The Genetically Engineered Foods Genetically Modified Foods

The Genetically Engineered Foods Introduction Genetic modification is a special gene technology that alters the genetic machinery of living organisms such as animals, plants, bacteria or other microorganisms. Foreign genes (genes from other organisms) combined and inserted into the original genetic codes are known as recombinant DNA technology and the resulting food is called genetically engineered food, genetically modified (GM) food or transgenic food. Human beings have bred plants and animals for thousands of years to produce the desired traits. It is an extremely protracted process depended on nature to produce the desired gene. Bioengineers then speed this process up by moving desired genes from one organism to another to make the†¦show more content†¦As of mid-1996, a total of 35 approvals had been granted to commercially grow 8 transgenic crops and one flower crop of carnation with 8 different traits in 6 countries plus the European Union (EU) [5]. In 2000, Vitamin A enriched golden rice was developed [6]. Curr ently, there are a number of food species available in the market in which a genetically modified version exists, such as cotton, soybean, canola, potatoes, eggplant, strawberries, corn, tomatoes, lettuce, cantaloupe, carrots. Some of the genetically engineered products are currently in the pipeline including medicines and vaccines, and feeds and fibers. Potential benefits Genetic engineering methods have been developed for over 30 years and have become commercially available and widely adopted since then. Genetically engineered foods have many potential advantages for improvement of agronomic, technological and utilitarian traits. Increased profits and environmental benefits Economic value of genetically engineered food to farmers in terms of raising agricultural productivity and reducing environmentally harmful risk is one of its major benefits [7]. For example, genetically engineered crops have improved traits of herbicide and pesticide tolerance, as well as insect, viruses and fungi resistance [8].

Comparing Gender And The Media - 936 Words

3.2 Gender and the Media. 3.2.1 The portrayal of men in films There are a variety of men portrayed in modern films: ranging from the most common â€Å"manly man† to the â€Å"goofball† to the slowly emerging more sensitive man: one who is more comfortable with stereotypically â€Å"female† emotions such as sadness. Men in films such as â€Å"The Hangover† fall into the â€Å"lad† category, characterized by their immaturity, and adolescent behavior (Moore 1998:209). Men are also portrayed as the â€Å"warrior†, or â€Å"hero† in films such as â€Å"Saving Private Ryan†, or â€Å"San Andreas respectively. Both films demonstrate male actors in traditionally male roles, saving the day, often rescuing women (more so in the latter than the former). Men are also portrayed as â€Å"players† or†¦show more content†¦MPDGs are said to help their men without pursuing their own happiness, and such characters never grow up; thus, their men never grow up. (Wikipedia) This trope is partic ularly disliked amongst feminists due to the portrayal of women as not only objects for the male to obtain, but also because of the negative light it shines on women. 3.2.3 The â€Å"narcissistic† man The narcissist is characterised by status – all the right labels, the best grooming, and the perfect wife (Fourie 2008:313). Many men in media are portrayed in this light, such as Don Draper from â€Å"Mad Men† who only wore the most expensive suits – both as a status symbol, and as a means of intimidating and impressing those in his field. The narcissist is also used often in adverts, such as George Clooney posing for Nespresso – these ads appeal to the narcissist who will view a Nespresso machine not only as a status symbol, but to make themselves appear more attractive through the acquisition of the machine. 3.2.4 The â€Å"yuppie† man The Yuppie must have. (Mort 1996:172). 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Statement The java.util.Vector

Question: Describe about the Statement the java.util.Vector class should not be used anymore? Answer: I agree with the statement that java.util.Vector class should not be used anymore. The Vector class can be replaced by the ArrayList class. Although Vector class andArrayList classare very similar in nature and both these classes represent an array that can grow dynamically. The Vector class has been in existence since the first version of JDK and the ArrayList class was introduced as a part of the collections framework in the Java 2 Standard Edition 1.2 (JDK 1.2). You can discover the accompanying javadoc remark for the Vector class: "As of the Java 2 stage v1.2, this class was retrofitted to actualize the List interface, making it an individual from the Java Collections Framework. Not at all like the new gathering executions, Vector is synchronized. In the event that a string safe usage is not required, it is prescribed to utilize ArrayList as a part of spot of Vector." The main difference between the two is that the all methods of the Vector class are synchronized, while methods of the ArrayList class are not synchronized, this means that the Vector class is thread-safe whereas the ArrayList class is not thread-safe. By synchronization we mean the ability to control the access of multiple threads to a common resource. Synchronization is based on an internal entity known as the lock or monitor. There is a lock associated with every object. A thread that needs consistent access to an object has to acquire a lock on the object before it can proceed, after getting the lock it can perform the tasks on the object and when it is finished with the task it releases the object and the object is free now. If a thread T2 asks for a lock while some other thread T1 has already taken the lock then the thread T2 will have to wait till the thread T1 releases the object. In simple terms synchronization means no two threads can simultaneously access the block/method of a class. The thread which approaches the object first for a lock takes the lock and till this lock is not released no other thread can access any of these synchronized block/methods. Vectorssynchronize on every individual operation. But this thing is something that you would never want to do. This activity hits the performance of the program very badly. Generally one would want to synchronize acomplete sequenceof operations rather than each individual operation. Synchronizing individual operations is not only less safe but slower also, why should we take a lock again and again when it is enough to take out a lock for the whole sequence of operation once. This approach has the overhead of locking when we do not require it. Therefore this approach to synchronization is flawed in most of the situations. The vector class joins the "resized show" gathering execution together with the "synchronize each operation", this is an alternate case of poor plan and does not give an acceptable division of concern. ArrayList which was introduced as a part of the collection framework should be preferred over the vector. ArrayList are by default not synchronized thus when we do not require the synchronization aspect it saves the overhead cost of synchronization. But when we have to consider the synchronization aspect, then we can use the methods in java.util.Collections. The Collections.synchronizedList() method can be used for achieving synchronization in the ArrayList. ArrayList can completely take place of the Vector and if more efficient. To put things straight we can: 1. Make use of the ArrayList if we do not require any bit of synchronization. 2. We can use the Collections.synchronizedList if we have to consider the synchronization aspect of the array. 3. We can use the CopyOnWriteArrayList if we have very few write operations and a significant no of read operations. But this approach creates an entirely new array on a write/add operation and hence it can be slow. 4. At last we can use the native Array if performance is a concern and synchronization is not required. One more difference between the Vector and the ArrayList is resizing. Both the objects hold the content using the native Array. Therefore when the Array is completely full and a new element is to be inserted then the Array is resized. The vector by default doubles the size of its Array, while the ArrayList increases the size of its Array by 50%.This could take a toll on the performance while adding new elements when the Array is full. We can show the difference between the two classes by comparing the performance of the two classes on same set of data and operations. In the program we take an ArrayList and a Vector and add elements to both and compare the time taken on both the objects. We also iterate over both the objects and find the difference in time of both. We find that the time taken by Vector is much more than that taken by the ArrayList. Code: /* * To change this template, choose Tools | Templates * and open the template in the editor. */ package javaapplication3; import java.util.*; import java.util.concurrent.TimeUnit; /** * * */ public class ComparePerformance { private static final int SIZE = 1000000; private static final int RUNS = 500; private static final Integer ONE = Integer.valueOf(1); static boolean var = false; static class Run { private final ListInteger list; Run(final ListInteger list) { this.list = list; } public long addElem() { long startTime = System.nanoTime(); for (int i = 0; i SIZE; i++) { list.add(ONE); } return System.nanoTime() - startTime; } public long iterateElem() { long startTime = System.nanoTime(); for (int i = 0; i SIZE; i++) { var=list.isEmpty(); } return System.nanoTime() - startTime; } } public static void main(final String[] args) { long arrayListTotalAdd = 0L; long vectorTotalAdd = 0L; long arrayListTotalIterate = 0L; long vectorTotalIterate = 0L; for (int i = 0; i RUNS; i++) { if (i % 50 == 49) { System.out.println("Run " + (i + 1)); } arrayListTotalAdd += new Run(new ArrayListInteger()).addElem(); arrayListTotalIterate += new Run(new ArrayListInteger()).iterateElem(); vectorTotalAdd += new Run(new VectorInteger()).addElem(); vectorTotalIterate += new Run(new VectorInteger()).iterateElem(); } System.out.println(); System.out.println("Runs: "+RUNS+", list size: "+SIZE); output(arrayListTotalAdd, "List add"); output(vectorTotalAdd, "Vector add"); output(arrayListTotalIterate, "List iterate"); output(vectorTotalIterate, "Vector iterate"); } private static void output(final long value, final String name) { System.out.println(name + " total time: " + value + " (" + TimeUnit.NANOSECONDS.toMillis(value) + " " + "ms)"); long avg = value / RUNS; System.out.println(name + " average time: " + avg + " (" + TimeUnit.NANOSECONDS.toMillis(avg) + " " + "ms)"); } } References Bailey, D., Bailey, D. (2000).Java elements. Boston: McGraw-Hill. Cahoon, B., McKinley, K. (2005). Recurrence analysis for effective array prefetching in Java.Concurrency Computat.: Pract. Exper.,17(5-6), 589-616. doi:10.1002/cpe.851 Jacobson, N., Thornton, A. (2004). It is time to emphasize arraylists over arrays in Java-based first programming courses.ACM SIGCSE Bulletin,36(4), 88. doi:10.1145/1041624.1041666 Sarang, P. (2012).Java programming. New York: McGraw-Hill.

Nehru Yuva Kendra Sangathan free essay sample

The requisite fee alongwith the application/request could be paid by way of cash against proper receipt or by demand draft Nehru Yuva Kendra Sangathan (NYKS) is an autonomous organization of the Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports with its offices in 500 districts of India. NYKS is the largest grass-root level apolitical organization in the world, catering to the needs of more than 8 million non-student rural youth in the age group of 13-35 years enrolled through 2. lakh village based youth organizations called Youth Clubs in the areas covering education and training, awareness generation, skill development and self-employment, enterprise creation, thrift and cooperation, besides development of the body through sports and adventure and mind through sustained exposure to new ideas and development strategies. For organization of these activities, supervision, monitoring and evaluation, there are 47 Regional Offices and 18 Zonal Offices. In addition, programmes with active involvement and participation of rural youth in the areas such as Health, Family Welfare, HIV-AIDS, Drug Abuse, Poverty Alleviation, Child Labour, Environment, Enrichment, Literacy, Women Empowerment, Eradication of Social Evils and other issues of Local, National and International importance are being undertaken in the villages with emphasis on value, vision and voluntary action. We will write a custom essay sample on Nehru Yuva Kendra Sangathan or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page The basic idea behind the above strategy is to bring forth the rural youth into the mainstream of national development as active participants, responsible and productive citizens of modern and technological India, since the young people are not only a major human resource for development but also key agents for social change, economic development and technological innovation. Their imaginations, ideals, considerable energy and vision are essential in the continuing development of the society in which they live. The problems that young people face as well as their vision and aspirations are essential component of the challenge and prospects of today’s society and future generation. Consequently while paying focused attention on these aspects, NYKS has subsequently evolved emerged not merely as an organization, but as a rural youth movement in the country. The objects for which the Sangathan is established are :- ) To take over, manage, administer and run the existing Nehru Yuva Kendra; ii) To establish, run, manage and administer new Nehru Yuva Kendras anywhere in India and evaluate their working; iii) To promote and develop the concept of national . v) To function as a coordinating agency to link the youth with various departments/agencies integration, solidarity and secularism among the youth; iv) To involve the youth in programmes that would facilitate the organization of youth leadership training programme, community singing, cultural activities, work camps, sports activities, elf-help programmes, physical and Adult Education, character building and Co-operative movement etcof the Government administering programmes like Integrated Rural Development Programme (IRDP), Training of Rural Youth for Self Employment (TRYSEM), Self-Employment, Health and Family Welfare Programmes, Adult Education etc. vi) To create an awareness among the rural youth and providing them necessary guidance for taking advantage of various rural development programmes; To organize special training programmes for the functionaries in order to familiarize them with the programmes/schemes of various departments/agencies being implemented in rural areas; viii) To establish, run, manage and administer Regional offices of Sangathan anywhere in India; ix) To create administrative, technical and non-technical appointments, promotions and transfer thereto; x) To collaborate with State Governments, Union Territory Administrations and other Organizations in and outside India for furtherance of its objectives; xi) To advise the Government of India on all matters within its purview either suo-motto or on a reference from the Government; xii) To organize, sponsor, and finance seminars, conferences etc. n the field of youth and allied matters; xiii) To undertake, sponsor and encourage publication of journals and literature relating to youth; stipends in the implementation of these objects; xiv) To institute, offer and grant prizes, awards and stipends in the impl ementation of these objects; xv) To constitute Boards, Committees or other bodies as may be deemed fit and to prescribe their powers, functions, tenure etc; xvi) To accept and collect donations, grants and gifts and to undertake management of any endowment or trust and to make donations, grants and gifts for the purpose of these objects; xvii) To borrow and raise money with or without security of moveable and immoveable properties belonging to the Sangathan provided that the prior approval of the Government of India is obtained in that behalf; xviii) To acquire, purchase or otherwise own, take on lease or hire, moveable and immoveable properties and to sell, mortgage, transfer or otherwise dispose of any such moveable or immoveable properties, but the prior approval of the Government of India in respect of such immoveable properties shall be obtained; xix) To make Rules and Regulations for the conduct of the affairs of the Sangathan and to add, amend, vary or repeal them from time to time; xx) To maintain a ‘F und’ which shall be vested in the Sangathan; xxi) Generally to take all such measures as may be found necessary from time to time to achieve its objectives; and xxii) To do all such acts and things as the Sangathan may consider necessary, conducive or incidental to the attainment or enlargement of the aforesaid objects or any one of them. and other posts and to make. All the incomes, earnings, moveable or immoveable properties of the Sangathan Society shall be solely utilized and applied towards the promotion of its aims and objects only as set forth in the Memorandum of Association and no portion thereof shall be paid or transferred directly or indirectly by way of dividends, bonus profits or in any manner whatsoever, to the present or past members of the Sangathan Society or to any person claiming through any one or more of the present or the past members. No member of the Sangathan Society shall have any personal claim on any moveable or immoveable properties of the Sangathan Society to make any profits, whatsoever, by virtue of this membership. 5. The names, addresses, occupations and designations of the present members of the Board of Governors to whom the management of the Sangathan is entrusted, as required under

Chinas Reliance on The World Market †Economics Essay

Chinas Reliance on The World Market – Economics Essay Free Online Research Papers Chinas Reliance on The World Market Economics Essay China at this moment is experiencing the transition of its grain trade policy from a policy of self-sufficiency to that of somewhat greater reliance on the world market. On June 1 this year, Premier Wen Jiabao announces that China has listed liberalization of grain trading and pricing and offering subsidies to grain growers as among Chinas priority tasks for reforming its grain distributing system. (1) Earlier this year, it is reported that Chinas grain output falls for five years in a row to 431 million tons last year from a record high of 512 million tons in 1998 while its farmland is also down 7 percent from 1998 to about 100 million hectares. (2) To encourage production, China for the first time in its history directly subsidizes its rural grain farmers: about 1.2 billion US dollars from its grain risk fund is used to directly subsidize individual rural households. Such subsidy is just one policy in the package of massive supporting measures, which also includes setting minimum grain purchasing prices, strictly protecting farmland and lowering agricultural tax. Such measures affect hundreds of millions of grain farmers in 13 provinces, accounting for 69 percent of China’s grain production. (3) Also China begins to liberalize its stri ctly-controlled and inefficient grain system to break state-owned enterprises’ long-held monopoly over the grain market. Private grain companies now can buy grain directly from farmers and resell or process them, which was unimaginable years ago when the central government held a complete monopoly over the grain market. (4) This paper will look into why China, as a WTO member now, goes for such dramatic policy change, examine the policy tools that China adopts most recently in the progressive liberalization of its grain trade and how they will impact the local and international communities. Agricultural resources put China at a disadvantage in producing grain from a comparative economic advantage standpoint. (5) The per capita arable land and water resource levels in China are much lower than world averages (6), and the demand on the land for other crops, particularly for vegetables and fruits, is great. (7) So, even though technologically China is able to feed its people, the self-sufficiency grain policy is irrational from an economic standpoint. Despite the relative success of government controls, with domestic grain costs increasing and domestic grain prices surpassing those of the world market as early as in 1994, Chinese scholars began to question the rationality of the self-sufficiency policy. (8) Moreover, self-sufficiency carries a heavy social cost. It is possible to make simple estimates on the social cost of grain self-sufficiency. According to Long (9), a net loss of social welfare USD 6.59 billion in the year 2020 will occurassuming that the demand for grain has no price elasticity and there is no price margin. If there is a price margin of, say, 20%, the net loss of social welfare will go further up to USD 13.52 billion. In Mid-1998, China instituted a price support program for grain. (10) The price support policy had two pricesa higher protection price for quota grain and a lower reservation price for any amount of grain that a farmer may have wished to sell. The state grain bureaus that purchased the grain were required to sell the grain to the marketing system at a price that covered their costs as well. The intention was that the price support policy would have no budgetary cost and that consumers would pay the full cost incurred in bringing grain to the retail shop. Of course, there should be no objection to that since urban consumers have far higher incomes than the grain producers, and there is no reason why their consumption of grain should be subsidized. But neither is there any reason why consumers should pay more for their grain than if they were served by an efficient marketing system. (11) If the policy functioned as planned, consumers would pay higher prices than necessary. To permit the grain bureaus and subsequent grain handlers to cover their costs, private traders were prohibited from buying directly from farmers. The reason for this action can only be that the private sector can move grain from the farmer to the consumer at significantly lower cost than the state enterprises that, once again, were given a monopoly in the marketing of grain. If this were not the case, there would have been no reason to give the grain bureaus the monopsony in purchases from farmers. If the grain bureaus promptly paid the farmers the specified prices and accepted all the grain farmers offered, as the policy said they should, private traders would have had to pay same prices as the grain bureau paid for grain in excess of the quota. (12) In fact, government losses in the purchase and sale of grain went up sharply since the program implemented. In 1995-1996 (April to March), the cost to the government was 19.7 billion renminbi (RMB); in 1996-1997, 40 billion RMB; and in 1997-1998, in excess of 100 billion RMB. (13) The losses in 1997-1998 exceeded the total expenditure urban consumers made in purchasing grain in 1997. According to the urban household survey, the per capita expenditure on grain by urban household survey, the per capita expenditure on grain by urban consumers was 238 RMB (14). With an urban population of 370 million (15), a total expenditure of 100 billion RMB would equal a per capita cost for the urban population of 270 RMB, or somewhat more than the average expenditure on grain 1997. While realizing the heavy costs of self-sufficiency and the apparent benefit of grain liberalization, Chinese leaders worry about a number of factors that inhibits China’s movement toward greater reliance on grain imports: food security, farmer unemployment, long-term foreign payment ability, as well as economic efficiency. Since the international community has significant influence over these factors, analysis of China’s grain policy suggests how the international community can promote China’s full engagement in the international trading system following is accession to the WTO. China has a long history of farmer rebellions, most of them were triggered by famine; the disastrous famine of the early 1960’s left an indelible imprint on China’s psyche. (16) The lowest requirements for the food safety are that nobody, particularly the poverty-stricken population, starves to death due to the short supply of grains and that the grains issue can not influence the social stabilization. Chinese leaders doubt whether China’s food security can be ensured by relying on the world market, especially records show that the main grain exporting countries have poor policy records, and specifically in times of domestic crises, they may transfer internal shocks to importing countries. Also, since China is a country of vast population, Chinese leaders are concerned that a grain embargo will be used by main exporters as a political weapon against China.(17) It is not until China’s accession to WTO that they finally gradually let go such uncertainties. The general commitments inherent in WTO membership include unconditional most-favored-nation treatment required by Article I of GATTthat member will not discriminate between members. Another basic condition is national treatment required by Article III of GATTthat imports can not be discriminated against other than through border priced-based measure such as tariffs. (18) Under this commitments and condition China can seek tighter disciplines on the use of export restrictions by food exporters to ensure the security of supply. The risk of grain embargos is greatly reduced. And China can increase the extent it relies on world markets as its source of grain. Increasing the security of supply would also be in the in the interest of the exporting countries, which face demands greatly diminished by China’s lack of confidence in the security of supply. Even when members of main grain exporting countries do not honor the WTO agreement and decide to use embargo against China, any grain embargoes have only short-term effects due to the high elasticity of grain supply. Supplier countries that do not participate in an embargo can easily increase their production to provide China with grain over time. Moreover, with an apparently high ratio of grain stock to grain consumption, China is definitely safe from famine in case grain embargo is used against it. (19) The volume of grain stocks is an important index used to measure whether a country is safe or not in terms of grains. In general, the proportion of carry-over stocks of grains at the end of a grains year in the estimated total consumption of grains during the next year will be taken as the grains stocks safety coefficient. The UN Food and Agriculture Organization holds that the lowest scope for a countrys grains stocks safety coefficient is 17~18 percent. If the coefficient is smaller than that, in combination with the analysis on other factors, it can be regarded that this country is not safe in terms of grains. (20) For China, even when grain prices fluctuate in a large range, the safety coefficient of the grains stocks is still higher than 18 percent, the lowest value for the countrys grain stocks safety coefficient. (21) Underemployment and unemployment has always been a problem in China’s rural area. Whether grain liberalization will aggravate unemployment has been a subject of controversy. Those who advocate for liberalization argue that Chinese grain farmers can adapt themselves to more grain imports by converting agricultural activities to higher value-added and labor-intensive production as in Japan, South Korea and Taiwan. (22) As high value-added crops are more labor-intensive than grain, such a transition will provide a solution to the unemployment problem. Some also suggest the superabundance of rural labor can be dealt with by transferring most of them to non-agricultural sectors especially to the service sector. Such arguments are valid only when there are enough markets for higher value-added and labor intensive goods. However, China faces barriers in its exporting markets, and the extent of the barriers can be better understood by examining the duty burden that China faces in the export markets. It is clear that China faces some substantial tariff barriers and high tariff rates on its high value-added and labor-intensive agricultural products such as vegetables, fruits and fish products. The average tariff rate faced by China on its agricultural product exports is four times as high as the average tariff faced on its exports of other products. (23) The absence of reliable assurance of food security has been precluding China from opening up to the world grain market. To provide reassurance to China and boost Chinese confidence in the world grain market, greater market access from the international community therefore must be provided for China’s labor-intensive agricultural goods as well as other labor-intensive goods such as textiles. Skeptics of China’s grain liberalization also question China will be able to afford to import a large amount of grain. Since 1999 China has more than USD 140 billion in its foreign exchange reserve, the second highest in the world. (24) However, it is not clear if, in the long run, China will be able to sustain surpluses in its exchange reserve. There are several reasons behind such a pessimistic forecast. First, the rapid growth of China’s export is mainly attributable to â€Å"Processing trade†, in which countries import inputs and re-export processed goods. Between 1980 and 1997, normal exports did not increase as much as the average GDP growth. (25) The exports of â€Å"processing trade are mainly labor-intensive goods with value-added ratio of 10-15 %. (26) Because China has not realized processing trade industries are in fact â€Å"rootless industries†: The plants that produces goods for processing exports move to other countries due to the increase in the labor cost in China, as what had happened in Japan and East Asian Dragons. Unlike its predecessors, however, China will have difficulty in adopting the model of exporting higher value added intermediate inputs. Second, the long-term prospect of China’s capital account balance is ambiguous. As a result of its open-door policy, China has b een the second largest foreign direct investment (FDI) host since 1993. (27) Although decreasing profitability may prevent FDI from rising in the future, foreign investment in service sectors, such as telecommunication, banking and insurance, will rise if China lifts its restrictions on foreign investments. At the same time, the tremendous expansion of outward investment and illegal capital outflow explains why China’s foreign exchange reserve increased only slightly despite years of huge surplus. Given China’s unpromising outlook for its exchange reserve, some policy makers are pessimistic about China’s long-term balance of payment, although they tend to have confidence in China’s short-term balance of payment surplus. However, according to Long (28), such a view is not warrant as the expenditure in grain imports is predicted to be at most accounting for 2.5% of the exports by 2020. So there has to be other reasons other than balance of payment that make Chinese still uncertain about their ability to pay for grain imports. As China is on its path of rapid industrialization, imports of machinery and transportation equipment, raw materials, and high value services will inevitably increase rapidly with continued economic growth. Grain imports will have some crowding-out effects on other imports if foreign is a scarce resource and the opportunity cost of grain imports will be higher than nominal cost. (29) Still, even if China faces difficulties in keeping it s balance of payment, the Chinese currency can depreciate and lower domestic grain prices, reducing or halting grain imports at any time it The shift in the use of procurement prices as a means of taxing agriculture to a means of providing support suggests that policy transformation is well under way in China in light of food consumption change. China realizes the fact that over the past several decades the grain consumption structure has been changing: First, per capita grain consumption has been falling slowly since the early 1990s, offsetting some of the effects of population growth; second, the urban households consume much less grain than rural households. (30) Nevertheless, due to the expanding consumption in feed grains, seed and industrial input, research results suggest that the total grain demand will be growing at an average rate of 1.2 % between 1996 and 2020 and 1.1 % between 1996and 2030. (31) In order to be accurate, the above forecasts of grain demand take numerous factors into consideration, such as the urbanization rate, the consumption trends in the past 10 to 15 years and food consumption habits of ne ighboring countries in East Asia, etc. All of these factors indicate that per capita grain demand will only grow slowly (1.2 % and 1.1%) even if the Chinese economy further develops. (32) However, policies to increase prices received by farmers, like price support, even when successful, have limited effect on the returns to labor and capital engaged in agriculture. (33) Chinese officials did not learn from the similar serious and expensive agricultural policy errors made by the United States and the European Community until recently. (34) Rather than wasting money through high storage costs and payment to government employees, they realize that giving grain farmers direct subsidy and lowering agricultural tax do increase the income of farm people much moreeven though the government still applies price support, i.e., setting minimum purchasing prices. Such measures are implemented because increasing rural incomes is one of China’s prioritized commitments. While incomes have grown and poverty in rural China has been reduced substantially over the last 20 years, the income gap between rural and urban China has widened. (35) This has contributed to social tensions in rural areas and has become one of the major concerns for the government. While agriculture contributes almost one half to rural incomes, agricultural policy measures alone will have a very limited impact on rural incomes if they are not integrated with a wide range of other policies. In particular, the policy agenda has to include labor market reform to soften labor migration restrictions; education reform to provide the rural population with sufficient skills to compete on labor markets; fiscal policy reform combined with local administration reform to diminish the government-imposed burdens on rural households; and social policy reform to reduce the gap in access to social benefits between the rural and urban populations. China’s comprehensive reforms over the last 20 years have transformed its trade regime along with the economy as a whole. The reforms of the domestic economy have greatly increased the importance of market, rather than planning, in the allocation of resources. In fact, China has agreed to phase out restrictions on trading rights for most products. However, a small percentage of imports remains covered by the traditional monopoly trading system. Grain is a case in point. While such a system is allowed under GATT rules, there appears to be a strong case for, at minimum, reforming its operating procedures. It is because this system appears to involve the worst of both worldsthe poor information flows typical of command planning systems and the exploitation of market participants typically associated with poorly regulated markets. China realizes the importance of coordinating its domestic circulation system with the foreign trade system. Despite China’s commitment to distributing grain import quotas to private enterprises, the monopoly trading system will not allow it. Implemented in 1998, China’s domestic grain circulation system ensures the monopoly of the grain bureau by permitting no state-owned or private enterprises except the state grain bureau to purchase grain directly from farmers. If other enterprises can directly buy cheaper grain from the world market and sell at prices lower, the monopoly of the grain bureau will break down. Granting import quotas, thus, is not viable under the monopoly system to achieve the goal. For a broader distribution of import quotas, a reform of domestic circulation system is essential. That’s why, as mentioned in the first paragraph, China has started to progressively expand the scope of quota distribution to include private enterprises. Such a new move signifies an irreversible market reform of the country’s grain industry. As a member of the WTO, China controls over grain by the application of tariff rate quota. In accordance with Chinas promise on its entry into the WTO, during the transitional period, the tariff-rate quota for imported grains in 2004 will be no more than 22.15 billion kilograms; it is anticipated that the dependence on foreign trade will be 4.4 percent at most. During several years in the future, the annually average dependence on foreign trade in terms of grains will be 5 percent. (36) As the ratio of grain imports to total demand will expand to 10% or more by 2020, the amount of China’s grain import requirement will be about 60 million tons or more, significantly lower than 200 million tons suggested in the free trade scenario. (37) So with partial reliance, domestic grain prices would be higher than those of the world market, but lower than what would be if it adopted free grain trade. Although main grain exporters may prefer China to adopt grain trade policy than anything else, it is least likely to take effect. First, agricultural goods are far from being freely traded in the world. Even the United States, the largest exporter of agricultural goods, has a substantial level of government intervention when it comes to agriculture not to mention Canada. In this international framework, China can hardly go so far as to liberalize grain trade as a developing country. Second, free trade in grain does not constitute China’s national interest. China will not only exposed to the possible shock of price fluctuations in the world market, but also face the risk of serious rural unemployment, even in the absence of man-made attacks such as grain embargos. Third, other grain importers might not want China to adopt a free trade policy: The importing countries may object to the international pressure to open up their agricultural markets. Therefore it is understandable why Chinese government on the one hand let go of the old regime and progressively allows market force to take charge of its grain trade; on the other hand, however, it is still heavily involved by exerting powerful policy tools onto the market during the transition from planning-based regulations to free trade. As the world’s leading importer and exporter of grain, China has influenced the world grain market in many ways even with its long-held policy of grain self-sufficiency. As China now further liberalizes its grain trade, it will provide a larger market for grain exporters. There is no doubt that China, as the largest grain producer and consumer grain in the world, will become more powerful in affecting world food security. The question is how. China affects world food security through the price volatility it causes in the world market. There are two reasons for price volatility in the world market. First, almost every country, including China, imports to take advantage of the world market to stabilize its own domestic market. Almost no country relies solely on imports. Rather, countries vary the amount of grain imports according to the changes in their domestic grain prices. For this reason, the share of imports in the domestic market relative to domestic production is fairly small in most cases. Second, variations in the amount of imports in individual countries affect the world market prices since the world market is small relative to the total grain production. China swaps different varieties through the world market, and its enormous variations in import volumes usually affect world market prices. With China changing its trade policy and increasing its grain imports, the variations in China’s imports will be reduced substantially, mitigating the price volatility in the world grain market. Some researches pay attention to China’s grain imports and its impact on grain prices in the world market. Some researchers were alarmed by the prospect of China’s rising imports and its potential harmful effects on some of the poor grain importers. (38) However influential in policy-making, this view lacks credibility. Variation in China’s imports causes price shocks in the world grain market because suppliers can hardly anticipate the changes and adjust their production in time. If China relies more on grain imports, its import requirement will become more transparent and more predicable. Moreover, as mentioned earlier grain is an elastic commodity, main exporters will be able to expand their production to meet China’s increased import needs. Therefore, in the long-run the price of the world grain market will not soar even with China’s new grain policy. Besides direct economic benefits, the international community will also gain security benefits from China’s grain trade liberalization. China has been deeply involved in the global economy since the late 1970s as suggested by the amount of foreign trade in China. The twenty-year history of China’s integration into the international economy reveals that China has chosen to play under the current international rules along with the West, rather than to establish a new international framework that would challenge the existing rules. China has been involved with international organizations including the United Nations, the World Bank, the IMF and, eventually, the WTO. With deeper economic integration with the world market, the Chinese have realized the importance of interdependence and cooperation with other countries. Such a policy change will have important implication for China’s foreign policy. International and regional peace and stability will become a higher priority for China. When dealing with international affairs, China will be more cooperative with main grain exporting countries such as the United States. Consequently, the prospect of international cooperation will have positive consequences to certain extent for international security. Because grain is an important strategic good, a transition in grain trade policy will have important implications for China’s domestic and foreign policies. Because China is an indispensable player in the world grain market and a rising power in international affairs, China’s policy transition will also have major consequences for the international grain market and world security. Now, as it is liberalizing its grain trade, China requires smooth policy transition to bring a win-win situation to both China and the international community. If done successfully, both China and the international community will benefit from the policy change. Grain importers will gain a stable market for their product, a reduction in budget subsidies on agricultural goods, and a more predictable and reliable partner. China will be able to feed its people with lower costs and strengthen its international competitiveness. The policy transition, however, is dependent not only on China’s domestic circumstances but also on what the international community will do. In the international efforts to promote peaceful transition, the United States, Canada and Australiathe three major grain importers for Chinashould play a key role. Reference: 1.) china-embassy.org/eng/gyzg/t127570.htm 2.) http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2004-05/06/content_1454463.htm 3.) chinastudygroup.org/newsarchive/5603/ 4.) chinastudygroup.org/newsarchive/5941/ 5.) Cheng F. and Beghin J. C. (2003), â€Å"Protection and Comparative advantage of Chinese Agriculture: Implications for Regional and National Specialization†, in Scott D. Rozelle and Daniel A. Summer (eds.), Agricultural Trade and Policy in China, Ashgate Publishing Company. 6.) www.agecon.ucdavis.edu/facultypages/sumner/iatrc/chengfang.pdf 7.) www.usda.gov/oce/forum/ Archives/2004/speeches/wade0220.doc 8.) Cheng F. and Beghin J. C. (2003), â€Å"Protection and Comparative advantage of Chinese Agriculture: Implications for Regional and National Specialization†, in Scott D. Rozelle and Daniel A. Summer (eds.), Agricultural Trade and Policy in China, Ashgate Publishing Company. 9.) brookings.edu/fp/cnaps/papers/1999_long.htm 10.) Ke, Bingsheng (1998), â€Å"Grain Circulation and Market System Reform†, paper for Commemoration Seminar on the Twentieth Anniversary of China’s Rural Reform, Beijing, 1998. 11.) Johnson, D.G. (1999), â€Å"Agricultural adjustments in China: Problems and Prospects,† Office of Agricultural Economics Research, University of Chicago, Paper No. 96:03, August 10. 12.) Johnson D.G. (2003), â€Å"China’s Grain Trade: Some Policy Considerations†, in Scott D. Rozelle and Daniel A. Summer (eds.), Agricultural Trade and Policy in China, Ashgate Publishing Company. 13.) Crook, Frederick W. (1998), â€Å"Agricultural Policies in 1998: Stability and Change,† U. S. Department of Agriculture, China: Situation and Outlook Series, International Agriculture and Trade reports, Economic Research Service, WRS-98-3, pp. 9-10 14.) State Statistical Bureau (1998), China Statistical Yearbook 1998, Beijing: China Statistical Publishing House 15.) State Statistical Bureau (1998), China Statistical Yearbook 1998, Beijing: China Statistical Publishing House 16.) Kane P., (1988), Famine in China, 1959-61: Demographic and Social Implications, New York: St. Martins Press. 17.) eco.utexas.edu/Homepages/Faculty/Cleaver/357Lsum_s4_Paarlberg_FA80.html 18.) gatt.org/ 19.) www.ers.usda.gov/publications/wrs012/wrs012k.pdf 20.) www.econ.worldbank.org/files/2469_wps2689.pdf 21.) http://en.ce.cn/main/Insight/200409/06/t20040906_1728837.shtml 22.) card.iastate.edu/iowa_ag_review/fall_00/competitiveness.aspx 23.) Hertel, T., (1997), Global Trade Analysis: Modeling and Applications, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 24.) Hunag Jikun, (2003), â€Å"Trade Liberalization and China’s Food Economy in the 21st Century: Implication for China’s National Food Security†, in Scott D. Rozelle and Daniel A. Summer (eds.), Agricultural Trade and Policy in China, Ashgate Publishing Company. 25.) Naughton B., (2003), â€Å"China’s Trade Regime Entering a New Century†, in Scott D. Rozelle and Daniel A. Summer (eds.), Agricultural Trade and Policy in China, Ashgate Publishing Company. 26.) Naughton B., (2003), â€Å"China’s Trade Regime Entering a New Century†, in Scott D. Rozelle and Daniel A. Summer (eds.), Agricultural Trade and Policy in China, Ashgate Publishing Company. 27.) Hunag Jikun, (2003), â€Å"Trade Liberalization and China’s Food Economy in the 21st Century: Implication for China’s National Food Security†, in Scott D. Rozelle and Daniel A. Summer (eds.), Agricultural Trade and Policy in China, Ashgate Publishing Company. 28.) brookings.edu/fp/cnaps/papers/1999_long.htm 29.) brookings.edu/fp/cnaps/papers/1999_long.htm 30.) www.ers.usda.gov/publications/wrs012/wrs012l.pdf 31.) brookings.edu/fp/cnaps/papers/1999_long.htm 32.) agriculture.com/default.sph/agNotebook.class?FNC=ArticleList__Aarticle_html___8683___826 33.) Johnson, D.G. (1991), World Agriculture in Disarray, 2nd ed., London: Macmillan. 34.) Johnson D.G. (2003), â€Å"China’s Grain Trade: Some Policy Considerations†, in Scott D. Rozelle and Daniel A. Summer (eds.), Agricultural Trade and Policy in China, Ashgate Publishing Company. 35.) Johnson, D.G. (2000), Reducing the Urban-Rural Income Disparity in China, Office of Agricultural Economics Research, The University of Chicago, Paper: 00-06, mimeo. 36.) http://docsonline.wto.org/DDFDocuments/t/WT/ACC/CHN49.doc 37.) brookings.edu/fp/cnaps/papers/1999_long.htm 38.) Brown, Lester R., (1995), Who Will Feed China?: Wake-up Call for a small Planet, Norton Company Ltd. Research Papers on China's Reliance on The World Market - Economics EssayDefinition of Export QuotasAnalysis of Ebay Expanding into AsiaRiordan Manufacturing Production PlanInfluences of Socio-Economic Status of Married MalesPETSTEL analysis of IndiaTwilight of the UAWMarketing of Lifeboy Soap A Unilever ProductGenetic EngineeringNever Been Kicked Out of a Place This NiceBionic Assembly System: A New Concept of Self

Frankenstein and Prometheus Similaritie Essay

Frankenstein and Prometheus Similaritie Essay Frankenstein and Prometheus Similaritie Essay Similarities in Frankenstein and Prometheus Hubris is a common theme in world literature and storytelling wherein heros try to out do the work of the Gods. This behavior often leads to tragic results. One ancient Greek tale of hubris is the story of Prometheus. Prometheus, the Greek Titan, created humanity from clay and water, and then supplied humans with the gift of fire behind the back of Zeus, King of the Gods. The Gothic European novel Frankenstein tells the story of Victor Frankenstein and his creation of a large and frightening monster. Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein parallels many subjects and themes found in Prometheus, and reexamines the concept of hubris in a new and creative manner. In Greek mythology, Prometheus is the Titan who disobeyed Zeus’ rules by creating humanity out of clay and water. Prometheus loves his creations and wants to help them, so he steals fire from Mount Olympus and gives it to the humans. In Shelley’s Frankenstein, Victor attempts to unlock the secrets of life by creating a monster. Both characters disregard any preset rules and choose to defy the order established by the gods. Victor becomes â€Å"capable of bestowing animation upon lifeless matter† (p 37) as his obsession with creating life grows. He gains so much power and knowledge that he is able to actually create a living being. However, the creature does not resemble a true human. Instead, Victor’s imagination expands and he gives â€Å"life to an animal as complex and wonderful as man†, but eight feet tall and with a yellow-tinted skin color. This shows that he gained so much power that instead of creating a human; he purposefully created a mons ter to look nothing like humans. Even after he is warned by numerous professors that the experiments are dangerous, Victor refuses to listen. In Prometheus, Prometheus refuses to listen to what Zeus tells him and continues to act as if he is above the rules of nature and the gods. Prometheus and Victor do not accept their limitation set by society and nature; they dream of a creation without thinking about any potential consequences. Victor is eager to test his scientific skills, but never ponders any consequences that could occur as a result to the creature or to others. Similarly, Prometheus creates humans to spite the power of Zeus, but never actually thinks of what could happen if humans have the power of thought or fire. Victor defies laws of nature and realizes that â€Å"...the different accidents of life are not so changeable as the feelings of human nature†¦Ã¢â‚¬  (p 42). He doesn’t want to create an animal similar to humans, as it could eventually pose as a threat. Attempting to think logically, Victor produces a monster â€Å"of a gigantic stature....about eight feet in height, and proportionally large† (p 38). He knows that this being will be much different than humans, and that satisfies him at first. Victor never imagines tha t his creature could actually be intelligent and have a distinct personality. When Prometheus creates humanity, he doesn’t think of the possible repercussions from creating an intelligent creature that has the ability to think independently. Both stories use the concept of fire; not only literally but also metaphorically. With fire, comes the gift of knowledge, which then can be used to help conquer. When Victor was just a child, he â€Å"beheld a stream of fire (lightning) issue from an old and beautiful oak†¦Ã¢â‚¬ , and â€Å"...so soon as the dazzling light [had]

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Katherine Mansfield Essay Example for Free

Katherine Mansfield Essay She was born in 1888 in Wellington, a town labeled â€Å"the empire city† by its white inhabitants, who modeled themselves on British life and relished their city’s bourgeois respectability. [1] At an early age, Mansfield witnessed the disjuncture between the colonial and the native, or Maori, ways of life, prompting her to criticize the treatment of the Maoris in several diary entries and short stories. [2] Mansfield’s biographer, Angela Smith, writes: â€Å"It was her childhood experience of living in a society where one way of life was imposed on another, and did not quite fit in† that sharpened her modernist impulse to focus on moments of â€Å"disruption† or encounters with â€Å"strange or disturbing† aspects of life. [3] Her feelings of disjuncture were accentuated when she arrived in Britain in 1903 to attend Queen’s College. In many respects, Mansfield remained a lifelong outsider, a traveler between two seemingly similar yet profoundly different worlds. After briefly returning to New Zealand in 1906, she moved back to Europe in 1908, living and writing in England and parts of continental Europe. Until her premature death from tuberculosis at the age of 34, Mansfield remained in Europe, leading a Bohemian, unconventional way of life. The Domestic Picturesque Mansfield’s short story â€Å"Prelude† is set in New Zealand and dramatizes the disjunctures of colonial life through an account of the Burnell family’s move from Wellington to a country village. The story takes its title from Wordsworth’s seminal poem, â€Å"The Prelude,† the first version of which was completed in 1805, which casts the poet as a traveler and chronicles the â€Å"growth of a poet’s mind. †[4] Although the Burnell family moves a mere â€Å"six miles† from town, the move is not inconsequential; it enacts a break with their previous way of life and alerts the family members to the various discontinuities in their lives. Beneath the veneer of the Burnells’ harmonious domestic life are faint undercurrents of aggression and unhappiness. The haunting specter of a mysterious aloe plant and a slaughtered duck in their well-manicured yard suggests that the family’s awfully nice new home conceals moments of brutality and ignorance toward another way of life that was suppressed and denied. [5] As I will propose, these two incidents echo the aesthetic concept of the sublime, as they encapsulate a mysterious power that awes its beholders and cannot be fully contained within their picturesque home. Through her subtle, dream-like prose, Mansfield deploys traditional aesthetic conventions like the picturesque while simultaneously transfiguring, subverting, and reinventing them in a modernist context. The concept of the picturesque was first defined by its originator, William Gilpin, an 18th century artist and clergyman, as â€Å"that kind of beauty which is agreeable in a picture. †[6] Thus, a scene or representation is beautiful when it echoes an already-established, artistic conception of beauty, revealing the self-reinforcing way in which art creates the standard of beauty for both art and life. Mansfield presents these picturesque moments in order to demystify them and reveal the suppression and violence they contain. In addition to â€Å"Prelude,† her stories â€Å"Garden Party† and â€Å"Bliss† dramatize the transformation and inversion of picturesque moments of bourgeois life and domestic harmony. While she seems to exhibit a certain attachment to these standard aesthetic forms, Mansfield subtly interrogates many of these conventions in a strikingly modernist way. Through her childhood in a colony, Mansfield also became attuned to the violence and inequalities of colonialism. As Angela Smith suggests, her early writings demonstrate a keen sensitivity towards a repressed history of brutality and duplicity. [7] In her 1912 short story â€Å"How Pearl Button Was Kidnapped,† she questions and overturns the perspective of the colonialist, whose vantage point historically trumps that of the native. The deliberate ambivalence of the word â€Å"kidnapping† dramatizes the conflict between the colonist’s perspective and Pearl’s joyful, eye-opening experiences during her abduction. In a similar way, empire dramatized for Mansfield the way that a picturesque, bourgeois household could suppress alternative perspectives. The Sublime In â€Å"Prelude,† the mysterious, sublime aloe plant disrupts the pleasant domesticity of the Burnell household. Their well-manicured yard with its tennis lawn, garden, and orchard also contains a wild, unseemly side—â€Å"this was the frightening side, and no garden at all. †[8] This â€Å"side† contains the aloe plant, which exerts a mysterious, enthralling power over its awed beholders. In its resemblance to the ocean, the aloe assumes the characteristics of the sublime: â€Å"the high grassy bank on which the aloe rested rose up like a wave, and the aloe seemed to ride upon it like a shop with the oars lifted. Bright moonlight hung upon the lifted oars like water, and on the green wave glittered the dew. †[9] For many writers and poets, the ocean was a manifestation of the sublime because of its unfathomable power and scale that awed and humbled its observers. The aloe’s strikingly physiological effect on its viewers recalls Edmund Burke’s sublime, which overpowers its observer and reinforces the limitations of human reason and control. In his famous treatise on the sublime, Burke writes: â€Å"greatness of dimension, vastness of extent or quantity† is a powerful cause of the sublime, as it embodies the violent and overpowering forces of nature. [10] In a similar vein, the child, Kezia Burnell’s first impression upon seeing the â€Å"fat swelling plant with its cruel leaves and fleshy stem† is one of awe and wonder. [11] In this case, the sublimity of the aloe plant disrupts and challenges the domestic picturesque as it defies mastery, categorization, and traditional notions of beauty. In its resistance to categorization and control, the sublime embodies the part of the ungovernable landscape that the Burnell family cannot domesticate and the picturesque cannot frame. As a result, in â€Å"Prelude,† the magnitude of the sublime interrupts and fractures the tranquil surface of the picturesque by exposing the unfathomable depths beneath it. The colonial backdrop of the Burnells’ yard also contributes to the mysterious, occult power of the aloe. This unruly part of their property hints toward a landscape that eludes domestication and serves as a constant reminder that the Burnell family is living in a land that is not quite theirs and cannot be fully tamed. [12] At the age of 19, Mansfield wrote that the New Zealand bush outside of the cities is â€Å"all so gigantic and tragic—and even in the bright sunlight it is so passionately secret. †[13] For Mansfield, the bush embodies the history of a people whose lives have been interrupted and displaced by European settlers. [14] After wars, brutal colonial practices, and European diseases had devastated the local Maori population, the bush became a haunting monument to their presence. As the Burnell family settles down to sleep on the first night in their new home, â€Å"far away in the bush there sounded a harsh rapid chatter: â€Å"Ha-ha-ha†¦ Ha-ha-ha. †[15] In her subtle way, Mansfield unveils the voices of those whose perspectives are excluded from this portrait of nocturnal domestic harmony. In a similar way, the aloe plant exudes an unfathomable history that is beyond the time and place of the Burnells. Even its age—implied by the fact that it flowers â€Å"once every hundred years†Ã¢â‚¬â€suggests that the aloe exists on a different scale than its human beholders. [16] In its ancient, superhuman scale, the aloe gestures towards the â€Å"gigantic,† indicating a subtle, but implicitly threatening power within, or in proximity of the home. The aloe is a kind of lacuna in the imperial landscape of New Zealand, whose power threatens the colonial household and its control over the landscape. [17] By disrupting and encroaching upon the ostensibly safe domestic sphere, the aloe also echoes the â€Å"unheimlich,† or uncanny, an aesthetic concept explored by Sigmund Freud in his 1919 essay, â€Å"The Uncanny. † The uncanny becomes, in part, an invasive force violating the sacred, domestic sphere and hearkens back to a previously repressed or hidden impulse: â€Å"The uncanny is something which ought to have remained hidden but has come to light. †[18] In â€Å"Prelude,† the aloe is initially depicted as a threatening force that â€Å"might have had claws instead of roots. The curving leaves seemed to be hiding something. †[19] Positioned within the safe space of their property, the aloe is a menacing, ungovernable force that seems to encroach upon it. The plant becomes part of the repressed history of the landscape—a history that is only apparent to Kezia, her mother Linda Burnell, and her grandmother Mrs. Fairfield, who are attuned to the forces below the surface of the picturesque exterior. Violent Underpinnings Beneath many of Mansfield’s picturesque domestic scenes are moments of violence and rupture. In â€Å"Garden Party,† for instance, a poor man falls to his death during the preparations for a much-anticipated social gathering of the wealthy Sheridan family, undermining the convivial spirit of the occasion. In â€Å"Prelude,† Pat, the handyman, slaughters a duck while the children watch with grotesque enthrallment as it waddles for a few steps after being decapitated. â€Å"The crowning wonder† of the dead duck walking hearkens back to Burke’s sublime, which is experienced in â€Å"Prelude† within the confines of the private residence. [20] The sublimity of this apparent defiance of the properties of death acts as a dramatic external force imposing on the observers’ intellect and reason in a profoundly Burkian way. But later that night, when the duck is placed in front of the patriarch, Stanley Burnell, â€Å"it did not look as if it had ever had a head. †[21] The duck’s picturesque dressing—â€Å"its legs tied together with a piece of string and a wreath of little balls of stuffing round it†Ã¢â‚¬â€conceals its violent death. [22] In a similar way, the â€Å"awfully nice† picturesque house is imposed upon the landscape, as if it had never been any other way. [23] Through reconfiguration and transformation, a new imperial order conceals the fact that an older order once lay beneath it. In both cases, the picturesque functions as a way of naturalizing the violent order of domination. As Pat’s golden earrings distract Kezia from her grief over the duck’s death, the duck’s pretty garnish conceals its â€Å"basted resignation. †[24] There is no such thing as a pure aesthetics, Mansfield seems to suggest, as each serene moment is implicated in some act of violence, brutality, or suppression. In â€Å"Prelude,† the good-natured Pat disrupts a pre-existing picturesque scene in which ducks â€Å"preen their dazzling breasts† amidst the pools and â€Å"bushes of yellow flowers and blackberries. †[25] Tellingly, the duck pond contains a bridge, a typical feature of the picturesque that reconciles or bridges the gap between different aspects of the scenery. In this way, the Burnell family’s cultivation of the land by planting and slaughtering ducks disrupts another underlying order. Their unquestioning appropriation of this pre-existing order mirrors the way colonial life disrupted and undermined the indigenous Maori life. Juxtaposing two picturesque scenes that interrupt and conflict with one another, Mansfield questions and unravels the conventional image of the picturesque. This interplay of various conflicting aesthetic orders constitutes part of Mansfield’s modernist style, in which aesthetic forms are ruptured, fragmented, and overturned. As the yard’s landscape bears traces of the Maori past, so the quiet harmony of the Burnells’ domesticity is underscored by deep, unspoken tensions and an animosity that hints at the uncanny. In fact, the only character who expresses any contentment is Stanley, who reflects, â€Å"By God, he was a perfect fool to feel as happy as this! †[26] Yet even he shudders upon entering his new driveway, as â€Å"a sort of panic overtook Burnell whenever he approached near home. †[27] Beneath this veneer of marital bliss and familial harmony, his wife Linda occasionally ignores her children and expresses hatred towards her husband and his aggressive sexuality: â€Å"there were times when he was frightening—really frightening. When she screamed at the top of her voice, ‘You are killing me. ’†[28] Meanwhile Stanley and Beryl, Linda’s sister, seem to have a flirtatious, indecent relationship: â€Å"Only last night when he was reading the paper her false self had stood beside him and leaned against his shoulder on purpose. Hadn’t she put her hand over his†¦ so that he should see how white her hand was beside his brown one. †[29] Dramatizing these dynamics, Mansfield suggests that a â€Å"happy† household outside of town is not as â€Å"dirt cheap† as Stanley boasts; it comes at the cost of servitude, sexual aggression, and a ravaged Maori landscape. [30] Through these layers, which Mansfield subtly strips off one at a time, she artfully exposes the way that an existing political and aesthetic order is not what it seems to be or how it has always been. Her short stories are fraught with their own tensions; while exposing the picturesque as false and absurd, she nevertheless draws on its conventional associations. Similarly, her subtle attempts to question colonial power are embedded in a seemingly idealized portrait of colonial life. Mansfield creates a seemingly beautiful or normal image, such as the happy family in â€Å"Prelude,† â€Å"Bliss,† or â€Å"Garden Party,† and then slowly challenges it through a subtle counter-narrative. In this way, her deployment of modernist techniques is less pronounced than that of James Joyce and her other modernist contemporaries. Just as she challenges aesthetic conventions, Mansfield unravels the reader’s ideas about her own stories by presenting a seemingly beautiful, transparent narrative that is haunted by tensions, lacunae, and opacity. Like the headless walking duck, these fictions of transparency and harmony quickly collapse upon closer inspection.

Andrew Jackson :: essays research papers

The love story of Andrew Jackson and his wife, Rachel, has been acclaimed one of the greatest romances of the nineteenth century. Author Irving Stone went to great lengths to write a book of accuracy of their life together. Using many different government libraries and historical reference groups to build a fact filled book on a great American president and his wife.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Starting in 1784, when young Rachel was still wed to Captain Lewis Robards; Stone begins to take you back in time with this piece of well written literature. After disgraceful and embarrassing accusations of having affairs with different men from Robards, Rachel returned to her home and family. While at her home, her mother took in a man named Andrew Jackson as a border. Rachel and Jackson became friends and realized that there was more attraction to each other then what they first anticipated. Mr. Stone’s variety in writing styles brings the story together so that you may understand the story from many different angles.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Rachel and Andrew’s love life was rocky in the beginning, her estranged and fierce ex-husband, Robbers, tried many different attack tactics to break them up and shame them publicly. He made many public accusations about Rachel being an adulteress and hurt her and her family deeply. But over time they rose together to make it through the difficult situations. Mr. Stone’s portrayal of Rachel Jackson seems to bring her to life, noting her strong points and weaknesses. Through the trials they faced together, her courage and strength helped them succeed in life. While Andrew was a dear man and loved her, his personality was more of an adventuresome spirit and businesslike mind. He was always able to provide for his wife, even if it meant moving or him leaving her for an extended period of time.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Throughout the story, Stone always reinforced the idea that Rachel and Andrew’s love was like no other recorded romance in American history.

Stevie Nicks: an Inspirational Artist

Another band Nicks Joined in high school was the Frizz Robbery Memorial Band. Frizz was given the opportunity to open for celebrity musician, Janis Joplin. Nicks recalls, muff couldn't have pried me away with a million dollar check†¦ L was absolutely glued to her. It was there that learned a lot of what I do onstage†¦ L said, ‘If ever I am a performer of any value, I want to be able to create the same kind of feeling that is going on between her and her audience† (Steve Nicks Biography). Sure enough, Nicks did accomplish what she set out to do and much more.Steve Nicks' educational career continued when she decided to enroll at San Jose State University as a speech communication major. Steve planned on becoming an English teacher but the enrollment was short-lived and she eventually dropped out of San Jose to pursue her musical aspirations In Los Angels. Steve moved to L. A. With her musical partner, Lindsey Bucking, who eventually became her romantic partner as well. Together they signed a record deal with Polygon Records and created the Bucking Nicks album. Unfortunately, the public did not respond and the duo was unable to produce a significant profit from the album. Nicks decided she would to let this setback end her musical career. Little did she know, she was about to the land the opportunity of a lifetime, My favorite part of Settee's career, her Journey with Flatfooted Mac, could not have come at a better time In Steve Nick's life. She was struggling financially and desperate to have a career breakthrough. I believe â€Å"The Chain†, by Flatfooted Mac, is without a doubt the front-runner of all the songs Steve has participated in writing.Her collaboration on this song with Lindsey Bucking, Mimic Flatfooted, Christine Mimic, and John Emcee showed Steve has the ability to work well with others. The Chain† Includes Settee's preferred Instrument, the tambourine, as well as another percussion Instrument, the drums, and a st ring instrument, the guitar. One similarity this song has with most of Settee's other songs is that it falls in the rock music genre. The upbeat and dramatic tone of this song captivates the audience from the beginning and holds their attention until the end, leaving the listener with a desire to hear more.Another one of my favorites performed by Flatfooted Mac Is the song â€Å"Ruination†, a song Steve states was written In only ten minutes, This musical creation Is about a haystack woman won Tints It very Nora to De tale down (Keller) . Settle wanted t song to be uplifting. I believe the song does have a mystical quality about it, however, not much of an uplifting one. In â€Å"Ruination†, Steve Nicks crosses over from her traditional musical genre, rock, to a separate musical genre, pop.Once again, you can clearly hear the drums, played by Mimic Flatfooted, and two guitars, one played by Lindsey Bucking and the other by John Mimic. There is another instrument that i s introduced in this song and that is the keyboard, which is played by Christine Mimic (Pillar). The combination of these musical instruments sounds beautiful, and Nicks did a remarkable Job putting this piece together. I also enjoy the song â€Å"Dreams,† which Steve Nicks wrote concerning love affairs and relationships ending. It was very personal to Steve, as she was going through this experience herself.After an eight year relationship, Steve Nicks and Lindsey Bucking had decided to go their separate ways. Although â€Å"Dreams† addresses a more difficult topic than â€Å"Ruination,† I think it has a more positive energy and uplifting beat. Steve says she likes to offer hope in her songs (Killer). Nicks chose to incorporate percussion, strings, and a keyboard instrument by using the drums, an acoustic guitar, a base guitar, and the keyboard itself. â€Å"Dreams† is yet another song in Steve Nicks' career that climbed the charts when it was released in 1977 and is still popular more than thirty years later.All the songs discussed previously have excellent music and vocals, but there is one song in which the music overshadows Settee's voice and that song is â€Å"Gypsy. † Without watching one of Flatfooted Mac's live performances, the instrument that I thought stood out was the piano. However, it is actually a guitar. This song is similar to â€Å"Ruination† in that it reflects Nicks' mystical side. The music in â€Å"Gypsy' is refreshing and relaxing. This is the type of song I would want in the background when I had friends over.It sets up a pleasant atmosphere and is delightfully entertaining. The last song I like, written by Steve Nicks that comes out before her solo career, is â€Å"Landslide†. This song is filled with overwhelming emotion and intrigue. It is about Nicks' decision to continue in her musical career when she was standing up against all odds. The guitar is the predominant instrument in this piece, and it is all the song rule needs. Steve repeats the same theme over and over again through the course of this piece. The music in â€Å"Landslide† is surprisingly simple yet very powerful.Throughout Steve Nicks solo career, I would have to say that her most popular composition was â€Å"Edge of Seventeen. † I still hear it on the radio today. Nicks wrote this song after John Lenin and an uncle she was very close to passed away. There is irony in this because â€Å"Edge of Seventeen† strikes me as particularly happy song. The cymbals are an instrument unique to this musical piece. In addition, there are three efferent types of drums being played: the snare drum and the bass drum, which are played with sticks, as well as a hand drum, which is obviously played with the hands.The piano Joins these other instruments as the song develops. â€Å"Edge of Seventeen† is a gripping and enchanting song which, not surprisingly, comes from Settee's album Encha nted. Another catchy song from Nicks' album Enchanted is â€Å"Blue Lamp. † Like many of her other pieces of work, â€Å"Blue Lamp† has a musical introduction that highlights the melody of the song. Steve Nicks stands on the genre border between rock and pop tin tons one-or-a-Kink place. In near own words, seen says tons song symbolizes â€Å"ten light that shines through the night† (Killer).Typical of Settee's character, she uses the drums and the guitar as the musical foundation for the song. If I had to choose one song that I did not like from Nicks' output, it would be â€Å"Rock a Little. † This song does not draw me in the way her others do. The tone color of the instruments sounds dull and the music is relatively boring. This is only my personal opinion, and over the course of Steve Nicks' extraordinary career, I found this piece of work to be simply ordinary. Although Steve Nicks' career began with a commercial failure, her successes as a musical artist are what she is known for.Steve Nicks has influenced a wide variety and record number of singers and songwriters including Kelly Clarion, Collie Cyclical, Madonna, the Dixie Chicks, and Vanessa Carlton. She has collaborated with many well-known artists including Tom Petty, and mentored others, such as Sherry Crow (Dunn). Her 2001 solo album, Trouble in Shanghai-La, included fellow musicians Mac Gray, Sarah McClellan, Sherry Crow, and Dixie Chick Natalie Amines. Nicks has toured all over the world from Sydney, Australia, to SST. Petersburg, Russia, and from Dublin, Ireland, to Dallas, Texas.I cannot say that one country likes her more than the other, given the fact that all the reviews describe her sold out concerts and devoted fans (Kinney). In an article from an Australian newspaper, music editor Kathy McCabe reports, â€Å"The veteran band [Flatfooted Mac] who ushered in the west-coast sound has lost none of its fire but gained the self-awareness afforded by survival in th e music business, using their legendary tensions, relationship breakdowns and drug problems to introduce so many great songs from Rumors and beyond† (McCabe).Sean Flynn, writer for the Irish Times, says, â€Å"This time around, there is no new album to plug and no new songs to roll out. Yesterdays gone, but those golden sun-drenched songs roll on forever† (Flynn). I could not have said it better myself. Steve Nicks is a legend. Her music has thrived for decades and she will go down in history as an exceptionally talented songwriter and performer. In addition to the musical imprint Steve Nicks has left on society, her humanitarian efforts have also impacted the world. She has performed at benefits for the Arizona

Mustard Gas

Mustard Gas During World War I LOST was the original name for mustard gas, it was named after Lommel and Steinkopf. They were the first people who proposed this gas to the military to use as a weapon in 1916. Although mustard gas could possibly been developed as early as 1822 by a French chemist, Cesar-Mansuete Desperetez. Thirty-two years later Alfred Riche repeated this reaction of the sulfur dichloride and ethylene, but both Riche and Desperetez did not note any harsh properties. In 1860, Frederick Gutherie synthesized and described the characteristics of the compound and it’s irritating properties.Another chemist known as a pioneer in cocaine chemistry, Albert Nieman repeated the reaction, and recorded blistering formations. Meanwhile, a published paper written by Victor Meyer in 1866, explained the reaction of 2-chloroethanol and an aqueous potassium sulfide that formed phosphorous trichloride. The purity of this compound was higher and there was much more severe health e ffects. He also tested this compound on rabbits and noted that they died. An English chemist Hans Thacher Clarke did this reaction in 1913. When performing the experiment the flask broke, and Clarke was in the hospital for two months for burns.Clarkes partner Emil Fischer reported the accident to the German Society, which put Germany on the chemical weapons track. Sulfur mustard is an organic compound with the molecular formula of C4H8Cl2S. Mustard gas can be reacted with different compounds, but still have the same major organic product. These are the different reactions to make sulfur gas: Deperetez: SCl2 + 2 C2H4 > (Cl-CH2CH2)2S Meyer: 3(HO-CH2CH2)2S + 2PCl3 > 3(Cl-CH2CH2)2S + 2P(OH)3 Meyer-Clarke: (HO-CH2CH2)2S + 2HCl > (Cl-CH2CH2)2S + 2H2O Other chlorinating agents that have been used are trionyl and phosgene.Chemists know mustard gas by bis(chloroethyl) sulfide or dichlorethylsulphide, but it has been called senfgas, yellow cross liquid, yperite, distilled mustard and mustard T-mixture. The name Yperite originates by the Germany army, when used near the city o Ypres. Mustard gas appears colorless if pure, but when impurities are present the color ranges from pale yellow to dark brown. There is a small odor garlic or horseradish. Mustards gas is actually not a gas; it is a volatile, very thick liquid. Mustard gas has a molecular weight of 159. 08 grams/mole, a density of 1. 7 grams/mL; melts at 144? C, and boils at 217? C. Mustard agents are regulated under the 1933 Chemical Weapons Convention. Mustard gas was formed in large amounts during World War I and II. Mustard gas was first used in World War I, but was used in the war Iran-Iraq war in 1884-1988. By 1977, the United States Secretary of Defense was told to dispose of all the fatal chemical agents, like mustard gas. When mustard gas comes into contact to skin, blistering and burns occur. These agents may cause brutal damage to the eyes, the respiratory system, and internal organs.The symptoms donâ₠¬â„¢t occur immediately, they usually appear from two hours to twenty-four hours after contact. By the time the symptoms become apparent, severe cell damage has already occurred. Mustard gas is strongly carcinogenic and mutagenic. Mustard agents are lipophilic, meaning it can dissolve in fats, oils, and non-polar solvents. Therefore people can unknowingly be exposed to mustard gas. Mustard gas is classified as a vesicant, which means it leaves lesions and burns on the skin and respiratory tract. Mustard gas can damage deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA).The compound eliminates a chloride ion by intramolecular nucleophilic substitution, which forms a cyclic sulfonium ion. This reactive intermediate tends to permanently alkylate the nucleotide in DNA strands. Cellular death and cancer can occur from this alkylation. Mild toxicity has symptoms of lacrimation, eye pain, irritation of the mucus membrane, hoarseness, swelling of the skin, sneezing, and coughing. Severe toxicity’s symptoms include blindness, blistering, vomiting, nausea, and respiratory complications. Lung injury was the leading cause of death after the exposure of mustard gas. Lung injuries start with mild symptoms, and lowly increase into chemical pneumonia, and pulmonary edema. Within twenty-four hours of exposure to skin, victims are itchy and skin irritation, which lead to yellow filled blisters. Five to ten days after the exposure of large amounts of mustard gas, there is a drastic reduction in white blood cells. The decrease of white blood cells, affect the bone marrow and lymphatic tissue to look as if the person was exposed to radiation. The best treatment is decontamination. The German Army was the first to use mustard gas effectively against the British soldiers in 1917, near Ypres in World War One.Mustard gas was dispersed as aerial bombs, mortar rounds, artillery shells, land mines, as an aerosol, and rockets. Mustard gas was only lethal in about one percent of cases. Soldiers wore gas ma sks, but this didn’t protect them from the gas, since the gas could be absorbed through their clothes. Mustard gas would stay the stay in the environment for days, and continue to cause sickness. Also, if a soldier were to be contaminated by the gas, other soldiers that came into contact with would become contaminated too.The Geneva Protocol of 1925 prohibited chemical warfare, and the Chemical Weapons Convention of 1993 prohibited the development, production, and stockpiling of chemical weapons. The mustard gas found after World War I in Germany was dumped in the Baltic Sea. Mustard gas structure: Gas mask worn to protect from inhaling mustard gas the wounds conflicted from mustard gas http://www. firstworldwar. com/weaponry/gas. htm http://en. wikipedia. org/wiki/Sulfur_mustard http://www. bt. cdc. gov/agent/sulfurmustard/basics/facts. asp http://www. diggerhistory. info/pages-weapons/gas. htm

Difference Between Physical and Chemical Properties

Difference Between Physical and Chemical Properties Measurable characteristics of matter may be categorized as either chemical or physical properties. What is the difference between a chemical property and a physical property? The answer has to do with  chemical and physical changes  of matter. A Physical Property A  physical property  is an aspect of matter that can be observed or measured without changing its chemical composition.  Examples of physical properties  include color, molecular weight, and volume. A Chemical Property A  chemical property  may only be observed  by changing the chemical  identity of a substance. In other words, the only way to observe a chemical property is by performing a chemical reaction. This property measures the potential for undergoing a  chemical change.  Examples of chemical properties  include reactivity, flammability and oxidation states. Telling Physical and Chemical Properties Apart Sometimes it can be tricky to know whether or not a chemical reaction has occurred. For example, when you melt ice into water, you can write the process in terms of a chemical reaction. However, the chemical formula on both sides of the reaction is the same. Since the chemical identity of the matter in question is unchanged, this process represents a physical change. Thus melting point is a physical property. On the other hand, flammability is a chemical property of matter because the only way to know how readily a substance ignites is to burn it. In the chemical reaction for combustion, the reactants and products are different. Look for Tell-Tale Signs of a Chemical Change Usually, you dont have the chemical reaction for a process. You can look for tell-tale signs of a chemical change. These include bubbling, color change, temperature change, and precipitation formation. If you see signs of a chemical reaction, the characteristic you are measuring is most likely a chemical property. If these signs are absent, the characteristic is probably a physical property.

Betters and Bettors

Betters and Bettors Betters and Bettors Betters and Bettors By Mark Nichol Is there a connection between better, which is sometimes employed as a noun, among other parts of speech, and the noun bettor? This post explains their etymological origins and lists and defines related words. Better is primarily an adjective, from Old English bettra (and, previously, betera), meaning â€Å"superior.† It can also mean â€Å"more advantageous or favorable,† â€Å"improved,† or â€Å"greater than half† (as in â€Å"the better part of an hour†). The adjective better pertains to doing something to a greater degree or with higher quality or can replace more (â€Å"She was doing better than twenty miles per hour†) or preferably (â€Å"It’s better left where it is†). As a verb, better means â€Å"make more acceptable or complete† or â€Å"improve on† (as in â€Å"The runner will try to better his personal record in the event†). It also serves as an auxiliary verb, one that supports another verb, as in â€Å"You had better get going,† sometimes with the first verb elided. The noun better means â€Å"advantage† (â€Å"Don’t let him get the better of you†), â€Å"something superior† (â€Å"We expected better of her†), or â€Å"someone of higher rank or status† (â€Å"I was told to respect my betters†). Better is also a variant of bettor, meaning â€Å"someone who makes bets.† The origin of bet, meaning â€Å"wager† (as a noun) or â€Å"wage† (as a verb), is uncertain, but it could be from abet, meaning â€Å"incite† or â€Å"urge on.† More likely, however, it is from the obsolete English word beet, meaning â€Å"make good† and related to better. Either way, it began as criminal slang; the affirming phrase â€Å"You bet† (even more informally, â€Å"You betcha†) is also slang, though not of unsavory origins. Two additional words based on better are betterment, meaning â€Å"an act of becoming or making better† or referring to an instance of property improvement, and the adjective bettermost, meaning â€Å"superior.† Better, however, generally suffices as a comparative that stands between good (which supplanted the Old English word bot, meaning â€Å"advantage†) and the superlative best. (Bot does survive in the phrase â€Å"to boot,† meaning â€Å"in addition.†) Want to improve your English in five minutes a day? Get a subscription and start receiving our writing tips and exercises daily! Keep learning! Browse the Vocabulary category, check our popular posts, or choose a related post below:Masters Degree or Master's Degree?50 Synonyms for â€Å"Idea†5 Tips to Understand Hyphenated Words