Fluke, or, I Know Why the Winged Whale Sings Chapter 33

CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE Could Be Worse, Could Be Dog Years â€Å"Evidently,† said Nate, â€Å"where we screwed up was killing the whales.† â€Å"No way,† said Amy. â€Å"We tipped our hand.† â€Å"About being meme machines, right?† â€Å"Yeah. Are you sure you're not spying for him?† â€Å"Nope. Know how you can tell? When I was spying, did I ever touch you here?† â€Å"No. No, you did not.† â€Å"And did I ever let you touch me here?† She moved his hand for him. â€Å"No, you did not. Especially not in public.† â€Å"Yeah, we should probably go back to your place.† She had called him on his buzzy, bug-winged speaky thing, about which he made a mental note to ask what the name of it was at his first convenience. They'd met for coffee at a Gooville caf that catered to whaley boys. She'd assured him that no one would notice them, and, strangely enough, the whaley boys had completely ignored them. Maybe he was no longer news. â€Å"If they say anything, I'll just tell them that we're having sex,† Amy said. â€Å"But you said you didn't think I should tell the Colonel I'd seen you.† â€Å"Yeah, but that was before he let you in on his secret plan.† â€Å"Right.† â€Å"Although I'm a little ashamed of how old you are. We should talk about that.† â€Å"So should I move my hand?† â€Å"Yeah, down and a little to the right.† â€Å"Let's head back to my place.† Back at his apartment, standing in the kitchen, he said, â€Å"Hey, what do you call this thing?† He pointed to that thing. â€Å"The phone.† â€Å"No kidding?† He nodded as if he'd known that all along. â€Å"So where were we?† â€Å"Killing whales was where we went wrong?† â€Å"Yes.† â€Å"Or how old you are?† â€Å"So,† he continued, â€Å"killing whales was a big mistake.† â€Å"Which you knew, because that's what made you want to become a nerd in the first place.† â€Å"No, that's not right.† † ‘Scuse me, action nerd.† â€Å"You want to know how I got into this field, really?† â€Å"No. I mean, sure. You can tell me about the destruction of the human race later.† â€Å"You have to promise you won't laugh.† â€Å"Of course.† She looked incredibly sincere. â€Å"My sophomore year at the University of Sasketchewan in the Sticks – ; â€Å"You're kidding.† â€Å"It's a good school. You promised you wouldn't laugh.† â€Å"Oh, you meant even this early in the story I'm not supposed to laugh? Sorry.† â€Å"I mean, I'm sure it doesn't measure up to Gooville Community College –  » â€Å"Not fair.† â€Å"Home of the Gooville Fighting Loogies – ; â€Å"Okay, you made your point.† â€Å"Thank you. So a friend and I decided that we're going to go to break out of our boring small-college lives, we were going to take some risks, we were going to –  » â€Å"Talk to a girl?† â€Å"No. We decided to drive all the way to Florida for spring break just like American kids, where we would then drink beer, get sunburned, and then talk to a girl – girls.† â€Å"So you went.† â€Å"Took almost a week to get there, but yes, we drove in his dad's Vista Cruiser station wagon. And I did indeed meet a girl. In Fort Lauderdale. A girl from Fort Lauderdale. And I talked to her.† â€Å"You dirty little tramp. Like, ‘How's it going, eh?  » â€Å"Among other things. We conversed. And so she invited me to go see a manatee.† â€Å"He shoots! He scores!† â€Å"But I thought it was an American way of saying matinee. I thought we were going to a movie. You know, you don't think about those things as being real.† â€Å"But it was.† â€Å"She did volunteer work for a rescue hospital for injured marine mammals, mostly manatees that had been hit by boats. They had a bottlenose dolphin, too. We stayed there for hours, caring for the animals, her teaching me about them. I was hooked. I hadn't even picked my undergrad major, but as soon as I got back to school, I went for biology, and I've been studying marine mammals ever since.† â€Å"Oh, my God, you didn't get laid, did you?† â€Å"I found a passion for life. I found something that drives me.† â€Å"I can't believe I fell for such a pathetic loser.† â€Å"Hey, I'm pretty good at this whale stuff. I'm respected in my field.† â€Å"But you're dead.† â€Å"Yeah, before then, I mean. Hey, did you say that you fell for me?† â€Å"I said I fell for a pathetic loser, if the shoe fits†¦Ã¢â‚¬  He kissed her. She kissed him back. That went on for a while. They both found it excellent. Then they stopped. â€Å"You said you wanted to talk about our age difference,† Nate said, because he always picked women who broke his heart, and, figuring that his heart was now into this whole thing far enough to be broken, he wanted to get on with it. â€Å"Yeah, we probably should. Maybe we should sit down.† â€Å"Couch?† â€Å"No, at the table. You might want a drink.† â€Å"No, I'm okay.† Yep, heartbreak, he thought. They sat. â€Å"So,† she said, curling her legs up under her, sitting like a little kid, making him feel ever more the creepy old guy leching on the young girl, â€Å"you know that the whaley boys have been pulling people in here from shipwrecks and plane crashes for years, right?† â€Å"That's what Cielle said.† â€Å"She wants you, I can tell, but that's beside the point. Do you know that they pulled whole crews off sunken submarines, plus they've yanked sonar guys out of port for years?† â€Å"I didn't know that.† â€Å"Doesn't matter, has nothing to do with what I'm telling you. So you realize that some people who have been lost at sea, like the crew of the American sub Scorpion that sank back in 67, actually ended up here?† â€Å"Okay. That makes sense. More of the Goo looking out for itself. Gaining knowledge.† â€Å"Yeah, but that's not the point. I mean, those guys helped put together a lot of the technology you saw on the whale ship, the human technology, but that doesn't matter. The important part is that the world thinks that the crew of the Scorpion is at the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean, even though they're not. Got it?† â€Å"Okay,† Nate said, really slowly, the way he had spoken to the Colonel when he was losing the point – much the way he was waving in the conversational wind right now. â€Å"And you realize that when I applied with you and Clay, that I gave my real name, which is Amy Earhart, and that Amy is short for Amelia?† â€Å"Oh, my God,† Nate said. â€Å"Ha!† Amy said. The ship broker found Clay's ship in the Philippines, in Manila Harbor. Clay bought it based on faxed photographs, a spec sheet, and a recent hull certification for just under $2 million of the Old Broad's money. It was a 180-foot-long U.S. Coast Guard fisheries patrol vessel built in the late fifties. It had been refitted several times since then, once in the seventies for fishing, once in the eighties for ocean survey, and finally in the nineties as a live-aboard dive boat for the adventure tourist. It had plenty of comfortable cabins as well as compressors, dive platforms, and cranes to raise and lower support vessels onto the rear deck, although, except for the lifeboats, it came with no support craft. Clay thought they could use the rear deck as a helicopter-landing pad, even if there wasn't a budget for a helicopter, but – you know – someone with a helicopter might want to land there, and it helped no end to have a big H painted on the deck. There was a budget for painting a big H. The ship had efficient, if not quite state-of-the-art, navigation equipment, radar, autopilot, and some old but functioning sonar arrays left over from its days as a fishing ship. It had twin twelve-hundred-horsepower diesel engines and could distill up to twenty tons of freshwater a day for the crew and passengers. There were cabins and support for forty. It was also rated a class-three icebreaker, which was a feature that Clay hoped they wouldn't have to test. He really didn't like cold water. Through another broker Clay hired the crew of ten men, sight unseen, right off the docks of Manila: a group of brothers, cousins, and uncles with the last name of Mangabay, among whom the broker guaranteed that there were no murderers, or at least no convicted murderers, and only petty thieves. The eldest uncle, Ray Mangabay, who would be Clay's first mate, would sail the ship to Honolulu, where Clay would meet them. â€Å"He's going to be driving my ship,† Clay said to Clair after he'd gotten the news that he had a crew and a first mate. â€Å"You have to let your ship go, Clay,† Clair said. â€Å"If he sinks it, it wasn't really yours.† â€Å"But it's my ship.† â€Å"What are you going to call it?† He was thinking about the Intrepid or the Merciless or some other big-dick, blow-shit-up kind of name. He was thinking about Loyal or Relentless or the Never Surrender, because he was determined now to find his friend, and he didn't mind putting that right on the bow. â€Å"Well, I was thinking about – ; â€Å"You were thinking deeply about it, weren't you?† Clair interrupted. â€Å"Yes, I thought I'd call her the Beautiful Clair.† â€Å"Just the Clair will be fine, baby. You don't want the bow to look busy.† â€Å"Right. The Clair.† Strangely enough, on second thought, that pretty much encompassed Intrepid, Merciless, Relentless, and Loyal. Plus, it had the underlying meaning of keeper of the booty, which was sort of a bonus in a ship name, he thought. â€Å"Yeah, that's a good name for her.† â€Å"How long before she gets here?† â€Å"Two weeks. She's not fast. Twelve knots cruising. If we have somewhere to go, I'll send the ship directly there and meet it at a port along the way.† â€Å"Well, now that she's called the Clair, I hope they bring her in safe.† â€Å"My ship,† Clay said anxiously. â€Å"So,† Nate said, â€Å"You're what, in your nineties? A hundred?† â€Å"Don't look it, do I?† Amy posed: a coquettish half curtsy with a Betty Boop bump at the end. Indeed, it would have been a spry move for a woman in her nineties. Nate was really glad he was sitting down, but he missed the sensation he would have had of needing to sit down. â€Å"Your whole attraction was based on my age, wasn't it?† She sat across from him. â€Å"You were working out your male menopause on the fantasy of my young body. Somehow you were going to try to recapture your youth. Once again you'd feel like more than a footnote to humanity. You'd be virile and vital and relevant and all alpha male, just because a younger – and decidedly luscious, I might add – woman had chosen you, right?† â€Å"Nuh-uh,† Nate said. She was wrong, right? â€Å"Wow, Nate, were you on the debate team at Moose Dirt U? I mean, your talent –  » â€Å"Sasketchewan in the Sticks,† he corrected. â€Å"So the age thing? It's a problem?† â€Å"You're like a hundred. My grandma isn't even a hundred, and she's dead.† â€Å"No, I'm not really that old.† She grinned and reached across the table, took his hand. â€Å"It's okay, Nate. I'm not Amelia Earhart.† â€Å"You're not?† Nate felt his lungs expand, as if a steel band around his chest had broken. He'd been taking tiny yip breaths, but now oxygen was returning to his brain. Funny, he was pretty sure that none of the other women he'd been with had been Amelia Earhart either, but he didn't remember feeling quite so relieved about it before. â€Å"Well, I should have known. I mean, you don't look anything like the pictures. No goggles.† â€Å"I was just messin' with you. I'm her daughter. Ha!† â€Å"Stop it! This isn't funny, Amy. If you're trying to make a point, you've made it. Yes, you're an attractive young woman, and maybe your youth's a part of why I'm attracted to you, but that's just biology. You can't blame me for that. I didn't make a move on you, I didn't harass you when we were working together. I treated you exactly as I would have treated any research assistant, except maybe you got away with more because I liked you. You can't ridicule me for responding to you sexually down here when you came on to me. The rules had changed.† â€Å"I'm not ridiculing you. Amelia Earhart really is my mother.† â€Å"Stop it.† â€Å"You want to meet her?† Nate searched her face for signs of a grin or a tremble in her throat that might indicate the rise of an Amy Ha! Nothing there, just that little bit of sweetness that she usually tried to hide. â€Å"So somehow, living down here, you haven't aged. Your mother?† â€Å"We age, but not like on the surface. I was born in 1940. I'm about the same number of years older than you than you were older than me a half hour ago – kinda sorta. You going to dump me?† â€Å"It's so hard to believe.† â€Å"Why, after you've seen all this? You've seen what the Goo can do. Why is it so hard to believe that I'm sixty-four?† â€Å"Well, for one, you're so immature.† â€Å"Shut up. I'm young at heart.† â€Å"But for a second there I was so sure we were doomed.† Nate rubbed his temples – trying to stretch them, maybe – to make his head bigger to hold the whole concept of Amy's being sixty-four. â€Å"No, it's okay, we just haven't gotten to that yet. We're still doomed.† â€Å"Oh, thank goodness,† Nate said. â€Å"I was worried.† Later, after they had pushed the world away for a while, made love and napped in each other's arms, Amy made a move to start another round, and Nate awoke to an immediate and uncertain anxiety. â€Å"Are we really doomed?† he asked. â€Å"Oh, goddamn it Nate!† She was straddling him, so she was able to get a good windup before thumping him hard in the chest with her fist. â€Å"That's just un-fucking-professional!† Nate thought about how the praying mantis female will sometimes bite off the male's head during copulation and how the male's body continues to mate until the act is finished. â€Å"Sorry,† he said. She rolled off him and stared up at dim strips of green luminescence on the ceiling. â€Å"It's okay. I didn't mean to bite your head off.† â€Å"Pardon?† â€Å"Yes, we're probably doomed. We're doomed for the same reason that I look the way I do, that most of the Goos look much younger than we really are. Turn a gene on, you age; turn it off, you don't. I've even seen some people down here who seem to get younger. Flip a switch, pancreatic cancer at age twenty-two; flip another, you can smoke four packs a day and live to be a hundred. If the Goo thinks that the human race is a danger to it, it just has to flip a switch, pick a gene, make a virus, and the human race would blink out. I hadn't really thought about it as a threat before. My whole life I've worked for the Goo. Service, you know? It takes care of us. It's the source.† He didn't know what to say. Did he need to actually take the Colonel's request for help seriously? Did he need to help find a way to kill this amazing creature in order to save his own species? â€Å"Amy, I don't know what to do. Two days ago I just wanted to get out of here. Now? The Colonel and you both said I was lucky to be alive. Has the Goo killed people who were close to finding out about it?† â€Å"Honestly, I don't know. I've never seen it or heard of it happening, but I – we – each just do our own part down here. We don't ask a lot of questions. Not because we're told not to or anything – it's just that you can live a long time without asking yourself big questions when your needs are looked after.† For the first time Nate could see the experience of years in Amy's face, marked not by wrinkles but by a shadow in her eyes. â€Å"I'm asking,† he said. â€Å"Do I think the Goo is ethically capable of killing the human race?† â€Å"I guess.† â€Å"I don't even know if the Goo has ethics, Nate. According to the Colonel, it's just a vehicle for genes and we're just vehicles for memes and nature says that a head-on collision is inevitable. What if it's not? This battle has supposedly gone on for millions of years, and now the Colonel wants to force an endgame? What I do know is that you've got to talk him out of trying to kill it.† â€Å"But he's your leader.† â€Å"Yeah, but he didn't tell any of us about this. I think he's doubting his own judgment. So am I.† â€Å"But you said that it could kill everyone on the planet at the flick of a switch.† â€Å"Yeah.† She rolled over and propped herself up on her elbow. â€Å"You hungry? I'm hungry.† â€Å"I could eat.†

Architecture and memory

Throughout history, states have sought to exhibit societal memory of their past accomplishments whilst conversely wipe outing the memory of evildoings committed during their development. These nostalgic contemplations of historic events have been both literally and figuratively portrayed in didactic memorials, which carefully edify the events into clear word pictures of province triumph and victory. However, displacements in the discourse of twentieth-century political relations have given rise to the voice of the victim within these narratives. The traditional nation-state is now answerable to an international community instead than itself ; a community that acknowledges the importance of human rights and upholds moral conditions. These provinces continue to build an individuality both in the past and present, but are expected to admit their ain exclusions and accept blameworthiness for their old exploitations. In this new clime the traditional commemoration does non go disused, but alternatively evolves beyond a celebratory memorial, progressively citing the state's evildoings and function as culprit. This progressive switch in attitude has given birth to a new signifier of commemoration: the anti-monument. These modern-day commemorations abandon nonliteral signifiers in penchant of abstraction. This medium facilitates a dialogical relationship between spectator and capable whilst besides advancing ambivalency. Critically, this new typology allows the narration of the victim and culprit to entwine into a individual united signifier, a alleged move towards political damages. This essay analyses the tradition and features of historic memorials and the post-industrial development of the anti-monument. The essay surveies and inquiries abstraction as the chosen vehicle of the anti-monument, utilizing Peter Eisenman's Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe as a case-study. I argue that despite its accomplishment as a piece public art, basically, it fails to execute its map of memorialization through its abstracted, equivocal signifier. Traditional memorials use nonliteral imagination to organize an intuitive connexion to the spectator. They use linguistic communication and iconography to show the looker-on with the state's idealized perceptual experience of a important event in history. Throughout clip, these memorials have frequently outlasted the civilisations or political governments who constructed them and as a consequence their undisputed specific narrative becomes unequivocal ; all memory of an alternate narration is lost with the passing of informants who could remember the existent events. This has the negative effect of relieving the contemporary visitant of duty for the past and fails to suit the invariably altering and varied position of the spectator. In this regard, the permanency of the traditional memorial nowadayss an unchallengeable narrative which becomes an active presence to the visitant, who is ever the receptive component. However, events of the 20th century such as the atomic blast at Hiroshima and the atrociousness of the Holocaust altered commemorate pattern. Memorials were no longer militaristic and celebratory but alternatively acknowledged the offenses of the province against civilians. Interior designers were faced with the countless challenge of memorializing ‘the most quintessential illustration of adult male ‘s inhumaneness to adult male – the Holocaust. ‘ An event so ruinous it prevented any effort to singularly enter the single victim. The new typology that emerged would subsequently be defined as the antimonument. The anti-monument aimed to chase away old memorial convention by prefering a dialogical signifier over the traditional didactic memorial. This new memorial typology avoided actual representation through nonliteral look and written word in favour of abstraction. This move toward the abstract enabled the spectator to now go the active component and the memorial to go the receptive component ; a role-reversal that allowed the visitant to convey their ain reading to the commemoration. James E Young commented that the purpose of these commemorations: â€Å" †¦ is non to comfort but to arouse ; non to stay fixed but to alter ; non to be everlasting but to vanish ; non to be ignored by passersby but to demand interaction ; non to stay pristine but to ask for its ain misdemeanor and desanctification ; non to accept gracefully the load of memory but to throw it back at the town ‘s pess. † In this manner, James E Young suggests that the anti-monument Acts of the Apostless receptively to history, clip and memory. He besides states: â€Å" Given the inevitable assortment of viing memories, we may ne'er really portion a common memory at these sites but merely the common topographic point of memory, where each of us is invited to retrieve in our ain manner. † The anti-monument facilitates the on-going activity of memory and allows the visitant to react to the current agonies of today in visible radiation of a remembered yesteryear. It is this point that basically determines the of import and necessary dialogical character of all modern Holocaust commemorations. Consequently, in 1999 the Federal Republic of Germany passed a declaration to raise a commemoration to the murdered Jews of Europe. This commemoration intended to ‘honour the murdered victims ‘ and ‘keep alive the memory of these impossible events in German history. ‘ An unfastened competition selected American, Peter Eisenman as the winning designer, who proposed an expansive field of 2,711 stelae and ‘the Ort ‘ , a auxiliary information Centre. The commemoration is non merely important for its intents of recollection, but besides represents the first national memorial to the Holocaust to be constructed with fiscal and political support from the German Federal State. The location of the memorial itself is considered arbitrary by some, as the site has no old intension with the Holocaust or Nazism, but alternatively was a former no-mans land in the decease strip of the Berlin Wall. Whilst the commemorating power of this location may be questioned, the significance of its arrangement lies within its integrating into Berlin ‘s urban kingdom. The edge status of the memorial nowadayss a natural passage between the stelae and the paving. The land plane and first stelae sit flower to each other before bit by bit lifting and recessing into two separate informations that create a zone of uncertainness between. The commemoration does non admit the specificity of the site and the deficiency of cardinal focal point intends to reflect the ambient nature of victims and culprits in the metropolis of Berlin. Within the stelae each visitant senses the memory of the victims somatically by sing feelings of claustrophobia, uneasiness and freak out within the narrow paseos and graduated table of the memorial. It was non Peter Eisenman ‘s purpose to emulate the restrictive status of a decease cantonment, but alternatively, to promote the personal contemplation of the person in their function of transporting memory in the present. â€Å" In this memorial there is no end, no terminal, no working one ‘s manner in or out. The continuance of an person ‘s experience of it grants no farther apprehension, since apprehension is impossible. The clip of the memorial, its continuance from top surface to land, is disjoined from the clip of experience. In this context, there is no nostalgia, no memory of the yesteryear, merely the living memory of the single experience. Here, we can merely cognize the past through its manifestation in the present. † In this sense, each visitant is invited to see the absence created by the Holocaust and in bend, each feels and fills such a nothingness. It can non be argued that this material battle with absence is non powerful ; nevertheless, in most cases the feeling becomes passing. Each visitant walks precariously around the commemoration, hesitating for idea and expecting the following corner. They are forced to alter gait and way unwillingly and face the changeless menace of hit at every bend and intersection of the looming stelae. It is this status, in my sentiment, that instills the feeling of menace and edginess into most visitants as opposed to the perceived connexion between themselves and the victims. The commemoration does non give any infinite for assemblages of people and therefore inhibits any ceremonial usage in the act of memory. The aggregation of stelae is evocative of the graveyards of Judaic ghettos in Europe where due to infinite restraints ; gravestones are piled high and crowded together at different angles. Some visitants treat the commemoration as a graveyard, walking easy and mutely, before halting and layering flowers or tapers at the side of a stele. The presence of these drab grievers and their objects of recollection are one of the lone indexs that clearly place the stelae field as a commemoration. However, the objects discarded at the commemoration are ever removed by the staff, proposing the memorial be experienced in its intended signifier ; a relationship more kindred to public art instead than that of a commemoration. In Eisenman ‘s sentiment, the commemoration is symbolic of a apparently stiff and apprehensible system of jurisprudence and order that mutates into something much more profane. The visitant experiences this first-hand when feeling lost and disorientated in the environment they one time perceived as rational and negotiable from the exterior. â€Å" The undertaking manifests the instability inherent in what seems to be a system, here a rational grid, and its potency for disintegration in clip. It suggests that when a purportedly rational and ordered system grows excessively big and out of proportion to its intended intent, it in fact loses touch with human ground. It so begins to uncover the innate perturbations and potency for pandemonium in all systems of looking order, the thought that all closed systems of a closed order are bound to neglect. † Through abstraction, the memorial efforts to admit both the victims and culprits in a individual, incorporate signifier. The regular grid of the memorial and its delusory portraiture of reason acknowledge the culprits of the offense: the Nazi Third Reich. Whilst viewed from afar, the stelae resemble gravestones in a graveyard, allowing the victims a marker for their life, a marker antecedently denied to them by a Nazi government who aimed to wipe out all memory of their being. Eisenman ‘s commemoration is concerned with how the yesteryear is manifested in the present. His involvement lies non with the murdered Jews the commemoration aims to mark, but alternatively, how the contemporary visitant can associate to those victims. In this regard, the memorial licenses recollection displaced from the memory of the holocaust itself. Eisenman wrote: â€Å" The memory of the Holocaust can ne'er be one of nostalgia. †¦ The Holocaust can non be remembered in the nostalgic manner, as its horror everlastingly ruptured the nexus between nostalgia and memory. The memorial efforts to show a new thought of memory as distinguishable from nostalgia. † The field of stelae does non show a nostalgic remembrance of Judaic life before the holocaust ; neither does it try to encapsulate the events of the race murder. Alternatively, the memorial connects with the visitant through a material battle that facilitates an single response to memory. The stelae have the consequence of making a ghostly atmosphere as the sounds of the environing streets and metropolis are deadened, overstating the visitant ‘s uncomfortableness. However, the atmosphere is disturbed by the cheering, laughter and conversation of visitants lost in the stelae looking for one another. In pronounced contrast, the subterraneous information Centre has the consequence of hushing its dwellers. The exhibition provides a actual representation of the atrociousnesss of the holocaust, pedagogically exposing the vesture, letters and personal properties of a smattering of victims. Eisenman originally rejected the inclusion of a topographic point of information so that the stelae field would go the sole and unequivocal experience. However, his competition win was conditional upon its inclusion. It is my sentiment that ‘The Ort ‘ or information Centre has become the important topographic point of memory and memorialization despite being at the same time downplayed by the designer and German province. The little edifice is located belowground and accessed via a narrow stairway amongst the stelae. As with the commemoration as a whole, there is no recognition of its being or map, and as a consequence must be discovered through roving. It performs memorialization far more successfully than the stelae field by bring forthing an emotional response from the visitant. In the exhibition, the hurt of the visitant is evident as they walk around solemnly, the world of the holocaust going perceptible. The acoustic presence of shouting and sobbing are far removed from the laughter and shouting in the stelae above. The exhibition features infinites where the lifes of victims are made hearable, explicating the sequence of events that led to their deceases. In these suites the sm allest inside informations of the victim's forgotten lives are told in a heavy voice which instantly gives substance to the person and corporate loss. The visitant ‘s injury is perceptible here as the impossible statistics are non portrayed as abstract representations, but alternatively are actual and personified. It is the lone subdivision of the commemoration where the holocaust is explicitly present ; where visitants are non removed from the horrors but alternatively confronted with them. At street degree, the commemoration has no marks or indexs to its intent and the stelae present no carving or lettering. The abstract nature of the stelae and site as a whole have the affect of doing the commemoration a relaxed and convenient topographic point to be. The memorial has transcended the theory that commemorations command regard by their mere being, with the site going a portion of mundane life for Berliners as a topographic point of leisure. Many stumble on the commemoration as an empty labyrinth, a kids ‘s resort area where people walk across the stelae, leaping from one to another. They are faced with conflicting emotions between an inherent aptitude to demo regard and a desire to fulfill a self-generated demand to play. The commemoration ‘s aspiration is to enable every visitant to make their ain decision and determine an single experience, which through abstraction it achieves. However, by the same means, it facilitates a withdrawal between the person and the commemoration ‘s primary map of memorialization. The theoretical narration of the stelae field is an highly complex and powerful thought, nevertheless the equivocal, absent design fails to let the visitant to truly relate to the victims or derive an apprehension of the atrociousnesss of the holocaust. Therefore, whilst experienced in its uniqueness, the abstract stelae field fails to mark, alternatively being dependant on the didactic attack of the information Centre to let the visitant to associate to the holocaust and its victims.When measuring the entries for the original competition Stephen Greenblatt wrote:â€Å" It has become progressively evident that no design for a Berlin commemoration to retrieve the 1000000s of Jews killed by Nazis in the Holocaust will of all time turn out adequate to the huge symbolic weight it must transport, as legion designs have been considered and discarded. Possibly the best class at this point would be to go forth the site of the prop osed commemoration at the bosom of Berlin and of Germany empty†¦ † Possibly this attack would hold finally become more pertinent. How does one design a memorial in memory of an event so impossible that in some manner doesn't have the inauspicious affect of doing it more toothsome? Possibly, as Archigram frequently insisted, the solution may non be a edifice. The absence of a memorial delegates the duty of memorialization to the person who as carriers of memory, come to symbolize the absent memorial. The Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe is an challenging and alone position on cognitive memory that doubtless has advanced the development of the antimonument, puting a new case in point in memorial architecture. However, the commemoration ‘s effectivity is basically undermined by the premise that all visitants are cognizant, and will go on to be cognizant of the specific events of the holocaust. For illustration, how will a 2nd or 3rd coevals ‘s reading differ from that of a subsister who visits the memorial today? Its absent, equivocal signifier fails to contextualize the commemoration without the concomitant of explicit, actual representations presented individually within the Information Centre. It is for this ground that the memorial apparently becomes a victim of its ain impossibleness.Bibliography:Rauterberg, Hanno. Holocaust Memorial Berlin. ( Lars Muller Publishers ) 2005.Young, James E. The Art of Memory: Holocaust Memorials in History. ( Prestel ) 1994.He athcote, Edwin. Monument Builders: Modern Architecture and Death. ( Academy Editions ) 1999.Williams, Paul. Memorial Museums: The Global Rush to Commemorate Atrocities. ( Berg ) 2007.Young, James E. The Texture of Memory: Holocaust Memorials and Meaning. ( New Haven ) 1993.Boym, Svetlana. The Future of Nostalgia. ( Basic Books ) 2001.Zion, Brigitte. Experience and Remembrance at Berlin. ( New York ) 2007.Choay, Francoise. The Invention of the Historic Monument. ( Cambridge University Press ) 2001.Eisenman, Peter. Notations of Affect. An Architecture of memory ( Pathos, Affekt, Gef & A ; uuml ; hectoliter ) 2004.hypertext transfer protocol: //www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/germans/memorial/eisenman.html – Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe Project Text. 2005.Photographs:Magnuson, Eric. ‘Pathways. ‘ ( hypertext transfer protocol: //www.flickr.com/photos/esm723/3754775324 ) 2009.Ndesh. ‘Platform Games. ‘ ( hypertext transfer protocol: //www.f lickr.com/photos/ndesh/3754009233/in/photostream ) 2009.Ward, Matt. ‘Flowers. ‘ ( hypertext transfer protocol: //www.flickr.com/photos/mattward/3472587863 ) 2009.

Disclosure of information Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words - 3

Disclosure of information - Essay Example This new employee begun badmouthing his/her former boss and the company he/she used to work with. We initially thought he/she was just kidding because he/she looked sharp and we thought that he/she knew that it is unethical to badmouth former employers to new work colleagues. But he/she was not kidding, as he/she ranted all night long venting all his/her frustration on us about his/her former boss, his former co-workers and everything about the company he/she used to work for. It got to the point that we got stressed by his/her ranting that it defeated the purpose of our night out. Listening to his/her litany of pent-up emotions about his/her former boss and company really stressed me. It really turned me off. And it got me thinking that I may be badmouthed too should this new fellow worker move to other company. The next day, I became uneasy and uncomfortable around this new fellow worker though he/she was nice to me. For whatever reason, I feel guarded around his/her presence. I became uncomfortable sharing my own personal idiosyncrasy and kept my distance from him/her. I also avoided long conversation with him/her. I am aware that it is not the usual me to avoid people. But with this co-worker, I seem to have hard-time establishing a personal relationship as I became too guarded and stiff around him/her for us to become friends. I can feel that he/she is not really that bad as a person. But I just cannot forget his/her litany and ranting during the first evening that we socialized. Every time I try, the words she mentioned against his/her former boss and work mates just keeps ringing on my head. In a way, her personal angst rubbed on me as it affected my ability to open up to some people. Years went by and we both eventually resigned, but our relationship never progressed beyond the

International intercultural management Assignment

International intercultural management - Assignment Example 2. Hofstede’s Model in Relation to Cultural Aspects Every nation has its own set of standards that define the culture in terms of thinking, being and acting, and these differences have a very strong impact on the business communication and workplace values in any organization. Something that may be considered perfectly normal and natural in an organization of one country can be frowned upon and seen as offensive in another. Values will always differ across cultures. Therefore, we have to understand these varying differences in order to describe and forecast employee behaviour from various countries. Some cultures value decisions that are made in a group, while others think that the leader should take control of the decision-making. For almost all business organizations, it is crucial to be aware of how the cultures will affect the workplace values because it will provide them with a framework of assessing the different dimensions. One of the most determined studies of the cult ural differences and how they influence organizational issues was commenced by Geert Hofstede, a Dutch scholar which involved data on more than 116,000 employees of IBM representing forty countries. Many of these dimensions will be based on Geert Hofstede’s framework for assessing cultures (Brown, 2009). It is important to understand where the values across cultures stem from, or what the source is. Previous research has identified two clear forces that have an impact on the formation of values that managers who are engaged in international business possess (Ronen, 1986; Webber, 1969). These two forces can be categorized into national culture as well as business environment. Both the culture of the nation and the environment the business operates in will have a significant influence on the values that an organization will possess. Triandis et al. (1986) brings forth the proposal that a way to have an understanding of the culture is to identify the dimensions of the variations in the culture of the organization such as Hofstede (1980). In a study including more by Geert Hofstede, it was found out there were four basic dimensions along with work-related values that differed across cultures: power distance, uncertainty avoidance, masculinity/femininity, and individualism/collectivism. Later on, work by Bond presented with a fifth dimension i.e. the long-term/short-term orientation. Power Distance is related to the extent to which a culture’s members accept an imbalanced distribution of power. Hofstede’s Power distance Index measures the degree to which the less dominant members of establishments and institutions accept the unequal distribution. This will almost always represent discrimination, but defined from below instead of above. It proposes that a society’s level of variation is recognised by the followers as much as by the leaders. If we look at France, we see that the power distance index is comparatively higher than the rest of the countries; around 68. This means that in the management as well as the general lifestyle of France there is a big gap between the social classes, and there are clear definitions of status involved.

The benefits of increasing womens participation in top management Essay

The benefits of increasing womens participation in top management teams - Essay Example However, more importantly, there is the question of the reasons as to why women are still assuming relatively fewer of these critical positions in corporations. Despite the fact that women account for about 33.3 percent of the players occupying managerial positions, in general, the 2007 survey by the bureau of labor statistics gave surprising statistics (Bureau of labor Statistics, 2007). The statistics include that, from the statistics of 2006, less than a third of the top one thousand and five hundred firms in American had one woman player as a top managerial executive. Further, less than 6 percent of the top firms reported having more than one woman in executive position, and less than 3 percent had a female CEO (Bureau of labor Statistics, 2007). Through this paper, the writer will review the arguments reported through different sources that women are better at executive management than their male counterparts, which will amplify the question of the huge gender gap (Castanias and Helfat, 2001). Through the review of the subject, and reviewing the factual nature of the information showing that women make better executive managers, recommendations will be offered – which are expected to improve the management of different firms and organizations. These aims will be realized through the essay, through reviewing available data, to verify whether the more effective executive managerial capacities can be verified – which will lead to the formulation of recommendations to remedy the situation (Deszo and Ross, 2008). Through the recommendations advanced, the executive managerial staffs of firms and organizations will seek to exploit the varied managerial outlook of male and female executives, which is anticipated to improve the performance of these organizations (Castanias and Helfat, 2001). This paper will cover a literature review, which will give account of sources supporting the excellent managerial outlook of female players, and then offer a case study of an organization that has benefited from female participation in managerial practices. Precisely, the paper will use the case study to support the information supporting the standpoint of the discussion, while at the same time integrating theory into the discussion, towards the formulation of informative inferences and conclusions (Deszo and Ross, 2008). Theoretical background Castanias and Helfat (2001) argue that there is a wide range of literature and research reports giving the information that female managers are not only as good at performance as their male counterparts, but are also more effective in the executive management of organizations. The arguments go ahead to discuss that woman executive managers tend to be less hierarchical in their management of organizations, and their managerial outlook is often found to be more interactive, which increases the engagement and the output of employees (Carter, Simkins and Gar, 2003). Apart from increasing the possible effe ct of increasing the productivity of the organization, the role of executive female managers is likely to increase the levels of teamwork realized across the organization, and is likely to increase the intrinsic motivation of employees – and the two lead to an increase in the creativity of the workers of the organization, at their different roles (Book, 2000). Eisenhardt, Kahwajy and Bourgeois (1997) support the same point of view that having female members in the executive managerial function is likely to improve the performance and the outcomes of an organization. They discuss that female participat

BBN3MM2 - MARKETING MANAGEMENT Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

BBN3MM2 - MARKETING MANAGEMENT - Essay Example (About, Standard Chartered Bank) The primary nomination of the Standard Chartered Bank was listed in London Stock Exchange and appears in the FTSE 100 Indexes. Till the 23rd December, 2011, the market capitalization of the Standard Chartered Bank was  £33  billion. This capitalization was entitled to the 13th Largest Primary Listing among all the listed companies in London Stock Exchange. (FTSE All-Share Index Ranking, 2012) The secondary listing of the Standard Chartered Bank was processed in Hong Kong Stock Exchange and then National Stock Exchange (India). The major stock holder of the firm was owned by the Government of Singapore, owned Temasek Holdings. The Standard Chartered Bank named after the merger of two original separate banks which was working before this merger with the name of The Standard Bank, based on British South Africa and used to be located at The Chartered Bank of India, Australia and China as well. History of Standard Bank: The Standard Bank was established in Province of South Africa, Cape in 1862. It was the British bank founded by the Scotsman, John Peterson. The Standard Bank was the identical in financing on development of the Diamond Fields at Kimberley on 1867. The network from north to new town at Johannesburg was extended after the discovery of gold in 1885. (History, Standard Chartered Bank) History of Chartered Bank: The Chartered Bank was founded in 1853 by the Scotsman James Wilson by following the grant of Royal Charter through Queen Victoria. This charter was initiated the very first branch from Mumbai, Shanghai and Kolkata in 1858, subsequently, from the Hong Kong and Singapore after one year. The Chartered Bank start issuing the currency notes of Hong Kong Dollars in 1862 with launching of Suez Canal in 1869 and extended the operations towards China. (History, Standard Chartered Bank) The Standard Chartered Bank achieves many awards every year, which is the market recognition in every region of

The Purpose and Function of Business PowerPoint Presentation

The Purpose and Function of Business - PowerPoint Presentation Example The basic factors of running a business are land, labour, capital and enterprise (or expertise). Entrepreneurs are those who work upon developing and running a business. The entrepreneurs have to use the factors of production for starting a business. Opportunity cost refers to the alternatives that we leave while buying a certain product. We buy particular bread and leave the others; the left one is called the opportunity cost. Consumers have to undergo opportunity cost because they have to make choices while buying their products and services. Three examples of features of business are: Each business has its own goals and objectives for becoming successful and profitable. To increase market share, earning higher revenues and building a large customer base, utilizing latest technology, reducing labour costs are some of the objectives of businesses. To achieve all these objectives and purpose of the business, the organizations have to plan in becoming an international business as well. Once they make an international presence, they knock on many opportunities, have the chance to invest in latest technology and ensure that business operations are running successfully with higher profit margins. Importing and exporting, licensing and franchising allow new business units to commence and also allow the products and services to reach a wide audience at the global level. There are certain factors that are increasing the demand of globalization such as advanced technology, liberalisation of cross-border trade which allows the process of trading to easen, services that help international business in becoming successful, consumer demands, competition in the global business environment, the effect of political situations (favourable in many of the countries) and other such factors. These factors impede local organisations to have an international business expansion plan and deal with all rules and regulations of each country accordingly. 1.3 The legal and

Individual application paper Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words - 1

Individual application paper - Essay Example Which managerial ethics does he possess? On the other hand, I am the one with the problem. Alternatively, am I a perfectionist? All these questions do arise especially after Erick was elevated to that position of the general manager. Am not jealous of him but I think his actions are biased and unprofessional. This is because he usually hires his friends to work in the cafà ©, some of whom are not qualified. Furthermore, he no longer observes the training policies set down for the organization. Long before his appointment, we used to follow and respect the training policies of the organization. I think generally I don’t like Erick the manager. I do not know whether my dislike for Erick will create a negative attitude toward him or am just being biased. His style of management does not conform to the normal style of management which has been in existence since I joined Franklin group of companies. I do not welcome his tendency of hiring his friend to work in the restaurant because some are incompetent like Colleen. Take a scenario of an episode, which occurred last Saturday night, and you will agree with me. The policies of the restaurant stipulate that an employee cannot leave the cafà © at the end of the working period before being released by the manager. However, on the material Saturday, Colleen, one of the friends of Erick, the general manager, who was working in the restaurant as a waiter was to go home at 11.30 pm but was not yet released by the manager and she was still lingering in the dining room. Common sense dictates that as a worker in the restaurant and not yet released, you are entitled to work until the time the manager will officially release you. However, that was not the case with Colleen. To her, upon clocking 11.30 pm, she knew she was officially off. This clearly portrays how the training policies of the restaurants are no longer applied and the manager is not concerned even a little. Her behavior made me dislike her so much because

Everyone can agree that a stable family background is most likely to Essay

Everyone can agree that a stable family background is most likely to deliver the enviroment that children need - Essay Example A stable family background, founded on marriage, and constituted of a mother and a father, provides the optimal environment for the child. It is the institution of marriage which provides the foundation for a stable family. Research has led to the consensus that â€Å"Families based on marriage are, on an average, healthier, wealthier, and more stable than any other family forms† (Civitas web site). Marriage contributes to the stability of the family and to the well-being of both adults and children in a plethora of ways. It ensures a mutual sense of responsibility towards the children and the sharing of resources. Children have a good relationship with their married parents, mainly due to the time spent together. Marriage increases the probability of the children themselves entering into stable marriages. Economically, marriage is linked to higher income and thus, a higher standard of living for the child. Children of married parents achieve greater academic success, earn university degrees and have high-status employment. These children also enjoy better physical health, have lower rates of alcohol and drug ab use, have fewer mental health problems, are less likely to indulge in delinquent behavior and are at less risk of experiencing child abuse (Civitas web site. Factsheets on the Family). The traditional family structure, composed of the two birth parents, contributes best to family stability and child well-being. Single parent families, which may be the result of bereavement, separation, divorce or bearing children outside wedlock, fail to meet the material and psychological needs of the child. Children of lone mothers have higher chances of living in poverty and deprivation, of getting into trouble at school, playing truant, being excluded and dropping out, having adjustment and socialization problems, being subject to physical, emotional or sexual abuse, indulging in smoking, alcohol and substance abuse, of running away from home and of becoming

The Properties, Functions and Properties of Smooth Muscles Assignment - 1

The Properties, Functions and Properties of Smooth Muscles - Assignment Example They play an important role, especially in the arterioles, by constricting or dilating the blood vessel thereby controlling the flow of blood. Smooth muscles are also crucial in bigger blood vessels, such as aorta, and enable them to withstand high pressure generated during systole or ventricular contraction. (Clark, 2005, p. 139) These are the muscles under voluntary control. Skeletal muscle is also sometimes referred to as striated muscle but this term should be avoided as cardiac muscle is also a striated muscle and leads to ambiguity. A cell of skeletal muscle is very long, up to 30cm in length, and has a cylindrical shape. The cross section size of these cells is about 10-100 micrometer. It is not surprising that cell of this length has multiple nuclei for support and survival. But these nuclei are not located at the center and rather aligned at the periphery. This is because the contractile components in the cell cytoplasm push these nuclei towards the call border. Skeleton muscles form bulk of a human body and perform various functions. They are essential for locomotion and to perform any movement of the body. Although, skeletal muscles are mostly under voluntary control they also take part in a reflex arc that does not involve the higher centers and, therefore, is an involuntary process. The contracti ons produced by skeletal muscles are forceful and quick as compared to the smooth muscle. (Clark, 2005, p. 139) Cardiac muscle is a specialized tissue perfectly adapted to perform its function. It is the only muscle that is found in the heart. A very special property of a cardiac muscle is that is can contract on its own which mean it does not require an external stimulation.

African American Essay Example for Free

African American Essay James Baldwin once said, â€Å"I am what time, circumstance, history, have made of me, certainly, but I am also so much more than that. So are we all. † When the subject of race comes up, I feel like that quote is very meaningful. According to class lecture, race is an arbitrary social classification of clearly bounded categories based on skin color which corresponds to no biological reality. To be able to understand race today, a person should have a background on the history of race. According to the American Anthropological Association, by the 1600s, English colonists had established a system of indentured servitude that included both Europeans and Africans. But by the time of Bacon’s Rebellion the status of Africans began to change. Servants who once had an opportunity for freedom following servitude were relegated to a life of permanent slavery in the colonies. Thomas Jefferson was influential in the idea of race with a biological and social hierarchy. He stated that, â€Å"blacks, whether originally a distinct race, or made distinct by time and circumstances, are inferior to the whites in the endowments both of body and mind. Not only did people begin to base their opinions on Thomas Jefferson’s statement, but when Carolus Linnaeus developed a biological classification system and the German scientist Johann Blumenbach introduced a race-based classification of humans, the concept of race expanded and whites saw themselves as superior. I feel that even though race is so deeply embedded into our lives, and it also appears to be the natural order of things, it is not a useful way to talk about human variation. Skin color alone does not provide any reliable information about at person’s race, culture, or susceptibility to disease. Ryan A. Brown and George J. Armelagos in the review, Apportionment of Racial Diversity, makes a good point by saying, â€Å"A single trait such as skin color will result in a classification system that is easily determined. Add another trait and classification becomes a more difficult task, and there usually are groups that cannot be classified. † For too long people have been basing human variation on a person’s race. Many people are guilty of simply looking at an individual and grouping them by their skin color. The sorting exercise on the PBS website confirms this. When I completed the exercise, the results said that I only had grouped 3 individuals in the right group. I was using appearance and appearance only to classify the individuals. Appearance doesn’t always tell a person about someone’s ancestry of self-identity. It’s hard to make any accurate predictions based on appearance alone. According to the Me, My Race, and I reading on the PBS website, I realized that whites and nonwhites had very different things to say. A Caucasian individual stated, â€Å"race does not affect his life so he doesn’t dwell on it. † It is quite different for nonwhites. An African American male stated that he feels as if people automatically perceive him as a robber. An Asian said she was expected to be good at math and sciences, just because of the way she looked. According to the Why Genes Don’t Count (for Racial Differences in Health) article, Human variation is non-concordant. â€Å"Traits tend to vary independently of other traits. Race classifications vary, therefore, by the traits used in the classification. † For example, a classification based on the sickle cell trait might include equatorial Africans, Greeks, and Turks. Sickle cell is not a â€Å"black† disease. According to AAA, â€Å"Contrary to popular perception, the gene variant that causes sickle cell disease evolved as a result of its surprising upside – malaria resistance. The gene variant for sickle cell disease is related to malaria, not skin color. † There is no possibility for consistency. Because skin color correlates with only a few other phenotype traits such as hair and eye color, it is true that â€Å"race is only skin deep. † Another reason why I would say race is not a useful way to talk about human variation is the reason that human variation is continuous. Alan H. Goodman, PhD says â€Å"there is no clear place to designate where one race begins and another ends. Skin color, for example, slowly changes from place to place. † Whether than using race to talk about human variation, I think there is a better way to talk about groups of humans. I think the better way to talk about groups of humans is based on culture. In lecture we learned how a person’s ethnic group is the emphasis of cultural construction over genes. Ethnicity is a multifactorial concept including, but not limited to cultural constructs, genetic background, ecological specialization, and self-specialization. According to the article Culture, Not Race, Explains Human Diversity, â€Å"races† are imagined by the public and do not actually exist. If you think about it, ethnicity/culture is such a better way to talk about groups of people rather than grouping according to skin color. Skin color is based simply on appearance, whereas ethnicity/culture brings multiple concepts into play. Mark Nathan Cohen says, â€Å"The anthropological concept of culture can be explained best by an analogy with language. Just as language is more than vocabulary, culture is more than, say art and music. † Culture structures our behavior, thoughts, perceptions, values, goals, morals, and cognitive processes. Mr. Cohen makes a good point by stressing that people should stray from their egocentric ways and look more carefully at what other people are doing and try to understand their behavior in context before judgment. A person’s culture shapes many things once thought determined by biology, including sexuality, aggression, perception, and susceptibility to disease. This exercise of exploring on the websites and reading all the outside readings, did reinforce our classroom discussions. One thing that stood out to me was the fact that we talked about a girl from Lau Lagoon, Solomon Islands who had dark skin but was born with blond hair. This example also came up in our outside reading as an example. This emphasized that skin color does not come with a certain set of hair colors. Another way this exercise reinforced our classroom discussion was that the websites and reading both reinforced the concept that race has no genetic basis. Not one characteristic, trait or gene distinguishes all members of one so-called race from all members of another so-called society. I feel that that was the overall major concept that was learned in both this exercise and classroom lecture. As I was on the PBS website, I came across one of the background reading entitled â€Å"Where Race Lives. † I found this article very interesting because I read that in 1993, â€Å"86% of suburban whites still lived in places with a black population of less than 1%. † This was interesting to me because in 1994 my family moved to what was considered a white suburb. Even though I was only 1 years of age, at the time, my mom told me that we were 1 of the 2 African Americans families living in the neighborhood at the time. We were the only African American family on our street at the time. Today our street has more African American families on it than white families. It is sad to say but as more African American families moved on our street, more white families moved away. All in all, Genes and environments work together to make each person unique. Why just look at a person’s skin color and make judgments, when there is more to a person than their skin color. Characteristics such as skin color, height and susceptibility to disease are determined by complex combinations of genetic traits, environmental factors and cultural experience.

Evolution of Advertising

Evolution of Advertising Solomon Asad Advertisements have an astounding power and ability to influence peoples opinions and ideas of the world. In the late 19th century, with the socio-cultural and economic shift from producer to consumer economy, advertisements began to play a major role in the consumerist society of the United States. Advertising responded to evolving business demands, media technologies and cultural frameworks, all in hopes of making products more appealing to consumers. Before the turn of the century, company ads targeted customer nostalgia, which at the time was very dominant in gaining product attention[1]. As time progressed, ads drastically changed. By the turn of the century modern advertisements emerged with executive advertisers, like Edward Bernays, who indulged in ads appealing to extravagance and leisure[2]. Advertisements evolved from portraying objective information to subjective depictions in order to evoke the hopes and anxieties of consumers, basing purchases more on desire rather than need. Customer values shifted due to various reasons between the 19th and 20th centuries, leading people to purchase less necessities and more desirable products, thus causing dramatic advertisement shifts in both form and function in order to optimize companies profits. Advertisements from 1880s to the early 1900s primarily performed to promote goods for consumers and provide them with a need for their product. As new modes of transportation were developed during this time period to deliver physical items and ideas across the country, companies issued nationwide broadcasting for their products. Regarding more important and higher quality company products, newspapers, billboards and other signs were utilized for commercializing these since they would be optimally advertised in general stores throughout the nation. At the time, these ads in particular focused on consumers limited to purchasing solely necessities. Therefore, promoting its products qualities over competitors. The Model K vehicle advertisement stresses its first-class mechanics with its bold title, The Fully-Finished Car which advocates for higher quality over competing products[3]. However, such ads along with, Will your car do this? fail to effectively endorse their products due to ext ensive information that disregards concern for competitors[4]. Both advertisements are text-reliant, with the exception of a single image, and limit their market due to their advertisements description only providing information about the product particular mechanics; therefore, failing to provide consumers with engagement or originality. Such advertisements were common during the time period due to the market consisting of consumers who were exclusively of need. Although this form of an ad is of low appeal, it proved effective for its limited market as the consumers needed cars that would be sustainable and required fulfilling information since providing a necessity took priority over desirables. Over time advertisements evolved along with the market and the consumerist economy. During the early and mid-1900s, dramatic changes took effect with ads, especially with automobile ads. The old text-heavy and informative advertisements were replaced with ads portraying numerous colorful images that evoked consumer psyche and emotional connections to company products. With this shift in advertisements, the focus on consumer desires replaced the old form of product promotion. Baker Electrics vehicle ad, Pleasure portrays a significant change from the 19th century to 20th centurys advertisements and is able to present a unique form of vehicles that is not solely limited as a necessity, but instead promotes a luxurious, family-like and endearing essence for future automobiles[5]. Along with Lexington Motor Companys ad, The Motor Car is the Magic Carpet of Modern Times, Baker Electrics advertisement implies a new ideal for automobiles[6]. Lexington Motor Companys ad implies a magical cha racter for automobiles, therefore expanding the market for those who dont own a vehicle through the advertisements unique and engaging personality, as well as promoting vehicles character as that of luxury. At the same time Baker Electrics ad expands the automobile audience to families, allowing for a more inviting market that is not exclusive for certain genders or people. It is during this period that certain companies changed their advertising approach and began to target different groups and implement diversified values for an expansive market. By the 1920s women developed a substantial status among automobile companies and their advertisements, henceforth evolving from basic luxury to a product inducing sex appeal. This advertising development seduced men into buying certain vehicles that commercials would promote, as it appeared for consumers that women preferred particular products. Ford Motor Company released an ad in 1928, Buy your Wife a Ford, which suggests a wife will be happier and more loving if bought a Ford automobile[7]. Buick, in 1931, also promoted a similar advertisement that marketed its brand as a fashionable and for the wealthy product, with bold words, Wherever fashion and character reign there you will find the Eight as Buick builds it, under a portrayal of an affluent woman.[8] By implementing women in advertisements, not only do automobile companies expand their markets, but also develop their products as luxury, therefore making their vehicles the necessity for the wealthy, and the desire for middle and lower class. However, the aforementioned, necessity for the wealthy no longer truly applies as a need. Instead it represents the difference in class by the automobile brand one owns. Therefore, the development of a need is no longer desired to encourage consumers to purchase products. Automobile advertisers utilized this understanding to appeal to the public on a more emotional level in order to develop a larger target market. It was understood that the more consumers purchased based off desire, the more they bought based off of emotions[9]. With colored and illustrated advertisements influencing emotional appeals, the market was able to be manipulated through the promotion of luxury of a brand with vivid depictions, therefore separating motor companies from outdated advertisements. Therefore, expanding the potential market and creating a luxury ideal encompassing the industry, and further attracting more consumers. Automobile industries have adapted significantly and successfully along with the fluctuating consumerist economy of the United States during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Originally producing bland informative product descriptions as company advertisements, the automobile industry expanded fruitfully with illustrations, emotional appeals and successful techniques adaptable to the market leading towards a growing business where advertisements became more enjoyable, understandable and engaging for numerous groups of consumers. Through altering the form and function of advertisements, advertisers were able to focus on different aspects and ideals for products in order to keep up with the ever changing consumer market. Bibliography Dr. Katarina Keane, HIST289R Lecture Series, Commercialized Leisure at the Turn of the Century, 2016 Dr. Katarina Keane, HIST289R Lecture Series, Selling in America: New Advertising and Marketing, 2016 Winton Motor Carriage Co., The Fully-Finished Car, 1905. J. Walter Thompson, Co., Will Your Car Do This? c. 1900. Baker Electrics, Pleasure, c. 1910. Lexington Motor Company, The Motor Car is the Magic Carpet of Modern Times, ca. 1920. Ford, Buy Your Wife a Ford, 1928. Buick, Wherever Fashion and Character Reign, 1931. Baker Motor Vehicle Co., The Social Prestige of a Baker Electric, 1911. [1] Dr. Katarina Keane, HIST289R Lecture Series, Commercialized Leisure at the Turn of the Century, 2016 [2] Dr. Katarina Keane, HIST289R Lecture Series, Selling in America: New Advertising and Marketing, 2016 [3] Winton Motor Carriage Co., The Fully-Finished Car, 1905. [4] J. Walter Thompson, Co., Will Your Car Do This? c. 1900. [5] Baker Electrics, Pleasure, c. 1910. [6] Lexington Motor Company, The Motor Car is the Magic Carpet of Modern Times, ca. 1920. [7] Ford, Buy Your Wife a Ford, 1928. [8] Buick, Wherever Fashion and Character Reign, 1931. [9] Baker Motor Vehicle Co., The Social Prestige of a Baker Electric, 1911.

Chemical Constituents From Lepidogrammitis Drymoglossoides

Chemical Constituents From Lepidogrammitis Drymoglossoides Li-Yuan Zhang, You-Heng Gao*, Ling-Zhi Ren , Ming-Zhu Wan, Teng-Hua Wang ABSTRACT This report is related to phytochemical investigation about a Chinese fern Lepidogrammitis drymoglossoides. Based on spectroscopic analysis including UV, MS, 1H and 13C-NMR as well as their chemical and physical properties, their structures were identified to be ÃŽ ²-ecdysterone (1), stigmasterol (2), physcion (3), emodin (4), umbelliferone (5), scoparone (6), aesculetin (7), caffeic acid (8), ferulic acid (9), protocatechuic acid (10), pyrocatechualdehyde (11), gallic acid (12), 4-hydroxybenzoic acid methyl ester (13), docosanyl tetracosanoate (14). Compounds 4-6, 9, 12-14 were isolated from the genus Lepidogrammitis for the first time. Keywords: Polypodiaceae; Lepidogrammitis; Lepidogrammitis drymoglossoides; anthraquinones; coumarins; phenolic acids 1. Subject and source Lepidogrammitis drymoglossoides (Baker) Ching is a member of Polypodiaceae family, which is widely distributed in the south of Yangtze River basin and other provinces in southern China, especially in Guizhou, Fujian, Hubei, Guangdong, Guangxi provinces. The whole grass of Lepidogrammitis drymoglossoides was collected from Xinhui City, Guangdong province, P. R. China, in October 2011. The specie was identified by Prof. Chao-Mei Pan, Department of Pharmaceutical Botany, Guangzhou University of Chinese Traditional Medicine. A voucher specimen (LY 20111023) has been deposited with the Laboratory of Phytochemistry, Department of Phytochemistry, Guangzhou University of Chinese Traditional Medicine, Guangdong, P. R. China. The whole grass was smashed by an electrical grinder and dried in a drying oven under the temperature of 60 before extraction. 2. Previous work The medicinal plant is extensively used in the treatment of pharyngalgia, pulmonary tuberculosis, rheumatism arthritis, lymphnoditis, cholecystitis, urolithiasis, traumatic injury, hypertension and furunculosis bloated by the ethnic minorities of Miao, Yao, and Tong (He and Xu, 2007; The Editorial Committee of Chinese Materia Medica, 1999). Previous works revealed that the main chemical component of Lepidogrammitis drymoglossoides is steroids and phenolic acids, triterpenes, anthraquinones and amides are also included (Li Zhifu, 2011). However, little is known concerning the phytochemistry of the specie, especially the bioactive substances, and yet no method has been proposed for the standardization of this herb, which limits the exploitation and commercialization of these medicinal plants. 3. Present work The dried whole grass of L. drymoglossoides (21 kg) was extracted with 95% EtOH two times (each for 2 h) by usingheatingcircumfluencemethod. The extracts were concentrated under reduced pressure to a crude extract, which was further dissolved in water and extracted successively with petroleum ether (P), chloroform (CHCl3), EtOAc and n-BuOH to yield 239.5 g, 132 g, 56 g and 122.5 g of the corresponding extracts, respectively . The petroleum ether fraction (100 g) was chromatographed over silica gel column using P/EtOAc (100:1-0:100) to give 8 fractions (Fr.1-8) based on TLC analysis. Fr.4 was separated on silica gel CC by eluting with P/EtOAc (30:1), and then was purified repeatedly by Sephadex LH-20 column with CHCl3/MeOH (1:1) to obtain 2 (18.4 mg). The chloroform fraction (100 g) was subjected to a silica gel column chromatography (CC) with the gradient (P/EtOAc 100:0–0:100) as eluants to afford 9 fractions (Fr.1-9) based on TLC analysis. Fr.1 was separated on silica gel CC by eluting with P/EtOAc (100:1-0:100), and then was purified by Sephadex LH-20 column with CHCl3/MeOH (2:1) to obtain 3 (18.4 mg).Fr.2 was submitted to silica gel CC eluted with P/EtOAc gradient (100:1, 50:1, 0:1) to give 5 sub-fractions (Fr.C1-C5). Fr.C2 was purified by Sephadex LH-20 column with CHCl3/MeOH (1:1) as eluant to yield 14 (102 mg). Fr.9 was separated on silica gel CC by eluting with P/EtOAc (10:1, 5:1, 1:1, 0:1), and then was further separated by semi-preparative RP-HPLC with mobile phase of CH3CN/H2O (55:45) to afford 4 (mg). The EtOAc fraction (50 g) was subjected to a silica gel CC with using gradient mixtures of CHCl3/MeOH (100:0-0:100) as eluants to afford 10 fractions (Fr.1-10) based on TLC analysis. Fr.2 was submitted to silica gel CC eluted with CH2Cl2/MeOH gradient (100:0-0:100), and then was purified by Sephadex LH-20 column with CHCl3/MeOH (2:1) to obtain 6 (18.4 mg). Fr.3 was subjected to a silica gel CC with using gradient mixtures of CH2Cl2/MeOH (100:0-0:100) as eluants to produce 13 (18.4 mg). Fr.4 was separated on silica gel CC by eluting with CH2Cl2/MeOH (200:1-0:100), and then was purified by Sephadex LH-20 column with CHCl3/MeOH (1:1) to obtain 11 (18.4 mg). Fr.5 was subjected to silica gel CC eluted with CH2Cl2/MeOH (70:1-0:1) to give 4 sub-fractions (Fr.E1-E5). Fr.E2-3 was resubjected to silica gel CC eluting with CH2Cl2/MeOH (50:1-0:1), and then was purified by Sephadex LH-20 column with CHCl3/MeOH (1:1) to obtain 5 (18.4 mg). Fr.E4 was resubmitted sequentially to silica gel CC elutin g with CH2Cl2/MeOH (50:1-0:1), Sephadex LH-20 column with CHCl3/MeOH (1:1) as eluent repeatedly, and preparative TLC with mobile phase of CHCl3/MeOH/ CH2O2 (20:1:0.2) to afford 7 (18.4 mg). Fr.6 was separated on D101 macroporous resin (MeOH/H2O, 0:100, 50:50, 70:30, 100:0) to yield four main fractions(Fr.E1-4). Fr.E1 was then seperated on a reversed-phase C18 column (MeOH/H2O, 0:100-100:0) to give 4 sub-fractions (Fr.ER1-4). Fr.ER1 was subjected to silica gel CC eluted with CHCl3/MeOH (30:1, 20:1, 10:1, 0:1) to give 4 sub-fractions (Fr.ERC1-4). Fr.ERC3 was chromatographed over silica gel column using CH2Cl2/MeOH (30:1-0:1) and followed by Sephadex LH-20 CHCl3/MeOH (1:1) as eluent to produce compound 9 (18.4 mg) and 10 (mg). Fr.ERC4 was further separated by semi-preparative RP-HPLC with mobile phase of CH3CN/H2O-0.3%CH2O2 (20:80) to afford compound 8 (18.4 mg). Fr.8 was separated by D101 macroporous resin (MeOH/H2O, 0:100, 30:70, 50:50, 70:30, 100:0) to yield 5 fractions (Fr.ED1-5). Fr.ED2-3 was submitted successively to silica gel CC eluting with CH2Cl2/MeOH (50:1-0:1), silica gel CC eluting with CH2Cl2/MeOH (30:1-0:1), reversed-phase C18 column (MeOH/H2O, 0:100-100:0), Sephadex LH-20 column with CHCl3/MeOH (1:1) to afford 1 (18.4 mg) and 12 (mg). By comparison of the 1H and 13C NMR spectra data with those reported, compounds 1-14 (Fig. 1) were identified to be ÃŽ ²-ecdysterone (1) (Wu et al., 2006), stigmasterol (2) (Wu et al., 2008), physcion (3) (Qin and Liang, 2013), emodin (4) (Wei et al., 2012), umbelliferone (5) (Zheng et al., 2011), scoparone (6) (Chen et al., 2012), aesculetin (7) (Qian et al., 2007), caffeic acid (8) (Huang et al., 2013), ferulic acid (9) (Wei et al., 2014), protocatechuic acid (10) (Zheng et al., 2006 ), pyrocatechualdehyde (11) (Zhou and Yang, 2008), gallic acid (12) (Li et al., 2012), 4-hydroxybenzoic acid methyl ester (13) (Zhang et al., 2011), and docosanyl tetracosanoate (14) (Zhang Qian, 2010). 1 2 3: R=CH3 4: R=H 5: R1=H, R2=H 8: R=H 10_R1=H, R2=OH 13 6: R1=OCH3, R2=CH 9: R=CH3 11: R1=H, R2=H 7: R1=OH, R2=H 12: R1=OH, R2=OH 14 Fig.1. 14 compounds from Lepidogrammitis drymoglossoides. 4. Chemotaxonomic significance The main chemical component types of L. drymoglossoides in previously research are steroids and phenolic acids. This current research discusses the isolation and identification of a series of chemical constituents from L. drymoglossoides, compounds 1-14 were classified as steroids (1, 2), anthraquinones (3, 4), coumarins (5-7), phenolic acids (8-13) and fatty acids (14). Among them, compounds 4, 5, 6, 9, 12, 13, 14 were isolated from this species for the first time. In addition, compounds3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 9, 12, 13, 14 have not been reported in any species of the genus Lepidogrammitis. And also this is the first report of compounds 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 9, 12, 13, 14 from the family Polypodiaceae. There are about 5 species in the genus Lepidogrammitis which are both native to China, and only one specie spreads to India, Burma, Laos and Vietnam (Kunming Institute of Botany, Chinese Academy of Sciences, 2005). L. drymoglossoides mentionedabove is the only one that be studied up to now. To the best of my knowledge, other species in genus Drynaria, Pyrrosia Mirbel and Lepisorus from the family Polypodiaceae have been studied more in recent years home and abroad. Drynaria mainly contains flavones, triterpenoids and phenylpropanoids. Thechemicalcomponentsisolated from Pyrrosia Mirbel include mainlyflavonoid glycosidesand xanthanes. Several of the compounds isolated in this study have been previously isolated and identified from genus mentionedabove. For example, ecdysterone (1) were isolated from L. marginatus, L. thunbergianus, L. longus, L. contortus, L. macrosphaerus, L. albertii and L. ussuriensis (Zhang et al., 2012; Xu Dongying, 1997; Yao et al., 2004; Zhang Xiaojing, 2012; Ch oi et al., 1999). Stigmasterol (2) has been identified from P. calvata (Zheng et al., 1999) and P. gralla (Zheng et al., 1998) while caffeic acid (8), protocatechuic acid(9) and protocatechuic acid(10) have been obtained from R. Drynariae, P. petiolosa and P. sheareri (Han and Wang, 1984; ShanghaiFirstMedical College, 1973; Liang et al., 2010; Wang et al., 2003). But there are no reports of physcion (3), emodin (4), umbelliferone (5), scoparone (6), aesculetin (7) in the family Polypodiaceae. In addition, coumarins is a rare constituent in ferns though previously obtained from Polypodium hastatum Thunb., a fern of the same family Polypodiaceae (Yao et al., 2012). Identification of these class of anthraquinones (3, 4) and coumarins (5-7) indicates that they would be used as chemotaxonomic markers for the species L. drymoglossoides within the family. And this investigation may supply characteristic constituents in this genus. But more phytochemistry studies on it are needed. Acknowledgements This project was financially supported by a grant from Zhongshan Science and Technology Planning Project of Guangdong province (No. 20113A082). References He S.Z., Xu W.F., 2007. Traditional Chinese medicine resources in Guizhou, Guizhou, 192. The Editorial Committee of Chinese Materia Medica, 1999. Chinese Materia Medica, Shanghai, 229-231. Li, Z.F., 2011. Chemical constituents and Antituberculous activity Study of Lepidogrammitis drymoglossoides (Baker) Ching. GuiYang College of Traditional Chinese Medicine, GuiYang. Wu, J.J., Wang, H., Ye, W.C., Zuo, X.F., Zhao, S.X., 2006. Journal of China Pharmaceutical University. 37, 487-490. Wu, X., Xia, H.L., Huang, L.H., Chen, D.D., Chen, J.Y., Weng, H.T., 2008. Journal of Chinese Medicinal Materials. 31, 990-992. Qin, C.M., Liang, H.X., 2013. Chin J Mod Drug Appl, Jan. 7, 1-2. Wei, H., He, C.N., Peng, Y., Ma, G.X., Xiao, P.G., 2012. China Journal of Chinese Materia Medica. 37, 1249-1253. 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The Studies on the Chemical Constituents in leaves of Sorbus tianschanica Ruper. Xinjiang Medical University, Urumchi. Kunming Institute of Botany, Chinese Academy of Sciences. 2005. Flora Yunnanica, Beijing. 21, 341. Zhang, X.J., Ma, J., Zhu, Z.Z., Zhang, H., 2012. Chinese Journal of Spectroscopy Laboratory. 29, 1832-1837. Xu, D.Y., 1997. Information on Traditional Chinese Medicine. 20-21. Yao, Z.S., Xiong, Y.K., Yu, B., 2004. Journal of Chinese Medicinal Materials. 27, 718-721. Zhang, X.J., 2012. Research about the extraction of chlorogenic acid from 5 plants in Lepisorus and the antioxidant activity of alcohol extract. SHAANXI NORMAL UNIVERSITY, Xian. Choi, Y.H., Kim, J., Choi, Y.H., 1999. Phytochemistry. 51, 453-456. Zheng, X., Yu, L., Liao, R.F., Zhu, B.Y., Xu, Y.L.,Xu, J., 1999. Chinese Traditional and Herbal Drugs. 30, 253-254. Zheng, X., Xu, Y.L., Xu, J., 1998. China Journal of Chinese Materia Medica. 23, 98-99. Han, J.S., Wang, M.S., 1984. Journal of Nanjing College Pharacy. 15, 40-43. ShanghaiFirstMedical College, 1973. Journal of Pharmaceuticals. 1-13. Liang, Y.H., Ye, M., Zhang, L.Z., Li, H.F., Han, J., Wang B.R., Guo, D.A., 2010. Acta Pharmaceutica Sinica. 45, 874-878. Wang, N., Wang, J.H., Cheng, j., Li, X., 2003. Journal of Shenyang Pharmaceutical University. 20, 425-427. Yao, H.K., Duan, J.Y., Ai, F.W., Li, Y., 2012. Biochemical Systematics and Ecology. 44, 275-278. [1]Corresponding authors. Tel.:+86 20 39358083. E-mail addresses: [emailprotected](Y.-H. Gao).

World War II Essay -- World War II, World War Two

World War II was one of the most deadly wars we know in history, having as many as sixty million casualties, most of whom were civilians. It impacted a lot of countries, almost all the world, which is why the name is given. This war impacted many countries in the world, and damaged almost all of the countries involved greatly. It also led to the downfall of Western European countries as world powers, leaving it to the Soviet Union, and the United States. The war started in 1939 and ended in 1945, with the invasion of Poland and the Axis surrender, respectively. It changed the economy and the growth of big countries, including Germany, Great Britain, United States, Japan, Russia and France. Aside from this, Jews were greatly influenced too. They were damaged, but then gifted. The war started in September 1, 1939 when Germany invaded the territory of Poland, which was allied with Great Britain and France. German officials signed a peace treaty in August 24-25 with the Soviet Union to prevent them from acting in the invasion and to stay in peace between both countries. So Great Britain, France, Australia and New Zealand declared war on Germany the day of September 3, 1939. After this event, Canada also declared war on Germany at September 10, 1939. Germany rapidly crushed Poland, since it had an incredible army with 100 infantry divisions and six armored divisions. Due to the peace treaty between Germans and Soviets, in September 17th the Soviet also invaded and took eastern Poland. Later in the year, on November 30th, the USSR invaded Finland while Great Britain and France where occupied with Germany. At this time, Japan was in the Far East, and had Asia in turmoil. Imperial Japan invaded china and various other territories ... ...ther atomic bomb, leaving Japan helpless. Japan surrendered in several places from September 7th to September 16th. Works Cited O’Neill, William L. World War II A Student Companion. 1 ed. William H. Chafe. New York, New York: Oxford University Press, 1999. Britannica Online, Encyclopedia. "3." http://www.school.eb.com.proxygsu-scob.galileo.usg.edu/eb/article-53533 (accessed March, 2011). Stokes, Phil. "1." 1999. http://www.secondworldwar.co.uk/dates.html (accessed March, 2011). Stokesbury, James L. http://www.worldbookonline.com/student/article?id=ar610460&st=world+war (accessed march, 2011). Robinson, Bruce. April 23, 2004.http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/worldwars/wwtwo/ww2_summary_01.shtml (accessed march 30, 2011). worldwar-2.net, "War in Europe." 2006.http://www.worldwar-2.net/timelines/war-in-europe/war-in-europe-index.htm (accessed march, 2011).

Rubin? Yes! Yes! Yes! Essay -- Essays Papers

The vulgar and refreshing paraphrase of a simplified hippy version of what shall be taken as topic: We are so oppressed. Maybe we are not repressed, but come on. We are so oppressed. Malcolm X knew it, Catharine MacKinnon knew it. Everyone knows it. One way we are oppressed is sexually. We might not just be repressed, while we still clearly are because there are laws and things. But, come on. Even if sexuality is socially constructed, it’s still very material, it is out there as much as anything - words are actions too. Gayle Rubin’s Thinking Sex considers the political history of sex regulation, its current form, and a bit of theory about sexuality and its discourses. At the very apex of the flow of the article towards freedom in sexual practice, she draws the line at consent, straining out bad sex from good sex on the line in the sand of what is agreed to and what is not. Rubin’s piece fails to take seriously the History of Sexuality that she relies on for her rejection of political regulations about sexuality, and thus ends up advocating the consent limitation that recapitulates all the problems and fancies she finds in sexual legislation. Rubin bemoans the oppressive laws that tell people what sexual practices are to be accepted and unaccepted, as if laws were to be obeyed - a presumption that already constitutes a particular type of subject in relation to a kind of power (the power of/in Law). Because we are so oppressed, unable to choose between sexual practices, we should give up these overrated relics of good sexuality and bad. Instead let everyone do anything, so long as they practice the vaunted ritual of consent. And while consent may be hard to locate, and does have problems, it should still b... ...it in the settled form Rubin’s partial agenda of consent relies on for its humanist restraints, as if recapitulating prevalent representations of the control of nuclear weapons - on a hair trigger, under control, mutually assured, and yet therefore also for these assurances mutually constitutive on the other side of the trigger and self-deploying in their fluxes of power and selves. Sexuality can be much more exciting for â€Å"bodies and pleasures† (Foucault 157) than this half-hearted effort lets itself argue. Why respond to a demand for bread with the offer to let them eat consent? WORKS CITED Foucault, Michel. The History of Sexuality: Volume One. Vintage Books: New York, 1978. Rubin, Gayle. â€Å"Thinking Sex: Notes for a Radical Theory of the Politics of Sexuality.† in Pleasure and Danger: Exploring Female Sexuality. ed. Vance, Carole. Pandora: London, 1992.

DeShaney v. Winnebago County Department of Social Services (No. 87-154)

DeShaney v. Winnebago County was a landmark Supreme Court Case which was ruled on in February, 1989. The case revolved around Joshua DeShaney, a child who who was reportedly abused by his father, Randy DeShaney. In 1980, Joshua's parents divorced and his father won full custody. In 1983, Joshua was hospitalized for suspected abuse by his father. Winnebago County Department of Social Services got involved and four year old Joshua DeShaney was kept in the hospital's custody for three days. However, â€Å"On the recommendation of a 'child protection team,' consisting of a pediatrician, a psychologist, a police detective, the county's lawyer, several DSS caseworkers, and various hospital personnel, the juvenile court dismissed the case and returned the boy to the custody of his father.† (US Supreme Court). Over the next year, Winnebago's Department of Social Services visited the DeShaney household five times and each time, suspected child abuse was reported. In January and March of 1984, Joshua was reported too ill to be visited by social services for his bimonthly check ups. Evidently, he had been beaten to the point of slipping in to a life threatening coma by his father. Emergency brain surgery revealed that Joshua had a series of severe brain hemorrhages caused by head injuries inflicted over a long period of time. Joshua DeShaney survived, but he suffered severe brain damage and was not expected to ever make a full recovery. Joshua DeShaney's mother filed a lawsuit on his behalf, claiming that because DSS had taken no action to prevent the violence affecting her son, they had violated his right to liberty without the due process gauranteed to him by the Fourteenth Amendment. Joshua's mother sued under â€Å"42 U.S.C. 1983, alleg... ...nnebago County."  Wikipedia. N.p., 10 12 13. Web. 10 Jan 2014. . U.S. Supreme Court, . N.p.. Web. 10 Jan 2014. . Strauss, P.. N.p.. Web. 10 Jan 2014. . Cornell, . 10 Jan 2014. . . N.p.. Web. 10 Jan 2014. . . N.p.. Web. 10 Jan 2014. . . N.p.. Web. 10 Jan 2014. . "Estelle v. Gamble."  Wikipedia. N.p., 29 10 13. Web. 11 Jan 2014. . "Younberg v. Romeo."  Wikipedia. N.p., 5 11 12. Web. 11 Jan 2014. .

Colonialism and Young Black Kid

At the end of the novel Guerrillas, by V. S Naipaul, Jane, a British woman from London is murdered by Bryant, a young black kid native to the Caribbean island where the novel is based. Behind this murder we could discuss guilt and responsibility through different perspectives. Can we really hold Bryant responsible for his actions? Jane is a woman who is not content with herself, she is naive as Roche defines her and out of balance-out of touch with herself and the perception of reality. She is careless about people’s feelings and ignorant about the consequences of her actions.The fact that she wavers from passion and pleasure through meaningless sexual encounters to rape and violence are all feelings that remind her she’s alive, nothing less and nothing more. Consequently, being in a post-colonial society full of animosity and frustration, all her mistakes and imprudent actions lead her to her own death. This is an example of how the presence and impact of â€Å"the po werful colonizer† damaged not only those around him but themselves, in this case Naipaul’s character of Jane is a representation of the indifference and self-centered post-colonial personality of the dominant race in the colonized territories.In conclusion we could argue that Jane did act in a selfish and unconcerned manner. Conscious that she had the alternative of returning to her homeland, escaping the island’s reality and trying to bring back with her an adventurous experience full of love affairs and careless decisions, she unawarely clashed with the islanders; a people whose disadvantages in life were reflected through anger, despair, emotional repression and a hopelessness that Bryant and Jimmy embodied.Naipaul tries to engage the reader into feeling empathy towards the latter characters by placing Jimmy first, as the frustrated revolutionary who lives his own lie and only wishes to see himself as a hero that satisfies the oppressed desire of revenge again st the powerful dominant, whereas Bryant is the unfortunate native young child overwhelmed by hostility and thwarted dreams who could have become a better person if given the opportunity. In consideration of all these factors and circumstances, who is really to blame?

Probation and Parole: Good or Bad Alternatives to Incarceration Essay

The crime problem is ever before the eyes of the society, and the financial and human costs of attempts to deal with it are the focus of much attention not only from the criminal justice system; it is of hot interest in the media, during public and parliamentary debates (Tonry â€Å"Punishment Policies† 6). Political lead ¬ers, no less than ordinary citizens, are concerned about the hardship and jeopardy that prison life inflicts on criminal offenders, yet they are justifi ¬ably fearful of the consequences for society if criminals are not incarcerated (Geerken & Hayes 552). This ambivalence pervades the central question that the probation/parole system seeks to answer: how can prisoners be released to supervised liv ¬ing in the community without endangering society? As permanent reformation of criminal justice system is on in the U. S. , reformers’ passions and persistence continue unabated. In every state and the federal system, calls are made for sentencing guidelines, mandatory penalties, and â€Å"three-strikes† laws; for more use of community penalties; for crime reduction through deterrence and incapacitation; and for crime reduction through treatment and prevention (Tonry â€Å"Sentencing Matters† 103). Such focus on the issue of alternatives to imprisonment of offenders signifies great importance of the question of efficacy of existing parole/probation system. The purpose of this study is to explore the extent to which parole and probation resolve the problem of declining crime rates and accomplish two-fold task: ensuring smooth adjustment of ex-prisoner/convict to society, while at the same time protecting society. Toward this end we will consider the essence of parole and probation, examine how their effectiveness is evaluated, analyze statistics on the recidivism rates for those on probation and parole, explore factors influencing such rates, and make a conclusion. According to estimations, any given year during last few decades about 4 million offenders in the U. S. are on state or federal probation or parole (Roberts & Stalans 34). It means they are liberated from prison and allowed to stay under surveillance among the rest of the society while they accommodate to life in the free community. Probation and parole are similar in being substitutes for impris ¬onment. Probation offers full-fledged diversion, especially for offenders not previously exposed to incarceration, while parole short ¬ens the exposure to imprisonment (Petersilia 566). Probation is a treatment program in which final action in an adjudicated offender’s case is suspended, so that he remains at liberty, subject to conditions imposed by or for a court, under supervision and guidance of a probation worker. The word â€Å"probation† derives from Latin, its root meaning being â€Å"a period of proving or trial† (Tonry â€Å"Punishment Policies† 7). Probation program is designed to facilitate the social readjustment of offenders. The program rests upon the court’s power to suspend sentence. The probation period is served in the community rather than in a correctional institution. Should the probationer seriously breaches the conditions imposed, probation may be revoked, in which case the court will invoke the appropriate penalty (Petersilia 567). The word â€Å"parole† stems from French, meaning â€Å"promise†. Probably the term was first used in a correctional context in 1847, by Samuel G. Howe, the Boston penal reformer (Champion 163). Like probation, parole is a treatment program. But the parolee, unlike the probationer, has served part of a term in a correctional institution. His release is conditional, contingent upon satisfactory behavior. He is under supervision and treatment by a person trained in parole work (Petersilia 563). Both approaches are less costly to administer than the prisons because full surveillance and provision of basic needs for life are not necessary and be ¬cause human services in the community as those accessible to all residents can become available. To differing degrees, the two approaches contribute to preserving family ties, when such ties exist, and enable willing offenders to provide economic support for dependents (Tonry â€Å"Punishment Policies† 9). The return of convicted offenders to the community under supervision is authorized with some degree of official optimism that the selected individuals will undertake positive behavioral change either because of their self-correction or the influence of benign community forces (Geerken & Hayes 554). A common gauge of probation/parole effectiveness is recidivism of parolees and probationers (Allen 5). Some of them are returned to prison or changed to a different treatment program, depending upon whether they violate conditions of their probation/parole or commit new crimes and are convicted of them. With the rapid growth of community corrections, a greater variety of treatment programs exist to accommodate clients’ needs. Thus, for instance, eligible parolees may be permitted to participate in work or educational release options. Other parolees may be allowed weekend visits with their families. Yet others may be placed in halfway houses where they can readjust to community living from the more highly regimented prison environment (Champion 169). Statistics shows that in the U. S. around 2,000 community correctional programs are functioning, and a number of them are sponsored by the state. Many of the states’ probation and parole agencies currently experience an excessive caseload. For instance, in California and New York often the caseload per one agency officer amounts to 400 clients, although in countryside it is about 25 clients (Petersilia 574). This, unsurprisingly, leads to lowering efficacy of probation/parole programs. Thus, according to various estimations, just no more than 62% of parolees and probationers successfully accomplish their probation/parole period. Empirical studies demonstrate that two thirds of them perpetrate new offences within the period of three years after their sentence completing (Allen 4). Moreover, those on probation/parole often commit grave crimes such as murders; many are under court orders to undergo a course of medical treatment for their alcohol/drug addiction. About 300 thousand probationers are registered in the list of probation/parole agencies as absconders which means, actually, they are just hiding and ignore criminal justice system (Petersilia 571). Scholars exploring the topic of probation/parole effectiveness on the basis of empirical evidence often admit that parole surveillance has been shown to produce an unsatis ¬factory human relationship without proven effect (Tonry â€Å"Sentencing Matters† 132). Thus, as they argue, parole revocation, influenced by bureaucratic considerations, is an unfair process. Parole assistance, impaired by its linkage with surveillance and revocation, may do some good, but there is little evidence to this effect (Champion 173). But because release, surveillance, and assistance are late interventions in a person’s criminal history, parole can be only partially blamed or credited for outcomes – principally the degree of recidivism – that have a complex of causes (Roberts & Stalans 42). So, it is difficult to evaluate the effectiveness of probation and parole by themselves. Nevertheless, any evaluation must begin by reviewing the goals of probation and parole. The first and most frequently cited of both are to protect society and to help the person committed offence as it was mentioned above. This means protecting society from crime and helping the probationer/parolee toward a crime-free life, in short, to reduce criminal behavior. No one could quarrel with this goal, but efforts to achieve it are based on the theories of incapacitation and rehabilitation, with their consequent difficulties and costs: preventive incarceration of prisoners who might not return to crime and the errors, waste motion, and false hopes of treatment programs (Geerken & Hayes 551). It is evident, that the most effective community protection is that which results from change within the offender, so that he/she no longer wants to aggress against society. But statistics cited above confirms how difficult is to implement those theories into practice to achieve such inner transformation of ex-offender. In his tough and straight-out article George Allen, governor of Virginia, regards pretty high recidivism rates in the U. S. as a direct result of light sentencing policy and application of probation and parole programs (5). Surveys of public opinion demonstrate that majority in the society agree with such view. Thus, four out of five Americans acknowledge that they would be more likely to vote for a political candidate who advocated harsher sentencing (Roberts & Stalans 31). Allen argues that â€Å"3 out of every 4 violent crimes – murder, armed robbery, rape, assault – are [†¦] committed by repeat offenders†, that is why his administration abolished parole, established the principle of â€Å"truth-in-sentencing†, and amplified by a factor of five the amount of time that violent criminals in fact stay in prison (4). Allen advocates that the only perfect crime-prevention method is incarceration, and argues that measures undertaken by his administration resulted in noticeable decline in all categories of recidivism in Virginia, which for the period of 10 years could prevent about 26 thousand violent offences and save more than $2. 7 billion indirect costs for the state (6). So, as our study revealed, the issue of effectiveness of probation/parole system and its assessment is a very complex one, especially controversial question being effectiveness of existing treatment programs within this system. Approximately two-thirds of all criminal offenders are recidivists. Parole boards are not perfect in their decision-making, and frequently, offenders are released short of serving their full sentences only to commit new crimes within months of being paroled. Much uncertainty of purpose and practice in the decision-making of probation departments and parole boards, waste motion in supervision of probationers/parolees, injus ¬tice in methods of revoking parole, and inadequacy in the provision of community rehabilitative assistance are the issues to be resolved by policy makers in criminal justice system. Hence, advocates of harsher sentencing seem to have some rationality when they argue that violent offenders have to know that the state will not tolerate their crimes, and they will stay in jail for full sentence terms. They ascertain that would be the surer way to protect the citizens from community’s most dangerous members. But, at the same time, effectiveness of existing probation and parole treatment programs could be enhanced which would raise positive results of them in lowering recidivism rates. The measures to improve probation/parole system could include provision of adequate funding (which allow developing comprehensive community-based rehabilitation and intervention programs), ensuring effective management (e. g. educing caseload per probation/parole officer), and elaboration of reliable instruments for assessment of offenders’ risk and needs during decision-making on probation and parole releases. Finally, it seems that if community would be much more involved in helping ex-offenders to adjust to their life at liberty, they would be less willing to commit further crimes. If above-listed would be attained, probation/parole system would undertake the functions of assessment, diagnosis, monitoring, and quality control of interventions while currently it plays the role of just alternative punishment.