History Of United States Coinage (coins) Essay -- essays research pape

History of United States Coinage Through United States history presidents like Lincoln, Roosevelt, Washington, Kennedy, Eisenhower and others have been displayed on U.S. Coin heads. The United States mint has also been responsible for designs such as the Indian head, the buffalo, and the ever famous lady liberty. Through the years the U.S. Mints have extended into three branches San Francisco, Denver, and Philadelphia (Yeoman, 2001 edition 101). Those branches are responsible for making certain marks on the coins to show that they are not counterfeit. The mints have also come up with what they call their proof standards. Coins have been around for many years, they have had changing mints, designs, and variety's which have all been represented by past events and presidents. The U.S. Mint has it's own standards as in how good of a state the coin is in after wear and tear. The best a coin can ever be is called the proof state which is a specially made coin distinguished by sharpness of the detail and usually with a brilliant mirror like surface (Yeoman, 1999 edition 5). The next state down is the mint state (ms) these coins show no trace of being worn nor blemishes or color loss (Yeoman, 1999 edition 6). Third down is called perfect uncirculated (ms-70) these coins show perfect new condition, showing no trace of wear, no evidence of scratches, handling or contact with other coins, very few regular issued coins are ever found in this condition (Yeoman, 1999 edition 7). The fourth down state is choice uncirculated (ms-65) which is an above average uncirculated coin which may be brilliant or lightly toned and has very few contact marks on the surface or rim (Yeoman, 1999 edition 8). The fifth state down is the uncirculated (ms-60) which has no trace of wear, but may show a number of contact marks, and surface may be spotted or lack some luster (Yeoman, 1999 edition 9). The sixth state down is choice about uncirculated (au-55) it bears evidence of light wear on only the highest points of the design, most of the mint luster remains (Yeoman, 1999 edition 10). The seventh state down is about uncirculated (au-50) this coin has traces of light wear on many of the high points and at least half the mint luster is still present (Yeoman, 1999 edition 11). The eighth state down is choice extremely fine (ef-45) the design is lightly worn through, but all features are shar... ...d for 14 years.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  B.The half dollar is worth two quarters in the U.S. .   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   1.The Walking Liberty half dollar was minted for 31 years.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   2.The Franklin half dollar was minted for 15 years.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   3.The Silver Kennedy half dollar was only minted in 1964.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   4.The Bicentennial Kennedy half dollar was minted for one year.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  C.The Silver dollar was the most admired coin in the U.S. Mint.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   1.The Morgan Silver dollar was minted for 43 years.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   2.The Peace Silver dollar was minted for 14 years.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   3.The Eisenhower Silver dollar was minted for seven years.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   4.The Bicentennial Silver dollar was minted for one year.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚     Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  

Eric Arthur Blair :: essays research papers

Eric Blair’s fictional name was George Orwell , born June 25,1903 in Motihari, India . At that time â€Å"India was part of the British Empire†(Orwell page 1 of 4). This was near the turn of the century, so not many people could afford to move to India with out the â€Å"British Empire†(Orwell pg. 1 of 4). Eric’s father Richard Blair was an agent of the Opium Department of the Indian Civil Service.Blair’s Grandfather served in the Indian Army for sometime before Blair’s birth. His family was â€Å" not very wealthy [Blair] later described them as lower-upper-middle class†(Orwell pg.1of 4). In fact, they owned no property or held any investment what’s so ever. When Eric was about 8 his family moved back to England and moved to a town called Henley, although his father still worked in India. Being middle-class, going to school was tough; however, his parents sent him to a private school in Sussex at the tender age of 8. By the time he was 13 he had received a â€Å"scholarship to Wellington, and soon after another to Eaton, the famous public school†(Orwell pg.1 of 4). After being forced to be good in school, he was not interested in â€Å"anymore †¦ further mental exertion†(Orwell pg. 1 of 4). So he decided to go with his private ambition, to write. At the beginning he writes â€Å" At the age of five or six [he] knew that he would be-must be a writer†(Orwell pg1 of 4). He made up his mind fast unlike many other writers. However, to be a writer one has to read literature. However, at Eaton English Lit. was not a major subject, because â€Å"most boys [ that went to Eaton] came from backgrounds either irremediably unliterary or so literary that to teach them English Literature would be absurd†(Orwell pg.1 of 4). Although he wanted to become a writer he finished â€Å"138th of 167†(Orwell pg. 2 of 4). After this he decided to join the Indian imperial Police ; however, he later left after 5 years in service. This was distracting him from his main lifestyle, a writer and because â€Å" wished to escape from †¦every form of man’s dominion over man†(Orwell pg. 2 of 4). In London he settled down into a â€Å"grotty bedroom†(Orwell pg.2 of 4). And started to teach himself how to write. He was now twenty-four and â€Å"week after week he remained in his unheated bedroom†(Orwell pg. 2 of 4). It was so cold that he â€Å"[thawed] his hands over a candle when they became to numb to write†(Orwell pg. 2 of 4).

Venezuela Culture

In all cultures, there are different dimensions that can be categorized into a continuum. Kluckhohn and Strodtbeck have functions of cultural patterns such as common human problems, preferred solutions and most importantly, a continuum. A continuum is how things are rated by percentages. For example, happiness. It could be either more or less in certain situations. In Hofstede’s dimensions of culture, there are two topics and only one can be higher in certain cultures than others. The country I chose to do is the culture of Venezuela.Venezuela is very similar to the rest of the Latin American countries but has exceptional characteristics when it comes to the dimensions that Hofstede describes. The dimensions of culture that will be discussed fall into the four common ones: collectivism, power distance, masculinity and low uncertainty avoidance. Venezuela is a unique country with many different ideas that relate to their culture. Venezuela falls into the collectivism category. This means that the country unites as one, focusing on the needs of groups rather than the individual themselves. The other side of the dimension is individualism.Individualism, as its name says, focuses on the individual where they have to sand up for themselves. Collectivists tend to have large, extended families which continue protecting them in exchange for unquestioning loyalty (Individualism 2009). Also, they work on becoming very skilled at something they are interested in. Venezuelan people are all about being loyal to each other. They see more good in a group, than good in the individual. In Venezuela, the labor force has grown a lot over the past few decades. The unemployment rate has been very low and even woman have been getting jobs.The government has worked together so that almost everyone is employed. Labor relations in Venezuela were consultative rather than confrontational, and the Confederation of Venezuelan Workers had good working relationships with the major bus iness group, the Federation of Chambers and Associations of Commerce and Production (Haggerty, 1993). Compared to other Latin American countries, there wasn’t a bad case of labor relations. The government wanted to make sure everyone in Venezuela was working. It’s good to be a collectivism culture because everyone comes and works together as a group.Power distance is another dimension that can be classified as either high or low. This is determined by how much a culture has respect for authority. High power distance focuses more on higher status of power. Teachers, parents and supervisors are treated with respect and are expected to show authority. Low power distance is a little more laid back. People can talk to whomever they want about anything. For example, an employee is able to talk to their manager about comments for the company or business they work for. Venezuela falls into the high power distance category.People with elite status are more educated and focus ma inly on their business and professions. Venezuela was one of the very few countries in Latin America where a number of elite-supported scholarly and community welfare foundations provided support for an imaginative variety of programs and scholarships (Haggerty 1993). People in middle class respect the elite. Thought it is possible to move up from middle class to elite, this can only happen through successful business deals or by marriage. Either way, Venezuelans know to respect the authority wherever they are. Venezuela has a president and vice president who serve five year terms.The president chooses his cabinet and determines the number of ministries. The president is the main leader in charge whom everyone looks up to. He commands the armed forces, calls special sessions of the Congress, and exercises sole control of foreign policy (Haggerty 1993). Venezuela follows a governmental policy where the president has the highest status, followed by the vice president, then it gets low er from then on. Having high power distance does not necessarily undermine the population, but is accepted by the whole Venezuelan culture as one. Masculinity versus femininity, contrary to it’s name, has more to do than just gender roles.Some masculine characteristics focus on a competitive economy, working hard to get by, and fighting as a result of conflicts. Cultures with this dimension are more aggressive. Femininity on the other hand focuses on more calming features. For example, negotiating to resolve conflicts, women are representing in the government and working to live a good life. Venezuela in this case is more masculine. They are more aggressive than other cultures. Violence and crime increased appreciably in the last decades of the twentieth century and have become major issues of popular concern (Dinneen 2003).Having higher crime rates, though that’s not always a good thing, shows the masculinity in the culture. Men take the majority of the power when it comes to government. Although the Constitution of 1960 declared that men and women were formally equal under the law, women who had been active in the struggle for democracy found themselves devoid of its privileges and marginalized from politics (Wagner 2005). Though it said women were just as equal as men, that didn’t live up to its word. Women were still not allowed to participate in higher politics and businesses.They were expected to stay at home and take care of the house and children. Venezuela is ranked higher in the masculine dimension among all of the other Latin American countries. Venezuela’s uncertainty avoidance is considered lower than the other Latin American countries. Some traits of low uncertainty avoidance include openness to change, tolerance of diversity and hold back emotions. Where as in high uncertainty avoidance, they tend to follow strict rules, express emotions, and have a weak interest in politics. The goal of the culture is to control almo st everything in order to avoid the unexpected.Thanks to their need for security, Venezuelan managers take fewer risks, govern with more written rules and experience lower labor turnover (Workman 2008). There have been processes of social and political changes. Theses processes have attracted more international attention over the years and for more to come. Venezuela was the world’s leading exporter of oil. Venezuelan’s leaders wanted to concentrate on the oil industry as the main source of financing for their reformist economic and social policies (Haggerty 1993). They weren’t afraid to find new non cabinet ministries and form new policies to expand their economy.Even with the economic crises that occurred with the collapse of the financial system in 1994, the government worked to get it back up. When it comes to differences, Venezuelans try to explore the issue. They are curious to what is going on. If they need to make a change, they will do so and take the r isk. For example, during the 1980’s Venezuela had a huge foreign-exchange revenue from oil. Because of this, they developed a voracious demand for imported luxury goods that persisted even as oil prices ebbed in the mid do late 1980’s (Haggerty 1993).This resulted in a weakness in the Venezuelan economy. Even though this happened, the government wasn’t afraid to take the risk. In conclusion, Venezuela has many different characteristics that make them a unique culture. Being a collective culture, they unite as one. They like to focus on everyone as a group to make sure everyone is satisfied. They also fall into the high power distance category. Venezuela has high power authority that is respected by everyone. If they have questions, the people with high status will have all the answers.Venezuela is also a masculine culture. Men dominate over women for occupations and power. Also, this makes the country more aggressive than others. They stand up for themselves and aren’t afraid of anything that comes in contact with them. Finally, Venezuela has low uncertainty avoidance. They will take a risk if they want to and they aren’t afraid to show emotion. This shows they are a strong country that will make changes if it is a concern. Venezuela is a very well-rounded culture with many great qualities about them.

Digital Electronics: Advantages and Disadvantages

Digital electronics, or digital (electronic) circuits, represent signals by discrete bands ofanalog levels, rather than by a continuous range. All levels within a band represent the same signal state. Relatively small changes to the analog signal levels due to manufacturing tolerance, signal attenuation or parasitic noise do not leave the discrete envelope, and as a result are ignored by signal state sensing circuitry.In most cases the number of these states is two, and they are represented by two voltage bands: one near a reference value (typically termed as â€Å"ground† or zero volts) and a value near the supply voltage, corresponding to the â€Å"false† (â€Å"0†) and â€Å"true† (â€Å"1†) values of the Boolean domain respectively. Digital techniques are useful because it is easier to get an electronic device to switch into one of a number of known states than to accurately reproduce a continuous range of values. Digital electronic circuits are usually made from large assemblies of logic gates, simple electronic representations of Boolean logic functions.Advantages An advantage of digital circuits when compared to analog circuits is that signals represented digitally can be transmitted without degradation due to noise. [2] For example, a continuous audio signal transmitted as a sequence of 1s and 0s, can be reconstructed without error, provided the noise picked up in transmission is not enough to prevent identification of the 1s and 0s. An hour of music can be stored on a compact disc using about 6 billion binary digits. In a digital system, a more precise representation of a signal can be obtained by using more binary digits to represent it.While this requires more digital circuits to process the signals, each digit is handled by the same kind of hardware. In an analog system, additional resolution requires fundamental improvements in the linearity and noise characteristics of each step of the signal chain. Computer-cont rolled digital systems can be controlled by software, allowing new functions to be added without changing hardware. Often this can be done outside of the factory by updating the product's software. So, the product's design errors can be corrected after the product is in a customer's hands.Information storage can be easier in digital systems than in analog ones. The noise-immunity of digital systems permits data to be stored and retrieved without degradation. In an analog system, noise from aging and wear degrade the information stored. In a digital system, as long as the total noise is below a certain level, the information can be recovered perfectly. [edit]Disadvantages In some cases, digital circuits use more energy than analog circuits to accomplish the same tasks, thus producing more heat which increases the complexity of the circuits such as the inclusion of heat sinks.In portable or battery-powered systems this can limit use of digital systems. For example, battery-powered cel lular telephones often use a low-power analog front-end to amplify and tune in the radio signals from the base station. However, a base station has grid power and can use power-hungry, but very flexible software radios. Such base stations can be easily reprogrammed to process the signals used in new cellular standards. Digital circuits are sometimes more expensive, especially in small quantities. Most useful digital systems must translate from continuous analog signals to discrete digital signals.This causes quantization errors. Quantization error can be reduced if the system stores enough digital data to represent the signal to the desired degree of fidelity. TheNyquist-Shannon sampling theorem provides an important guideline as to how much digital data is needed to accurately portray a given analog signal. In some systems, if a single piece of digital data is lost or misinterpreted, the meaning of large blocks of related data can completely change. Because of the cliff effect, it can be difficult for users to tell if a particular system is right on the edge of failure, or if it can tolerate much more noise before failing.Digital fragility can be reduced by designing a digital system for robustness. For example, a parity bit or other error management method can be inserted into the signal path. These schemes help the system detect errors, and then either correct the errors, or at least ask for a new copy of the data. In a state-machine, the state transition logic can be designed to catch unused states and trigger a reset sequence or other error recovery routine. Digital memory and transmission systems can use techniques such as error detection and correction to use additional data to correct any errors in transmission and storage.On the other hand, some techniques used in digital systems make those systems more vulnerable to single-bit errors. These techniques are acceptable when the underlying bits are reliable enough that such errors are highly unlikely. A single-bit error in audio data stored directly as linear pulse code modulation (such as on a CD-ROM) causes, at worst, a single click. Instead, many people use audio compression to save storage space and download time, even though a single-bit error may corrupt the entire song. A digital circuit is a circuit that functions on a number of different logic gates.The logic gates differentiate power signals. The power signals are then transferred to different parts of the digital circuit through other gates to create an output signal directly pertinent to the energy level at the moment of signal input. Most digital circuits are comprised mainly of smaller analog components that, because of the logic gate occurrence, only operate within a certain frame of voltages. Usually these operate at extremely low voltage signals. Digital circuits also require that the analog components located throughout the circuit not be placed in a manner that will allow them to perform analog functions.This usu ally means there is a logic gate both before and after the analog component. Digital circuits are becoming more and more popular as technology requires the electronic devices used every day to become smaller and smaller, making the items more readily accessible regardless of location or circumstance. A digital circuit reacts quickly as power or signal is delivered to them, as long as the signal it receives is within the correct frame of voltage or energy. Digital circuits usually work best with low voltage signals, as they are more capable of handling these signals than higher voltages.Analog circuits typically require much more voltage behind the input signal to perform with the speed that digital circuits provide. An electronic circuit is composed of individual electronic components, such as resistors,transistors, capacitors, inductors and diodes, connected by conductive wires or traces through which electric current can flow. The combination of components and wires allows various simple and complex operations to be performed: signals can be amplified, computations can be performed, and data can be moved from one place to another. 1] Circuits can be constructed of discrete components connected by individual pieces of wire, but today it is much more common to create interconnections by photolithographic techniques on a laminated substrate (a printed circuit board or PCB) and solder the components to these interconnections to create a finished circuit. In an integrated circuit or IC, the components and interconnections are formed on the same substrate, typically a semiconductor such as silicon or (less commonly) gallium arsenide. [2] Breadboards, perfboards or stripboards are common for testing new designs.They allow the designer to make quick changes to the circuit during development. An electronic circuit can usually be categorized as an analog circuit, a digital circuit or a mixed-signal circuit (a combination of analog circuits and digital circuits). analo g circuit analog circuit, electronic circuit that operates with currents and voltages that vary continuously with time and have no abrupt transitions between levels. Generally speaking, analog circuits are contrasted with digital circuits, which function as though currents or voltages exist only at one of a set of discrete levels, all transitions between levels being ignored.Since most physical quantities, e. g. , velocity and temperature, vary continuously, as does audio, an analog circuit provides the best means of representing them. However, digital circuits are often preferred because of the ease with which their outputs can be manipulated by computers, and because digital signals are more robust and less subject to transmission errors. There are special analog-to-digital and digital-to-analog circuits to convert from one type of signal to the other.

Othello and Crescent Essay

Introduction Present essay provides a comparative analysis of Shakespeare’s Othello and Abu-Jaber’s Crescent in terms of locating similar and opposite themes. The theme that was chosen is representation of Arabness as social, individual and cultural category. There is no denying the importance of the fact that both works depict the fate of Arab people in Western civilization, including Western attitudes to them, their own perception of Western way of life and traditions and their relations with other people. Moreover, both works serve as the instruments for revealing negative contours of Western societies, including racist prejudices, which is especially evident in Othello. Based on the latter reservations, present essay defends the thesis, which may be formulated as follows: Shakespeare’s Othello and Abu-Jaber’s Crescent have much in common due to the fact that beneath recurrent symbols and themes, such as love, betrayal etc. lies the central theme of Arabness, reflected through the prism of civilizations’ interchange, conflict and contradiction. The comparative analysis of Othello and Crescent Both Othello and Crescent have Arab people, found themselves in certain roles within Western civilization, as their main protagonists. The conflict between them and Western civilization takes place on different thematic levels, explained by the difference in plots and historical surrounding. Sirine, the main protagonist of Cresent, is a chef at Lebanese restaurant in Los Angeles with Middle-Eastern cuisine. Her surrounding consists of the Arab people, many of whom were exiled or emigrated from Iraq due to political repressions. Sirine’s Arabness is constituted by her sentimental intimacy to Iraqi uncle and a great interest in Iraqi history, culture and Muslim traditions in general. Notwithstanding the fact, that Sirine is successful in America, she is rather lonely and still feels herself an immigrant, living in alien and unfriendly culture. The latter feeling of loneliness is well described by the friend of Sirine, called Um-Nadia: â€Å"The loneliness of the Arab is a terrible thing; it is all-consuming†¦. it threatens to swallow him whole when he leaves his own country, even though he marries and travels and talks to friends twenty-four hours a day. † (Abu Jaber,78) Hence, it is important to note that Sirine’s Arabness and conflicting status within Western civilization are not constituted in direct terms and notions, bearing on direct political connotations. As Nouri Gana rightly suggests about Abu Jaber’s novel, ‘perhaps one of the most glowing virtues of the novel is that it awakens the political in the reader by craftily staging how it bears on the individual and communal on a day-to-day basis’ (Gana, 237). The same may be said about Shakespeare’s Othello, where Arabness is also not addressed directly, but essentially mediated through thematic, symbolical and cultural discourses. Unlike Crescent’s where the contradiction between cultures and civilization is depicted as the difficulty of adaptation, assimilation and longing for native country, Arabness in Othello is constituted mainly in racist terms. However, the latter racism should also be understood as the instruments by means of which Shakespeare debunks aggressive, brutal, coward character of such members of Western civilization as Iago. The Arabness of Othello is initially constituted through the mechanism of exoticization, when he is named not by name, but as ‘Moor’ and ‘extravagant stranger’, which immediately creates mental border between civilizations. (Othello 1. 1. 58 and 1. 1. 37). Here, the direct distinction in representing Arabness may be traced at the narrative level of Crescent. Unlike Othello, Hanif Al Eyad, who is an exiled Iraqi professor, does not experience direct racial prejudices, but problems of adapting to American society. What is more important, he has significant problem of integrating in Arab American community, which is already assimilated into the wider American culture. In fact, Hanif finds himself in a difficult position of finding new contours of his Arabness, as he meets with new conditions of its existence in the American society. In the same vein, Sirine reconfigures her identity, when she starts working at Arab restaurant. Her lost Arab roots come to existence, when she delves into her parents, ’old recipes and to begin cooking â€Å"the favorite—but almost forgotten—dishes of her childhood† (Abu Jaber, 22). Finally, when Hanif and Sirine meet, they are engaged in cultural interchange – Sirine educates him about American and Hanif opens the culture of Iraq and the Arab world to Sirine. In this way, the Arabness is constituted in the contradictory multicultural way, when it becomes a mixture of American way of life, its contradictions, immigrants’ culture and post-9/11 ‘anti-Muslim syndrome’, negatively experienced by Arab people, living in the US. Therefore, the Arabness in Crescent and Othello are constituted in distinctively different ways. Othello’s racial and cultural difference is the main source of legitimization for brutal behavior of Roderigo, Iago and others, who oppose the relationships between Othello and Desdemona. In fact, Desdemona is the only protagonist, which opposes particularization of cultural differences and represents universality of human relationships. She sees in Othello neither Arab, nor exotic man, but a man, whom she loves. The narration in Othello is abundant with racial prejudices, which function as the markers of Arabness. At the outset of the play, Iago wakes Brabantio up and tells him that â€Å"an old black ram / Is tupping your white ewe† (1. 1. 89-90), referring to Othello. The relations between Othello and Desdemona are also presented by Iago through racist discourse, â€Å"your daughter covered with a Barbary horse† (1. 1. 112), and reminds Brabantio of genetic consequences for his family, â€Å"you’ll have your nephews neigh to you,† (1. 1. 112-18). Other features of Othello’s Arabness are reproduced mainly through the depiction of his temperament and here we find Shakespeare’s critical edge, which uses then dominant racial prejudices of English aristocracy to depict their defected nature. Othello is depicted by Shakespeare as lacking Western (Iago-type) ‘virtues’ as cunningness, meanness, egoism, rationality, calculation, but endows him with trustful, kind, energetic temperament. The latter positive constitution of Arabness serves as the critique of Western society deficiencies and problems. Eventually, such features of Arabness result in tragic ending of Shakespeare’s play (Bartels, 458). Othello as Abu-Jader’s protagonists also seems lonely in the Western world, where all are against him. Pain of loss, exile and loneliness, however, is presented in Crescent in more sentimental quotidian way. For instance, it is evident when Sirine’s Iraqi uncle asks the Italian waiter in a restaurant: â€Å"Wouldn’t you say that immigrants are sadder than other people? † To which the latter responds, â€Å"When we leave our home we fall in love with our sadness. † (Abu-Jaber, 78). Another important theme, which runs through Abu-Jaber’s novel is difficulty of being Arab. This idea is mainly propagated by Sirine’s uncle and defended through telling mythical stories from Arab history, depicting the suffering of Arab people. The difficulty of being Arab is also presented at the level of racialized and politicized metaphors, which represent Arabness in Western world and in fact distort real culture of Arab people. In this way, Arabness is constituted as the ideological category, which has nothing to do with real life of Arab people (Gana, 241). The latter contradiction may be traced in Othello, when in fact our vision of the main protagonist is constituted by Oriental discourse. One of the major differences pertinent to the analyzed works is general narrative tone in which the latter discussed contradictions are presented. The contradictions of being Arab in the Western world in Cresent are presented through the depiction of Arab community daily life. The experience of Sirine and Hanif is characterized by sentimental feelings, loneliness, psychological trauma etc. The conflict between cultures and civilizations is presented as the quotidian difficulties of communication, adaptation and active life. The romantic ties which united Sirine and Hanif may be described as the part of sentimental representation of Arabness in Abu-Jabar’s novel. However, as it was noted above, even such approach to narration reveals much of the tensions and contradictions, experienced by immigrant Arabs. Unlike Crescent, Othello represents the evidence of contradictions between Western and Eastern civilization, which results in tragic implications for the destiny of individual people. Racial prejudices against Othello function as the legitimization of Iago’s plot against him. The differences between temperament and culture of Othello and his latent rivals, hence, should be understood as the main driving force of Shakespeare’s tragedy. Conclusion To sum it up, Arabness may be described as the central theme in both Shakespeare’s and Abu-Jaber’s works. It is represented on the level of human relations and is not directly interpreted in political manner, however, certain ideological and political interpretations may be found. Racial prejudices in Othello serve as a tool for debunking negative features of Western civilization and human/universal features, reflected in Othello’s temperament. In Crescent, the Arabness is presented through the prism of immigrants’ difficulty of adaptation, permanent feeling of pain, loneliness and lack of identity. In this way, the discussed theme has both similarities and difference in the discussed novels, explained by their distinct genres, historical and cultural surrounding. Works Cited Abu-Jaber, Diana. Crescent. New York: Norton, 2003. Bartels, E. C. ‘Making More of the Moor: Aaron, Othello, and Renaissance Refashioning of Race’. Shakespeare Quarterly vol. 41: 454, 1990. Gana, Nouri. ‘In Search of Andalusia: reconfiguring Arabness in Diana Abu-Jaber’s Crescent’. Comparative Literature Studies. Vol. 45, no. 2, 2008. The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA. Shakespeare, W. Othello. The Complete Works of Shakespeare, ed. David Bevington, 3d edition. Glenview, IL: Scott, Foresman, 1980.

Sociological Perspective

The Sociological perspective stresses the social context in which people live. In other words it’s why we do the things that we do, such as our beliefs, attitudes, and guidelines we live by. It examines how these contexts influence people’s lives. It can also be defined as understanding human behavior by placing it within its broader social context. At the center of the sociological perspective is the question of how groups influence people, especially how people are influenced by society. A society is a group of people who share a culture and a territory. Sociology is similar to the other social sciences; it is also different as well. The other social sciences include anthropology, economics, political science, and psychology. Like sociology, anthropology studies the culture within. It also studies a group structure, belief systems, and deals with communication. Economics is similar to sociology because if refers to how societies goods and services are distributed, and how that distribution results in inequality. With political science you study how people govern one another, and how those in power affect people’s lives. Last but not least there’s psychology. Like sociology, psychology studies how people adjust to the difficulties of life. With similarities come all kinds of differences in most cases. Sociologists focus primarily on industrialized societies unlike anthropology which focus on tribal people. Economists and political science focus on more than one social institution, sociology focus on a single institution. Unlike psychologists, sociologists stress factors external to the individual to determine what influences people and how they adjust to life. Psychologists focus on the internal parts of your life. Most of the questions on the common sense quiz were a little shocking. Half of them were really shocking to me. One that surprises me was number two. One thing that really surprises me is the fact that women’s earnings have only gone up slightly. You would think that in the world we live today it would be equal well, to me it should be. It’s been many years since women have not been treated equally. I like to treat everyone equally, that should be the way of life. The fact that crime rate outside of fast-food restaurants is higher than crime rates outside of topless bars is very surprising and somewhat funny. I can see why though, sort of, like it said; topless bars hire security so I guess that’s the reason why the crime rates higher at a place that doesn’t have any security at all. It’s funny because there’s usually a lot of people outside of a fast-food restaurant and what are they going to do run through the drive threw and steal your food. Extensive testing of Islamic terrorist’s shows that they’re more normal then mentally ill. Get out of here, someone that wants to kill their own race and sacrifice themselves is most certainly mentally ill. Ok, there doing it because they think that that’s what there god wants. I just think that someone that wants to sacrifice themselves to their gods is mentally ill; to me it’s just not the way of life. Another one that was shocking to me was that bicyclists today that wear helmets are more likely to have a head injury than the bicyclists that don’t wear a helmet. I can see that the reason why is because the ones that wear the helmet are more likely to do something crazy than the ones without. It just really surprises me cause you think the ones not wearing a helmet would cause more head injuries. I’m terrified to do something crazy on a bike therefore I don’t need a helmet but you should always wear one. In conclusion sociology is a lot more interesting to me than any other science. It studies why we do the things that we do, and why different cultures have different ways of life. I know I’m really going to enjoy the rest of this class and will learn many new things that I never thought of before.

Contrast and Compare Approaches to Hrm Within Two Diverse Countries?

Contrast and compare approaches to HRM within two diverse countries? Introduction Human resource management (HRM) means the activities of management in the employment relationship (Boxall and Purcell, 2003). The use of strategic HRM in an organisation helps function with its various activities like training n development, motivation, recruitment, employee selection, leadership, communication and reach their milestones. HRM strategy helps an organisation to focus on its micro-strategic issues. It also helps to provide a robust and link between its various activities conducted in a HRM department (Beardwell, 2004). This essay will cover the importance of understanding HR practices of two diverse countries. The study of comparative HRM is necessary to build a bridge between two different cultures. For example UK there is high rate of part time jobs due to a wide range of social and economic reasons. On the other hand, part time jobs in other parts of Europe are comparatively less. To know these difference and to easy cross culture businesses comparative HRM is necessary. In the past half century with the rise in globalisation, international human resource management (IHRM) has gained popularity. However the study of international and comparative HRM is regarded as an expensive and time consuming research (Adler, 1984; Brewster et al, 1996; Tregaskis et al, 2003). Hyman, R 1999 says that cross broad expansion has created a need for the deep knowledge of IHRM to avoid complex business issues Models of HRM In HRM, there is no specific approach or single way to implement it. HRM is a style of management which can be measured and defined or even compared against an ideal model. There are two approaches or models of HRM – soft Model and hard Model. Hard HRM emphasize the â€Å"resource† aspect of HRM, Legge refers to this as â€Å"Utilitarian Instrumentalism†. The hard HRM model focuses on the critical integration of human resource policies, systems and activities with business strategy. The hard HRM model characterizes human resources as factor of production. This means that the human resource is not the only resource capable of turning the production into wealth. Human Resources are viewed as passive, to be provided and deployed as numbers and skills at the right price, rather than the source of creative energy (Legge, 1995, p. 66-67). Hard HRM model requires calculations and deep thinking as required by any other branch of management. Thus it communicates through the tough language of business and economics. This emphasis on the quantitative, calculative and business-strategic aspects of managing the â€Å"headcount† has been termed human asset accounting (Storey, 1987). The hard HRM model is closely related to scientific management as it treats human resource which posses some skills/attributes that the firm requires. In contrast to hard HRM model, soft HRM model focuses on human relations rather than treating it as commodity. Soft HRM places an emphasis on â€Å"human† and is associated with the human relations school of Herzberg and McGregor (Storey, 1987). Legge refers to this as â€Å"Developmental Humanism† (Legge, 1995, p. 66-67). The soft model approach treats employees as valued asset of firm which gives the firm a competitive advantage over others through employees professional skills, commitments, adaptability and performance. Employees are proactive rather than passive inputs into productive processes, capable of development, worthy of trust and collaboration which is achieved through participation (Legge, 1995, pp 66-67). The soft Model inspires employee’s resourcefulness by increasing employee commitment, participation and involvement. Walton (1985, p. 79) suggests that â€Å"a model that assumes low employee commitment and that is designed to produce reliable if not outstanding performance simply cannot match the standards of excellence set by world-class competitors† and discusses the choice that managers have between a strategy based on imposing control and a strategy based on eliciting commitment. (Legge, 1995) in her analysis says that â€Å"use of HRM styles like hard and soft models in an organisation has always been debatable†. These models are primarily within normative, or prescriptive, models of human resource management. Soft HRM is associated with the human relations movement, the utilization of individual talents (McGregor, 1960). Soft HRM is also associated with the goals of flexibility and adaptability and implies that communication plays a central role in management (Storey and Sisson 1993). Hard HRM, on the other hand, stresses on the importance of ‘strategic fit', where human resource policies and practices are closely linked to the strategic objectives of the organization (external fit), and are coherent among themselves (internal fit) ( Baird and Meshoulam,1988). In UK, firms generally rely on numerical forms of flexibility than ualitative form. Both of these are supported by soft HRM models and theories of flexible specialisation. Hence UK employment system has failed to adopt best practice of HRM models. Almond, 2001 says in times of short term pressure if there is a lack of institutional lock-in to soft HRM firms resort to management unilateralism. However in Russia employees are tr eated as human capital and are used to generate revenues for the organization. In Russia predominantly hard HRM model approach exists. The employee is like commodity which is found worthy if there is a short supply or plays a central role in company’s goals. The implementation of the hard Model varies from company to company depending on the calculations and quantitative approaches in a rational manner. In Russia the companies have authoritative, hierarchical, bureaucratic type of structure whereas in UK the companies have participative management approaches, team concepts, and greater employee involvement. The Russian companies center of focus so far have been towards the technical aspects of their business – how to efficiently produce a product or provide a service, how to increase revenues and how to stay afloat in the market. However with the globalization of economies, many of them have started realizing the importance of other aspects of business – Human capital management, organizational structure, compensation, training, motivation and communication. In Russian, organizations perceived HR as a compliance function, existing to fill out forms and enforce rules, rather than a strategic part of organizational performance and success. However in UK the companies look at HR management as a strategic approach to an overall growth of the company. In this essay, using theories and literature, I will try to identify some of the key different HR practices and policies in Russia as compared to those of western countries like UK. Compensation, bonuses, incentives: In Russia, many of the small and mid size companies have no standard compensation system. There were no systematic, equitable pay scales and incentive structures flexible enough to withstand periods of growth and change. Most of the Russian companies’ main goal is to provide full employment. Unlike UK and American companies, Russian companies paid bonuses and incentives to their employees irrespective of their performance. However incentive pay was a traditional and integral part of the Russian compensation system. Most of the bonuses were divided equally across the organization or among members of a specific work group. Since employees received incentives regardless of individual performance, they came to see them more as an entitlement than as a reward for good performance (Puffer & Shekshnia, 1996). This approach complemented with the Russian culture of collectivism and high uncertainty avoidance. Unlike Russian culture, UK culture is more about individualism and social responsibility. In UK HR practices, the compensation system is focused towards employee’s performance. Management of individual performance: In Russia the HR have a different approach towards management of Individual performance and constructive discipline. Russian organization practices extensively the use of fines as a central focus of discipline systems. The employees are fined for every conceivable infraction. In fact some companies in Russia posted a list of standard fines to the employees as a reminder to the consequences of breaking rules. In contrast to this, UK HR practice follows a positive reinforcement and effective feedback techniques. The companies in UK have a formal performance appraisal and a feedback system. This helps in keeping track of an employee performance and interest and gives them effective feedback. Motivation techniques: In Russia the HR practice follows a centralized planning system on individual motivation. The company through its experience tries to motivate employees in ways which work best at that time. The basic technique of their motivation is to provide monetary benefits to the employees. This creates an even more expectation despite of employee’s lackluster performance. However in UK, the HR practices not only focused on employee’s motivation but also to maintain a high level. The HR in UK uses non-monetary strategies to motivate employees. Some of them are job enrichment, cross-training, and organizational support of training and education. Recruiting and staffing: The recruitment and staffing procedures in Russia is completely different from UK. In Russia, the HR practices do not lay emphasis on spending time and money for recruiting qualified employees. The companies in Russia do not spend on advertisement for recruitment. The whole recruiting and staffing procedures is rudimentary. In contrast the UK HR practices have organized application and selection process such as testing, group and individual interviewing. The companies in UK spend a considerable amount of money on advertisement to recruit qualified employees. More over recruiting and staffing is considered as one of the central strategies of HR management in UK. Internal Communication: Russian and British companies both realize the importance of good internal communication for smooth running of the business. However the communication happens more naturally in UK than in Russia. In fact internal communication is a key challenge in Russia. Lack of this communication between people is a problem in smooth running of the business. In Russia there is a common belief that if you tell too much you are losing the power. Russians love to talk about daily affairs except the core things for the company. Historically Russian organizations have been good at vertical flow of information but very poor with horizontal flow of information. In both Russia and UK, companies use formalized mechanisms to increase internal communication flow. This system includes instruments like intranets, newsletters, regular department/company meetings, suggestion boxes/systems, etc. The formalized mechanism seems to be more useful for Russia, since UK employees indicates that by the time the information was available via formal channels, they often already knew much of the information from informal channels. In UK, employees were much more likely to share useful information with another employee through informal channels than was the case in Russia. Training and Development: Training and development formed more competitive HR strategies in UK than Russia and were more formalized in the UK than Russia. The UK employees have more diverse backgrounds and work in areas which they are not originally trained. Hence they require more formalized training. In UK all the trainings and development is supervised and coordinated by the HR department. The HR department strictly monitors the training progress. In UK, the initiative for training comes from individual, superiors or the HR department. The trainings are conducted once the HR department has the formal discussion with the employee. However in Russia, the practice of on the job training is more prevalent. In Russia an informal training approach is used as most of the people have the desired skill set for the job. When talking about training and development for Russian employees, many HR and senior managers in Western firms maintain that a mix of hard and soft approaches and styles is necessary. Conclusion The HRM is transitioning from the traditional model which was focused only on administrative issues to a new HRM paradigm which lays emphasis on the strategic dimension of human capital management. The new responsibilities of HR require an integration of human capital in corporate strategy, to overcome the complex and diverse global labor market and to be able to incorporate young employees differing values and expectations than their predecessors. Due to global economic downturn, investments in human capital are not likely to be a high priority for organization whose very survival is threatened by the global downturn. But for companies with strong balance sheets and compelling business models, the economic downturn presents important opportunities to strengthen their HR management capabilities and position them for the inevitable rebound: Utilizing slack time to engage employees in professional development and technical training programs. This serves both to sharpen skills and to preserve morale during tough times. Opportunistic hiring of talented individuals caught in downsizing at weaker enterprises, which augments the company’s human capital base for long-term growth Promoting cross-divisional and cross-functional collaboration. This improves utilization of human resources and encourages teamwork between employees who previously had little or no contact. While termination of employees is an avoidably painful process, how companies manage downsizing is an important component of human resource management. Generous treatment of departing workers – including high-quality placement services and severance packages – not only creates goodwill among former employees who will speak favorably about the company and who may indeed return as â€Å"boomerangs†. It also burnishes the company’s image as an attractive workplace (â€Å"employer brand†) and thereby strengthens its capacity to recruit and retain talented persons when the economy recovers. Bibliography Beardwell, J. And Claydon, T. (2007) Human Resource Management: A contemporary approach. 5th ed. , Harlow: Pearson Education Ltd http://www. goinglobal. com/hot_topics/russia_jerome_education. asp http://mams. rmit. edu. au/d4lhtsmk45c. pdf http://www. rsmmcgladrey. com/pdf/managinghrglobal. pdf