temptopia Theme of Utopianism in The Tempest Essay -- The Tempest Essa

Theme of Utopianism in The Tempest      Ã‚   One traditional theme of The Tempest is Utopianism. Whether it be of physical significance, as Walter Cohen suggests in his essay "Shakespeare and Calderon in an Age of Transition," or of literary significance, as Judith Boss suggests in her essay "The Golden Age, Cockaigne, and Utopia in the The Faerie Queene and The Tempest," it is an important piece of literature in contribution to Utopianism. Judith Boss does an excellent job in breaking down Utopianism within The Tempest into three different categories, the Golden Age, Cockaigne, and Utopia. All three are implemented, or can be derived from The Tempest. In Walter Cohen’s essay, he suggests that Shakespeare wrote The Tempest by no coincidence near the end of his career and life because it was an argument, or representation, of what England’s foreign policy was. It also predetermined in a way where England was headed politically. Judith Boss does an exceptional critique of The Tempest in identifying Utopianism. She presents three classic forms of Utopianism and illustrates how they are represented in the play. Gonzalo’s speech can be seen as a representation of Montaign’s essay "Of the Caniballes." Gonzalo’s human nature and person can be viewed as a "normal man" in Cockaigne theory. And, Prospero’s actions and status on the island can be considered as a sort of political, philosophical Utopia. The Golden Age The whole idea of a Golden Age being possible is something that traces back in literary history through many plays, essays and other treatises carrying this theme. It became rather accelerated by the Renaissance writers who chose to implement it into their writings. The possibility of a Golden Age is taken with th... ...for this. She has been raised on the somewhat "utopian" island most of her conscious life. Even though I think that Shakespeare was trying to disprove a Utopia he leaves Miranda to represents man’s last hope and possibility for a utopia. Works Cited and Consulted Boss, Judith E. "The Golden Age, Cockaigne, and Utopia in The Faerie Queene and The Temepest." Georgia Review 26 (1972) 145-55. Cohen, Walter. "Shakespeare and Calderon in an Age of Transition." Genre 15 (1983), 123-37. Hill, Christopher. The World Turned Upside Down: Radical Ideas During the English Revolution. London: Temple Smith, 1972. Maus, Katherine Eisaman. "Arcadia Lost: Politics and Revision in the Restoration Tempest." Renaissance Drama 13 (1982): 189-209. Wolf, A. A History of Science, Technology and Philosophy in the 16th and 17th Centuries. Vol. 2. New York: Harper, 1959.

The Exchange Student :: Personal Narrative Writing

The Exchange Student I remember when Camy came to live with our family for a year. It seemed my mother had been pestering me for months about the idea of hosting an AFS student. Long before she even crossed the Atlantic from Italy on an airplane, Camy entered the daily conversations and thoughts of my mother. To be precise, I believe it was April of my junior year in high school. "Do we have to talk about this now?" I kept asking, wanting to push the idea into some sort of vacuum that sucked it to the back of my mind. "You’ll love her," my mom said. "We’ve heard such good things about her from the Mudge family. They hosted her cousin Checo." "I hate how you always try to make me do things," I said, slightly raising the level of my voice. "Eric, now you know I’ve never made you do anything you didn’t want to do." I was ready for her though. "Oh yeah, what about the horseback riding lessons in first grade that I had to take?" I said, recalling the image of the seven-year-old perched on top of a brown pony with the reigns in hand, as the over-sized riding helmet slid from his forehead down over his eyes. I stopped those lessons as soon as my instructor told me the next step was learning the gallop. "And what about the swimming lessons with that awful lady who made me put my face in the water and count to ten." This time I saw my instructor, sitting by the edge of the pool, her navy swimsuit fit snugly to her body, spreading out the excess flab of her pale thighs. I remember looking at her the instant before I went under, hoping she would give me a last second reprieve from my face plunging exercise. Instead, all I saw was her wide grin, and all I heard was the lapping of the pool water against its sides. "Oh Eric," my mom said. "You’re really impossible some times." "Thanks mom, thanks," I said. And with that, I had managed to put the decision on hold one more time. That is, until my father brought it up at the dinner table a month later. I’m sure we were having my dad’s legendary spaghetti and sauce the night they picked Camy. I often wonder if my father had truly planned pasta night because he wanted to discuss an Italian girl coming to live with us for a year.

Spatial Database Systems and Management Multidimensional Discrete Data

Spacial database systems offer the underlying database technology for geographic information systems and other applications. Several terms have been used to describe database systems offering such support, including pictorial image, geometric, geographic, and spatial. The terms pictorial database system and image arise from the fact that the data to be managed are often initially captured in the form of digital raster images, remote sensing by satellites, or compuer tomography in medical applications. Spatial database management involves two main categories of data: vector and raster data. The former has received a lot of in-depth investigation; the latter still lacks a sound frmaework. Current DBMSs either regard raster data as pure byte sequence where the DBMS has no knowledge about the underlying semantics, or they do not complement array structures with storage mechanisms suitable for huge arrays, or they are designed as specialized systems with sophisticated imaging functionality, but no general database capabilities. We will discuss some of the aspects of spatial data, spatial databae and it's management. In various fields, there is a need to manage geometric, geographic, or spatial data. The space of interest can be, for example, the 2-D abstraction of the earth's surface, or the images of human body including computed tomography (CT), magnetic resonance (MR), ultrasonography(US), projectional computed radiography (CR) etc. These medical imaging systems have revolutionized the means by which images are acquired, providing views of anatomical cross-sections and physiological state. This revolution in the acquisition of radiological information has not yet brought about a parallel revolution in the intelligent management, visualization, integration, or knowledge extraction from data produced by these digital imaging system. In the discipline of visualization,where the areas of computer graphics, image processing, computer vision, computer-aided design, signal processing, and user interface studies converge into one unifying framework for the processing of visual information, several representation of a scene are distinguished. Kromker (1991) proposes a visualization reference model that is particularly suitable for database investigations because classification is done along the data structure on hand. Three of the six layers introduced in this reference model are relevant for DBMSs that deal with visualization structure: 1. The Symbolic Representation Layer deals with abstract scene descriptions, but without an explicit description of geometry and properties of the entities modeled. 2. The Geometry/Feature Layer covers geometric descriptions, appearance properties, and viewing parameters. Vector graphics would be a subset of such data structure. 3. On the Digital Pixel Layer, a scene is discretized in both space and color, yielding a raster image. A raster image consists of a finite set of points in the discrete coordinate space Z(d) where each point has some value, its color, associated. There is no algorithm that performs reasonably well on any kind of image and under all corcumstances; above all, images frequently contain information that cannot be cast into points, lines, and regions bounded by lines, because the boundary cannot be recognized without doubt (e.g., tumors in medical imagery), or because there is no clear boundary (e.g., density distributions such as clouds in weather satellite images). In summary, both vector and raster representation are important for spatial data management, because each of them has pacific strengths and weaknesses; moreover, both representations are independent from each other in the sense that there is no lossless transformation between them.

Organizational behavior in Southwest Airlines Essay

Organizational behavior is a tool that any organisation that wants to be successful must use in order to attain its goals and objectives. Organizational behavior interprets all the relationships in an organization and manipulates them in order to attain the organizational objectives. The relationships that are assessed include the relationships between the organization and a person, people, groups and the society in general. The major goal of organizational behavior is to improve all these relationships so that in the process, the organizational objectives can be achieved. It is a broad concept that can be viewed from different dimensions. Organizational behavior has many elements which are dictated by the management’s approach to operations of an organization. The approach used determines the culture in an organization. Culture is the way in which an organization carries out its activities, including the communication links, leadership style, and other dynamics which workers derive their motivation from. The motivation determines the performance and growth of the organization. Four models are usually used within organizations, and the model used is determined by the management strategy. The first model is the autocratic model and it vests power with the management, according to Davidson (2003). He says that the employees are required to obey the chain of command and that this approach does not usually yield high performance results. The second model is the custodial model and it is geared towards rewarding the employees according to the performance. This type of approach does not yield optimum performance results as employees cooperate with the management passively. The third model, he further explains, is the supportive model and this model stresses the need for a leadership structure that supports employees in terms of performance. This approach motivates the employees to achieve optimal performance. The last model is the collegial model and this emphasizes team work among employees in performance of their duties. It encourages discipline and responsibility thus achieving moderate performance results. It is important to note that most organizations use a combination of the models to achieve their goals. Organizational structure Southwest airlines was started in 1971 by Herb Kelleher and Rolling King, according to Harris (2001). The reasoning behind the idea, he says, was that passengers would use an airline if the airline reached the destination on time, was reasonably priced and if passengers enjoyed their flights. That idea is what has propelled Southwest airlines to be the among the top four largest airlines in the United States. Every year, the airline transports over 60 million passengers across 30 states using over 300 air-crafts (Cohan, 2003). The airline specializes in the low-fare transport and it has a model that is so impressive that it is being emulated by other airlines. The success of Southwest Airline can be attributed to the organizational approaches that are used in the daily operations of the airline. The organization uses certain concepts of organizational behavior that help the management achieve the goal of the airline. One of the concepts that Southwest Airline uses is the organizational structure. This is the nature of relationships along the hierarchical structure of the organization. The organizational structure usually determines how the operations of the airline are carried out. This is because it guides the sharing of responsibilities among the employees according to their ranks. In the Southwest Airline, some people describe the organizational structure as a pyramid that is inverted. This implies that the people that are at the top levels of management go to the bottom levels to motivate the employees. This is a characteristic that is featured in the supportive model. When the managers talk to the people at the lower levels of management and listen to their views, they end up motivating their employees. Herb Kelleher, one of the founders of Southwest Airlines is reported to have stayed in a bar until the wee hours of the morning so that he could talk to his mechanic and hear his views concerning the airline. His leadership style ensures that everyone participates in the making of a decision. This is important since it ensures that everyone is bound by decisions they make as opposed to decisions being imposed upon them. Kelleher tries to motivate his employees to be open minded and to express themselves freely without constraints such as ranks between themselves. Kelleher is at the forefront of practicing what he believes in and is said to know names of almost all of his employees. This organizational structure is reflected even in the board where the directors are elected by shareholders. This enables all stakeholders to have confidence in the running of the airline as they have a right to choose the people who run the airline. The management of Southwest Airlines is very keen to reduce bureaucracy as it is aware of the negative effects it has in an organization. This is done through decentralizing responsibilities to the employees. The Southwest Aviation organizational structure is in such a way that employees have access to information. The rationale behind it, is that it is important for employees to have unlimited information so that they can make independent decisions, which is vital in a dynamic industry like aviation. This structure also takes care of the needs of the clients. There are links available in the airline’s website that address any complaints and suggestions that the clients may have. There are also avenues where customers write letters expressing the same, and the management makes sure all the letters are replied to. In fact, customers write over one thousand letters every week and each letter gets a reply within one month. At times, the schedule of flights may be changed in order to cater for the needs of frequent fliers. Motivation. This is the focus of energy towards the achievement of a certain goal. The motivation of someone to do something may arise from internal forces such as interests and beliefs or external forces such as danger. There are several things that the management can do to motivate employees. One, the management should align the goals of the organization with the needs of the employees. This means that the nature of jobs that the employees do should be aligned with their beliefs. For example, if the company conducts its affairs in a fraudulent manner, the employees are also likely to perpetrate fraud against the company. The company should also reward good behavior since it will motivate the employees to work harder. The rewards need not be big, a ‘thank you note’ is sufficient. The senior managers should set good examples to their employees by obeying the rules they set so that the employees can also do the same. Another factor that brings motivation to employees is development of morale and team spirit. This means that the working environment should be pleasant to the employees and they should look forward to going to work. The employees should also identify with the company. Participation is another factor that can increase motivation. This means that the employees participate in the making of decisions and solving of problems to ensure that they feel as part of the process and are thus bound by it. Southwest Airline was the first airline in the United States to begin a profit sharing plan, with its employees. It began sharing its profits with its employees in 1974 and has done it since then. In the year 2000, Southwest Airline offered its employees $138 million in the profit sharing plan (McConnell, 2002). This is a major motivation to the employees since they feel appreciated by the airline. This incentive also motivates them to work harder so that the following year they can get higher benefits. Besides these benefits, there are other incentives and awards, like ’employee of the month’ award. However, an unusual way of praising employees is visible in a bill board at Southwest Airline’s headquarters in Dallas. The billboard praises the employees of Southwest Airline for making Kelleher’s dream come true. The corridors are further lined with photographs of parties that employees attended in order to complete the picture. In case of illnesses or child birth, the employees are given presents by the airline (Cohan, 2003). All this demonstrates to the employees that they are the most important assets of the the company. Southwest Airline goes a step further and trains over twenty thousand employees every year in its own university. The university teaches the employees values of the airline and encourages open minded thinking. Southwest Airline is also very supportive of its employees in terms of encouragement to come up with new ideas or doing the same things, differently. An example is ‘walk a mile in my shoes’ program where co-workers exchange jobs with their colleagues from different departments for one day in order to experience what the other employees go through. Lastly, the greatest motivation from the airline comes from Kelleher. He has a great sense of humor, he has ‘hands on’ style of leadership and has a vision that inspires employees to work harder to achieve. Some people actually regard Southwest Airline as the most friendly airline in the United States. Power and politics Politics is present in all aspects of society. Politics creates power and thus an impact that is felt by everyone in the society. It is virtually impossible to separate politics from society (Hessian, 2000). Politics is present in educational institutions, in religion and other elements of a social network. Eventually, politics finds its way into the business world. It is important to prevent politics from interfering with the operations of a company as this prevents the company from achieving its goals and could lead to its downfall. There are however positive aspects that come about as a result of power and politics in an organization. Large companies are able to seal deals, merge with other companies, acquire the smaller companies and so on. Others are the economies of scale, that include the ability to acquire loans from banks, discounts from suppliers due to buying in bulk and the goodwill that attracts customers to the company as a result of being a brand name. Southwest is a very big airline, and the fact that it is among the four largest airlines in the United States guarantees that it is powerful. Its strategy to cater for low cost customers has seen it grow and own over three hundred air-crafts, all Boeing models. The power means that the airline is susceptible to political interference. This is something that the board should guard against. Unfortunately, there have been a few weaknesses in the airline as a result of power and politics. Southwest Airline offers coach seats and it does not offer in-flight meals, it just offers snacks. This is as a result of the growth that it has experienced due to investment in the low cost model. Unfortunately, other airlines have imitated the model due to its popularity. This is unfortunate since in the near future, the model will have become so common that passengers will no longer associate it with Southwest Airline. Another problem associated with the lack of in flight meals is that other airlines are taking full advantage of it when advertising since that is the only area that they are superior to Southwest Airline. Either due to power or politics, the airline does not pay attention to these perceived minute, but major details that may lead to its downfall. According to Brown (2001), regulators allowed Southwest Airline to violate safety regulations, on numerous occasions, without facing consequences. This arose because of the power that the airline has that enables it to have a close relationship with Federal officials. The report by the inspector general revealed that Southwest Airline had violated more regulations than it had been thought. The report also revealed that managers of the Federal Aviation Administration had negligently given the airline a pardon. It finally became clear that the airline violates safety regulations repeatedly. Further investigations revealed that the airline has violated at least eight regulations including an error that cost $10 million in fines. The fine led to some employees facing compulsory leave but that in many people’s opinion, is a case of ‘too little, too late’. This cannot be acceptable since flouting such regulations is not only gambling with the airline’s goodwill that has taken years to build, but it is gambling with people’s lives. Such negligent acts can be attributed to power and politics and should be avoided at all costs. The airline has also faced numerous lawsuits ranging from accusations of failure to inspect the plane before take off to negligently allowing a crash landing, in Illinois in 2005 which led to fatalities. It is important to note that before passengers choose an airline, they check the safety record. This is the reason that passenger traffic reduced after the September 11, 2001 attacks. In light of this, regardless of whether the airline is a major player or not, it will lose its customers if these kinds of allegations continue being reported. That will be the downfall of an airline whose reputation took years to build. The airline should be very wary when dealing with the lives of its passengers and should not take its power and support for granted. Conclusion. Southwest Airline has been transformed from being a simple idea to being one of the top players in the aviation industry. It has become evident that for an airline to succeed, it should target a specific class of customers and that it should take the welfare of its employees very seriously. Some of the best ways of motivating employees are inexpensive, a pat on the back can do a lot in raising the self esteem of an employee in an organization. Motivating the employees will help them achieve their potential. Bureaucracy should be eliminated to ensure free flow of information. Managers should work with the lower cadre employees in order to make them feel appreciated. Lastly, politics and power should be regulated to prevent interference with the workings of organizations. Southwest Aviation should correct the few weaknesses that it experiences and it will hopefully become the biggest airline in the United States in future.

Government Security Classifications Essay

In light of the growing controversy surrounding the former Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton, the Republican Party is claiming that she used her personal email account to send classified information. The United States classification system is currently established by Executive Order 13526 and has three levels of classification – Confidential, Secret, and Top Secret. The lowest level of classification is Confidential. Confidential material is defined in Executive Order 13526 as, â€Å"Any information that would cause damage or be prejudicial to national security if it were made available.† A variety of markings are used for material that is not classified, but whose distribution is limited administratively such as, For Official Use Only (FOUO), or Sensitive but unclassified (SBU). Although these items are marked unclassified, they are not to be sent via personal email. No special investigation is needed at this level for the individual other than â€Å"a need to know basis.† The second highest classification is Secret. Secret material is defined in Executive Order 13526 as, â€Å"Any information that would cause ‘serious damage’ to national security if it were made public.† Most information that is classified is held at this level. In order to have a secret clearance, you must have an investigation into your back ground to ensure trustworthiness. This is usually conducted by a government agency. The highest level of classification is Top Secret. Top secret as defined in Executive Order 13526, â€Å"Shall be applied to information, unauthorized disclosure of which reasonably could be expected to cause ‘exceptionally grave damage’ to the national security that the original classification authority is able to identify or describe.† It is believed that 1.4 million Americans have top secret clearances. Top secret clearances are usually given to specific individuals who pass a very stringent security background investigation. Individuals with this level of classification work at the top levels of our government. As you can see we have a government system in place to ensure that classified information is distributed accordingly throughout the government  to protect national security. In regards to Mrs. Clinton, do you think that she broke the rules by using her personal email account? The jury is still out on that investigation.

Computerized Sales Inventory System Essay

By having a plan of widening the Cunderdin-Quairading Road , conservation is still involved because the management involved in the operation were able to conserve the old and big trees. They are able to protect and enhance the environmental values of road reserves. By consulting to the Department of Environment and Conservation for a clearing permit gave them permission what trees to cut and remind them to be responsible enough on how to conserve nature despite of the more industrialized world for convenience. The study also increased the employees’ and community’ s awareness of roadside conservation. It can provide safe and efficient road access while balancing best practice environmental management. It only shows that conservation is not a hindrance to save nature even though we want to improve our community or to build business. It is just a matter of planning and remembering the environment. The study about Shire of Cunderdin: Cunderdin-Quairading Road is just an example of conservation issue that must be given attention. It shows that people are still aware of the conservation issues and trying to promote goodwill to save the planet for our future generation. II. Case Study Shire of Cunderdin: Cunderdin-Quairading Road – The Shire of Cunderdin undertook road upgrade works along the Cunderdin-Quairading Road during 2011. This upgrade was in response to the state government decision to close Tier 3 grain-freight railway lines which would result in increased grain freight traffic on local roads such as the Cunderdin-Quairading Road. The road works The road works included formation works, shoulder works, drainage works, overlay and widening. The object of the upgrade was to: * clear grass, some small vegetation and minimal trees * reform and improve drainage * box out shoulders to a depth of 10 centimetres * overlay old pavement 10 centimetres * widen the pavement to 9 metres with a seal width of 7 metres Grader, loaders and trucks were used for clearing and formation works. Where the major clearing was required, such as the removal of salmon gums, skid steers and a 3-ton excavator was used to manoeuvre in places where the large plant equipment couldn’t go. The road reserve along the Cunderdin-Quairading Road consists of open roadside vegetation dominated by salmon gum, york gum, acacia and sheoak species in a degraded condition, with a predominantly introduced under storey of agricultural weeds. There are no declared rare flora or threatened ecological communities along the Road. Clearing was selective and only to the extent needed. When applying to the Department of Environment and Conservation for a clearing permit, each tree or area to be cleared was recorded on a GPS, with a view to minimizing the number of trees to be cleared, and to preserve as many large trees along the road, while creating a safe and effect ive road for users. The amount and diversity of roadside vegetation was taken into account when widening the road, and where one side of the road was less diverse than the other, the road was widened on that side. Agricultural weeds were cleared from undergrowth, and low vegetation was cleared on two s-bends to create a better line of sight, which reduced the need for a complete s-bend realignment and subsequent major clearing. Other works along the Cunderdin-Quairading Road were carried out under exemption, as specified under Item 22 of Regulation 5 (and Schedule 2) of the WA Clearing Regulations which specifies clearing within the road maintenance zones. Future plans Although no conditions were placed on the permit, the shire plans to put in place a strategic offset program where tree planting and revegetation of degraded areas and exhausted gravel pits will be undertaken annually to offset any essential clearing of native vegetation along roadsides. Future offsets will include planting low lying native shrubs along cleared road reserves to maintain aesthetics, for weed control, and to join vegetation corridors. Offset plans for 2011-12 include the revegetation of an old road reserve that was left after the realignment of an s-bend on Doodenanning Road. Agreements have been made with the adjacent property owner to allow room for farm machinery access. The revegetation will link up with a small pocket of remnant vegetation on the landholder’s property and existing roadside vegetation.

A Research Paper on IFRS and Its Implications

A Research Paper on IFRS and Its Implications International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) is a comprehensive, globally accepted set of accounting standards utilizing a principles-based approach with a greater emphasis on interpretation and application of those principles, aiming at best reflecting the economic substance of transactions. It is a less extensive body of literature than U.S. GAAP with limited industry guidance and lesser detailed application guidance. IFRS requires a much greater exercise of judgement, supported by detailed analysis and documentation. In other words, U.S. GAAP gives us a detailed instruction to the location where we would like to go where us IFRS will just guide us to the destination by showing us the direction. Today, more than 40% of the Global Fortune 500 are using IFRS. Stock exchanges in the 85 countries that require IFRS comprise 35% of the global market capitalization, compared to 25% of the global market capitalization held by U.S. exchanges   [ 1 ]   . IFRS is most likely to bec ome mandatory by beginning of 2014. Why IFRS? The question facing companies is not â€Å"If to adopt IFRS†, it is of â€Å"when and how† to adopt IFRS. With so many companies focused on managing through the economic downturn, few leadership teams are eager for one more big thing to do. Especially when that thing involves something as pervasive as International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS). But IFRS continues to be adopted by jurisdictions around the world. Taking the organization to IFRS will require managing change in multiple areas: technical accounting and tax, internal controls and processes, management and statutory reporting, technology infrastructure, and organizational issues. They’re all interconnected, which makes things a bit more complicated than imagined. IFRS relies more on general principles than detailed rules and bright lines. This means that the finance people will end up working much more closely with others in the organization to make judgments about accounting based on the underlying economics of transactions. A flurry of operational changes could be triggered by IFRS as well. Companies may have to re-examine contracts and debt agreements, treasury policies, employee benefits, education and training, and communications. Opportunities to centralize statutory accounting functions into shared service centers might also have to be looked at. A revisit of the offshoring, outsourcing, and tax planning decisions might also be required. Principle or Rule Based? At a global symposium held in the month of January where the Peter Wyman, a partner of PwC noticed a sea change in the debate surrounding the adoption of a uniform international accounting standard. The feeling was that IFRS will be adopted across the globe, the issues which were present were only of how it was to be done. There have been primarily been two major approaches to accounting namely rule based and principal based. UK and Europe have a principal based accounting system which allows greater discretion and use of professional judgement. On the other hand, US has been following rule based accounting system which was further strengthened after seeing the light of scandals such as Enron, etc. The major challenge for International Accounting Standards Board (IASB) is to adapt IFRS so that it is agreeable to all the parties involved.