Nebraska Conflict between Native Americans and the Whites Research Paper

Nebraska Conflict between Native Americans and the Whites - Research Paper Example Present-day Nebraskans may be surprised at though of Confederate troops defending their state from Indians in the Platte Valley. Nevertheless, former Confederates helped much to defend Nebraska frontier during two crucial years of Indian War. By 1864 it became clear that Nebraska needed some kind of help on its frontier because the available manpower grew increasingly less and less adequate. In summer of that year the Arapaho, Sioux and Cheyenne tribes broke telegraph communications, closed the Overland Route, and drove the whites in horror to the Plains. Col. John M. Chivington’s desperate attack on peaceful Natives at Sand Creek, Colorado, infuriated more hostile Indian tribes. 1865 promised to bring an exodus of the whites from already colonized territories. This notwithstanding frontier defenses was enforced by the regiments of the so-called Galvanized Yankees. Officially named â€Å"United States Volunteers†, these were the regiments composed of the former Confederate soldiers. These former Confederates were willing to fight Indians on the assurance that they would not be ordered to fight their country-fellow-men in the south. In the aftermath of the Civil War, the frontier of Nebraska gained its full development. With the release of the volunteers, the regular units resumed the task of the defending the frontier and the regular soldier became Nebraska’s frontier society’s integral part. Dozens of new military posts were built; to the few outposts previously established in Nebraska were added such up-to-date installations as Fort Sidney and Camp Sargent at North Platte. Army campaigns against the Natives intensified increasingly until the power of Indians on the Plains was utterly destroyed. The third phase of Nebraska’s frontier’s history had begun. The significance of these activities is clear by the rapid social and economic growth of Nebraska as of that territory reached its statehood. There were really plenty of the reasons to worry. To be sure after the Civil War was over Nebraska did really escaped violence in scales usual for the times of trouble like that.

Riordan Manufacturing Financial Ratios Essay Example for Free

Riordan Manufacturing Financial Ratios Essay

Free College Essays - The Use of Time in Antony and Cleopatra :: Antony Cleopatra Essays

  Use of Time in Anthony and Cleopatra  Ã‚     Shakespeare's use of time in Anthony and Cleopatra is seemingly [1] quite erratic.   However, it is important to note that Shakespeare was a playwright and his job was to write interesting drama, not to accurately record details of history.   It therefore seems quite unfair to expect him to use time in a precise manner.   However, to dismiss Shakespeare's use of time as merely a mistake or the by product of his dramatisation of history [2]is to do it injustice.   It could easily be argued that there is a method in it.[3]   To show this we can analyse one chunk of the play, staring at Act 1 Scene 3.   Here is where Anthony finally plucks up the courage to leave Egypt.   In Act 1 Scene 4, we are in Rome and here we have Caesar complaining about Anthony while messengers bring news of how Pompey is doing at sea as well as his allies Menecrates and Menas.     In act 1 Scene 5 we are back in Egypt and Cleopatra is talking about how she misses Anthony.   In Act 2 Scene 2 we are back in Rome and Anthony has finished his journey across the Mediterranean.   Anthony and Caesar get back on speaking terms and decide that to cement their relationship (or to destroy it, depending on your level of cynicism).   Octavia should marry Anthony.   By Act 2 Scene 5the news of Anthony's betrothal has reached Cleopatra in Egypt and though she rants and raves she doesn't actually do anything constructive about it.   In Act 2 Scene 7 we are in Rome again and there is a party where the three triumvirates become drunk to varying degrees .   In Act 3 Scene 2 Octavia and Anthony leave Rome together.   The next scene is in Egypt, where again very little action takes place. In Act 3 Scene 4 the most remarkable act of condensation occurs when eight years of Octavia and Anthony's marriage are meant to have occurred.     By Act 3 Scene 6 we are in Rome and discussing the fact that Anthony has left Octavia in Athens and is back in Egypt.[4]   So we see that in this chunk of the play there have been many things occurring in Rome, while in Egypt it might as well have been one long afternoon for all the deeds and actions that have occurred.

Marriage and family class Essay

There are many different factors of communication in relationships. One of the most often asked questions about communication is how one achieves mutual communication in any type of a relationship. People sometimes feel that communication makes a better marriage. Many people often wonder how to reconnect with their partner after communication has stopped. Body language or non verbal communication plays a major role in communication. These are some the topics that will be discussed in this research paper. Mutual communication is achieved when both partners in a relationship can effectively listen and communicate their feelings with one another. Some say that this is the basis for a healthy long lasting relationship. There are many skills a good listener has to have. Some of which are easier to express than others are. The most important of which is expressing empathy (De Jong). In mutual communication both partners should make eye contact with one another. Usually when one makes eye contact it shows that they are paying attention to what the other person is saying to them at the time. When mutually communicating neither partner should send destructive messages. Destructive messages include but are not limited to ordering, threatening, lecturing, and ridiculing (Lauer). Destructive messages lead to conflict and not resolution. When one person sends a destructive message to the listener the listener more than likely will get discouraged and that will make the situation worse. Ordering and threatening lead to more of a power struggle rather than to effective communication. There are many  different styles of a poor listener. There are people who fake the fact that they are listening when their mind is in another place. For example John is making it seem like he is listening to his wife Julie when in fact he is thinking about his golf game the next day. There are people who interrupt. Interrupting decreases mutual communication. There are also people who can intellectually listen and carry on a conversation. An example of an intellectual listener is Jessica. Jessica has just told her friend Jake about her new teacher at her college. She tells Jake what he taught and the manner in which he taught it. Jessica is clearly giving Jake non verbal cues that should lead him to believe that she has a romantic interest in the new teacher. Jake does not pick up on the cues but criticizes the style that the teacher uses to teach his classes. Some people say that communication makes a better marriage. Everyday conversations increase satisfaction by offering a broad range of topics to be discussed. Usually in a marriage, when everyday conversation increases happiness, and the partners often laugh more together. Everyday conversation also allows the couple to talk about their interests and the happenings of their day in a relaxed and calm setting. When you have good communication in a marriage, conflicts are often calmly discussed. People in a marriage are self disclosed. Self disclosure is defined as the honest revealing of ones self to another. Self disclosure increases intimacy and marital satisfaction (Lahey). Partners who are in a married situation often feel the need to communicate their feelings and ideas to keep their marriage open, happy, and healthy. The main reason for breakup of marriages is a lack of communication (Stark). The cause for the lack of communication most often is that people do not know how to properly communicate with one another especially in a conflict situation where they do not agree on a point. Sometimes it takes someone from a neutral point of view to point this fact out to couples, who are having problems in the relationship. Most often the couple will not realize that they have a problem unless an outside source points it out to them. This could help them or create more conflict with in the relationship. If there is a problem, and there is no communication between the two partners in the relationship the problem will  grow. However, if there is good communication the problem has potential to be resolved and to possibly never reoccur (De Jong). It is also important, to effectively communicate, to maintain the boundaries. Maintaining boundaries is the separation of home life from work life. If you bring your work life into your home life discussions, it is more than likely that you will get distracted from the topic at hand (Stark). Some people bring their work life home it creates jealousy. Jealousy is also a leading cause of breakups in a relationship (Laurer). When people effectively communicate in a married relationship, exchange and role equity are heightened. Exchange equity, for example is the female being the primary bread winner and the male staying home. Role equity, is sharing the chores of the house as well as the duties of the head of the house. Partners in a married relationship may have different opinions about role and exchange equity. Some people feel that the female should stay home and be a traditional house wife. For example the woman would do the dishes, laundry, and take care of the children. Some people feel that both the male and female should be able to go to work and have a career. Effective communication in a marriage about these kinds of feelings can solve many future problems in a rational and timely manner (Lauer). Therefore, if there is ample problem solving and good communication, in a marriage it will generally be a healthier, happier, more satisfying marriage. Body language or non-verbal communication is said to be used between 50-80 percent in a relationship. Women use non-verbal cues or body language more often than males do. Non verbal cues froe example are the position in which a person is sitting, the expression on ones face, or the amount of eye contact that they are making. If you have an open posture, and are leaning in towards the speaker, you are giving off good body language. If you are sitting with your arms crossed, and a closed posture then you are giving off bad body language. Women also tend to read into body language and the meanings behind it more than men (Lauer). Women tend to read body language on a more emotional level than men do. For example women tend to see when someone has a romantic interest in another where as men do not see that. Partners, generally speaking, in a good relationship should be able to read  the other partners body language and know what they want to say without them always having to verbalize their thoughts. Body language can tell your partner what you are thinking without actually having to say it. I decided on this particular topic for a few reasons. The first of which is that I have seen a lot of friends and family who have been in relationships that did not last and wanted to figure out why that was. The second reason was because I thought it could help me in my future relationship(s), and to help me from making the same mistakes that I have in the past or that others have made. Another reason that I chose this topic is because I am also interested in being a counselor and counselors need to be able to have good communication with their clients. Another reason is because counselors need to be able to understand, in some sense, where their clients are coming from and to be able to help in any way possible. One good analogy that I found one day while surfing the internet was this: â€Å"If you were to be in thorough and complete communication with a car and a road, you would certainly have no difficulty driving that car. But if you are in only partial communication with the car and in no communication with the road, it is fairly certain that an accident will occur.† This was said by Ronald Hubbard who is an expert in the field of scientology. He deals mainly with the realm of communication. That quote really inspired me to look into the realm of communication further. I wanted to know what effects that it had on a relationship and / or a marriage. Just an ending piece of advice: The best problem solving agent is honest open and effective problem solving. Works Cited DeJong, Peter. Interviewing for Solutions, 2nd Edition. California: Wadsworth Group, 2002. Hubbard, Ronald. www.standardtraining.com Church of Scientology International: 2000-2002. Lahey, Benjamin B., Psychology: an introduction, 7th Edition. New York: McGraw Hill, 2001. Laurer, Robert H. and Lauer, Jeanette C., Marriage and Family, 4th Edition. Chicago: Brown & Benchmark, 2000. Stark, Rodney. Sociology, 8th Edition. Wadsworth Group, 2001.

Frantz Fanon on “National Culture”

In â€Å"On National Culture,† an essay collected in The Wretched of the Earth, Frantz Fanon foregrounds the following paradox: â€Å"national identity,† while vital to the emergence of a Third World revolution, paradoxically limits such efforts at liberation because it re-inscribes an essentialist, totalizing, fetishized, often middle-class specific understanding of â€Å"nation† rather than encouraging a nuanced articulation of an oppressed people's cultural heterogeneity across class lines.In other words, although the concept of â€Å"nation† unfairly characterizes colonized subjects as historically unified in their primitiveness or exoticness, the term's promise of solidarity and unity often proves helpful nonetheless in their attempts at political amelioration. Fanon encourages a materialist conceptualization of the nation that is based not so much on collective cultural traditions or ancestor-worship as political agency and the collective attempt to dismantle the economic foundations of colonial rule.Colonialism, as Fanon argues, not only physically disarms the colonized subject but robs her of a â€Å"pre-colonial† cultural heritage. And yet, if colonialism in this sense galvanizes the native intellectual to â€Å"renew contact once more with the oldest and most pre-colonial spring of life of their people,† Fanon is careful to point out that these attempts at recovering national continuity throughout history are often contrived and ultimately self-defeating.â€Å"I am ready to concede,† he admits, â€Å"that on the plane of factual being the past existence of an Aztec civilization does not change anything very much in the diet of the Mexican peasant of today. † In the passage below, Fanon explains that â€Å"national identity† only carries meaning insofar as it reflects the combined revolutionary efforts of an oppressed people aiming at collective liberation: A national culture is not a folkl ore, not an abstract populism that believes it can discover the people's true nature.It is not made up of the inert dregs of gratuitous actions, that is to say actions which are less and less attached to the ever-present reality of the people. A national culture is the whole body of efforts made by a people in the sphere of thought to describe, justify, and praise the action through which that people has created itself and keeps itself in existence.

Why Im Afraid of Bees essays

Why Im Afraid of Bees essays The story starts off with Gary Lutz sitting under his big oak tree in his back yard reading his comic books. Then Gary's pain in the butt neighbor, Mr. Andretti, keeps scaring Gary by telling Gary that Mr. Andretti's beehive has gone crazy. Gary falls for it every time because Gary is afraid of bees. All day, Gary reads his comic books because he hates to do anything else. No one likes Gary because they think he's a nerd, because he stinks at sports and looks weird. For instance, one time Gary was lined up to play baseball with the other students and was last in line, and at the end of the game they lost because he struck out. So, one of the big kids came up to him and punched him in the nose, so Gary ended up having to go home with a bloody nose. The next day Gary found an ad while surfing on the web. It said in big bold letters, "Body Swapping. Switch Bodies With Someone Else for One Whole Week." Gary liked that idea because he needed a long vacation from himself. He decided that he would go to the body-swapping place the next day since it was only few blocks away. (What a coincidence) The next day Gary went to the company and asked if he could switch bodies with someone else. The lady at the front desk, named Ms. Karmen, gave a picture to Gary and asked if he wanted to switch bodies with boy his age named Barry. Gary said he would because this guy was really cool looking. Ms. Karmen said she would come to his house the next day. The next day Ms. Karmen showed up on time and set up the equipment. She started the machine. Then something went wrong. Gary turned into a bee! Ms. Karmen didn't know what happened to Gary, so she took her equipment and left. Gary tried to get help, but he couldn't because he was just a bee. Gary found out that one of Mr. Andretti's bees got in the machine. Gary got used to how a bee flies, and then he went outside to get some pollen because he was hungry. After his meal,...

College Science Fair Projects by Topic

College Science Fair Projects by Topic It can be a challenge to come up with a science fair project idea. There is fierce competition to come up with the coolest idea, plus you need a topic that is considered appropriate for your educational level.   A well-designed project at the college level can open the door to future educational and career opportunities, so it pays to put some thought and effort into your topic. A good project will answer a question and test a hypothesis. Planning and Research College students usually have a semester to complete their project, so they have some time to plan and conduct research. The goal at this level is to find an original topic. It doesnt have to be something complicated or time-consuming. Also, appearances count. Aim for professional-quality images and presentation. Handwritten work and drawings wont work as well as a printed report or poster with photographs. Possible ideas, divided by topic, include: Plants and Seeds Does the presence of detergent in water affect plant growth? In what ways? What is the implication regarding water pollution?Does magnetism affect the growth of plants? In what way?Is a seed affected by its size? Do different size seeds have different germination rates? Does seed size affect the growth rate or final size of a plant?How close does a plant have to be to a pesticide for the pesticide to work? What factors influence the effectiveness of a pesticide, such as rain, light or wind? How much can you dilute a pesticide while retaining its effectiveness? How effective are natural pest deterrents?What is the effect of a chemical on a plant? You can look at natural pollutants- such as motor oil or runoff from a busy street- or unusual substances, for example, orange juice or baking soda. Factors that you can measure include rate of plant growth, leaf size, life/death of the plant, the color of the plant, and ability to flower/bear fruit.How does cold storage affect the germinatio n of seeds? Factors you can control include the type of seeds, length of storage and the temperature of storage, light, and humidity. Food How does the shape of an ice cube affect how quickly it melts?Do the same types of mold grow on all types of bread? Are certain preservatives better at inhibiting dangerous molds than others?Is the nutritional content of different brands of a vegetable (such as canned peas) the same? How much variation is there in any given product? Miscellaneous What forms of recycling are available to students? If college students participated in these recycling programs, what would be the effect on cost, the environment?Do consumers prefer bleached paper products or natural-color paper products? What factors affect the preference? Age? Socioeconomic status? Gender?Solve a problem. For example, can you design a better type of street intersection?

Five Great Feature Ideas for Writers

Five Great Feature Ideas for Writers It doesnt matter whether youre a full-time reporter, a part-time blogger, or a freelancer, all writers need a steady source of feature story ideas. Sometimes, a great feature story will land in your lap, but as a seasoned journalist will tell you, relying on chance is no way to build a portfolio of impressive writing. It takes diligence and hard work, writers say. Tips for Writers Always take notes:  You may discover a great subject for a story on your way to the grocery store or meet by chance at a social event. Inspiration can strike at any time. Keep a small notebook or use a note-taking app on your smartphone to jot down ideas as they strike you.Listen: When you do interview someone, remember to let them do most of the talking. Ask questions that cant be answered with a simple yes or no, such as, Tell me how that made you feel?Keep an open mind: Its easy to make snap judgments and assumptions, but a good writer must keep his or her prejudices at bay. Your job is to be objective and learn as much about your subject as possible.Pay attention: How do your sources behave? What does the location look like? What events are occurring? Information like this, as well as direct quotes from a source, will give your reader a fuller appreciation of your writing and subject matter.Accuracy matters: Check all of your data to make sure theyre accurate, triple-check fact s, and make sure youve proofread for spelling, punctuation, and grammatical errors. Remember, it takes a long time to develop a reputation for fairness and accuracy, but just a single mistake to tarnish it. Ideas and Topics Features convey information and facts just like a breaking news story. But a feature is usually much longer and more nuanced than a hard news story, which usually just contains the most relevant or recent factual information. Features allow room for analysis and interpretation, narrative progression, and other elements of rhetorical or creative writing. These five topics are a good place to start if youre looking for feature ideas. Some topics may require days or even weeks of research before you can write a story, while other subjects can be covered in just a few hours.   Profile: Interview a prominent or interesting person in your community and write a profile of them. Possible profile subjects could include the mayor, a judge, a musician or writer, a military veteran, a professor or teacher, or a small business owner.Live-in: Arrange to spend some time at a local homeless shelter, hospital emergency room, nursing home, police precinct or courthouse. Describe the rhythms of the place and the people who work there.News: Talk to community leaders about local issues and trends. Crime, education, taxes, and development are perennial topics of interest to readers, but sports, arts, and cultural events are also newsworthy. Potential sources include city council members, community and grassroots organizations, and local institutions.On-the-spot: Cover an event in your community and write a story on deadline about it. Ideas could include the opening of an art exhibit, a talk by a visiting lecturer or expert, a charity event like a fundraising run, a parade, and so on. Review: Attend the production of a local concert, play or other cultural event and write a review. Or interview the musicians or actors involved and write a story about them. Resources and Further Reading Curtis, Anthony. â€Å"How to Write a Feature Story.† Journalism Skills, University of North Carolina-Pembroke, 2011.â€Å"How to Write a Profile Feature Article.† New York Times Learning Network, High Wire, 1999.Klems, Brian A. â€Å"The Secret to Writing Stronger Feature Articles.† Writers Digest, FW Media, 2 July 2014.

International Management of Starbucks Case Study

International Management of Starbucks - Case Study Example Accommodating fast growth also meant putting in systems to recruit, hire, and train baristas and store managers. (Student Resources:2005) Starbucks' is simply looking for passionate people who love coffee, diverse workforce which reflects their community and who enjoys what they're doing and for whom work is an extension of themselves. 16 Some 80 percent of Starbucks employees were white, 85 percent had some education beyond high school, and the average age was 26. All positions are filled internally about 60-70%. Automated staffing services between hiring managers and staffing teams and Starbucks has a user friendly field sourcing and selection tools in place. Internal movement processes and systems in place and broadly understood. (Student Resources:2005) Campus recruiting are also in place for all major areas of the company and also place intern programs to early identify future talent. Management also relocates benchmarked at or below industry averages. Moreover, cutting edge technology and processes employed for candidate pre-screening because of well defined department metric in place and continually improving. The Starbucks Corporation does not allocate money to its stores for hiring janitors. Every aspect of the cleaning process in Starbucks stores is carried out by the baristas. (Student Resources:2005) The same people who make the drinks are scrubbing the bathroom floors. The baristas of each store work in different shifts throughout the day, usually divided two ones, morning and afternoon, or three morning, afternoon and evening. Each shift is consisted of usually of three or four baristas, the number may change, depending on customer flow of the specific store, who share different duties throughout the shift. Usually, a store is internally divided between floor, where the baristas work and serve customers and the back, usually referred to the storage room, bathrooms. Unless very small, the store usually also has a caf section, where the customers can sit down with their coffee. Starbucks during Global Expansion The global expansion of Starbucks was not an overnight success especially in Asia. There have been numerous challenges that Starbucks have to encounter in penetrating the Asian Market (Culpan, 2002). For example in China and Japan, they had a difficulty in creating a coffee market niche because of the prevailing tea market in China and Japan for over 50 years and yet Starbucks have to create Chinese and Japanese Starbucks to suit the taste of the coffee market in these countries . Starbucks also have to worry of the national based coffee shops in the Asian countries, such as Japan based- Manave Coffee, Taiwan based Dante coffee, Mocha Blends in the Philippines and even Mc Caf of McDonalds. Another difficulty that Starbucks faced during their expansion is that opening a coffee in a country needs different strategic orientations, organizational structures and management process because it does not mean that Starbucks in the United States since it's the father branch, it reflects the same characteristics as the other countries. At the same time, Starbucks also has to evolve its principles from being an international company into a transnational company because they have to undergo a lot of changes in the global business environment (Culpan, 2002).

English essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words - 3

English - Essay Example ifies a loss of contact with realism, as well as an overestimation of a person’s own capabilities or competence, especially when the individual displaying it is in a position of authority or power (Moore 34). To consider whether hubris equals megalomania, it is vital to look into the traits of the two, which this paper found to be extremely similar. Individuals who suffer from these two defects have a clear self-focus in interpersonal relations. They also have a problem in sustaining gratifying relationships. Another trait of the two is that people lack emotional awareness (Moore 67). Other traits include trouble with sympathy, problems differentiating the self from others, reaction to any abuse or imagined abuse, weakness to shame instead of guilt, proud body language and obsequiousness towards individuals who affirm and admire them. People who suffer from these two defects also detest individuals who do not like them. They use other individuals without bearing in mind the cost of doing so. They pretend to be more significant than they, in reality, are. They brag (cleverly but tirelessly) and overstress their achievements, arguing to be "skilled" in a lot of things. Finally, individuals who suffer from these defects do not view or observe the world from the perception of other individuals in that they are mostly denial of gratitude and remorse (Emmons 291). Hubris and megalomania might exist in each and every individual. Critics argue that the two are a unique state from which an individual develops the love or affection object. Shelley (34) argues that healthy hubris or megalomania is a vital element of normal growth. According to Shelley (56), the affection of the parents for their children and their mind-set toward their child could be perceived as a reproduction and revival of their own hubris or megalomania. The child has a power of deliberation; the parents arouse that emotion since, in their children, they observe the things, which they have never

Home Depot CEO Robert Nardelli Severance Pay Case Study

Home Depot CEO Robert Nardelli Severance Pay - Case Study Example On a closer look many factors are behind Robert Nardelli's huge severance package that cannot be traced to Nardelli alone; but there are measures that could be used to done to reign over-the-top CEO compensations such as Nardelli's. According to Alan Sloan, business analyst of Washington Post (Sloan, p. D01), Nardelli is not receiving a severance pay more than he was actually entitled to under the employment contract he signed in 2000 with the board of Home Depot. Ken Langone, one of the founders of Home Depot, continued Sloan was in fact was one of those of people who was involved in negotiating for Nardelli, one of the two GE executives who was one-time candidate to replace famous Jack Welch when he left GE. In the same article, Paul Hodgson, a senior research associate at the Corporate Library which investigates corporate governance said that the trouble started in 2000, and that everything was in Nardelli's contract. ... One of the issues raised by Nardelli's case was how shareholders who are the owners-at-large of a company could be relegated to the sidelines in deciding executive pay packages. This was borne out when Nardelli with an absent board presided alone over the annual stockholders held on May 28, 2006 in which he was criticized for cutting off stockholders' questions over his compensation (NPR, January 6, 2007; Grow par. 8-9). On December 2006, Relational Investors rebuked Home Depot's management and called on a review of the firm's direction and even a possibility of a sale. What came to pass with Nardelli's resignation a month later, with him leaving with a fat severance package even highlighted the need for more power granted to shareholders in deciding what and how much to pay company CEOs. In a report by CNNMoney.com, a proposal filed by one of Home Depot's investors and endorsed by long-time shareholders Laborers' International Union of America (LIUNA) would require the board to get shareholder approval for what was termed as "extraordinary retirement benefits". In other companies such as Sprint, GE, Qwest, Delta and Verizon, investors have filed similar proposals to scale down severance packages according Hodgson in an interview with CNNMoney.com. Home Depot CEO Robert Nardelli Severance Pay Another reason for reducing huge pay packages of huge CEOs is in the interest of wealth equality. National Public Radio reported in an article by Uri Berliner that one of the reasons that the very rich or the top-earning one percent continue to increase their share of the country's wealth (from 8 percent to 16 percent in 2004) was that affluent people own more in stocks. CEOs like

Internet safety & appropriate use of digital technology Essay

Internet safety & appropriate use of digital technology - Essay Example It goes without a word that the societies have become a global village, with the support of the vast technologies that allow people to socialize, share, create, and manipulate available digital information and images across the globe. These substantial benefits in the current digital age have however, propelled numerous irregularities ranging from illegal to unethical conducts, such as unauthorized copying and reproduction of copyrighted works, cyber and computer crimes, irresponsible postings of online contents, invasion of privacy, and unsafe use of the digital information and technology (James et al, 2009). To avoid and prevent all those factors, while promoting effective use of the technology, the society (both adults and the young generation) needs adequate information to guide them on what can and cannot do. Using Copyrighted Work Technology through the use of binary digits has enabled production of replicas of original works of authors. Because the modern computers are very ad vanced, people and especially students find it very easy to locate written materials and copy them in their assignments, or compile them as reports of their work. Very genuinely, some do not have the idea behind the copyright law and the penalties associated; but others have overlooked the legitimacy of the copyright protections, to accomplish their activities at the expense of the others (authors). According to Popek, copyrights protections exist where a work has been created (whether, music, artwork, written books, magazines, films, and software among others) by an author and demonstrates his or her creativity, besides having being recorded and proved to be original; as such, copyright law makes it legal to sue any persons or companies for criminal charges, if they acted against the author’s wish (which could be unauthorized copying, creating replicas, sharing or viewing on other grounds) (2011). All the published works are always protected by the copyright law, and unless the author authorizes certain activities, the people accessing the copyrighted work are bound to use it according to what the law specifies. It therefore becomes important to acknowledge the author when documenting one’s work, if at all there exists a replica of a part or the whole of the copyrighted work. An original work is someone’s intellectual property; hence the society is obliged to respect that and access the services through a legal process, such as buying and using the legal opportunities provided by the author of the work, otherwise if law is enforced, the violations are harshly charged for the crime. The people, especially students and those who deal with documentations need to refer their borrowed ideas and quotations to the authors of the published work, in appreciation and with respect to the law. It saves them from engaging in plagiarism and directs them towards building their own original work with authenticity. Safe use of the technologies is a matter of self-discipline to behave as supposed, whether being observed or not. Knowing that, students with advanced technological devices, such as enabled cameras and internets in their smart phones can avoid cheating and plagiarism, because even available systems can detect copies of published work. Privacy Dealing with information technology

Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words - 174

Essay Example Mrs. Hutchinson screams when men subject her into abusive harassment. She claims that there is no fairness in the manner men handles her. She even experienced stoning by the same men on the side of her head (Skwire and David 27). In this paragraph, Frost Robert in his book â€Å"The Road Not Taken, and Other Poems,† uses the poem to show his hopelessness. He does it by using a pathless wood filled with cobwebs. The pathlessness and face burning and tickling with the cobwebs indicates that the speaker cannot see clearly his future. However, the speaker hopes to come back reenergized and begin a fresh his efforts of life (Frost 16). In this paragraph, Gaunce uses his book â€Å"The Broadview Anthology of Short Fiction, second edition,† to show a common belief. The belief is that the unity of the people in the context of this book originates from a child’s abominable mystery. However, the author also explains that not everyone understands this common phenomenon. The elders in this context instill this belief on children when they are still young at the age between eight and twelve years (Gaunce 229). In edition titled â€Å"American Gothic: An Anthology from Salem Witchcraft to H. P. Lovecraft,† by Crow Charles, the editor brings out the theme of human weakness in nature. The author admits that every individual has his or her weakness and forgiveness is inevitable. The characters here hope that it is still possible for people to be virtuous in their hearts (Crow

Company Law Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words - 4

Company Law - Essay Example This is because ethical policies and codes of practice may only be seen as guidelines and at any given time, a company or a member of the board may do what is more beneficial to them rather than to do what is most ethical. If policies were enough to manage corporate governance, there would be no need for governments and regulatory bodies to make the laws necessary to keep corporate and personal greed in check. For instance, environmental degradation is a very important topic for the world today and governments as well as non governmental organisations are looking at various ways and means by which they can help the environment (Green, 2005). However, corporations often have to be forced through regulations and laws to minimize their impact on the environment (Schulte, 2006). Had a code of practice which encourages social responsibility been enough, no board member of a company could have agreed to a policy of the company which damages the environment regardless of the profits that could be made. It is only when the profits of a company are at risk when it can be made to apply the rules of good corporate governance. For example, Apple Inc. was forced to change the packaging for its famous iPod since Greenpeace objected to the amount of waste material that came with the iPod. Fearing angry customers, Apple altered the packaging to make environmentally friendly (Planque, 2006) When Steve Jobs (the CEO of the company) launched a new version of the product he focused on the subject and said, â€Å"Weve got some new packaging for the new Nano as well. And its 52% less volume. This turns out to be an environmentally great thing. Because it dramatically reduces the amount of fossil fuels we have to spend to move these things around the planet (Planque, 2006, Pg. 1)†. Of course, Apple could have changed the packaging and made it environmentally friendly from the start but only a threat of lost sales moved it to do so.

Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words - 174

Essay Example Mrs. Hutchinson screams when men subject her into abusive harassment. She claims that there is no fairness in the manner men handles her. She even experienced stoning by the same men on the side of her head (Skwire and David 27). In this paragraph, Frost Robert in his book â€Å"The Road Not Taken, and Other Poems,† uses the poem to show his hopelessness. He does it by using a pathless wood filled with cobwebs. The pathlessness and face burning and tickling with the cobwebs indicates that the speaker cannot see clearly his future. However, the speaker hopes to come back reenergized and begin a fresh his efforts of life (Frost 16). In this paragraph, Gaunce uses his book â€Å"The Broadview Anthology of Short Fiction, second edition,† to show a common belief. The belief is that the unity of the people in the context of this book originates from a child’s abominable mystery. However, the author also explains that not everyone understands this common phenomenon. The elders in this context instill this belief on children when they are still young at the age between eight and twelve years (Gaunce 229). In edition titled â€Å"American Gothic: An Anthology from Salem Witchcraft to H. P. Lovecraft,† by Crow Charles, the editor brings out the theme of human weakness in nature. The author admits that every individual has his or her weakness and forgiveness is inevitable. The characters here hope that it is still possible for people to be virtuous in their hearts (Crow

Financial Analysis Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

Financial Analysis - Essay Example Over the past five years the Home Retail Group company has had ups and downs trend in terms of its profits but the gap between the profits is very small, for example the difference in profits between 2012 and 2011 is less than 1% this is an indication that the company maintains its standards of high performance over the period. For example the percentage gross profit for 2010 and 2011 is 45.45%, this was seen in both years, an indication of financial health for the company although not at a very good standards, but it shows that the HRG Company is capable of paying for the operational expenses without financial constraints. There is an increase in percentage of profit margin from 0.11%to 0.055% in the year 2011 and 2012 respectively this an indication that sales are increasingly contributing to the bottom line of the company. This measures how effectively a companys assets are being used to generate profits. It is majorly considered when evaluating the success of a business. A higher number reflects a well managed company with a healthy return on assets. The percent rate of return on assets for Home Retail Group is 0.022% in 2012 although there is a slight increase, there is still a need for improvement in this area to ensure the company can remain competitive and continue to operate successfully. This shows the rate of return on equity capital employed and also measures the ability of a companys management to realize an adequate return on the capital invested by the owners in a company. A higher number is preferred for this ratio. The percent rate of return on equity for Home Retail Group is 0.055% in 2012 and 0.0275% in 2010 there is a slight increase an indication that the management may not be effectively managing the profits earned based on the owners investment in the company. The management should utilize budgets to track expenses on a regular basis, and identify those that are out of line. Assign

Linguistics and Change Essay Example for Free

Linguistics and Change Essay It is very easy to demonstrate to English speakers that languages change over time. (Holmes, 210) Language is always changing just because of the time, the people, the gender, the age, the social class, etc. It is very normal to see even in a decade that language has change in some ways, it always maintain the original background but as it goes changing it may be that you wont recognize it that much. Like an example that is mentioned by Holmes, it says that the k of knit and knife wasnt silent in the fifteenth century. So it can be seen how important the matter of time is in language change. Another example given by Holmes is about the meaning of the words like once nice meant ‘precise, and before that it meant ‘fastidious and earlier still it meant ‘ignorant. Language varies in three ways: -overtime -in physical space -socially Which are the major ways that variation occurs in language. We can understand by variation that is the way language changes, a general term, general changes. And by change we can understand that is when a word, the pronunciation, etc. is modified overtime. In fewer words is the modification of a special concept. So a language change has its origins in variation (Holmes, 212) its understood that when a new form is spread it means that the change its being done. And if at the end the new form is now used instead of the old one it means it has already completed the change. Thats called ‘fait accompli. The changes spread depending on the social factors such as gender, status, age, region, etc. Linguistic changes infiltrate groups from the speech of people on the margins between social or regional groups via the ‘middle people who have contact in more than one group (Holmes 218) this is called change from group to group, and it determines that the middle class has much more contact than for example the high with the low, but as an intermediate the changes can be made in all groups, specially if it comes from the high and it goes to the low. Theres also the change from style to style that is about the formal and casual speech. It goes from a style to another and from an individual to another and from a social group to another. And the change  word to word, sound changes spread through different words one by one. (Holmes, 222) this is known as lexical diffusion and it means it begins in one word and then goes further with similar phonetic sound words. But its not all at the same time. As a conclusion I might say that I think language change is a complex concept because the change involves a lot of factors that make it happen. But at the end it continues happening and wont stop. Thats why the older people barely understand the new changes, but the ones that understand the new ones, will have a hard time with the future ones. Bibliography Holmes, Janet. AN INTRODUCTION TO SOCIOLINGUISTICS. New York: Longman, 1992.

Impact of the Discovery of Homo Floresiensis

Impact of the Discovery of Homo Floresiensis The discovery of Homo Floresiensis has profound implications for what it means to be human; it raises questions about the uniqueness of human lineage which is the foundation of our society and our religions. The three great problems for nineteenth century ethnology and prehistory were identified by Latham in Man and his Migrations (1851) as: the unity or non-unity of the human species; its antiquity; and its geographical origin. This shortlist has formed the basis for research into human origins ever since. The ambiguity surrounding each question has been reduced to every generation’s satisfaction, then thrown open again as changes in opinion about the world and its people have led to revisions. This cyclical process has provided the spur to fieldwork and the development of new techniques of classification, analysis and dating. Latham was writing at an interesting time in scientific progress of thought, eight years before the Origin of Species was published. This was the foundation text for the biogeography of Darwin and Wallace which accounted for the distribution of life on the plant. The importance of these studies was their contribution to the scientific investigation of variation via the principle of natural selection. Individuals were the units under selection with the evolutionary results measured by their differential reproductive contribution to the next generation. The notion of a cradle for mankind, a discrete geographical centre for human origins, is an ancient idea. The Garden of Eden is the best known example. Adam and Eve might be replaced, as they were in the last century, but the idea of an ancestral homeland continued. The study of human origins now starts from a very different set of assumptions than it did when Latham penned his three questions. It is also extremely well-informed about process and patterns in the data compared to 150 years ago. The celebration of progress has fallen from the agenda. Living peoples are no longer regarded as living representatives of a past which the Western world once possessed.   But for all these apparently fundamental changes the questions on the agenda remain the same. Why should the study of human evolution be restricted, because of the search for cradles, to some continents. What it means to be human The fascination with humanity’s African origins, singular or otherwise, remains unabated. Great strides in understanding the development of modern human beings are currently being taken at the very southern tip of Africa. While much of the press attention over the past few decades has been on the scholarly debate on whether humans evolved once in Africa, universally known as the Out of Africa theory, or several times all over the world, the multiregional hypothesis, a quiet revolution has occurred centred on what it means to be human (Stringer and Gamble, 1993). Within twentieth century archaeology and palaeontology, probably since the discovery of the Lascaux Caves in France, archaeologists have continually believed that, while anatomically modern Homo sapiens evolved somewhere between 100,000-150,000 years ago, humans didnt actually develop modern behaviours and thought processes until around 50,000-40,000 years ago (Wood, 1992). This event, known in some scientific circles as the creative explosion, was announced by what researchers saw as an abrupt blossoming of symbolic thought; the ability to identify and create representations of entities. Thus, according to the creative explosion theory, H. sapiens displayed a recognisable intelligence equivalent to other hominids of the time, identifiable by the cave artwork at Lascaux. Further evidence of the initiation of modern human behaviour is alleged to include fishing, the manufacture of bone tools, and the use of decoration. Following the initial interest in Africa during the early decades of the twentieth century, the majority of archaeological research moved to Europe. The overwhelming concentration on the visible prehistory of Europe, including both cave and portative artwork, resulted in a deficit of research into human origins in Africa. The research of the past forty years has indeed been remarkable in yielding up a great many fossil and cultural remains from a broad range of African environments. After a period of relative neglect, however, increasing attention was being given to the biological and behavioural changes that led to the evolution of H. sapiens, the last major even in human evolution.   The triumph of archaeological research into the earliest prehistory of Africa was trumpeted by the archaeologist Desmond Clark in the Huxley Memorial Lecture of 1974. Titles â€Å"Africa in prehistory: peripheral or paramount?† it pointed to the overwhelming evidence from Africa for the origi n of hominids, which overthrew the previous view â€Å"that the history of Europe is emphatically the prehistory of humanity.† (Clark,1975). Eventually, evidence of an earlier flourishing of the creative mind began to appear, south of the Zambezi River, and dated to the Mesolithic, the earliest date approximating 70,000 years ago. Similar artefact assemblages known as Howiesons Poort and Still Bay had been found at sites such as the Klasies River Caves, Boomplaas, and Die Kelders Cave I in South Africa (Grine et al., 2000). These sites included sophisticated bone tools, backed blades, a careful selection of raw material for stone tools and the use of a punch technique; however, most of these were controversial in one respect or another, until the discovery of Blombos Cave. Research into the Blombos Cave assemblages have been undertaken since 1991, and artefacts identified have include sophisticated bone and stone tools, fish bones, and an abundance of used ochre (Leakey and Lewin, 1993). Ochre has no known economic function, and it is virtually universally accepted as a source of colour for ceremonial, decorative purposes. The Blombos Cave layers containing used ochre are dated 70,000 to 80,000 years BP, and, in 2004, a cluster of deliberately perforated and red-stained shell beads dating to the Mesolithic was found (Aiello and Dean, 1990). Without any obvious practical purpose these artefacts are currently interpreted as personal ornaments or jewellery, possibly belonging to the occupants of Blombos. The most persuasive interpretation of these finds, and numerous others throughout Africa, within the parameters imposed by previous and current discoveries and research, is that the growth of the human symbolic thought was a slow process that continued t hroughout the Mesolithic in Africa. Symbolism, and its deliberate representation, is a phenomenon previously unidentifiable in any extant species other than H. sapiens, despite the genetic and predominantly behavioural similarity between humans and other primates, and can therefore be interpreted as a distinctly human trait (Spencer, 1876-96). Symbolism, in all its forms, however has not always been strictly the prerogative of H. sapiens.   Many investigators of Neanderthal culture believe that H. neanderthalensis was the earliest species of hominid to ritually bury their dead, and important evidence to support this statement originates from Shanidar Cave, located in the Zagros Mountains of northern Iraq (Solecki, 1971). Between 1951 and 1960, excavations in and around the mouth of the cave were undertaken, allowing the recovery of a range of Mousterian tools, and the analysis of eight burials, relating to the remains of seven adults and one child. While four of these individuals appear to have been killed by rockfalls, four others may have been deliberately buried (Gargett, 1989). Soil samples taken around one particular burial, known as Shanidar IV, revealed the presence of pollen grains and small amounts of vegetable matter. While there was very little pollen in most of the soil samples taken around the skeleton, two samples from the burial itself contained a large number of pollen grains representing a total of 28 plant species (Leakey and Lewin, 1993). This evidence was used to support the hypothesis that more than 50,000 years ago the body was deliberately and ritualistically buried on a bed of woody branches and flowers sometime during the months of May through July, during the blooming season for the plant species. Excavations of the cave over the next decade yielded cultural data as well as skeletal remains of Middle Palaeolithic Neanderthals and Proto-Neolithic modern humans, representing two periods renowned for the scarcity of such material (Solecki, 1975). According to subsequent research, the Neanderthal and Proto-Neolithic people of Shanidar Cave potentially followed culturally-defined methods for burying their dead in a base camp, possibly increasing the groups ties to a traditional home site. They practiced both primary burial (interment of a mostly intact body shortly after death) and secondary burial (final interment of disarrayed or isolated bones or of a body that had undergone some other burial process as a first stage) (Aiello and Dean, 1990). Offerings placed in the grave included bead ornaments and assumed favoured personal objects, but no obvious symbols of rank. The variety of materials included reveals an extensive long-distance exchange trade, and the mortuary practices are comparable to those of other contemporary Near Eastern cultures (Leakey and Lewin, 1993; Solecki et al., 2004). The material culture of the cave and the surrounding Zagros area is characterized by chipped stone industry and such innovations as a variety of ground stone tools, worked bone tools and abundant personal ornaments. These suggest growing cultural richness and elaboration, a semi-sedentary lifestyle and a mixed subsistence strategy based both on wild species of plants and animals and early domesticates (Gargett, 1989). Though the interpretation of deliberate and ritualistic H. neanderthalensis burials remains contentious, with opponents suggesting the presence of flower pollen within the grave is a result not of deliberate adornment of the corpse but of the accidental deposition of flower and plant matter from burrowing rodents, until the theory of ritualistic burial is conclusively disproved it remains a highly persuasive hypothesis for cross-species traits of ‘humanity’. Although much has been made of the Neanderthals burial of their dead, their burials were less elaborate than those of anatomically modern humans. The interpretation of the Shanidar IV burials as including flowers, and therefore being a form of ritual burial, potentially evidence for the acknowledgement of a theoretical afterlife, has been questioned (Sommer, 1999). In some cases Neanderthal burials include grave goods such as bison and aurochs bones, tools, and the pigment ochre. Neanderthals performed a sophisticat ed set of tasks normally associated with humans alone. For example, they constructed complex shelters, controlled fire, and skinned animals. Particularly intriguing is a hollowed-out bear femur with four holes in the diatonic scale deliberately bored into it. Estimated to date at approximately 43,ooo up to 82,ooo years old, this ‘flute’ was found in western Slovenia in 1995 near a Mousterian Era hearth used by Neanderthals. Its significance is still a matter of dispute, however, its perfect fit to bother modern and antique diatonic scales implies the deliberate manufacturing of a musical note making device (Aiello and Dean, 1990). Music beyond the percussive, in addition to ritual and symbolism, is another previously assumed trait of H. sapiens alone, and the Slovenian flute suggests a rethink of what it means to be human may be required. Similarly, the concept of prolonged care of community individuals is a trait usually attributed to the H. sapiens species. While other species present evidence of a rudimentary form of care, the deliberate attention paid to the prolonging of life of an individual with no primitive value to a community, such as providing nutrition to an elderly community member for an extended period of time, is peculiarity associated primarily with H. sapiens. It has been previously believed that this trait, in addition to being singular to the human race, can be interpreted as a definition of what it means to be human. However, similar to the evidence presented above, there has been strongly influential evidence of ‘care in the community’ from Neanderthal societies. Following a 6 year excavation season beginning in 1899, the site of the Krapina caves, Republic of Croatia, yielded a number of osteological Neanderthal specimens. Radiographs undertaken in 1997 indicated a number of surpris ing conclusions. While the overall picture of Neanderthal health, based on the radiographs, was impressive, not all the specimens showed perfect health. Archaeologists were able to document one of the earliest benign bone tumours ever discovered and identified, and one individual may have had a surgical amputation of his hand (Leakey and Lewin, 1993). In addition, several individuals had examples of osteoarthritis ranging in severity, and it is suggested that the extended survival of these individuals following surgery or the onset of debilitating arthropathies indicates a sophisticated level of care from the healthy population. Humans are a striking anomaly in the natural world. While we are similar to other mammals in many ways, our behaviour sets us apart. Our unparalleled ability to adapt has allowed us to occupy virtually every habitat on earth using an incredible variety of tools and subsistence techniques. Our societies are larger, more complex, and more cooperative than any other mammals. Evolutionists, and scientists from other fields of study, argue that only a Darwinian theory of cultural evolution can explain these unique characteristics. The twentieth century is offering a radical interpretation of human evolution, arguing that Homo sapiens ecological dominance and singular social systems stem from a psychology uniquely adapted to create complex culture. Richerson and Boyd (2004) illustrate that culture is neither superorganic nor the handmaiden of the genes. Rather, it is essential to human adaptation, as much a part of human biology as bipedal locomotion. Drawing on work in the fields of anthropology, political science, sociology, and economics, Richerson and Boyd (2004) convincingly attest that culture and biology are inextricably linked, and their interaction yields a richer understanding of human nature. Discovery of Homo floresiensis Currently, it is widely accepted that only one hominid genus, Homo, was present in Pleistocene Asia, represented by two species, Homo erectus and Homo sapiens. Both species are characterized by greater brain size, increased body height and smaller teeth relative to the Pliocene Australopithecus genus present in Africa (Brown et al., 2004). But it was the most spectacular fossil find of a generation that has marked twentieth century studies into human evolution. The discovery that a mysterious and apparently ingenious human species may have shared the planet with our own less than 15,000 years ago captured the imagination of palaeontologists and public alike. Excavations at Liang Bua, a large limestone cave on the island of Flores in eastern Indonesia, have yielded evidence for a population of tiny hominids, sufficiently distinct anatomically to be assigned to a new species, Homo floresiensis (Morwood et al., 2004). An excavation team under the leadership of Australian and Indonesian scientists have unearthed the remains of eight human beings of relatively restricted stature and reduced brain volume, comparative to previously understood parameters for anatomically modern humans. In recognition of the combination of primitive and derived features, and their subsequently assumed status as a species distinct from Homo sapiens, the fossils were ascribed the name Homo floresiensis (Flores Man) after the island on which they were discovered. One skeleton, estimated to be that of a woman in her 30s and calculated to be approximately 18,000 years old, was only 1 metre tall, and the endocranial volume of the skeleton in question was a mere 380 cc, significant as it may be regarded as small even for a chimpanzee (Beals et al., 1984) and equal to the smallest-known australopithecines (Brown, et al., 2004). Investigations into the specimens, estimated to belong to at least eight individuals, show that H. floresiensis inhabited the cave at Liang Bua for an extended period of time ranging between 95,000 and 12,000 years ago. The common opinion of the archaeologists responsible for examining the tools and animal bones unearthed in the cave is that H. floresiensis individuals exhibited complex behaviour requiring the capacity for speech, and can therefore be regarded as social and intelligent human beings with creative ability. Stones carved and sharpened for particular purposes, and animal bones discovered in the cave, indicate t hat these people were successful hunters, capable of catching animals larger than themselves, and associated deposits contain stone artefacts and animal remains, including Komodo dragon and an endemic, dwarfed species of Stegodon. There has been some speculation that the stone tools found with it were actually made by Homo sapiens, mainly because it is hard to believe a creature with such a small brain could make such sophisticated stone tools. There is no other evidence in support of this, however, and if it were not for the small brain size, there would be no hesitation about assuming floresiensis made the tools because of the close association between the tools and the fossils. The same tools are found through the entire deposit (from 90,000 to 13,000 years ago) and, interestingly, they are not like any stone tools made by Homo erectus (Kaifu et al., 2005). The finds comprise the cranial and some post-cranial remains of one individual, as well as a premolar from another individual in older deposits. Dating by radiocarbon (C14), luminescence, uranium-series and electron spin resonance (ESR) methods indicates that H. floresiensis existed from before 38,000 years ago (kyr) until at least 18  kyr (reference). It is alleged, with much research still yet to be undertaken, that H. floresiensis originated from an early dispersal of Homo erectus, including specimens referred to as Homo ergaster and Homo georgicus, that reached Flores, and then survived on this island refuge until relatively recently. The most likely explanation for its existence on Flores is long-term isolation, with subsequent endemic dwarfing. H. floresiensis overlapped significantly in time with Homo sapiens in the region, however, interactions between the two species currently remain unknown. Importantly, H. floresiensis shows that the genus Homo is morphologically more va ried and flexible in its adaptive responses than previously thought (reference). The finds further demonstrate that H. floresiensis was not simply an aberrant or pathological individual, thereby interpretable as anomalous and inconsequential within the field of human evolution, but is representative of a long-term population that was present on the island for approximately 80,000 years. According to the dwarfism scenario, it is assumed that the H. floresiensis line descended from Homo erectus. The justification for that belief, however, is currently experiencing much debate within the archaeological academic arena, and relies on the comparison between tool assemblages uncovered from the Liang Bua cave, and thus associated with H. floresiensis, and a series of assemblages reported by Morwood in 1998, and dating to approximately 800,000 BP (Morwood et al., 1998). The similarities between these assemblages resulted in the assumption that H. floresiensis was a descendent of the manufacturer of the older collection of tools, H. erectus. H. floresiensis facial anatomy also generally resembles that of H. erectus, and, in addition, the East Asia region in which the island lies is one of the regions where H. erectus was extant for a long period. One article published in Science journal in 1996 listed evidence that H. erectus had survived on Java, an Indonesian island like Fl ores, until as recently as 27,000 years ago. (Swisher et al., 1996) Implications: Society, religion and politics Despite an academic and generic fascination with the process of human evolution, the creationist arguments in disagreement with evolutionary research remain influential. According to many creationist proponents, the reason why scientists have elected to give the fossils in question the name H. floresiensis is that researchers, who have accepted the idea that humans initially developed through evolution, cannot afford to imply a hypothesis that does not accord with the evolutionary ‘myth’ they have presented. Evolutionists are accused of naming ‘old human races’ by a methodology that relies on exaggerated interpretation of the variations presented between hominids, and in comparison with anatomically modern man, and thus results the declaration of the fossils as a new species. According to current creationist advocates, the H. floresiensis fossils are also a product of this methodology, and their description as a new species rests solely on evolutionist †˜preconceptions’. Predominant creationists have gone further to attest that the description of H. floresiensis as a new human species provides no support at all for the theory of evolution, but, on the contrary, reveals how forced the claims regarding it actually are (reference). The concept of the biological species is used in the present day for organisms included in the same category that are able to mate and successfully produce healthy offspring. This definition is based on mutual reproducibility as setting out the boundary criterion between species. According to creationist proponents, however, there is no means of knowing, simply by analysing and categorising the fossilised bones of organisms that lived in the past, which were able to reproduce with which. Classification based on degrees of similarities between bones, and the variations exhibited among these, may not reveal scientifically definite conclusions as some species, such as the dog, exhibit wide variation, others, such as the cheetah, are known to exhibit only narrow variation. Accordingly, when fossils belonging to extinct species are discovered, creationists attest, the variation observed may stem from one of two reasons. This variation either belongs to a species exhibiting wide variation or to a few separate species exhibiting narrow variation, yet there is no way of knowing which of the two actually applies. Indeed, Alan Walker, palaeoanthropologist and evolutionist, admits this fact by claiming that one cannot know whether or not a fossil is representative of the community to which it belongs. He further states that one cannot know whether it comes from one of the ends of the species range, or from somewhere in the middle (Locke, 1999). Evolutionists define the H. floresiensis fossils as a separate species, and regard its small endocranial volume and short skeleton as characteristics of that species. However, creationists contest this by asserting that individuals may not carry all the features in the population gene pool, and, therefore, the features exhibited by individuals may not be those generally exhibited in a given population. Therefore, the smaller the quantity of fossils analysed the greater the risk of error in assuming that their features are those of the general population. Locke (1999) has elucidated this with a simple analogy: if a palaeoanthropologist of the future discovers bones belonging to a professional basketball player, then twenty-first century man may well seem to have been a giant species. He further stated that if the skeleton belongs to a jockey, on the other hand, then humans will seem to have been short and lightweight bipeds (Locke, 1999). According to creationists, therefore, the defi nition of H. floresiensis as a separate species based on its small brain volume and short skeleton, and the assumption that all individuals possessed those same features, is a mistake, and that these fossils may well be regarded as variations seen in old human races living at that time. In relative support for the creationist viewpoint, the real surprise for evolutionists came from learning that a hominid with such a small brain volume lived not millions of years ago but only 18,000 years BP. Chris Stringer, from Londons Natural History Museum, admits this surprise to the archaeological community; that the very existence of a creature with a brain the size of a chimpanzees, but apparently a tool-maker and hunter, and perhaps descended from the worlds first mariners, illustrates how little is currently known about human evolution (Wood, 1992). Peter Brown, one of the leaders of the research team at Liang Bua, describes the bewilderment within academic circles as a result of the cranial measurements, and admits that H. floresiensis is totally incompatible with evolutionary accounts; that small stature is easy to accommodate within the evolutionary theories, but small brain size is a bigger problem to account for. According to the creationist theory advocates, the evol utionists own statements reflect the ‘heavy blow’ the fossil in question has dealt to the ‘illusory’ scenario of human evolution (Wood, 1992). The confusion with regards to the interpretations of H. floresiensis is not restricted to the disparities in hypotheses between evolutionists and creationists. Scientists have been unravelling the mysteries of when early hominids first left Africa, where they went, how many hominid species there were, and how they relate to modern humans, for more than a century. The H. erectus skull recently found in Indonesia adds a valuable piece to the fossil record, but scientists differ about where it fits in the human family tree. One particular specimen of cranium, known as Sambungmacan 4 (Sm 4), was found in the Sambungmacan district of central Java, Indonesia. It is that of a middle-aged or slightly younger male Homo erectus who had probably suffered and recovered from head wounds. Two partial skulls and the fragment of a tibia had previously been discovered in the area. It is assumed that H. erectus, and perhaps other early hominid species, began leaving Africa approximately 2 million year s ago, and fossil remains have been found in Asia, the Middle East, and Europe, indicating a widespread global distribution of individuals and communities. In addition to the media-friendly discovery of H. floresiensis, given the moniker of â€Å"The Hobbit† by the press, Indonesia, an island nation in southeast Asia, is the site of some of the earliest Homo erectus remains yet found. The relatively abundant fossil material provides scientists with an opportunity to study the evolution of the species and how it relates to modern humans. Anthropologists from the National Science Museum in Tokyo, analyzed the Sm 4 skull using digital visualization techniques, and compared it with other skulls found in Java. It is argued that morphological characteristics of early H. erectus in Java, represented by fossil finds from Trinil/Sangiran, more closely resemble those of modern humans (Baba et al., 2003). Fossil material from Ngandong, which has been dated to anywhere between 25,000 to 50,000 years old, suggests that Java H. erectus had gone off on an evolutionary tangent of its own, developing distinct features that are not shared by modern humans. It is concluded by this research that Javanese populations became progressively more isolated from other Asian H. erectus populations, and made minimal contributions to the ancestry of modern humans (Kaifu et al., 2005). At one time scientists considered it possible that modern humans were the direct descendants of Asian Homo erectus. That idea has been discarded by many scientists who now think that while African H. erectus may be ancestral to H. sapiens, Asian H. erectus was an evolutionary dead end, similar to earlier theories regarding H. neanderthalensis, rather than the immediate precursor to modern humans (Kaifu et al., 2005). However, debate continues and other specialists believe that the African version of H. erectus is dissimilar enough to belong in a separate species category called Homo ergaster. The geological complexity of the Indonesian islands makes precise dating of the fossil material difficult and controversial. Fossils found at Trinil and Sangiran range in age from approximately 1.8 million years old to maybe as young as 780,000 years old (Swisher et al., 1996). Comparatively, fossils found at Ngandong have been dated at approximately 50,000 years old. The Sm 4 specimen is believ ed to fit somewhere between these two groups in age, and therefore may be contemporary with H. sapiens.   The uncertainty of Sm 4s age lies in part with current disagreement as to whether or not all fossils from Sambungmacan represent a single fauna or are composites being derived from various age strata. Whether there is enough difference between the early fossils and the later fossils that they should be considered two separate species or a sub-species is also controversial. Based on variations in skull shape, and a lack of diversity among Javanese populations living 25,000 to 50,000 years ago, it has been concluded that Sm 4 is a transitional form, an evolutionary step taking the later Javanese populations farther away from classical Homo erectus remains found at Trinil and Sangiran (Baba et al., 2003). However, this conclusions is debated on the basis that the larger brain sizes of later materials, fossils dated at 25,000 to 50,000 years ago, are different enough that they sho uld be considered a different species or at least sub-species. Sm 4 phenotypically appears to be a lot of the other material found in Indonesia. The material is morphologically very consistent, and shows continuity within Indonesian Homo erectus. There are some features, particularly around the jaw joint that may be unique to the Ngandong fossils, however it is not clear whether the features are taxonomically significant or useful as species indicators (Baba et al., 2003).The disparities in the skulls seen in Indonesia may be a function of normal variability in any species, illustrated particularly well when considering the variations in height between ‘normal’ humans and those suffering from achondroplasia; both remain within the species of H. sapiens, however difference in stature can be remarkable. The claim by Desmond Morris, that the existence of â€Å"The Hobbit†, or H. floresiensis should destroy religion (Tattersall, 1986), is one which has been made before. Indeed, Richard Dawkins, an evolutionary biologist, still cannot understand why religion survived Darwin (Tattersall, 1986). Yet as science progresses, despite the decline of allegiance to traditional Christian churches in Western Europe, religion continues to grow world-wide in many different forms. Contemporary science, far from solving every question, often highlights the big questions which are central to human existence. This is the case with the discovery of LB1, the 18,000-year-old specimen of the new species Homo floresiensis. The find of this so-called Hobbit on Flores Island excites many academics within many fields, not least archaeology and theology, as it poses the unresolved question of what it means to be human. LB1 becomes part of this contemporary question alongside developments in science, su

Its Time for More Bible and Less Welfare Essay -- Argumentative Persu

It's Time for More Bible and Less Welfare      Ã‚   Government has considered and tried many plans for dealing with poverty in the United States, from all different points of view-welfare, workfare, charities, economic interference, and the like. There is one method, however, which has fallen out of popularity in this age. This is the biblical method.    What God says about the poor The Christian, or biblical, view of poverty is liberal in some respects and conservative in others. For example, Paul gives this rule to the early church: "If a man will not work, he shall not eat" (2 Thessalonians 3:10). At the same time, the leaders of the church placed great importance on providing food for the poor, and James says that pure and faultless religion is to "look after orphans and widows in their distress" (James 1:27). While the early church cared for the poor as a community, pooling together their resources and assigning deacons to oversee the distribution of food to the poor (Acts 6:1-6), in the Old Testament the welfare of the poor was not the responsibility of the church or any form of government, but of individuals: "There will always be poor people in the land. Therefore I command you to be openhanded toward your brothers and toward the poor and needy in your land" (Deuteronomy 15:11). Paul's rule, if a man will not work he shall not eat, is balance d by the God-given rights of the poor (Psalm 82:3). Proverbs indicates that poverty is often the result of laziness or foolishness (Proverbs 6:10-11, 10:4), yet makes it clear that the happiest people may be poor through no fault of their own (Proverbs 13:7, 15:17, 19:1). Proverbs also declares it a virtue to help the poor: "He who is kind to the poor l... ...inated while this world lasts. However, by following the guidelines in the Bible to establish a modern-day system of gleaning, we can do something about poverty. The gleaning system, although it is almost completely opposite of what U.S. policy has been for many years, is neither impossible nor improbable. Before government welfare was instituted, the poor relied on the charity of individuals and churches. A nationwide gleaning program, bringing back the values of charity and neighborliness that our modern society seems to have lost, would be more successful than welfare can ever be in this country.    Works Cited: Osborne, David and Gaebler, Ted (1993). Reinventing Government: How the Entrepreneurial Spirit is Transforming America (New York: Penguin Books).    The Holy Bible, New English Translation. Biblical Studies Press. 16 Feb. 2002. .

Thomas Hobbes Essay

The philosophy of Thomas Hobbes, especially that of his major work, Leviathan, is designed to understand the motives of human nature and, from these, seek the surest way to civil peace. This is one of the earliest examples of a â€Å"scientific† method of understanding political science in that the commonwealth was to be built on a handful of axioms, all deriving from what Hobbes considered facts of human nature (cf. Matthews, 118). The nature of these axioms leading to civil peace is the purpose of this present essay. The primary understanding of human nature that, if applied properly, would lead to social peace is that human beings desire power. This is nearly identical to Machiavelli’s approach to politics. It seems that in both Hobbes and Machiavelli, human beings desire power, and hence, develop â€Å"moral† systems that justify the present holding or seeking of power (Morgan, 528-530, and 581-582). But the nature of this axiom is that people are naturally programmed to seek power and no matter of moral suasion will stop this. Hobbes wants to begin from a single concept and build upon it rather than attempt to suppress it, since any attempt at suppression itself proves the axiom correct. If human nature is taken seriously rather than covered over with metaphysical theories, then peace might be the consequent: human beings must be taken as they are, not as one might want them to be. If the above axiom is true, that is, people desire power, than many other axioms follow from it. The first axiom that follows from the first is that reason is a slave to the passions (Morgan, 641). Reason, in other words, cannot provide ends, but merely means, and significantly, justifications after the fact. Appealing to reason is hence, not appropriate with such a view of humanity, and only the appeal to passion will work here. Passion is nothing that can be suppressed, but it can be controlled. Passion is the engine of human nature in a similar sense that hunks of matter in a vacuum will continue in constant morion unless acted upon by another force. This is an exact parallel to Hobbes here, and the only opposing force to passionate human motion is other human beings, and hence, the problem: humans are constantly, following from this, in a state of war. What makes this state of war particularly harsh is that the abilities of human beings as individuals, or organizing into groups, are roughly equal (Morgan, 591). This means that the war of all against all will continue constantly, with no clear winner. Any â€Å"winner† will be only a temporary winner, and will soon be dethroned by another faction. The fact of equality is not something here taken from observation, but from a deduction from â€Å"atomic† theory (or at least, the theories of matter current at the time), where atoms, in their basic structure, are all the same. Matter is matter, energy is energy, humans are humans. From the above, it follows that human beings are determined. Free will, to an extent, is rejected in Hobbes. For him, liberty is the ability to do what one wills without outside opposition (Morgan, 621). This is consistent with determinism in that the will must have a reason, that is, a cause, for having the desire it has and bringing it to fruition. Hence, man is determined, but since he does what he wants, he is thus free. This just underscores the fact that reason is impotent to being about peace, only the passions can be appealed to in that the constant clashing of wills and the frustration of one’s freedom as Hobbes describes it is constant warfare. From the above, Hobbes deduces that humanity is egocentric, power hungry and willful, and as a result, without some countervailing power, is in a constant state of warfare. The nature of this countervailing power is the real centerpiece of the Leviathan. The general point is that if humanity can be reduced to a few, simple, clear axioms that follow logically from one another, as any good scientific theory should do, then the state, the countervailing power that keeps these human â€Å"atoms† in line relative to one another, should also be simple, unified and follow logically from the axioms about human nature. Hence, Hobbes is seeking to be completely scientific and a â€Å"realist† about both humanity and the state that they will live under in order to reach peace. At this point in the logical progression, it seems impossible to live in a state of peace. Human beings are depicted as lustful, egocentric and equal beings constantly in a state of motion and hence, clashing with all other peoples, essentially hunks of matter in motion, connected to an almost arbitrary engine of passion. But it is the Leviathan that will bring this peace, and it is passion that it will use to justify itself and bring peace to the commonwealth. Hobbes describes humanity prior to all law and custom, that is, the â€Å"law of nature. † The primary motive force of humanity is power, considered generally. But if warfare is a constant feature of the â€Å"state of nature,† then the drive for power for each and all is constantly being frustrated. It seems logical to hold that eventually, these egocentric people will constantly see their designs thwarted and their purposes constantly harmed y others. From this, all those that seek power, that is, everyone, will be forced to come to some agreement, a â€Å"covenant† among themselves that will provide a measure of peace so that the power struggle can continue in more peaceful channels. This is the nature of the covenant (Morgan, 594). This agreement comes not about through reason, but through the constant frustration of passion. Reason is a means to an end, and power is always that end. But power cannot be had in the state of nature given its constantly shifting nature, and therefore, reason then acts as a slave to passion and demands some kind of agreement, a contract that will bring peace. The nature of this covenant must follow from the facts of human nature outlined above. Hence, it cannot really be a parliamentary democracy because that merely leaves the state of nature intact, one faction constantly unseating another, leading to the same chaos as before. The kind of state that is agreed upon is basically a dictatorship of a party that must act equally between individuals and factions within the society. All power is hence transferred to the state, the dictatorship, and in return, this power is used to keep the warring factions from destroying each other. The only real demand laid on the state is that of objectivity in judging among the factions, and hence, the state must ultimately be a monarchy (of sorts), equidistant from all centers of power in society and hence, able to judge among them fairly (Morgan, 613). Putting this differently, if power is the desire of all individuals and factions, then it follows that the state exists solely for security (Morgan, 606). If humanity is described in axiomatic terms all following one from another, and the state is itself part of this logical progression, then it also follows that the nature of the state’s action also must follow from the above. This means that the state is unitary, dedicated to one purpose and based on a rule of law that is simple and dedicated entirely to security and, according to the contract, treats all individuals and factions as morally equal to one another (Morgan, 641). The logical structure of the Leviathan comes down to working out contradictions in the axiomatic description of human beings. If human beings desire power and cannot get it in the state of nature, then a powerful state must be crated that permits humanity to live and seek after power through peaceful means. But since no faction will permit one group to rule at the expense of all others, the state must be single, focused and based on an agreed upon set of laws (a â€Å"constitution†) that enshrines this concept of political equality. Only then can all factions agree to give up their violent ways to the central authority. Since human beings are egocentric and passionate, the state based on the rule of law agreed to by all factions beforehand follows logically. The terms â€Å"peace† and â€Å"justice† are used here in highly technical and scientific ways that part radically with previous attempts to define and justify these words. Peace, according to Hobbes, is merely the absence of war (Morgan, 592). It simply is a state of affairs that permits power hungry individuals to pursue their designs in a peaceful manner. Any breach of this peace will, ideally, lead to swift and harsh action from the state that they have empowered to keep watch over their actions. Justice is similar in that it is based on knowledge. The early parts of the Leviathan are based on a scientific method, a means of coming to know human nature as generally and simply as possible. Justice just flows from this. Ultimately, justice derives from science, which is the knowledge of good and evil (Morgan, 603). In practice, this merely means that humans are attracted by the same set of things, and recoil from the same set of things. If power and what it implies are seen in the former, then the frustration of their liberty (as defined above) is what repels them. This knowledge alone allows one to see the basis and ultimate justice of the state. Hence, justice is defined accordingly, as the ability of the person, or, at last, the state, to control the passions of the population when they threaten to disrupt the precarious balance of peace in the commonwealth (Morgan, 599-600). But this is understood by all who are punished by the state in that they have agreed to this on the basis that their own liberty is endlessly obstructed by others in the state of nature. But, as a final thought, this is the very nature of one’s civic duty–to eliminate all private desires and to follow the laws as laid down by the sovereign and agreed upon by those who have demanded these laws (Morgan, 610-611). Duty is not something that is arrived at through reason, but through the passionate desire for power. It is frustrated in the state of nature, but permitted to function freely under the rule of law. There is no â€Å"thick† view of civic duty here, but rather, the control over one’s passions in the interest of those same passions, to permit them to develop in peace. The desire for peace derives from the identical desire for power, except that this desire is frustrated in a state of war. This is what makes Hobbes compelling: the approach to politics could not be simpler. The concept of civic duty is summed up by Hobbes as the act of giving up â€Å"governing oneself† (Morgan, 608), and permitting the more violent elements of one’s passion to be governed by the state only. What is left to the person is the peaceful pursuit of his passionate desires. Politically speaking, the commonwealth is that entity that exists for the sake of peace and security by the efficient control of the private desires of the people involved. In its place, the public will as expressed by the laws of the sovereign so far as they do not violate the very simple terms of the contract. In conclusion, the nature of peace and civic duty for Hobbes are two sides of the same coin. The public persona of the person in the commonwealth is as a public entity, a person dedicated to civic peace and dedicated to the elimination of all personal desires relative to other members of the community. The final end, according to Hobbes’ own description is the pursuit of power by peaceful means, engaging in commerce, etc. The sovereign is the public persona and serves to maintain this persona within the personalities of all involved.

Customer Lifetime Value in Movie Business Essay

Unlike other industries, the marketing scenario in media and entertainment industry such as movie or music business are more unpredictable and unstable. In terms of movie industry, which differs from typical product category, nevertheless, provides a variety of interesting multiple-genres products serving different audience herds for entertainment. The diffusion is quite rapid and the product life shell is extremely short, even though reversioning or rerunning might take place. Correspondingly, the customer lifetime value is relatively low and difficult to estimate. The brand loyalty doesn’t make too much sense in this area whatever giant movie studios or indie films, the audience goes for a movie based on their personal preference or word-of –mouth communications (both online and offline). Thus a lot of customer churn happen in movie industry and â€Å"nobody knows anything† theory occupies, which leads to a unstable and insignificant retention rate. As a result, we cannot utilize the formulation II regarding retention rates in book to estimate CLV here. Instead, if we use the first formulation, a series of hypothetical figures are required. Based on database from NATO(National Association of Theater Owners), the average customer goes for movie 5 times a year. A movie fan maybe watch film every week. The average ticket price per year is around $7.5. However, the variable cost for ticketing and acquisition cost per cost are unknown. However, the concept of CLV still of great significance to movie industry that 1) It comes up with the concept of customer segmentation. We should treat different customers differently. For instance, to implement rewarding incentives or promotion to retain those diehard moviegoers that value much to the business. It is also an effective method to gathering audiences’ information and data. 2) Multiple marketing strategies are required to promote a single product( one movie) and maximize the profitable value. Besides, the entertainment industry should try to embrace the â€Å"free† model in the digital time, for instance, to create spin-off products related to the movies as another revenue stream.

Islam: a Controversial and Sensitive Issue Essay

After the September 11, 2001 attack on America, as a nation we became more interested as to what is Islam? In this paper, I shall attempt to define what Islam is, its teachings and how it has impacted the world, in relation to other religions, especially Judaism and Christianity. The word Islam has a two- fold meaning; peace and submission to God. The submission requires a fully conscious and willing effort to submit to one Almighty God, consciously gives oneself to the service of Allah. In the teachings of Islam there are five pillars 1) Declaration of faith(Shadada), 2) Prayer(Salah), 3) Obligatory Charity(Zakah), 4) Fasting(Sarom), and 5) Pilgrimage(Haji),of the five the most significant one is the pillar of faith.(Fanar,1997) The declaring of one’s belief outwardly is a true sign of belief. By stating â€Å"There is none worthy of worship except Allah and Mohammed is the final messenger of Allah† it lets others in the Islamic community know that you are truly dedicated. (Manzlawy, 2010) Islam embraces a huge range of nationalities and cultures; the Muslim/Islamic community is made up of people from all over the world; with each culture or nationality having different interpretation of Islam with the majority of the Islamic community observing the daily ritual of prayer and other teachings. Despite the fact that Islam has been fully incorporated into the American culture and way of life, most Americans still perceive Islam as being inclined towards encouraging violence amongst its members. (Kabbini,2000) For centuries the Islamic societies have been patriarchal based, where the male member runs the household. Biology is used to justify this as women are the only ones who can bear children and they argue that the man must provide and maintain the family so that the woman can do her job of bearing and raising the children. Women also have long been  considered the culture bearers by incorporating the Islamic traditions and values within the home. Up until the 21st century, the Islamic woman had little say in divorce and even initiating one. Since the turn of the century, significant reforms for women have occurred in the majority of the Muslim countries. Reforms for including education for women, the right to work outside the home, to vote, to hold a public office, to now seek a divorce with the right to financial compensation and one major significant reform the prohibition of child marriages.(Azeem,2012) According to Islamic teachings women should adhere to a specific way of dressing, they need to lower their gaze, guard their modesty and at no time display their beauty or ornamentation except what must appear. Veils are to be drawn over one’s bosom and their beauty is not displayed except to their husbands, fathers, father-in-law, sons, brothers or brother-in-laws. In certain areas of the world the Muslim men wear beards and don’t shave them off, they do however trim them. Most Muslims eat with their right hand even if left handed, as the left hand is relegated to bathroom usage. Some of the other practices that were introduced by cultures/societies that accepted Islam are: * Middle East-men kissing each other on each as a form of greeting * West Africa-upon greeting someone will put their hand on one’s head * Pakistan-prostrating oneself when one’s child has reach 40days (http://www.buzzle.com) There are several similarities between Islam, Christianity and Judaism; all believe to be descendants of Abraham. * All are monotheistic in regards to beliefs, as they all call same God worship. * All follow basic ten commandments * All call for same basic ritual worships; prayer, fasting, alms giving * All follow the same moral values that govern human relationships The Muslims/Islamic people call the Christians and Jews as â€Å"people of the book† as they see them as holders of God’s holy books the Torah and the Bible.(Fanar,1997) The Muslim/Islamic people believe that these books are a revelation of God to the prophets Moses and Jesus respectively. They believe not only in one God but the same God/Allah. The similarities among the three  are probably greater than the differences as Muslims follow the teachings of all previous prophets of Judaism and Christianity. The major difference is that Islam doesn’t believe that Jesus was God’s Son that he was one of the prophets, that he wasn’t crucified but that he was lifted up to heaven and will return prior to doomsday and that this was a final revelation to the Prophet Mohammed and was received as the Holy Qur’an. Another difference is that Islam teaches in comparison to Christianity and Judaism is that God is distant and uninvolved in everyday lives of its followers; Christianity holds that God is intimately involved in the lives of believers and that a believer can have a vibrant relationship with God. Faith based conflict and religious violence threatens our world. According to Dr. David Liepert, a prominent North American Muslim candidly explores how and why Islam has gone from being a religion that sustained a vibrant multicultural and multi-religious civilization to the one we have today. In the end he does offer hope that Muslims, Jews and Christians can live together in peace and that the happy ending we all crave might be closer than one thinks. (Liepert, 2010).Since Muslims are taught to treat one another like brothers, they treat others generously. Most Christians, Jews and Muslims understand that there are differences in the way they worship; they therefore respect each other in regards to religious practices. Muslims use a greeting â€Å"Asalam Aleikum† which means peace be upon you and is used by all Muslims to greet each other. (Arnold2007 Depending on the area or region this greeting may be accompanied by a handshake or hug. The issue of Muslims greeting non-Muslims is still a difficult issue with different groups of people with different views and opinions. There are those who will argue that Muslims should initiate greetings with people of other religions so to promote harmony among societies. Muslims cannot live alone in their communities and to ensure peace among the people that they live with (Arnold, 2007). In conclusion, Islam is the second largest and fastest growing religion in the world today. Muslims believe in the teachings of the Holy Qur’an and strictly follow these teachings. Islam teaches peace and to be preach the message of peace. Muslims reside in all countries of the world with Indonesia having the largest number, although the majority of the world believes that most Muslims reside in the Middle East. The regions where one resides greatly influences their beliefs and cultures; Muslim/Islamic women are to dress in loose fitting clothes, do not shake hands with male members of the community. All Muslims follow the five pillars of Islamic teachings which dictate how one should behave towards God and towards others. Muslims believe in one God who is a supreme being to all others, being a Muslims means that one submits to the teachings of the Islamic faith. The differences between Christianity, Judaism, and Islam differ in various beliefs like the aspect of God: Allah for Muslims who is the Supreme Being worshipped by man. Christians in turn believe in the trinity of God: the father, son and Holy Spirit. The Jews believe in one God and the teachings of traditions, prophets and rabbis. That one day Messiah will come to  reunite and return to the Garden of Eden thus unifying with God. References Fanar, Q. (1997). Understanding Islam (2nd Ed.) Houston, Tex. Darussalam Publisher Azeem, S (2012). Women in Islam. Raleigh, NC. Lulu Enterprises Inc. Mawzlawy, W. (2010). Question and Answers about Islam. EBook Kabbini, M. (2000, June). Muslim Experience in America is Unprecedented. Middle East Quarterly. 7. 61-72 Liepert, D. (2010). Muslim, Christian and Jew: Finding a Path to Peace Our Faiths Can Share. Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Faith Life Publishing. Muslim Culture and Traditions (2012). Retrieved December 13, 2012 from http://www.buzzle.com Comparison Chart. (2012). retrieved December13, 2012 from http://www.terrasus.com McMann, Carmelita. (2012) Interviewed December 12, 2012.