Tuesday, November 26, 2019

John Paul Jones and the New American Navy essays

John Paul Jones and the New American Navy essays John Paul Jones became a hero to America during the Revolutionary War. Considered the Father of the American Navy, he was the war's first naval commander, leading a navy that at the time, barely existed. He became a strategic captain and had a reputation as a hot-tempered leader. John Paul Jones, originally named John Paul, was born on July 6th, 1747 on the estate of Arbigland, which is located in the southwest region of Scotland. He attended school in the nearby small village, Kirkbean. He was drawn to the sea at a young age, spending much time at Casethorn, a port on the Solway Firth. This was where he first boarded a vessel at age thirteen. The vessel brought him to Whitehaven where he began a seven year seaman's apprenticeship. The Friendship brought him on his first voyage to Barbados, as well as Fredericksburg, Virginia, where he learned Upon his return to Whitehaven he was released from his apprenticeship early due to the financial issues of his leader. He then became third mate on the ship King George, which was part of the slave trade. He didn't last long in this industry because he strongly disagreed with the poor treatment of the slave. After quitting the slave trade, he returned home on the John of Kirkcubright. He was forced to take command after the ship's captain and first mate became ill with fevers that eventually took their lives. The owners then appointed him master for the next trip to America. It was on this ship that John Paul had been accused of whipping the ships carpenter, which reportedly led to his death. Once John returned to Kirkcubright he was arrested for murder, then later acquitted. John Paul began working in the commercial business in the West Indies for awhile until he killed a man for leading a mutiny against him. He was forced to flee to Virginia, where he changed his name to John Jones, which led to ...

Saturday, November 23, 2019

Application Deadlines for Top Universities and Colleges

Application Deadlines for Top Universities and Colleges For regular admission, youre going to need to have most applications for highly selective colleges done by January 1st. Less selective colleges often have later deadlines, but applying earlier can improve your chances of getting financial aid and ensure that spaces in specific programs havent filled. When Are College Applications Due? Application deadlines vary significantly from college to college. Typically, the countrys most selective colleges and universities have regular admission deadlines between January 1st and January 15th. Be sure to keep track of the specific deadlines for the schools on your application list, for some will be earlier. The University of California system, for example, has a November 30th deadline. Youll find that less selective schools often have later deadlines- in February in many cases, although some schools have rolling admission and  never really close the application process until no more spaces are available. In the tables below, youll find application deadline information and notification dates for top colleges and universities. Youll see that the deadlines are all within a couple weeks of each other, ranging between January 1st and January 15th (be sure to check each schools admissions website for the most up-to-date information, since application deadlines and notification dates can change from year to year). All information below is from the individual schools websites for the 2018–2019 admissions cycle. Application Deadlines for Top Universities College Application Deadline Notification Date Brown January 1 Late March Columbia January 1 Late March Cornell January 2 Early April Dartmouth January 2 On or before April 1 Duke January 2 By April 1 Harvard January 1 Late March Princeton January 1 Late March Stanford January 2 By April 1 University of Pennsylvania January 5 By April 1 Yale January 2 By April 1 Compare ACT scores for the Ivy League Compare SAT scores for the Ivy League Application Deadlines for Top Liberal Arts Colleges College Application Deadline Notification Date Amherst January 1 On or around April 1 Carleton January 15 By April 1 Grinnell January 15 Late March Haverford January 15 Early April Middlebury January 1 March 24 Pomona January 1 By April 1 Swarthmore January 1 By Mid-March Wellesley January 15 Late March Wesleyan January 1 Late March Williams January 1 By April 1 Compare ACT scores for these schools Compare SAT scores for these schools Reasons to Apply to Colleges Ahead of the Deadline Keep in mind that you will be better off applying well before these application deadlines. Admissions offices get swamped in early January. If you submit your application a month or more ahead of the deadline, the admissions officers will be less harried when reviewing your materials.  Also, keep in mind that youll be demonstrating less-than-ideal organizational skills if your application arrives at the last possible minute. Applying well ahead of the deadline demonstrates that you work ahead of deadlines, and it can also help demonstrate your eagerness, something that plays into  demonstrated interest. Also, if you happen to be missing application materials, youll have plenty of time to take care of such issues. When Will You Receive an Admissions Decision? Decisions for regular admission applicants tend to arrive in mid- to late-March. MIT famously releases their admissions decisions on Pi Day, March 14th. At all schools, students need to decide whether or not they will attend by May 1st. This means youll have at least a month to visit the campuses of schools that have admitted you, and even do an overnight visit to make sure the school is a good match for your personal and academic goals. Its also worth noting that top schools often communicate with their top candidates before the March notification date in the form of a likely letter. These letters essentially tell an applicant that they are very likely to receive good news when decisions are released in March.   What about Early Action and Early Decision? Realize that the above deadlines are for regular admission. Deadlines for Early Action and Early Decision are often in the first half of November with decision dates before the new year. If you have a clear top-choice college, applying through Early Action or Early Decision can significantly improve your chances of being admitted. Keep in mind that Early Decision is binding, so you should use this option only if you are 100 percent sure a school is your top choice. Be sure to familiarize yourself with the pros and cons of applying to college early before doing so.

Thursday, November 21, 2019

Mobile Technology in Organizations Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Mobile Technology in Organizations - Essay Example Different ways have come up where an individual can have a discussion with another who is miles away (Huang, et al., 91). Change in technology has led to introduction of mobile phones as a means of communication. Many organizations in the society have opted in using mobile phones as means of communication. This paper discusses in depth the optimistic impacts of the use of mobile technology in business. Mobile technology refers to various types of cellular communication technology devices. These devices include palmtop computers, net-book computers, smart phones, which are the most common, global positioning devices, and wireless debit or credit cards. In most cases, mobile devices may greatly alter business transactions (Unhelkar, 27). For instance, mobile technological devices entail new ways of management, invention, and innovation of new products, and how service is given to customers. Mobile technology has subsequently enabled individuals to have extensive tours all over the worl d with no fear of business management. Moreover, staff that work away from their business locations benefit immensely from the use of mobile phones. Smart phones are not only used for communication but also serve a wide range of functions such as business transactions and research. ... Over years, usage of mobile technology has boomed and technology that is strictly for a particular business has been developed. Businesses have devised their own software where they can carry out business transactions. Moreover, businesses are able to solve quite a range of problems using mobile technology. The level of technology is one essential factor that people consider before purchasing any device. Apart from the ultimate goal of targeting customers, businesses use mobile technology to simplify their office operations and advance planning and organization. The impact of mobile technology on business economy has been highly optimistic (Simon, 157). Mobile technology has been a force that clears away barriers, promotes inclusiveness, and opens opportunities to all those who would otherwise not partake in the digital cost-cutting measures. Arguably, the use of mobile technology devices has enabled businesses worldwide to come up with strategies of solving their problems. The explo sion and expansion of mobile technology has benefited businesses, improved efficiency, streamlined processes, and enabled completely new businesses (Barnes and Scornavacca, 126). Mobile technology devices as depicted by scholars will in the new future take place of desktops. This is because businesses each passing day keep on inventing mobile software platforms that enhance the mode of information delivery and change the operation systems of both the businesses and customers. The most significant benefit that arises from the use of mobile technology in businesses is accessibility. As depicted by Simon (151), mobile technology enables a whole network of employees or offices in an organization to carry out business transactions no matter where they are

Tuesday, November 19, 2019

What does it take to become a successful leader in today's business Research Paper

What does it take to become a successful leader in today's business world - Research Paper Example An essential requirement for the business leader of today is to clearly understand major societal and environmental forces that shape business. Central in creation of value is knowing where and how to respond to societal demands in terms of the daily running of business. This calls for s strong sense of vision and emotional intelligence. The core of leadership in business still remains; leaders should be able to motivate employees, inspire and foster the spirit of teamwork among the people they lead so as to achieve common business goals. But the business environment has undergone tremendous changes in the past few decades presenting new management challenges to the business of today. They have to work in an environment with more challenges and expectations while leading teams in accomplishing the set business objectives. The implication of all these is that the modern business requires more than managers; people who can lead by vision and create the working environment in which the common vision is shared by everyone one involved. With the evolving purpose of the business leadership role, modern leaders must approach their work with a different perspective, lead change across & beyond the boundaries of business and effectively work in collaboration with relevant stakeholders in achieving the missions (Gitsham and W ackrill, 2012). A leader in the modern business world must keep up with developments in technology. Technological trends especially in business are evolving at the speed of lightning and this renders even a management tool that rocked the business world just in the past few years completely obsolete. Some leaders may face great challenges but keeping the pace would mean taking advantage of technological tools to the competitive benefit of the firm. The leader should be capable of utilizing tools such as social media and at the same time an environment in the firm where technology

Sunday, November 17, 2019

Ignominy in the Puritan Community Essay Example for Free

Ignominy in the Puritan Community Essay The title of Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter refers to the literal symbol of ignominy that Hester Prynne’s community forces her to wear as a reminder of her sin. Though the word â€Å"ignominy† is used in sympathetic passages that describe Hester Prynne’s disgrace as an adulteress and out-of-wedlock mother, its use at the same time reveals an extremely critical description of Hester’s community; Hawthorne finds that what is truly disgraceful is the way the community relishes and exploits the opportunity to punish one of its members. Through powerful diction and imagery describing Hester’s sin and through saintly representations of Hester’s beauty and wholeness, Hawthorne reveals his sympathy toward Hester. The narrator commiserates with Hester when the reader first encounters her walking to her daily public shaming upon the marketplace’s scaffold. He writes, â€Å"her beauty shone out and made a halo of misfortune and ignominy in which she was enveloped† (50). The word â€Å"halo† suggests an angelic, even saintly quality, compared to the sin for which she is being publicly disgraced as punishment, making her circumstance more complex than simply one of punished sin. That she is â€Å"enveloped† by disgrace implies that her shame derives more from her surroundings than from her sin; Hawthorne’s use of â€Å"misfortune† also demonstrates the narrator’s sympathy toward Hester, again suggesting that her disgrace comes as much from the community’s display of her sin as from the sin itself. Hawthorne portrays Hester sympathetically yet again in her encounter with Chillingworth in the prison. The disguised physician declares Hester to be â€Å"a statue of ignominy, before the people† (68). Ironically, Chillingworth, in the role of a healer, here admonishes rather than helps Hes ter. His words, intended to threaten and punish Hester, in fact, spark sympathy for her in the reader. Similarly, later in the novel, while Hester and Dimmesdale talk in the forest, briefly away from the opprobrium of the Puritan community, Hawthorne describes how â€Å"Hester Prynne must take up again the burden of her ignominy† (170), on her return â€Å"to the settlement.† The use of the words â€Å"must† and â€Å"again† reveal Hester’s continual forced obligation to wear and be a symbol of shame in her community, and show again the narrator’s sympathy toward her. The fact that she is â€Å"burden[ed]† by disgrace illustrates the extreme weight of her painful, shunned experience, thus establishing the cause for the narrator’s sympathy for Hester. As Hawthorne shows empathy regarding Hester as she leaves the prison, he also condemns the harsh experience inflicted on her by the community, â€Å"The very law that condemned her†¦had held her up, through the terrible ordeal of her ignominy† (71). The words â€Å"terrible ordeal† not only reinforce the narrator’s sympathy toward the protagonist, but also suggest that the narrator is judging the community, not Hester. By revealing the community’s enjoyment and cruelty in punishing Hester, Hawthorne criticizes the Puritan’s ideas of justice and mercy through both assertive diction and direct communication with the reader. When â€Å"A crowd of eager and curious schoolboys† stare â€Å"at the ignominious letter on her breast† (52), the reader sees the â€Å"eager† pleasure and excitement witnesses experience from Hester’s circumstance. Here Hester’s disgrace has become both an entertainment and an educational device. The narrator continues with, â€Å"she perchance underwent an agony†¦as if her heart had been flung into the street for them all to spurn and trample upon† (52). With this description, Hester’s humanity is maintained, even when the comm unity, â€Å"all† of it, objectifies her as a teaching tool. The image of her heart â€Å"flung†, â€Å"spurn[ed] and trample[d] upon† demonstrates both the narrator’s sympathy toward Hester and animosity toward Puritan society, regardless of the age of the member. Shortly after his description of the schoolboy’s callous treatment of Hester, the narrator continues with a harsh account of the scaffold and pillory once employed upon it, â€Å"that instrument of discipline† that represented â€Å"the very ideal of ignominy† (52). The pillory reflects the nature of the community’s sense of justice, and the narrator finds it extremely harsh. The word â€Å"ideal,† often associated with perfection, suggests that the pillory signifies the ultimate desired effect of â€Å"ignominy:† public shame from which the sinner cannot turn away. Next, it would seem that Hawthorne speaks out directly and emotionally to the reader, declaring, â€Å"There can be no outrage, methinks, against our common nature, whatever be the delinquencies of the individual, no outrage more flagrant than to forbid the culprit to hide his face for shame† (52). Hawthorn’s use of word â€Å"methinks† suggests his forceful personal address on this issue of cruelty; he weighs in powerfully against the malice of the Pilgrim community that punishes Hester, even if it has not subjected her to the pillory. The word â€Å"no† implies Hawthorne’s view that this punishment is an absolute violation of human decency on the part of any community that turns a criminal into a victim by inflicting the use of a pillory. The letter â€Å"A† Hester must wear shows that the Puritans have depersonalized Hester as part of her punishment for committing adultery. The Puritan community is again portrayed as disgraceful when â€Å"John Wilson, the eldest clergyman of Boston† (60), steps forward above the scaffold where Hester continues to stand. He â€Å"had carefully prepared himself for the occasion† (63). Clearly, the words â€Å"carefully prepared† show Wilson relishing the public opportunity to punish Hester. He delivers to the community â€Å"a discourse on sin, in all its branches, but with continual reference to the ignominious letter† (63). His repeated reference to the scarlet letter underscores his depersonalization of Hester in her disgrace, without any consideration of her human suffering. The word â€Å"ignominious† reflects as much about the opportunistic clergyman and the punishing Pilgrim audience as it does about Hester’s sin. The narrator continues, â€Å"So forcefully did [Wilson] dwell upon this symbol, for the hour or more during which his periods were rolling over the people’s heads, that it assumed new terrors in their imagination† (63). The length of this sermon, and the nature of Wilson’s â€Å"rolling† delivery show the clergyman’s intention to hammer his message into the crowd and fire up its punishing judgment. Hawthorne continues to criticize the community as he places Hester historically at the site where she was first disgraced. The narrator notes, â€Å"If the minister’s voice had not kept her there, there would nevertheless have been an inevitable magnetism in that spot, whence she dated the first hour of her life of ignominy† (211). Implied is the idea that the power of public shaming by the community causes her to remain. Specifically, by noting that the scaffold is where â€Å"the first hour of her life of ignominy† began the author criticizes the community by revealing that Hester did not experience â€Å"ignominy† until being publicly disgraced on the scaffold, even though her sin had been committed many months prior. With his use of the word â€Å"ignominy,† Hawthorne repeats throughout The Scarlet Letter the cruelty, judgmental attitude, and narrow-mindedness of Puritan society. He portrays Hester’s community as condemning sinners mercilessly, refusing to accept ideas that are foreign to their ways of living or thinking. In this way, the townspeople depersonalize Hester, suggesting that she and her disgrace are one. Hester is seen as her sin, not as a complex human being with complicated, still unknown, circumstances.

Thursday, November 14, 2019

Student Assesment :: Assessing Student Learning

Strengths: Rob Geis is a respectful and polite student. When he interacts with others his verbal abilities are excellent, he looks like a clever student. Rob seems very responsible because his attendance is consistent and his homework is stable. Needs: He may need to increase his social skills and interact more with others. He needs to ask for help when he does not understand the math concepts. In addition, it is imperative that he builds his self-esteem, experiments success, and feels that he is a valuable member of the class. Rob needs to be encouraged to achieve success relative to his personal potential in a positive learning environment. Interests: Rob has an interest in mechanics; he works at a car dealership after school that seems not interfering with school homework. Therefore, Rob interests are kinesthetic and physical. Preferred Way of Learning: Rob learns and process information in a kinesthetic manner. He likes to use graphics and visual objects such as graphs in math. He might learn better watching how to resolve math in presentations than lectures. Rob is a tactile student and he likes mechanics; therefore, his preferred way of learning is personal. Rob may respond positively to one-on-one attention by the teacher and he may definitely respond to an instruction when he can use grids, graphs, or other tools. Given the data provided about this student which of the family of models of teaching and / or theorist would you primarily draw on for help? Why? Support your ideas with citations from your text, and from other materials you have read. First, I will apply the Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, â€Å"Maslow (1970) suggested that humans have a hierarchy of needs ranging from lower-level needs for survival and safety to higher-level needs for intellectual achievement and finally self-actualization†¦ each of the lower needs must be met before the next higher need can be addressed† (Woolfolk, 2013, p. 434). Consequently, I have to discover why Rob is not engaged in learning or why his motivation in school is so low; besides, I would like to know why he has a job after school. Are his physiological, safety, and social needs not met with his family? Why his self-esteem and lack of belonging in school are not in place? That is why, I need to investigate his family roots, and I will interview them to learn more about Rob .

Tuesday, November 12, 2019

Is Joko Widodo a Good Leader?

Joko Widodo or better known by his nickname Jokowi is a politician in Indonesia and the current Governor of Jakarta period 2012 until 2017. Jokowi graduated with an engineering degree from the Faculty of Forestry at Gadjah Mada University in 1985. He was as the Mayor of Sukarta on period 2005 until 2012, before him currently being a Governor of Jakata. He was nominated in the Indonesian Democratic Party-Struggle to run in the Governor election of Jakarta 2012 with his running mate Basuki Tjahaja Purnama. He was elected as Governor of Jakarta on 20 September 2012 after a second round of voting in which he defeated incumbent previous Governor of Jakarta Fauzi Bowo. While running for the office of mayor of Surakarta, many doubted the ability of a man who worked as a property and furniture businessman, but after a year in office, he successfully led many progressive breakthroughs which became widely praised nationally. He adopted the development framework of European cities (which he frequently traveled to as a businessman) into his own city of Surakarta. Bases on Wikipedia, Joko Widodo was chosen by the Tempo magazine as one of the ‘Top 10 Indonesian Mayors of 2008'. In 2011, he was awarded the Bintang Jasa Utama by the government. The next year, he received 3rd place of the 2012 World Mayor Prize for â€Å"Transforming a crime-ridden city into a regional center for art and culture and an attractive city to tourists†. Jokowi has vision and mission to lead Jakarta and solve all the problem that is not the simple problem, but very complicated and complex. Jakarta is a big city and also has a big population. Governor of Jakarta is just as a political leader, but also to mange this city. Jakarta has some problem such as traffic and also floods if there is heavy rain and still many problem that have to solve by a leader. Jokowi’s vision is to make new face Jakarta, neat modern city and also humane, with leadership and good government and also serve the residents. To realize that vision, he also make some mission, that are five and one of that is make Jakarta as a city that is free from chronic problems such as traffic jams, floods, slums, waste and others. And then some work plan of Jokowi to make green areas to decrease the floods and also the reservoir to relocate rainwater. And also he will increase the public transportation that environmentally friendly, to decrease private transport users and would switch to use public transport and then more efficient and safe. For the conclusion, I think he is a good leader for Jakarta even several problems in Jakarta still not solve yet by him, but he still try to solve. As we know, Jakarta is the capital of Indonesia, the problems is not only one but so many problems. He should manage Jakarta to be a neat modern city and also he visited flood victims when the big flood in Jakarta for several times. That is to show his responsibility as the Governor of Jakarta.

Sunday, November 10, 2019

Assessing Importance of School Factors Such as Racism Essay

A variety of material disadvantages that may confront ethnic minorities coming from working class backgrounds are they do not achieve the same level of education. The main achievers are Indian, Chinese and African students, but the lowest achievers are Turkish, Bangladeshi And Afro Caribbean students. The white working class students are the lowest achieving, which is peculiar because most sociologists are white who stereotype and label other students from different backgrounds. The main cause of underachievement in schools are cultural and language factors which sociologists clarify and focus on and are thought to be main cause of everything. Previously the spotlight has been put on what happens in school and racism in common As shown by Cecile Wright, which explains that, Asian students can also be the victims of teachers Cecile found out that regardless of the schools evident promise to equal opportunities, teachers still hold ethnocentric views they believe that British culture and English are greater. This prepared teachers to assume that they would have a poor pronunciation of English and left them out of class debates or used basic, childlike speech when speaking to them. Asian pupils also felt cut off when teachers spoken dissatisfaction of their behaviour or misread their names. Teachers saw them not as a risk but as a difficulty they could take no notice of. This resulted in that Asian pupils in particular the girls were hard-pressed to the limits and disallowed from play a part fully. Close at hand is proof of teacher racial discrimination and harmful labelling. Nevertheless study shows that pupils can take action in variety of ways. They may take action by becoming unsettling or withdrawn but pupils may decline to agree to the label and even choose to prove it incorrect by putting in hard work. Off-putting labels do not repeatedly twist into self-fulfilling prophecy Working class white pupils attain below standards and have lesser desires. There isn’t much parental support at home, which means there is low achievement and goals. Reports show that teachers have to deal with low level of behaviour and discipline in white working class schools. Nevertheless they had fewer kids on benefit programs teachers blame this on inadequate parental support at home and negative attitude that white working class parents have towards their children and their education. The life in the street for white working class can be tough for pupils which means they get used to getting intimidating and intimidate other which they pick up and use in school to cause disruptions and make it hard for other students to succeed at school. Underachievement of student of different is blamed on cultural deprivation. Few sociologists say that Afro-Caribbean families lack a close relationship to their family and therefore are extremely violent towards everything they do. Arguments explain that families aren’t very supportive towards their children and they don’t offer enough cultural capital for their children. Stereotypical views suggest those students are not deprived because of their class or because of their backgrounds. Factors like social class are important to certain ethnic minorities like Pakistanis, Bangladeshis and a considerable amount of Afro-Caribbean students, which are all working class backgrounds in which material deprivation play a main role because to find out why they achieve below the national standards. Sociologists say schools and curriculums made just for one specific group of ethnic minority gives priority to one particular ethnic minority while disregarding other ethnic groups. Some schools have curriculums, which are ethnocentric because they only give priority to English languages. The British curriculum has been described as exclusively British. In history Britain is thought to bring civilisation to ancient people are colonised. Black people as inferior weakens black children’s self esteem and Leads to them to underachieving and failing. It isn’t for sure what effects the ethnocentric study shows that black don’t really suffer from low self esteem. Wright’s study found some ethnic minority groups received poorer interaction from staff. Teachers perceptions were seem as stereotypical although Asian students were seen as good and black students were seen disruptive and disobedient. Study show that schools in cities which contain ethnic minority students were not benefitting in terms of O Levels entries because of being in low set and having to achieve high grade in order to get good results and become successful. Overall taking into consideration we can not split or label ethnicity from social classes and gender since this is really difficult matter as some of the main achieving students are from ethnic minorities so for that reason there isn’t a connection here so we can’t make statements or come to conclusions as to what the association among ethnic groups and schools actually are. Pupils can refuse to accept negative classing and teacher expectations. Sociologists can’t come to a conclusion to explain what occurs between teacher and students or what takes place in different ethnic groups related to education. Students live up to roles they are given but can try to resist the labels and getting put behind by carrying out what is thought of them to do or do what they want to do and achieve good education and become successful.

Thursday, November 7, 2019

Roberts v. Texaco †Management Research Paper

Roberts v. Texaco – Management Research Paper Free Online Research Papers Roberts v. Texaco Management Research Paper The case of Roberts v. Texaco covers many of the items we have gone over in class. It talks about the EEOC, mediation, racial discrimination, Tittle VII and settlements. A suit was filed on March 23, 1994 by Bari-Ellen Roberts and four other African-American Texaco employees on behalf of more than 1400 Texaco employees. Roberts worked for Texaco as their Senior Financial Analyst from 1990 to 1997. The basis of their suit was that Texaco had been practicing hiring and promotion practices based off race and not qualifications. At the time of the suit, there were 873 executive that were earning more than $106 thousand dollars a year and only six were African-American. Ms. Roberts was called uppity and a smart-mouth little colored girl. For three years the case worked its way throught the judicial system until it finally made a breakthrough. On November 3, 1996, the New York Times reported that they had evidence of several upper level employees at Texaco being recorded on audio tape using repeated racial slurs and using demeaning terms to describe African-Americans. They had also been told that this evidence was ordered to be destroyed by Texaco. Immediately the EEOC launched a probe to determine what pieces of evidence the company had that would corroborate the claim. While Texaco had settled in for the long haul in this legal battle, it came to a quick conclusion. After the tapes were uncovered, Texaco started looking to settle the case as quick as possible. The public relations issues that would arise the longer the case drew out could seriously hurt the company more than was already done. Within one month on November 17, 1996, the EEOC and the plaintiffs announced that an agreement had been made for a $176.1 million dollar class-action settlement. The suit was declared moot on January 27, 1997. The settlement included the following: Provide a payment to the plaintiff-class in the amount of $115 million, along with a one-time salary increase of about 11 percent for current employees of the plaintiff-class, effective January 1, 1997; Create an Equality and Tolerance Task Force which will be charged with determining potential improvements to Texaco’s human resources programs, as well as helping to monitor the progress being made in those programs (three members of the Task Force to be appointed by the plaintiffs, three members by Texaco and a mutually agreed-upon chairperson); Adopt and implement company-wide diversity and sensitivity, mentoring, and ombuds programs; Consider nationwide job posting of more senior positions than are currently posted; and Monitor its performance on the programs and initiatives provided for under the settlement agreement. A study that was conducted showed that the suit will end up costing Texaco about $500 million dollars. The statute that was relevant was Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. The point of contention was discrimination because of race. This discrimination was shown in the form of hiring practices that didn’t accurately represent the community as well as promotions that were biased. The interesting thing about this case is that the EEOC didn’t get involved until there were allegations made by a major publisher and they knew what to look for; three ninety minute audio tapes. Once this came out, the EEOC filed their claim on behalf of the plaintiffs. These audio tapes were very explicit in the terms they used to describe the executives feelings toward minorities. Texaco hired a retired U.S. Attorney to investigate the tapes to find out how damaging they were before they agreed to a settlement. The attorneys investigation is extremely interesting to read as he tries to spin certain parts of the tapes as non damaging. At one point in the tapes, an executives ref ers to black jellybeans and how they always end up at the bottom of the bag. The attorney advises that this comment was not racially motivated but none of the conversation prior was about candy. No matter the spin, he couldn’t avoid the language used and discriminatory remarks. After seeing his report was when Texaco decided to settle, knowing that the evidence was much too damaging for their company to overcome in a lawsuit. The employment environment since this case has been drastically changed at Texaco. The task force that was put in place as part of the settlement had authority for five years to determine the policies that needed to be put in place to meet the objectives of the agreement. This task force met for two days a week and was composed of seven people; three appointed by Texaco, three appointed by the plaintiffs, and one independent who served as a chairperson. Even though the settlement was agreed to, this task force seemed to use mediation to arrive at policies both sides could live with. I think this made for a much less hostile environment when putting the policies in effect. The task force’s goals were set high. Within the first six months, Texaco was charged with implementing a diversity and training program for the entire company as well as a mentoring program. They also had to begin posting jobs at a certain paygrade or above nationally. An extremely important objective that they had to meet during this time was to develop a way for there to be no fear of retaliation for employees with complaints of discrimination. This is similar to the whistleblower statutes that we studied. A policy such as this would keep the employer from commiting unlawfull acts such as discrimination while keeping employees from feeling like they might lose their job if they took an injustice to the authorities. The fallout from the case included the firing of one executive, suspension of another, and two executives that had retirement benefits taken away. This case clearly shows the power and importance of Tittle VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. It also demonstrates the effect of good mediation as well as what happens when the EEOC gets involved in a case. References Pruitt, Stephen W., The Texaco racial discrimination case and shareholder wealth. (2002) Retrieved from InfoTrac on August 7, 2005. Exhibit 1, Pragmmatic Relief. Retrieved from CourtTV.com on August 7, 2005. Texaco fires executive, Disciplines three others. January 9, 1997, Los Angeles Times. Research Papers on Roberts v. Texaco - Management Research PaperAnalysis of Ebay Expanding into Asia19 Century Society: A Deeply Divided EraMind TravelHip-Hop is ArtCapital PunishmentEffects of Television Violence on ChildrenMarketing of Lifeboy Soap A Unilever ProductTwilight of the UAWDefinition of Export QuotasThe Project Managment Office System

Tuesday, November 5, 2019

Life and Works of Lee Bontecou, Sculptor of the Void

Life and Works of Lee Bontecou, Sculptor of the Void American artist Lee Bontecou (January 15, 1931–present) came of age at the outset of massive change in the United States. She was born in the throes of the Great Depression, came into consciousness during the Second World War, matured into an artist as the Korean War and other conflicts arose, and continued her practice throughout the Cold War, confronting issues like the Space Race and the threat of nuclear powers in her work. Fast Facts: Lee Bontecou Full Name: Lee BontecouOccupation: Artist and sculptor  Born:  January 15, 1931 in Providence, Rhode IslandEducation:  Bradford College and the Art Students League of New YorkKey Accomplishments: Represented the United States in the So Paulo Biennale in 1961, received a solo exhibition at the star-maker Leo Castelli Gallery in 1966, and was featured in numerous group shows. Early Life Growing up, Bontecou split her time between the New England city of Providence, RI and Canada’s Newfoundland, where she spent her summers. She was deeply enthralled by her physical, natural world. In Newfoundland, she was given the freedom to roam, explore the minerality of wet sand on Canada’s Eastern coastline, and escape to her room to draw images of the flora and fauna she encountered on her adventures. Bontecou’s father invented the first all-aluminum canoe, while her mother had worked in armaments factories during World War Two, making wires for use by the army. It is not hard to see both of her parents’ life circumstances as having an effect on the artist’s work, as the machinery, rivets, and junctures that both mother and father would have known in their professional lives made their way into the synthesized mounted sculptures for which Bontecou became known. (Some compare Bontecou’s work to engines, others to guns and cannons, but there is no doubt that there is something of the constructed, man-made world of industry in them.) Art Education While Bontecou certainly showed signs of an artistic inclination in her youth, her formal training did not begin until after college, when she enrolled in the Art Students League in New York. It was there that she discovered her love of sculpture, a medium that  resonated with her artistic sensibility. The work Bontecou produced while at the Art Students League earned her a Fulbright Grant to practice in Rome for two years, where  she lived from 1956-1957. It was in Rome that Bontecou discovered that  by adjusting the oxygen levels on the blowtorch she used in studio, she could create a steady stream of soot with which she could effectively draw as if with charcoal. Unlike charcoal, however, this soot produced an even deeper black color, one by which Bontecou was captivated- whether this fascination was due to memories of playing in the primordial sludge on the beaches during  her youthful summers in Canada or the fact that the color reminded  her of the unknown abyss of the universe is unknown, but both are equally plausible explanations.   With this new tool, Bontecou produced drawings she called â€Å"Worldscapes. These drawings are reminiscent of horizons, but feel as if they encompass the depths of space and the human soul simultaneously in their dark surfaces. Success and Recognition In the 1960s, Lee Bontecou saw much commercial success for her work. She was notable for both her  young age (she was in her 30s) and her gender, as she was one of the few female artists receiving such honors at the time.   Bontecou represented the United States in the So Paulo Biennale in 1961, was given a solo exhibition at the star-maker Leo Castelli Gallery in 1966, and was featured in group shows at the Museum of Modern Art, Corcoran Gallery in Washington, and the Jewish Museum. She was also the subject of numerous  articles  in popular magazines with national readership beyond the bounds of the art world.   Lee Bontecou, Untitled, 1963.   Museum of Modern Art By the  decade’s close, however, Bontecou had retreated from the art world. She began teaching at Brooklyn College in 1971 and would teach there until the 1990s, after which she moved to rural Pennsylvania,  where she still lives and works today. Notable Motifs and Style Bontecou is known for the presence of black holes in her work, often protruding physically into the observer’s space. Standing in front of them, the viewer is overwhelmed with the uncanny sensation of confronting the infinite, the abyss. She achieved this astonishing effect by lining her canvas structures with black velvet, the matte textured surface of which would absorb light, making it difficult to see the back of the work and producing the sensation that it could be, perhaps, without any back at all. The structural part of these works are pieced together scraps of various materials, from the canvas strips she scavenged  from the laundry above which she worked to the abandoned U.S. Mail bag she found. Bontecou would sometimes distance herself from the vertical picture plane and take to the air in her construction of hanging mobiles. Though they depart formally from her earlier works, these hanging sculptures share similar preoccupations with the wall sculptures, as they can be simultaneously seen as constructions of our minutest structures of existence- the forms of interacting molecules- or of cosmic significance, that is, the orbiting of planets and galaxies. Lee Bontecou, Untitled, 1980-1998.   Museum of Modern Art For Bontecou, the strange foreignness of her work was comprehensible when approached from her life circumstances, which is not to say her works are autobiographical, but rather, she worked from what she gathered within herself. As she said of her work: â€Å"This feeling [of freedom I derive from my work] embraces ancient, present, and future worlds; from caves to jet engines, landscapes to outer space, from visible nature to the inner eye, all encompassed in the cohesiveness of my inner world. Legacy Lee Bontecou’s work was born from the complex geopolitical tensions in the world, the advent of a mechanized total war, and the jostling for power that ensued during the Cold War.  While her work evokes munitions factories and the Space Race, subsequent generations- born safe from the threat of Hitler and after the Vietnam draft- can and will stand in front of Bontecou’s abstract works and think of the infinite mystery of which we are all a part. Sources Modern Women: Veronica Roberts on Lee Bontecou. YouTube.  . Published August 2, 2010.  Butler, C. and Schwartz, A. (2010).  Modern Women. New York: Museum of Modern Art, pp. 247-249.  Munro, E. (2000).  Originals: American Women Artists. New York: Da Capo Press.

Sunday, November 3, 2019

Patriarchal Society and Neo-patriarchy Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Patriarchal Society and Neo-patriarchy - Essay Example An example of a patriarchal society and family system is that of the Muslim societies in Arab countries (Sharabi, 1988). Their society is "male dominated, male identified, and male centred." Neo-patriarchy is a modernized form of patriarchy but not modernity (Sharabi, 1992; Tamadonfar, 1994). Sharabi demonstrates this as exemplified by the Arab world. by showing how authentic change was blocked and distorted forms and practices subsequently came to dominate all aspects of social existence and activity--among them militant religious fundamentalism, an ideology symptomatic of neo-patriarchal culture. Elhum Haghighat (2005) says a neo-patriarchal society is a "modernized" patriarchal society going through rapid economic development and modernization as in many oil-producing countries since the mid-1950s. As explained by Sharabi (1988), the process of modernization is a uniquely European phenomenon. Accordingly, only Western societies experienced modernization in a "pure" sense because it happened without interference from other nations. Today's developing countries would not follow the footsteps of Western nations because of their dependent political and economic position and their cultural differences (Sharabi, 1988; Haghighat, 2005). Canada. Canada. The concept of neo-patriarchy greatly helps to understand the case of Canada. Canada is multicultural and therefore may be considered highly neo-patriarchal. In Sharabi's (1988) model, the patriarchy in Canada is cultural in social structure. Understandably, there are dominant and minority groups, as well as contending cultures and religions. Ziba Mir-Hosseini (2005) mentioned Canada as a place where Muslims live as a minority. A spate of media stories about multiculturalism in Canada is nothing new (Fahlman, 1994). During one of their recent elections, there was controversy as to whether multiculturalism should be an "official" government policy with funds attached to encourage minority and ethnic groups. That the policy leads to a fragmented society of too many identities as in Indo-Canadian, British Canadian, and such like was felt by most (Fahlman, 1994). Many argue that if a group wants to keep their cultural traditions, all taxpayers should not fund these, as each group should fund their own activities (Fahlman, 1994) In Europe, Canada is ranked as one of the countries with secular government ranking (Haghighat, 2005). This means the government promotes neither religion nor irreligion. There is hostility based on the perception that "special groups" are getting not only privileges but preferred treatment in Canada. For example, the Ontario employment equity policy has created negative feelings among "older" Canadians towards new minorities (Fahlman, 1994). One look at the National Anti-Racism Council of Canada (NAARC) website ("Canada," 2007) is very much informing on Canada and its conditions. For example, it is inferred that there is racial discrimination in that country. The United Nations is deemed to have required the Canadian Government to eliminate all forms of racial discrimination as shown in its shadow report of July 2004. The report, covering a wide range of issues including immigration, employment and human rights, presents a community perspective on the status of compliance with the Convention by the Canadian government.