Thursday, October 31, 2019

European Parliament Elections 2014 Coursework Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

European Parliament Elections 2014 - Coursework Example The elections involve various parties that included the European People’s Party, Party of European Socialists, Alliance of liberals and Democrats of Europe, the party of the European Left and the party of European Alliance for Freedom among others.  Ã‚   For fairness and equity of distribution of members and the authority span in the union, countries involved all participated in the election of the President to the committee that led and provides oversight mandate to the countries. These have developed to shape politics in the management of affairs of the European Union. Therefore, they provide a control aspect that makes the union stronger and much active economically. As part of the EU integration principles, the elections provide ground for improvement and evaluation of progress to the European Union. Through the formation and the parliament formed, it is much easier to understand and tackle the challenges that face the European Union block and relate to the policy matters of the European Union. These aspects have a picture drawn in the body of the material. For years, the elections of the members of the European Union parliament have remained centred and held during June as for the previous elections. In 2014, the elections were held in May as a gesture to create more time for the election of the president of the European Commission, which would have coincided if not brought backwards. The fact that the Pentecost weekend was to take place at the same time also provide an influence on the changes that came to occur. One of the major roles that the European Union has to play as of current is stabilizing the economy of the member states of the European Union. Since the great recession that started as of June 2009, the whole world has suffered massively due to the economic crisis that has affected many economies (Maier, 2011, p.208). Through these recessionary activities, economies like that of Greece, Cyprus Spain, Portugal and Cyprus massively affected leading to a difficult time in the European Union.   From this time, the effect of the recession hit even into the EU leadership aspects.  Ã‚  

Tuesday, October 29, 2019

Strategic Choice in HRM Case Study Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

Strategic Choice in HRM - Case Study Example The company will also conduct employee redeployment, an activity whereby workers are moved from one working environment to another. The reasons for reassignment will be to increase efficiency, to reduce costs or for the purposes of trainings to build on the skills workers. Redeployment and retrenchment of workers cause’s stressful conditions to the employees as there remain uncertainties about their future in terms of security of their current occupation. During the redeployment process, employees are expected to maintain their performance under the changes in the workplace cultures, organisational structures and changes in the role they play in their works and responsibilities. Job insecurity is termed as being cross-sectional, moist researches are conducted either after the redeployment has been conducted or during the time when the affected individuals are trying to cope up with the new job environment. Therefore, it remains to be known how the workers manage to cope up wit h the extensive change of environment and how it correlates to the different stages of redeployment. In addition, it remains unknown how different individuals or the organisation cope up with the impacts of redistribution. Job uncertainties affect an organisations cultures; redeployment entails that in every point in time there shall be a new face in the team (Koontz 2009, p.179). The cultures may be different from their new organisation; consequently, this will impact the healthy organisation culture that had been put in place before the initialisation of the process of downsizing that affects the employee. Redeployment without a pay increment is a form of discouragement to the employee. However, modern managers have instituted a program of redeploying workers where they accompany them with a salary increase. Standfast Insurance has a plan to loan its workforce to another company.

Sunday, October 27, 2019

Detailed Analysis Of Silent Hill Two Media Essay

Detailed Analysis Of Silent Hill Two Media Essay Silent Hill 2 is a 2001 survival horror/puzzle game released for the playstation 2 by Konami. It is the sequel to the first Silent Hill game released in 1999 for the original playstation. Silent Hill 2 is seen by many as landmark game, which capitalised on elements of game design previously ignored or seen as of secondary importance. It is difficult to categorise the appeal of Silent Hill 2, as at first glance its gameplay could appear primitive or certainly repetitive, while its subject matter and storyline are nothing new to the horror genre. To put it in more prosaic terms Silent Hill 2 is very much more than the sum of its parts, and this makes it a particularly interesting candidate for in depth analysis. For the greatest part of this essay I will refer to the game via the shorthand reference: SH2. Gameplay in SH2 revolves around a mixture of puzzle solving and simple combat. As the main protagonist progresses through the town of Silent Hill, he must fight various monsters using a variety of weapons. These range from a simple plank to a hunting rifle. In keeping with the survival horror nature of the game, ammunition is quite scarce as are the supplies necessary for healing, and individual enemies can take significant time and effort to kill. The player will find him/herself conserving ammunition for the stronger enemies and bosses, and thus any encounter with a monster brings with it a sense of trepidation and anxiety. Even the least powerful of the monsters becomes formidable if the players health and ammo is low, and he/she is forced to use the wooden plank. This is compounded by the fact that the enemies in SH2 are extremely resistant to damage and take a considerable time to kill outright (though they may be knocked to the ground for a temporary immobilisation). All of the se elements combine to nurture a sense of extreme reluctance to progress through the towns environs, and help create a fear of the unknown path ahead. Unfortunately the game fails to find the right balance between challenge and enjoyability with its combat. Defeating the monsters in Silent Hill is far more tedious than it is gripping. There is far too little variety in the methods of attack and too much time is required to kill each one that soon combat becomes a slow and repetitive affair of repeatedly swinging the iron bar at low powered enemies in order to conserve ammo. Furthermore once an enemy locks into combat with the player, it no longer becomes necessary to reposition the main character, resulting in gameplay requiring no more input than holding down the attack button. There is no heads up display in SH2, and the player must access the start menu to see how much ammo or health remains. When the player has taken excessive damage the playstation controller will subtly vibrate alerting him/her to the condition they are in. This merely adds to the frustrating nature of the combat in SH2, as no clear indication of how much damage can be taken against an enemy is ever given. This results in the player frequently dying while fighting the numerous minor enemies, even with plenty of health packs in reserve. Attacks given and received in combat are accompanied by a vibration of the controller which masks the warning vibrations when close to death and further jeopardises health management. This is a grave shortcoming which detracts from the rather well designed puzzle element of SH2. Puzzles range from fairly untaxing instances of collecting and combining items to extremely cryptic riddles requiring a good deal of thought to solve. The riddles show imagination in their intricacy and leave the player with a sense of achievement for having solved them. Unfortunately instances of these riddles are far less frequent than the occurrence of monsters in silent hill. SH2 is the story of James Sunderland, a man looking for his deceased wife after receiving a letter from her which says that she is waiting for him in the town of Silent Hill, a place where they used to holiday when she was alive. James wife was named Mary, and he begins the game with a photograph of her along with the letter signed by her in his inventory. The game begins with James having driven to Silent Hill only to find the entrance road blocked. He stops at a highway toilet , examines his own reflection in the bathroom mirror, reads the letter from his wife again and decides to enter the town on foot. James commences walking through the woods. The games atmosphere is established early on by thick fog and strange disconcerting noises as he makes his way. James eventually comes upon a graveyard and we are introduced to the games first non-playable character: Angela. As James finds her she is sitting among the tombstones. The conversation between the two seems disjointed. This sets the tone for the dialogue in the game. Much of what Angela says makes little sense, James asks her questions but she seems incapable of giving him a straight answer, as though her thoughts are not fully in the present. We gather enough from what she says to learn that she is looking for her mama in Silent Hill. At a later point in the game we learn that Angela had an abusive childhood and that this has left her with a desire to end her own life. Her father was killed (it seems likely by Angela), and the family home burned down. James proceeds to enter the town proper. Everything is covered in a thick fog. The town looks for the most part normal except that it is utterly deserted and the cars, signage, and architecture have an outdated feel. We soon meet our first enemy- a non descript grotesque humanoid shape which James dispatches with the aid of a wooden plank. Soon James finds himself in an apartment building. The building is in an appalling state of repair, displaying many signs of decay with walls stained horribly with rust, mildew and blood. Here we meet our second character, Eddie. The room we find Eddie in does not display such advanced decay. Eddie is in the process of vomiting into the toilet when we meet him, and the body of a human can be seen in the kitchen unit. This is not overly remarkable in light of the monsters roaming the apartment, but Eddie is instantly defensive in his conversation with James, and his frequent uncalled for denials that he murdered the man in the kitchen lead us to suspect that he in fact did. It is noteworthy that Eddie never mentions the monsters, which would conveniently explain the body. Eddie appears to be a man of limited intelligence- coarse, with a cruel side to his nature. When James finds his way out of the apartment he discovers a little girl named Laura wandering the streets by herself. Laura tells James that she shared a ward with Mary in the hospital during Marys illness. This strikes James as highly suspect, Mary was supposed to have died three years ago, when Laura would have been very young indeed. He tries to question Laura on the matter but just like the previous conversations with Angela and Eddie, it bears little fruit. James continues on towards Rosewater Park, one of the places which would fit Marys description of a special place from her letter. Instead of Mary James meets a woman who calls herself Maria. James is astounded at Marias appearance, as she looks almost identical to his dead wife Mary. Their personalities are less similar however; Mary is extraverted and bawdy whereas Mary was reserved and ladylike. Maria is dressed in a suggestively low cut outfit with a mini skirt and an incident later on in Heavens Night strip club infers that she works as a stripper. Maria says she doesnt know Mary and takes James confusing of the two women badly. It is significant that James should meet Maria in the place he expected Mary, not to mention the similarities in appearance. Maria resolves to join James in his search for Mary. After an episode in the hospital Maria is violently killed on front of James by a sinister pyramid headed monster which is seemingly impervious to attack. Later on he finds her i nexplicably alive and well before she is again killed on front of him. This pattern repeats itself three times in the game, as James is forced to witness his dead wifes doppelganger murdered in front of him. James receives no explanation for this, or the manner in which Maria seems to share memories of Mary with James; and though she becomes angry when James confuses the two women, it seems that even she confuses herself with Mary. James surmises that Marys special place must be the hotel by the lake and makes his way there. He encounters Laura and Eddie at various times but their conversations reveal little apart from the extent of their mutual confusion. In a prison on the way to the Hotel James meets Eddie in a room full of recently murdered human corpses. This is strange as Silent Hill appears to have been deserted for some time. Eddie has lost his mind, and starts talking about having to kill people for making fun of him. Eddie becomes convinced James is just like all the rest and tries to kill James but fails, losing his own life in the process. James finally reaches the Hotel. A look in the games inventory screen reveals that Marys note has gone blank. This raises the question of whether or not it ever existed. James reaches the room where he and Mary stayed. The room is in perfect condition and is empty apart from a vcr and a television. James inserts a video he found elsewhere in the Hotel and watches in horror at footage of himself putting a pillow over Marys face in her hospital bed. It finally becomes clear- James killed Mary. He sits with his head bowed for some time until Laura enters. We wonder how she made it into the hotel past all of the monsters and traps. James tells Laura he killed Mary. At this point the player realises the origin of James confusion. Mary was dying and James killed her and subsequently blocked out the memory. Now the chronology of the game makes more sense; Mary didnt die but merely got sick three years ago and James killed her much more recently. This explains how Laura had met her not long ago. It transpires that Marys illness badly affected her appearance and demeanour, causing her to lash out at James. This goes some way to explaining why James did what he did. Just before the final boss James again meets Angela. She is consumed by despair and James can do nothing to dissuade her from suicide. James is forced to witness the death of Maria at the hands of pyramid head one last time before proceeding to the roof of the Hotel where an evil incarnation of either Mary or Maria (depending on the players actions during the game) awaits. There are four endings to SH2: 1: In the Leave ending, the woman on the roof is Maria yet again, disguised as Mary in an attempt to trick James. James refuses her and Maria transforms into a monster. After James defeats this Boss Maria, he finds himself by Marys bedside once again. He explains to Mary that he killed her to end her suffering but also selfishly to end his own difficulty in having to care for her. He reads Marys letter in full and then leaves the town with Laura. 2: The in water ending is the same as above except instead of leaving with Laura we hear the sounds of James car driving into a lake. We surmise that he could not live without Mary and chose to drown himself. Marys letter scrolls across a screen with a watery background. 3: In the Maria ending James is reunited with Maria after the fight and the pair leave town together. As he helps her into his car she begins coughing. It seems likely that Maria will fall ill just like Mary did. It could be construed as a punishment for James, or perhaps even a chance of salvation if he sees Marias illness to the end, the way he never did for Mary. 4: The rebirth ending, which can only be unlocked during a replay sees James killing boss Maria, and then taking Marys body out to an island in Toluca Lake via boat. It appears as though he intends to resurrect Mary using various talismans he found in game at the church on the island. SH2, with its multiple endings and abundant ambiguity has no single reading or interpretation. Just as James discovers his own true past after watching the video the player must assemble his/her own definitive narrative based on the events they have witnessed. Many of the events negate each other, or have causes and consequences which are mutually exclusive. These include Marys note which disappears partway through the game, or Marias frequent resurrections. It becomes apparent after some reflection that if SH2 provides an account of these inconsistencies it is not made explicit and its left up to the player to make sense of events. The one theme each one of the endings have in common is that someone along the line in the story, be it Maria or Mary, turns out to be a figment of James imagination. Given that each ending allows for this possibility it seems likely that much of what James has experienced in Silent Hill was a product of his own mind. This reasoning is the only way to bui ld a logical picture of the events of SH2. The best way to examine this theory is to look closer at James encounters with the other characters in the game. The characters in SH2 converse with each other in a disjointed way, as though each inhabits a separate reality which only they have access to. It appears as though the town presents a subjective reality to each person who visits it. It also makes sense to think that each characters reality can only be observed when they meet face to face. The evidence for this is quite strong when one examines how the characters interact. Eddie never once mentions the monsters that threaten James, for him Silent Hill is a place full of people who make fun of him. James never sees any of these people except lying dead in and around Eddie. The town is less dilapidated when we meet Eddie, such as in the apartment room, where sports posters adorn the wall. It is uncertain why Silent Hill drew Eddie to it but his experience there is a failure, he loses his mind and commences slaughtering everyone. His experience of Silent Hill ends when he meets a real person- James, who kills him. Angela provides an even more dramatic example. When James rescues her she is being threatened by a monster that she refers to as daddy. This scene provides a good insight into how the town manifests itself to different people. The room is full of the decor of a domestic living room, even though it occurs in an underground labyrinth. Angela apparently sees Silent Hill through the eyes of her childhood. She saw her father while all James saw was a monster. The last time James meets Angela it is in the burning hallway. This seems to be a representation of how her childhood home burned down. James remarks that its hot as hell in here, while Angela replies You see it too? For me its always like this. The fire only exists when Angela is near; when James leaves the room, the Hotel is back to its damp rotting self. The town seems perfectly normal in the presence of Laura, and this explains how an eight year old girl could run from place to place without being harassed by monsters. In the bowling alley we find Laura and Eddie together eating a pizza. This too is revealing. The silent Hill James experiences is far too old and unsanitary a place to find food in, whereas for Laura and Eddie it appears just ordinary enough to find a pizza. Now we have some idea of how the town works for different people we can make more sense of James experiences. Firstly the chances of Maria being a real person seam dubious. Unlike the other characters in the game Maria is the only one who shares James experiences and can witness the things he can. This is evidence against her existence outside of James imagination, as none of the other characters seem to have any idea what James means when he talks of monsters. Furthermore none of the other characters ever see Maria, and when she and James arrive at the bowling alley she stays outside, away from Laura and Eddie so as not to reveal her illusory nature by appearing on front of people who cannot see her. There is also the more obvious discrepancy of her many deaths and resurrections; the other characters seem much more conventional in this regard. Finally there are the comparisons between Maria and Mary. She has the same body, and appears in the same spot James expects to see Mary- all suggestive of an imaginary Maria hypotheses; a construct of James mind composed of elements of his dead wife. Pyramid head, like all the monsters in SH2, is a further construct of James imagination. He plays a role in that he forces James to face his own guilt by killing the image of his wife before his eyes again and again. James admits this to himself before the final fight with the twin pyramid heads: thats why I needed you, needed someone to punish me for my sins. Interestingly James never actually harms pyramid head during combat. All the encounters with him are survived by endurance rather than by beating him. In the end it is pyramid head that kills himself. So the definitive narrative of SH2 is thus: James, forced to care for what was left of his sick wife, decided to kill her rather than have either of them suffer any longer. Once he had killed her however, he was filled with feelings of guilt and began living in denial, telling himself and others that she had died three years ago. In fact however; he hated himself, and needed to face the truth of what he had done, and so he was drawn to the town of Silent Hill where the forces of the town led him on a journey to face himself. Aesthetically SH2 has a very unified and clear vision of itself. As an audio visual experience the different elements tie together very well and form quite a cohesive feeling game of seamless stylistic integrity. Particular attention was given to the design of the monsters which reflect the nature of James inner turmoil. Apart from pyramid head every monster in SH2 is feminine in nature. Even the indistinguishable humanoid shapes that spit acid have high pitched female voices and long legs. Some of the monster designs have sexual overtones such as the mannequins or the nurses. It seems plausible to read this as a manifestation of James relationship towards womankind since he murdered his wife. It could even be said that the form of the monsters are derived from the nature of Marys disfiguring illness. The sense of atmosphere in SH2 is superbly well crafted. To this end the designers have employed prolific use of heavy fog and darkness to create a fear of progressing forward into the unknown. This is coupled with the use of a noise grain filter that lends an organic feel to the textures and ties in with the static motif reflected in the radio. The noise filter plays tricks on the eye, making walls appear to crawl and adding to the sense of chaos and unease. Every area exhibits a very high level of detail, with various bits of rubbish, graffiti, and detritus creating a thoroughly believable, lived in, (though abandoned) town. The minimal soundtrack is no less appropriate, with Akira Yamaoka opting more for industrial or ambient soundscapes than a conventional soundtrack (although a conventional song was also composed for the game). The imagination displayed in the composition of the soundtrack is impressive. Yamaoka employed very few conventional instruments, instead creating deeply unsettling otherworldly cacophonies of banging iron, bee-hives, saws, miscellaneous improvised percussion, sirens, wild animals, and heavy machinery. It is unfortunate therefore considering the quality of SH2 as an aesthetic experience, to find it marred by the camera. SH2 uses a third person viewpoint at all times with only a miniscule degree of control afforded to the player. The game has a very cinematic attitude to camera placement and as a result the camera is tyrannical in its inflexibility. Examination of the detail in the graphics is forbidden at all times by the camera, which will change position at the drop of a hat to the other side of a room. Though the camera positions are clearly deliberately chosen to lend the game an avant-garde and cinematic veneer they succeed only in hampering movement, increasing combat difficulty and generally detracting from SH2s enjoyment on every level. In conclusion the strength of Silent Hill 2 lies in its ability to tell a compelling and intriguing story while successfully evoking a palpably uneasy atmosphere. SH2 represents an advance in the video game as form, as it redefines the areas in which a game succeeds at entertaining. By all traditional standards the gameplay is uninspired, even tedious at times, yet SH2 remains a deeply affecting and compelling experience. The attention to detail in the feel of the game, along with the subtle, mature, and ambiguous storyline create a game of tremendous artistic unity, which represents a true formal leap in video games. .

Friday, October 25, 2019

Sodium :: essays research papers

  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Life could not exist without compounds of sodium. These compounds hold water in body tissues, and a severe deficiency of sodium can cause death. Blood contains sodium compounds in solution. Sodium compounds are used in industry in the manufacture of chemicals and pharmaceuticals, in metallurgy, in sodium vapor lamps, and in the production of hundreds of every day products. One of the most common sodium compounds is table salt, or sodium chloride. In its pure form sodium is a silver-white, soft and waxy metallic element. It is the sixth most abundant element on Earth and occurs in more that trace amounts in the stars and sun.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The secret that led to low-cost production was learned in 1789, when the French chemist Nicolas Leblanc discovered how to make soda out of common salt. The compound called soda is sodium carbonate. Crude sodium carbonate is called soda ash. The carbonate also combines with water in crystals known as washing soda, or sal soda. Soda is used in manufacturing soap, glass, dyestuffs, and explosives and as the basis for making other sodium compounds. Other sodium compounds, with some of their uses, are: baking soda(sodium bicarbonate), an ingredient of baking powder; borax (sodium borate), a food preservative; and caustic soda, or lye (sodium hydroxide), used in soapmaking. Some properties of sodium are: Symbol Na, Atomic Number 11, Atomic Weight 22.9898, Boiling Point 1,621.2 F, and Melting Point 208.06 F.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Sodium belongs to the group of elements known as alkali metals. It is never found uncombined in nature and was first isolated by the English scientist Sir Humphry Davy in 1807. Lighter than water, pure sodium can be cut with a knife at room temperature and is brittle at low temperatures. It conducts heat and electricity easily and exhibits a photoelectric effect, that is, it emits electrons when exposed to light. In its pure form, sodium oxidizes

Thursday, October 24, 2019

Macbeth: The Struggle Against Evil Essay

Thesis Statement: In Shakespeare’s Macbeth, the character Macbeth constantly battles against his evil nature. As the play progresses, Macbeth seems to have become a completely evil tyrant, but he never fully ends his struggle against evil. Introduction I. Macbeth: a noble and virtuous character II. Struggle with temptation and evil A. Witches B. Himself C. Lady Macbeth III. Murder of Duncan A. Before the murder B. Effects of the murder IV. Murder of Banquo V. Murder of Macduff’s family VI. Lasting nobility and signs of conscience Conclusion William Shakespeare’s primary source for Macbeth was Holinshed’s History of Scotland. The fictional character, Macbeth, is based mainly on the actual Macbeth who Holinshed writes about. This Scottish play is, â€Å"Shakespeare’s chief tragic gift to the world at large† (Jonson, Beaumont, Fletcher 279). Although it is his shortest play, it is often considered to be his best. In it he depicts the â€Å"corruption of a soul† in a way that both excites us, yet at the same time brings fear to us (Jonson, Beaumont, Fletcher 279). He is a character with whom, we are strangely able to identify, and whose destruction we cannot watch without feelings of fright and pity (Alden 276). It is a play, which becomes the personal tragedy of Macbeth, a noble character whose flaws cause his downfall. In Shakespeare’s Macbeth, the character Macbeth constantly battles against his evil nature. As the play progresses, Macbeth seems to have become a completely evil tyrant, but he never fully ends his struggle against evil. Initially, Macbeth is portrayed as a brave, noble, and loyal man. He is well known and praised by many, including Duncan, the King of Scotland, who praises him for his loyalty and successes in battle. Macbeth seems to be the quintessence of nobility. Walter Curry states, â€Å"He knows what it is to be actively loyal to king and country, to accept duty, to promote justice, amity, and piety† (112). Before meeting the witches, he seems to have a â€Å"definite disposition†, to be resolute in his choices, and free from ambiguity (Curry 104). According to Raymond Alden, â€Å"The principle point is that Macbeth is presented to us at the outset in a nobly attractive form and is actually, in some sense, a good man† (276). When he meets the witches, they help instill evil thoughts into his mind. They see, â€Å"what passions drive him and what dark desires await their fostering† (Curry 116). He struggles with these evil thoughts which are already rooted within him. His real temptation begins after hearing Johnson 2 the witches’ predictions saying that he will become king. Curry says that the witches’ prophecy, â€Å"arouses his passions and inflames his imagination to the extent that nothing is but what is not† (78). Realizing his flaws in character and that he wants the kingdom, they feed his strong sense of ambition and self-love. Curry explains that the witches, â€Å"symbolize a secret world of evil spirits that with satanic cunning lie in wait for human souls, conquering the unguarded heart and rejoicing in hurling their victim to the dust of misery and sin†(57). Their purpose is, â€Å"to stimulate Macbeth’s imagination to the point of grasping some underlying emotional, moral, or intellectual content† (Curry 55). Through their temptation, the witches are able to confuse and corrupt his judgement so that he is lead towards choosing the means to reach his desired goal, to become king. After the first appearance of the witches, Macbeth’s pride and ambition begin to overcome him. Evil thoughts of how he could obtain the crown run through his mind. He really begins to go through an internal struggle against evil. Curry says that he is too concerned not with, â€Å"attaining the ultimate good, but of flattering his inordinate love of self† (113). He is incapable of using correct judgement and making a reasonable decision. He knows that to become king, he will have to commit murder. He is very sensible and thinks about what the consequences of his actions would be. He still has a strong sense of conscience; although, his ambition is beginning to overtake him. Alden observes that Macbeth’s evil thoughts are, â€Å"in the making, instead of ready made; and they struggle against that sense of their vileness which we have already observed† (277). Duncan is a good and virtuous king; he is also Macbeth’s cousin. The power of his ambition is demonstrated when he says, â€Å"I have no spur / to prick the sides of Johnson 3 my intent but / vaulting ambition, which oerleaps itself / and falls on th’ other† (1.7.25-28). â€Å"Vaulting ambition† is his chief character flaw and his only reason to kill the king. Edward Dowden points out that, â€Å"Shakespeare does not believe in any sudden transformation of a noble and loyal soul into that of a traitor and murderer† (223). Macbeth’s conscience still bothers him, even though he knows what course of action he should take. After much contemplation, he resolves not to kill Duncan, but his decision doesn’t last long. Evil thoughts overcome him. Lady Macbeth is also seen as an evil with which he struggles against. She understands Macbeth very well and knows exactly how to manipulate him. She knows that he is a good man. This is demonstrated to us when she says, â€Å"Yet I do fear thy nature; / It is too full o’ th’ milk of human kindness / To catch the nearest way. Thou wouldst be great, / Art not without ambition, but without / the illness should attend it† ( 1.5.16-20). She also knows that he will probably not go through with his plans without her pressuring and influencing him to go through with them. She decides that she must rid of anything that interferes with him becoming king. Macbeth tells her that he has decided not to kill the king and she becomes infuriated. She knows that he is a very proud man, so by questioning his manhood she is able to convince him to kill the king. According to Curry, â€Å"He dares do all that may become a man. And it is precisely this established foundation of his self-esteem that Lady Macbeth assaults. She charges him with unmasculine weakness and contemptible cowardice† (118). She is a very influential force upon him and holds much power. Macbeth succumbs to the temptation and evil of his wife. Even though he has given into the temptation and evil, he continues to have a strong sense of conscience and fears the evil act which he is soon going to commit. Johnson 4 Macbeth goes through a major struggle with his guilt and conscience when he commits his first murder, the murder of Duncan. Wilson Knight observes that, â€Å"He himself is hopelessly at a loss, and has little idea as to why he is going to murder Duncan† (121). Macbeth is nervous and feels very guilty about murdering him. He feels so guilty that he even becomes delusional and starts imagining things. His regretting conscience and struggle against evil is demonstrated to us when directly after murdering him, he hears voices saying, â€Å"Glamis hath murdered sleep, and therefore Cawdor / Shall sleep no more: Macbeth shall sleep no more† (2.2.41-42). He is very remorseful and doesn’t want to think about the evil act which he has just committed. His remorse and conscience is shown after killing Duncan when he says, â€Å"This is a sorry sight† (2.2.20). He is very rattled and on edge because of his sins. Beginning after the first murder, there is a dramatic change in the Macbeth’s character. Curry says, â€Å"It is a profound alteration in the state of his personality, an astounding dislocation of the very center of being, which fixes itself immediately in a habit inclining to further crime† (104). After murdering Duncan, it’s as if the good in him begins to diminish. He starts to lose some of his conscience and begins transforming into an almost evil character. Curry quotes Thomas Aquinas in saying, â€Å"when man through one sinful act loses honor, charity, or shame, or anything else that withdraws him from evil, he thereby falls into another sin, the first being the accidental cause of the second† (119). He becomes less concerned with conscience, and more concerned with completing what he has already begun: â€Å"I am in blood stepped so far that, should I wade no more, returning were as tedious as go o’er† (3.5.37- ). He feels like it is too late for him to turn back now, and that he has nothing left to lose at this point. Johnson 5 It becomes easier for Macbeth to commit the second and third murders. A â€Å"train† of sins and crimes follow the first crime he commits (Curry 120). The second murder is the murder of Banquo. Banquo was one of his close colleagues but his, â€Å"wracking passions, frayed nerves, and inordinate apprehension of the imagination,† have led him to believe that Banquo’s knowledge Could be a possible threat to him (Curry 127). He built it up in his mind that Banquo was the main source of all his problems and a very significant threat to his kingdom. Thinking that doing evil will be easier if he does it quickly, he says, â€Å"The very firstlings of my heart shall be / The firstlings of my hand† (4.1.147-148). Taking this irrational course of action leads to the third murder that Macbeth commits, the murder of Macduff’s family. Macduff is one of the main people who oppose Macbeth and pose a major threat. Without any rational reason, and in a rage of anger, he surprises Macduff’s castle and kills everyone in his family. By this time it seems as if so many of his sins have built up, and that almost all of the goodness which he initially had has left him. He remains an almost completely evil tyrant. Although finally, it seems like there is no goodness and nobility remaining in him, there is. Macbeth never fully allows himself to become entirely evil. There are still lasting signs of conscience and virtue shown in his character. Curry explains, † Macbeth remains essentially human and his conscience continues to witness the diminution of his being. There is still left necessarily some natural good in him; sin cannot completely deprive him of his rational nature, which is the root of his inescapable inclination to virtue†(133). Even when Macbeth is about to die, he demonstrates nobility by not killing himself or giving up. He also did not want to kill Macduff because he felt guilty about spilling so much of his blood already. This shows his Johnson 6 lasting conscience and virtue. Thomas Aquinas is quoted as stating that, â€Å"no human being can become completely evil† (Curry 89). Initially, it is easy to see all of Macbeth’s good virtues, but later after he has committed all of his evil acts, it becomes very difficult. It’s almost as if the evil takes over and becomes second nature to him, but not quite. Doing the evil acts is always difficult for him, and through it all he is able to maintain his conscience and some virtues. He never becomes completely evil because of his conscience, which causes a great deal of mental suffering. The good in him is never fully destroyed, and we hold admiration for him even up to the time of his death: â€Å"Macbeth’s language is the grave utterance of the very heart, conscience-sick, even to the last faintings of moral death† (Jonson, Beaumont, Fletcher 230). Works Cited Alden, Raymond. Shakespeare. New York: Duffield, 1922. Curry, Walter C. Shakespeare’s Philosophical Patterns. Ann Arbor: LSU UP, 1959. Dowden, Edward. Shakespeare: A Critical Study of His Mind and Art. New York: Harper, 1880. Jonson, Ben, Beaumont, and Fletcher. Shakespeare. Liverpool: Howell, 1874. Knight, Wilson. The Wheel of Fire: Interpretations of Shakespearean Tragedy. New York: Meridian, 1957. Shakespeare, William. Macbeth. Literature, Timeless Voices, Timeless Themes: The British Tradition. Ed. Ellen Bowler et al. Saddle River, New Jers4ey: Prentice, 1999. 272-361.

Wednesday, October 23, 2019

Key Dimensions

It is a matter of fact that change is essential and inevitable part of the modern society and it significance is really dominant and great. Every public and private companies/organizations are subjected to rapid and frequent changes, because the world changes as well. A location and size of company doesn’t matter. Simply saying, it is practically impossible for the company to avoid changes, because they are phenomena which are universally accepted. Modern managers are working on finding ways how to staff a sense of control over changing situations. Actually resistance to change doesn’t mean that that the staff is against them, it means that they object only the way the changes are implemented. (Organizational Change 2006)Staff resists to changes simply because the reason for the change is unclear for them. Negative reactions can be caused by, for example, by ambiguity in jobs, costs and equipment.   The next reason is that staff wasn’t consulted about the possi ble changes and they appear to be an accomplished fact. It means that employees are willing to know what is going on in organization, especially if their jobs may be affected.The third reason of resistance is when the possible changes may threaten the existing patterns of working relationships between employees. People resist to changes also when they are not satisfied with personnel, monies and timetables or when the benefits for introducing changes are inadequate for the involved trouble. Especially staff is against changes when their power or status in organization is affected. Therefore, managers should tactfully introduce changes so that the majority of employees will be satisfied.(Rosenberg 20)The most important task for managers is to make their firms learning organizations. There are many tactics and approaches, but the most proper approach is to teach the staff well providing relevant stimuli for such learning. Different teaching and education programs may be successfully i mplemented. Also bonuses and personal approvals are allowed. Employees actually should be highly motivated. (Yerkes 462)Innovations are very important if the firm/organization wants to remain competitive in modern environment. Innovation is introduction of new methods and things with a definite purpose to improve the organization’s performance. Innovation is combination of knowledge applied to new service, processes and products.Organizational innovation involves creative ideas in order to make â€Å"tangible difference in the domain in which the innovation occurs†. (Hyde 64) Innovation is characterized by the following issues: relative advantage meaning that innovations have to produce significant improvements to be adapted; simplicity meaning that innovation should be easily understood and presented; inexpensiveness; easy to try meaning that new method should be easily introduced and abandoned if necessary; easy to measure meaning that benefits such as time, efficien cy and money should be easily calculated.(Hyde 64)It is apparent that stresses are also inevitable part in each organization. There are many potential sources of stress within organizational structure. For example, organization size may be a stressor.   Large organizations sometimes cause the sense of helplessness among employees. The next source is technology used by an organization for products or service production. Design of organization may negatively affect employees creating the sense of being controlled as a machine.The additional stress sources are personal conflicts, job design and work roles. (Laurus 773) It is known that stresses have negative results as they are the reasons of high blood pressure, coronary artery disease, stomach ulcers and heart attacks. Stress results also in depressions and anxieties as well as sleeplessness may worsen cognitive functioning. In the result a person may lose concentration and confidence in decision-making. There are many ways to mana ge stress such as, for example, altering stressors themselves, altering moderators of the stressors, lessening individual’s responses and alleviating the stress consequences. Organization can manage stress by providing support services, conflict resolution and cognitive therapy. (Kahn et al. 99)ReferencesAdaptation to change (2006) Bitpipe White papers online, Retrieved September, 30, from http://www.bitpipe.com/rlist/term/Change-Management.html?psrc=RTP.Hyde, A.C. (2002) Understanding Innovation in Management. The Public Manager, 31, 3, 64.  James Morrison, & Ian Wilson. (1996) The Strategic Management Response to the Challenge of Global Change, Strategic Management, 7, 3, 25-27.Kahn, R.L., Wolfe, R.P., Quinn, R.P., Snoek, J.D., & Rosenthal, R.A. (1964). Organizational Stress: Studies in Role Conflict and Ambiguity. New York: Wiley, 98-102.Lazarus, R.S., DeLongis, A., Folkman, S., & Gruen, R. (1985). Stress and Adaptational Outcomes: The Problems of Confounded Measures.   American Psychologist, 40, 770-779.Organizational change management (2006) Journal of Organizational Change Management, Emerald Group Publishing Limited Retrieved September, 30, from http://www.emeraldinsight.com/info/journals/jocm/jocm.jspRosenberg, Deanne. (1993, January) Eliminating Resistance to Change. Security Management, 37, 1, 20-23.Yerkes, R.M. & Dodson, J.D. (1988). The Relation of Strength of Stimulus to Rapidity of Habit-Formation. Journal of Comparative Neurology and Psychology, 18, 459-482.

Tuesday, October 22, 2019

William Bascom essays

William Bascom essays Nowadays peoples minds have been polluted by various sources. Television over emphasizes the pursuit of sex, money, and violence. This causes people to believe that a materialistic life is the most fulfilling and meaningful but, I believe that there is more to life than materialistic things. Spiritual fulfillment can also have positive emotional effects. Earning other peoples respect and honor is also believed by some to be meaningful. Accomplishments and achievements can also determine a meaningful life. There are many ways to achieve a meaningful life. William Bascom had many achievements during his lifetime. He was a deep-sea oceanographer. He assisted scientific study of the earths crust, by drilling the ocean bottom and gathering examples of the earths second layer. He took many unusual risks during the course of his career. He conquered cancer and stood up for his beliefs, which led many people to respect him. He was also an outkast when he believed that human waste would feed the growing population of fish, this caused him to become a controversial figure. He also had many tangible accomplishments, he found the Glomar explorer, the Spanish galleon that contained three bronze statues, and he discovered the Brother Jonathan. This man achieved a meaningful life through respect and accomplishments. On the other hand, Charles Hartshorne was always spiritually in touch with God. He proved Gods existence through 16 different arguments more than any other philosopher had done. On top of that great achievement he taught philosophy at the University of Chicago. Teaching is considered to be a novelty of the world. He was a well-known philosopher and always ahead of his time. Both Bascom and Hartshorne lead very meaningful lives. One had many tangible accomplishments to show for his time on earth, while the other lead a meaningful life through teaching, which is considered t ...