Saturday, November 30, 2019
Sports Supplements Essays - Dietary Supplements,
Sports Supplements Athletes are competitive. They go out there to win. But, at all costs? Why are athletes willing to sacrifice their long term health in order to have one outstanding season? Will it be worth it when they are hooked up to machines in order to stay alive? Many athletes do not think that taking a supplement will harm them. They are strong, tough athletes, nothing can harm them, right? So, they start taking creatine or andro, or both. For most, they lose body fat, gain strength and muscle. That sounds great, but that is not always what happens. The use of over-the-counter sports supplements is dangerous and the FDA should take them off the shelf. Supplements are supposed to be taken to make up for a deficiency in some aspect of a person's diet. For example, if someone does not like milk and does not eat any foods that contain calcium, they could take a calcium supplement. But, athletes use supplements to lose body fat and gain muscle and strength. Once favored primarily by gung-ho body builders, products that purportedly add muscle and increase strength are now being snapped up by weekend athletes hoping to stay in top form, as well as older adults wanting to stay toned and healthy as they age ("Drugs" 8). These sports supplements are not being used correctly, and this causes problems down the road for users. There are different types of supplements. Creatine monohydrate, generally known as creatine is a popularly used supplement. Creatine occurs naturally in muscles, but many athletes or body builders take it to increase their strength and size. When using muscles, a chemical called ATP (adenosine tri-phosphate) is broken down into ADP (adenosine DI-phosphate) and an inorganic phosphate. The release of the phosphate is what gives the muscles energy. Creatine, the naturally occurring kind, or the kind that comes in a jar, combines with phosphate and can restore ADP back to ATP. Theoretically, this means more energy. But it does not come without a price. The manufacturers and advertisers for Creatine tell people they should use the product because muscles contain an average of 3.5 to 4 grams of naturally occurring creatine per kilogram of muscle. They say the good news is that up to 5 grams may be stored. So, by using their product, you can use your full potential of muscle energy ("Creatine" 1). Basically what the company is telling you is to pay an outrageous amount of money to add 1 gram on creatine to your muscles. Also, taking creatine has many side effects, just as other supplements do. This is because this type of creatine is pure. The body gets its natural creatine from red meat. But, red meat is not one hundred percent creatine. The body cannot handle the potency of this supplement. Androstenedione (Andro) is a hormonally based supplement that is supposed to help weight lifters add muscle. Andro is taken orally and goes to the liver. The liver destroys most of what is ingested, but what does survive combines with various enzymes and temporarily boosts testosterone levels. This boost in testosterone allows an athlete to perform at a level above what he usually does. "Androstendione is an honest-to-goodness steroid and a precursor to testosterone" (Gorman 246). If an athlete takes andro before he goes to the gym, he will be able to lift more, and thus increase strength and size. Although it is not legally considered an anabolic steroid at this time, andro acts exactly as they do. "Many endocrinologists insist that the differences between supplements like androstenedione and traditional steroids (which are legal only for certain medical conditions) are trivial" (Zorpette 22). In Canada a prescription is needed to get andro, but in the US it is an over-the-counter drug (Sibbald 1). If they essentially have the same effects, then one should not be illegal and the other legal. "The American College of Sports Medicine says anabolic steroids such as androstenedione as well as other ?dietary supplements' should be reevaluated and considered drugs" (Sibbald 1). Taking steroids is known to cause many health problems. Yes, they do make people better athletes, but they are illegal and athletes should not use them. DHEA is a supplement in the same "family" as andro, called prohormones. DHEA also raises the testosterone levels in the body. There is very little scientific support of these prohomones. In fact, some preliminary evidence suggests that they may be counterproductive. In a well-controlled study just published in the American Journal of the American Medical Association, androstenedione failed to boost
Tuesday, November 26, 2019
Developing Managerial Strategy in Recruitment and Selection Process The WritePass Journal
Developing Managerial Strategy in Recruitment and Selection Process Chapter 1  INTRODUCTION Developing Managerial Strategy in Recruitment and Selection Process McDonald’s aims to: â€Å"optimize and evolve their menu, modernize the customer experience and broad accessibility to their Brand†(McDonald’s Corporation, 2012). In particular, the following study will focus on McDonald’s in the United Kingdom. Currently McDonald’s has more than 1250 restaurants across the country. McDonald’s Company owns approximately 63% of them while the rest is franchised. McDonald’s hires over 67.000 people in the UK, including hours-paid employees, management team and office staff. Steve Easterbrook, Chief Executive and President of McDonald’s, postulates that Human Resources is a key priority at McDonald’s. He believes that â€Å"If you get the people part right, the rest will follow†(Fuller, 2006). McDonald’s, similarly as other global giants, aims to recruit employees that will be willing to develop and to become managers in the future. Hence, recruitment and selection process seems to be an interesting topic to examine. 1.1 PROBLEM STATEMENT The hospitality sector has a bad reputation amongst the jobseekers. A number of businesses within a sector do not have an employment agreement or employment policy. The jobs within a sector are mostly part-time or temporary. Additionally they are low-paid. The managers often lack people skills, as they have no solid experience in management. Hence, the hospitality sector has been characterized by a high turnover of staff (Lye, 2007). McDonald’s reputation as an employer has changed over the past decades. In 1991, Canadian novelist Douglas Coupland postulated that McDonald’s jobs were â€Å"low-prestige, low-dignity, low-benefit, no-job in the service sector†(Fuller, 2006). In 2011, McDonald’s has been awarded HR Excellence Award for its Employment Engagement Strategy. Currently, McDonald’s is a significant employer in the United Kingdom, having 67.000 staff. In 2012 McDonald’s announced its plan of creating additional 2.500 jobs in the United Kingdom. As a reasonable actor, McDonald’s aims to recruit further right people that will support management team and contribute to the company’s growth in the future. Therefore, the dissertation aims to answer the following research question: â€Å"What steps have been taken by McDonald’s to select the best types of employees?†The research question indicates that the dissertation will consider recruitment process as a determinant of a successful selection of employees. Further, the dissertation will also analyze an employment policy at McDonald’s as a guarantor of low turnover of staff. Chapter 2 LITERATURE REVIEW Human Resource Management is one of key functions within a company. It includes attraction and recruitment of new employees as well as training, assessment and rewarding system within a company. The employees are perceived as a backbone of the organization, as they jointly contribute to the company’s success (Beach, 1980). As the business environment becomes highly competitive, the companies need to attract potential employees and to make sure that the employees will be willing to develop within a company and to contribute to its growth. While small businesses delegate HR issues to their senior officials or management team, large companies have a staff specializing in Human Resource Management or hand over a part of this job to the external bodies, recruitment agencies. In both cases, recruiters have to be very selective in order to prevent long-term negative consequences of hiring wrong staff such as poor performance, high turnover and failure to achieve company’s goal s (Evans, 2007). Not only do recruitment processes and employment policies become of keen interest to people working in HR departments, but they are also a subject of an ongoing debate in an existing literature. Considering first Human Resources Management in general, there is a number of scholars who analyzed the relationship between working incentives and worker’s productivity. Three scholars who gave solid theoretical basics to HR discipline should be mentioned. These are Maslow, Herzberg and McGregor. Maslow is a founder of a hierarchy of needs. Employment is regarded as a safety need, a next level after bottom basic needs. However, self-actualizations (i.e. climbing the career ladder) is at the top of the hierarchy of needs. It indicates that people need to be encouraged to climb the career ladder at the expense of other needs such as family or leisure (Wahba and Bridwell, 1976). Herzberg, in turn, specifies two sets of factors that increase people’s productivity at work in his Two Factor Theory. The first group are motivator factors such as achievement, responsibility, growth, promotion, while the second group – hygiene factors such as pay and benefits, supervision, company policy and administration (Feder, 2000). Lack of hygiene factors leads to the dissatisfaction of employees. Good organizational hygiene, in turn, constitutes a good foundation for the development of the motivator factors. The following theory has two important implications. First, the employers should focus on the worker’s attitudes to the performed job rather than on their interest in the job. Second, salary has been often wrongly perceived as a motivator while it has been a hygiene factor (Feder, 2000). McGregor developed Theory X and Theory Y. These theories divide employees into two groups, based on their job attitude and then, shape two different management styles. Theory X assumes that people are lazy and avoid responsibilities. Hence, managers should tightly c ontrol their workers. As the employees are not ambitious, a strong incentive program needs to be implemented in order to increase their productivity.  Contrary, Theory Y postulates that the employees are self-motivated and self-controlled. Managers should create the right conditions for self-development of their employees. According to McGregor, Theory Y managers are more successful than Theory X managers in building mutual trust with their employees and hence, in HR development. As HR is a key function of the organizations, Theory Y managers are also more effective in achieving company’s goals (Steward, 2009). Considering the recruitment process, there is a little discussion in the literature on the selection criteria, as the companies have been recruiting on various positions and hence, selection criteria are entirely dependent on the vacancies. Instead, the scholars (i.e. Richardson) focus on the recruitment strategies that can generally be divided on internal and external recruitment strategies. Internal recruitment refers to the recruitment within a company (a promotion of existing personnel or hiring through a recommendation of friend or family member by existing staff). The main advantage of internal recruitment is that the insiders know company’s strengths and limitations, its employees and culture. The internal promotion also strengthens the employees’ commitment to the company. On the other hand, sometimes it might be hard to find a right candidate on a particular vacancy and hence, the position might be offered to the person that does not have possibly best qualific ations. Similarly, the company might not have a sufficient number of qualified staff to take newly created positions. Hence, it might lead to the promotion of people that did not get a full training and do not have a solid knowledge. External recruitment, in turn, includes informal and formal methods. Formal methods concern wide searches at the labour market for the candidates with no previous connection to the company. Informal methods regard searching company’s database for the retained resumes (i.e. rehiring former employees, hiring students who took internship programme within a company). The later method is faster and inexpensive compared to external methods (Richardson, 2000). Chapter 3  METHODOLOGY The following section will discuss the methodology used in the following research work. First, it will focus on the research design (research objectives, philosophy, strategy and approach) and then, it will consider methodology and its limitations. 3.1  RESEARCH DESIGN Research objectives The dissertation displays two main objectives. First, it aims to analyze the recruitment strategy developed by McDonald’s in order to demonstrate how McDonald’s attracts people to apply for a job as well as to reveal what employees McDonald’s is looking for. Second, it intends to examine an employment policy of McDonald’s in order to discuss the working incentives used by McDonald’s to ensure low turnover of staff. Research philosophy The research philosophy is based on research question, objectives and methodology. The following research considers recruitment strategy and employment policy as key elements of successful HR management. Hence, interpretivism is considered to be the most accurate research philosophy, as it focuses on social actions and their influence on people. Research approach The following research work will use both inductive and deductive research approaches. The deductive approach will be reflected in the review of existing literature on human resources management as well as in the discussion on the relevance of various recruitment strategies to McDonald’s recruitment concept. The inductive approach, in turn, will be reflected in the interview with McDonald’s Vice President. The interview will demonstrate the main values and principles of HR policy at McDonald’s in order to deliver a detailed understanding of the research context. Research strategy (methodology) As the recruitment strategies and recruitment processes are deeply researched elements of HR sector, the most accurate methodology seems to be the case study. It will focus on an in-depth analysis of the research topic on an example of a single company, McDonald’s. The following case study will have an explanatory character as it examines relationships between organization and its employees (In general, an explanatory research concerns relationships between variables i.e. the causes and the results). 3.2 DATA COLLECTION METHODS Both qualitative and quantitative methods will be used in the following dissertation in order to collect data. First, the research will include the semi-structural interview (qualitative method) with David Fairhust, McDonald’s vice-president responsible for HR department. This interview will be based on the list of 15 questions on recruitment strategy and employment policy at McDonalds and will provide a reliable data from the company’s side. Further, the interview will create an opportunity to gain the additional information due to the open-ended questions and the new questions brought up while interviewing. Second, the questionnaire will be conducted amongst the McDonald’s employees (quantitative methodology). The questionnaire aims to demonstrate how employees perceive the recruitment process within McDonald’s (How easy was a recruitment process? How did they like the questions they have been asked? Did any questions concern their growth within the company and potential career in management?) as well as to present how willing they are to work for McDonald’s within next five years. In order to present reliable and objective information, the research target is to survey a group of 100 employees from five McDonald’s restaurants in London. The designed questionnaire will include twenty multiple choice, closed-ended questions, as it intends to provide comparable data. Nonetheless, it will also leave some space for comments so that the employee will have an opportunity to present any additional issues (concerns). 3.5  LIMITATION OF THE DATA COLLECTION’S METHODOLOGY The validity and reliability of gained information are crucial for the research purposes. Hence, the researcher is aware of the limitations of the methodology and aims to minimize them. Considering the interview first, the researcher is aware that too sensitive topic, inexplicit questions as well as behaviour of the interviewer can affect interviewee’s response. Prior to the interview, the researcher will guarantee that all information will be used exclusively for the research purpose. Further, the interviewee will be given a copy of his answers in order to confirm that the interview does not offend the company and that the interviewee agrees to use the information in the following research work. Considering the questionnaire, the questions might be imprecise or inaccurate and hence, the respondents might understand the questions differently than the researcher did. Hence, the pilot study will be conducted first. They will include a group of 5 employees and they will check the level of difficulty and feedback by the respondents. The pilot study also helps researcher to obtain some assessment about the reliability of the questionnaire which will be very helpful in detecting the weaknesses and grey areas. This will also provide help about some ambiguous and vague queries so that they will be amended prior to final presentation. Further, the uncomfortable environment can also have an impact on the questionnaire’s results. Hence, the researcher intends to ensure that the questionnaire will be anonymous and it will not have an impact on the working conditions of the employees who agreed to participate. The management teams in the McDonald’s restaurants are expect ed to help in achieving this goal. TIMETABLE Prepare Proposal                                     MM:DD:2012 Literature Review                                               MM:DD:2012 Final Literature Review                          MM:DD:2012 Pilot Questionnaire                                 MM:DD:2012 Final Questionnaire                                 MM:DD:2012 Results And Analysis                             MM:DD:2012 First Draft                                                           MM:DD:2012 Final Draft                                              MM:DD:2012 Presentation                                            MM:DD:2012 Final Report                                            MM:DD:2012 REFERENCES Andrews, Y., (1988). The personnel function. Pretoria: Educational Publishers. Armstrong, M., (1996). A hand book of personnel management practice. 5th ed. London: Kogan Page. Ary, D. Jacobs, C.L. Razavich, A., (1996). Introduction to research in education. California: Thompson Learning. Beach, D.S., (1980). The management of people at work. 5th ed. New York: Macmillan. Beatty, R.H., (1994). Interviewing and selecting high performers. New York: Wiley. Berman, D.R., (1997). State of local politics, 8th ed. New York: Armonk. Booi, S. , (2005). An assessment of the recruitment and selection strategies used in the sales department of Old Mutual Group Schemes in the Eastern Cape. Port Elizabeth: Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University. Brounstein, M. and Visconti, R., (1992). Effective recruitment strategies. Menlo Park: Crisp. Cascio, W.F., (1998). Managing human resources. 5th ed., New York: Irwin/McGraw-Hill. Collins, J. and Hussey, R., (2003). Business research. 2nd ed. New York: Palgrave Macmillan. Cooper, D.R. and Emory, C.W., (2001). Business research method. 4th ed. Massachusetts: Irwin. Decenzo, A. and Robbins, S.P., (2002). Human resource management. 7th ed. New York : John Wiley Sons. Freder, B.J., (2000). F.I.Herzberg, 76, Professor and Management Consultant. New York Times. 1, p.26. Fuller, G., (2006). The burger meister: McDonald’s CEO Steve Easterbrook’s view from the top [online] Available from: personneltoday.com/articles/2006/10/10/37557/the-burger-meister-mcdonalds-ceo-steve-easterbrooks-view-from-the-top.html (Accessed on 19.04.2012). Lye, P., (2007). Human Resources issues in the hospitality industry [online] Available from: 4hoteliers.com/4hots_fshw.php?mwi=2205 (Accessed on 19.04.2012). McDonald’s Corporation, (2012). McDonald’s momentum delivers another year of strong results for 2011 [online] Available from: mcdonalds.co.uk/ukhome/Aboutus/Newsroom/news_pages/mcdonalds-results.html (Accessed on 19.04.2012). O’Neill, B., (1990). The manager as an assessor. London: The Industrial Society. Personnel Today. Richardson, M., (2000). Recruitment strategies. Managing/ effecting the recruitment process. Trinidad: Government of Trinidad and Tobago. Saunders, M.N.K. Lewis, P. and Thornhill, A., (1997). Research methods for business students. London: Pitman. Saunders, M.N.K. Lewis, P. and Thornhill, A., (2000). Research methods for business students. 2nd ed. Harlow: Financial Times. Schultz, H.B., (2001). Recruitment and selection, [In:] Nel, J., (ed). Human resources management. 5th ed., Cape Town: Oxford. Steward, M., (2010). Theories X and Y revised. Oxford Leadership Journal, 1(3), p.1-5. Wahba, M.A. and Bridwell, L.G., (1976). Maslow reconsidered: A review of research on the Need Hierarchy Theory. Organizational Behaviour and Human Performance. 15, 212-240.
Friday, November 22, 2019
Its New Feature December, And CoSchedule Has Launched 4 So Far
Its New Feature December, And Has Launched 4 So Far We want to make 2014 your best year of blogging yet, so were putting a bow on some of our most requested features and releasing them before years end. Its a little something that weve been calling New Feature December. Its a lot like no-shave November, but way less itchy. Its New Feature December for the @#editorialcalendar make 2014 your yearHere is a roundup of the features we have launched so far. Awesome Link Previews Now, for each social media message that you create, will provide you with a preview of the link information that will be sent to sites like LinkedIn, Facebook and Google+. Not only are you able to preview the links (and delete them), but you are also able to customize them–including the image, title, and link description. LinkedIn Company Pages Connect your LinkedIn company pages to ! This makes for a completed roundup with LinkedIn. We fully support personal profiles, company pages and groups. Cool. Referral Program Share with your friends and get credit for doing it with our new referral program. With each friend that makes a purchase, you will receive 10% off of your subscription for the life of their account. Easy, right?
Wednesday, November 20, 2019
NGOs are an effective force in processes of conflict resolution and Essay - 1
NGOs are an effective force in processes of conflict resolution and healing. Discuss using examples - Essay Example Types of NGOs In modern times, there has been the emergence of Non-governmental organizations also known as NGOs and these have played numerous roles in this modern society. This is especially with the registration and recognition, as well as integration of NGOs into the United Nations to assist in provision of services to marginalised areas and even serve the needs of minority groups (Crowe p.1796). Some of the roles that are played by NGOs include; provision of humanitarian services that would otherwise not be available to certain parts of the human population. In addition, provision of a platform for the population to air its grievances to the rest of the world and even leaders, and serve as a bridge between the rest of the world and local communities in which these NGOs work from and within. Because of this, there are different types and forms of NGOs that serve different purposes and in different localities for various populations. As such, based on the definition of NGOs as non-profit organi zation, they can be categorized into community-based organizations, which are small intimate organization that are run exclusively by members and based out of locally available resources. Another type of NGO is the intermediary NGO that involves the use of paid staff to provide social services to individuals and other organization, while there is another type, which is the intermediary NGO focussing on policy and advocacy which reflect the needs of both local communities and other NGOs, as well as organizations (Nesbit p.9). The last type of NGO is the one that deals in international relief and development, and consists of professional staff and is found in many countries through branches and chapters. Humanitarian Efforts With the above information, it simple to come up with different roles of NGOs as these categorizations spell out what each organization does and at what level. Consequently, in conflict resolution and healing, NGOs roles can be explained and illustrated following their structure. The first way in which NGOs are an effective force in the process of conflict resolution and healing is following their humanitarian services provision to populations that need them. With this in mind, the key role is the healing process and not on conflict resolution, although from a different perspective this is achieved. By providing humanitarian services such as medical supplies and health services, where those that are affected or affected communities are served with services that eliminate human suffering in both warring camps of communities in conflict. As such, the first category of NGOs is well versed in this by being the immediate source of these humanitarian services where th ey use only what they have to provide for their own people and even others form the camps in conflict. Through this, the warring population is brought together by human suffering especially concerning diseases and injuries, as well as wounds to make peace and cooperate for their own wellbeing (Clapham p.522). This is evident in cases of Sierra Leone, where community based NGOs came together and served to mitigate the effects or outcomes of the conflict in the country. This was through providing medical services to the wounded and even reusing service to those that came later until an amicable agreement was reached to
Tuesday, November 19, 2019
Design Thinking Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words - 1
Design Thinking - Assignment Example The analysis of such period aided in the understanding of the evolution of chief design process methods. Consequently, the analysis meant to discover from such evolution of design process methods the moment when design thinking got realized as an emerging approach as well as a framework of thinking that underscored all other prior methods of thinking. However, there was never a precisely framed linear progression of methodologies that emerged. Many methodologies were developed concurrently in various faculties as well as industries. The coining of the term design thinking date back to 1987 when Peter G. Rowe introduced the phrase in his book, ‘Design Thinking’. The design involves a call for conventional minds to change and collaborate. There are various approaches to designing thinking ranging from the participatory design, user-centered, service-centered to human-centered design thinking. The participatory design primarily focuses on user testing efficiency and end-user development. The user-centered design thinking stresses the significance of customers’ needs and paints user as central to the service or product development. The service-centered design focus on the importance of examining the user journey value and the stakeholder’s culture by stressing the need for a collaborative culture. The service design relates with the meta-design that advocates a collaborative, open source systems and holistic community development to ensure social sustainability. Therefore, service-centered design holistically engages the stakeholders and emphasizes on service sustainability. Finally, the human-centered design involves a collaborative and multidisciplinary social systems. There is also holistic engagement of the community development driven by empathy. The humanized approach applies those methods aimed at gaining direct audience understanding and thus
Saturday, November 16, 2019
Important Element in the Storys Significance Essay Example for Free
Important Element in the Storys Significance Essay In the two short stories, Little Things by Carver and The End of Something by Hemingway, both authors make the title significant to the storys message. The title Little Things is somewhat ironic in that the word little could refer to the baby or could in fact be calling their argument petty, even though the child that they are fighting over is a major issue. This irony is significant to the story because even though the parents appear passionate about their infant, the argument clearly lies deeper. The title The End of Something could also refer to a number of things. In this story many things are coming to an end. The end of the mill and the town at Hortons Bay, the end of Nick and Marjories relationship, the end of their fishing trips and the end of their day. Both stories are about the end of relationships however, in Little Things the breakup is angry and violent whereas in The End of Something the breakup is calm and brief. The story Little Things is about the violent breakup of two parents. It is implied that they are married but Carver does not explicitly state this. The opening paragraph describes the weather and the time of day, which reflects the mood of the piece, the darkness of the evening mirroring the dark mood inside the house, it was getting dark. But it was getting dark on the inside too. This shows that although the mood was dark, it was not completely pitch black outside implying that there may still be a slight glimmer of hope for the young couple that is soon introduced. As the fight and the emotions become more reckless and brutal the light begins to fade, showing that all hope is lost. The characters in the story are not named. This gives their predicament a deeper sense of urgency and immediacy. This is used to great effect as when we first meet the man and women, the absence of names throws us directly into the middle of their quarrel. In this piece there is no need to build up the characters with a descriptive foreplay as it is not important to the story, making it more urgent. However in The End of Something we feel more sympathy for the characters as we have learned about them in more detail. From the line he was in the bedroom pushing clothes into a suitcase when she came through the door, we can deduce from the subtext that these people are in some kind of long-term relationship, and the second line of the same paragraph draws attention to the fact that they are having a heated argument. It is extremely common that in short stories a lot of information is insinuated rather than being clearly stated and so the reader must draw a meaning from the subtext. The woman is the first to speak. Carver does not use speech marks at all during the story in order to draw more immediacy to the article. The first line of speech Im glad youre leaving! Im glad youre leaving! Do you hear? shows that although the woman appears to be angry at her partner and glad that he is moving out it is easily noted that she in fact feels exactly the opposite. This is illustrated by the repetition of the line Im glad youre leaving showing that she is trying to reassure herself that she doesnt need him. This shows irony. The woman continues to barrage the man with slurs, son of a bitch, obviously in an attempt to provoke his attention and convince him to stay. When she states you cant even look me in the face can you? it is blatantly obvious that the man has had some kind of affair. The woman fails in catching the mans attention and therefore when she spies the babys picture on the bed she takes it, out of spite. The man follows her; turning off the bedroom light as he leaves symbolising the end of their relationship, looked around the bedroom before turning off the light. The baby is also not named showing that although it is the child that they are fighting over, the battle about more and the baby is merely a pawn in their game of spite or revenge. The man states I want the baby. This immediately provokes maternal instincts from the mother who rushes to keep her child. The infant is continuously referred to as the baby or this baby showing that their child is solely an object that the couple are focusing their anger on. The mans request for the baby is not because he necessarily wants the child from love but more because he sees it as a prize that he can win over the woman. Gradually their battle becomes more physical and violent as the man tries to take that baby from the woman, in the scuffle they knocked down a flowerpot. The baby senses the tension in the room and starts to cry which adds to the anxiety and desperation in the mood of the text, the baby had begun to cry. Throughout the rest of the story Carver intensifies the atmosphere by using urgent and effective words such as screaming, red faced, gripped and hurting. Nearing the end of the story the light is involved again, the kitchen window gave no light, this line exemplifies that there was no hope left for the couple and the baby. The lines become shorter to add to the fierce battle that the couple is suffering. The man and the woman both grab the child and pull it in different directions in a hope that one will triumph but we do not know the victor. The last line in this manner the issue was decided, leaves us pondering a number of possible out comes. The man or the woman may have succeeded in snatching the infant for themselves or they may have pulled their baby in two. If so the story appears to be a parody of the biblical story The Two Women and Solomon, in which a man offers to cut a baby in half to settle a quarrel between two woman as to who the mother of the baby is. In this story we are left with an ambiguous end. It is very common in short stories that the resolution of the story is left undecided, again leaving the reader to make their own conclusion from the clues given. The second short story The End of Something is also about the end of a relationship, however it is handled in a calmer and less violent manner. The first paragraph sets the scene of a calm deserted bay, once a busy lumbering town, now reduced to a citizen-free ghost town. The couple, Nick and Marjorie, are rowing through this bay in a calm fashion they were trolling along the edge of the channel bank, but they soon head towards dark water which shows that they are heading towards trouble. They are rowing soundlessly until Marjorie breaks the silence and begins to talk about the old mill on the shore, describing it as our old ruin; this shows that their relationship stretches back a long way. Nick answers unenthusiastically. Marjorie tries to keep up the conversation describing it as a castle, which shows that she sees their ruin in a fairy-tale manner. However Nick is still distant which makes Marjorie have to work hard to keep their conversation alive. Marjorie appears to love everything about their fishing trips. She obviously loves Nick very much and is enjoying spending time with him, She loved to fish. She loved to fish with Nick. Clearly Nick is quite qualified at fishing and Marjorie tries to make him feel good by putting him in charge and asking him questions to boost his ego, Theyre feeding, Marjorie said. But they wont strike, Nick said. By this Nick means that he will not strike that night. The couple carries out their actions of fishing with scarce communication and we can tell that something is clearly upsetting Nick as Marjorie is trying to provoke conversation but to no avail. When Marjorie questions Nick Whats the matter Nick? he replies I dont know. The couple set out a picnic on the beach but we can tell that Nick is merely going through the motions as he says I dont feel like eating and all it takes is one line from Marjorie and he agrees.
Thursday, November 14, 2019
Hobbes View of Human Nature and his Vision of Government :: Philosophy essays
Hobbes' View of Human Nature and his Vision of Government  In The Leviathan, Thomas Hobbes talks about his views of human nature and describes his vision of the ideal government which is best suited to his views.  Hobbes believed that human beings naturally desire the power to live well and that they will never be satisfied with the power they have without acquiring more power. After this, he believes, there usually succeeds a new desire such as fame and glory, ease and sensual pleasure or admiration from others. He also believed that all people are created equally. That everyone is equally capable of killing each other because although one man may be stronger than another, the weaker may be compensated for by his intellect or some other individual aspect. Hobbes believed that the nature of humanity leads people to seek power. He said that when two or more people want the same thing, they become enemies and attempt to destroy each other. He called this time when men oppose each other war. He said that there were three basic causes for war, competition, distrust and glory. In each of these cases, men use violence to invade their enemies territory either for their per sonal gain, their safety or for glory. He said that without a common power to unite the people, they would be in a war of every man against every man as long as the will to fight is known. He believed that this state of war was the natural state of human beings and that harmony among human beings is artificial because it is based on an agreement. If a group of people had something in common such as a common interest or a common goal, they would not be at war and united they would be more powerful against those who would seek to destroy them. One thing he noted that was consistent in all men was their interest in self-preservation.  Hobbes view of human nature lead him to develop his vision of an ideal government. He believed that a common power was required to keep men united. This power would work to maintain the artificial harmony among the people as well as protect them from foreign enemies.
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