Numerous topics Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Numerous topics - Essay Example A noteworthy remark from among many that were discussed by Scheuer was that foreign policy should DEFEND America, and not only DEFINE what America is. The contention emphasizes the need for the US to closely review and evaluate the contents and implications of foreign policies in terms of its continued ineffectiveness in defending the citizens of this nation. The solid proof that evidenced America’s lack of defense is the 9/11 incident, where, according to Scheuer attests to the fact that only in America can America not defend itself. This is also the reason why he opted to resign as Chief of the CIA unit, identified to have been instigated by al-Qaeda, a group lead by Osama Bin Laden. By not being able to pre-empt the terrorist attack that led to the death of thousands of innocent people, as head of the unit in charge of overseeing Bin Laden’s plans, Scheuer’s resignation could have been the most honorable move, as the head of the unit. By involving ourselves in more global issues than in focusing in rootgrass frameworks (like energy or the environment, as mentioned), America exposes itself to impending future terrorist attacks where it could not more difficult to respond as there would be nothing to respond against.

Language Structures Experience Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2250 words

Language Structures Experience - Essay Example This sense of belonging springs from one’s immediate environment where there is focus on the language one speaks along with complementary elements like accent, nuances and other such features that form the general social and cultural terrain of the particular place. Language offers people first hand knowledge of a variety of symbols that one comes to associate with a place. This in turn generates a more enriching quality to one’s experiences. (Mercer, 1996) In knowing and learning a language, whether by birth or subsequent settlement, there is a certain amount of satisfaction that helps contribute to one’s sense of identity. This also has certain mental implications as it shows the person’s basic aptitudes, besides brining him or her face to face with the challenges of implementing the language. This makes a person draw from experiences of the past, learn from present experiences and contribute to future experiences, which will shape his or her overall life experiences. This also renders a certain amount of creative and communicative competency to a person and his or her sense of confidence with which he or she carries out interactions with people. In this regard, it is necessary to shift focus to the process of learning of a language and garnering communicative competency. This process is important in every individual’s life as the knowledge comes only after learning. The very process of learning is a journey throughout which an individual is brought face to face with experiences. These experiences form his or her general perspective on things. In this way, there is a certain level of competency which in turn, springs from the areas and experiences that a person finds comfortable to deal with. Learning a language is a crucial part of describing how a language shapes a person's experiences. (Girvin, 2000) Learning a language has always been a great challenge. While this is a matter of creating awareness, it is also a matter of creating certain comfort level that will trigger communicative competency in that language. To be more precise, the teaching of a language can take place on the basis of the communicative approach - i.e., through reading, listening and repeating exercises that will prompt greater teacher - student interface and thus help correct any deviations on the spot. A vital element of this approach or model is communicative competency which is the goal that a language learner strives to achieve. (Johnson, 1996) This communicative competency becomes the very fabric of a person's life when it comes to understanding circumstances, people and cultures. This fact has special importance in the area of cognitive development. The cognitive development is the most basic and important sensor that differentiates between kinds of experiences. This sensor has to be honed right from the beginning of an individual's life so that there is an affiliation in the child's mind towards a language, a culture and a place. In honing this part of one's cognitive development, there is scope to increase his or her competency. The power of language and being able to communicate with someone plays a large role in the cognitive development. This helps the person develop in terms of trusting the teacher and sharing with the family. The ways and means of teaching or learning a language can be formal or informal depending on the person's stage in life. (Mercer, 1996

Violence Through The Eyes Of Hannah Arendt Philosophy Essay

Violence Through The Eyes Of Hannah Arendt Philosophy Essay In this essay I will try to the best of my understanding to evaluate and critically analyse subject of violence through the eyes of Hannah Arendt. The title of the book is called On Violence and has been written by Hannah Ardent and published in 1969. In this book Hannah Ardent tries explaining the subject of violence in a historical context and questions the nature of its use. She also re-examines the relationships between politics, war, violence and power and uses other theorists to differentiate her point. My purpose in writing this, is to critically analyse chapter 2 from this book in order to understand how successful the authors argument is and how effective are the example she use to prove her argument. I will then finally identify any examples that disprove of the authors argument and provide my own understanding of political concepts. How successful is the authors argument? The historical background of the essay was depressing and chaotic in all domains: in the international arena it was the clash between West and East, North and South, in internal politics, and even on the level of personal life, this is when she has lost her husband. What makes her essay so outstanding and even classical, in the sense of both timeless and timely, is her vigorous defence of politics against its simplistic and increasingly prevalent equation with violence. Without supporting a radical form of pacifism, Arendts text sought to justify the integrity of politics, construed as concerted action or shared exercise of public power, in the face of a growing fascination with violence and the progressive colonization of public life by violent strategies and ideologies. Hannah Arendt in chapter two tries to define what she sees as the key concepts that must be understood for the construction of any theory of violence.  Ã‚  Concepts such as power, authority, force, legitimacy and explains and defines power, violence, authority, force, strength and clarifies their relationships with one another. The author evaluates these concepts and provides examples to enhance understanding of the subject to illustrate her point. Her approach will be understood by most social scientists, that you cannot describe reality correctly if your linguists are faulty.  Ã‚   She says that it is A rather sad reflection on the present state of political science that our terminology does not distinguish among such key concepts. Arendt identifies and acknowledges the enormous role violence has always played in human affairs.  Ã‚   According to Arendts argument there is a great shortage of real critical analysis on the role and function of violence in human society no one engaged in thought about history and politics can remain unaware of the enormous role violence has played in human affairs, and it is at first glance rather surprising that violence has been singled our so seldom for special consideration She attempts to identify the connections if any between these theories of violence and what she calls the suicidal development of modern weapons that have become central to the arsenals of violence produced by governments in the post war world. As Arendt sets her analysis of violence within the tradition of the enlightenment the means-ends and cause-effect debate pose one of the central paradoxes for her. All the authorities that she quotes have strong opinions on the question of violence and its role and function in society.  Ã‚   Arendt argues that there is a general consensus that Violence is nothing more than the most flagrant manifestation of power.  Ã‚   She quotes Max Webers definition of the state as the Rule of men over men based on legitimate that is allegedly legitimate violence. Arendt does not agree with such a consensus because she says that to accept such a consensus you would have to Equate political power with the organization of violence and this only makes sense if you follow Marxs estimate of the state as an instrument of oppression in the hands of the ruling classes. She believes that no government exclusively based on the means of violence has ever existed or ever existed for more than a very short period.   The crucial reason for this according to Arendt is that in the Power Violence relationship there is a fundamental ascendancy of power over violence.  Ã‚   Governments in order to exist need power but they do not necessarily need violence.   She believes that power needs no justification but its needs legitimacy.  Ã‚  Ã‚   While violence can destroy power it can not create power.   Arendt believes that Power and Violence are opposites and where one rules absolutely the other is absent.  Ã‚   Rule by violence comes into play only when power is being lost.  Ã‚  Ã‚   A short definition that Arendt refers too is that power equals institutionalized force and that violence is a manifestation of power. phenomenologicallyà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦ is close to strength, since the implements of violence, like all other tools, are designed and used for the purpose of multiplying natural strength until, in the last stage of their development, they can substitute for it This analyzes the implications for modern governments modern peoples on the significance of civil obedience and consent we have to decide whether and in what sense power can be distinguished from force to ascertain how the fact of using force according to law changes the quality of law itself and presents us with an entirely different picture of human relations How effective are the examples they use to prove their argument? Hannah Arendt argue that it is insufficient to say power and violence are not the same and believes that they are opposites Power and violence are opposites and not the same as where the one rules the upmost and the other is absent. The author uses Alexander Passerin dEntreves opinion in order to prove her point. Passerin visualises violence as the most fragrant manifestation of power. This is what the author of the book The Notion of the state illustrates, we have to decide whether and in what sense power can be distinguished from force to ascertain how the fact of using force according to law changes the quality of law itself and presents us with an entirely different picture of human relations What counter-examples can you identify that disprove the authors argument? (you must properly reference your sources. Atleast two alternative sources must be identified. Foucault truth and power From completing this task what have you learnt about the particular political concept? It is clearly seen that Ardent believes that to exercise power people need to gather together and act in a group. As she says: Power  corresponds to the human ability not just to act but to act in concert. Power is never the property of an individual; it belongs to a group and remains in existence only so long as the group keeps together.   Ardent believes that power does not belong to single man but it springs up whenever people act in concert. Her concept of a power as a property of a group sounds interesting but is not practical. . Violence, she writes, can always destroy power. Out of the barrel of a gun grows the most effective command, resulting in the most instant and perfect obedience. What never can grow out of it [violence] is power. [For example, violence and threat of violence by the emperors Caligula and Nero did not enhance their power. It diminished their power.] Arendt writes that In a head-on clash between violence and power, the outcome is hardly in doubt   as in a military against collective non-violent resistance (power). But, she adds, Nowhere is the self-defeating factor in the victory of violence over power more evident than in the use of terror to maintain domination, about whose weird successes and eventual failures we know perhaps more than any generation before us. Violence, she sums up, can destroy power; it is utterly incapable of creating it. Writing at the end of the 1960s, Arendt was critical of the advocacy of violence by blacks critical of Martin Luther Kings non-violent movement, and she took issue with the advocacy of

Internet Censorship - Just Say No Essay -- Argumentative Persuasive To

Internet Censorship: Just Say No    In December of 1994, a young college student named Jake Baker posted one of his fiction pieces in an alt.sex newsgroup. Usually, his contributions to this widely-read site consisted of short stories about rape, torture, and murder of women. In this particular newsgroup post, he continued with his usual contributions; however, he took it a bit further by writing about one of his fellow classmates, using her name and identity in the piece. Faculty members at the University of Michigan discovered his story and later expelled him from school. Federal agents then raided his house, arrested him, and discovered copies of e-mail Baker had exchanged with a Canadian, mapping out his and the Canadian's plan to meet in Ann Arbor the following summer to commit rapes and murders together. Baker was indicted in federal court for threatening his classmate, but the indictment was later revised to drop the charges based on the newsgroup posting and to rely on the threats to unspecified "victims" made in the e-mails Baker exchanged with the Canadian. Late in June, a federal judge dismissed charges against Baker, holding that his acts were not a federal crime (http://www.spectacle.org/). Now, four years later, the questions still remain: Did Baker cross the line when he used the victim's name and personal description? Did he violate the free speech/free press rights? Did Baker abuse his posting privileges, and did he commit a crime via the Internet? My answer is no, that his newsgroup posts didn't constitute a real threat. Baker may have written hard-core pornography and offensively viscious articles, but he had the freedom to do so. Many would disagree with me, arguing that Baker was way out of line when ... ...the Internet: Allow people to publish their own work on the Internet and in newsgroup posts. Don't try to regulate something that's almost impossible to regulate. And if you're a concerned parent, get Surfwatch or some other kind of Netfiltering program -- it's up to you to protect your own child's innocence. If you're offended by something you read on the Internet, keep going and don't look back. And finally, I'd leave the person with a statement that I read on the Internet itself: "Censor yourself, not others....The internet is the largest gathering of human beings ever assembled....One of the ground rules is that there is No-One-In-Charge, which means there is no censorship....This freedom is the prime reason that the Internet has become so important and why there are so many diverse resources" (http://www.trifectanet.com/safety.html). What a powerful statement.

Devils Advocate: Chipotle Essay

Chipotle has come a long way since the 1993 introduction of it’s 1-unit operation in Denver; now spanning into a 1,458-unit operation serving more than 900,000 customers per day in over 43 states. [Gamble] However, they haven’t been the only fast-casual restaurants to be successful. In 2012, 8 of the 10 fastest growing restaurant chains were classified as fast-casual restaurants—Moe’s Southwest Grill, Qdoba Mexican Grill, and Chipotle all among these leaders. A strength that is unique to Chipotle is their commitment to â€Å"Food with Integrity†. The transition to using organically grown local produce and naturally raised meats has proven profitable in today’s health craze, which has consumers looking for healthier, MSG-free products. This benefit helps distinguish themselves from their competition. Chipotle faces competition from every direction when it comes to quick serve restaurants. Two restaurants in particular, Five Guys Burgers and Fr ies and Jimmy John’s, are opening new locations faster than Chipotle. [Shaw] A threat of new entry comes into play with Noodles and Company, who have become an immediate hit by adding pasta to the array of fast casual options, taking the burgers and sandwiches industries by surprise. While none of these companies have quite lived up to the potential that Chipotle has created for themselves, they are quickly carving out chunks of market share; something that Chipotle should keep a close eye on. Chipotle’s recently introduced catering program is also an exciting growth opportunity. Panera’s current catering service is estimated to generate up to 8% of their sales. Although in it’s first quarter it comprised of less than 1% of total sales for Chipotle, management is expecting to generate as much, if not more, profit as the competition as customer awareness continues to increase. Taco Bell, one of Chipotles closest competitors, has introduced a Cantina Bell menu that consists of upgraded products wish fresher ingredients that is set just below the price of similar Chipotle products. This, combined with their introduction of the Doritos-based product Doritos Locos Tacos, has allowed Taco Bell to regain ground previously lost, proving they are once again a  significant threat of substitution to Chipotle. Unfortunately, Chipotle is heavily dependent on local farmers for the organic supplies required for their product. Because the supplier power is so high, some Chipotle restaurants in a few markets reverted to the use of conventionally raised beef in early 2012. Due to these rising market prices, Chipotle’s costs for food, beverages, and packing rose from 30.6% of revenues in 2010 to 32.6% in 2012. [Gamble] Chipotle’s Return on Equity is well above the average of 12-15%, sitting at 20.6% in 2011 and 22.3% in 2012. There has also been an increase of .08% between the two years, which proves stockholders investments are continuing to grow. Their Return on Assets measures the return on total monetary investment in the enterprise, with a higher number and upward trend signifying growth. In 2011 it was 42.9% and grew to 50.9% in 2012, showing a .19% increase. The operating profit margin (or ROS) shows the percentage of revenues available to cover operating expenses and yield a profit. Just like the ROA, higher is better and trend should be upward. In 2011 Chipotle sat at 15.4%, and grew to 16.7% in 2012. When looking at liquidity ratio’s, the current ratio show’s the firms ability to pay current liabilities using assets that can be converted to cash in the near term. Ratio’s should definitely be higher than 1.0. Chipotle has done great in this aspect, reac hing 3.183 in 2011. Unfortunately they fell to 2.925 in 2012, which is still well above the average, but is a decrease from 2011. A higher working capital is beneficial so that the company has more internal funds available. In 2011, Chipotle had $343,739, which increased .05% to $359, 749 in 2012. These ratios are an important financial aspect to look at because it determines the ability to invest in market expansion activities, research and development activities, and improvements on features and performance of Chipotle’s products. One key strategic issue that Chipotle faces is their lack of presence internationally. There are a significant amount of expansion opportunities for them to consider. With just 14 locations in the four countries they currently reside in, there is plenty of room to introduce their product worldwide. Yum! Brands, which includes one of Chipotle’s closest competitors (Taco Bell), have 39,000 locations located outside the United States. [Shaw] Needless to say, opening a handful of test locations internationally could provide a plethora of new locations for Chipotle to introduce their product. Another surprising key strategic issue  that they face is global climate change. They identified global weather patterns as business risks in its annual filing last month. If prices of their raw ingredients increase, there is talk that they might temporarily suspend some menu items such as guacamole and some of their salsas. Although Chris Arnold, spokesperson for Chipotle, stated the inform ation was â€Å"nothing more than a routine ‘risk factor’ disclosure† [Vasel], it is nonetheless something Chipotle will have to come up with a creative solution for. Lastly, Chipotles recent partnership with Slow Food USA in support of school gardens across the U.S. could prove extremely beneficial to Chipotle in the future. Not only does this further promote Chipotle’s dedication to sustainability, there is also a marketing angle to the partnership. The more the children know about where food comes from and how it’s prepared, the more health conscious they become. With this knowledge in mind, where do you think they will go for fast food? Chipotle. This is an all around great marketing move on behalf of Chipotle. In conclusion, it would seem beneficial for Chipotle to take a closer look at introducing current, as well as unique and innovative products to new markets. There are plenty of expansion opportunities worldwide for them to build upon the 14 they currently have in business. This would also be an opportunity to capture market share away from Taco Bell and other rivals who have already expanded internationally. It would also be beneficial to create new product lines to compensate for the global climate change challenges they may face in the near future. By creating new foods and dishes to serve different markets, they will be able to acquire suppliers in the local area, and possibly bring some of these innovative ideas back stateside. Their partnership with Slow Food USA could also open doors for them to do similar partnerships internationally; creating a great way for younger generation’s to grow accustomed to Chipotle’s practices. Questions Sources say they have had success on college campuses in the past—do you think Winona would provide an appropriate demographic/geographic presence for success? Haven’t expanded internationally quite yet, if they did where do you think they would have the most success? Sources also say that their guacamole and some salsas are at risk to global climate change and might be dropped from the menu, how would you recommend combating this? Considering  their partnership with Slow Food USA, do you think applying similar practices will help introduce their product internationally? Citations â€Å"Chipotle and Slow Food USA Launch New Partnership Supporting School Gardens.† – MarketWatch. N.p., 8 Oct. 2014. Web. 08 Oct. 2014. Gamble, John, and Arthur A. Thompson. Essentials of Strategic Management: The Quest for Competitive Advantage. Boston: McGraw-Hill Irwin, 2009. Print. Shaw, Brian. â€Å"4 Ways for Chipotle to Continue Its Strong Growth.† (CMG). N.p., 12 Jan. 2012. Web. 04 Oct. 2014. Vasel, Kathryn B. â€Å"Chipotle: Guacamole at Risk From Global Climate Change.† Fox Business. N.p., 5 Mar. 2014. Web. 03 Oct. 2014.

MIS Coursework

Answer 12: The intelligent techniques are the various ways into which the humans would devise an electronic device to perform what they do with their intelligence and manual energy. The various intelligent techniques would make sure that all the various collaborations among the machines are invested into various kinds of expertise which are required for making it replace human efficiency for productive use of time and effort. The behavioral attitude and the exposure which is required for fetching the right kind of mannerism and exact pattern matching on the part of the electronic devices for making them to perform in line with the humans. The intelligent devices are of great interest to the businesses for knowledge management as they are required to manage the data which is very crucial for making the gross transition towards the management of knowledge and its successful retrieval. The organizational attitude towards various forms of knowledge must be understood and dealt accordingly with respect to demand. The priority of knowledge derivation and data warehousing would make sure that all the various forms of knowledge would be handled and managed for its being when a lot of evaluative and intelligent analysis is required for the job. Various patterns of knowledge are crucial to businesses to predict future actions and make help them in decision making in businesses. The various forms of decision making require valid data and information to derive at business solutions. The various differences between human intelligence are as follows: Human beings think and behave rationally while AI imitates the actions and behavior of human beings and their thinking and reasoning process. Human intelligence makes the computers intelligent and automates the activities like decision making, problem solving, learning and reasoning process so that still it can remain within human control. Answer 13: Expert systems are a branch of computer science, which deals with the study and creation of computer system that exhibits some form of intelligence. AI is the process of making machine intelligent, so that it can perform well and efficiently in absence of human beings. It is system that performs either of the following: i.  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Learns new concepts and tasks. ii.  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Reason and draw conclusion. iii.  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Able to explain iv.  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Process natural language. It is the process of developing computer programs to solve out complex problems by application of processes analogous to the human reasoning process. It is a system that thinks and behaves rationally like human. This definition has got two major parts: Computer solution for major problems is one where regular software exists Process, which is analogous to the human reasoning process, is the distinguishing feature of AI programs. Characteristics of AI programs: i.  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   AI programs manipulate symbolic information to a large extent in contrast to the conventional program. ii.  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   AI program has combinatorial explosion of solution. iii.  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   AI programs deal with real life problems to a large extent. iv.  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   A vital characteristic of AI program is that it is easy to learn. Intelligence requires knowledge and knowledge should have some desirable properties. AI technique is a method that exploits the knowledge that should be represented in such a way that 1.  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Knowledge captures generalization i.e. it is necessary to group the objects together, which share important and common properties. ii.  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   It can be understood by people, who must provide it. iii.  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   It can easily be modified to correct errors and reflect changes in the world and in the world’s view. iv.  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   It should have a wide application and implementation area, even though it is incomplete and inaccurate. v.  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   It should be used to overcome narrow range of possibilities. Advantage: Generalized and self-explanatory like search strategies for knowledge representation. Disadvantage: Voluminous, hard to characterize and constantly changing. Three important AI techniques: i.  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Search: It provides a framework in which any available direct technique can be embedded. It provides a problem solving method for which no more direct approach is available. ii.  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Use of knowledge: Provides a way of solving complex problem, by exploiting the structure of objects involved. iii.  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Abstraction: Provides a way of separating out important features and variations from unimportant ones. Expert systems help in knowledge management as the ability to learn from the environment and make decisions would contribute to the very catering of knowledge and its usage. The expert systems utilize knowledge and skills to a very large extent and make enough judgment for making a right mark.