuck to her own will to act and behave as she really is, although they can consider her as some sort of an outcast; someone who is not accepted in the society where she moves. Determinism Can Be More Closely Associated with Daisy’s Death. The novel was set in the 19th century during which time, the â€Å"Roman fever† (malaria) was endemic to many Roman neighborhoods. Winterbourne warns Daisy about its dangers upon seeing her in the Colosseum. Daisy rushes home but still, she catches the fever and dies a few days later. She could have been more careful and avoided catching the illness but this could be considered as something that is more out of her own control. This can be compared with accidents which can occur no matter how much care is taken by a person. There are outside forces that can go beyond one’s control. THE YELLOW WALLPAPER This is the story of a wife who falls into complete insanity after being locked up in the upstairs bedroom of a mansion rented by her husband, a physician, so that she can ‘recuperate’ from a ‘temporary nervous depression’ during one summer vacation. Determ inism is Observed from the Outset of the Story. The woman, who narrates this story as a series of journal entries, is locked up inside the bedroom against her will. She could not go out nor see the outside world, nor see her baby. She is completely controlled by actions of her husband. Her Free Will, at the Same Time, Remains Strong Within. Although she has fallen into insanity, her desire for freedom is made manifest by the visions that she sees in the wallpaper, especially the figure of a woman who is trying to escape from the bars of the shadows. In her mind, she has to free the woman in the wallpaper, thus she strips the designs off the wall, later on believing that she is the woman who has escaped from inside the wallpaper. In the end of the story, thinking that she is ‘free at last’, she steps on the unmoving body of her husband, symbolizing that she has triumphed and that her will and desire for freedom has been achieved. SIMILARITIES AND DIFFERENCES BETWEEN THE TWO WORKS Both â€Å"Daisy Miller† and â€Å"The Yellow Wallpaper† are set in the 19th century. There were existing conditions at that time that interplayed in the plots of the stories: the Roman fever endemic that caused the death of Daisy Miller and androcentrism or male domination in human affairs that gave power to the physician to lock up his wife. In spite of these factors, the main female characters both carry in them strong wills. In â€Å"Daisy Miller†, the main characters live their lives in the outside world mingling with various personalities, as contrasted with the main character in â€Å"The Yellow Wallpaper† who is locked up inside a barred room, dealing with herself all along. CONCLUSION From the above works, one may deduce that a person has a strong will and determination to do or to have what he wants without having to give to an outside factor neither any credit for a desired result nor any blame for a bad outcome. Factors beyond a person’s control, as strongly suggested in determinism, can truly cause the outcome in a situation but the interplay of free will always exists along with it. Works Cited Gilman, Charlotte. The Yellow Wallpaper. United States: New England Magazine. 1892. Print James, Henry. Daisy Miller. United Kingdom: Cornhill Magazine. 1878. Print

Genetic Mapping of Cystic Fibrosis and Huntingtons Disease

Genetic Mapping of Cystic Fibrosis and Huntingtons Disease Genetic Mapping By the late 1970s, the list of genetic diseases in McKusicks catalog of genetic diseases had grown exponentially. But only a few of the actual genes were identified, leading to predictive diagnostic tests. It seems that finding a disease-linked gene in humans is like looking for a needle in a haystack. Botstein/Davis Gene Mapping Technique In 1978, David Botstein (1942- ), a geneticist from MIT, attended a genetic mapping presentation in Utah. At the presentation, a graduate student was mapping a gene that happened to be sitting with a gene that existed in many easily identifiable variants. As Botstein listened, he was struck by an idea: gene mapping would become a trivial task if such variant signposts existed and were spread across the human genome. Botstein knew that such a marker exists. Over centuries of evolution, thousands of minute variants in DNA sequence are created in the human genome. These variants are called polymorphisms, and are spread widely over the human genome. Working with Ron Davis (1941- ) and Mark Skolnick (1946- ), Botstein published their new basis for the construction of human genetic maps in 1980. Mapping Huntingtons Disease (HD) Nancy Wesler, a psychologist, heard about Botsteins gene-mapping proposal in October, 1979.ÂÂ   Her mother and uncles all had suffered from Huntingtons disease, but she was still asymptomatic. Huntingtons disease causes the death of specific neurons in the brain, leading to jerky movements, physical rigidity, and dementia. Symptoms usually appear in midlife and worsen progressively. At that time, Botsteins method was still theoretical thus far, no human gene had been successfully mapped with it. Botsteins technique was crucially dependent on the association between a disease and markers: the more patients, the stronger the association, the more refined the genetic map. There were only a few thousand HD patients in scattered across the United States seemed perfectly mismatched to this gene-mapping technique. However, Wexler had heard that there was a prevalence of HD on the shores of two villages in Venezuela. In the winter of 1979, Wexler set off to Venezuela to hunt the Huntington gene. She hired a team of local workers to begin documenting the pedigrees of affect and unaffected men and women, collecting blood samples to be shipped to the laboratory of James Gusella, at the Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston, and to Michael Conneally, a medical geneticist at Indiana University. In Boston, Gusella purified DNA from blood cells and cut it with a barrage of enzymes, looking for a variant that might be genetically linked to HD. Conneallys group analyzed the data to quantify the statistical link between the DNA variant and the disease. In 1983, three years after the blood samples had arrived, the location of the HD gene, whose mutation causes Huntingtons disease, was mapped to chromosome 4 in 1983, making HD the first disease gene to be mapped using DNA polymorphisms variants in the DNA sequence. The mutation consists of increasing repetitions of CAG in the DNA that codes for the protein huntingtin. The number of CAG repeats may increase when passed from parent to child, leading to earlier HD onset in each generation. Mapping of Cystic Fibrosis (CF) Davis and Botsteins technique of mapping genes based on their physical positions on chromosomes later called positional cloning marked a transformative moment in human genetics. In 1989, the technique was used to identify a gene that causes cystic fibrosis, a devastating illness that affects the lungs, pancreas, bile ducst, and intestines. Unlike Huntingtons disease, the mutated variant of the CF is common: one in twenty-five men and women of European descent carries the mutation. Human with a single copy of the mutant gene are largely asymptomatic. If two such asymptomatic carriers conceive a child, chances are one I four that the child will be born with both mutant genes. Until the 1980s, the average life span of a child carrying two such mutant alleles was twenty years. In 1985, Lap-Chee Tsui, a human geneticist working in Toronto, found an anonymous marker that was linked to the mutant CF gene. The marker was quickly pinpointed on chromosome seven, but the CF gene was lost somewhere in that chromosome. Tsui began to hunt for the CF gene by progressively narrowing the region that might contain it. In 1989, using a modified gene hunting technique called chromosome jumping, Tsui and his colleagues had narrowed down the gene hunt to a few candidates on chromosome seven. The task was now to sequence the genes, confirm their identity and define the mutation that affect the function of the CF gene. They discovered that only one gene was persistently mutated in both copies in affected children, while their unaffected parents carried a single copy of the mutation. The CF gene codes a molecule that channels salt across celluar membranes. The most common mutation is a deletion of three bases of DNA that results in the removal, or deletion, of just one amino acid from the protein. This deletion creates a dysfunctional protein that is unable to move chloride across membranes. The salt in sweat cannot be absorbed back into the body, resulting in the characteristically salty sweat. Not an the body secrete salt and water into the intestines, resulting in the abdominal symptoms. Within a few months of the discovery, a diagnostic test for the mutant allele became available. Over the last decade, the combination of targeted parental screening and fetal diagnosis has reduced the prevalence of children born with CF by about 30 to 40 percent in populations where the frequency of the mutant is the highest.

Alan Freed:History Of Rock Music Essay -- essays research papers

Alan Freed Alan Freed was born December 16, 1922 in Johnstown, Pennsylvania. He was considered the most the most famous Disc Jockey(DJ) in rock 'n roll history, however, controversy encircled the man and he recieved lots of criticism especially from white adults during his career. I think that Alan Freed greatly helped shape the sound of music today and further advanced the progression of rock music. He is the person who coined the term "Rock & Roll" and also put up with a lot of nonsense regarding the term. At the time "Rock & Roll" was an urban african american term for sex, I think Alan realized that the popular white culture would be turned off by the term R&B, which was mainly associated with black artists, so he decided to give it a different name and expose that style of music to the general public. His radio name and nickname was "Moondog". These were also the names of his non-segregated concerts in which black and white teenagers came to listen to good rock & roll regardless of the singer's color. Moondog Balls were very popular and drew much criticism from white parents. At the first Moondog Ball over 25,000 kids, mostly white, showed up in the March of 1925 in Cleveland. I believe that what Freed did was good as far as opening people up to racially diverse music and not really listening to what the media ...

Why Did The Civil War Start? Essay -- essays research papers

In this chapter I will try to find out why the Civil War actually started, and what the consequences of the war were. To find out this I need to know a little more about the history of the Civil War. The causes of most wars are often very complex, but in the America civil war it came down to two major issues, slavery and the protection of the Union. In the North, they were growing richer all the time as industry developed fast. The workers were mostly immigrants with low wages. The South didn’t have these resources, and the slaves were essential for them. The Northern politicians insisted that the Slavery should be abolished and that this was an evil system that should be stamped out. Only the rich wool farmers and other wealthy southerners had their own slaves, but most of them thought each state should decide its own politics rather than the federal government in Washington. When the war started most southerners fought for their States’ right and not just the slavery question. The North primarily fought to preserve the Union, but soon they also wanted to free all the slaves in the South. In 1860 Abraham Lincoln was elected as President, he was liberally-minded, and this was the final straw for the southern states. The leaders of the south had been waiting a long time for an event like this that could unite the entire South against the â€Å"antislavery forces†. When the election results were certain a South Carolina convention declared their state as seceded from the United S... Why Did The Civil War Start? Essay -- essays research papers In this chapter I will try to find out why the Civil War actually started, and what the consequences of the war were. To find out this I need to know a little more about the history of the Civil War. The causes of most wars are often very complex, but in the America civil war it came down to two major issues, slavery and the protection of the Union. In the North, they were growing richer all the time as industry developed fast. The workers were mostly immigrants with low wages. The South didn’t have these resources, and the slaves were essential for them. The Northern politicians insisted that the Slavery should be abolished and that this was an evil system that should be stamped out. Only the rich wool farmers and other wealthy southerners had their own slaves, but most of them thought each state should decide its own politics rather than the federal government in Washington. When the war started most southerners fought for their States’ right and not just the slavery question. The North primarily fought to preserve the Union, but soon they also wanted to free all the slaves in the South. In 1860 Abraham Lincoln was elected as President, he was liberally-minded, and this was the final straw for the southern states. The leaders of the south had been waiting a long time for an event like this that could unite the entire South against the â€Å"antislavery forces†. When the election results were certain a South Carolina convention declared their state as seceded from the United S...

China – Geert Hofstede

4/22/13 China – Geert Hofstede THE HOFSTEDE CENTRE (index. php) GET CERTIFIED Select a Country United States in Intercultural Management and (/certification- Culture by Organisational courses. html) in comparison with the below China THE HOFSTEDE CENTRE (thehofstede-centre. html) 118 80 91 GEERT HOFSTEDE (geerthofstede. html) NATIONAL CULTURE (nationalculture. html) 66 DIMENSIONS (dimensions. html) 62 30 46 29 40 COUNTRIES (countries. html) APPLICATIONS (applications. html) 20 COURSES (interculturalmanagement-courses. html) PDI IDV China MAS UAI LTO United States ORGANISATIONAL CULTURE (organisational-culture. tml) EVENTS AND COURSES (eventscourses. html) FAQ (faq. html) What about China? If we explore the Chinese culture through the lens of the 5-D Model, we can get a good overview of the deep drivers of Chinese culture relative to other world cultures. Power distance This dimension deals with the fact that all individuals in societies are not equal – it expresses the attitude of the culture towards these inequalities amongst us. Power distance is defined as the extent to which the less powerful members of institutions and organisations within a country expect and accept that power is distributed unequally.At 80 China sits in the higher rankings of PDI – i. e. a society that believes that inequalities amongst people are acceptable. The subordinate-superior relationship tends to be polarized and there is no defense against power abuse by superiors. Individuals are influenced by formal authority and sanctions and are in general optimistic about people’s capacity for leadership and initiative. People should not have aspirations beyond their rank. Contact Imprint (contact. html) (imprint. html) Individualism The fundamental issue addressed by this dimension is the degree of interdependence a society maintains among its members.It has to do with whether people? s self-image is defined in terms of â€Å"I† or â€Å"We†. In I ndividualist societies people are supposed to look after themselves and their direct family only. In Collectivist societies people belong to ‘in groups’ that take care of them in exchange for loyalty. At a score of 20 China is a highly collectivist culture where people act in the interests of the group and not necessarily of themselves. In-group considerations affect hiring and promotions with closer in-groups (such as family) are getting preferential treatment.Employee commitment to the organization (but not necessarily to the people in the organization) is low. Whereas relationships with colleagues are cooperative for in-groups they are cold or even hostile to out-groups. Personal relationships prevail over task and company. Masculinity / Femininity geert-hofstede. com/china. html 1/2 4/22/13 China – Geert Hofstede A high score (masculine) on this dimension indicates that the society will be driven by competition, achievement and success, with success being def ined by the winner / best in field – a value system that starts in school and continues throughout organisational behaviour.A low score (feminine) on the dimension means that the dominant values in society are caring for others and quality of life. A feminine society is one where quality of life is the sign of success and standing out from the crowd is not admirable. The fundamental issue here is what motivates people, wanting to be the best (masculine) or liking what you do (feminine). At 66 China is a masculine society –success oriented and driven. The need to ensure success can be exemplified by the fact that many Chinese will sacrifice family and leisure priorities to work.Service people (such as hairdressers) will provide services until very late at night. Leisure time is not so important. The migrated farmer workers will leave their families behind in faraway places in order to obtain better work and pay in the cities. Another example is that Chinese students car e very much about their exam scores and ranking as this is the main criteria to achieve success or not. Uncertainty avoidance The dimension Uncertainty Avoidance has to do with the way that a society deals with the fact that the future can never be known: should we try to control the future or just let it happen?This ambiguity brings with it anxiety and different cultures have learnt to deal with this anxiety in different ways. The extent to which the members of a culture feel threatened by ambiguous or unknown situations and have created beliefs and institutions that try to avoid these is reflected in the UAI score. At 30 China has a low score on uncertainty avoidance. Truth may be relative though in the immediate social circles there is concern for Truth with a capital T and rules (but not necessarily laws) abound. None the less, adherence to laws and rules may be flexible to suit the actual situation and pragmatism is a fact of life.The Chinese are comfortable with ambiguity; the Chinese language is full of ambiguous meanings that can be difficult for Western people to follow. Chinese are adaptable and entrepreneurial. At the time of writing the majority (70% -80%) of Chinese businesses tend to be small to medium sized and family owned. Long term orientation The long term orientation dimension is closely related to the teachings of Confucius and can be interpreted as dealing with society’s search for virtue, the extent to which a society shows a pragmatic future-oriented perspective rather than a conventional historical short-term point of view.With a score of 118 China is a highly long term oriented society in which persistence and perseverance are normal. Relationships are ordered by status and the order is observed. Nice people are thrifty and sparing with resources and investment tends to be in long term projects such as real estate. Traditions can be adapted to suit new conditions. Chinese people recognize that government is by men rather than a s in the Low LTO countries by an external influence such as God or the law. Thinking ways focus on the full or no confidence, contrasting with low LTO countries that think in probabilistic ways. geert-hofstede. com/china. html 2/2

Installing Openmrs Essay

There are two ways to install OpenMRS: Standalone, and Enterprise. You must have Java 6 or higher installed on your system to run OpenMRS. OpenMRS Standalone provides a simplified installation option with an embedded database and web server. It is a great way to evaluate and explore OpenMRS, letting you get a local version up and running within minutes, and includes download options with sample data. OpenMRS Standalone should run fine for smaller installations (fewer than 10,000 patient records), but if you are setting up a larger installation, we recommend using the Enterprise installation. If you are not sure which makes sense, you can start with a standalone installation and migrate your data to the enterprise version later. OpenMRS Enterprise is appropriate for larger installations. If you already have a Java servlet container and a database installed, and you want to set up OpenMRS to use these resources, you should also use OpenMRS Enterprise. OpenMRS Standalone To install the standalone version, download the ZIP file and decompress it, then double-click the openmrs-standalone. jar file to run it. The first time you run this file, it will install OpenMRS and open your browser to the new OpenMRS instance. Do not delete or rename any files or folders after decompressing the ZIP file. These files and folders are required by the standalone installer. Alternatively, from the command line, you can navigate to the decompressed folder and run the following command: java -jar standalone-1. 1. jar On Linux, you can also double-click on the file named run-on-linux. sh. If you are prompted for how to run it, just select run. Alternatively, you can use a command line shell to navigate to the decompressed folder and run the following command: ./run-on-linux. sh Upgrading Standalone To upgrade a copy of OpenMRS Standalone, do the following: Stop the previous version of OpenMRS Standalone and exit the application. Download and extract the most recent version of OpenMRS Standalone. Copy your database directory from the previous version to this new OpenMRS directory. Copy your openmrs-standalone-runtime. properties from the previous version to this new OpenMRS directory. Install OpenMRS Standalone as described above. The new version of OpenMRS will run with your old data. Logging in By default, the initial username and password are as follows: Username: admin Password: Admin123 You must immediately change the admin password after installation for security purposes. To change your password, click My Profile in the upper right of OpenMRS, and choose the Change Login Info tab. Update your password, then click Save Options. You can also change your username, and provide your real name, on this screen. Stopping and Restarting As long as OpenMRS is running, you can return to the application by opening the following URL in your browser. http://localhost:8081/openmrs-standalone/ Before you change certain preferences, such as the port on which MySQL or Tomcat runs, you must stop the application. To stop the application, use the Stop button in the user interface, or choose File > Quit. Alternatively, run the JAR file on the command line with a -stop parameter. You can restart the GUI by clicking Start, or double-clicking on the JAR file again. Alternatively, you can run the JAR file with a -start parameter. By default, OpenMRS runs the MySQL database on port 3316, and the Tomcat server on port 8081. To use a different port, stop the application, then change the port number in the openmrs-standalone-runtime. properties file or in the GUI, and restart. To override the port from the command line, run the JAR file with a -tomcatport or -mysqlport parameter. Changing the port number will change the URL used to access the application. To access the application, you can choose File > Launch Browser, or run the JAR file with a -browser parameter. OpenMRS Enterprise You must have Apache Tomcat and MySQL installed on your system before installing the enterprise version of OpenMRS. Download the Enterprise WAR package from http://openmrs. org/download/ Navigate to the Tomcat Web Application Manager and enter your Tomcat administrator credentials. http://localhost:8080/manager/html Browse to the location of the openmrs. war package, and deploy it. The initial setup which follows may take some time. At the end of the process, the Web Application Manager will refresh, and /openmrs should be displayed in the list of applications. Tomcat should also start the application (Running = True). Open the OpenMRS web application to complete the initial setup process. http://localhost:8080/openmrs Getting Started with OpenMRS Enterprise The first time you run OpenMRS, the setup wizard will help you configure your installation. Follow the instructions in this wizard to set up your database, and populate it with test data if necessary.