Price Discrimination Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3750 words

Price Discrimination - Essay Example 0 B C A D Quantity In the above diagram the horizontal axis measures quantity in the vertical axis we measure nominal price and utility expressed in terms of money. KD is the marginal utility curve. The price is given by OP. So E is the equilibrium point that obeys the two conditions (both necessary and sufficient). Now we can logically explain why E is the equilibrium point Let us consider that the consumer is consuming 0B amount. For 0Bth unit the consumer is willing to pay BL units of money but he actually needs to pay BG units. His willingness to pay is greater than his actual payment. So he will raise the consumption and consequently there will be a decline in the willingness to pay by the consumer. Finally at point E the willingness to pay matches with the actual payments. The marginal utility curve is the demand curve as it depicts the demand price of the commodity at each corresponding level of consumption. On the other hand at each level of price the equilibrium demand for the commodity by the consumer is determined by the marginal utility curve. In the above diagram the total willingness to pay is measured by summing up the willingness to pay at each level of q. Hence the total willingness to pay is given by the area of 0KEA and actual payment is P.q. 0A*0P= 0PEA. Hence the consumer's surplus is given by the area of KEP. Mathematically we can show C.S as We suppose that is the equilibrium level of consumption which is given by 0A in the figure. As we know that then Hence consumer's surplus can be expressed as The difference between total utility (willingness to pay in terms of money) and the total expenditure on the goods consumed. Graphically the...KD is the marginal utility curve. The price is given by OP. So E is the equilibrium point that obeys the two conditions (both necessary and sufficient). Let us consider that the consumer is consuming 0B amount. For 0Bth unit the consumer is willing to pay BL units of money but he actually needs to pay BG units. His willingness to pay is greater than his actual payment. So he will raise the consumption and consequently there will be a decline in the willingness to pay by the consumer. Finally at point E the willingness to pay matches with the actual payments. The marginal utility curve is the demand curve as it depicts the demand price of the commodity at each corresponding level of consumption. On the other hand at each level of price the equilibrium demand for the commodity by the consumer is determined by the marginal utility curve. In the above diagram the total willingness to pay is measured by summing up the willingness to pay at each level of q. Hence the total willingness to pay is given by the area of 0KEA and actual payment is P.q. The difference between total utility (willingness to pay in terms of money) and the total expenditure on the goods consumed. Graphically the portion below the demand curve and above the price line represents consumer's surplus. (Sen, 2002) The first degree of price discr

Computers Insiders Threat

Computers Insiders Threat While attacks on computers by outside intruders are more publicized, attacks perpetrated by insiders are very common and often more damaging. Insiders represent the greatest threat to computer security because they understand their organizations business and how their computer systems work. They have both the confidentiality and access to perform these attacks. An inside attacker will have a higher probability of successfully breaking into the system and extracting critical information. The insiders also represent the greatest challenge to securing the company network because they are authorized a level of access to the file system and granted a degree of trust. A system administrator angered by his diminished role in a thriving defense manufacturing firm whose computer network he alone had developed and managed, centralized the software that supported the companys manufacturing processes on a single server, and then intimidated a coworker into giving him the only backup tapes for that software. Following the system administrators termination for inappropriate and abusive treatment of his coworkers, a logic bomb previously planted by the insider detonated, deleting the only remaining copy of the critical software from the companys server. The company estimated the cost of damage in excess of $10 million, which led to the layoff of some 80 employees. An application developer, who lost his IT sector job as a result of company downsizing, expressed his displeasure at being laid off just prior to the Christmas holidays by launching a systematic attack on his former employers computer network. Three weeks following his termination, the insider used the username and password of one of his former coworkers to gain remote access to the network and modify several of the companys web pages, changing text and inserting pornographic images. He also sent each of the companys customers an email message advising that the website had been hacked. Each email message also contained that customers usernames and passwords for the website. An investigation was initiated, but it failed to identify the insider as the perpetrator. A month and a half later, he again remotely accessed the network, executed a script to reset all network passwords and changed 4,000 pricing records to reflect bogus information. This former employee ultimately was identified as the perpetrator and prosecuted. He was sentenced to serve five months in prison and two years on supervised probation, and ordered to pay $48,600 restitution to his former employer. A city government employee who was passed over for promotion to finance director retaliated by deleting files from his and a coworkers computers the day before the new finance director took office. An investigation identified the disgruntled employee as the perpetrator of the incident. City government officials disagreed with the primary police detective on the case as to whether all of the deleted files were recovered. No criminal charges were filed, and, under an agreement with city officials, the employee was allowed to resign. These incidents of sabotage were all committed by â€Å"insiders:† individuals who were, or previously had been, authorized to use the information systems they eventually employed to perpetrate harm. Insiders pose a substantial threat by virtue of their knowledge of, and access to, employer systems and/or databases. Keeney, M., et al (2005) The Nature of Security Threats The greatest threat to computer systems and information comes from humans, through actions that are either malicious or ignorant 3 . Attackers, trying to do harm, exploit vulnerabilities in a system or security policy employing various methods and tools to achieve their aims. Attackers usually have a motive to disrupt normal business operations or to steal information. The above diagram is depicts the types of security threats that exist. The diagram depicts the all threats to the computer systems but main emphasis will be on malicious â€Å"insiders†. The greatest threat of attacks against computer systems are from â€Å"insiders† who know the codes and security measures that are in place 45. With very specific objectives, an insider attack can affect all components of security. As employees with legitimate access to systems, they are familiar with an organizations computer systems and applications. They are likely to know what actions cause the most damage and how to get away with it undetected. Considered members of the family, they are often above suspicion and the last to be considered when systems malfunction or fail. Disgruntled employees create mischief and sabotage against systems. Organizational downsizing in both public and private sectors has created a group of individuals with significant knowledge and capabilities for ma licious activities 6 and revenge. Contract professionals and foreign nationals either brought into the U.S. on work visas to meet labor shortages or from offshore outsourcing projects are also included in this category of knowledgeable insiders. Common Insider Threat Common cases of computer-related employee sabotage include: changing data; deleting data; destroying data or programs with logic bombs; crashing systems; holding data hostage; destroying hardware or facilities; entering data incorrectly, exposing sensitive and embarrassing proprietary data to public view such as the salaries of top executives. Insiders can plant viruses, Trojan horses or worms, browse through file systems or program malicious code with little chance of detection and with almost total impunity. A 1998 FBI Survey 7 investigating computer crime found that of the 520 companies consulted, 64% had reported security breaches for a total quantifiable financial loss of $136 millions. (See chart) The survey also found that the largest number of breaches were by unauthorized insider access and concluded that these figures were very conservative as most companies were unaware of malicious activities or reluctant to report breaches for fear of negative press. The survey reported that the average cost of an attack by an outsider (hacker) at $56,000, while the average insider attack cost a company in excess $2.7 million. It found that hidden costs associated with the loss in staff hours, legal liability, loss of proprietary information, decrease in productivity and the potential loss of credibility were impossible to quantify accurately. Employees who have caused damage have used their knowledge and access to information resources for a range of motives, including greed, revenge for perceived grievances, ego gratification, resolution of personal or professional problems, to protect or advance their careers, to challenge their skill, express anger, impress others, or some combination of these concerns. Insider Characteristics The majority of the insiders were former employees. †¢ At the time of the incident, 59% of the insiders were former employees or contractors of the affected organizations and 41% were current employees or contractors. †¢ The former employees or contractors left their positions for a variety of reasons. These included the insiders being fired (48%), resigning (38%), and being laid off (7%). Most insiders were either previously or currently employed full-time in a technical position within the organization. †¢ Most of the insiders (77%) were full-time employees of the affected organizations, either before or during the incidents. Eight percent of the insiders worked part-time, and an additional 8% had been hired as contractors or consultants. Two (4%) of the insiders worked as temporary employees, and one (2%) was hired as a subcontractor. †¢ Eighty-six percent of the insiders were employed in technical positions, which included system administrators (38%), programmers (21%), engineers (14%), and IT specialists (14%). Of the insiders not holding technical positions, 10% were employed in a professional position, which included, among others, insiders employed as editors, managers, and auditors. An additional two insiders (4%) worked in service positions, both of whom worked as customer service representatives. Insiders were demographically varied with regard to age, racial and ethnic background, gender, and marital status. The insiders ranged in age from 17 to 60 years (mean age = 32 years)17 and represented a variety of racial and ethnic backgrounds. Ninety-six percent of the insiders were male. Forty-nine percent of the insiders were married at the time of the incident, while 45% were single, having never married, and 4% were divorced. Just under one-third of the insiders had an arrest history. Thirty percent of the insiders had been arrested previously, including arrests for violent offenses (18%), alcohol or drug related offenses (11%), and nonfinancial/ fraud related theft offenses (11%). Organization Characteristics The incidents affected organizations in the following critical infrastructure sectors: †¢ banking and finance (8%) †¢ continuity of government (16%) †¢ defense industrial base (2%) †¢ food (4%) †¢ information and telecommunications (63%) †¢ postal and shipping (2%) †¢ public health (4%) In all, 82% of the affected organizations were in private industry, while 16% were government entities. Sixty-three percent of the organizations engaged in domestic activity only, 2% engaged in international activity only, and 35% engaged in activity both domestically and internationally. What motivate insiders? Internal attackers attempt to break into computer networks for many reasons. The subject has been fruitfully studied and internal attackers are used to be motivated with the following reasons [BSB03]: †¢ Challenge Many internal attackers initially attempt to break into networks for the challenge. A challenge combines strategic and tactical thinking, patience, and mental strength. However, internal attackers motivated by the challenge of breaking into networks often do not often think about their actions as criminal. For example, an internal attack can be the challenge to break into the mail server in order to get access to different emails of any employee. †¢ Revenge Internal attackers motivated by revenge have often ill feelings toward employees of the same company. These attackers can be particularly dangerous, because they generally focus on a single target, and they generally have patience. In the case of revenge, attackers can also be former employees that feel that they have been wrongfully fired. For example, a former employee may be motivated to launch an attack to the company in order to cause financial losses. †¢ Espionage Internal attackers motivated by espionage, steal confidential information for a third party. In general, two types of espionage exists: Industrial espionage Industrial espionage means that a company may pay its own employees in order to break into the networks of its competitors or business partners. The company may also hire someone else to do this. International espionage International espionage means that attackers work for governments and steal confidential information for other governments. Definitions of insider threat 1) The definition of insider threat should encompass two main threat actor categories and five general categories of activities. The first actor category, the â€Å"true insider,† is defined as any entity (person, system, or code) authorized by command and control elements to access network, system, or data. The second actor category, the â€Å"pseudo-insider,† is someone who, by policy, is not authorized the accesses, roles, and/or permissions they currently have but may have gotten them inadvertently or through malicious activities. The activities of both fall into five general categories: exceeds given network, system or data permissions; conducts malicious activity against or across the network, system or data; provided unapproved access to the network, system or data; circumvents security controls or exploits security weaknesses to exceed authorized permitted activity or disguise identify; or non-maliciously or unintentionally damages resources (network, system or data) by destruction, corruption, denial of access, or disclosure. (Presented at the University of Louisville Cyber Securitys Day, October 2006) 2) Insiders — employees, contractors, consultants, and vendors — pose as great a threat to an organizations security posture as outsiders, including hackers. Few organizations have implemented the policies, procedures, tools, or strategies to effectively address their insider threats. An insider threat assessment is a recommended first step for many organizations, followed by policy review, and employee awareness training. (Insider Threat Management Presented by infoLock Technologies) 3)Employees are an organizations most important asset. Unfortunately, they also present the greatest security risks. Working and communicating remotely, storing sensitive data on portable devices such as laptops, PDAs, thumb drives, and even iPods employees have extended the security perimeter beyond safe limits. While convenient access to data is required for operational efficiency, the actions of trusted insiders not just employees, but consultants, contactors, vendors, and partners must be actively managed, audited, and monitored in order to protect sensitive data. (Presented by infoLock Technologies) 4) The diversity of cyber threat has grown over time from network-level attacks and password cracking to include newer classes such as insider attacks, email worms and social engineering, which are currently recognized as serious security problems. However, attack modeling and threat analysis tools have not evolved at the same rate. Known formal models such as attack graphs perform action-centric vulnerability modeling and analysis. All possible atomic user actions are represented as states, and sequences which lead to the violation of a specie safety property are extracted to indicate possible exploits. (Ramkumar Chinchani, Anusha Iyer, Hung Ngo, Shambhu Upadhyaya) 5) The Insider Threat Study, conducted by the U.S. Secret Service and Carnegie Mellon Universitys Software Engineering Institute CERT Program, analyzed insider cyber crimes across U.S. critical infrastructure sectors. The study indicates that management decisions related to organizational and employee performance sometimes yield unintended consequences magnifying risk of insider attack. Lack of tools for understanding insider threat, analyzing risk mitigation alternatives, and communicating results exacerbates the problem. (Dawn M. Cappelli, Akash G. Desai) 6) The insider threat or insider problem is cited as the most serious security problem in many studies. It is also considered the most difficult problem to deal with, because an insider has information and capabilities not known to other, external attackers. But the studies rarely define what the insider threat is, or define it nebulously. The difficulty in handling the insider threat is reasonable under those circumstances; if one cannot define a problem precisely, how can one approach a solution, let alone know when the problem is solved? (Matt Bishop 2005) Five common insider threat Exploiting information via remote access software A considerable amount of insider abuse is performed offsite via remote access software such as Terminal Services, Citrix and GoToMyPC. Simply put, users are less likely to be caught stealing sensitive information when they can it do offsite. Also, inadequately protected remote computers may turn up in the hands of a third-party if the computer is left unattended, lost or stolen. 2.) Sending out information via e-mail and instant messaging Sensitive information can simply be included in or attached to an e-mail or IM. Although this is a serious threat, its also one of the easiest to eliminate. 3.) Sharing sensitive files on P2P networks Whether or not you allow peer-to-peer file sharing software such as Kazaa or IM on your network, odds are its there and waiting to be abused. The inanimate software in and of itself is not the problem its how its used that causes trouble. All it takes is a simple misconfiguration to serve up your networks local and network drives to the world. 4.) Careless use of wireless networks Perhaps the most unintentional insider threat is that of insecure wireless network usage. Whether its at a coffee shop, airport or hotel, unsecured airwaves can easily put sensitive information in jeopardy. All it takes is a peek into e-mail communications or file transfers for valuable data to be stolen. Wi-Fi networks are most susceptible to these attacks, but dont overlook Bluetooth on smartphones and PDAs. Also, if you have WLANs inside your organization, employees could use it to exploit the network after hours. 5.) Posting information to discussion boards and blogs Quite often users post support requests, blogs or other work-related messages on the Internet. Whether intentional or not, this can include sensitive information and file attachments that put your organization at risk. Views of different authors about insider threat 1) Although insiders in this report tended to be former technical employees, there is no demographic â€Å"profile† of a malicious insider. Ages of perpetrators ranged from late teens to retirement. Both men and women were malicious insiders. Their positions included programmers, graphic artists, system and network administrators, managers, and executives. They were currently employed and recently terminated employees, contractors, and temporary employees. As such, security awareness training needs to encourage employees to identify malicious insiders by behavior, not by stereotypical characteristics. For example, behaviors that should be a source of concern include making threats against the organization, bragging about the damage one could do to the organization, or discussing plans to work against the organization. Also of concern are attempts to gain other employees passwords and to fraudulently obtain access through trickery or exploitation of a trusted relationship. Insiders can be stopped, but stopping them is a complex problem. Insider attacks can only be prevented through a layered defense strategy consisting of policies, procedures, and technical controls. Therefore, management must pay close attention to many aspects of its organization, including its business policies and procedures, organizational culture, and technical environment. Organizations must look beyond information technology to the organizations overall business processes and the interplay between those processes and the technologies used. (Michelle Keeney, J.D., Ph.D. atal 2005) 2) While attacks on computers by outside intruders are more publicized, attacks perpetrated by insiders are very common and often more damaging. Insiders represent the greatest threat to computer security because they understand their organizations business and how their computer systems work. They have both the confidentiality and access to perform these attacks. An inside attacker will have a higher probability of successfully breaking into the system and extracting critical information. The insiders also represent the greatest challenge to securing the company network because they are authorized a level of access to the file system and granted a degree of trust. (Nam Nguyen and Peter Reiher, Geoffrey H. Kuenning) 3) Geographically distributed information systems achieve high availability that is crucial to their usefulness by replicating their state. Providing instant access at time of need regardless of current network connectivity requires the state to be replicated in every geographical site so that it is locally available. As network environments become increasingly hostile, we have to assume that part of the distributed information system will be compromised at some point. The problem of maintaining a replicated state in such a system is magnified when insider (or Byzantine) attacks are taken into account. (Yair Amir Cristina Nita-Rotaru) 4) In 2006, over 60% of information security breaches were attributable to insider behavior, yet more than 80% of corporate IT security budgets were spent on securing perimeter defenses against outside attack. Protecting against insider threats means managing policy, process, technology, and most importantly, people. Protecting against insider threats means managing policy, process, technology, and most importantly, people.The Insider Threat Assessment security awareness training, infrastructure reconfiguration, or third party solutions, you can take comfort in knowing that you have made the right choice to improve your security posture, and you will achieve your expected Return on Security Investment. (Presented by infoLock Technologies) 5) The threat of attack from insiders is real and substantial. The 2004 ECrime Watch Survey TM conducted by the United States Secret Service, CERT  ® Coordination Center (CERT/CC), and CSO Magazine, 1 found that in cases where respondents could identify the perpetrator of an electronic crime, 29 percent were committed by insiders. The impact from insider attacks can be devastating. One complex case of financial fraud committed by an insider in a financial institution resulted in losses of over $600 million. 2 Another case involving a logic bomb written by a technical employee working for a defense contractor resulted in $10 million in losses and the layoff of 80 employees. (Dawn Cappelli, Andrew Moore, Timothy Shimeall,2005) 6) Insiders, by virtue of legitimate access to their organizations information, systems, and networks, pose a significant risk to employers. Employees experiencing financial problems have found it easy to use the systems they use at work everyday to commit fraud. Other employees, motivated by financial problems, greed, or the wish to impress a new employer, have stolen confidential data, proprietary information, or intellectual property from their employer. Lastly, technical employees, possibly the most dangerous because of their intimate knowledge of an organizations vulnerabilities, have used their technical ability to sabotage their employers system or network in revenge for some negative work-related event. (Dawn M. Cappelli, Akash G. Desai ,at al 2004) 7) The insider problem is considered the most difficult and critical problem in computer security. But studies that survey the seriousness of the problem, and research that analyzes the problem, rarely define the problem precisely. Implicit definitions vary in meaning. Different definitions imply different countermeasures, as well as different assumptions. (Matt Bishop 2005) Solution: User monitoring Insiders have two things that external attackers dont: privileged access and trust. This allows them to bypass preventative measures, access mission-critical assets, and conduct malicious acts all while flying under the radar unless a strong incident detection solution is in place. A number of variables motivate insiders, but the end result is that they can more easily perpetrate their crimes than an outsider who has limited access. Insiders can directly damage your business resulting in lost revenue, lost customers, reduced shareholder faith, a tarnished reputation, regulatory fines and legal fees. With such an expansive threat, organizations need an automated solution to help detect and analyze malicious insider activity. These are some points which could be helpful in monitoring and minimizing the insider threats: Detecting insider activity starts with an expanded log and event collection. Firewalls, routers and intrusion detection systems are important, but they are not enough. Organizations need to look deeper to include mission critical applications such as email applications, databases, operating systems, mainframes, access control solutions, physical security systems as well as identity and content management products. Correlation: identifying known types of suspicious and malicious behavior Anomaly detection: recognizing deviations from norms and baselines. Pattern discovery: uncovering seemingly unrelated events that show a pattern of suspicious activity From case management, event annotation and escalation to reporting, auditing and access to insider-relevant information, the technical solution must be in line with the organizations procedures. This will ensure that insiders are addressed consistently, efficiently and effectively regardless of who they are. Identify suspicious user activity patterns and identify anomalies. Visually track and create business-level reports on users activity. Automatically escalate the threat levels of suspicious and malicious individuals. Respond according to your specific and unique corporate governing guidelines. Early detection of insider activity based on early warning indicators of suspicious behavior, such as: Stale or terminated accounts Excessive file printing, unusual printing times and keywords printed Traffic to suspicious destinations Unauthorized peripheral device access Bypassing security controls Attempts to alter or delete system logs Installation of malicious software The Insider Threat Study? The global acceptance, business adoption and growth of the Internet, and of Internetworking technologies in general, in response to customer requests for online access to business information systems, has ushered in an extraordinary expansion of electronic business transactions. In moving from internal (closed) business systems to open systems, the risk of malicious attacks and fraudulent activity has increased enormously, thereby requiring high levels of information security. Prior to the requirement for online, open access, the information security budget of a typical company was less then their tea and coffee expenses. Securing cyberspace has become a national priority. In The National Strategy to Secure Cyberspace, the Presidents Critical Infrastructure Protection Board identified several critical infrastructure sectors10: banking and finance information and telecommunications transportation postal and shipping emergency services continuity of government public health Universities chemical industry, textile industry and hazardous materials agriculture defense industrial base The cases examined in the Insider Threat Study are incidents perpetrated by insiders (current or former employees or contractors) who intentionally exceeded or misused an authorized level of network, system, or data access in a manner that affected the security of the organizations data, systems, or daily business operations. Incidents included any compromise, manipulation of, unauthorized access to, exceeding authorized access to, tampering with, or disabling of any information system, network, or data. The cases examined also included any in which there was an unauthorized or illegal attempt to view, disclose, retrieve, delete, change, or add information. A completely secure, zero risk system is one which has zero functionality. Latest technology high-performance automated systems bring with them new risks in the shape of new attacks, new viruses and new software bugs, etc. IT Security, therefore, is an ongoing process. Proper risk management keeps the IT Security plans, policies and procedures up to date as per new requirements and changes in the computing environment. To implement controls to counter risks requires policies, and policy can only be implemented successfully if the top management is committed. And policys effective implementation is not possible without the training and awareness of staff. The State Bank of Pakistan recognizes that financial industry is built around the sanctity of the financial transactions. Owing to the critical role of financial institutions for a country and the extreme sensitivity of their information assets, the seriousness of IT Security and the ever-increasing threats it faces in todays open world cannot be overstated. As more and more of our Banking Operations and products services become technology driven and dependent, consequently our reliance on these technology assets increases, and so does the need to protect and safeguard these resources to ensure smooth functioning of the financial industry. Here are different area in which we can work and check insider threat, but I chose textile industry as in textile industry there is less awareness of the insider threat. If an insider attack in an industry then industrialist try to cover up this news as these types of news about an industry can damage the reputation of the industry. CHAPTER 2 REVIEW OF LITRATURE S, Axelsson. ,(2000) Anonymous 2001 Continuity of operations and correct functioning of information systems is important to most businesses. Threats to computerised information and process are threats to business quality and effectiveness. The objective of IT security is to put measures in place which eliminate or reduce significant threats to an acceptable level. Security and risk management are tightly coupled with quality management. Security measures should be implemented based on risk analysis and in harmony with Quality structures, processes and checklists. What needs to be protected, against whom and how? Security is the protection of information, systems and services against disasters, mistakes and manipulation so that the likelihood and impact of security incidents is minimised. IT security is comprised of: Confidentiality: Sensitive business objects (information processes) are disclosed only to authorised persons. ==> Controls are required to restrict access to objects. Integrity: The business need to control modification to objects (information and processes). ==> Controls are required to ensure objects are accurate and complete.

Essay --

Sigrid Axelsson SP3A Philosophy 1 Philosophy of language; Essay Question # 4 This essay will specifically try to answer question number; 4) What is the meaning of ‘in the head’ (ideational)? How does Wittgenstein’s beetle box through experiment suggest otherwise? The meaning â€Å"in the head† is ideational and the Wittgenstein beetle box theory supports that everything is created in the head and is ideational, but not that everyone has the same concept of reality. Is the meaning â€Å"in the head† (ideational)? Ideational is when an idea pops up in one’s head and a light bulb is switched on within the person who has the ideational moment in the mind. Yes, â€Å"in the head† is referring to the ideational theories where a sentence or a word is, as an example â€Å"in the head† is referring to the metal image of the inside of the head that is created in the brain when the word or sentence of â€Å"in the head† is seen and heard by the human being. This is seen with Locke’s explanation, that when the word red is seen or heard, the brain portrays redness as the metal image within the brain, and th...

Wordsmith and The Gold Mountain Coat

The poem â€Å"Wordsmith† is talking about a boys father who is constantly working on their house. To perfect it. It mentions how he â€Å" he fills and smooths and sands as filling in all of the empty crevices. † While the boy is watching though I can sense some sadness, maybe for the fact that his father spends more time on the house rather than with him. He might feel as if the imperfections of the house are more important then him. The short story â€Å"The Gold Mountain Coat† is about a father named Sam sing. Sam has an rugged appearance it states that he rarely smiled or even talked for the matter. Sam has two sons Ken and john. He was proud of the fact that when he was unable to look after the chines restaurant anymore he would have to sons to take over. Sam seems very unfriendly. He never visited the other family with his son. His life seemed to be devoted to the restaurant rather that to his family. The similarities between the fathers in the â€Å"Wordsmith† and â€Å"The Gold Mountain Coat† would have to be that they both work very hard. I think that they do it for their families. To show that they care deeply and want to provide a nice place to live and help sustain a good life. In â€Å"Wordsmith† is says that the fathers â€Å"love keeps him moving from room to room†, meaning that he does it out of love although it may come off as if he doesn’t care. In â€Å"The Gold Mountain Coat† it shows that he actually has a lot of love for his family and works hard to provide for them even though it may not seem as it and that the sons are afraid of him. When john asked for a second coat for him and his brother and that his son could grow into it Sam said yes. I think that shows a lot of love. Both fathers are very caring and both do everything out of love.

Machiavelli and Morality Essay

When reading Niccolo Machiavelli’s The Prince, one can’t help but grasp Machiavelli’s argument that morality and politics can not exist in the same forum. However, when examining Machiavelli’s various concepts in depth, one can conclude that perhaps his suggested violence and evil is fueled by a moral end of sorts. First and foremost, one must have the understanding that this book is aimed solely at the Prince or Emperor with the express purpose of aiding him in maintaining power. Therefore, it is essential to grasp his concepts of fortune and virtue. These two contrary concepts reflect the manner in which a Prince should govern while minimizing all chance and uncertainty. This kind of governing demands violence to be taken, however this is only done for the strict purpose of maintaining his throne, and generating both fear and admiration from his people. In all cases of violence, Machiavelli limits the amount of violence that needs to be taken down to the minimum, and most cases the victims of these acts are enemies of the people. Behind the violence, the prince is essentially taking the role of the villain and assuming all â€Å"bad† acts so that his people do not have to suffer and commit the acts themselves. In addition, all the Prince asks for is to not threaten his power and to respect it. In the 16th Century, this request is feeble compared to those of other hierarchical Monarchies. In the end, Machiavelli’s Prince assumes all the burden of violence while leaving his noble people to act as they feel accordingly without worry of their lively hood. This is Machiavelli’s ultimate stroke of morality. Before examining how the interaction of violence and politics lead to morality in the end, it is important to analyze exactly what Machiavelli demands of his Prince. First and foremost, Machiavelli harps upon the concept of fortune and virtue. By fortune, he means that everything is left to chance, while nothing will guarantee that a certain event will occur. Machiavelli writes that a â€Å"Great long standing Prince never rules with fortune. † Through risk and chance, one leaves him open to failure; thus action should be withheld if an element of chance is involved. Machiavelli ties virtue very closely to that of prudence. He defines virtue as acting exceptionally and draws a distinction between morality and virtue. In many respects Machiavelli defines virtue by prudence. If a ruler is able to balance his violence, keep his subjects appeased, and have a dire understanding of his threats, then in Machiavelli’s eyes the ruler has a strong virtue. What must be understood is that the throne is always in jeopardy and someone is always there to try to knock the prince off his pedestal. This is a prime understanding that a prince must have, and fuels the infamous argument by Machiavelli that it is better to be feared than loved. Machiavelli explains that, for the most part, love is very subjective and eventually will subside unless further concessions are made to appease his subjects. In addition, people only care about their personal conveniences and a prince would have to overextend himself if he were to be loved by all. Fear, however, is not subjective and has a universal effect on all his people. Fear can be attained by sporadic violent acts. One must understand, however, that massive amounts of violence can not be done because it would portray the Prince as tyrant, and might stir up his people to revolt against him. The acts must be calculated, concise, and serve a direct purpose not only to his benefit but to the people’s also. Despite what might be assumed, Machiavelli is really developing a principality based around the people, where the Prince’s actions are merely to save his own head from the chopping block. In essence, Machiavelli’s ideal principality sustains a genuine sense of morality behind the violence that â€Å"must be subjected in order to maintain stability. † Looking at his plans subjectively, Machiavelli could very easily have broken down the subjects in a hierarchical fashion or forced upon them large sum taxes and duties. He does not do this, instead opting simply for the respect of the people and the lack of treachery in affairs regarding his power. The people in his kingdom can live with tranquility, and pursue whatever they so desire. This freedom of the people and ability to act as they feel is more than a simple convenience. Personal pursuit of happiness of all is given by the Prince but at his expense. All that the people must do is respect and not threaten the Prince’s power. On the contrary, the Prince sacrifices his own motives, morals, and personal happiness so that his subjects may have them. Essentially, Machiavelli paints the Prince as a Christ figure. It is the Prince who takes away the sins of the world, so to speak. He gives up his morals so that other may keep and cherish theirs. Machiavelli firmly insists that politics and morality can not co-exist. The main reason is that moral behavior is consistent and can be predictable. Consistency and predictability are significannot ly weak components of a ruler, and could be exploited by his enemies. When a pattern of action is established, conspirators can conspire and plan an overthrow. These conspirators would then plunder and pillage as they came to power; therefore worsening the situation in the kingdom. The people then would become the victims, and anarchy would soon break out creating all kinds of disorder. So, although the intentions of moral political actions are good, in the end they will lead to immoral acts. The actions he takes are not just violent tyrannical activities rather they are sacrifices. He is the one who must live with the guilt of sin, not his constitutes. In terms of morality, the Prince does not demand any unmoral action from his subjects. He shoulders it all. It is also the Prince who, although it is also for his personal safety, eliminates the tyrants that not only threaten his throne but also his people. Along the same lines as halting anarchy or riots, the elimination of other power hungry individuals evaporates the threat of oppression on the people from another exterior source. One thing that remains consistent in his principality is that people maintain their honor and esteem, and this unselfish sacrifice is what makes the Prince’s actions in actuality quite moral. Another aspect that one can not help but ignore is that fact the Prince assumes the position of ruler at the costs and expectations. For being a Prince, he must at times be prudent and aware of his position with the people. Machiavelli writes â€Å"the Prince must be seen as moral by the people. † The fact underlies the importance of morality for Machiavelli. Without morality and without the notion of morality in a Prince, civil disorder will occur. Morality, with its uncertainties, provides at the very least a common non-violent base in which subjects have a set of rules could live by. What makes morality important to the Prince is that it also allows him a statute of sorts. For example, if people operate by their morals than the Prince has not to worry such problems as stealing, killing and other immoral actions. Therefore, just by appearing to be moral, morality can be used as a tool to control and harness the people below him. As Prince, Machiavelli’s existence and power is constantly threatened. However, it is not simply a job or power that the Prince would lose if he is to be overthrown from his position. It is, in turn, his life that the Prince would lose if he were overtaken. Therefore, it could be conceived that the Prince is acting and utilizing violence simply to save his own life. Saving a life, even it is your own, follows within the moral code. You could though look at the situation from a different perspective. Machiavelli argues that the only noteworthy position a moral person can assume is that of a martyr. However, I disagree with this statement because although one could be reveled as a martyr, the possible effects of a new prince’s statutes far outweigh the benefits of being a martyr. As a martyr people simply become energized and support your cause. However, if a Prince is such martyr, that would mean a new Prince is in power and could instill far worse conditions upon the people. Therefore, with his subjects as the top priority, morality demands that the Prince must stay alive and allow the people to prosper under his free monarchy. Machiavelli’s Prince is a book in which Machiavelli outlines the actions a Prince must take to hold and maintain power in a principality. Within the context of the book, Machiavelli brings forth the notion that prudent violence must be done in order to maintain the throne. In addition, he strongly expresses the ideology that a Prince can not be both moral and political. However, behind this argument lays the foundation of morality. The Prince’s evil actions although not moral seem to sustain morality for the subjects within his principality. The Prince assumes all immoral behaviors and thus, by sacrifices himself for the people, is indeed moral in the end.

Biography of Jorge Luis Borges (1899-1986)

Biography of Jorge Luis Borges (1899-1986) Jorge Luà ­s Borges was an Argentine writer who specialized in short stories, poems, and essays. Although he never wrote a novel, he is considered one of the most important writers of his generation, not only in his native Argentina but around the world. Often imitated but never duplicated, his innovative style and stunning concepts made him a â€Å"writer’s writer,† a favorite inspiration for storytellers everywhere. Early Life Jorge Francisco Isidoro Luà ­s Borges was born in Buenos Aires on August 24, 1899, to middle-class parents from a family with a distinguished military background. His paternal grandmother was English, and young Jorge mastered English at an early age. They lived in the Palermo district of Buenos Aires, which at the time was a bit rough. The family moved to Geneva, Switzerland, in 1914 and remained there for the duration of the First World War. Jorge graduated from high school in 1918 and picked up German and French while he was in Europe. Ultra and Ultraism The family traveled around Spain after the war, visiting several cities before moving back to Buenos Aires in Argentina. During his time in Europe, Borges was exposed to several groundbreaking writers and literary movements. While in Madrid, Borges participated in the founding of Ultraism, a literary movement that sought a new sort of poetry, free from form and maudlin imagery. Together with a handful of other young writers, he published the literary journal Ultra. Borges returned to Buenos Aires in 1921 and brought his avant-garde ideas with him. Early Work in Argentina: Back in Buenos Aires, Borges wasted no time in establishing new literary journals. He helped found the journal Proa, and published several poems with the journal Martà ­n Fierro, named after the famous Argentine Epic Poem. In 1923 he published his first book of poems, Fervor de Buenos Aires. He followed this with other volumes, including Luna de Enfrente in 1925 and the award-winning Cuaderno de San Martà ­n in 1929. Borges would later grow to disdain his early works, essentially disowning them as too heavy on local color. He even went so far as to buy copies of old journals and books in order to burn them. Short Stories by Jorge Luis Borges: In the 1930s and 1940s, Borges began writing short fiction, the genre which would make him famous. During the 1930s, he published several stories in the various literary journals in Buenos Aires. He released his first collection of stories, The Garden of Forking Paths, in 1941 and followed it up shortly thereafter with Artifices. The two were combined into Ficciones in 1944. In 1949 he published El Aleph, his second major collection of short stories. These two collections represent Borges’ most important work, containing several dazzling stories that took Latin American literature in a new direction. Under the Perà ³n Regime: Although he was a literary radical, Borges was a bit of a conservative in his private and political life, and he suffered under the liberal Juan Perà ³n dictatorship, although he was not jailed like some high profile dissidents. His reputation was growing, and by 1950 he was in demand as a lecturer. He was particularly sought after as a speaker on English and American Literature. The Perà ³n regime kept an eye on him, sending a police informer to many of his lectures. His family was harassed as well. All in all, he managed to keep a low enough profile during the Perà ³n years to avoid any trouble with the government. International Fame: By the 1960s, readers around the world had discovered Borges, whose works were translated into several different languages. In 1961 he was invited to the United States and spent several months giving lectures in different venues. He returned to Europe in 1963 and saw some old childhood friends. In Argentina, he was awarded his dream job: director of the National Library. Unfortunately, his eyesight was failing, and he had to have others read books aloud to him. He continued to write and publish poems, short stories, and essays. He also collaborated on projects with his close friend, the writer Adolfo Bioy Casares. Jorge Luis Borges in the 1970’s and 1980’s: Borges continued to publish books well into the 1970’s. He stepped down as director of the National Library when Perà ³n returned to power in 1973. He initially supported the military junta that seized power in 1976 but soon grew disenchanted with them and by 1980 he was openly speaking out against the disappearances. His international stature and fame assured that he would not be a target like so many of his countrymen. Some felt that he did not do enough with his influence to stop the atrocities of the Dirty War. In 1985 he moved to Geneva, Switzerland, where he died in 1986. Personal Life: In 1967 Borges married Elsa Astete Milln, an old friend, but it did not last. He spent most of his adult life living with his mother, who died in 1975 at the age of 99. In 1986 he married his longtime assistant Maria Kodama. She was in her early 40’s and had earned a doctorate in literature, and the two had traveled together extensively in previous years. The marriage lasted only a couple of months before Borges passed away. He had no children. His Literature: Borges wrote volumes of stories, essays, and poems, although it is the short stories that brought him the most international fame. He is considered a groundbreaking writer, paving the way for the innovative Latin American literary boom of the mid-to-late 20th century. Major literary figures such as Carlos Fuentes and Julio Cortzar admit that Borges was a great source of inspiration for them. He was also a great source for interesting quotes. Those unfamiliar with Borges works may find them a little difficult at first, as his language tends to be dense. His stories are easy to find in English, either in books or on the internet. Here is a short reading list of some of his more accessible stories: Death and the Compass: A brilliant detective matches wits with a cunning criminal in one of Argentinas best-loved detective stories.The Secret Miracle: A Jewish playwright sentenced to death by the Nazis asks for and receives a miracle...or does he?The Dead Man: Argentine gauchos mete out their particular brand of justice to one of their own.

Evacuation of Children Essay Example

Evacuation of Children Essay Example Evacuation of Children Essay Evacuation of Children Essay Source A is a picture taken of evacuees walking towards a station in 1938. The people are in London, where the most amount of people evacuated out of Britains major cities. The faces of the children are happy and optimistic as though they are looking forward to this process. The source, however, does not indicate whether the picture was teken by the government for use as propanganda. Everyone in the photograph are waving and looking at the same point into the camera which could mean they were ordered to pose like that. Source B is an interview held in 1988 with a teacher who was evacuated with children during the Second World war. This account gives a more relistic feel on how it moust have felt for mothers to be sepertaed from their children The children were too afraid to talk, Mothers werent allowed with us the atmosphere then would have felt uneasy for the children, as the rush into evacuation made children feel confused and unsure where their planned destination would be. The evacuation process was very formal We put the children on the train and the gates closed behind us and mothers didnt know how to act as the majority didnt have a clue where their children were off to and when they were going to see their children again. Source C is an extract from a novel about evacuees. As it is fiction, we do not know whether to interpret the story as being true. The novel could have been partly based on true accounts from evacuees. The source begins with Not a speck of dust anywhere as though this was a shocked reactionfrom the children about the cleanliness of their new home. People from the city were stereotyped as being poor and unhygenic. The children in the novel are taken in by a hostess who clearly knows nothing about the city life, Im sorry, how silly of me, why should you have slippers? she is casting her prejudice thoughts before the children can offer an explanation. Some foster parents thought that children would bring diesease into their home, as most evacuees where poorer children from the larger industrial cities. Source D is an advertisement issued by the government in 1940. it appeals for more people in Scotland to provide homes for evacuee children. There is a picture of a typical blond, British girl and boy, with large smiles on their faces and a large quote follows, Thank you foster Parents We want more like you! giving thankfullness and praise if adults followed the appeal. the advertisement has been written in a formal style, even discussing the fact that looking after these children would be Extra work. Taking in evacuees was seen by adults as helping the war effort To share in the present task and to be ready for any crisis that may come. The idea of loving the children doesnt seem to be an issue. It is as though it is more of a hassle that others have to face with and work together to feel as thought they are helping the war. Source E is an interview with a parent in May 1940. It is clear he lives in the city as he explains he does not want his son to go to The Shires as They were already starving before the war The father has stereotyped people fromt he countryside, beliving that there would be no facilities or knowledge for looking after his son appropriately. This resistance of letting his son go could be his inner feelings of fear for he may not be able to see his son again well, what if I got killed? Who would look after him then? The parents really loved their children and used whatever excuse they could to advoid the parternal seperation. Source F is an account from a Londoner who was evacuated in June 1940, from South London to Barnstaple in Devonshire, I think our foster mother found us a bit hard to understand with our somewhat more worldly outlook and ways. I am grateful to her for taking us in as it could not have been easy to handle two lively young strangers, and we were warm and comfortable and well fed at all times. This quote shows the general feeling of evacuation as most cases were left with a positive note. People understood that they were helping the war effort and felt even though this was hard work, it was easier to deal with because the whole nation was going through the same process,

The History of the Taxi

The History of the Taxi A taxicab or taxi or cab is a car and driver that can be hired to carry passengers to a requested destination. What Did We Hail Pre-Taxi? Before the invention of the car, the practice of vehicles for public hire was in place. In 1640, in Paris, Nicolas Sauvage offered horse-drawn carriages and drivers for hire. In 1635, the Hackney Carriage Act was the first legislation passed that controlled horse-drawn carriages for hire in England. Taximeter The name taxicab was taken from the word taximeter. The taximeter is the instrument which measures the distance or time a vehicle travels and allows an accurate fare to be determined. The taximeter was invented by the German inventor, Wilhelm Bruhn in 1891. Daimler Victoria Gottlieb Daimler built the worlds first dedicated taxi in 1897 called the Daimler Victoria. The taxi came equipped with the newly invented taxi meter. On 16 June 1897, the Daimler Victoria taxi was delivered to Friedrich Greiner, a Stuttgart entrepreneur who started the worlds first motorized taxi company. First Taxi Accident On September 13, 1899, the first American died in a car accident. That car was a Taxi, there were about one hundred taxis operating on New Yorks streets that year. Sixty-eight-year-old Henry Bliss was helping a friend from a street car when a taxi driver lost control and fatally hit Bliss. Yellow Taxi Historical Facts Taxi company owner, Harry Allen was the first person to have yellow taxis. Allen painted his taxis yellow to stand out. Taxi Dreams: By the end of the 19th century, automobiles began to appear on city streets throughout the country. It was not long before a number of these cars were hiring themselves out in competition with horse-drawn carriages.Vance Thompsons Cab Drivers: Vance Thompson (1863-1925) published five articles on horse cab drivers in Paris, London, Dublin and New York and on gondoliers in Venice.Taxi! A brief history of the London Taxi: The first motorized London taxi, the 1897 Bersey, was electrically powered and was called the Hummingbird because of its sound.In 1922, the Checker Cab Manufacturing Company was founded in Joliet, IL, and production was set for three taxis a day

The Lust for Blood Movie Review Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

The Lust for Blood - Movie Review Example The lust for blood from an aggrieved criminal who goes on a killing spree is the main theme behind the episode that will be reviewed in this essay. The producer’s concept of depicting two men that have been bludgeoned to death in the beginning of the film is the epitome of brutality as a result of blood lust. The murder took place near a hospital one evening in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The BAU agents, Hotch, Rossi, Prentiss and Reid are called in to solve the case. The two dead bodies had been placed in such a way that showed the perpetrator (s) was remorseful about the act. For the perpetrator to have been able to kill the two physically strong men, he or she must have been physically strong as well. The unsub must have been somebody who was good at fighting. The victims found beaten in the same manner that the perpetrator had bludgeoned the first two men shows that it is the same person who has been committing these murders. The manner that these subsequent deaths have be en executed shows that he is no longer remorseful for the killings. There is a very high probability that the perpetrator will strike again. Viewers are left in suspense, wondering when and where he will strike next. Analytically, the murders are being executed by someone who enjoys killing people. He is killing them very precisely and easily. The subsequent victims are found to have been beaten in a very organized and thorough way, indicating that the criminal is knowledgeable about fights. He must be a fighter or boxer because of the nature of execution of the deaths. The BAU ventures into the boxing and fighting scene all over Philadelphia so as to find the connection to the string of deaths. The search for the killer leads the BAU team to venture more and more into the boxing scene so as to find out who has been executing these deaths near the hospital. This was a clever move because the killer must have been a boxer. Later on in the program, it emerges that the killer is a prof essionally trained boxer, Jimmy who is killing people because of his presumed blood lust. Hotch’s encounter with a lady named Beth shows that he is finally interested in love again for the first time since his wife Haley died. He has been holding on to the death of his wife and has finally decided to let go of the past and move on. In regard to this, he is quoted saying, â€Å"Some of us think holding on makes us strong but sometimes its letting go†. This can be said to be after he has finally made the resolution to move on with his life and stop mourning the death of his wife. The case that the team was working on was taking too long but the change in direction of the movie makes it more interesting when Hotch meets this girl Beth and finally considers to move on. The introduction of Beth into the scene is a great strategy because the suspense of wanting to know whether Hotch’s new love will fail or succeed keeps viewers glued to the screen. The conversation be tween Hotch and Rossi below shows that Hotch is interested in Beth â€Å"Rossi:  (discussing Beth with Hotch)  Is she cute? Hotchner: Yes, she is, but I need to be focused on my training. I don't need to be distracted. Rossi: Yes, you should be. Distracted is good. What's her name? Hotchner: Beth. Rossi: I like it. And you know what they say about riding a bicycle. Hotchner: Who's getting a bicycle?

Discuss the importance of the rule nemo dat quod non habet in s.21 of Assignment

Discuss the importance of the rule nemo dat quod non habet in s.21 of the Sale of Goods Act 1979. Use examples to support your arguments - Assignment Example Commonly refered to as nemo dat, this concept stems from vision of a series of transactions whereby a current owner of property is required to be able to trace back ownership to reflect a chain of legitimate transfers. Further, the chain of transfers should originate from legitimate original possession. With examples, this paper will discuss the importance of nemo dat as well as applicable exceptions as per the provisions of the Sale of Goods Act 1979. Nemo dat is mainly concerned with the issue of which of the two parties, the legitimate owner and the innocent buyer, must pay the price of the fraud of a third party (Yap 2008, p. 254). It is a familiar occurrence that legitimate owners of goods are swindled into parting with the goods and, similarly, innocent buyers deceived into buying the goods from a third party. Therefore, the fundamental importance of the nemo dat rule is protecting the true and legitimate owners of property. Then, it also protects property by stipulating that no one can give a title that is better than he himself has (MacLeod 2012, p. 27). The usual scenario of the sale of property is that it is carried out between a willing buyer and either the legitimate owner or their duly authorized representatives. However, situations also occur in which the seller is selling property that does not rightfully belong to him or he does not possess the required right to sell. At that point, the significance of nemo dat is that it will form the basis on which the law will decide whether to favor the original owner or the bona fide buyer (Elliott 2004, p. 382). The rule of nemo dat remains legally binding even in situations where buyers are not aware that the sellers have no right to allege ownership of the property being transacted. In most circumstances, the buyer of property from a seller with no ownership rights will not get the title of ownership but, legally, there are exceptions that can actually grant such buyers the title. Meant to protect

Gangs in prisons Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3500 words

Gangs in prisons - Essay Example The reasons of joining these gangs while in prisons are equally diversified and include the search for protection and in order to command control over all others. This study therefore intends to analyze the trends in prison gangs holistically within US, the reasons of their formation as well as the possible means of destroying them. The United States have increasingly been recording higher rates of gangs organized within the prisons over the last years (Sheldon, 2004). Both the increase in the number of gangs and gang members along with the increase in criminal activity by these individuals has lead to harsher responses by the criminal justice system including an increase in the incarceration of many gang members. For example, a study conducted in 1999 by prison administrators indicated that 24 percent of male prisoners and seven percent of female prisoners belong to a prison gang (Shelden, 2004). This was an approximately 167-percent increase in the number of prison gang members reported in 1991 whereby only nine percent of male and seven percent of female inmates reported belonging to a gang. In another study conducted in 1999 approximately 47,220 male were gang members in 1999 compared to a similar study in 1993 whereby 43,765 men were identified to be gang members in American prisons (a 7.9 percent increase ) (Shelden, Tracy & Brown, 2001). However, some states that have been identified with higher number of gangs in their prison population, for example Illinois, reported that as many as 34.3 percent of inmates belonged to a prison gang (Fleisher & Decker, 2001) which was the highest percent of prison gang-affiliated inmates in the nation. Despite the number of identified gang members in prisons, research on both the existence and the handling of gangs behind institutional walls is relatively nonexistent (Scott, 2001; Skarbek, 2012). Gangs exist in all prisons throughout United States (Fleisher & Decker, 2001).

Analysis of the Monster by Eminem ft. Rihanna Essay

Analysis of the Monster by Eminem ft. Rihanna - Essay Example This "Analysis of the â€Å"Monster† by Eminem ft. Rihanna" essay analyses and identifying the arguments and thesis of the video called "The Monster" which is sung by Eminem and Rihanna. He repeatedly identifies himself to be the Monster. He even uses the reminder of his relationship with the Monster in the chorus to allude to how effectively his ego has inflated, as well as, how tormenting it can to deal with his fame at times. â€Å"†¦I think I’m getting so huge I need a shrink. I’m beginning to lose sleep; one sheep, two sheep. Going cuckoo and cooky as Kool Keith†¦Ã¢â‚¬  (Line 13-15). The lyrics depict the theme of egoism and fame that makes artists thrive in the music industry. Meanwhile the monster under the bed as portrayed in the song depicts the inner voice that drives the artists in their singing.Though, it is devilish it is like a hidden power that makes an artist unique from others. It is a fact that every human being will enjoy recognition, the key source of happiness for different artists as it determines their survival that their ego develops. Once a person is established well, this ego conflicts with the natural occurring minds, therefore, delineate between the two distinct voices that are portrayed in the song. â€Å"To intervene between me and this monster†¦ And save me from myself and all this conflict†. Everyone knows how treacherous it may be in overwhelming the single-mind based voices. Therefore, it can be tricky and disturbing in sleeping as a minor ailment amongst a two or many voice environment as portrayed by Eminem.

Islam and Its Manifestations Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Islam and Its Manifestations - Essay Example From the essay "Islam and Its Manifestations", it is clear that Muslim people believe in the absolute truth of their faith that is perceived by Qutb as the refusal of science’s acceptance. The rhetorical question arises – whether they become happier at the realizing that Islam is not so universal. In the capacity of spectacular example, the barbarian times of Arabs’ seizing of Persian and Greek knowledge are cited. It is the period when they show their brilliant capacity for sciences that can serve as a bright manifestation of nowadays senseless of Islamic rejection of scientific development of Muslim people. Opposite to al-Afghani's idea, Qutb feels sorrow for the present position of Islam world that â€Å"†¦ fell again into ignorance and became the center of religious fanaticism†¦Ã¢â‚¬  (Qutb 26). The author wonders why Muslims must live in unknowing after such a great contribution to the world science. The all mentioned aspects suggest that Islam i n its various manifestations is the somewhat contradictory issue. The common belief is that it is one of the firm religions as it has adopted the doctrinal beliefs which are perceived by Muslims without question. Still, such a nature of absolute faith has not only its benefits but the implications as well. The bright example of the latter is the impossibility of scientific progress in the conditions of Islamic closed nature. Islam still does not recognize even the possibility of awareness of Muslims with all the advances of science.

Islamic faith Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Islamic faith - Essay Example tions has been immense in terms of economic mobility, political freedom and social freedom but world’s perception on Islam and Muslims has always been dubious in terms of acknowledging it as a prime force. The emergence of Saudi Nations as oil hubs offered them power and control over the industrial revolution in the 20th century that became a reason of worry for western nations believing themselves as super powers. The influx of billions of dollars created mosque, education system, scholarships and change in the perception of Muslims. This was just a beginning of an era that was followed by supreme power and dominance over the global oil industry and within years, western nations were under the feet of Saudi Arabia in terms of feeding their industrial needs and requirements. It can be assumed that the prime reason behind the resurgence of Islamic influence was the control over the oil and petroleum products that changed the life of few nations. Islam is considered is one of the highly admired religions across the world based on pure faith and teachings of god. Muslims across the world take pride in following the path shown by the sacred leaders and gods. It needs to be mentioned that an individual is treated and respected on the basis of his nature, lifestyle and personality. Religions help in shaping perceptions, ideologies and mindset and Islam helps in connecting to god along with developing faith. There are a number of countries treating Muslims in a different manner based on pre-conceived notions that often demeans the majority of Muslims. The only appeal of being a Muslim is the follower of god believing in right things and leading a normal life that is often influenced by the perceptions of others making it all the more complicated. The United States is considered as the super power controlling the world. Muslims settled in the US often find social freedom, political freedom and economic development increasing at a rapid pace in the country compared to

Islam and Its Manifestations Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Islam and Its Manifestations - Essay Example From the essay "Islam and Its Manifestations", it is clear that Muslim people believe in the absolute truth of their faith that is perceived by Qutb as the refusal of science’s acceptance. The rhetorical question arises – whether they become happier at the realizing that Islam is not so universal. In the capacity of spectacular example, the barbarian times of Arabs’ seizing of Persian and Greek knowledge are cited. It is the period when they show their brilliant capacity for sciences that can serve as a bright manifestation of nowadays senseless of Islamic rejection of scientific development of Muslim people. Opposite to al-Afghani's idea, Qutb feels sorrow for the present position of Islam world that â€Å"†¦ fell again into ignorance and became the center of religious fanaticism†¦Ã¢â‚¬  (Qutb 26). The author wonders why Muslims must live in unknowing after such a great contribution to the world science. The all mentioned aspects suggest that Islam i n its various manifestations is the somewhat contradictory issue. The common belief is that it is one of the firm religions as it has adopted the doctrinal beliefs which are perceived by Muslims without question. Still, such a nature of absolute faith has not only its benefits but the implications as well. The bright example of the latter is the impossibility of scientific progress in the conditions of Islamic closed nature. Islam still does not recognize even the possibility of awareness of Muslims with all the advances of science.

Homeland Security Management Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Homeland Security Management - Essay Example It should not be viewed as a linear process. Why Because each phase needs to be reviewed based on variations of evaluation results of all components of risk management on, before, or after the disaster occurs. A disaster will inflict major damages when the member of the community is unaware of its occurrence, and of the things that should be done. Preparedness phase involves rigorous planning. It is where countermeasures are properly designed. It is done by an emergency team usually composed of selected government officials, government agencies, volunteer groups, the representative from medical groups, representatives from the private sectors such as businesses and contractors, or from any interested member of the community. The emergency team is organized during this phase. To come up with good countermeasures, it involves a rigorous process of risk analysis where possible risk or hazards are to be studied. Conducting intensive reviews and revisions of the previous emergency plans, and inventory of resources that are needed to carry out the emergency operation successfully are also done at this phase. The next step is the formulation of well designed operational plans which will be operated during the onset, upon impact, and after the occurrence of the disaster. Conducting public awareness campaign (i.e drills, an introduction of alert systems) so that the people will know how to react promptly and effectively during emergency situations, and pieces of training for organized emergency teams that will respond directly during the emergency. Mitigation phase involves the application of some countermeasures to deflect the possible damages when a disaster occurs. This is usually done by construction of appropriate defense systems to locations where the possibility of the occurrence of a disaster is high. Some examples of mitigation approach are digging big canals and installation of a proper drainage system to places where floods are likely to occur. It also involv es strict implementations of laws and guidelines for acquiring permits to different construction companies to ensure the safety of the structures to be built (i.e checking the level of the structure's resistance to possible disaster). Response phase is the proper application of emergency operational plans designed in preparedness phase and deployment of the resources that suit the need in order to preserve life and property within the community during the impact of the disaster. It involves the provision of relief goods, medical assistance, providing shelter or evacuation sites, conducting search and rescue mission. The Emergency Management team should act responsibly to evaluate the amount of damage, conduct the inventory of resources from time to time, seek out mutual emergency aid when required, and should remain in contact with the victims to attain their needs. A composition of reports of the number of casualties affected, in terms of death, injured, and valid estimates of the actual cost of the damage caused. Recovery is the most crucial part, the bigger the damage, the harder the recovery will be, this is true in developing countries. Reconstruction of damaged structures, construction of new residential sites, repairs of damaged transportation facilities (i.e roads, bridges, railway systems.)

Criticism And Drawbacks Of The Kuznets Curve Economics Essay

Criticism And Drawbacks Of The Kuznets Curve Economics Essay Environmental Kuznets Curve The Environmental Kuznets Curve (EKC) is a pragmatically, relationship that is assumed to trace the pollution path followed by countries as their per capita gross domestic product (GDP) grows and describes the relationship between per capita income and of environmental degradation indicators (Unruth and Moomaw, 1998). In the infant stages of development, the levels of some pollutants climb with increases in per capita income, while at advanced levels of development, environmental degradation follows a downward trend as income per capita is moving upwards. These results give rise to a bell shaped curve relating economic growth to environmental degradation, redolent of the relationship hypothesized by Kuznets (1995) between economic and income inequality (Nahman and Antrobus, 2005). The concept of EKC came out in the early 1990s with Grossman and Kruegers (1991) path-breaking study of the potential impacts of NAFTA (North American Free Trade Agreement). Origins of the EKC The environmental Kuznets curve is a hypothesized relationship between different indicators of environmental degradation and income per capita. At first stages of economic growth degradation and pollution increase, but further than some level of income per capita, the movement reverses, so that at high-income levels economic growth leads to environmental improvement. This means that the impact of environmental indicator is an inverted U-shaped function of income per capita (Stern, 2003) In other words, the distribution of income becomes more asymmetrical in early stage of income growth and then the distribution moves towards greater equality as economic growth continues (Kuznets, 1955). This liaison between income per capita and income inequality can be represented by a bell-shaped curve. This is viewed as an empirical phenomenon known as the Kuznets Curve (Dinda, 2004). Criticism and drawbacks of the Kuznets Curve The Kuznets Curve has helped in studying the relationship between environmental pollutants and GDP of countries but it does have drawbacks too. Even Kuznets (1955) himself indicated that the Kuznets Curve Theory is not a perfect one and the relationship between income inequality and economic development cannot be assumed. He also declared that lot information in the paper has been speculated and thus further research work must be carried out. The reason behind the development of the Environmental Kuznets Curve Since the last decades, the increasing threat of global warming and climate change has been of major continuing concern. Organisations such as the United Nations have been trying to diminish the unfavorable impacts of global warming through intergovernmental and binding accords. After immense negotiations, the agreement namely the Kyoto protocol was signed in 1997. This protocol has the objective of reducing greenhouse gases (GHG) that cause climate change. The Kyoto protocol recognises limitations to environmental pollutants and necessitates a timetable for realisation of the emission reductions for the developed countries. During 2008 2012 periods the demands reduction of the GHG emissions to 5.2 % lower than the 1990 level. In 2005 it came into force: 178 states have signed and approved the protocol since April 2008 (Halicoglu, 2008). Greenhouse gas emissions particularly carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions, are considered to be the core causes of global warming. Consequently, to prev ent global warming a number of countries have signed the Kyoto Protocol and agreed to diminish their emission levels. Galeotti and Lanza (1999) indicated that some developing states refused to sign the Kyoto Protocol based on the argument that the industrialisation and development process should be subject to no constraints, particularly for energy production and consumption. One probable foundation for this position is the belief that while pollution increases with growth in GDP, it happens a point where pollution goes down. This view calls for a careful analysis of the relationship between economic growth and pollution. This relationship is obviously very complex as it depends on numerous different factors such as: The countrys size, The sectoral structure, including the composition of the demand for energy, The vintage of the technology, The demand for environmental quality, The level and quality of environmental protection expenditures. Shafik (1994) reports that the relationship between economic growth and environmental quality has been a source of great disagreement for a lengthy period of time. On one side it has been observed that greater economic activity unavoidably leads to environmental degradation and finally to possible economic and ecological collapse. At the other side is the view that those environmental nuisances worth solving will be tackled more or less automatically as a consequence of economic growth. Previous to 1970, there was a conviction that the raw materials consumptions, energy and natural resources were growing at the same pace as economy grows. In the early 1970s, the Club of Romes Limits of Growth view (Meadows et al., 1972) was brazen about the concern for the accessibility of natural resource of the Earth. They argued that the finiteness of ecological resources would prevent economic growth and advocated for a solid state economy with zero growth to avoid striking ecological circumstances in the future. This view has been criticised on both hypothetical and empirical grounds. Experimental works shows that the ratio of consumption of some metals to income was falling in developed countries during the 1970s, which brings divergence with the predictions set out in the Limits to Growth view (Maleness, 1978). Natural environment not only provide natural resources important for economic development but also execute the vital function of supporting life, if man persist to exp loit environment recklessly, then it would not be able to sustain life any longer. Environmental Kuznets Curve definition and graphical illustration The EKC follows the name of Nobel Laureate Simon Kuznets who had remarkably hypothesized an inverted U income-inequality relationship (Kuznets, 1955). In the 1990s economists detected this relationship between economic growth and environmental degradation. Since then this relationship is known as Environmental Kuznets Curve. According to the EKC theory as a country develops, the pollution increases, but after reaching a specific level of economic progress pollution begin to decrease. The EKC hypothesis suggests that environmental degradation is something unavoidable at the first stage of economic growth, so a developing country is forced to tolerate this degradation in order to develop. In a graphical representation the x-axis symbolize the economic growth which is measured by GDP per capita and the y-axis represents the environmental degradation which is measured by many different pollution indicators such as carbon dioxide, sulfur dioxide, nitrogen oxide, deforestation etc. The shapes of the Environmental Kuznets Curves. The relation between income and environmental pressure can be sketched in a several ways; firstly one can distinguish monotonic and non-monotonic curves. Monotonic curves may show either mounting pollution with rising incomes, as in the case of municipal waste per capita or decreasing. But, non-monotonic patterns may be more probable in other cases and two types have been recommended, namely inverted-U and N-shaped curves. The pattern discovered in experiential research depend on the types of pollutants scrutinised and the models that have been used for inference. Four speculative opinions are presented in favour of an inverted-U curve for (local) air pollutants, which can be listed as: Positive income elasticitys for environmental quality, Structural changes in production and consumption, Rising information on environmental consequences of economic activities as income rises and More international trade and more open political systems with increasing levels of income (Selden and Song 1994). Others, for example Pezzey (1989) and Opschoor (1990), have argued that such inverted-U relationships may not hold in the long run. They anticipated a so-called N-shaped curve which demonstrates the same pattern as the inverted-U curve initially, but beyond a certain income level the relationship between environmental pressure and income is positive again. Delinking is thus considered a temporary phenomenon. Opschoor (1990), for example, argues that once technological efficiency enhancements in resource use or abatement opportunities have been exhausted or have become too expensive, further income growth will result in net environmental degradation. Despite these considerations empirical evidence so far has been largely in favour of the inverted-U instead of the N shaped relationship (de Bruyn et al., 1998). The shortcomings of EKC analysis A number of critical studies of the EKC literature have been published (e.g. Coodoon, 2003; Ekins, 2000; Fare et al.,2001; Perman, 2003; Stern et al., 1996; Stern, 2004). Theoretical critique This section discusses the criticisms that were raised against the EKC on theoretical (rather than methodological) grounds. One of the main criticisms of the EKC models is the assumption that environment and growth are not interrelated. In simple words the EKC hypothesis assumes no feedback between income and the pollution of environment. Fare et al., (2001) refer that due to the non-availability of actual data on environmental quality is the major restriction of all EKC studies. Environmental quality is something that is not measured accurately. Therefore, a guide of environmental quality, which could be a better measurement, should be developed and used to examine the EKC hypothesis. According to Ekins (2000), consideration in assessing the strength of the estimation is the reliability of the data used. However, there is little sign that the data problems are serious enough to shed doubt on the basic environment-income link for any particular environmental indicator, but the results in fact imply that this might be the case. Stern (2004) draws his attention to the mean median problem. He underlines that early EKC studies showed that a number of indicators: 2 SO emissions, x NO, and deforestation, peak at income levels around the current world mean per capita income. A hasty glimpse at the available econometric estimates might have lead one to believe that, given likely future levels of mean income per capita, environmental degradation should turn down from the present onward. Income is not yet, normally distributed but very skewed, with much larger numbers of people below mean income per capita than above it. Hence, this shows a median rather than mean income that is the relevant variable. Another problem related with the EKC studies is the little attention that has been paid to the statistical components of time series analysis. Very few studies in the past investigated the presence of unit root in time series of variables used to investigate the validity of the EKC. 2) Econometric critique Stern (2004) in a survey argues that the econometric criticisms of the EKC fall into four main categories: heteroscedasticity, simultaneity, omitted variables bias, and cointegration issues. Perman and Stern (2003) investigate the data and models for unit roots and cointegration respectively. Panel unit root tests designate that all three series log sulfur emissions per capita, log GDP capita, and its square have stochastic trends. Results for cointegration are less definite. About half the individual country EKC regressions cointegrate but many of these have limitations with incorrect signs. Some panel cointegration tests point out cointegration in all countries and some accept the non-cointegration hypothesis. However, even when cointegration is found, the form of the EKC relationship varies radically across countries with many countries having U-shaped EKCs. In case theres a common cointegrating vector in all countries it will be strongly rejected. Coondoo and Dinda (2002) carried out an analysis for Granger Causality between CO2 emissions and income in various individual countries and regions. In general model that emerges is that causality runs from income to emissions or that there is no significant relationship in developing countries, while in developed countries causality runs from emissions to income. Still, in every case the relationship is positive so that there is no EKC type effect. Data and Time Series Properties To study the relationship between the GDP of Mauritius and the C02 emission in Mauritius the annual data that are being used are; total C02 emission from 1976 to 2008, the real GDP from 1976 to 2008, the population of Mauritius from 1976 to 2008, inflation rate of Mauritius and the unemployment rate of Mauritius. Source: Energy Data Book(2010) Figure 1: Per Capital CO2 Emission Estimate for Mauritius From these sets of data it can be clearly seen that while population was increasing (Figure 2), during these years the real GDP (Figure 3) has been fluctuating a bit. In mid 1970s after the independence there has been a lot of development and transformation in our country. Our economy was diversified and more jobs were created. Furthermore we received more foreign aid. By the late 1970s our economy deteriorated a bit mainly due to the increase in petroleum price in the world market and this lead to less government subsidies and devaluation of our Mauritian Rupees. Then by late 1980s the economy experience steady growth and also a high level of employment, declining inflation and more domestic savings. This period was also marked by the boom in the sugar industry. Though the development slowed down in the 1990s there was a gradual development of the local financial institutions and at the same time our domestic information telecommunication industry boomed. By the start of the 21st ce ntury there our financial services sector became a very important pillar of the economy with an increasing number of offshore enterprises. Finally our economy developed a lot due to the seafood processing and export during the last 10 years. Figure 2: Population Estimates for Mauritius Figure 3: GDP for Mauritius (without inflation) In the short term real GDP is affected by inflation (Figure 4) because the latter causes a rise in general price of goods and services and consequently this causes a change in investments, savings, consumption and import and export of a country and thus the GDP of a country is affected too. [The equation used to calculate real GDP is; GDP = private consumption+ gross investment + government spending + (exports imports)] Source: Federal Bank of Cleveland (2010) Figure 4: Inflation in Mauritius GDP is also depended on unemployment rate (Figure 5) because according to this equation GDP =  compensation of employees  +  gross operating surplus  +  gross mixed income  + taxes less subsidies on production and imports. Thus if unemployment rate increases in a country, the GDP will decrease. Source: Index mundi (2010) Figure 5: Unemployment Rate in Mauritius While trying to prove the relationship between GDP of Mauritius and the C02 emission of Mauritius, we can also observe how the GDP also affects the C02 emission in each specific sector of Mauritius. Graph 6 shows how the Energy sector and the Transport sector are the main contributors to C02 emission from 2000 to 2006. Source: CSO Mauritius(2010) Figure 6: C02 emission per sector

Great Literature - Some Things Never Change :: Literature Essays Literary Criticism

Great Literature - Some Things Never Change Great literature is a book or piece of literature that passes through the ages and allows the reader to identify with the characters. Another element that makes great literature are morals that fit with each passing generation. The last element of great literature is heroism. An example of literature that passes through the ages is Catcher in the Rye by J. D. Salinger. By not attaching current stereotypes and standards to characters, Holden Caulfield is a timeless character. Each generation that has read the book has been able to identify with his antics. Lashing out at his teachers and assuming sundry identities to fit in is a common thing among adolescents. Writing about problems that regular people encounter is another way literature goes from one generation to the next. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain is a boy's struggle against society's standards. Most young men rebel against society and any form of authority. Running away from home and problems is a thought most adolescents consider. Morals that pass from one generation to another are important in literature. A literary example is The Scarlet Letter by Hawthorne. Most of the morals contained in the book are religious. Being faithful to a spouse has always been an important moral, especially in Puritan New England where adultery was considered as heinous as murder. Even thought adulterous spouses aren't looked down upon now as severely as in Puritan New England, it is one thing that is still taught consistently in church and in the home as being bad. Another literary example is The Odyssey by Homer. More heroic and hardworking morals are presented in the epic poem. Work hard and you will obtain what you want or desire and good will always triumph over evil are the main morals in the epic poem. The last element that makes great literature is heroism. Although the character may be fighting ancient gods, demons, monsters, or his or her own destiny, a reader is able to scale down the size of the fight and apply it to his or her life.

Vision of Heaven in the Poetry of Dickinson Essay -- Biography Biograp

Vision of Heaven in the Poetry of Dickinson      Ã‚  Ã‚   Emily Dickinson never became a member of the church although she lived in a typical New England Puritan community all her life. The well-known lines, "Some - keep the Sabbath - going to church - / I - keep it - staying at Home -" (P-236 [B]; J-324),1 suggest her defiance against the existing church and Christianity of her time in particular. And her manner of calling the Deity by such terms as "Burglar," "Banker" (P-39; J-49), and "a jealous God" (P-1752; J-1719) clearly discloses her antagonism against the Christian God. In fact, she insistently rejected being baptized even when her family members and intimate friends at Mount Holyoke Female Seminary had chosen to bow in faith before the Christian Lord. It is no exaggeration to say that Dickinson tried to deviate from the orthodox religious belief prevalent in the society she lived in.    Nevertheless, Dickinson was an avid reader of the Bible, and as Fordyce R. Bennett states in the preface to A Reference Guide to the Bible in Emily Dickinson's Poetry, "Dickinson found story and situation, syntax, symbolism and imagery, inspiration, and much more in the King James Bible" (xi). That is to say, no matter how much she felt uncomfortable among the Christian circle of the New England community of her day, she endeavored to "keep the Sabbath" (P-236 [B]; J-324) in her own way through the most reliable source, the Christian Scripture, which came to her hands quite easily.    The purpose of this paper, then, is to discuss Dickinson's poetry with reference to the Bible†¹especially, the Book of Revelation. One of her poems poses a question: "To that etherial throng / Have not each one of us the rig... ...sachusetts, 1985. Gilbert, Sandra M., and Susan Gubar. The Madwoman in the Attic: The Woman Writer and the Nineteenth-Century Literary Imagination. New Haven: Yale UP, 1979. Sewall, Richard B. The Life of Emily Dickinson. 2 vols. 1974. Cambridge: Harvard UP, 1980. Wolff, Cynthia Griffin. Emily Dickinson. 1986. Reading: Addison, 1988. Works Consulted Capps, Jack L. Emily Dickinson's Reading 1836-1886. Cambridge: Harvard UP, 1966. Dickinson, Emily. The Poems of Emily Dickinson. Ed. Thomas H. Johnson. 3 vols. Cambridge: Belknap-Harvard UP, 1955. McIntosh, James. Nimble Believing: Dickinson and the Unknown. Ann Arbor: U of Michigan P, 2000. Mounce, Robert H. The Book of Revelation. Rev. ed. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1998. Rosenbaum, S. P., ed. A Concordance to the Poems of Emily Dickinson. Ithaca: Cornell UP, 1964.   

Determining Ka by the half-titration of a weak acid Essay

To get the Ka of acetic acid, HC2H3O2 I will react it with sodium hydroxide. The point when our reaction is half-titrated can be used to determine the pKa. As I have added half as many moles of acetic , as NaOH, Thus, OH- will have reacted with only half of the acetic acid leaving a solution with equal moles of HC2H3O2 and C2H3O2-. Then I will use the Henderson-Hasselblach equation to get pKa. CH3COOH + NaOH H2O + NaCH3COO Results: Below is a table that summarizes our results for the reaction of 1M of acetic acid with 1Molar of NaOH which 50cm3 was used. The table shows the PH record at  ½ equivalence and at equivalence. We also recorded the observations we saw during the reaction. PH  ±0.1 Qualitative observations At  ½ equivalence 5.0 When I recorded this, as we slowly added NaOH to the acid, there was a change of color from colorless to a very slight pink as the Phenolphthalein indicator changed color. At equivalence 8.9 As I added the acetic acid to 250 cm3 of reaction mixture, there was no color change. Also as we measured the PH, the PH changed slowly but then changed very quickly at the solution approached equivalence. At this time, the indicator turned pink, when equivalence was reached Calculating the PKa To calculate PKa, we will use the Henderson-Hasselbalch equation. Hence the calculations below show how using this we can calculate the PKa = PKa + But at the half equivalence, the concentration of acetic acid and its salt ion are the same. Thus, we get: = PKa + = PKa Now the PH was, so PKa= 5.0  ±0.1 = 5.0  ± 2% 5.0  ±2% = = 10-5  ±2% Titration curve: To get error we are going to sketch a titration curve, and from this measure the PH at half equivalence. To do this: PH of acetic acid (1M): Ka = = 10-4.76 = √(1Ãâ€"10-4.76) So PH of acetic acid= 2.38 Now PH of NaOH, (1M) Now concentration of NaOH, was 1M So = 1 = -log(1) = 0 ±0.2% So PH= 14 ±0.2% Thus with these results we can plot this: Volume of NaOH (0.2%) PH of solution ( ±0.2) 0 2.38 45 14 48 14 50 14 We know that at volume of NaOH of 45 and 48, the PH will still be 14 as it’s in excess by far, thus getting to the PH of NaOH as the PH measured The PH of the solution has uncertainty of  ±0.2, as this is the smallest division of our y-axis in our titration sketch. Now after plotting our titration results, we can see that the equivalence point the volume was at a volume was at 28cm3 as it has the steepest gradient. Thus, the half-equivalence is at half a volume, 14cm3. At this volume the PH is 4.8  ±0.2 Using this value, as = PKa + = PKa PKa= 4.8  ±0.2 4.8 ±4.2% = = 10-4.8  ±4.2% Conclusion: I have concluded that the of acetic acid is -5 ±2% just using the data recorded (method 1). However from using that data and calculating the pH of acetic acid and NaOH, and then plotting a titration curve (method 2), we got a of 4.8 ±0.2%. As I calculated both I can calculate the % error of both comparing it with the actual value, -4.76.[1] % error of method 1= = 100  ±5% % error of method 2= = 100  ±0.84% The data I have concluded and summarized above is backed up by the data produced in the experiment and trends seen. We conclude that method 2 is more accurate as the % error is less and that our oringal method had  ±5% error. This is clearly backed up in our %errors as 4.8 is much closer to the actual value 4.76. The data that supports our % errors is the graph. It clearly shows a trend that as the volume of NaOH increased the PH rose, and the higher gradient signaling the equivalence point was at 28 cm3. Thus the graph clearly showed a half-equivalence point of 4.8 PH. Also the graph bolster that the PH at half-equivalence had to be less than 6, thus supporting the PH obtained by method 1, and hence the PKa obtained. Finally as for method 1, we simply recorded two results; we know that the datum that determined our percentage error was 5.0, and hence this data is what supports our %error. Finally the confidence level for my conclusion is good. I got the results expected, as method 2 will always be more accurate than method 1 as the latter depends too much on qualitative and subjective recordings. Thus my confidence level for such conclusion is good. Also my confidence levels on the %error and PKa for method 1, is high as 5% error was small. Thus due to this low %error, my confidence level of the experiment done for method 1 is high. Even more the PKa obtained by method 2, has a higher confidence level as the % error was barely 0.84%. Thus method 2, has excellent confident level for its extremely low %error. However the first factor that affects my confidence level is uncertainties. From the %error of PH, we got the %uncertainty of the PKa for method 1. Thus, we know, that from the total % error of 5%, 2% was made by systematic errors i.e uncertainties in this case. Thus the other 3% was caused by random error. Similarly, for method 2, we got % uncertainties for the PH by the volume measure of NaOH. This %error was 4.2%, meaning 4.2% of the total error was caused by systematic error of the graph. Clearly this is bigger than the total %error of 0.84%. Thus this means that actually, even if our graph has on the y-axis an uncertainty of  ±0.4, this is an over-estimate. This is since, while we can read a value off with this uncertainty, it can still be very close to the actual half-equivalence PH. Thus this increases my confidence level, as it shows, that the systematic error of the graph y-axis uncertainty is very limited. Thus the biggest error is random error. This occurs when estimating the equivalence point from the titration graph, which is random error as it’s an estimate of the steepest point and hence has no uncertainty. Thus as we could underestimate or overestimate this value, it creates error, as we calculated the half equivalence from it. In this case, clearly we overestimated it as; the PKa from this method is higher than the actual one. Hence this error is directly reflected in our results limiting confidence levels. Thus now we know what caused the % error for our methods. Hence, now my confidence level will increase as I know what type of error must be targeted to reduce most error. The random errors and systematic errors that constitute these percentages will be explained below, in the evaluation. Evaluation: From the results it is clear error was limited for method 1, 5%. We calculated that uncertainties make up at least 2% of that error. Thus systematic error only makes 2% of the error while random error makes 3% of the error. Thus the significant error is random errors. This was due to the subjectiveness at seeing the half-titration points. As we relied on the fact that the phenolphatlein made the solution light pink, it was difficult to see such color change. Thus it was very easy to keep adding base, when there was already a color change. Hence our error was that we could overshoot the titration. As we added to much NaOH the color change seen was too much. So when we added the acetic acid, the PH at half-equivalence is higher so we overestimated the PKa. This was reflected directly on our results. Finally another less important random error was that pipettes leaked. Thus more NaOH was added. This while small also explains why we overestimated the PKa, as we overshooted the titration even more. Finally our less significant errors were systematic error. They only make 2% of our errors. They were mainly caused by inaccuracy of our apparatus. The main systematic error caused was by the PH probe. The PH probe, first of all has great inaccuracy recording PH with a  ±0.1 uncertainty. Thus as the PH recorded was small, the %uncertainty calculated is much bigger than it would be with a higher PH. The other uncertainty was caused by the inaccuracy of pipettes. When we measured the volume of the acetic acid, there was a systematic error as Burets have uncertainties of,  ±0.10 cm3. Thus at a volume we measured of acetic acid at 25cm3, we had 0.4% error caused. We can also analyze improvements for method 2. We used this method and generated it from data we had form method 1. However, the titration sketch clearly was much more accurate than method 1, as it yields 0.84% error of which 0.2% was caused by uncertainties. Thus as we got the results for the titration curve from method 1, the error that caused the systematic errors were the same. However the main cause of error is the random error. At calculating the equivalence point, we had to estimate the point with the maximum gradient. As this is subjective, there is human error. Hence, when we then halved that volume, we could overestimate or underestimate the error since we estimated the point with maximum gradient. Improvements: To reduce the random error firstly we must do more trials. Just by doing this, we will reduce the random error. Finally as the problem with the color change was that it was a qualitative observation. To improve this we can get a quantitative measurement. To do this we use a colorimeter. This is a device we will put behind the solution. This measures the exact absorbance or transmission of light. Thus as the light absorbance changes when there is a color change, when the colorimeter states such we know that the color change has occurred. Hence we know exactly the equivalence points. The significance of this improvement is that it would enable us to get qualitative results. Thus if the colorimeter very accurate we can decrease random error, as there is no human error. Also, as the colorimeter is accurate, systematic error will also be limited. Another way we can improve is in the systematic errors. The first problem was measuring accurately volumes. As the pipettes had big uncertainties, the volume recorded had high %uncertainties. If we however use micropipettes, which have  ±0.01 cm3 uncertainties, our volumes will be extremely accurate. Hence %uncertainties will be minimal. Also micropipettes allow much easier for drops of base to be dropped. Thus the significance of this improvement is that when we measure volumes, the equivalence point will occur, more exactly as we will be less likely to overshoot the solution. Finally to solve the inaccurate measurements of PH we can get a PH sensor and data logger. These do real-time measurements and will state the PH with less uncertainty. It will also provide an alternative method for calculating the half-point. As the data logger draws the graph of the titration done, it can calculate the point with the highest gradient. Thus this will be the equivalence point. Hence we can calculate the PH at half the equivalence point of the graph as this is half the volume of base at equivalence. Thus clearly calculating a very accurate PH from the curve. The significance of this will be that it is a major improvement on method 2 and 1 as it is not qualitative. Thus it does not allow for human error. Hence as the sensor is also very accurate systematic error will also be limited as well as random error. Thus this method will get a very accurate PKa with low systematic and random errors.