King Lear King Lear A Tragic Hero Essays - Literature, King Lear

King Lear: King Lear a Tragic Hero King Lear had been discussed by many critics of the play of this name, with some taking the position that he was a tragic hero. However, there are a few who believe that he was not, and that in effect, he might even be a comic figure. This paper attempts to discuss whether King Lear is a tragic hero or not, looking at the works of two critics, each taking opposite sides. On the one hand, there is A.C. Bradley, who takes the position that King Lear is a tragic hero because he demonstrates all the characteristics of a tragic hero as Bradley saw it. On the other hand, G. Wilson Knight believes that the play King Lear is really a comedy of the grotesque, and that King Lear is really a comic figure. The position that I am taking is this paper is that King Lear is a tragic hero, because he fits all the characteristics that Bradley identifies as belonging to a tragic hero, and more than that although there might appear to be comic elements in the play King Lear that the tragic elemen seem to outweigh the comic. Therefore, the position taken by Knight is not accurate in describing King Lear. The tragic hero, according to Bradley, is a person who suffers tremendously, whose suffering goes beyond him. The tragic hero also takes the action that produces the suffering and calamity which leads to death. Other characteristics of a tragic hero are as follows. The tragic hero is a person who is of high degree, and his welfare is intimately tied up with the welfare of the state. The hero is an exceptional being, of high degree, whose actions and sufferings are of an unusual kind, who possesses and exceptional nature. His nature is exceptional in the sense that it is very much like our nature, except that it is intensified. The tragic hero is also involved in conflict, which could be either conflict with someone else, or conflict within himself. The tragic hero is also described as inspiring pity on the part of the viewer because of the intensity of the suffering that the tragic hero is undergoing. Furthermore, the tragic hero is seen as wretched, nevertheless, the audience does not see him as contemptible. Instead, the audience sees the tragic hero as suffering and the order in the world as destroyed. The only way that order would be restored is through the death of the tragic hero. (Bradley) Knight, on the other hand, takes a different perspective of the play King Lear. This author points out that tragedy and comedy are very close to each other. "Humor is an evanescent thing, even more difficult of analysis and intellectual location than tragedy. To the coarse mind lacking sympathy an incident may seem comic which to the richer understanding is pitiful and tragic." (Knight 1949, 34) In other words, tragedy and comedy seem to involve the process of invoking tension, and the relief of that tension could be either through the pain of tragedy or the humor of comedy. This is why there are situations where a person may cry or laugh at a similar set of circumstances. It just depends on how the idea is developed. "The comic and the tragic rest both on the idea of incompatibilities, and are also, themselves, mutually exclusive; therefore to mingle them is to add to the meaning of each; for the result is then but a new sublime incongruity." (Knight 1949, 34) The reason that people laugh at situations is that there is a juxtaposition of things that are incongruous. At the same time, the tragic does involve incompatible things taking place, and thus leading to a resolution of the pressure that is created through pain or crying. Knight does not see tragedy and comedy as being very different in the sense that they both view incongruity. In the case of King Lear, Knight believes that while the character of King Lear is tragic in the sense that he suffers that there is something comic in the situation because King Lear brings it upon himself because of the incongruity of King Lear's behavior. King Lear is mad, and his behavior from the very beginning of the play, where he tries to see which one of his daughters loves him more is incongruous. Knight sees this situation as comic, where King Lear has " . . . staged an interlude, with himself as chief action. . . . It

Free Essays on I Witnessed

I witnessed a miracle About six years ago my parents and I realized how hard it is to nearly lose an immediate family member, someone we truly love. November 29, 1998 was a cold and rainy day in the small town of Splendora, Texas, my hometown. I was at my friend Amanda’s house that day watching movies when I first heard some terrible news. The telephone rang and it was for me. I thought to myself, â€Å"who could be calling me.† I knew that my mom was grocery shopping and my dad was at work, so I did not think it would be either of them. When I answered the phone I realized it was my mother, she sounded horrified, I knew something bad had happened. That was the moment I found out my older brother, Wade, had a deadly disease called bacterial meningitis. Earlier that morning my brother went to his friend Shaun’s house to go play video games. Later that afternoon my mom was grocery shopping when Wade called her and said he was not feeling well. So, my mom rushing through the store quickly finished her grocery shopping and immediately drove to Shaun’s house to go get my brother. When she arrived Wade slowly walked outside on the old wooden porch. At that moment mom realized how bad the situation really was. He looked as if were a walking zombie; he was so weak and stiff. He had large dark circles around his eyes that made him look very tired and restless. With all his might, he slid his feet one by one across the old porch trying to get to the car. My mom looking as terrified as any other mother would, she got out of the car to help him make it down the stairs safely. Wade struggling to walk down the stairs looked at my mom with his dark brown eyes and said in a soft sickly voice, â€Å"take me to the hospitalâ₠¬ . Raging through all the traffic, they rushed to the emergency room at Kingwood hospital. As soon as he arrived the nurses took his temperature, it was 106.2 degrees. They immediately took him in the back on a str... Free Essays on I Witnessed Free Essays on I Witnessed I witnessed a miracle About six years ago my parents and I realized how hard it is to nearly lose an immediate family member, someone we truly love. November 29, 1998 was a cold and rainy day in the small town of Splendora, Texas, my hometown. I was at my friend Amanda’s house that day watching movies when I first heard some terrible news. The telephone rang and it was for me. I thought to myself, â€Å"who could be calling me.† I knew that my mom was grocery shopping and my dad was at work, so I did not think it would be either of them. When I answered the phone I realized it was my mother, she sounded horrified, I knew something bad had happened. That was the moment I found out my older brother, Wade, had a deadly disease called bacterial meningitis. Earlier that morning my brother went to his friend Shaun’s house to go play video games. Later that afternoon my mom was grocery shopping when Wade called her and said he was not feeling well. So, my mom rushing through the store quickly finished her grocery shopping and immediately drove to Shaun’s house to go get my brother. When she arrived Wade slowly walked outside on the old wooden porch. At that moment mom realized how bad the situation really was. He looked as if were a walking zombie; he was so weak and stiff. He had large dark circles around his eyes that made him look very tired and restless. With all his might, he slid his feet one by one across the old porch trying to get to the car. My mom looking as terrified as any other mother would, she got out of the car to help him make it down the stairs safely. Wade struggling to walk down the stairs looked at my mom with his dark brown eyes and said in a soft sickly voice, â€Å"take me to the hospitalâ₠¬ . Raging through all the traffic, they rushed to the emergency room at Kingwood hospital. As soon as he arrived the nurses took his temperature, it was 106.2 degrees. They immediately took him in the back on a str...

A Night at the Opera

A Night at the Opera Analysis Paper A Night at the Opera is a 1935 American comedy film starring the Marx brothers. Groucho Marx, Chico Marx and Harpo Marx. The Marx brothers influence on comedy can still be seen in todays films. There is very few comedians that have ever had as long a lasting influence or been as well-known as they are. It is absolutely astonishing that after over seventy years, it still portrays the same amount of enjoyment and laughter in modern viewers as it did when the film was first distributed. The language of their comedy has not dulled over time, aspects of Marx brother humor can be found throughout sit-coms, movies, comedic acts and especially cartoons. I have been a huge fan of the show called I Love Lucy since I was about 7 years old, but I never knew that the Marx brothers had such an influence on the show and that they based a lot of there comedy scenes from the Marx brothers, and Harpo had actually starred in one of their episodes as well. In the film A Night at the Opera they have a singer names Ricardo Baroni, and in the set of I Love Lucy her husbans name is Ricky Ricardo. I feel as if since A Night at the Opera played such a big influence on their show that maybe they were trying to place that name in there as some type of contribute to them and their film. I also have seen many scenes in the cartoon Tom and Jerry that tie in together from the Marx brothers. This is just proof that from Grouchos wisecracking word play, Chico conning every person he can when he has the chance, to the way Harpos doesnt speak and frankly comes off really dumb founded. There sense of humor is timeless and forever will be a true classic.

Career develpoment plan part (iii) Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Career develpoment plan part (iii) - Essay Example Here are three basic questions to answer: This gives the current-state analysis of skills, capabilities, and knowledge which each individual employee holds at this point in time. They are then required to jot down the strengths and weaknesses, which they think they carry. Their self assessment is then passed on to functional managers for evaluation based on their observation about each individual. This is more like a starting point for the employee’s career, presence of which may un-block potential growth areas. Second question which needs attention is the future-state one seeks to reach, considering the career interest, knowledge, and skills which can be enhanced. It gives a proper direction for pursuing the career one wants to stick to after gaining much experience. Mostly, career counseling or proper mentoring by experts can help in figuring out the place one desires to reach. Lastly, figuring out the gaps between the current-state and the future-state provides structured Action Plan for achieving desired goals. Over here, it’s very critical to have realistic goals in mind, absence of which can make the efforts go invain. The action plan created acts like a detailed map, consisting of step-by-step measures required to progress. The career map formed by the assessment acts like the initial document for carrying out the Performance Appraisal procedure, along with the Job Description and Job Responsibilities’ documents provided to employees at the time of induction. At the time of appraisal, which is the basic step for evaluating the progress, appraisal forms (refer to Appendix A) are shared. The yearly, bi-yearly, or quarterly appraisals highlight the strengths, which have been utilized the most; and the areas of improvement of each employee separately. Feedbacks of the appraisals are shared with the employees individually by calling private meeting in a closed room, where concerns can be shared and disagreements can be catered to

Marketing Communication Plan Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

Marketing Communication Plan - Essay Example Objectives for Future: In order to sustain the organisation’s reputation and to enhance it in the future, they will need to launch new and innovative campaigns in target nations that really have problems, which affect a major share of the population. By doing this, Oxfam can garner a lot of media as well as public attention that will further promote their good will on a global level. In the recent years, the youth oriented programs of the organisation have attracted attention and they are receiving good support for such endeavours. These campaigns are being promoted through Youth Action Group, which provide youngsters to be innovative and orient their actions for fighting against issues that â€Å"matter to them† and thus come under the umbrella of â€Å"active global citizens† (Teachers’ Guide: A Guide to Support Youth Action Groups, n.d.). Developing nations do offer a wide range of options for action with regard to improving the quality of life of young sters, solving a variety of problems that they encounter, providing them better educational and employment avenues etc. Thus, it transpires that the best strategy at this juncture for Oxfam is to focus their attention to some major problem in a developing nation that will offer the scope for excellent PR work. In order to sustain their reputation as a high profile charitable organization, Oxfam needs to focus on the problems on developing nations and take action for supporting the novel causes in those countries. This will enable them to tap the potential of garnering support from these countries as well as create an impression in the international community that the organization is intervening with the real problems that need to be tackled in the modern day. There are many countries in the world where resources are plenty and human talent is available in abundance. However, due to a lack of a proper sense of direction or the absence of resourceful leadership, many aspects may get i gnored thus causing internal problems in the country. Organisations like Oxfam have a key role to play in such nations and by doing so, they will be offering valuable services to such countries. In order to raise funds and promote their reputation as a short term objective, one of the ideal strategies will be to fix a novel price for the Oxfam Anniversary Party and Gathering and to promote its sale through active campaigns, with the propaganda focused on the key issue for which the income will be spent on. In addition, a fund raising endeavour can also be made on the day of the event, with some specific offer as media coverage or advertisement for the donors to the cause. Similarly, parties can also be organized in major cities of the country where the focus campaign is to be conducted, wherein similar special offers may be floated to industries and other interested parties. Thus, Oxfam will be able to generate high revenues from the Annual Party and Gathering. Target: India is a de veloping nation, with its economy poised for high growth and it is also one of the major destinations for foreign investment as the country has a high â€Å"potential for achieving sustained growth† and development (Current State of the Indian Economy: A Balancing Act, 2012, p.7). The country, despite being agriculture based traditionally, has a lot of industries both in manufacturing and service areas as well as other

Home Depot Employee Benefits Essay Example for Free

Home Depot Employee Benefits Essay The first case is against an employee Gunderson working at JMI agency owned by Brown Corporation. It is filed by Brown on account of the defendant’s violation of the employee agreement by joining a competing company after working there continuously for seven months and soliciting and servicing Brown’s customers and disclosing confidential information. The summary judgment was made in favor of the defendant because an employment of seven months is not enough under Illinois law to support the limiting agreement. (Findlaw, 2008) The second case is against an employee Robert M. Bono working at Chicago Transit Board who was discharged from his job on account of misconduct by calling a customer while working though his job duties did not require calling any customers. The call was personal and social in nature involving a sexual joke. The court affirmed the decision of Chicago Transit Board as being reasonable and appropriate. (Findlaw, 2008) Issues:Â  The issue being discussed in the first case is the claim by the parent company of breach of contract by the employee. But since the employment period of Gunderson was only seven months so according to Illinois law no charges can be made against him In the second case, the issue discussed is of an employee misbehaving with a customer on telephone and making personal use of the phone though he is not allowed to do so. Therefore, he dismissed by the company. Implications for Home Depot:Â  At Home Depot, each employee should be clearly told of his/her duties and the consequences of not acting accordingly. Secondly, the employee contract at Home Depot should specify clearly all the terms and conditions specially the time period after which he can be accused of the violation of the contract. Conclusion: Through the analysis of the above cases, I learned that minor mistakes by an employee can result into big troubles and court procedures. Therefore, one should remain cautious every time while working on his job.

Teleconferencing - An Upgraded Means of Communication Essay -- Explora

Teleconferencing - An Upgraded Means of Communication The day-to-day communications and conferencing between people evolved to what we know as telecommunications and information services. Teleconferencing is an elevation of telecommunications and information. Ordinarily, in a conference people meet together in groups small or large to discuss and exchange ideas, and views about facts, subjects, or events. But teleconferencing makes a great difference with new technologies. Putting these ideas together, we agree that teleconferencing is the discussion and exchange of ideas and views by a group of two or more through transmission, emission, and acceptance of signs and signals, images and sounds by wire, optical and other electronic devices without the participants being under the same roof (World Communications 16). How did it come about? According to the book titled, World communications, the root of teleconferencing is traced back to 1837 when Samuel Morse invented the first electric telegraph. This was used for local transmission of messages and information. It became an international means of information transfer in 1876. In this same year with the invention of telephone system by Alexander graham bell, communication system was upgraded (World Communications 50). The telephone not only became an extension of telegraph but a break through and the basis for much of today’s astonishing progress in the routing, transmission and processing of information. The first wireless transmission was established in 1895 (World Communications 51). Communications and conference continued to improve with the invention and discovery of other mass media devices such as the radios in 1930s and the television in 1950s. Teleconferenci... ...rge scale teleconferencing will require a reasonable amount of money to get it done. Conclusion: Teleconferencing is an upgraded means of communication and information that require telephone line/cable, television /screen, video machine etc to make it effective. It connects as many businesses as possible. It saves money, time and energy. It is easy to record minutes of conferences and use it later. Resources Used H.L.Capron. Computers: Tools for an Information Age (sixth edition). New Jersey: Princeton Hall Inc. Telecommunications union: World communications Geneva, Switzerland 1983. http://www.ltss.bristol.ac.uk/teleconf_1.htm (20 May 2001) http://www.lifelearn.depaul.edu/un/ (21 May 2001) http://www..lifelearn.depaul.edu/un/ http://www.kn.pacbell.com/wired/vidconf/ (21 May 2001) http://www.fhwa.dot.gov/reports/pittd/teleconf.htm (21 May 2001)

Significant Effects of Music

The study entitled SIGNIFICANT EFFECTS OF MUSIC aims to determine the factors that causes the youth to get involved to music, the significant effects, whether would be positive or negative, that it brought to them, the comparative effects it take them to music while studying, between listening and reviewing. Specifically it sought to answer the following questions: I. What are the factors that influence and cause the youth to get involved into music? II. What are the significant effects of music? III. a. What are the desirable effects of getting involved into listening music? b. ) What are the undesirable effects of getting involved into listening music? IV. How does music affects their performance in school? The study made use of the descriptive method to determine the desirable and undesirable effects of music. The data were gathered through survey questionnaire given to some junior students. This respondent of the study were roughly 72 students selected using the Proportional Stra tified Random Sampling method. The students were chosen carefully so that the samples represent the population. The study made use of previous researcher, interview, music manuals, research books, related literature on the book from the library and other on formations through the internet. Data gathered were the basis of the research in drawing the conclusion. The researcher problem focuses on the significant effects of music on junior students. After gathering and summarizing data the researchers come up to the following results. That junior student perceived that the psychological/emotional factor obtaining a total evaluated score of 133 ranks as number one factor that drives them to listen to music. Second and third, mental and social respectively. Total evaluated score higher than zero (0) on statements on the desirable and undesirable effects of music presented on the survey questionnaire would mean that evaluated statements were accepted to be true. On the other hand total evaluated score less than zero (0) would indicate that there is no significant evidence to show that the evaluated statement manifest such effect. Junior students perceived DS3 as the most desirable effect of music. That is music makes them happy, relaxed, and energized. Junior students perceived US3 as the most undesirable effect of music. That is music makes them lose track of time enabling them to accomplish their work and household chores. Junior students perceived that music has something to do with regards to their performance in school. Majority agreed that music improves their learning ability while reviewing. (DS1). Music plays an important part of an individual. People listen and engage into music because of many reasons such (1) to fulfill own satisfaction (2) to enjoy (3) to express feelings (4) to relax (5) to produce sense of participation (6) to lighten burden/work easier etc. Based on the survey results, it is the psychological or emotional factor that drives the junior students most to listen to music which is in congruence and in relation to the most perceived desirable effect that is music makes them happy, relaxed and energized. Even so, there is still a great variability to the extent of engagement. Although findings show that music offers a wide selection of pleasant effects since all statements presented were shown and proven to be true, careful considerations must be given to the negative effects for result show that from among 5 presented statements on undesirable effects of music, 3 were evidently true. No matter how little or significant it is, take into account that there is always a risk. When it comes to their performance in school findings prove that majority of the junior students agreed that music enhances their learning ability when reviewing.

Political Parties and Unfair Elections Essay

This party system was the first ‘truly national system’, consisting of the Democrats (followers of Jackson) and Whigs (opponents of Jackson) fairly balanced in most regions (Wilson and DiIulio, Jr. 196). The Civil War split the political parties in several ways. There was a deep difference in opinion between the parties over the issue of slavery and sectionalism. Both parties tried to ‘straddle the issues’ to avoid dividing their followers and losing the election to their rival (Wilson and DiIulio, Jr. 196). But the old parties divided and new ones emerged. As a result of the Civil War the modern Republican Party began as a third party. The Republican Party’s strength lay in the North; Abraham Lincoln did not receive a single electoral vote from a Southern state in 1860. The Democrats in the North divided into War Democrats, who supported the war effort but claimed the Republicans were doing a poor job of leading the Union, and the Peace Democrats, or Copperheads, who opposed the war and were suspected of disloyalty to the Union. To win the election of 1864, the Republicans reorganized themselves as the Union party to attract votes from the War Democrats and nominated War Democrat Andrew Johnson for vice president. When Lincoln was assassinated, Democrat Johnson became president. Following the Civil War, Republicans moved quickly to consolidate their control of the United States government. They quickly added a series of Western states to the Union, states that they expected would remain firm in their support for Republicans. The Republican Party’s pro-business positions played well in the industrial North and Midwest, while the Democrats held the â€Å"solid South. † The large number of immigrants who came to the United States, together with the growing industrial workforce, laid the basis for strong, largely Democratic political machines in New York, Chicago, and other large cities (CliffsNotes. com). So at this point there were basically two political parties, the Democrats and the Republicans. The Democrats dominated national politics for the next 20 years. Democratic dominance collapsed in the 1960s in response to the Vietnam War. There was unprecedented rioting against the principles of the war and Democrats blamed their party for the riots and the rise in unlawful behavior and protests. Due to that fact, support of the Democratic Party sharply declined. From the 1968 election of Richard Nixon to Bill Clinton’s 1992 victory, only one Democrat attained the White House: Jimmy Carter, whose term spanned 1976 to 1980. The Electoral College is a major factor in sustaining a majority two-party system, but does not necessarily keep elections fair. If the popular vote in a state is very close, the winner gets all of the state’s electoral votes. This makes it extremely difficult for a third party to win, i. e. the two-party system is reinforced. In many cases the Electoral College system has failed so far as keeping elections fair. Two instances in particular reveal the inadequacy of the Electoral College procedure. An example of a popular third party candidate that was denied any serious validation as a Presidential candidate would be Ross Perot in the 1992 election. Perot garnered almost 20 percent of the popular vote across the country but did not receive a single electoral vote due to the Electoral College rules. This discrepancy between electoral and popular votes has led to many wanting to put an end to the Electoral College system and replace it with popular voting. Another example of the failure of the Electoral College system was exemplified in the 2000 election, when Al Gore was not chosen to be president although he had the popular vote of the country. A systematic conspiracy to heavily manipulate the vote in the critical state of Florida to favor Bush in the 2000 Bush-Gore presidential election ultimately resulted in a Bush victory. The blatant manipulation methods used were enough to swing the election to Bush and away from Gore. The evident fraud in the voting process and the failure of the courts to intervene in a proper and non-partisan manner cost Gore the Presidency. When it became apparent on November 8, 2000 that neither Gore nor Bush had the majority of the electoral votes required to win the Presidency, the state of Florida became the focus of attention. Both candidates needed a majority in Florida to win the White House, but voting irregularities prevented the final tally from being reached for over five weeks. What voters didn’t realize was that the voting procedure wasn’t the only problem in Florida, but that the process to insure George W. Bush’s victory had been in place for over two years before the election. Florida Governor Jeb Bush, George W. Bush’s brother, was elected in 1998. He immediately put a plan into action that would help his brother gain the Florida electoral votes in the 2000 election. Gov. Bush let special interest groups know that they expected political donations of $2 for every $1 donated to Democrats or defaulters would lose access to the governor and the legislative leadership, and their businesses would tank. The Governor also began replacing   Ã‚   Democrats throughout Florida state government, his first purge of Democratic voters. Governor Jeb Bush’s next step to eliminate Democratic power in Florida was to appoint staunch Republicans to control Florida’s educational system, including state senator Jim Horne as Florida’s first Secretary of Education and most of the individual university presidents. He accomplished this feat by eliminating the Florida Board of Regents. The board was replaced by separate boards of trustees at all ten of the state universities According to Lance deHaven-Smith, in his book entitled The Battle for Florida, â€Å"the governor was given the power to make all the trustee appointments†. This created an enormous source of new patronage and also undermined the political neutrality of the state universities. With the Board of Regents out of the way, Republicans quickly replaced many of the university presidents with political insiders. (deHaven-Smith, 2005) The Florida Republican Party then began a drive to disenfranchise Democratic voters. They paid a private company to purge the voter registry of all ex-felons, even though Florida courts twice ruled that ex-felons whose civil rights had been restored before they came to Florida were entitled to vote. This would benefit the Republicans because blacks made up more than 50% of the ex-felon list and 9 0% of the black Florida population voted Democratic. In 1999, newly-elected Secretary of State Katherine Harris paid Data Base Technologies (DBT) $4. million to compile the most extensive scrub list possible. Race was a big factor in compiling matches for the list. After the election, DBT testified before a congressional committee that Florida officials had ordered them to eliminate voters by making incorrect matches. The information was gathered from the Internet and no verifying telephone calls were made. Five months before the election, Harris (who coincidentally was co-chairing the Bush presidential campaign) sent the list of 57,700 names to all the precincts with instructions to remove those voters from the rolls. Greg Palast revealed the story of the scrub list in The Observer, London, November 26, 2000. The story was ignored by American mainstream press. Palast has since provided irrefutable, hard evidence of fraud. His most recent estimate of qualified Florida voters barred from casting a ballot in Election 2000 stands at 90,000. On January 10, 2001, NAACP lawyers sued and won their case against DBT, Secretary of State Katherine Harris, and Bush loyalist Clay Roberts, Director of the Division of Elections. (Palast, 2003)   On Election Day 2000 in the state of Florida, however; Republican voters stood in short ines and used up-to-date equipment. The machinations of the Republican Party paid off in black districts. Highway patrol officers flagged down voters at roadblocks and checked their drivers’ licenses while others waited in long lines to vote on ancient machines. Innocent citizens were turned away and informed that their names appeared on the ex-felons list when they showed up to vote. Republicans found other ways to disenfranchise opposition voters. Two-page ballots with misleading directions were printed in Austin, Texas (the center of the George W. Bush presidential campaign), returned to Florida, and distributed in black districts. Some votes were simply later trashed by ballot handlers. In Duval County, 27,000 ballots were discarded, over half of them from black precincts in Jacksonville. No official challenges were filed within the 72-hour time limit, so thousands of mostly Democratic votes were lost. Sixteen-thousand votes for Gore disappeared overnight from the ongoing Volusia County tally and were reinstated only when an election supervisor questioned the subtraction of already registered votes. No voting machine company representative or election official was able to explain what happened. (Dover, 2002) Around 8 p. m. on Election Day exit polls from Voter News Service projected a Gore victory, but Bev Harris uncovered an CBS news report revealing that the erroneous subtraction of Gore’s votes in Volusia caused the election to be called for Bush. For several hours the race was too close to call, but shortly after midnight, Bush’s numbers plunged rapidly and Gore gained the lead. Despite Gore’s numbers, at 2:16 a. m. Fox News announced that Texas Governor George W. Bush had won Florida and the other television networks repeated Fox’s false information. (Harris, 2004) Gore heard the fake news of his defeat, phoned his congratulations to Bush and was prepared to deliver his concession speech to the nation. At that point, Gore’s chief advisors in Florida told him it was much too early to concede formally and advised him to hold off since there were still 360,000 uncounted votes. Out of 6 million votes cast in Florida, Bush’s lead was reported to be a mere 537 votes. The Florida Constitution had no provisions for a statewide recount, so Gore asked for a partial recount in four southern counties where glaring irregularities had shown up. The last thing the Bush team wanted was a fair recount. They complained to the press that Gore was a sore loser, and the press largely agreed. (Posner, 2001)   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  On December 8, the Florida Supreme Court overturned a circuit court decision and ordered a manual recount. Based on findings in the circuit court trial, Gore was awarded 393 votes, reducing Bush’s lead to only 154 votes. That’s when the Bush camp went ballistic. (Simon, 2001)   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The National Party sent out-of-state operatives to intimidate Republican county clerks to amend over votes in Republican counties, to amend incomplete absentee ballot applications, and to accept late-arriving military ballots lacking signatures. When the recount actually began they became more radical, charged into the county administration building, threatening county canvassers, and halted the recount of Miami-Dade ballots. Despite court orders, eighteen counties never attempted a recount. The Bush campaign team and lawyers circulated misinformation about Florida’s election laws, about the reliability of manual recounts (both Jeb and George W. claimed that only machines could count accurately), and about the likelihood of a constitutional crisis. (Zelden, 2010) The Florida Constitution specifies that the intent of the voter be paramount during ballot recounting. Because electronic machines had repeatedly failed to read, discern intent, and count ballots accurately, manual recounting was mandated. The law was actually quite clear and no constitutional crisis was imminent. That did not stop the Bush team from pressing the issue, for they wanted the U. S. Supreme Court to intervene and prevent the recount. Republican leadership called the legislature into special session while the judiciary branch still addressed election issues, an extraordinary move. Speaker of the House Tom Feeney, Jeb’s bosom political buddy, took the podium and criticized the Florida Supreme Court decisions. He warned that if the dispute continued to December 12, Florida’s electoral slate would be excluded from the Electoral College vote. Florida had submitted its election results as they were certified, so the electoral slate was never really in danger. The Bush legal team, determined to delay or stop the recount, appealed to the U. S. District Court of Appeals, the Florida Supreme Court, and the U. S. Supreme Court. The justices had no business interfering in the election. The U. S. Constitution authorizes Congress to settle election disputes, not the Supreme Court. The first two courts denied the appeal. Then the U. S. Supreme Court gave them the nod. From that moment, the fix was in. Zelden, 2010) Justices Antonin Scalia and Clarence Thomas had close relatives working for Republican organizations and should have recused themselves. Antonin Scalia’s son Eugene is a Washington law partner of Theodore B. Olson, the attorney who twice argued before the Supreme Court on behalf of George W. Bush. Scalia’s son John is an attorney with the Miami law firm that represented Bush in Florida. Clarence Thomas†™s wife, Virginia, worked for the Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank, and had been helping to collect applications from people seeking employment in the Bush administration. But they, along with the three other right-wing judges on the court, issued a ruling instructing the Florida courts to find a recount method that would apply â€Å"equal standards. † The decision came down at 10 p. m. on December 12, 2000, two hours before the deadline to submit voting results. In short, the U. S. Supreme Court ran the clock out on American voters and handed Florida’s electoral votes and the presidency to George W. Bush. (Thoreau, 2007) Reviewing the actual results of the statewide examination of 175,010 disputed ballots, on November 12, 2001 Robert Parry, www. consortiumnews. om, cleared away the media fog: â€Å"So Al Gore was the choice of Florida’s voters — whether one counts hanging chads or dimpled chads. That was the core finding of the eight news organizations that conducted a review of disputed Florida ballots. By any chad measure, Gore won. Gore won even if one doesn’t count the 15,000-25,000 votes that USA Today estimate d Gore lost because of illegally designed ‘butterfly ballots,’ or the hundreds of predominantly African-American voters who were falsely identified by the state as felons and turned away from the polls. Gore won even if there’s no adjustment for George W. Bush’s windfall of about 290 votes from improperly counted military absentee ballots where lax standards were applied to Republican counties and strict standards to Democratic ones, a violation of fairness reported earlier by the Washington Post and the New York Times. Put differently, George W. Bush was not the choice of Florida’s voters anymore than he was the choice of the American people who cast a half million more ballots for Gore than Bush nationwide. † Although the 2000 election was a travesty, one positive outcome was the renewal in the nation’s interest in The National Popular Vote bill.

Narrative Paper on Just off Main Street by Elmaz Abinader Essay Example

Narrative Paper on Just off Main Street by Elmaz Abinader Essay Example Narrative Paper on Just off Main Street by Elmaz Abinader Paper Narrative Paper on Just off Main Street by Elmaz Abinader Paper Essay Topic: Main Street Breaking Barriers: Acceptance of Exoticization In her essay Just off Main Street, published by the United States Department of State, Elmaz Abinader stresses the importance of embracing cultural differences. Abinader precisely describes her struggles as an Arab-American attempting to stay true to her two worlds: the American society and her Lebanese culture. As an Armenian I can directly relate to almost every instance Abinader depicts throughout her essay. Abinaders words and descriptions clearly outline the context of her two worlds. For example, a key symbol Abinader consistently mentions is the magic door r portal that separates the outside and inside world (par 1). Through her descriptions, comparisons, and cultural concepts, Adinader creates worlds of meaning between her former portal and the outside world by eliminating the ignorance and sparking a domino effect of acceptance to all Middle Eastern cultures. In her first paragraph, Abinader sets up the norms in todays society. She uses the word standard which immediately causes the reader to picture the typical American community. The first paragraph signaled for a comparison between Abinaders community and her home life. When she states, From the face of it, our businesses looked like any others, I understand that her family is attempting to put up a front in order to blend in (par 2). When Abinader states, my father and my uncle stood in the doorways of their establishments, her use of the word establishments has meaning to me. Most individuals of Middle Eastern, European decent are very hardworking and take their possessions and accomplishments seriously. These cultures have an ideology encompassing strong pride, because in historical situations they have been criticized and undermined. On April 24, 191 5 the Ottoman Turks killed over 1. 5 million Armenians. This tragedy is referred to as the Armenian genocide. However, till this day the Turks and several uninformed individuals deny that it occurred. This denial serves as a perfect example as to why Middle Eastern, Europeans stay close to their culture and have pride. They yearn for a sense of belonging (par 12). Abinader speaks of the belonging and Joy her family scenes brought her, yet she could not share this Joy with those on the other side of the door because of their lack of acceptance (par 12). The description of Abinaders peers, Jeannie and Renee, precisely contrast the two lives on either side of the magic door. Abinader describes her fascination of the shiny bikes with streamers and the collection of Barbie doll paraphernalia. Her fascination and her description of the after-school duties she would partake in created a stark contrast between her and her classmates. Why is different looked upon negatively? The reason Abinader was ridiculed on the playground was not specifically because of her dark hair or her ape like arms (par 4). The ridicule occurred due to her differences; she was exotic. Just off Main Street, incorporated an abundance of cultural elements. Abinaders parents may seem strict to the average American due to their after-school duties or round puffy disks she had Just baked (par 6). However, if one understands the Middle Eastern, European culture, they would know that Abinaders parents are structured and focused people. They dont give their children responsibilities at an early age to punish them; instead, they do this to introduce the cultures morals and alues. Other cultural aspects included in Abinaders essay were her descriptions of the Arabic dishes, the music and dancing in circles, and the stories told from the old days (par 10). All of these elements play a part in creating that home or feeling of belonging which I sense during my own family gatherings (par 21). Yet, Abinader could not mesh her two worlds due to the ridicule she already went through before cracking open her magical door. Similar to Abinader, I found it extremely difficult going through elementary and iddle school known as that foreign girl with a big nose and parents with strong accents. My magic door was always shut until the last couple years of high school. In high school and college, we try to find ourselves, or something that we can distinguish ourselves with. During these years, both, Abinader and I realized that being Middle Eastern is something to embrace and to share with others. It was not until Abinader studied at the University of Pittsburgh that she could finally open the threshold between her two worlds (par 13). The Syria-Lebanese room housed in the English Department revealed all of the beautiful things about Abinaders culture such as the Persian rug designs and the glass multi-colored lights (par 14). As soon as she recognized the appreciation and fascination her peers had of this room that she was associated with, Abinader felt a sense of pride, which inspired her to embrace her culture through literature (par 14). Adinader not only inspires young Arabic writers, but she also inspires young writers of any Middle Eastern, European decent to continue spreading the knowledge to those who are unfamiliar with the Middle Eastern culture. It is through the acceptance from others that we will truly be able to express ourselves and let down our guards. Its difficult to imagine any Middle Eastern individual to not want to inform the public of their cultures rich history. It saddens me that at times these individuals are forced to put up that magic door due to negative thoughts of these cultures or political controversies. However, through more education, we will finally be able to understand and accept one another opening all barriers that prevent worlds of meaning.

Critically evaluate the use of text matching software as an aid to Essay

Critically evaluate the use of text matching software as an aid to developing good scholarship practice - Essay Example The software used to identify data from various sources is the Text Matching Software. The software identifies lines of the paragraphs originating from different sources. This software is easy to install and can identify the matching text from different sources in a very short period. The software can be used in all operating systems by Microsoft. Another advantage of the software is that it can identify missing data on a document One can manage to differentiate columns that are up to date and those which are not updated. The software can also be used to make comparisons of different spreadsheet originating from different sources. Universities and colleges have been discouraging plagiarism among students since it deteriorates learning practice and it has been considered as an offence. Therefore, software has been developed to detect cheating students who are unduly rewarded on their assignments, which is not their own work (Sutherland-Smith, 2008). The software has enabled universiti es and other institutions of higher learning to identify plagiarism and award students fairly at the same time punish those caught cheating. The invention of the software has encouraged the student to do their own original work, and this has improved the scholarly system in colleges and universities. The school’s administration attempted to research on estimates of students being prone to plagiarism. However, their estimates did not have a correct tool to verify whether their estimates were accurate or not. Before the software was invented, most plagiarism was not detected the reason being there were no accurate means of identifying plagiarism. University assignments submitted by student groups have also been a significant challenge because the data have also been found to be plagiarized. One of the categories is that undergraduate are ignorant and inexperienced or rather lack awareness of the repercussions they are likely to face. It is advisable that lectures should identif y students who are beginning their studies and those who are on the verge of completing their career (MacDonald & Carroll 2006, p.233). Research records, which have been kept for five years, have proved that the work handed in by second year students of the business school from the university have been identified with a lot of plagiarism cases. The person in charge of this research was a tutor and an assessor of the students. The research, which was to be carried out by the students, was to come up with a business plan that entailed the research of marketing and financial plans and conditions. The lecturer can hand in the assignment to his or her students and encourage them to use all available sources they can find including the internet. After the assignment has been submitted, the lecturer is supposed to scrutinize the assignment and identify any cases of cheating and plagiarism present. He is supposed to identify any data that are matched to that of the internet. After the stude nts have received the results, they should make corrections in the script according to the specified guidelines recommended by the lecturer and remove any mistakes that may be present. The student is then required to submit the final script, having made the necessary corrections. The lecturer is supposed to quote to the students the reference source of the data so as to verify if it was harmless or it was a serious case of plagiarism (Walker 2010, p.41). The lecturer then issues an indicator of the extent of plagiarism for instance the scripts issued, with more than 20% may be described as severely plagiarized, and those with less than 20% can be termed as less plagiarized. There are instances where the data can be found to contain one or two lines of plagiarism, and in this case it may not be recorded, and it is assumed as ignorance of the student. However, the grading of the extent of

European Union Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words - 2

European Union - Essay Example The member states benefit from both internal and external aspects of single market. Examples of these aspects include free trade of goods and services among member countries, common competition law that controls non-competitive activities of companies, elimination of internal border control and harmonization of external controls. Additional aspects include citizen’s freedom to live and work in any member state, free capital movement between member states, universal external customs tariff and a universal position in negotiations involving international trade among others. Following the European Union members’ deregulation of the aviation industry, which they accomplished in 1997, they abolished all traditional national protectionism, which resulted into a great improvement in the management of air traffic. With an aim of establishing a safer and efficient flow of air traffic within Europe, they set up a new system of managing air traffic. One very significant component of this system is the single European sky legislation that the EU launched in 1999 and its institutions adopted it in 2004. This legislation involved restructuring of the European airspace, which was formally individual national airspaces that individual member states regulated, into a single area regulated by the alliance (EUROPA, 2007). The single European sky led to the simplification of procedures for controllers of air traffic and pilots as well as fewer handovers where controllers of air traffic manage wider sky expanse while Europe-wide common procedures and rules provide pilots with a flawless service. Minimizing of different areas of control enhances faster services and a structure that is far better in dealing with any eventual trouble. The single European sky has also boosted air travel in EU member countries significantly. It has directly provided airlines with quicker and safer