Forum 5 Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Forum 5 - Research Paper Example most effective of what is commonly known as â€Å"business to customer communications† which effectively influences consumers to an organization or its brand products due to its dual way communication (Bowie and Buttle, 2012, n.p.). The customer communication effort is particularly effective because of its personalized approach that focuses on individual consumers. It similarly has a number of efficiencies that facilitate communication between businesses and their consumers towards capturing consumers’ attention and influencing them into preferring an organization and its products. The low cost of email communication as well as its speed in communication for example allows organizations to respond to consumers’ enquiries in a faster and affordable way, communicating the organization’s efficiency and the value it puts on consumers (Masterman and Wood, 2006). Application of emails also promotes consumers’ confidence in an organization and its products due to a continued contact even after purchase (Turner and Weickgenannt, 2008). The associated advantages and efficiencies of emails therefore identify it as a successful way of putting an organization’s name in front of current customers and potential customers. This is, further, because the approach induces confidence among the

Alcohol - Underage Drinking Essay Example for Free

Alcohol Underage Drinking Essay Did you know that approximately one teenager between the ages of 14 and 17 die each week as a result of underage drinking? If that’s not alarming, research is saying that teenagers who frequently binge drink, are more likely to use drugs like cocaine and have sex with six or more partners and receive very poor grades at school. Good morning / afternoon and fellow students, I’m here today to convince you that alcohol consumption amongst teenagers should be reduced in order to eliminate serious injuries and deaths, reduce unsafe sexual activity and violent behaviour particularly in male teens. Despite being educated about alcohol consumption, binge drinking amongst teenagers is increasing at an alarming rate. Statistics show that teenagers who drink alcohol will take risks and put themselves in dangerous situations. As a result, more than sixty teenagers are hospitalised each weekend in Australia from alcohol related injuries. In the short term binge drinking can cause harm such as vomiting, hangovers and alcohol poisoning; however over a long period of time it may lead to more serious health issues such as alcohol dependence, brain and liver damage. Did you know the human brain is not fully developed until we reach the age of 25? What many of you don’t understand is that at this age, your brain is still forming critical parts needed for learning, memory, planning, emotional stability and thinking. Teenage binge drinking prevents the brain from developing properly and can cause permanent damage. In addition to the health risks, drinking alcohol impairs your judgement and the ability to make correct or safe decisions. Recent studies show there is a link between teenage drinking and high risk sexual activity. For example, teenagers who drink alcohol are more likely to have multiple sexual partners and unprotected sex, resulting in unwanted pregnancy and sexually transmitted diseases. A recent survey also showed that approximately 10 percent of female high school students had reported being raped. Plain and simple, alcohol alters your ability to think clearly. A study conducted in Great Britain revealed that: After drinking alcohol, one in seven 16-to-24-year-olds have had unprotected sex, while one in five have had sex that they regretted and one in 10 said they had been unable to remember if they had sex the night before. Do you want to be one of these statistics? When young males tend to drink some start to become violent and aggressive and try to create fights. The worst case scenario is someone getting killed. Aggressive, delinquent behaviours, especially amongst male teenagers often result in hospitalisation. Assaults such as king hits, glassings, stabbings and physical abuse are on the increase. Recently on a Saturday night, St Vincents hospital in Sydney recorded no less than 65 people being admitted with bloodied faces, teenagers passed out on stretchers and many innocent victims of alcohol fuelled violence. Seriously, could you live with yourself knowing you had injured a good friend? I know I couldn’t. Underage drinking, even so-called light drinking is dangerous, illegal, and must not be tolerated. Everyone including parents, schools, sporting clubs and anywhere young people gather should work together to deliver the message that underage drinking is not OK. Teens that drink alcohol run the risk of being seriously injured, they engage in unsafe sexual practices and boys can become extremely violent. I urge you not to binge drink.

Physical, Emotional and Social Impairment Caused by Marijuana :: Use of Marijuana Essays

  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Marijuana is a unique and controversial drug. It is a popular psychoactive drug that is easily accessible and relatively inexpensive. Marijuana is often considered a recreational drug despite its illegal status. It is illegal because there are many uncertainties surrounding this substance. In fact, some favor the use of marijuana for medicinal purposes while others oppose. Opponents of marijuana insist that legal approval will result in serious personal and social problems. There are three species of Marijuana. The most common and most psychoactive is a prepared mixture of the hemp plant, Cannabis sativa. Cannabis indica is known to be less potent and Cannabis ruderalis has virtually no psychoactive ingredients. Cannabis sativa will be analyzed in detail since it is the most commonly used species. This plant grows wild but it can be cultivated in temperate as well as tropical areas. Cannabis products can be smoked in pipes or cigarettes. They can also be ingested with food. Manufactured products range from paper to ink (WWW 2). Every plant varies slightly in composition and the different parts of the plant vary in chemical constituents. In 1993 researchers discovered 400 to 500 chemicals. Some of the major types of chemical constituents in marijuana preparations include acids, alcohols, aldehydes, and amino acids. Cannabinoids, esters, enzymes, glycoproteins, hydrocarbons, ketones, lactones, nitrogenous compounds, phenols, pigments, proteins, sugars, steroids, terpenes, and vitamins are others (Carroll 1993). These are among some of the naturally occurring chemicals in marijuana and were derived from the Institute of Medicine and the Marijuana Project from the University of Mississippi. Furthermore, researchers have found that when cannabis is burned, additional chemicals are formed and may be found in the gas and smoke. One of the chemicals produced is benzopyrene, which is a known carcinogen. It is approximately 70% more abundant in marijuana smoke than in tobacco smoke (Carroll 1993). Only about 30 of the chemicals in marijuana have been studied extensively for their psychoactive effects. Of these delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) is known to be the most psychoactive chemical. This chemical is converted into over 60 other psychoactive metabolites by the liver (Carroll 1993). These chemical reactions, however, have either proved insignificant or not enough research has been conducted to prove their importance. Researchers have been mostly concerned with the interaction of THC in the humanbody. THC concentration in the human body depends on many factors. First of all, THC concentration varies throughout the plant.

Elements of Religious Tradition

Elements of Religious Traditions Paper Defining a religion can be a difficult task and there is no simple definition that can completely describe it. Every culture and society has some form of religion and some maybe specific to that culture and not practiced anywhere else in the world (Fontaine, 2013; Molloy, 2010). The vast diversity of religious traditions can be discerned by examining their understanding of what is sacred. For example, many religions believe in a single deity that is held sacred.Other religious traditions do not place emphasis on deities, but believe that the world itself is the sacred (2010). In spite of this diversity, all religious traditions share broad components: what does a religious tradition communicate, how is it performed, and how is it organized. When a anthropologists and sociologist choose to study various religious traditions, they can encounter a number of issues that can impact their study, such as, incomplete religious texts, and traditions that are passed on orally (2010). Components of Religious TraditionsThe first component is what does a religious tradition communicate? These are the various teachings, texts, stories, and myths. Religious teachings are the ideas and principles passed on that describe core beliefs, values, morals, etc. of a religious tradition (Molloy, 2010). These can be expressed through stories or myths. Religious teachings can be passed orally between members or written in a scared text. Religious teachings attempt to communicate an understanding of the sacred within the tradition to its members.In Christian traditions, the basic ideas revolve around the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth. Jesus was the embodiment of the sacred within these traditions (Woodhead, 2009). For the Igbo people of Nigeria, there main beliefs involve the Earth as being sacred and that the world is comprised of a number of different realms (Molloy, 2010). These contrasting examples show the diverse nature of religious traditions and how they share the common component of what is communicated by a particular religious tradition. The second element is how a religious tradition is performed?This is accomplished through prayer, worship, the undertaking of a pilgrimage to a holy site, or the performance of a ritual. The specific ceremonies observed for a specific religious tradition is based on the religious teachings for that particular tradition. What all of these have in common is that each ceremony is meant to bring the individual closer to the sacred within reach tradition. For example, in Islamic traditions it is a worshiper’s duty to make a pilgrimage to Mecca (Brown, 2009). In Christian traditions, worshipers pray to Jesus in a church or throughout their day (Woodhead, 2009).In many Native American religious traditions, a rite of passage is preformed through a vision quest; where the individual attempts to find spiritual guidance and meaning (Molloy, 2010). All of these traditions attem pt to move the individual closer the sacred and attempt to connect in a meaningful way. The final aspect is how is a religious tradition organized. This describes the structure of it, for example, the leadership and how members relate to one another. Once again, this is based on that religious tradition’s teachings. The organization describes how members of the tradition relate to the sacred.Specifically, does an ordain individual need to act as an intermediate between the sacred and the individual or who are the individuals that decide what is considered sacred within a religious tradition. In many religious traditions, the priest, priestess, and other high religious figures are held with the highest regard (Molloy, 2010). In Catholicism, the Pope is viewed as the absolute head of that religious tradition and his word is essentially law (Balmer & Pullella, 2013). In a number of religious traditions, a shaman is viewed as a person with vast wisdom.He or she has the powers to communicate directly with the sacred and acts as an intermediate for various individuals (Molloy, 2010). In the ancient Greek tradition, the Oracle of Delphi was an important woman, individuals from all around the Greek world would come seeking her advice and to communicate with the Gods (Legon, 2013). Ultimately, an important component of a religious tradition is how it is organized. This organization has the important role of stating the power structure and how members can communicate with the sacred. Critical Issues in Religious StudiesThere are a number of different critical issues that one needs to consider when studying religious traditions. The first is that some religious texts might be incomplete or entirely missing (Molloy, 2010). This can be extremely troublesome when a person is attempting to understand a given tradition that might be lacking important components. For example, a sacred text written on a stone tablet might be missing large sections of the text, which coul d contain important rituals or principles for that tradition. This is extremely difficult with ancient religious traditions such as the Egyptian, Roman, and Greek traditions (2010).This leads into the second critical issue is that the religious tradition might not have a sacred text or any written record, because traditions, stories, and myths might be passed orally. This is extremely trouble some for many people studying religions (Molloy, 2010). For example, there might be a limited amount of individuals that have the traditions. This is the case with many Native American religious traditions, because members passed on these important teachings orally and may people have may stopped practicing.This can cause a religious tradition to be lost (2010). Also, oral traditions can be corrupted with time and might not resemble the original story that was originally told. A storyteller might change aspects or merge it with other stories from another religious tradition. All of these are im portant issues to consider when studying religious traditions. Conclusion In spite of this diversity, all religious traditions share several broad components: what does a religious tradition communicate, how is it performed, and how is it organized.Every religious tradition shares these common principles and this allows individuals the ability to understand each religious tradition and how they compare with one another. Also, studying religious traditions can have a number of critical issues that have to be addressed in order to full appreciate the vast collection of human religion. Reference Balmer, C. , & Pullella, P. (2013, March 14). New pope urges church to return to its gospel roots. Reuters. Retrieved from http://www. reuters. com/article/2013/03/14/us-pope-idUSBRE92D05P20130314 Brown, D. (2009).A new introduction to islam. (2nd ed. ). Oxford: Blackwell Publishing. Fontaine, C. R. (2013). Religion. In Public libraries. Retrieved from http://www. worldbookonline. com/pl/refere ncecenter/article? id=ar464360 Molloy, M. (2010). Experiencing the world’s religions: Traditions, challenged, and change (5th ed. ). New York, NY: McGraw-Hill. Woodhead, L. (2009). An introduction to christianity. Cambridge: University Press. Legon, R. P. (2013). Delphi. In Public Libraries. Retrieved from http://www. worldbookonline. com/pl/referencecenter/article? id=ar153420

Expressionism in Early 20th Century Art

Aspects of all the avian-garden movements contributed to the emergence of expressionism. Expressionism refers to art that is the result of the artist's unique inner or personal vision that often has an emotional dimension. This contrasts with art focused on the visual description of the empirical world. This was a rejection of Renaissance sensibilities that had governed the western art world for the previous 500 years. The term expressionism was popularized in the avian-garden Journal Deer Strum.The editor Hearth Walden proclaimed: â€Å"We call art of this century Expressionism in order to distinguish it from what is not art. We are thoroughly aware that artists of previous centuries also sought expression. Only they did not know how to formulate it. † There are several movements of the 20th century that are classified as expressionist. Some of this expressionist art evokes visceral emotional responses from the viewer, whereas other such artworks rely on the artist introspect ive revelations.Often the expressionists offended viewers and even critics, but the sought empathy – connection between the internal states of artists and viewers – not sympathy. Dada With war as a backdrop, many artists contributed to an artistic and literary movement hat became known as Dada. This movement emerged, in large part, in reaction to an insane spectacle of collective homicide. They were â€Å"utterly revolted by the butchery of the World War. Dada was international in scope beginning in New York and Switzerland and spreading to other areas.Dada was more off mindset or attitude than a singular identifiable style. The Dadaists believed reason and logic had been responsible for the unmitigated disaster of world war, and they concluded that the only route to salvation was through political anarchy, the irrational, and the intuitive. Thus, an element of absurdity is a cornerstone of Dada. Dada is a term unrelated to the movement, choosing the word randomly fro m the dictionary. The word is French for â€Å"hobby horse. It satisfied the Dadaists desire for something irrational and nonsensical The pessimism and disgust of these artists surfaced in their disdain for convention and tradition, characterized by a concerted and sustained attempt to undermine cherished notions and assumptions about art. Although the artist's cynicism and pessimism inspired Dada, what developed was phenomenally influential and powerful. By attacking convention and logic, the Dada artist's unlocked new avenues for creative invention, allowing artists to push boundaries farther than previous movements.Dada was in its submissiveness, extraordinarily avian-garden and very liberating. In addition to disdain, a current of humor and the whimsical, along with irreverence flows through much of the art. This can be seen in Duchess's Mona Lisa, and Francis Pica's, Portrait of Cezanne. The views of the Dadaists mirrored those of Sigmund Freud, Carl Jung, and others. In its e mphasis on the spontaneous and the intuitive, Dada had interest in the exploration of the subconscious that Freud promoted. Images rising out of the subconscious mind had a truth of their own, they believed, independent of conventional vision.Jean Arp (1887-1966) pioneered the use of chance in composing his images. Tiring of the Cubist look in his collages, Arp took sheets of paper, tore them roughly into squares, haphazardly dropped them to a sheet of paper on the floor, and glued them into the resulting arrangement. The rectangular shapes unified the design, which Arp no doubt enhanced by adjusting the random arrangement to a quasi-grid. Even with some altering, chance had introduced an imbalance that seemed to Arp to store to his work a certain mysterious vitality he wanted.Collage Arranged According to the Laws of Chance is a work done using this method. The operations of chance were for Dadaists a crucial part of this kind of improvisation. Chance could restore to a work of art its primeval magic power and find a way back to the immediacy it had lost through contact with Classicism. Rap's reliance on chance when creating his compositions reinforced the anarchy and submissiveness inherent in Dada. The most influential of the Dadaists was Frenchman Marcel Decamp (1887-1968), he central artist in the New York Dada and active in Paris at the end of Dada.In 1913 he exhibited his first â€Å"ready-made† sculptures, which were mass produced common, found objects the artist selected and sometimes â€Å"rectified† by modifying their substance or combining them with another object. Such works, he insisted, were created free from any consideration of either good or bad taste, qualities shaped by a society he and other Dada artists found bankrupt. Perhaps his most outrageous work was Fountain, a porcelain urinal presented on its back and signed â€Å"R. Mute† and dated.The artist's signature was in fact a witty pseudonym derived from the Moot plu mbing company's name and that of the Mute and Jeff comic strip. Decamp did not select the object for exhibition for its aesthetic qualities. The â€Å"artiness† of this work lies in the artist's choice of his object, which has the effect of conferring the status of art on it and forces the viewer to see the object in a new light. Decamp wrote, after Fountain was rejected from an injured show, â€Å"Whether Mr.. Mute with his own hands made the fountain or not has no importance. He chose it.He took an ordinary article of life, placed it so that its useful significance separated under a new title and point of view – created a new thought for that object. Decamp (and the generations of artists after him profoundly influenced by his art and especially his attitude) considered life and art matters of chance and choice freed from the conventions of society and tradition. Within his approach to art and life, each act was individual and unique. Every person's choice of found objects would be different. This philosophy of utter freedom for artists was fundamental to the history of art in the 20th century.Decamp spent much of World War I in New York, inspiring a group of American artists and collectors with his radical rethinking of the role of artists and of the nature of art. Dada spread throughout much of Western Europe, arriving as early as 1917 in Berlin, where it soon took on an activist political edge, particularly in response to the economic, social, and political chaos in the city after World War l. The Berlin artists developed a new intensity for a technique called photometer (pasting parts of many images together into one image).This technique had been in popular and private culture and was used on postcards long before the 20th century. A few years earlier, the Cubists had named the process collage. Unlike Cubist collage, the parts of Dada collage were made almost entirely of â€Å"found† details, such as pieces of magazine photographs, usually combined into deliberately ontological compositions. Collage lent itself well to the Dada desire to use chance when creating art and anti- art. One of the Berlin Dadaists who perfected the photometer technique was Hannah Hoc (1889-1978).Her works not only advanced the absurd illogic of Dada by presenting the viewer with chaotic, contradictory, and satiric compositions, but they also provided scathing and insightful commentary on two of the most dramatic developments during the Whimper Republic (1918-1933) in Germany – the redefinition of women's social roles and the explosive growth of mass print media. In, Cut with the Kitchen Knife Dada through the Last Whimper Beer Belly Cultural Epoch of Germany, Hoc arranged an eclectic mixture of cutout photos in seemingly haphazard fashion.On closer inspection, we see that Hoc carefully placed photographs of some of her fellow Dadaists among images of Marx, Lenin and other revolutionary figures in the lower right. She also pla ced cutout lettering saying â€Å"Die grosser Welt dada† (the great Dada world). She also Juxtaposed the heads of German military leaders on the bodies of exotic dancers, providing a wicked critique of German leaders. A photograph of Hooch's head appears in the lower right hand corner, Juxtaposed with a map of Europe showing the progress of women's enfranchisement.Kurt Schweitzer (1887-1948) worked non-objectively, finding visual poetry in the cast off Junk of modern society and scavenged in trash bins for materials, which he pasted and nailed together into designs such as our example Mere 19. Mere is a word that Schweitzer nonsensically derived from the word Zimmermann (commerce bank), and used as a generic title for a whole series of works. The recycled elements acquire new meanings through their new uses and locations. Elevating objects that are essentially trash to the status of high art fits well with Dada philosophy.The European Effect on American Art: Transatlantic Art istic Dialogue John Singer Sergeant, James McNeil Whistler, and Mary Cast were American arts that spent much of their productive careers in Europe, while many European artists ended their careers in the United States in anticipation and because of World War l. Visionary patrons supported the efforts of American and other artists to pursue modernist ideas. Some of the patrons were matrons or women as opposed to men. Thus there support might be labeled metronome.The art scene in America before significant European Modernist influence was quite varied yet profoundly realist. Many American artists were committed to presenting a realistic, unvarnished look at life, much like the mid-19th century French Realists. One such group has been called The Eight. They were a group of American artists who gravitated to the circle of influential and evangelical artist and teacher Robert Henry (1865-1929). Henry encouraged these artists to make â€Å"pictures from life. † These images depicted the rapidly changing urban landscape of New York City.Because these paintings captured the bleak and seedy aspects of city life, The Eight eventually became known as The Ashcan School and were referred to as â€Å"the apostles of ugliness. † John Sloan (1871-1951) wandered the streets of New York observing human drama. His main focus was on the working class, which he viewed as the embodiment of the realities of life. So immersed was Sloan into his views of the working class, that he joined the Socialist party and ran for office on their ticket. His works often depicted the down trodden, prostitutes, and drunkards.Slogan's depiction of these subjects was not as one who saw these things as immoral and evil, something to be removed, like the reformers of the day, rather, he saw them as victims of an unfair social and economic system. Sixth Avenue and 30th Street (1907), depicts the street corner of this name in New York. We see the elevated train and shops of that area. A drun ken woman in a white dress stumbles toward the viewer as a pair of well dressed ladies or street walkers look on in amusement. This scene is not uplifting nor does it show the well to do. Instead it records the everyday happenings of the working class.Sunday-Women Drying Their Hair (1913), depicts three women on the roof of their tenement taking some time to dry their hair after washing it. George Bellows (1882-1925) Bellows first achieved notice in 1908, when he and other pupils of Robert Henry organized an exhibition of mostly urban studies. While many critics considered these to be crudely painted, others found them audacious and a step beyond the work of his teacher. Bellows taught at the Art Students League of New York in 1909, although he was more interested in pursuing a career as a painter.His fame grew as he contributed to other nationally recognized Juries shows. Bellows' series of paintings portraying amateur boxing matches were arguably his signature contribution to art history. These paintings are characterized by dark atmospheres, through which the bright, roughly lain brushstrokes of the human figures vividly strike with a strong sense of motion and direction. George Lukas (1867-1933) also painted scenes of urban life. He lived what he painted. He was a boxer and had a temper which often landed him in fights. It is perhaps fitting that he died in 1933 as a result of injuries sustained in a bar fight.Huston Street painted in 1917, is an example of Lukas work that demonstrates his loose, roughly painted style. Allen Street painted in 1905, is also demonstrative of Lukas' style. Everett Shin (1876-1953) created paintings which found their subject matter in the slums as well as in middle-class cafe © society and in theatrical activities. His theater scenes were usually done in oil, his slum and lower-class pictures in pastel. Unlike John Sloan, who felt a genuine reformer's commitment to lower-class urban themes, Shin viewed the entire city as a b right, glittering spectacle to savor and to enjoy until the end of his life.His art reflects the influences of Dandier, Edgar Degas, and Jean-Louis Forman. The Armory Show and Its Legacy One of the major vehicles for disseminating information about European Artistic developments in the United States was the Armory Show, which occurred in early 1913. This large scale endeavor got its name from its location, the armory of the New York National Guard's 69th Regiment. It was organized largely by two artists Walt Kuhn and Arthur B. Davies. The Armory Show contained more than 1,600 artworks by European and American artists. Among the European artists represented wereMatisse, Derail, Picasso, Baroque, Decamp, Sandusky, Kerchief, as well as Expressionist sculpture Wilhelm Lumbermen and organic sculpture Constantine Branches. This show exposed American artists and public to the latest in European artistic developments. The Show was immediately controversial. The New York Times described the show as â€Å"pathological,† and other critics demented the exhibition be closed as a menace to public morality. The work that was most maligned was Marcel Duchess's Nude Descending a Staircase. The painting suggests a single figure in motion down a staircase in a time continuum.The work as much in common with the Cubists and Futurists. One critic described the work as â€Å"an explosion at a shingle factory,† and newspaper cartoonists had a field day lampooning the painting. De Still Utopian ideals were also expressed in Holland. De Still was a group of young artists that formed in 1917. It believed that the end of World War I was the birth off new age. The group was co-founded by Piety Mandarin (1872-1944) and Leo Van Dossiers (1883-1931). They felt this time was a balance between individual and universal values, when the machine would assure ease of living.They declared, in their first manifesto, â€Å"There is an old and a new consciousness of the age. The old one is directed toward the individual. The new one is directed toward the universal. † We must realize that life and art are no longer separate domains. That is why the â€Å"idea† of â€Å"art† as an illusion separate from real life must disappear. The word â€Å"Art† no longer meaner anything to us. In its place we demand the construction of our environment in accordance with creative laws based on fixed principle. These laws, following those of economics, mathematics, technique, and sanitation, etc. , are all leading too new, plastic unity.Mandarin felt that his style revealed the underlying eternal structure of existence. This style was based on a single principle. Deities artists reduced their artistic vocabulary to simple geometric elements. After his initial introduction to abstraction, Mandarin was attracted to contemporary theological drawings. Mandarin sought to purge his art of every overt reference to individual objects in the external world. This combination produced a conception of non-objective design he called â€Å"pure plastic art† which he believed expressed universal reality. â€Å"Art is higher than reality and has no direct relation to reality†¦To approach the spiritual in art, one will make as little use as possible of reality, because reality is opposed to the spiritual†¦ We find ourselves in the presence of an abstract art. Art should be above reality, otherwise it would have no value for man. To express his vision, Mandarin eventually limited his formal vocabulary to the three primary colors, the three primary values, and the two primary directions (horizontal and vertical). He concluded that the primary colors and values are the purist colors and therefore the perfect tools to construct harmonious composition.Composition in Red, Blue, and Yellow, is one of many paintings Mandarin created locking color planes into a grid intersecting vertical and horizontal lines. He altered the grid patterns and the size and placement of the color planes to create an internal cohesion and harmony. Mandarin worked to maintain a dynamic tension in his paintings from the size and position of lines, shapes, and colors. The Bauhaus The De Still group influenced other artists through its simplified geometric style, and its notion that art and life are one.In Germany, the architect Walter Groping (1883-1969) developed a vision of â€Å"total architecture†. This concept influenced generations of pupils through the school he directed called the Bauhaus. In 1919, Groping was appointed director of the Whimper School of Arts and Crafts. Under Groping, the school was renamed Dads Statistical Bauhaus (roughly translated as â€Å"State School of Building†) and was referred to as the Bauhaus. Groping' goal was to train artists, architects, and designers to anticipate 20th century needs. The extensive curriculum was based on certain principles.The first staunchly advocated the importance o f strong basic design and craftsmanship as fundamental to good art ND architecture. His belief that there was no essential difference between artist and craftsman, led him to place both a technical instructor and an artist in each department. Second, Groping promoted the unity of art, architecture, and design. To eliminate traditional boundaries that separated art from architecture, and art from craft, the Bauhaus offered a wide range of craft type classes in addition to the more standard courses.Third, Groping emphasized the need to produce graduates who could design progressive environments through the knowledge and need of machine age technologies and materials. This required the artist / craftsman to fully understand industrial and mass production. Groping declared, â€Å"Let us conceive and create the new building of the future, which will emphasize architecture and sculpture and painting in one unity and which will rise one day toward heaven from the hands of millions of work ers like a crystal symbol off new faith. The reference to a unity of workers reveals the undercurrent of socialism present in Germany at the time. One Bauhaus teacher who had a lasting legacy on artists was Josef Labels (1888-1976). He was a German born artist whose greatest contribution to the school as his revision of the basic design course required of all students. He required a systematic and thorough investigation of arts formal qualities; what has been termed the elements and principles of design. Labels investigated arts formal qualities in his own work.In his series, Homage to the Square, painted after he left the Bauhaus, between 1950 and 1976, encapsulates the design concepts he developed while at the Bauhaus. The series consists of hundreds of paintings, most of which were simply color variations on the same composition of concentric squares. The series reflects Labels belief that art originates in â€Å"the discrepancy between physical fact and psychic effect. Because of their consistency in composition, the works succeed in revealing the relativity and instability of color perception.Labels varied the hue (color), saturation (brightness and dullness), and value (lightness or darkness) of each square in the paintings in the series. As a result, the squares from painting to painting appear to vary in size (although they remained the same), and the sensations emanating from the paintings range from clashing dissonance to delicate serenity. Labels demonstration of the reactions of colors to one another â€Å"proved that we see colors almost never unrelated to each other. † Labels ideas about design and color were widely disseminated.In 1925, the Bauhaus moved to Odessa, Germany. Groping designed the building for the Bauhaus as a sort of architectural manifesto. The building consisted of a workshop and class areas, a dining room, theatre, gym, a wing with studio apartments, and an enclosed two story bridge housing administrative offices. Of th e major wings, the most dramatic was the Shop Block. The Nazi's tore down this building, but the main buildings were later constructed. Three stories tall, the Shop Block housed a printing shop and dye works facility, in addition to other work areas.The builder's constructed the skeleton of reinforced concrete but set these supports way back, sheathing the entire structure in glass, creating a streamlined and light effect. This designs' simplicity followed Groupie's dictum that architecture should avoid â€Å"all romantic embellishment and whimsy. † Further, he realized the â€Å"economy in the use of space† articulated in his list of principles in his interior layout of the Shop Block, which consists of large areas of free flowing undivided space. Groping believed such an open classroom approach encouraged interaction and the sharing of ideas.Groping gave students and teachers the task of designing furniture and light fixtures for the building in keeping with the comp rehensive philosophy of the Bauhaus. One memorable furniture design to emerge from the Bauhaus was the tubular steel chair crafted by the Hungarian Marcel Brewer (1902-1981). Brewer was inspired to use tubular steel while riding his bike and studying his handle bars. In keeping with Bauhaus aesthetics, his chairs have a simplified, geometric look, and the leather of cloth purports add to the chairs comfort and functionality.These chairs were also easily mass produced and thus stand as epitomes of the Bauhaus program. This reductive, spare geometric aesthetic served many purposes – artistic, practical, and social. This aesthetic was championed by the Bauhaus and De Still. This simplified artistic vocabulary was accepted because of its association with the avian-garden and progressive though, and it evoked the machine. It could be easily applied to all art forms, from stage design, to architecture, and advertising, and therefore was perfect for mass production.

Free Essays on Same Sex Marriages

Same Sex Marriages The proposed legalization of same-sex marriage is one of the most significant issues in contemporary American family law. Presently, it is one of the most vigorously advocated reforms discussed in law reviews, one of the most explosive political questions facing lawmakers, and one of the most provocative issues emerging before American courts. If same-sex marriage is legalized, it could be one of the most revolutionary policy decisions in the history of American family law. The potential consequences, positive or negative, for children, parents, same-sex couples, families, social structure public health, and the status of women are enormous. Given the importance of the issue, the value of comprehensive debate of the reasons for and against legalizing same-sex marriage should be obvious. Marriage is much more than merely a commitment to love one another. Aside from societal and religious conventions, marriage entails legally imposed financial responsibility and legally authorized financial benefits. Marriage provides automatic legal protections for the spouse, including medical visitation, succession of a deceased spouse's property, as well as pension and other rights. When two adults desire to "contract" in the eyes of the law, as well a perhaps promise in the eyes of the Lord and their friends and family, to be responsible for the obligations of marriage as well as to enjoy its benefits, should the law prohibit their request merely because they are of the same gender? I intend to prove that because of Article IV of the United States Constitution, there is no reason why the federal government nor any state government should restrict marriage to a predefined heterosexual relationship. Marriage has changed throughout the years. In Western law, wives are now equal rather than subordinate partners; interracial marriage is now widely accepted, both in statute and in society; and m... Free Essays on Same Sex Marriages Free Essays on Same Sex Marriages Same Sex Marriages The proposed legalization of same-sex marriage is one of the most significant issues in contemporary American family law. Presently, it is one of the most vigorously advocated reforms discussed in law reviews, one of the most explosive political questions facing lawmakers, and one of the most provocative issues emerging before American courts. If same-sex marriage is legalized, it could be one of the most revolutionary policy decisions in the history of American family law. The potential consequences, positive or negative, for children, parents, same-sex couples, families, social structure public health, and the status of women are enormous. Given the importance of the issue, the value of comprehensive debate of the reasons for and against legalizing same-sex marriage should be obvious. Marriage is much more than merely a commitment to love one another. Aside from societal and religious conventions, marriage entails legally imposed financial responsibility and legally authorized financial benefits. Marriage provides automatic legal protections for the spouse, including medical visitation, succession of a deceased spouse's property, as well as pension and other rights. When two adults desire to "contract" in the eyes of the law, as well a perhaps promise in the eyes of the Lord and their friends and family, to be responsible for the obligations of marriage as well as to enjoy its benefits, should the law prohibit their request merely because they are of the same gender? I intend to prove that because of Article IV of the United States Constitution, there is no reason why the federal government nor any state government should restrict marriage to a predefined heterosexual relationship. Marriage has changed throughout the years. In Western law, wives are now equal rather than subordinate partners; interracial marriage is now widely accepted, both in statute and in society; and m... Free Essays on Same Sex Marriages Legality of Same-Sex Marriages The proposed legalization of same-sex marriage is one of the most significant issues in contemporary American family law. Presently, it is one of the most vigorously advocated reforms discussed in law reviews, one of the most explosive political questions facing lawmakers, and one of the most provocative issues emerging before American courts. If same-sex marriage is legalized, it could be one of the most revolutionary policy decisions in the history of American family law. The potential consequences, positive or negative, for children, parents, same-sex couples, families, social structure public health, and the status of women are enormous. Given the importance of the issue, the value of comprehensive debate of the reasons for and against legalizing same-sex marriage should be obvious. Marriage is much more than merely a commitment to love one another. Aside from societal and religious conventions, marriage entails legally imposed financial responsibility and legally authorized financial benefits. Marriage provides automatic legal protections for the spouse, including medical visitation, succession of a deceased spouse's property, as well as pension and other rights. When two adults desire to "contract" in the eyes of the law, as well a perhaps promise in the eyes of the Lord and their friends and family, to be responsible for the obligations of marriage as well as to enjoy its benefits, should the law prohibit their request merely because they are of the same gender? I intend to prove that because of Article IV of the United States Constitution, there is no reason why the federal government nor any state government should restrict marriage to a predefined heterosexual relationship. Marriage has changed throughout the years. In Western law, wives are now equal rather than subordinate partners; interracial marriage is now widely acc... Free Essays on Same Sex Marriages Each individual’s journey through life is unique. Some will make the journey alone, others in loving relationships-maybe in marriage or other forms of commitment. We need to consider our own choices and try to understand the choices of others. Love has many shapes, forms, and colors, yet many people have a hard time coming to that realization. The article, â€Å"State of the Union†, written by John Riley and appearing in Newsday on November 19, 2003, addresses the issues and decisions made about same-sex marriages. On November 18, 2003, Massachusetts’ highest court declared that same-sex couples have a constitutional right to marriage, becoming the first nation to declare this. Many people, both in favor of and against this decision, were interviewed and spoke out as to why they feel how they feel. The real question this article poses is, should same-sex couples have the same rights to marriage as opposite-sex couples? There are many different viewpoints and theories related to this ethical dilemma, which include egoists, social contract theory (Thomas Hobbes), consequentialist and utilitarian beliefs, Immanuel Kant and deontological ethics, and virtue ethics. Each viewpoint and system of belief differs from another, yet they all make very strong, convincing points. Egoists only do what would be in their own best interest to do. They believe that by acting selfishly, one creates a better world. Based on these and many other beliefs of theirs, they would be absolutely one hundred percent against same-sex marriages. Same-sex marriages only really benefit those individuals getting married so there is no rational reasoning as to why egoists would support this decision and they don’t. It is no direct benefit to society or anybody else involved and therefore egoists would not be in favor of this. They are not gaining anything by this Massachusetts’ highest court decision. Also, this court aided gays and lesbians in man... Free Essays on Same Sex Marriages Should Homosexual couples be given the same marriage rights as Heterosexual couples ? Tami Frost Kaplan College The institution of marriage has had an elongated and blemished past. Not always called marriage this sacred state had slipped through history under many impersonations and categories. Monogamy - summarizes an union of male and female or todays same sex couples, so long as the partners are only sleeping with one another. Polygamy - is the practice of one man or woman with numerous spouses of the opposite sex. Often, the need for this type of arrangement came from times of war, affliction or other disaster. Polyamory - is a multiple-partnered marriage whereby the partners get together out of love. Common-Law - is the relationship of a couple without legal ceremony or license. The Puritans moved marriage to a point where love counted and delighting in the state of marriage became commonplace, yet extremely committed. The Victorian period dragged marriage into the closet. Sex was something embarrassing and improper with a quiet understanding that married couples engaged in marital relations, without pleasure and as duty and God dictated for the purpose of procreation. Until as recently as 20 years ago, in some areas of North America women still needed a husband’s signature to obtain a credit card or mortgage. Things have certainly changed.Virtually all scholars agree that we have witnessed a major transition in the meaning of marriage in the years from 1600 to 1995. In 1600, marriage for almost all Europeans and Europeans in America was primarily an economic arrangement negotiated among families in which family considerations of status, future economic stability, and prosperity were the most important considerations in selecting a potential spouse. By 1995, most Americans consider the primary purpose of marriage to be a commitment to emotional and psychological suppor... Free Essays on Same Sex Marriages Abstract Same-sex marriages: A Multivariate Study The recent upsurge in same-sex marriages has been linked to society’s assessment in relation to society’s normative level. Evaluating the variables of the laws that prohibit same-sex marriages from occurring provides information to help society change its perception of same-sex marriages. The study of same-sex marriage helps explore how gay couples are perceived in society. The results support the conclusion that the special laws that concern same-sex couples are not legal. The current acceptance of an idea of gay couples is perceived positively as a regular couple would be perceived. The frustration associated with sex-same marriage that yields little hope of achieving the â€Å"ideal† may provide a key in understanding how same-sex are formed in society was associated with negative image in this study. Negativity was associated with dissenting opinions of gay couples. Negative societal reaction, allied with disapproving attitudes toward gay couples. This status is associated with an array of negative charasterics, not least of which is self-contempt. Table of Contents Dedication 1 Abstract 2 Chapter 1: An Introduction to Cohabiting Gay Couples 3 Chapter 2: The Application of Society’s Perception of Gays 6 Chapter 3: The Society’s Perception of Cohabitating Couples 14 References 15 Chapter 1: An Introduction to Cohabitating Gays Couples In the year of 1995, there were over 1.5 million gay or lesbians living together. The r... Free Essays on Same Sex Marriages Same sex marriages The debate over gay marriage is heating up, with San Francisco’s mayor Gavin Newsom decision permitting same sex marriages in a Francisco and the Massachusetts court decision in favor of gay marriage. There can definitely be seen a trend toward the legalization of same sex marriage but there are still hurdles that have to be passed which are guarded by the conservative right. Opponents of gay marriage are giving ridiculous arguments against same sex marriages while avoiding the real reasons behind their refusal which is prejudice, fear, religion, and homophobia. Looking at the struggles the gay community is having trying to be accepted into society as equals is compelling, ever since the early seventies gays have been trying to receive, among other rights, the right to marriage and its benefits and while all other civil right are protected by the 14th amendment somehow the right to marriage has been separated from all the other rights. The arguments against same sex marriage are weak at best, and they do not justify a discrimination against homosexuals. People, weather gay or not, should have the same rights in all aspects of life. The main argument for same sex marriage is that it is a civil right issue and just as miscegenation laws were voted out so does any law that produce separate system of benefits for people according to their sexual preferences. This should be abolished as it discriminates against the minority and is unconstitutional. Arguing that this right is not being infringed upon, because gays can choose not to be gay and to marry a person of the opposite sex at any time is ridiculous. There are various faults in this argument, for start it is based on the idea that homosexuality is fixable and that gays choose to be gay. The fact is that most studies have proven otherwise, none of the so called methods of curing homosexuality has been proven to work. Most experts agree that weather ... Free Essays on Same Sex Marriages Same Sex Marriage â€Å"I do,† these words change people’s lives forever. Whether this phrase is coming from a heterosexual couple or a same-sex couple, it should not be an issue. However, in today’s society this matter has become a reality. It is a constant battle for homosexuals to live with the limitations society imposes on them, such as the ability to marry. The homosexual community faces this problem of discrimination everyday, in which it is illegal for them to live a life of legal monogamy much like heterosexual couples. Same-sex marriages deserve to be legalized in this country. People need to face reality and what the future holds. Society also needs to start worrying about more important issues such as child abuse, terrorism, and sexual abuse, rather than two men â€Å"tying the knot† or two women devoting the rest of their lives to each other. Love is a human right and it should not be taken away from anyone, whether they are gay or straight. Homosexual c ouples should be entitled to the same marriage rights as heterosexual couples. If there is such a thing called separation between church and state, why does it not apply to this concern? The Christian religion and numerous other religions believe homosexuality is a mortal sin. However, if the leaders of these religions would research their material better, they would find Jesus was never given credit for any statement regarding homosexuality. The only piece mentions of homosexuality, the Christian Bible found in the Book of Leviticus. Leviticus says that, â€Å"No man should lay with a man as he lies with woman†, which many scholars now believe was referring to gay prostitutes and not gay persons in general. (King James, Chapter 17). The correlation between the laws of our government and the beliefs of some religions intertwine, which is unconstitutional. If we live in America, the land of the free, the land of opportunity, and the land where the governm...

SAT Prep Black Book - Full Review

SAT Prep Black Book - Full Review SAT / ACT Prep Online Guides and Tips The SAT Prep Black Book's first edition was one of the best resources for SAT Prep, and its second edition continues that legacy. Read this guide for a detailed review of the Black Book's strong points and weaknesses. Also, find out how to integrate this book as part of a complete prep program (because, as we'll explain, it's nowhere near enough for most students). Why Trust This Review? When you get advice on the internet, it's important to understand why you should believe the advice you're receiving. Because your SAT score is important, follow the wrong advice, and it might be too late to improve your score. To be transparent, here’s why you might be able to trust this review more than others: I like to think that I know what I’m talking about.I scored two perfect scores on the SAT and have worked personally with thousands of students prepping for the SAT. I’ve worked with students at all levels, from people at a 800 level to people aiming for a 1530+. Other writers often don't have the expertise to differentiate between books, and they recommend books as an afterthought (and you can probably tell). I don’t get paid for these recommendations, and I don’t get paid if you buy these books.I’ve studied dozens of books for SAT prep, and I review the books that I come across. Other sites, especially about.com and reviews.com, get paid for featuring books and get a kickback when you buy a book they recommend. One disclaimer: I’m co-founder ofPrepScholar, an online SAT/ACT prep program. I believe we’ve built the best prep program available right now. Itdiagnoses your strengths and weaknessesand gives you a structured all-in-one program, combining the best aspects of the books below, so you know exactly what you need to study at every point. But I want to stress that you don’t need a program to excel at the SAT. In fact, writing this guide may lose us some customers, since you might decide that you don’t need a program at all. But if you decide that you don’t want to manage 10 books and want an integrated complete program that customizes to your learning,check PrepScholar SAT out. SAT Black Book Review When I consider the quality of a book, I think about a few important questions: Who's the author, and what is his or her experience with the subject matter? How effective is the book, and why? What are the book's main pros and cons? We'll consider each question below. About the Primary Author: Mike Barrett Mike Barrett describes himself as a test-prep expert "who has been tutoring people for standardized tests ever since he was in high school." He offers mostly online tutoring through his company Concierge Tutoring. The quality of his writing leaves no doubt that he's an expert on the SAT. However, a little known fact about Mike Barrett is that he is a professional marketer by trade. This means that some amount of his book's success is due to marketing skill. As he describes in his LinkedIn profile, "I used my knowledge of SMM, SEM, and SEO to push the book's Amazon page to the top of Google's natural results for a variety of competitive search terms, and to maintain those results through the Penguin 2.0 update.I crafted the book's Amazon description to maximize sales conversions while optimizing its on-page SEO factors (as much as possible within Amazon's on-page limitations)." While this doesn't automatically reflect poorly on the book - after all, even the best companies need substantial marketing skill - it suggests that his heart and focus is on marketing, not on helping you prepare for the SAT. How Effective Is This Book? This book made it onto my list of Best SAT Prep Booksfor good reason. It has its drawbacks,and you’ll definitely need supplemental help and more prep programs, as I explain below. But what it does have is fantastic. What you’ll get from the Black Book is a way to think about the SAT. What does this mean? Here are a few examples: You learn that the SAT is designed to be a predictable, standardized test. It needs to test basic concepts so that it can be administered nationwide to all students, but it also needs to make it difficult, so it distorts the questions in a weird way. You learn that every answer must be unambiguously correct, or else students would complain that their incorrect answer is correct. This means that your strategy should be to rule out all incorrect answer choices, which is important on SAT reading. While most books focus only on test content and somewhat useful strategies, this book gets down to the brass tacks of how to understand the SAT, and what high-level strategies you need to succeed. Some of the concepts in this book were things I understood intuitively when I took the SAT and wasstudying for a perfect score, but the author articulates them in a crystal clear way in this book. It’s influenced the way that I think aboutteaching our students at PrepScholar. Of all books on the market, this book aligns most closely with my personal philosophy on the SAT and how to succeed on it. The book is divided into four separate sections: one on understanding the SAT at a high level, and then one section each for Reading, Math, and Writing and Language. Each section on an SAT section contains background material you need to know, and then goes through clear explanations for all the questions for that section in official SAT practice tests #1-4. What students will find missing from this book is focused practice on individual skills. If you need more practice specifically on Algebra equations, you're out of luck. This book doesn't help you figure out what your strengths and weaknesses are, and it doesn't give you pointers on how to train them. Keep reading for detailed pros and cons for this book. The SAT Black Book's Pros and Cons Pros: Very lucid take on the SAT. The ideas within will change your view on the SAT and hopefully motivate you to work harder, knowing that any student can excel on the SAT. Contains practical strategies that are more helpful than most other books'. Doesn’t rely on tricks like other popular books do. Doesn’t assume that all students are the same. It offers a few alternatives for strategies, then suggests that you try them out and see which one works better. An exhaustive set of answer explanations for every single question in the first four official SAT practice tests. They break down how to approach each question in a straightforward way. Cons: Requires a ton of self-discipline and insight to use effectively. Because you’re learning from your mistakes and no one is there to guide you, you need to be self-driven to experiment with different strategies and find which one works best for you. For some students, following a set of straight guidelines could be less confusing. The fundamental content is lacking. If you’re weak in algebra, for example, this book will not alone help you master that subject area. I believe more in recognizing your weaknesses and, throughfocused prep and specific practice questions, mastering that skill. This book is more about teaching an approach to preppint for the SAT. It is long (629 pages) and can get repetitive, although Barrett points out that you don't have to read every single page to get benefits, particularly because many of the official SAT questions test skills in the same way. I personally disagree with some of his points (e.g. he believes you should aim to reach a certain ability level in a skill rather than aiming for a particular score; I believe setting a score goal is a useful motivator). Overall Rating This book is one of the best out there, for what it does. It's nowhere near enough for most students, and you'll need to supplement with other practice materials and books, but what it does have is excellent, and it''ll change how you view the SAT and point out new ways to study. Overall Rating: 85/100 What's Next? Read our detailed guide to the Best SAT Prep Booksto put together your own study program based on the best SAT books available now. What's a good SAT score for you? Figure it out with our step by step guide based on the colleges you're applying to. Aiming for a high score? Read our guide to scoring a perfect SAT score, written by me, a perfect SAT scorer. Check out our industry-leading online SAT program. We've designed it to cover all the advantages of books and tutors at an affordable price. Featuring in-depth strategy lessons and thousands of practice questions, we have the content from the leading books. We include the critical Official SAT Study Guide. Beyond that, the programacts like your personal tutor. It guides you step-by-step through what you should be working on at every moment to best improve your score. Itcustomizes to your strengths and weaknesses, then gives you focused practice so you learn the patterns on the SAT. Furthermore, it motivates you to study so that you put in enough time. There's a 160 point guarantee - if you don'timprove your score by 160 points, you get all your money back.

Understand the Economic Concept of a Budget Line

Understand the Economic Concept of a Budget Line The term budget line has several related meanings, including a couple that are self-evident and a third that is not. The Budget Line as an Informal Consumer Understanding   The budget line is an elementary concept that most consumers understand intuitively without a need for graphs and equations its the household budget, for example. Taken informally, the budget line describes the boundary of affordability for a given budget and specific goods. Given a limited amount of money, a consumer can only spend that same amount buying goods. If the consumer has X amount of money and wants to buy two goods A and B, she can only purchase goods totaling X. If the consumer needs an amount of A costing 0.75 X, she can then spend only .25 X, the amount remaining, on her purchase of B.   This seems almost too obvious to bother writing or reading about. As it turns out, however, this same concept one that most consumers make many times each day with reflecting on it is the basis of the more formal budget line concept in economics, which is explained below.   Lines in a Budget Before turning to the economics definition of budget line, consider another concept: the line-item budget. This is effectively a map of future expenditures, with all the constituent expenditures individually noted and quantified. Theres nothing very complicated about this; in this usage, a budget line is one of the lines in the budget, with the service or good to be purchased named and the cost quantified. The Budget Line as an Economics Concept   One of the interesting ways the study of economics relates to human behavior generally is that a lot of economic theory is the formalization of the kind of simple concept outlined above a consumers informal understanding of the amount she has to spend and what that amount will buy. In the process of formalization, the concept can be expressed as a mathematical equation that can be applied generally. A Simple Budget Line Graph To understand this, think of a graph where the vertical lines quantify how many movie tickets you can buy and where the horizontal lines do the same for crime novels. You like going to the movies and reading crime novels and you have $150 to spend. In the example below, assume that each movie costs $10 and each crime novel costs $15. The more formal economics term for these two items is budget set. If movies cost $10 each, then the maximum number of movies you can see with the money available is 15. To note this you make a dot at the number 15 (for total movie tickets) at the extreme left-hand side of the chart. This same dot appears at the extreme left above 0 on the horizontal axis because you have no money left for books the number of books available in this example is 0. You can also graph the other extreme all crime novels and no movies. Since crime novels in the example cost $15 and you have $150 available, if you spend all the available money crime novels, you can buy 10. So you put a dot on the horizontal axis at the number 10. Youll place the dot at the bottom of the vertical axis because in this instance you have $0 available for movie tickets. If you now draw a line from the highest, leftmost dot to the lowest, rightmost dot youll have created a budget line. Any combination of movies and crime novels that falls below the budget line is affordable. Any combination above it is not.

Solve a Problem Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Solve a Problem - Essay Example Although the entire job of banking has been carried out manually, the customers’ satisfaction has been the prime object of Vangi. A few years before, the operations were computerized in their main office and it did not lay any impact on the rural branches. Core Banking Solution (CBS) recently introduced by the Government among the Nationalized Banks currently covers Vangi also in its threshold. Vangi now faces the problem of meeting the challenges in connection with its sudden push into a national network of CBS. Entirely new and systematic conversion into the new system of CBS has put Vangi to cope with enormous pressure from all corners. The main problem faced by the Vangi is to hone the rural branches that were hitherto doing their jobs in a very limited sphere of their areas incorporating their accounts with Vangi. Although a specific time frame is allowed, Vangi considers the permitted time frame is not sufficient to actually plunge into the CBS network. When trying to untie the knots of problems encountered, a generalized thesis surfaces. Problems can be distinguished on any number of meaningful dimensions and the mental steps and solution processes we engage in may widely differ for different types of problems. (Frensch and Funke, ) All the above steps comprise two different ways to handle namely, convergent and divergent approaches. While the divergent approach covers all the possible and feasible findings in the course, the convergent approach facilitates fixing the hotspots thereby nearing the crux of any problem easy. The divergent thinking processes commonly lead to creative thinking. The process usually begins at a single point or with a single question but extend the search in many different directions generating a wide variety of new possibilities. (J. Treffinger et al, 2005) In the first step of Objective Finding, I come across some seven factors that are nearly related to the goal

Herzberg Theory of Motivation Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

Herzberg Theory of Motivation - Essay Example The term 'Job Satisfaction' refers to one of the extent to which an individual likes his or her job. As defined by Schermerhorn, Hunt and Osborn, "Job satisfaction is the degree to which individuals feel positively or negatively about their jobs. It is an attitude or emotional response to one's tasks as well as to the physical and social conditions of the workplace." (Schermerhorn, Hunt and Osborn, 2002) Feedback is the objective information about individual and collective performance. Subjective information like 'you are doing well' does not qualify the criteria of the objectivity and thus can not be called an ideal feedback. (Miner, 1988) .Feedback serves two functions; that is instructional and motivational. Besides providing the instructions for further improvement, feedback should also be aimed to motivate the employees rather than condemn them. (Tosi, Rizzo and Mero, 2000) Being so important for the organizational culture, organizational behavior researchers have laid a great stress in determining the factors which influence the employee satisfaction. As a result, a number of theories regarding the issue have been evolved. Herzberg theory of motivation is one of them. ... As a result, a number of theories regarding the issue have been evolved. Herzberg theory of motivation is one of them. (Szilagyi and Wallace, 1983) The Herzberg theory of motivation is based on the fact that the satisfaction level of an employee is deeply affected by two broad categories; hygiene factor and the motivation factor. Herzberg asked the employees to report the times they felt very satisfied with their jobs and the times they felt discontented. He noted all the factors which led to increase the job satisfaction of the employees and same for the dissatisfaction. On the basis of this study he gave this theory, which is also known as motivator-hygiene theory, which identifies different factors as foremost causes of job satisfaction or dissatisfaction. (Philip and Duncan, 1982) According to this theory, hygiene factors are those factors which cause job dissatisfaction. He noticed that these tasks are more related to the work environment, rather than the nature of work itself. Some of the common hygiene factors are as follows: Organizational policies Quality of supervision Working conditions Base wage or salary Relationships with peers Relationships with subordinates Security (Luthans, 2006) Herzberg asserts that these factors are though responsible for job dissatisfaction, yet their presence does not guarantee the job satisfaction. Lets take the example of salary, if the employees are under paid, their satisfaction towards their work will be lesser. However, if they are appropriately paid, even then this will not bring the job satisfaction. Job satisfaction is achieved through a number of other factors like: Achievement Recognition Responsibility Advancement Growth (Luthans, 2006) The factors which

Review of the Management Literature Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Review of the Management Literature - Essay Example There are evidences regarding the differences in the attitudes and interests across these two generations, which would be found throughout the workplace. In today’s world most of the organizations face severe problems. But these problems does not relate to downsizing, foreign competition, change etc. They are having difficulty in handling various generations, which constitute the entire workforce. The generation conflict within the workforce is found to be one of the common problems for most of the organizations. This is not a minor problem and lack of attention in the generation difference would result in reduced efficiencies of the organizations. Thus, a good understanding about the generation differences for strengthening the work relationship between different employees is highly crucial. At first it becomes necessary to understand generation X and generation Y. Generation X: Individuals falling in this category are born in between 1965 to 1980. The people belong to this a ge group work very hard for the betterment of the overall performance of the organization. But at the same time, if better opportunity knocks at their door then they do not hesitate in switching their jobs. The work-life balance is an important factor for this generation. This generation also believes that people would be giving their best output if they are offered the freedom to be innovative and creative in life. People belonging to this particular generation like to explain in details the reason behind any decision making within the organization and they motivate the employees in such manner that they can easily understand all the decisions adapted and have an idea about the reason behind them as well. This generation believes in strengthening of communication within the workplace by means of email. Generation Y: Individuals belonging to this generation are born in between 1981 to 2000. The people belonging to this age group believe that they possess some brilliant ideas and as a result they just want to do give their best (Eisner, 2005; Sujansky, 2004). They believe that the results would follow the performance automatically. They like working in their respective workplaces and enjoy meeting their responsibilities until they get bored out of it. They believe that working from home is equally good like working from office as long as the work is getting completed (Allen, 2004; Johns, 2003). Texting is the best mode of remaining in touch with the generation Y member in the work place. Main problem arising in the work place Generation Y takes more time taking direction for completing their work as compared to Generation X. The Generation Y employees possess a high sense of morality, are sociable and ready to fight for independence. These individuals have high values for their friends and family. These individuals prefer taking intellectual challenges and strive for making differences in themselves (Martin and Tulgan, 2006). They prefer their employers to have such skills, which would help them in their professional development (Brown, 2004). This generation does not get highly motivated by the objective of making good deal of money (Francis-Smith, 2004). They believe in doing meaningful work and want to be appreciated for their performances (Zemke Raines and Filipczak, 2000). Setting personal goals as well as achieving those matters to a great extent to these generation individuals. Moreover,

Educational performance Case Study Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Educational performance - Case Study Example Thus, there is a greater impact of the social class on the education of the children and the parents' attitudes towards the education of the children. In this case there are two main concepts given and these are known as resistance and conformity. These two concepts are the main ones in order to understand the attitudes of the parents towards the education of their children. There is a higher probability that the parents shall be resisting or conforming to the children acquitting the college degree. These parents need to ensure that there is an important role being played by education in the success of the children in future. It has also been seen that there are higher chances of the occupational success of the children who have the higher education. However, in this case Librarians of Institutes of Education (Great Britain), British Library (2000) observed that the acquiring of education is dependent on the social status of parents as the poor people are against the education and degree acquisition from the British universities. In this case a great deal of research has been done on the children as well as the British parents and it has been observed that there are many parents are not developed socially and they resist the education of the children at grade 1 level in the British schools. Because of this resistance there is a change in the concept of self and the desire to get the education. In this case, the main role is also played by the beliefs that are held by the parents. There are many parental differences that make a difference in the attitudes of the children towards the schooling and it is realized that the schooling has been realized that if the schooling is realized as a socializing agency. According to the concepts that have been given in this case, Cox, (2000) says that the education of a pupil is dependent on the educational potential that the pupil has and the pupil is in turn dependent on the social position of the pupil. There are some assessments of the parents that are related to the children and their education and the social status of the parents play important roles. Vermeulen and Perlmann (2000) say that the assessments of the British parents are related to social representations. The carrier systems of the social interpretations are included in the analysis of the social interpretations. There are some studies carried out that make sure that there is an inclusion of the educational experiences of the parents as if the education of the parent is higher than the expectations of the children from the children are higher. It has been seen that the social representation of the parents has been included in the educational opportunities. There are many theories that have been given in relation to these attitudes and Rogers (2005) has observed that if the parents are educated, they are nearer towards the education system and they realize the changes that are taking place in the education system as well as the needs that are needed in the children. In addition to this, they understand the importance of the education in the children

Understanding Tort Law Term Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Understanding Tort Law - Term Paper Example The law defines litter as an item that defaces the environment such as bottles, papers, and other such things. From the given scenario Jamal, Julia, and Juniata are arrested and convicted for littering. Later the three individuals made an appeal basing their argument on the fact that their mistakes were unintentional. Although the offenses were not intentional, the three individuals have a tort to answer before the court. To succeed in the prosecution the judges will apply statutory and law aids in the statutory interpretation to determine the verdict. Statutory interpretation is the process through which judges and magistrate interpret laws and statues in the law before applying them in decision-making. For the court to fulfill its purpose, it needs to interpret or decide the different meaning of the different statues contained in the law. Although the parliament has the responsibility of making laws, the court has the duty of deciding and applying the laws accordingly. In the inter pretation process, UK courts apply some well-known conventions to avoid ambiguities. The court proceedings and operations have great significance on the importance of the different acts passed by the parliament. In the court, preceding the whole act will be read and from its title, the judges can determine the necessary objects. In the first case, Jamal dropped litter from a split shopping bag unintentionally. For the court to arrive at an appropriate decision, it needs to apply rules and other legal aids. The first important rule that the court is most likely to apply is the littering statute. Law against littering is a section of the environmental protection act of 1990 (Harlow, 2005). The law defines littering as an offense that attracts legal punishment. The section defines littering as discarding of litter in unauthorized public places with an exception of places allowed by the law. Jamal, junta, and Julia will be prosecuted under section 87 of the environmental Act if found gu ilty. To determine the verdict the court needs to interpret the act by first defining litter and littering.     

Educational performance Case Study Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Educational performance - Case Study Example Thus, there is a greater impact of the social class on the education of the children and the parents' attitudes towards the education of the children. In this case there are two main concepts given and these are known as resistance and conformity. These two concepts are the main ones in order to understand the attitudes of the parents towards the education of their children. There is a higher probability that the parents shall be resisting or conforming to the children acquitting the college degree. These parents need to ensure that there is an important role being played by education in the success of the children in future. It has also been seen that there are higher chances of the occupational success of the children who have the higher education. However, in this case Librarians of Institutes of Education (Great Britain), British Library (2000) observed that the acquiring of education is dependent on the social status of parents as the poor people are against the education and degree acquisition from the British universities. In this case a great deal of research has been done on the children as well as the British parents and it has been observed that there are many parents are not developed socially and they resist the education of the children at grade 1 level in the British schools. Because of this resistance there is a change in the concept of self and the desire to get the education. In this case, the main role is also played by the beliefs that are held by the parents. There are many parental differences that make a difference in the attitudes of the children towards the schooling and it is realized that the schooling has been realized that if the schooling is realized as a socializing agency. According to the concepts that have been given in this case, Cox, (2000) says that the education of a pupil is dependent on the educational potential that the pupil has and the pupil is in turn dependent on the social position of the pupil. There are some assessments of the parents that are related to the children and their education and the social status of the parents play important roles. Vermeulen and Perlmann (2000) say that the assessments of the British parents are related to social representations. The carrier systems of the social interpretations are included in the analysis of the social interpretations. There are some studies carried out that make sure that there is an inclusion of the educational experiences of the parents as if the education of the parent is higher than the expectations of the children from the children are higher. It has been seen that the social representation of the parents has been included in the educational opportunities. There are many theories that have been given in relation to these attitudes and Rogers (2005) has observed that if the parents are educated, they are nearer towards the education system and they realize the changes that are taking place in the education system as well as the needs that are needed in the children. In addition to this, they understand the importance of the education in the children

International Human Resourse Management Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

International Human Resourse Management - Essay Example (Friel, 2005) It is important for the better operations of HR management that it keeps changing and evolving according to the changing needs of employees and workforce itself. It becomes particularly more central when the organizations operates or intends to operate internationally. Since the past decade, there are a number of factors that are motivating organizations to go global, these includes the Global population Changes, Economic interdependence, Regional and Political Alliance, and rapid advancement of telecommunications and swift transfer of information. Across the globe, population growth in developed and industrialized countries is decreasing, such as the European Union (EU), the United States and Japan. This decline in birth rates results in more of an aging population and that further results in lesser number of workers as well as consumers. On the other hand, in countries like China, India, Africa, Australia and other regions of the world, the population grows significantly. It is for this reason companies think of going global and have internationally established operations, by exploiting the growing, highly-potential customer base. (Cascio, 2003) Second reason why companies go global is the increasing economic interdependence. Despite of global recession, the four largest economies of the world are U.S., Japan, China, and Germany. Therefore, organizations in other countries take it as an opportunity and expand. Another driving force is the rapid advancement of telecommunications and technology. The worldwide intensification of Internet is making the information flow from one to another easier and quicker. Today, Satellite technology exists in the villages of India, China, Africa and Latin America. U.S. economy would have pulverized without the support of chips, screens and software from Asia. With this turning of

Causes and spread of infection Essay Example for Free

Causes and spread of infection Essay Bacteria. These organisms are made up of just one cell. They have the power to divide so can multiply on their own. Some bacteria are harmless and can be of use in the aid of digestion and are found in the intestines. Other bacteria can be the cause of diseases. These bacteria have to find a way in to the body to be of harm and can make their way through the skin or be digested and attack our immune system. Viruses. These micro-organisms are very tiny. They invade living normal cells and use these cells to multiply and produce other viruses like themselves. Eventually this kills off the normal cell and can make you ill. Parasites. These are micro-organisms that live off other organisms or a host so they are able to survive. Some parasites don’t affect the host. But others grow, reproduce, or can even give off toxins that make the host sick resulting in a parasitic infection. They include; protozoan, fungi, and multi-cellular organisms. Fungi. These are single celled organisms a little bigger than bacteria. They do not make their own food so they get their food from absorbing the nutrients from their surroundings. Common illnesses and infections causes. Bacteria: Acute Rheumatic Fever Anthrax, Bacterial Vaginosis, Botulism, Brucellosis, Cholera. Diptheria. Gastroenteritis. Legionnaires Disease . Listeriosis. Meningitis Salmonella. E.Col. Staphylococcus Aureus Infection. Tetanus. Toxic Shock Syndrome.. Tuberculosis Typhoid . Whooping Cough (Pertussis) Viruses. Measles Mumps Rubella Influenza Polio Hepatitis A+B Herpes 1+2 HIV Noro Virus Parasites Sleeping sickness Thread, Hook and Tape worms Scabies Malaria Head Lice Elephantiasis Fungi: Aspergillosis, Blastomycosis, Candidacies, Warts, Athletes Foot, Thrush Ring Worm Tinia Capitis. Infection is when the the body is invaded with micro-organisms that multiply these can be bacterial, viruses and parasites which are not normally found in the body. Colonisation is the presence and multiplying of micro-organisms and can be found on or in an individual; the individual can be a carrier of the infection but may have no signs or symptoms of illness, although they can infect others. Systemic infection this means that the infection is widespread throughout the body and must be assumed to be in all organs. Localised infection. This means that an infection caused by bacteria is limited to a certain area. Bacteria invade the body at a specific point and remain there, multiplying, until treated. Infection can enter the body by breathing it in, ingesting it by eating contaminated food. And absorption through the skin or via an open wound Poor practice that may lead to the spread of infection can be; Poor personal hygiene, not washing hands correctly, not using PPE. The incorrect disposal of rubbish and waste materials. not storing or cooking foods properly, not cleaning your surroundings, not covering your nose or mouth when sneezing or coughing, direct contact with bodily fluids not following policies or reporting outbreaks or episodes of disease, Conditions needed for growth of micro-organisms include: Moisture: micro-organism need water to grow. Water must flow freely in and out of cells for the transfer of nutrients and waste products. Appropriate Temperature: The majority of human pathogens are Mesophilic. These can grow between a wide range of temperatures 5-63*C –Body temperature is 37 degrees; this is the ideal temperature for these bacteria to multiply. If it is too cold then the bacteria can remain dormant. And too hot a temperature can slow the growth down. Nutrients: All microorganisms need a food source. The  food sources can vary, but the organisms extract nutrients from substances such as proteins, fats and carbohydrates. Every micro-organism needs a mixture of carbon, nitrogen, phosphate, sulphur, water and vitamins. Proper pH: Most human micro-organisms are within the acidophilus group; this means that they prefer a pH or 0.0-5.4 Gases: Most micro-organisms require an environment of 5-10% CO2. Time: bacteria can multiply in 10-20 minutes in these conditions. In the correct conditions micro-organism are able to grow, respire, and reproduce. Sources of infection and how they enter the body: Food all bacteria need food to grow. Vegetables and raw meat from any animal are significant sources of contamination. Bacteria are always present in animal intestines. These can spread through meat products during slaughter or when a product is minced. . The bacteria can then get carried through the food chain. If the meat product is not cooked properly then the bacteria enter the body through the mouth and are absorbed through the digestive system once we have eaten them. Water: Stored, untreated or incorrectly treated sources of drinking water carry pathogenic micro-organism like rivers, lakes and reservoirs which can cause infections. These enter the body by the mouth and enter the digestive system once we have drunk the contaminated water. Soil: Dirt: there are many bacteria living in soil. These can cause infection if food is not washed properly in clean water and any food preparation surfaces that have been used need to be cleaned well. These bacteria can be then carried through the food chain and then enter the body through the mouth and again are absorbed through the digestive system when we eat. These bacteria can also be transmitted through touch and we can then ingest these as it is easy for our hands to become contaminated and if we put our hands in or near our mouths then we can ingest them. Also if our hands are not clean and we touch un contaminated food it can easily end up becoming contaminated. People: Healthy people carry pathogenic bacteria this can be found in the mouth .nose. Skin, hair ears throat, cuts and spots. If suffering with an infection, diarrhoea and or vomiting you should not handle food. Infection can be transferred by touch. Some diseases like scabies and herpes can be transferred by direct skin to skin contact. People who have an infection  like a cold and who then touch inanimate objects can leave germs these germs may be survive for a certain length of time, if another person touches these objects the germs can be passed on to them. Disease can also be passed on from person to person through coughing and sneezing. Droplets can be sprayed into the air and these can enter a person’s body through inhalation when they breathe. Sexual contact and the exchange of bodily fluids like seamen can carry infections like HIV. Air, Dust, Dirt Food Waste: dust and dirt are carried through the air and these contain millions of microscopic particles of dead skin, food and other debris that are covered in pathogenic bacteria. These bacteria can enter the body via the nose and lungs when we breathe. As they can also be found in the surroundings around us these can be transmitted and enter the body via touch. Animals Pests: insects and animals all carry harmful micro-organisms on and in their bodies. (You only need to think of the activities of a fly and what it lives and lands on). Their droppings, eggs, fur, nest materials, mites, and dead bodies can all cause contamination As animals are mobile these are transmitted very easily and infection can be spread where ever they go .some enter the body directly in to the blood stream like the spread of malaria via the mosquito. Others can leave the surroundings that are contaminated and spread through touch. These can enter the body when we touch ourselves or our food. Sewage: contamination from this is dangerous it contains many pathogens and allergens that fester in sewage and are responsible for a great number of infections. Airborne infections can be caused by sewage these can enter the body via inhalation. These pathogens can also be present in the water supply and food in surrounding areas and can enter the body via ingestion. Infection can also be spread by touch and animals. RISK: A person is more likely to pick up an infection if they have a poor immune system. The frail and elderly, babies and young children, people on immune suppressant medication as it compromises their immune system. People with long-term illnesses, cancer patients who are undergoing chemotherapy. People who are convalescing, pregnant women and their unborn baby. There are also people who come into regular contact with infectious agents; these people  have a higher risk of picking up an infection. For example; care workers, people who deal with infectious waste, medical staff. Sewage plant workers

Iconoclasm And Iconophilia In Islam Religion Essay

Iconoclasm And Iconophilia In Islam Religion Essay Introduction: The purpose of this short essay is to examine Iconoclasm and Iconophilia within the Islamic context. First, the two terms will be defined, elucidating their meaning by also drawing upon other linking terminologies. Second, references from traditional sources, Quran and Sunnah (Hadith) will be discussed to highlight the debates on figural representation from a theological perspective. In relation to this, the next part will briefly discuss the umbrella terms Muslim Iconoclasm or Islamic Iconoclasm and focus on the problematic aspects of such labelling. Subsequently, the last part will contextualise all the preceding arguments to understand and debate the Taliban destruction of the Buddhas of Bamyan in 21st Century. In the end pertinent conclusions will be drawn. Definitions: The point of departure for this essay will be to define the two terms Iconoclasm and Iconophilia and elucidate the duality of these concepts. Moreover, some of the terms associated and derived from these two concepts will also be highlighted. According to wordiq  [1]  , an icon derived from Greek word, ÃŽÂ µÃƒÅ½Ã‚ ¹ÃƒÅ½Ã‚ ºÃƒ Ã¢â‚¬ °ÃƒÅ½Ã‚ ½, eikon which means an image. It is defined as an artistic visual representation or symbol of anything considered holy and divine, such as God, saints or deities. A painting, sculpture as well as a mosaic classifies as an icon. The same source  [2]  defines the word iconoclasm, as literally destructing religious icons sacred monuments and images, for religious or political motives. This is primarily an action done by a person who attacks, breaks and destroys sacred monuments and religious images. Such people are called iconoclasts. This term also refers to a person who has a hatred for established religious institutions and dogmas and images for religious veneration. gods-bull-breaking.gif An Image of an Iconoclastic man with a hammer, breaking a bull icon into pieces. Courtesy of: Word Info image  © Copyright, 2006. As per contra, those individuals who venerate or revere any religious images are called iconodules. In addition, this is linked to the second term in discussion, Iconophilia. An iconophile, is understood as a connotation of images, pictures, engravings, illustrations on books or manuscripts. A person who has a fondness of such images and objects and one who loves these icons, illustrations and pictures is defined as an iconophilist or an iconophil. Moreover, someone who produces such images and pictorial icons is referred to as an Iconoplast  [3]  . With an understanding of the key terms in question, the next part of this essay will discuss the act of destroying cultural and religious icons for obtaining abstraction and conversely by contra the act of making figural representation in light of Islamic tradition. The following part of the essay will first shed light on references from traditional sources that have been used for supporting prohibition of figural representation in Islam. Instruction for Image prohibition in light of Quran and Sunnah (Hadith) In Quran: In the Quran, although there is no specific mention of figural representation/ painting, there are verses which indicate prohibition of idolatry, such as in the following verse, chapter 5, verse 90: O ye who believe! Intoxicants and gambling, (dedication of) stones, and (divination by) arrows, are an abomination, of Satans handwork: eschew such abomination), that ye may prosper.  [4]   Another Surah from the Quran, chapter 21, verses 53-55 states: When he said to his father and to his people, What are these images to which ye pay devotion? Said they,We found our fathers serving them. Said he, Both you and your fathers have been in obvious error. This verse can be interpreted in various ways. One possible interpretation is that it forbids false idols, or another interpretation could be that it indicates that any form of imagery of God or his divine nature is condemned and prohibited. Therefore, this verse has had many interpretations done by theologians, who have used it to ban the act of drawing, painting as well as sculpting figures  [5]  . One may argue that this verse prohibits idolatry as supposed to figural representation. It is commonly argued that the Quran, as compared to the Hadith traditions, is not specific on the subject of figural depiction, however it nonetheless condemns idolatry and uses the Arabic term musawwir (maker of forms, or artist) as an epithet for God (Figural Representatiom of Islamic Art, 2000), due to this sentiment, paintings with figures are made abstract and stylized, moreover, partially as a result of this religious sentiment, many incidents of destruction of figurative art took place (Ibid., 2000). Therefore, in the hadith (the recorded sayings) of the Prophet Muhammad, there are much clearer references to the prohibition of figural representation and painting. It is these hadith which are utilized by the theologians to support and elaborate on the meaning and intent of the above Quranic verse, and, it is from them that many Muslims derive legitimacy for their arguments against figural representation. According to one of the related hadiths to this matter, Aisha, the wife of the Prophet reported that on seeing a curtain embellished with pictures of animals, the Prophet was enraged and tore the cloth to pieces, declaring, The makers of these pictures will be punished on the Day of Resurrection, and it will be said to them, Give life to what you have created. The Prophet added, The Angels of (Mercy) do not enter a house in which there are pictures (of animals). Bukhari, Volume 7, Book 62:110.  [6]  Another source presents additional response by Prophet on the same incident saying Such people as paint these pictures will receive the severest punishment on the Day of Resurrection.  [7]  On another occasion Muhammad is supposed to have said, Verily the most grievously tormented people on the Day of Resurrection would be the painters of pictures.  [8]   As for Iconoclastic activities in early Islamic tradition, there are early accounts of the prophet Muhammads iconoclastic activities, for instance in the ninth-century Book of Idols which narrates that When on the day he conquered Mecca, the Apostle of God appeared before the Kabah, he found the idols arrayed around it. There upon he started to pierce their eyes with the point of his arrow, saying, Truth is come and false-hood is vanished. Verily, falsehood is a thing that vanish-eth (Quran 17:81 as narrated in Faris, 1952, p. 27). It was after having said this, that he ordered for the idols to be knocked down and burnt (Ibid.). According to another source, the same incident is narrated: As told by Ibn Abbas: When the Prophet saw pictures in the Kaba, he did not enter it till he ordered them to be erased. When he saw (the pictures of) Ibrahim and Ismail carrying the arrows of divination, he said, May God curse them (i.e. the Quraysh)! By God, neither Ibrahim nor Ismail practiced divination by arrows. (Bukhari, Volume 4, Book 55:571, as quoted in Kheilen on Iconoclasm).  [9]  These hadith are however subject to various interpretations. It can be argued that this tradition prohibits figural representations in scared spaces, not just Kaaba but also in mosques as well, or it may be suggested that Prophet prohibited the specific cult or set of beliefs that these idols presented, that is divination; a pre Islamic custom on Mecca.(Ibid.  [10]  ) http://lexicorient.com/e.o/x/t.gif According to one Hadith, the Prophet is also reported to declare that Angels do not enter the house in which there are portrayals or pictures.  [11]  . Per contra, one of the oldest chronicles, that of Al-Azraqi, narrates that when the Prophet returned to Mecca victoriously, he found the Kaaba covered with fresco paintings and he ordered that they be effaced but made an exception for one the them, executed on a pillar, which represented Mary and Jesus. (Besancon, 2000, P. 78-79). The ambivalence to figuration in textual tradition is argued by many scholars. This is also reiterated in Rubin (1986, p. 97) and Van Reenen, (1990, p. 40) who reiterate the above tradition by arguing that after the conquest of Mecca the prophet ordered the destruction of the paintings of prophets, angels, as well as trees that had decorated the interior of the Kaaba, whilst sparing an image of Jesus and Mary. Rubin (1986) further argues that although there is a general consensus in Hadith of forbidding representations, some interpretations by traditional schools of thought also go so far as to liken artists to polytheists but these proscriptions may have been a used to promote aniconism (the eschewal of figural imagery) along with iconoclasm (the destruction or mutilation of existing figural imagery). However, he states that despite their efforts Islamic art varies to a great extent across different time and places (Ibid., p. 129-131). Albeit contested and varying in form and interpretation, generally the removal of Meccan Idols in Kaaba upon conquest is deemed very symbolic by Muslims and this event holds great historical importance. It is due to this that generally Muslim societies refrain from figural representations in sacred spaces such as Mosques and Prayer halls. However, this opposition to depiction of living things and figural representation is not based on Quranic references but rather on various traditions present within the Hadith (Flood, 2002, p. 643-44). Muslim Iconoclasm In light of these traditional sources and their interpretation, the next part of the essay will briefly elucidate the concept of Islamic Iconoclasm or Muslim Iconoclasm in light of Muslim history. Among Muslims, it is clear and lucid to refrain from producing figures and life-like images of God, his Prophet, figures who are eminent in Islam as well as all living things. Several Classical traditions and religious sources are interpreted in light of prohibition of figural representation and from time immemorial; these sources are interpreted and used for various religious, as well as political Islamic doctrines. The disdain for figural representation, religious icons and images is often linked to idolatry. In popular literature this is referred to as Islamic Iconoclam and or Muslim Iconoclasm. Note that these terms will be used interchangeably throughout the essay. As noted above, one of the earliest Muslim Iconoclasm was in 630 upon the conquest of Mecca when the deities in Kaaba were destroyed; this holds true despite the presence of what may be an apologetic tradition, that Mohammad spared the statues of Mary and Jesus. This incident is also widely linked to the end of the Jahalliyah period in Mecca, and consequent end to idolatry in Arabia. As for the concept of Islamic Iconoclasm, it is contested and argued by many scholars. According to Besancon (2000), Muslim iconoclasm is a result of the absence of a Covenant that is why the Koran does not take the trouble to positively prohibit the image. He argues that for Muslims the notion of God is transcendent and beyond human comprehension, it is thus discouraging to any figural and imagery associations (P. 81). Grabar (1975) describes the distinction between Byzantine and Islamic iconoclasm by suggesting that in case of Byzantine, Iconoclasm is usually spelled with a capital I and In Islamic iconoclasm it is spelled with a small i. He argues that such secondary typographical distinction demonstrate differences between a historical moments which are then capitalised later or they refer to an attitude or mode of behaviour, to the affect that he claims that for Islamic iconoclasm it is apparently too common to deserve capitalization'(Ibid., p. 45). Such a statement about Islamic iconoclastic acts are devoid of any historical context as it disregards the ample evidence of a tradition of figural representation throughout Muslim art history, and it is this lack of recognition that western authors tend to perceive and associate a long, culturally determined, and unchanging tradition of violent iconoclastic acts within Islamic tradition and Muslim history. (Flood, 2002, p. 641) However, this is not to overlook that in various Muslim denominations there is a continuation of iconoclastic agendas, along with much recent on-going controversy regarding the destruction of Meccan historic buildings(not images) by the Wahhabist authorities who claim that they fear that these buildings were or would become the subject of polytheism and idolatry. (Howden, 2005) According to Kjeilen, this opposition to figural representation and its influence on Muslim iconoclasm have been used many times in Islamic history in order to destroy the representation of gods, divine figures or semi-divine figures of other religions, and the destruction of statues of Buddhas by the Taliban in Afghanistan in 2001 is the modern day example of this. The destruction of the Buddha-statues in Afghanistan in 2001 The following part of the essay will incorporate the proceeding arguments and analyze the Taliban destruction of Buddha at Bamiyan in 2001, so as to examine iconoclastic events in modern day Islamic state and develop a context to debate the preceding arguments. Dupree (2002) describes the saga of the Bamiyan Buddha destruction at Bamiyan as an aftermath of the debate at Supreme court and amongst its Council of Ministers who ordered Mullah Omar, to carry out investigation with the department of religious police (The Ministry for the Prevention of Vice and the Promotion of Virtue) regarding the appropriateness of the National Museums holdings in Afghanistan. It was following these orders that incorporation of Shariah Law was done in order to carry out, what may be suggested here, a political exploitation. The following events then unfolded leading to the total destruction; as narrated by Dupree (2002) specific orders were given to destroy any offending objects in the museum. A couple of weeks later, on the 26th of February, Mullah Omar gave an edict that mandated the destruction of all non-Islamic objects and subsequently on March 8 and 9th, the Bamiyan Buddhas were dynamited (Dupree, 2002, p. 986) taliban-2.jpg Bamiyan Buddha Statue before and after destruction by the Taliban. Image Courtesy of Fortunecity  [12]   Biggs (2003) claims that this destruction of the Bamiyan Buddhas in 2001 is a reminder that monotheism has its roots in the persecution of idolaters, and that the cultural expression of this violence was and remains acts of iconoclasm, however, his argument clearly falls into the frame of what Flood (2002) suggests as an ahistorical paradigm. Floods response to such interpretations is that they overlook the coexistence between the Muslim population and the Buddhas for over a millennium prior to the destruction by Taliban (King, 1985, as quoted in Flood, 2002, p. 654) Bamian1.jpg A general view of the alcoves where the Buddha statues stood before the destruction, Image Courtesy of Embassy of Afghanistan  [13]   According to Floods thesis, many of Talibans own declarations in regards to Buddhas indicate that their destruction was a result of a political motive as supposed to theological, because since the statues were already faceless above chin level, then they would be meaningless in context of Islamic medieval iconoclasm (Flood, 2002, p. 651-655). In addition to this Meskell (2002, p. 562) argue that the causal factors of this cultural heritage destruction is varying. He suggests that it could be due to the Taliban clerics opposition to the pre-Islamic figures that were displayed in the Kabul museum or it may have been due to a visit by Italian Buddhists, the interest of UNESCO in preserving the statues paired with foreign delegation wanting to offer money to preserve these ancient work when millions of Afghan died of starvation (p. 563). Others sources cite various factors such as military operations, internal politics and international relationships (Gamboni 2001). buddha_image.jpg Faceless Buddha statues, prior to Taliban destruction. Image courtesy of: www.deeshaa.org Conclusion : While a full discussion of this topic, incorporating a comprehensive argument on the theological sources, the contested debate on what qualifies as Islamic or Muslim Iconoclasm and the sectarian disputes between factions of different groups of Muslims lies beyond the scope of this short essay. It has nonetheless highlighted that opposition to figural representation is not based on the Quran, but rather on various traditions that are found within Hadith and that these interpretations are subject to interpretation and being utilised for reasons other than theological. The arguments in this essay resonate with Floods (2002) understanding that the destruction of Budhaa was more political and a result of a power autonomy monopoly rather than theologian factor, and that it may have amounted to provoked affirmation of sovereignty by the Talibans, not just upon their territory and the people there but also upon the values that they upheld. This essay intended to use the destruction of Buddha s as an example, to highlight the political aspects of Iconoclastic moments and elucidate that what is largely conceived as a theological impulse is not a timeless response to prohibition of figuration but that it may have been a cultural, social and political discourse of image representation at a particular moment in history.