Friday, September 6, 2019

Jungs View of Religion Essay Example for Free

Jungs View of Religion Essay I will be explaining Jung understands and his views of religion. Jung first starts with the key concept of the mind which is the three concepts of consciousness – consciousness, personal unconsciousness and the collective consciousness. Consciousness is where we actively make decisions and choices. The thoughts are based on a sensory experience e. g. the things we see, smell, hear, touch and taste. These are directly accessible. The personal conscious is out thoughts, feelings, urges which are difficult to bring to the consciousness and they are not directly accessible. They have been environmentally determined. The collective unconsciousness is inherited and the thoughts are shared by everyone – archetypes (inherited ideas: first prints or partners that form the basic blue print for major dynamic counterparts of the human personality. ) Jung believes that the archetypes pre exist in the collective unconscious of humanity. They determine how we both perceive and behave. Archetypes are the source of the ideas or images that is inherited instead of the ideas themselves. The experiences you have construct/create uniform images. We inherit a functional disposition to produce the same or very similar ideas not inherit the idea. This is the reason for a dream dictionary, for example a person could be dreaming that their friend is falling. So the falling is the image drawn from the archetype and the friend is from their experience. So the collective unconscious means that many of our ideas will be shared with people. There are different types of shared archetype examples are: the person – this is the mask that covers out true natures for the benefit of society. The mask could be good impressions of what is expected of us by others or the false impression to manipulate others behaviour and opinions. In our dreams the may manifest itself in images of ourselves appearing at a party in disguise. The shadow – this is our darker sides of us. In dreams it might reveal itself in the form of personification of evil e. g. Satan or monster. It could be deeper of our personality identity beings to be lost and individuals experience the chaos of getting closer to the material structure of psychic life. This commonly is found in the woods. The animus – is the masculine side of a female. They may appear as an exotic, sensual, young man or as heroes. The anima – is the female side of a male. They may appear as a  dancing girl, seductresses or goddess. Jung believes that the way neuroses(mental illness is caused by being psychically imbalanced) occurs is that it arises from being psychically imbalanced (so we become mentally ill if the when the psychic energy – psychological energy by which the work of the personality is performed isn’t flowing as well as it could. To maintain mental health all of the features of the personality need to be balanced so the psychic flows properly. There needs to be a balance between conscious and unconscious and the different archetype. If you fail to do this according to Jung this causes a mental disorder. Jung says through individuation (figuring out who you are and becoming your own self) you become psychically balanced personality through the addition of the range of archetypes into the conscious personality. There are two main process of individuation; the first part is when they come to terms with the outer environment with its challenges through work, friendship and relationship. The second part is from a middle age onwards is to come to terms with one’s own personality. For example a mid-life crisis, this is when someone is in the middle of their life they want what they never had in their youth age e.g. a sports car. They want to become psychically balanced as they missed out when they was youths. The things that come from the archetype such as images or thoughts are considered to be religious. Jung redefines religious thought as the numinous. This relies on Rudolf Otto’s understanding of the religious or numinous experience. According to Otto’s a numinous experience affects our consciousness which is caused by something external to our consciousness. Any experience which is archetypal in origin can be stated as religious. All archetypal images are ineffable (indescribable) . Our images of god are themselves archetypal. The concept of god is one of these primordial images (an archetype). Everyone is born with the tendency to generate religious images of god and angels . the actual image that we have of god are through our experiences in the world. An example of a case study is where Miss Miller had a dream about a moth’s desire for light. Jung said this parallel between god and light can be found in countless religious traditions e. g. the Aztec preoccupation with the sun and the Christian view of Jesus as ‘light of the world’. The role of religion is the process of individuation. The two reasons he gave was the self archetype this guides and controlled the innate process of individuation. Individuation is a religious process. The second reason is the self archetype generates images of wholeness. For example the mandala – means circle and is perfectly balanced, the design is symmetrical which represents the balance and wholeness same with Islamic art instead the repetitive patterns to show his eternality. Jung argues that god images are beneficial to our health. The images are used by the mind to individuate the personality, the personality then achieve its goal of integration. Religion now becomes clear, the ones that reject religion are therefore less likely to individuate successfully and is most likely to experience neurosis as a result. Jung concludes that the existence of an actual god is similar to Freud’s – there is no proof either way. We don’t know where the archetype actually comes from and we don’t know the origin of the-psyche because there are ineffable. As a psychic reality – god is real to those who experience the effect of archetypes. Jung always considered religious beliefs to be a natural expression of the collective unconscious.

Thursday, September 5, 2019

The Strengths And Weaknesses Of Case Law Law Essay

The Strengths And Weaknesses Of Case Law Law Essay From using theory of doctrine of judicial precedent, I can conclude that using case law as a source of law brings more advantages than advantages. There are many strengths and weaknesses which we can identify from it. Based on using judicial precedent principle, it can bring us uniformity which means everyone is treated equally due to the bound decision made by the judges previously in similar situation to the future cases. Since it is bound by the pervious case, and thus same decision will be made and equal punishment will be punished for those who loss the case bases on the past cases. Example like Balfour case  [1]  and Merrit case  [2]  , where the decision made in Merrit case is bound to the Balfour case. It can be used by lawyers as a reference to create certainty which allow them to advice their client for the probability of winning and losing a case by forecasting the predictable result of the case based on the binding result of the previous case. The predictable result and probability of losing a case allow the client to settle it with privately with peace. If the probability of winning a case is higher, it satisfy the client with higher confident. Example for Balfour case and Mer rit case, since there are similar case occurred in the past, the lawyer can actually based on the previous case advice Miss Merrit about the percentage of winning the case. Furthermore, using case law as a source of law enables the judgment of the case to be settling in short period because of the binding precedent which is much more efficient. Shorter period of settling a case will reduce the legal cost paid by the client. Example for Balfour case and Merrit case, since there are similar facts between both cases, therefore less time and cost needed for judging that case. Using binding precedent concept, it totally avoid discrimination whereby the The personality of judges will not influence the outcome of dispute in court as the decision made by the judges is bound to follow previous decisions. Whether they are discrimination between the judges towards the plaintiff or defendant, the judges still have to follow the binding decisions. Example for the Merrit case, if the judges know the plaintiff, the decision made will be still bound with the Balfour case. This can provide a fair judgment of case for either defendant or plaintiff. Moreover, if there are certain case with are unbinding, this can provide the opportunity for the judges to create and modified new rules. If the previous rules made canà ¢Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¡Ã‚ ¬Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¾Ã‚ ¢t meet the new circumstances and the changing need of society, new rules can be created or modified by appealing the cases to the Court of Appeal. Example of case Donoghue v Stevenson  [3]  which creating the new principle of neighbor to clarify the duty of care in more details compare to previous case Heaven v Pender  [4]  . By using judicial precedent concept, it can minimize the mistake made by the judges since they can use the similar case as guideline for them to judge the case. This can reduce the possibility of judges making mistake and contribute to the fair judgment of case. Last by not least the most important advantage is that the decision made are unusually practical and workable in nature because it is based on real problem, real people and real situation which is unlike the legislation created by the Parliament which not all the decision are practical and workable in nature. Everything must have their weaknesses behind of the strength. Judicial precedent is good but something it can be rigidity too which means not flexible. If there are similar case occurred in the past, we have to follow the first precedent although which may sometimes cause hardship. There is no flexibility to change the first precedent once it is created. Although the decision is bad, it is binding until it is overruled. Example of case Donoghue and Stevenson which the plaintiff unable to successfully sued the defendant if plaintiff did not make appeal to the House of Lord to overruled the decision. There are too many cases occurred in the past. It is bulky and complex for the lawyer to learn all the case law since there are too many cases occurred in the past. If similar case occurred, the lawyer has to analyze many factors that are different from the first precedent in order to overruled it and win in the case. The nature changes rapidly. We have understood that the judicial precedent is practical in nature. However, the rapid changes in the nature which are too difficult for the body of case law to grow quickly enough to meet the modern demands. If there are new points in case law and which have the potential to overrule the first precedent, the case must be brought to the court of appeal. There are a lot of procedures that have to be done before appealing and thus it cannot be change in the short term period. Example of case Donoghue v Stevenson, the procedure is too long for the plaintiff to make appeal to the Court of Appeal and even House of Lord, the defendant died within the period, and the case was closed. The judicial precedent system depends on the litigation and litigation tends to be slow and expensive since there are many procedures have to be done. Moreover, from the judicial precedent, we know that only the ration of case is binding in a case. However, the problems are that s ometimes it is difficult to check it out which it is the ration decidenti and which the obiter dictum of the case is since we know that obiter dictum is only comments from the cases and it is only for references purpose. Citation: Business Law lecture notes http://sixthformlaw.info/01_modules/mod2/2_1_1_precedent_mechanics/08_precedent_advantages_dis.htm

Wednesday, September 4, 2019

Review Paper on Fault Tolerance in Cloud Computing

Review Paper on Fault Tolerance in Cloud Computing A REVIEW PAPER ON FAULT TOLERANCE IN CLOUD COMPUTING Deepali Mittal Ms. Neha Agarwal Abstract— Cloud computing demand is increasing due to which it is important to provide correct services in the presence of faults also. The Resources in cloud computing can be dynamically scaled that too in a cost effective manner. Fault Tolerance is the process of finding faults and failures in a system. If a fault occurs or there is a hardware failure or software failure then also the system should work properly. Failures should be managed in a effective way for reliable Cloud Computing. It will also ensure availaibility and robustness .This paper aims to provide a better understanding of fault tolerance techniques which are used for managing faults in cloud. It also deals with some existing Fault tolerance model. Index Terms— Cloud Computing, Fault Tolerance, Dependability. I. Introduction Cloud computing is new method which can be used for representing computing model where IT services are delivered via internet technologies . These have attracted millions of users. Cloud storage not only provide us the massive computing infrastructure but also the economics of scale. Such a trend, requires assurance of the quality of data storage services which involves two concerns from both cloud users and cloud service providers: data integrity and storage efficiency. It is much more simple than internet. It is a service that allows user to access applications that actually exist at location other than user’s own computer or other devices on network. There are many benefits of this technology. For example any other company hosts user application. Cloud computing is nothing new as it uses approaches, concepts, and techniques that have already been developed. But on the other side everything is new as cloud computing changes how we invent, develop, deploy, scale, update, maintain, and pay for applications and the infrastructure on which they run. Cloud Computing is an efficient way of computing as it centralizes the storage, memory and processing. Fault tolerance has the property to assess the capability of the system to react graceciouslly to a hardware and software failure which is not expected. In assortment to attain robustness or raptness in cloud computing, failure should be determined and handled carefully.This paper will give basic knowledge about Fault tolerance Approaches.The Methods used for fault management in cloud We also study some existing fault management models which tolerates fault in cloud environment. Then figure out the best model of fault tolerance. Fault tolerance deals with all different approaches that provides robustness ,availaibility and dependability .The major use of enforcing fault tolerance in cloud computing include recovery from different hardware and software failures, reduced cost and also improves performance . Robustness is the property of providing of with an accurate service in an unwanted situation that can arise because of an unexpected system state. Dependability is something that need to be achieved.It is one of the very important aspects for cloud provider.It includes dependability as well as availability.It is related to some of the Quality of service issues delivered by the system. Fault tolerance intent to accomplish robustness and dependability in the cloud environment.Fault tolerance techniques can be classified into types depending on the policies of fault tolerance viz, Proactive Fault Tolerance : Proactive fault tolerance simple means early prediction of the problem before it actually arises. Reactive fault tolerance: This policy handles the failure. The effect of failure is reduced when the failure actually occurs. This could be further divided into two sub-procedures : 1. Error Processing 2. Flaw Treatment The first process eliminates error from the system. Fault treatment tries to prevent faults from getting reactivated . Fault tolerance is accomplished by error processing. Error Processing has two main phases. The first phase is â€Å"effective error processing† which means bringing the effective error back to a latent state and if possible it is done before occurrence of a failure.The Second Phase is â€Å"latent error processing† which aims to ensure that the error is not reactivated. II. Existing Fault Tolerance Approaches In Cloud The different techniques used for fault tolerance in cloud are : Check pointing: It is a good fault tolerance approach .It is used for applications which have a long running time. In check pointing technique , check pointing is done after each change in system state. It is useful when a task is not able to complete. It fails in the middle due to some error. Then that task is made to begin from the most recent check pointed state instead of restarting it from the beginning. Task Migration : There may be a case when a task in not able to complete on the assigned specific virtual machine . When this type of task failure occurs then that task could be moved other machine. This can be performed by using HA-Proxy. Replication: Replication simply means copying. The replica of tasks is executed on distinct resources if the original instance af task fails.It is done to get the actual required result. Replication can be implemented by using various tools. Some of the tools are Hadoop , HA Proxy or Amazon EC2. Self- Healing : A big task can divided into parts .This division is done for better performance. It results in creation of variant application instance.The instances run on distinct virtual machines.In this way automated failure management is done for instances. Safety bag checks: This strategy is quite simple. It blocks the command which does not met the requirements for safe execution or proper working of machine. S-Guard : It is a stream Processing techniques.It makes available more resources. It use the mechanism of Rollback recovery. Check Pointing is done Asynchronously. It is used for distributed environment. S-Guard is performed using Hadoop or Amazon EC2. Retry : A task is made to execute repeatedly .This approach try to re execute the failed job on same machine . Task Resubmission : A task failure can make the complete job also fail. So when a failed task is identified ,it should be submitted to same or either distinct resource for reexecution. Time checker : Time checker is a supervised technique. A watch dog is used. It consider Critical time function. Rescue workflow : This strategy is used for Fault tolerance in workflow execution. Reconfiguration: The configuration of the system is changed in this technique.The faulty component is removed. Resource Co-allocation: It increases the availability of resources. It takes care of multiple resources. Resource allocation is done to complete the execution of task. III. Fault Tolerance Models Various Fault Tolerance Models are designed using these techniques. These techniques are combined with one another and then applied or simply used individually. Some of Existent fault tolerance models are : â€Å"AFTRC A Fault Tolerance Model for Real Time Cloud Computing† is designed by keeping the fact in mind that real time systems have good computation. These systems are also scalable and make use of virtualization techniques which helps in excuting real time applications more effectively.This model is designed by considering the dependability issue. The model make use of proactive fault strategy and predicts the faulty nodes. â€Å"LLFT Low Latency Fault Tolerance † act as a middleware for tolerating faults. It is useful for distributed application which are running in cloud. In this model fault tolerance is provided like a service by cloud providers. Applications are replicated by middleware. In this way replication helps in handling of faults for different applications. â€Å"FTWS Fault Tolerant WorkFlow Scheduling† is a model based on replication approach. It also makes use of resubmission technique. A metric is maintained for checking the priority of tasks and they are submitted accordingly. The principle of workflow is used in this model. Workflow means a series of task executed orderly. Data dependency decides the order. Fault management is done while the workflow is scheduled. â€Å"FTM† is one of the most flexible model. It delivers fault tolerance as on demand service. The user has a advantage that without having known the working of model ,they can specify the required fault tolerance. It is mainly designed for dependability issues. It consists of various components. Each component has its own functionality. †Candy† is component base availability modeling frame work. It is mainly designed for availaibility issues. System modelling language is used to construct a model from specifications. This is done semi automatically. â€Å"Vega-warden† is a uniform user management system. It creates global work space for variant applications and distinct infrastructure.This model is constructed for virtual cluster base cloud computing environment to overcome the 2 problems: usability and security which arise from sharing of infrastructure. â€Å"FT-Cloud† has a mechanism of automatic detection of faults.It makes use of frequency for finding out the component. â€Å"Magi-Cube† is a kind of architecture for computing in cloud environment.It is designed for dependability,expenditure and performance issues.All three issues are related to storage.This architecture provides highly reliable and less redundant storage. This storage system is done for metadata handling.It also handles file read and write. IV. Fault Tolerant Model for Dependable Cloud Computing Fault Tolerant Model for dependable cloud computing is a model designed for dealing with failures in cloud . As we all know Cloud Computing Environment is made up of virtual machines or you can say nodes. The applications run on these nodes. Using this model faulty nodes are detected and replaced by correctly performing nodes. This is done for real applications. Now on what criteria the model can decide a node to be faulty ? There can be various parameters for detecting faulty node but this model makes use of dependability or dependability measurement. The criteria could be changed according to user’s requirement. A. Working of Model The model is designed for X virtual machines. X distinct algorithms run on the X nodes. Input buffer feeds the data to nodes. The input data is then moved onwards to all the nodes simultaneously. When the node gets the input it starts its operation. It performs some functions as designed or stated by the algorithm . In other words , the algorithm runs on nodes and gives a result .The Funtioning of every module is different. Accepter Module This module tests the nodes for correct result. It verifies the result of algorithms. If the result is faultless or as required then the result is forwarded further for evaluation of dependability.The appropriate result is sent to timer module. The inappropriate result is not forwarded instead signal is sent. Timer Module This module has a timer set for every node .It checks the time of result.If the result is generated before the time set or within that assigned time the only it forwards the result. Dependability Assessor This module is responsible for checking of dependability of nodes. At the starting of system the dependability for each node is set to it maximum that is cent percent. When computations are performed the dependability of nodes dynamically changes.The dependability is decided on the basis of time and correctness of result. Dependability increases if the result is accurate and on time. The highest and lowest limit of dependability is set in the beginning. The node with dependability value less than the lowest dependability is replaced. It also sends a message to resource manager. The result of dependability assesers forwards the results to descision maker module. Decision Maker It gets the result from dependability assessors. A selection of node is done from all perfect nodes. The node which has the maximum dependability is selected. It makes the comparison between the dependability level of nodes and system dependability. System dependability is important to be attained by a node. In case all the node fails to achieve the system dependability then a failure notification is issued. A failure notification means that all the nodes have failed for this computation cycle. Now backward recovery is done using check points .Decision maker also asks the resource manager to replace the node with lowest dependability with the new one. Check Pointing Check Pointing saves the state of system. It is done at regular small intervals. It is helpful in a scenario when a system fails completely. The strategy helps in automatic recovery form the check pointer state. This automatic recovery is done only when all the nodes fails. The system continues to work properly with rest of the nodes. Fig .1.Fault Tolerant Model For Dependable Cloud Computing B. Mechanism Of the Model Dependability Assessment Algorithm Begin Initially dependability:=1, n :=1 Input from configuration RF, maxDependability, minDependability Input nodestatus if nodeStatus =Pass then dependability := dependability + (dependability * RF) if n > 1 then := n-1; else if processing node Status = Fail then dependability: = dependability – (dependability * RF * n) n: = n+1; if dependability >= max Dependability then Dependability: = max Dependability if dependability Call Add new node ( ); End Decision Mechanism Algorithm Begin Initially dependability:=1, n :=1 Input from RA nodeDependability, numCandNodes Input from configuration SRL bestDependability := find_dependability of node with highest dependability if bestDependability >= SRL status := success else perform_backward_recovery call_proc: remove_node_minDependability call_proc: add_new_node End C. Result In the first cycle, both VirtualMacine-1 and VirtualMachine-3 have the same dependability, but the result of VM-1 has been selected as it has a lower IP address. VM-3 output was selected by DM from cycle 2 to 4, as it has the highest dependability among competing virtual machines. In cycle 5 VirtualMachine-3 still has the highest dependability, but it is not selected. Because its result was not passed by AT and TC, so consequently, it was not among competing virtual machines. TABLE I : Result v. Conclusion and future work Tolerance of faults makes an important problem in the scope of environments of cloud computing. Fault tolerance method activates when a fault enters the boundaries i.e theoretically these strategies are implemented for detecting the failures and make an appropriate action before failures are about to occur. I have looked after the need of fault tolerance with its various methods for implementing fault tolerance. Various called models for fault tolerance are discussed .In the present scene, there are number of models which provide different mechanisms to improve the system. But still there are number of problems which requires some concern for every frame work. There are some drawbacks non of them can full fill the all expected aspects of faults. So might be there is a possibility to carried over the drawbacks of all previous models and try to make a appropriate model which can cover maximum fault tolerance aspect. References AnjuBala, InderveerChana,† Fault Tolerance- Challenges, Techniques and Implementation in Cloud Computing† IJCSI International Journal of Computer Science Issues, Vol. 9, Issue 1, No 1, January 2012 ISSN (Online): 1694-0814 www.IJCSI.org Sheheryar MalikandFabriceHuet â€Å"Adaptive Fault Tolerance in Real Time Cloud Computing† 2011 IEEE World Congress on Service Ravi Jhawar, Vincenzo Piuri, Marco Santambrogio,† A Comprehensive Conceptual System-Level Approach to Fault Tolerance in Cloud Computing†, 2012 IEEE, DOI 10.1109/SysCon.2012.6189503 P. Mell, T. Grance. The NISTdefinition of cloud computing. Technical report, National Institute of Standards and Technology, 2009. Wenbing Zhao, Melliar-Smith, and P. M. Moser, â€Å"Fault tolerance middleware for cloud computing,† in 3rd International Conference on Cloud Computing (CLOUD 2010). Miami, FL, USA, 2010. R. Jhawar, V. Piuri, and M. D. Santambrogio, â€Å"A comprehensive conceptual system level approach to fault tolerance in cloud computing,† in Proc. IEEE Int. Syst. Conf., Mar. 2012, pp. 1–5. M. Castro and B. Liskov, â€Å"Practical Byzantine fault tolerance,† in Proc.3rd Symp. Operating Syst. Design Implementation, 1999, pp. 173–186.

Tuesday, September 3, 2019

Napoleon :: European Europe History

Napoleon Nationalism is the devotion of people to the interests of its nation or the love of one's country to stay independent. Nationalism played a major role in the downfall of Napoleon in that he wanted an empire and his opponent's wanted independence. As Napoleon was conquering lands and creating a vast empire his troops stressed in the far lands that they conquered life, liberty and equality. Although Napoleon did not realize, it triggered nationalistic feelings among the conquered nations. Spain, who was an ally of France, disobeyed Napoleon's decree. Then in 1808 Napoleon overthrew the Spanish royal family and made his brother Joseph king of Spain. However, everything that Napoleon did such as put in a foreign ruler, take away noble privileges offended Spanish pride and created nationalistic feelings. The people of Spain revolted in 1808. The French troops stopped the riots, but the nationalistic spirit was not lost. For the next five years, there was warfare in Spain. British troops came to aid Spain. This led to the defeat of Joseph, death of thousands of French troops and it inspired patriots and nationalists of other lands to resist Napoleon. This war between 1808 and 1813 is called The Peninsular War. In Germany, anti-French feelings broke out. However, the French invasions carried German nationalism beyond the small ranks of writers. In 1807, writers attacked French occupation of Germany. This nationalistic feeling spread to the Prussians. In 1806, the Prussians were defeated by the French troops. To drive the French out of Prussia there would have to be a spirit of cooperation and loyalty. To accomplish this there would have to be social and political reforms. A reformer said that if social abuses were eliminated the Prussians could fight with national honor. Military reforms improved the Prussian army. In the War of Liberation (1813), the soldiers showed great feelings of patriotism and nationalism. Afterwards, the French were driven out of Prussia. Russia, who was an ally of France, went against the word of Napoleon, So Napoleon decided to invade Russia. Napoleon's Grand Army had 700,000 people in it. Most of soldiers were not French and did not care for the war. In 1812 when Napoleon began the invasion, Russia retreated. As they were retreating, they burned all crops, which were valuable. When Napoleon reached Moscow, the Russians burned the city. Even worse, the winter was in a few months. The Russians also destroyed the food supply of Napoleon.

The Congress for New Urbanism and Environmental Awareness Essay

The Congress for New Urbanism and Environmental Awareness In the last two decades the New Urbanism movement has begun among planners, designers, and builders. Though it does not provide complete solutions to many of the environmental problems caused by human development, it shows a greater awareness of the undesirable and potentially destructive tendencies exhibited by conventional methods of design, planning and construction. Robert Davis, board chairman of the Congress for the New Urbanism, describes the problem of urban sprawl and development. "For five millennia, we have built towns and cities with strong centers and clear edges, beyond which lay farms and forests and lakes and streams. For five decades these clear edges have become increasingly ragged, and the centrifugal forces of sprawl have flung a strange collection of objects across the landscape. The strangest of these objects are large boxes with very specialized functions. They are connected to each other by swaths of asphalt and each is surrounded by a small sea of the same material. Their placement relative to each other and to the smaller boxes we live in is designed and planned for the maximum possible consumption of our time, and of energy in various forms, including human..."(http://www.cnu.org/nunjuly98.html). "Our monoculture development pattern started as a good idea to separate steel mills and slaughter houses from dwellings. Now we rigidly separate all uses: our homes, our workplaces, our children’s schools, the places we assemble. This not only ensures the maximum possible consumption of time and energy, it also separates us from each other" (http://www.cnu.org/nunjuly98.html). This is a design perspective based on aesthetics instead of enviro... ...d, watertables, or their conditions. Nor was their any specific mention of the use of natural recyclable or sustainable materials in construction. These facts make me aware that there needs to be more collaboration and sharing of knowledge between planners, designers, builders, and ecologists. If ecological concerns are not given consideration in development, ultimately all life forms will suffer. If biologists and ecologists do not understand the essential elements of economics and aesthetics in design when communicating their concerns, nothing will be done to correct current development trends until human health is severely effected. Works Cited CNU Update http://www.cnu.org/nunjuly98.html Environmental Building News http://www.ebuild.com/Archives/Other_ Beth Dunlop, Architectural Record Jan. 97, The New Urbanists The Second Generation, p.132-135

Monday, September 2, 2019

College Is a Waste of Time and Money

In her article â€Å"College Is a Waste of Time and Money†, Caroline Bird attempts to pursued her readers that colleges are overflowing with students who don†t belong there. Her article first appeared in Psychology Today (May 1975). Since this material is outdated, I find it hard to believe that most of the responses by students and parents quoted in the article still hold true. The author has set out to pursue the readers that college is a bad and unnecessary choice for today†s youth. Yet the author holds a bachelors and a masters degree from two different universities. I would think that if she thought college was really a bad choice and a waste of time and money, she would not have gone back to get her masters degree. I am a college student myself and there were only two things in the whole article that I was in agreement with. One was that colleges try to market themselves. The other was her paragraph on how Americans are looking less and less for great paying jobs and are looking more for job that they like doing. This unfortunately is also a contradiction to her piece of writing, because college prepares, and helps you get a job that you will enjoy. Furthermore, the author†s main ideas were not well thought out or well supported. An example of this might be her money investment idea. She implies that if an eighteen year old invested his/hers college tuition money in a bank, and kept it there till he/she was sixty-four, they would be twice as rich as those who go to school, graduate and work in their field of study. What she fails to mention is that while their money is gathering interest, it can not be touched till their sixty-four, and in the mean time they have to be making a living in another job which they probably hate doing. Overall, Bird†s attempt to pursue her readers that college is a waste of time did not work on me. Students are in colleges because they are told to, or because they still want to be financially depend on their parents and not have to worry about growing up to face the real world. The author in her article writes such ideas. Furthermore, since colleges became a big industry in the 60†³s, and now the number of people attending has fallen, colleges use marketing skills to bring more students in. They try to make college sound as easy as possible to make more people register. Students, once in college are not happy and drop out, or just hang out and finish just because they think it is the right thing to do. The author feels that students are sad because they are unwanted young adults. Since the world is overpopulated, we stick the eighteen-year-olds in colleges to temporarily get rid of them. We also fool ourselves into believing that these actions are good for them. Most of these unwanted young adults eventually learn to like it, and those that don†t drop out. The conservative Carneigie Commission estimated that five to thirty percent of students are in College reluctantly. Also buy giving figures of some surveys that students took, the author states that students think education is less and less important. Parents believe their kids are too young and immature to make a decision by them selves, therefore they pressure their kids into attending college believing it is the best thing for them. The author does not agree with these actions and thinks that students should decide for themselves whether or not they want to continue their education. If students feel that college is not for them, they should not stay there just because somebody expects them to. Furthermore, she states that if everyone got a higher education everybody would be on the same intellectual level, and there would be no difference in people. Some say that college is the greatest investment one can make. The author argues this point by giving examples of investments that greatly outweigh the average income of a graduate. If for example a student were to take his money for a four-year college, and put it in a savings account, by the age of sixty-four he would have twice as much money then if he were to graduate and earn a living with the help of his degree. Another example, which she gives, is based on a supposed Princeton student who liked fixing cars. The student could have put his college money in a bank, and go work for a mechanics shop. And as he was learning all the necessary skills, the money would be gathering interest. In ten years, he would have enough to buy out his boss, and start his own business. Afterwards she states that, although all these scenarios look good on paper, it is hard to put a dollar value on education. Next, the author talks about status, and that this is what attracts some to colleges. Most students that graduate do not necessarily make more money than those without a degree. She states that most people do not go to college for the money but for a career and a job which they will like doing. She gives an example of a guy named Jerry Darring, who quit his well paying family operated job to go back to college and get a degree which will help to prepare him for a less paying job which he will like to do. Most college students, when talking about getting a good job after they graduate, mean a job that will be pleasant for them. This sort of phenomenon is called â€Å"psychic income. † Most jobs, which these graduates will want to be employed in, are scares though. The amount of students in law school studying to be layers is twice as much as is needed. On top of that, graduates might not even work in the same field as they were studying for. Teachers, Engineers, and others were interviewed by the author, and said that they rarely use the stuff that they learned in college. Some also reported that they perform jobs that bear very little to none resemblance of a job which they were preparing for in school. The key that opens a door full of jobs is what a college diploma used to be. Now that attendance in colleges has doubled, a diploma can not even guarantee a job. The author then goes on to identify false statements about college effects on people. She states that colleges do not make people â€Å"intelligent, ambitious, happy, or liberal. It is the other way around. Intelligent, ambitious, happy, or liberal people are attracted to higher education in the first place (49). † Next she talks about learning experience that change a student while he is in college. That these experiences are not though by the college, but through jobs, friends, and time. While concluding her article, Caroline Bird says † We ought to make it possible for these reluctant, unhappy students to find alternative ways of growing up, and more realistic preparation for the years ahead (49). † In the whole article I have found only two specific points that I am able to agree with. One example is the author†s description of colleges trying to market their education. When I was a senior in my high school, a lot of colleges came to recruit us. While talking to some selected recruiters, and asking them why I should pick their college to go to, they were giving me reasons which had nothing to do with getting a good education. A great football team, a huge recreation centers, and stores on campus, were some of the reason I had heard. The other point that I agree with is that Americans put more priority on jobs they like doing than the jobs income. Unfortunately there are far more things I do not agree with in Caroline Bird†s article. First of all, how can she write an article stating that college is a waste of time and money, if she herself is a graduate? Not only that, she graduated with a masters degree. I would understand if she only had a bachelors, her argument could have been that as long as she started college, she should at least get her bachelors. But if college is such a waste of time and money why would she go on to get her masters degree. Furthermore, some points which she uses in her argument are not enough to pursued me. One example would be when she says â€Å"we fool ourselves into believing that we are sending them there for their own best interest. â€Å"(42) In my opinion this is true, true in the case that parents want a better and easier way of life for their kids. My parents send me to college so that I could make more money doing an easier job than they have to do, because they lack a college diploma. She feels that eighteen-year-olds should make their own choice whether to go to college or not. I think that when a person is eighteen, they are too young to make their own decisions. I know this from my own experience. If I had a freedom of choice when I was eighteen, I would not be writing this critique, because I would not be in college. But now that I have grown up and did some thinking I want to stay and get my degree. I feel that kids should at least try college, learn and see a couple of things and then decide whether they should stay or go. Generally, parents without a college education are the ones who put the most emphasis on their kids going to college and making something of themselves, in order to have a better life then they had. The author then goes on to challenge her own ideas by saying that college does prepare you for a job that you actually might like doing, and that is what most Americans want. So then would not college be a good choice for most Americans?

Sunday, September 1, 2019

Greenmail & firing employees Essay

The term is a greenmail is formed by combining the terms greenback and blackmail, invented by journalists and commentators who saw the practices of corporate raiders as a form of blackmail. The target company is financially held hostage, and is legally forced to pay the greenmailer to go away. Greenmailing is a variation on the corporate raid or hostile takeover. The greenmailer commonly targets a publicly traded company that is cash rich but often undervalued, with large assets and possibly a solid customer base. Other targets are companies that are simply inefficient. The greenmailer isn’t really interested in the business of the company. It doesn’t want to own the company, improve it, or further build it up. It will, if forced to acquire the target, sell its parts off piecemeal, which can bring a greater profit than selling the whole target. This is called asset stripping and involves replacing management and firing employees. Greenmail proved lucrative for investors such as T. Boone Pickens and Sir James Goldsmith during the 1980s. In the latter example, Goldsmith made $90 million from the Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company in the 1980s in this manner. Occidental Petroleum paid greenmail to David Murdoch in 1984. However, if a proper greenmail occurs, the greenmailer merely secures a significant stake in the target company. The greenmailer can offer to end the threat to the target company by selling its share back at a substantial premium. The target or â€Å"mark† can also go private with the same results: a profit to the greenmailer. The greenmailer gets away with no oversight, low overhead, and its profits. The target is left poorer and without the assets that attracted the raid in the beginning. A company which agrees to buy back the bidder’s stock position avoids being taken over. In return, the bidder agrees to abandon the takeover attempt and may sign a confidential agreement with the â€Å"greenmailer† who will agree not to resume the maneuver for a period of time. Greenmail is a corporate defense mechanism to buy back shares from shareholders attempting to control the firm. The practice has many critics but it can result to potential windfall for the company by protecting company shares from low takeovr bids and gives the firm the opportunity to restructure management. While benefiting the â€Å"greenmailer†, the company loses capital and other assets. This hamstrings its future growth potential. This means the shareholders lose as well in addition to impacting the supplier and customers economically linked to the company. Generally the company’s existing management may remain in place but the employees usually see their ranks reduced. Courts in states such as Calfornia have favored shareholder lawsuits, based on the contention that greenmailer constituted a breach of fiduciary responsibility. Greenmail is arguably counter productive because once such a payment becomes public others may feign a takeover attempt. Greenmail is money paid by a company (or allied company or individual) to acquire its own shares of stock from a shareholder who is threatening to take control of, or unwanted influence over, the company. In the parlance of the financial community, strategies to prevent a takeover are called a â€Å"Poison pill†. This implies that the corporate raider will suffer if they try to swallow the target of the takeover. This involves a myriad of arcane changes in the details of corporate ownership structure, investment market rules, and may involve legal requirement in the jurisdiction where the company is incorporated. Individual states may pass â€Å"protectionist† laws that impose limits for launching formal bids, or obligations to seek shareholder approval for the buyback of its own shares, and in Federal tax treatment of greenmail gains have all made greenmail far less common since the early 1990s. Heckmann et al. v. Ahmanson trial in July 1989. This was one of the final cases involving the payment of †greenmail†. Greenmail is slang for targeted share repurchases – transactions in which a company repurchases shares from specific holders, rather than on the open market. In the 1980s, it was not uncommon for companies to pay greenmail to large investors who were challenging corporate management and threatening a takeover of the firm. In this case, Disney had paid a premium price to repurchase shares accumulated by Saul Steinberg’s Reliance Group. Working with attorney Michael Hennigan, I explained to the jury how this could damage Disney’s other shareholders and to estimate the amount of the damage. Following my direct examination, as Arthur Liman was standing to begin his cross, the judge decided recess the trial early for the July 4th holiday. During the recess, the case settled. It was the only greenmail case in which plaintiffs received a cash settlement.