Video review Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words - 1

Video review - Assignment Example Being already in his fifties da Vinci painted Mona Lisa, a portrait of a Florentine merchant Francesco del Giocondos wife, which explains why the painting is often called La Giaconda in Italy. Mona, in turn, is a contraction from Italian "ma donna", which means "my lady". Leonardo never handed over the portrait to del Giocondo because he probably never considered it finished. Years later Napoleon took Mona Lisa to his bedroom; it was also stolen from Louvre Museum once, which finally brought it a worldwide fame. But eventually the portrait got back to Louvre, where it stays to date. 2. King Tuthankhamuns tomb is full of ancient artworks devoted to this legendary Egyptian ruler. The Golden mask is one of them. Preserved in the Museum of Cairo it shows its visitors the luxury and sophisticated taste of King Tut. It is a masterpiece that is almost impossible to copy. Seven coffins of the King Tuts tomb bear the embossment of Tuthankhamuns face, each being an artwork of exquisite beauty. The Golden Throne is another masterpiece containing relief images of King and Queen, which tells us the story of their love. On top of these wonders, there are over one hundred pieces of the finest jewelry found inside the tomb. Art in ancient Egypt was made for religious purposes and, apart from its beauty, reveals a lot about the ancient times that have been long

Cheating in Baseball Games Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Cheating in Baseball Games - Essay Example To improve the athletes’ overall performance, a lot of baseball players today are also using the same technique. Due to the fact that cheating has been evident throughout the history of baseball games, Posnanski’s argumentative response to Pete Hamill – one of the New York Times writers, is that baseball game has always been played in a dishonest way. Moller is more likely to break rules in exchange for his goals. Contrary to the stand of Moller, Posnanski and Ashby have both taken the position that athletes should not break the rules when it comes to the use of ‘performance enhancing drugs’. It is true that a lot of baseball players are cheating in baseball games through the use of ‘performance enhancing drugs’. In fact, almost all outstanding players in baseball games are secretly using steroids (Moller). In the article written by William Moller entitled â€Å"We, the Public, Place the Best Athletes on Pedestals† provided some reasons why athletes such as the baseball game players are using drugs that can help them win baseball competitions. In line with this, Moller explained that it is common for the general public to treat the winners as ‘gods’ (Moller) or a ‘hero’ (Posnanski). For this reason, some students with low academic performance are more than eager to win the game. Because of hunger for fame or fortune, a lot of past and current school or professional athletes end up using illegal drugs (Moller; Posnanski). Although commonly used by the athletes, the amphetamines and steroids are not the only illegal drugs that can be used to enhance athletes’ performance. In reality, some athletes are also using other types of performance-enhancing drugs such as Adderall, dope, Stanolozol, Ritalin, HGH, and Balco products to win the game (Ashby; Moller).  

Levi Strauss Essay Example for Free

Levi Strauss Essay As one attempts to assess the business ethics of Levi Strauss and Nike in this writing assignment, we are again compelled to revisit the critical distinction of conduct that is legal, yet still unethical. In both instances, Levi Strauss and Nike behaved with the parameters of legal conduct, yet few would argue that profiting from exploitive work conditions is an ethical behavior of any socially responsible organization (broad view social responsibility). Obviously, it’s very tempting to just condense this argument to the point of â€Å"bad companies boosting profits from lower labor costs via exploiting foreign workers in sweatshops†. I am going to take a much broader approach here in my assessment, as complete fairness to the two corporations here requires a bit of an indictment of the legal, regulatory, political, and socioeconomic environment that they operate in. So, let’s start there †¦ how is it that both of these large corporations are permitted (and driven) to outsource (with relative impunity) labor to countries with poor labor laws? In order to fairly assess their conduct, one must first examine the system under which they operate. How has corporate America gone down this path? Why do so many large U. S. corporations outsource labor en masse, which costs the U. S. economy so many jobs domestically? Let’s start by looking in the mirror and by that I mean you and I †¦ the U. S. consumer. Our thirst for cheap merchandise made overseas knows no limits. Do any of us look at the country of origin for goods, and if it’s non-U. S. do we even pause for a second to consider boycotting said goods due to loss of American jobs? Or boycott due to the nation of origin’s reputation for worker abuse? Of course we don’t. We want that Japanese high definition television from Wal-Mart that costs $100 less. We want the clothing from China or Indonesia that is 30% cheaper than similar brands made here. So, my first premise in this entire argument is that American consumers are NOT socially responsible in their purchasing habits. This lack of social responsibility on the demand side is a catalyst for Levi Strauss and Nike to seek cheaper labor overseas – for if they do not, their competitors assuredly will and they will be at a competitive disadvantage. Now, let’s assess the legal and regulatory environment under which both entities operate in the United States. Has Congress made it illegal to outsource labor to countries that they know are abusing their labor forces? In general, of course not. Congress maintains a blind eye to the problem, debating it over the years here and there in a politically motivated, half-hearted effort to occasionally placate certain voting segments (labor unions; displaced workers). Do they tougher their stance? Do they for one minute say to themselves, â€Å"this is really wrong, and socially irresponsible†? By inaction Congress is tacitly approving this practice, which of course is what powerful corporate lobbyists want. The profit motive has large U. S. corporations addicted to cheap labor now; Pandora’s Box has been opened and no one has the political will to attempt to close it. So let’s recap so far: we’ve indicted the U. S. consumer and our lawmakers in the legislative branch of the U. S. government (Congress) as major cultivators of the pro-outsourcing environment for which Levi Strauss and Nike must successfully operate under. Next on our list of socially irresponsible contributing parties – the judicial branch of the U.S. government. When the U. S. Supreme Court found in 2010 that the formation of so called â€Å"Super PACs† for campaign donations was legal, this gave corporations new powers under the law to, in effect, buy our government via opulent and obscene campaign spend funneled to candidates. The end result of this ruling is that corporations that profit greatly from outsourced labor are now able to pay for the elections of our Congressmen – and gee, wonder how this economic â€Å"favor† will be repaid when attempts to rein in outsourcing come up in Congress? Let’s move on to our two protagonists in this debate: Levi Strauss and Nike. Now that we’ve got the backdrop well in hand, and a reasonable person would agree that a massive systemic failure in the U. S. has allowed and promoted unchecked outsourcing of jobs, it’s time to discuss these two corporate giants and their respective behaviors here. Do these two corporations have a responsibility to monitor the conduct of the companies they do business within particular, their contractors and suppliers? As a personal believer in the broader view of corporate social  responsibility, I believe that they do. Notwithstanding the fact that all of this outsourcing is legal, and despite the mitigating factors that I’ve argued above that do alleviate these two companies of all of the blame – I still believe that they need to take the higher moral ground. Levi Strauss overall has conducted itself with far greater corporate social responsibility than Nike has, in my judgment. Strauss for many years withdrew from China due to their notoriety as a non-democratic country with abusive labor conditions. Regrettably, it had to re-enter China eventually to keep pace with competitors. Also, witness the way that Strauss treated its displaced U. S. workers as it (with some remorse) eventually had to close all its U. S. plants due to competition from outsourcers. Strauss gave generous severance and retraining dollars to the affected workers. In my estimation, Strauss has had to compromise its socially responsible corporate culture due to pressures from the warped competitive environment that was designed around them. It became a matter of survival for their corporation; their management had to adapt or risk failure and loss of the shareholders’ investments in the company. That is why I authored the overview above – I think it’s highly relevant to assessing Strauss’s conduct here. The system failed Levi Strauss – they wanted to behave under the broad definition of corporate social responsibility, but the demand for cheaper outsourced goods by consumers and the legality of outsourcing jobs (Congressional oversight failure) forced an adaptive change against their moral grain. Nike, however, is no apologist when it comes to their outsourcing. In fact, they are proud of it – even boasting that they pay outsourced workers higher than average wages for their region. To me, this is tantamount to bragging that â€Å"we don’t abuse those workers as badly as others do†. Frankly, that attitude offends my sensibilities and my personal set of ethical standards. I also deem it to be in direct conflict with the broader definition of corporate social responsibility. Lastly, I think that corporations have the obligation to take the ethical high ground and behave in a socially responsible manner (broad definition). That said, however, I do not believe that it’s a fair expectation to demand that high standard if adhering to same places the company’s very existence at risk due to systemic failures beyond their control. Levi Strauss attempted to â€Å"do the right thing†, but poor rules and oversight make competing in a broad ethical manner quite dangerous to its ultimate survival. Strauss’s example should serve as a wakeup call to U. S. consumers and our Congress: systemic change is needed, and it’s needed NOW.

Perceptions of Quality in Different Sectors

Perceptions of Quality in Different Sectors What is Quality? Quality is characterized as a standard/gauge/estimation of a specific thing when it is focused with a comparative thing of that kind. To be exact the correlation among level of magnificence of a specific thing with things of comparable kind. Quality assumes a basic part in each industry ideal from little scale to Large-scale Industries. Quality support and confirmation is the thing that each producer ought to be worried. Quality can be defined as an assurance for any product/thing/machine. It lets us compare between the best among the worst. Very product must undergo a quality check to assure they are to people who use them and are environment friendly. In various manufacturing and business industries quality is directly proportional to the customers satisfaction. If the customers are satisfied the reputation/profits of that particular company hits the peaks of the market.The quality of substantial items is generally a straight-forward assurance; for clients, making an examination between physical items involves highlight to-highlight investigation. The challenge for clients, and in this way for associations, lies in assessing administration quality, which maybe the main way clients genuinely separate between one finish item offering and another. Consequently, associations and their advertisers live amazing seeing how shoppers judge benefit quality. Quality doesnt alone relay on the material type used for the product but also relies on the customer satisfaction and their feedback. The beginning target for discourse about quality should fundamentally start with a comprehension of its distinctive measurements and how they are seen. These measurements are uncovered through the different parts of a purchasers collaboration with a supplier and its items or administrations.   FEW EXAMPLES REGARDING QUALITY IN VARIOUS SECTORS For example, in automobile industry, the quality control handle begins much sooner than the principal generation models of a vehicle move off the sequential construction system. At the point when an auto organization discharges another item, they assemble models, which are then tried to discover shortcomings, mechanical issues and different subtle elements that could be moved forward. Once the models have been reviewed and cleaned, the outline goes into generation, where quality control proceeds on the creation line, as well. In the wake of being constructed, every auto is tried for issues like liquid and air releases, mechanical issues and appropriate gathering. Continue perusing to discover exactly how car quality control functions and about the outrageous tests your auto needed to experience before it was permitted to take off. In nursing sector, quality affirmation additionally applies to keeping up reliable principles of practices among nursing staffs, giving chances to proficient advancement and offering disciplinary activities when justified. Associations and people entrusted with quality affirmation in nursing are in charge of creating methods, approaches and decides that advance quality human services for occupants and patients while guaranteeing models of practice are clung to in therapeutic offices. Competency measures are likewise an essential undertaking of value affirmation offices, and assessments of state wide and government practices are thought about. Quality affirmation medical attendants are regularly in charge of researching protests against attendants, filling in as individuals on audit sheets that decide the result of disciplinary cases and, if vital, repudiate, suspend or limit nursing licenses or a medical attendants capacity to rehearse. Quality affirmation faculty work intimately with attendants at medicinal offices to decide best practices for patient care, assess strategies and systems that enhance tolerant care, and break down consistency inside nursing homes as they contrast with different offices and permitting benchmarks. For quality confirmation medical attendants are entrusted with checking and implementing licenses for medical attendants, nurture professionals and nursing experts. REFERENCES: The Perception of Quality   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   George Kenyon-Kabir Sen www.springer.com/us/book/9781447166269 Deaton, J. P. (2009, October 5). How automotive quality control works. Retrieved January 24, 2017, from http://auto.howstuffworks.com/under-the-hood/auto-manufacturing/automotive-quality-control.htm Publishing, I. (2017). What is quality assurance in nursing? Retrieved January 24, 2017, from business-finance, https://www.reference.com/business-finance/quality-assurance-nursing-7dd76b8996675772

Brave New World-A Sterile Society :: essays research papers

â€Å"Cleanliness is next to Fordliness†, was an attitude impressed upon the people of Aldous Huxley’s, Brave New World. A society free of disease and suffering was achieved through a technique of conditioning called hynopaedia. â€Å"Civilization is sterilization†, was a hynopaedic slogan used to achieve the ideal society. This idea was manifested through the anesthetizing people’s emotions, the sterilization of humans and the cleanliness of society. The Brave New World sterilized people of emotions through the elimination of families and the promotion of soma. To eliminate close bonds between two people promiscuity was advocated. This was achieved through hynopaedia during childhood. Through this technique intimate relationships between people were eliminated. People of Brave New World did not know what a family was. At the mention of the words mother and father, during a tour of the London Hatchery, the students became silent and many began to blush. Soma was another devise used by citizens of Brave New World to let them escape and forget their emotions. It was a tranquilizer widely used in Brave New World. It allowed people to go into a trance whenever they wanted to escape their surroundings. This was shown when Lenina Crowne and Bernard Marx were visiting the reservation. During the Warden’s speech to the couple, Lenina Crowne swallowed half a gramme of soma to escape the boredom of the Warden’s speech. The som a allowed her to seemingly be paying attention when in reality she wasn’t listening or thinking of anything. The attitude of civilization is sterilization was also achieved through the sterilization of the female population. Bokanovsky’s Process made it possible for the Brave New World to control the amount of fertile women in society. Even with the advancement of scientific technology human ovaries were still needed for the manufacturing of embryos. Fertile women were encouraged to undergo a hysterectomy. In return for selling their ovaries, women received six months pay. Around seventy percent of the women in Brave New World were infertile. These women were called freemartins. Freemartins were produced through injecting female embryos with a dose of a male sex-hormone. The society of Brave New World believed civilization should be composed of clean and robust people. The nurses in the Neo-Pavlovian Conditioning Rooms were described as, â€Å"trousered and jacketed in the regulation white viscose-linen uniform, their hair aseptically hidden under white caps.† This image expressed how everything was done in a systematic and sterile way.

Foucault and the Theories of Power and Identity Essay example -- Fouca

Foucault and the Theories of Power and Identity Foucault believed that power is never in any one person?s hands, it does not show itself in any obvious manner but rather as something that works its way into our imaginations and serves to constrain how we act. For example in the setting of a workplace the power does not pass from the top down; instead it circulates through their organizational practices. Such practices act like a grid, provoking and inciting certain courses of action and denying others. Foucault considers this as no straightforward matter and believes that it rests on how far individuals interpret what is being laid down as 'obvious' or 'self evident', institutional power works best when all parties accept it willingly. Foucault's notion of power is a difficult notion to grasp principally because it is never entirely clear on who has the power in the first place, once the idea is removed that power must be vested in someone at the top of the ladder e.g. the company director, it becomes much more difficult to ident ify what power is or where and whom it lies with. Foucault believes that we are so used to thinking about power as an identifiable and overt force and that this view is simply not the case, because it is taken for granted that the above statement is true then it is much more complicated to comprehend power as a guiding force that does not show itself in an obvious manner. According to Foucault we take it upon ourselves to regulate our own conduct, even though we are free to do and say as we please we choose to constrain our behaviour and the reason for us doing so it that we know what is expected of us, we do not need someone in a position of ?authority? to do this for us, we all take responsibility for our own lives. It is in this sense that power works as an anonymous force, provoking free agents to act in ways that make it difficult for them to do otherwise. Foucault?s theory of power ?revolves around indirect techniques of self-regulation which induce appropriate forms of behaviour.?1, we are free to govern ourselves. In the absence of an authority figure we will automatically restrain our behaviour, there is no ?hand? of power that pushes us all into line, only an acknowledgement that we all work within a framework of choices, that are ultimately subjected to influence and direction, but that we ourselves have the fina... ...ogist Kathy Woodward, she also points out that our identity would need to change depending on whom it is we were interacting with and the situation that we were in, ?subtle and not so subtle variations of identity may well be called upon for each of these roles.?8 Butler describes modern notions of identity as ?being made up of regulatory ideals?9, these regulatory ideals provide ?idealised and reified norms which people are expected to live up to.?10 These types of regulatory ideals are sustained or undermined through performance. Performativity is not a singular act, ?it is always the reiteration of a norm or a set of norms, and to the extent that it acquires an act like status in the present, it conceals or dissimulates the conventions of which it is a repitition.?11It is through this repeated action that that these norms are created and lived up to. This idea can also be related to discourse; Butler argues that performative acts are statements that also produce that which they say. Discourse promotes specific kinds of power relations, in other words to know is to participate in complicated webs of power. Thus perfomative acts are a domain in which discourse acts as power.

Thirteen Reasons Why: Personal Response

Reading this book was a moving and very emotional experience for me, being able to connect and heavily relate to the feelings and emotions of the two main characters helped me to understand every word I was reading. First of all, I really liked the Idea of book: a girl explaining why she committed seclude to the people responsible for it. I think the chain of tapes, forcing being sent from one person on the list to the next was a concept I found Intriguing and allowed me to stay Involved and crave more with each chapter.Just Like Clay, find myself wanting to now who was on the next tape and why-I loved Clay as a character and I really enjoyed the way he was written into the story. I felt like I was in his shoes a lot of the time, hearing the tapes through his ears and experiencing this journey alongside him. The suspense of each following tape was entertaining, I wanted to know which tape Clay would be featured and when his story was coming up, this gave me a sense of impatience.Each time a new character was introduced was a sigh of relief as it wasn't Clays turn to be humiliated, I found myself wanting what was best for him but also wanted to know how and why he was Involved In the death of Hannah Baker. There's something addictive about this book. I couldn't stop reading It because I desperately needed to know what was next. I felt kind of ashamed and sick to be this obsessed over a girls seclude story, even though the story Isn't true, thought of Hannah as someone I knew because throughout reading this book I had grown so attached to her and just wanted to gain closure over her death.Having spoken to other people who have read the book, I found our difference in opinions to be quite interesting. The majority of people who I spoke with thought that Henna's reasons to decide to end her life were petty and stupid. I think that to have that opinion about the book means you have strongly misinterpreted the point of the story. Having understood it extremely well a nd often related parts back to my own experiences, believe that Hannah had many reasons and although some very minor, we were not able to fully comprehend the Impacts and effects of these events much Like the 13 people on the tapes.I realized that the purpose of these tapes being sent eave consequences and can highly affect a persons life, much like they did Henna's. The tapes and their secrets were all connected and they were not sent out as blame or blackmail but as proof that you never know how much a person is hurting and one tiny movement has the ability to send them over the edge. I became extremely enraged in one particular part of the book. Tape number 13 features the school counselor and Henna's English teacher, Mr.. Porter.At a time in Henna's life where she felt alone,defeated and extremely depressed, she managed to build up the courage to approach a counselor about her suicidal feelings, she cited that she would attempt one more time, after being mistreated numerous time s already, to find some way to carry on. Mr.. Porter was her last chance and only hope of surviving and he failed to deliver appropriate advice or methods of dealing with these feelings therefore caused Hannah to make the final decision to take her life.This part really broke me and I was encountering so many different emotions from sadness, to anger, disappointment, I felt let down and unpeel like Hannah. I would describe Mr.. Porter as the cherry on top of the cake, a cake of really crappy experiences and retreat for Hannah. I found myself identifying him as my own past counselor's, not as useless but still very disagreeable and enunciating of my feelings.Similarly I was often told what I was feeling instead of being able to freely express my own thoughts, counselors often shove a symptom list idea of suicide down your throat and expect you to throw it back up in your own words. For teenagers it's a struggle dealing with suicidal feelings, there are few ways that you can reach out for help, and to find somewhere the strength in you to admit it is hard enough let alone admitting t to someone else, therefore when you try and get help and the results are useless, you end up feeling even more alone than before.This makes me wonder if Hannah was a real person would I be able to tell what she was going through? I wonder how many Hannah Bakers there are in this world, feeling exactly Just like her; like there's not a single soul here on earth who understands and cares for them; feeling alone, with no friends to share their secrets and problems with; thinking that there's nothing left to hold on to, so the only option left is to end their lives instead.She could have passed me by in the halls, or she could be there locking herself in the bathroom, muffling her cries, or she could be there in her bedroom right now, secretly wishing death would Just come and swallow her whole. I learnt from this story that you can never truly understand what goes on in a persons life and that even though they're smiling on the outside doesn't mean that the pain inside isn't unbearable The meaning behind the story is that one small action has the power to change a you're contribution has the ability to ruin someone life, possibly even end it.