Life Happens :: Essays Papers

Life Happens For just about every kid you really enjoy high school and really don’t think about what you are going to do after you graduate other than the fact that you know you are going to continue or to college of some kind. Well then there are the others who are not thinking about where they are going to go to college, but what job they are going to find so that they can support your child that they just found out that their girlfriend is having. You talk about an eye opener for those kids. Yes they may be eighteen years old and getting ready to move out on their own, but they are still kids getting ready to raise a kid. This is where it gets scary. It is the half way through your junior year and you have been having a great time. This is when the first slap in the face comes. You are talking to your girlfriend and she tells you that she is late. The first thing that runs through your mind is, â€Å"Late for what?† No sooner does that go through your brain and it hits you what she is late for, and that is when your heart hits the floor and like every other guy in the same situation you open your mouth, â€Å"Are you sure?† Like a girl not knowing when she is late for her period is kind of like a guy not knowing if he had an orgasm. After some guys have a few more beers and freak out for a few minutes, or hours, they think that they can not do this and that the girl should get an abortion. Sometimes the girl is right on board with this, and the baby is aborted and the teens lives go on like nothing ever happened. At least until the girl gets a conscious and starts thinking about what she has done and what could hav e been. This will bother the girl at least sometimes. It might bother the guy but not usually. Then there are other guys who after their freak out period they decide to take responsibility for their actions and tell the girl we will make it through this, we can do this. This is where the real story begins. Not only do we have two kids getting ready to leave the nest for the first time and learn how to spread their wings and fly, but they already have their own baby to teach how to do this also.

Sarkar-Singer Hypothesis Essay -- International Trade

Sarkar-Singer Hypothesis Introduction Since terms of trade deterioration hypothesis was proposed by Prebisch and Singer in 1950, comparative advantage was doubted. Due to the export structure of developing countries (DCs) is dominated by primary products, and the export structure of industrialised countries (ICs) dominated by manufactured products; they compared primary products export of DCs and manufactured products export of ICs, and indicated that the terms of trade trend to deteriorate over time. This hypothesis is supported by many studies, such as Grilli and Yang (1998) and Spraos (1980); therefore the widening gap like existed. This hypothesis is confronted the traditional view, international trade and specialisation may not be better off. The Prebisch-Singer hypothesis also impacts on the trade policy of the majority of DCs to become inward looking. However, many studies appeal that the defected of Prebisch-Singer hypothesis, Sarkar and Singer analysis is the important appeal. Due to Singer (1958) views that the export structure of the DCs was dominated by primary products; export structure of the ICs by the manufactured products. Therefore, theearly studies use the terms of trade between primary products and manufactures as a proxy. Sarkar (1986) express that the growth of manufactured sectors, however, Singer (1987) proposes that even the change in the commodity composition of exports, the disadvantages in DCs lead the deterioration be continuous. Sarkar and Singer (1991) focuses on this subject, examines the impact of the shift in the commodity composition of exports of DCs. They proposed that the changes in commodity composition of exports are the important factor, as the primary sectors of DCs have a lower rat... ...ent, Vol. 19, No. 4, Page 333-340 Singer, H. W. (1950) The distribution of gains between investing and borrowing countries, American Economic Review, Vol. 40, No. 2, Page 473-485 Singer, H. W. (1958) Comment, Review of Economics and Statistics, Vol. 40, Page87-88 Singer, H. W. (1987) Terms of trade in John Eatwell, Murray Milgate and Peter Newman (Eds), The New Palgrave: A Dictionary of Economics, London: Macmillan, Page 626-628 Singer H. W. (1998) The Terms of Trade Fifty Years Later – Convergence and Divergence, The South Letter (30) Sproas, J. (1980) The Statistical Debate on the Net Barter Terms of Trade Between Primary Commodities and Manufactures, Economic Journal, Vol. 90, Page 107-128 United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (2005) Trade and Development Report Chapter III: Evolution of the Terms of Trade and its Impact on Developing Countries

Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff, Christ’s Childhood Pal Chapter 20

Part IV Spirit He who sees in me all things, and all things in me, is never far from me, and I am never far from him. THE BHAGAVAD GITA Chapter 20 The road was just wide enough for the two of us to walk side by side. The grass on either side was as high as an elephant's eye. We could see blue sky above us, and exactly as far along the path as the next curve, which could have been any distance away, because there's no perspective in an unbroken green trench. We'd been traveling on this road most of the day, and passed only one old man and a couple of cows, but now we could hear what sounded like a large party approaching us, not far off, perhaps two hundred yards away. There were men's voices, a lot of them, footsteps, some dissonant metal drums, and most disturbing, the continuous screams of a woman either in pain, or terrified, or both. â€Å"Young masters!† came a voice from somewhere near us. I jumped in the air and came down in a defensive stance, my black glass knife drawn and ready. Josh looked around for the source of the voice. The screaming was getting closer. There was a rustling in the grass a few feet away from the road, then again the voice, â€Å"Young masters, you must hide.† An impossibly thin male face with eyes that seemed a size and a half too large for his skull popped out of the wall of grass beside us. â€Å"You must come. Kali comes to choose her victims! Come now or die.† The face disappeared, replaced by a craggy brown hand that motioned for us to follow into the grass. The woman's scream hit crescendo and failed, as if the voice had broken like an overtightened lute string. â€Å"Go,† said Joshua, pushing me into the grass. As soon as I was off of the road someone caught my wrist and started dragging me through the sea of grass. Joshua latched onto the tail of my shirt and allowed himself to be dragged along. As we ran the grass whipped and slashed at us. I could feel blood welling up on my face and arms, even as the brown wraith pulled me deeper into the sea of green. Above the rasping of my breath I heard men shouting from behind us, then a thrashing of the grass being trampled. â€Å"They follow,† said the brown wraith over his shoulder. â€Å"Run unless you want your heads to decorate Kali's altar. Run.† Over my shoulder to Josh, I said, â€Å"He says run or it will be bad.† Behind Josh, outlined against the sky, I saw long, swordlike spear tips, the sort of thing one might use for beheading someone. â€Å"Okey-dokey,† said Josh. It had taken us over a month to get to India, most of the journey through hundreds of miles of the highest, most rugged country we had ever seen. Amazingly enough, there were villages scattered all through the mountains, and when the villagers saw our orange robes doors were flung wide and larders opened. We were always fed, given a warm place to sleep, and welcomed to stay as long as we wished. We offered obtuse parables and irritating chants in return, as was the tradition. It wasn't until we came out of the mountains onto a brutally hot and humid grassland that we found our mode of dress was drawing more disdain than welcome. One man, of obvious wealth (he rode a horse and wore silk robes) cursed us as we passed and spit at us. Other people on foot began to take notice of us as well, and we hurried off into some high grass and changed out of our robes. I tucked the glass dagger that Joy had given me into my sash. â€Å"What was he going on about?† I asked Joshua. â€Å"He said something about tellers of false prophecies. Pretenders. Enemies of the Brahman, whatever that is. I'm not sure what else.† â€Å"Well, it looks like we're more welcome here as Jews than as Buddhists.† â€Å"For now,† said Joshua. â€Å"All the people have those marks on their foreheads like Gaspar had. I think without one of those we're going to have to be careful.† As we traveled into the lowlands the air felt as thick as warm cream, and we could feel the weight of it in our lungs after so many years in the mountains. We passed into the valley of a wide, muddy river, and the road became choked with people passing in and out of a city of wooden shacks and stone altars. There were humped-back cattle everywhere, even grazing in the gardens, but no one seemed to bear them any mind. â€Å"The last meat I ate was what was left of our camels,† I said. â€Å"Let's find a booth and buy some beef.† There were merchants along the road selling various wares, clay pots, powders, herbs, spices, copper and bronze blades (iron seemed to be in short supply), and tiny carvings of what seemed to be a thousand different gods, most of them having more limbs than seemed necessary and none of them looking particularly friendly. We found grain, breads, fruits, vegetables, and bean pastes for sale, but nowhere did we see any meat. We settled on some bread and spicy bean paste, paid the woman with Roman copper coin, then found a place under a large banyan tree where we could sit and look at the river while we ate. I'd forgotten the smell of a city, the fetid mlange of people, and waste, and smoke and animals, and I began to long for the clean air of the mountains. â€Å"I don't want to sleep here, Joshua. Let's see if we can find a place in the country.† â€Å"We are supposed to follow this river to the sea to reach Tamil. Where the river goes, so go the people.† The river – wider than any in Israel, but shallow, yellow with clay, and still against the heavy air – seemed more like a huge stagnant puddle than a living, moving thing. In this season, anyway. Dotting the surface, a half-dozen skinny, naked men with wild white hair and not three teeth apiece shouted angry poetry at the top of their lungs and tossed water into glittering crests over their heads. â€Å"I wonder how my cousin John is doing,† said Josh. All along the muddy riverbank women washed clothes and babies only steps from where cattle waded and shat, men fished or pushed long shallow boats along with poles, and children swam or played in the mud. Here and there the corpse of a dog bobbed flyblown in the gentle current. â€Å"Maybe there's a road inland a little, away from the stench.† Joshua nodded and climbed to his feet. â€Å"There,† he said, pointing to a narrow path that began on the opposite bank of the river and disappeared into some tall grass. â€Å"We'll have to cross,† I said. â€Å"Be nice if we could find a boat to take us,† said Josh. â€Å"You don't think we should ask where the path leads?† â€Å"No,† said Joshua, looking at a crowd of people who were gathering nearby and staring at us. â€Å"These people all look hostile.† â€Å"What was that you told Gaspar about love was a state you dwell in or something?† â€Å"Yeah, but not with these people. These people are creepy. Let's go.† The creepy little brown guy who was dragging me through the elephant grass was named Rumi, and much to his credit, amid the chaos and tumble of a headlong dash through a leviathan marshland, pursued by a muderous band of clanging, shouting, spear-waving decapitation enthusiasts, Rumi had managed to find a tiger – no small task when you have a kung fu master and the savior of the world in tow. â€Å"Eek, a tiger,† Rumi said, as we stumbled into a small clearing, a mere depression really, where a cat the size of Jerusalem was gleefully gnawing away on the skull of a deer. Rumi had expressed my sentiments exactly, but I would be damned if I was going to let my last words be â€Å"Eek, a tiger,† so I listened quietly as urine filled my shoes. â€Å"You'd think all the noise would have frightened him,† Josh said, just as the tiger looked up from his deer. I noticed that our pursuers seemed to be closing on us by the second. â€Å"That is the way it is usually done,† said Rumi. â€Å"The noise drives the tiger to the hunter.† â€Å"Maybe he knows that,† I said, â€Å"so he's not going anywhere. You know, they're bigger than I imagined. Tigers, I mean.† â€Å"Sit down,† said Joshua. â€Å"Pardon me?† I said. â€Å"Trust me,† Joshua said. â€Å"Remember the cobra when we were kids?† I nodded to Rumi and coaxed him down as the tiger crouched and tensed his hind legs as if preparing to leap, which is exactly what he was doing. As the first of our pursuers broke into the clearing from behind us the tiger leapt, sailing over our heads by half again the height of a man. The tiger landed on the first two men coming out of the grass, crushing them under his enormous forepaws, then raking their backs as he leapt again. After that all I could see was spear points scattering against the sky as the hunters became, well, you know. Men screamed, the woman screamed, the tiger screamed, and the two men who had fallen under the tiger crawled to their feet and limped back toward the road, screaming. Rumi looked from the dead deer, to Joshua, to me, to the dead deer, to Joshua, and his eyes seemed to grow even larger than before. â€Å"I am deeply moved and eternally grateful for your affinity with the tiger, but that is his deer, and it appears that he has not finished with it, perhaps†¦Ã¢â‚¬  Joshua stood up. â€Å"Lead on.† â€Å"I don't know which way.† â€Å"Not that way,† I said, pointing in the direction of the screaming bad guys. Rumi led us through the grass to another road, which we followed to where he lived. â€Å"It's a pit,† I said. â€Å"It's not that bad,† said Joshua, looking around. There were other pits nearby. People were living in them. â€Å"You live in a pit,† I said. â€Å"Hey, ease up,† Joshua said. â€Å"He saved our lives.† â€Å"It is a humble pit, but it is home,† said Rumi. â€Å"Please make yourself comfortable.† I looked around. The pit had been chipped out of sandstone and was about shoulder deep and just wide enough to turn a cow around in, which I would find out was a crucial dimension. The pit was empty except for a single rock about knee high. â€Å"Have a seat. You may have the rock,† said Rumi. Joshua smiled and sat on the rock. Rumi sat on the floor of the pit, which was covered with a thick layer of black slime. â€Å"Please. Sit,† said Rumi, gesturing to the floor beside him. â€Å"I'm sorry, we can only afford one rock.† I didn't sit. â€Å"Rumi, you live in a pit!† I pointed out. â€Å"Well, yes, that is true. Where do Untouchables live in your land?† â€Å"Untouchable?† â€Å"Yes, the lowest of the low. The scum of the earth. None of the higher caste may acknowledge my existence. I am Untouchable.† â€Å"Well, no wonder, you live in a fucking pit.† â€Å"No,† Joshua said, â€Å"he lives in a pit because he's Untouchable, he's not Untouchable because he lives in a pit. He'd be Untouchable if he lived in a palace, isn't that right, Rumi?† â€Å"Oh, like that's going to happen,† I said. I'm sorry, the guy lived in a pit. â€Å"There's more room since my wife and most of my children died,† said Rumi. â€Å"Until this morning it was only Vitra, my youngest daughter and me, but now she is gone too. There is plenty of room for you if you wish to stay.† Joshua put his hand on Rumi's narrow shoulder and I could see the effect it had, the pain evaporating from the Untouchable's face like dew under a hot sun. I stood by being wretched. â€Å"What happened to Vitra?† Joshua asked. â€Å"They came and took her, the Brahmans, as a sacrifice on the feast of Kali. I was looking for her when I saw you two. They gather children and men, criminals, Untouchables, and strangers. They would have taken you and day after tomorrow they would have offered your head to Kali.† â€Å"So your daughter is not dead?† I asked. â€Å"They will hold her until midnight on the night of the feast, then slaughter her with the other children on the wooden elephants of Kali.† â€Å"I will go to these Brahmans and ask for your daughter back,† Joshua said. â€Å"They'll kill you,† Rumi said. â€Å"Vitra is lost, even your tiger cannot save you from Kali's destruction.† â€Å"Rumi,† I said. â€Å"Look at me, please. Explain, Brahmans, Kali, elephants, everything. Go slow, act as if I know nothing.† â€Å"Like that takes imagination,† Joshua said, clearly violating my implied, if not expressed, copyright on sarcasm. (Yeah, we have Court TV in the hotel room, why?) â€Å"There are four castes,† said Rumi, â€Å"the Brahmans, or priests; Kshatriyas, or warriors; Vaisyas, who are farmers or merchants; and the Sudras, who are laborers. There are many subcastes, but those are the main ones. Each man is born to a caste and he remains in that caste until he dies and is reborn as a higher caste or lower caste, which is determined by his karma, or actions during his last life.† â€Å"We know from karma,† I said. â€Å"We're Buddhist monks.† â€Å"Heretics!† Rumi hissed. â€Å"Bite me, you bug-eyed scrawny brown guy,† I said. â€Å"You are a scrawny brown guy!† â€Å"No, you're a scrawny brown guy!† â€Å"No, you are a scrawny brown guy!† â€Å"We are all scrawny brown guys,† Joshua said, making peace. â€Å"Yeah, but he's bug-eyed.† â€Å"And you are a heretic.† â€Å"You're a heretic!† â€Å"No, you are a heretic.† â€Å"We're all scrawny brown heretics,† said Joshua, calming things down again. â€Å"Well, of course I'm scrawny,† I said. â€Å"Six years of cold rice and tea, and not a scrap of beef for sale in the whole country.† â€Å"You would eat beef? You heretic!† shouted Rumi. â€Å"Enough!† shouted Joshua. â€Å"No one may eat a cow. Cows are the reincarnations of souls on their way to the next life.† â€Å"Holy cow,† Josh said. â€Å"That is what I am saying.† Joshua shook his head as if trying to straighten jumbled thoughts. â€Å"You said that there were four castes, but you didn't mention Untouchables.† â€Å"Harijans, Untouchables, have no caste, we are the lowest of the low. We may have to live many lifetimes before we even ascend to the level of a cow, and then we may become higher caste. Then, if we follow our dharma, our duty, as a higher caste, we may become one with Brahma, the universal spirit of all. I can't believe you don't know this, have you been living in a cave?† I was going to point out that Rumi was in no position to criticize where we had been living, but Joshua signaled me to let it go. Instead I said, â€Å"So you are lower on the caste system than a cow?† I asked. â€Å"Yes.† â€Å"So these Brahmans won't eat a cow, but they will take your daughter and kill her for their goddess?† â€Å"And eat her,† said Rumi, hanging his head. â€Å"At midnight on the night of the feast they will take her and the other children and tie them to the wooden elephants. They will cut off the children's fingers and give one to the head of each Brahman household. Then they will catch her blood in a cup and everyone in the household will taste it. They may eat the finger or bury it for good luck. After that the children are hacked to death on the wooden elephants.† â€Å"They can't do that,† Joshua said. â€Å"Oh yes, the cult of Kali may do anything they wish. It is her city, Kalighat.† [â€Å"Calcutta† on the Friendly Flyer map.] â€Å"My little Vitra is lost. We can only pray that she is reincarnated to a higher level.† Joshua patted the Untouchable's hand. â€Å"Why did you call Biff a heretic when he told you that we were Buddhist monks?† â€Å"That Gautama said that a man may go directly from any level to join Brahma, without fulfilling his dharma, that is heresy.† â€Å"That would be better for you, wouldn't it? Since you're on the bottom of the ladder?† â€Å"You cannot believe what you do not believe,† Rumi said. â€Å"I am an Untouchable because my karma dictates it.† â€Å"Oh yeah,† I said. â€Å"No sense sitting under a bodhi tree for a few hours when you can get the same thing through thousands of lifetimes of misery.† â€Å"Of course, that's ignoring the fact that you're a gentile and going to suffer eternal damnation either way,† said Josh. â€Å"Yeah, leaving that out altogether.† â€Å"But we'll get your daughter back,† Joshua said. Joshua wanted to rush into Kalighat and demand the return of Rumi's daughter and the release of all the other victims in the name of what was good and right. Joshua's solution to everything was to lead with righteous indignation, and there is a time and a place unto that, but there is also a time for cunning and guile (Ecclesiastes 9 or something). I was able to talk him into an alternate plan by using flawless logic: â€Å"Josh, did the Vegemites smite the Marmites by charging in and demanding justice at the end of a sword? I think not. These Brahmans cut off and eat the fingers of children. I know there's no finger-cutting commandment, Josh, but still, I'm guessing that these people think differently than we do. They call the Buddha a heretic, and he was one of their princes. How do you think they'll receive a scrawny brown kid claiming to be the son of a god who doesn't even live in their area?† â€Å"Good point. But we still have to save the child.† â€Å"Of course.† â€Å"How?† â€Å"Extreme sneakiness.† â€Å"You'll have to be in charge then.† â€Å"First we need to see this city and this temple where the sacrifices will be held.† Joshua scratched his head. His hair had mostly grown back, but was still short. â€Å"The Vegemites smote the Marmites?† â€Å"Yeah, Excretions three-six.† â€Å"I don't remember that. I guess I need to brush up on my Torah.† The statue of Kali over her altar was carved from black stone and stood as tall as ten men. She wore a necklace of human skulls around her neck and a girdle made of severed human hands at her hips. Her open maw was lined with a saw blade of teeth over which a stream of fresh blood had been poured. Even her toenails curved into vicious blades which dug into the pile of twisted, graven corpses on which she stood. She had four arms, one holding a cruel, serpentine sword, another a severed head by the hair; the third hand she held crooked, as if beckoning her victims to the place of dark destruction to which all are destined, and the fourth was posed downward, in a manner presenting the goddess's hand-girded hips, as if asking the eternal question, â€Å"Does this outfit make me look fat?† The raised altar lay in the middle of an open garden that was surrounded by trees. The altar was wide enough that five hundred people could have stood in the shadow of the black goddess. Deep grooves had been cut in the stone to channel the blood of sacrifices into vessels, so it could be poured through the goddess's jaws. Leading to the altar was a wide stone-paved boulevard, which was lined on either side by great elephants carved from wood and set on turntables so they could be rotated. The trunks and front feet of the elephants were stained rusty brown, and here and there the trunks exhibited deep gouges from blades that had hewn through a child into the mahogany. â€Å"Vitra isn't being kept here,† Joshua said. We were hiding behind a tree near the temple garden, dressed as natives, fake caste marks and all. Having lost when we drew lots, I was the one dressed as a woman. â€Å"I think this is a bodhi tree,† I said, â€Å"just like Buddha sat under! It's so exciting. I'm feeling sort of enlightened just standing here. Really, I can feel ripe bodhies squishing between my toes.† Joshua looked at my feet. â€Å"I don't think those are bodhies. There was a cow here before us.† I lifted my foot out of the mess. â€Å"Cows are overrated in this country. Under the Buddha's tree too. Is nothing sacred?† â€Å"There's no temple to this temple,† Joshua said. â€Å"We have to ask Rumi where the sacrifices are kept until the festival.† â€Å"He won't know. He's Untouchable. These guys are Brahmans – priests – they wouldn't tell him anything. That would be like a Sadducee telling a Samaritan what the Holy of Holies looked like.† â€Å"Then we have to find them ourselves,† Joshua said. â€Å"We know where they're going to be at midnight, we'll get them then.† â€Å"I say we find these Brahmans and force them to stop the whole festival.† â€Å"We'll just storm up to their temple and tell them to stop it?† â€Å"Yes.† â€Å"And they will.† â€Å"Yes.† â€Å"That's cute, Josh. Let's go find Rumi. I have a plan.†

Acc202 Mod3 Case Essay

ACC202 Module 3 Case Pg.1 ACC202 Module 3 Case James Davis Trident University ACC202 Module 3 Case Pg.2 Explain the main differences between the absorption and contribution (behavioral, variable) income statements. Will net income always be the same under the two approaches? If not, explain the difference. Under absorption income statement, the cost of per unit of inventory is inclusive of direct material, direct labor, variable manufacturing overhead and fixed manufacturing overhead. on the other hand, in case of variable costing income statement, cost per unit of inventory is inclusive of direct material, direct labor, variable manufacturing overhead. In case of absorption costing income statement, the gross margin is computed by deducting the cost of goods sold from the sales. On the other hand, in case of variable costing income statement variable expenses are deducted from sales to arrive at contribution margin and the fixed expenses are deducted from the contribution margin to arrive at sales. In case of absorption costing, the inventories are always valued at full costs. On the other hand, under variable costing, inventories are always valued at variable costs. The net income under two approaches will be the same if the production equals sales. In case the production is more than the sales, then absorption costing will show more profit than the variable costing income statement because the closing stock is valued at high cost per unit compared to variable costing because of inclusion of fixed manufacturing cost in the cost per unit. See more:  The 3 Types of Satire Essay Comment specifically on why companies feel the need to create yet another income statement in a different format. What information can the company  gleam from this approach which is helpful as a tool in the decision making process. Managers need more ,and often times different, information than does outside organizations. The managers are the ones making the decisions that will affect the future of the company. The income statements that are created show much more detail and are formatted for specific reasons that are beneficial to the organization. ACC202 Module 3 Case Pg.3 Explain situations in which break-even analysis can be a useful tool. Provide a specific example. The goal of a break-even analysis is to show when a product is going to profitable. It allows managers to see what affects different cost changes have on the profit margin. An example of this is when Company A is developing product B. The break-even analysis shows all costs associated with producing that product. It also shows how much of the product must be sold in order to recoup the total cost of production. It will also allow managers to tweak things such as sell price to influence the outcome.

Food in a Pill Essay

Imagine you’re at work. It’s another busy day and your schedule is packed with meetings. It appears that you’ll have to skip lunch yet again, since you just don’t have the time. Then you remember that you have a hamburger in your pocket, and you pull out a few pills with all the ingredients of a hamburger packed into them. It’s food in a pill and it can change the way that people eat forever. With food in a pill, people can eat all kinds of foods in seconds. It completely fills them up just like a regular meal and it saves valuable time. It uses new technology that packs flavor and all the nutrients and vitamins the food originally has into a pill. Then when a person swallows the pill, it releases all these things into the body, making them feel like they can’t eat another bite. This invention will revolutionize food and people’s lives by making meal time a quick, easy way to meet a person’s daily nutritional needs. With food in a pill, there is no need to have to spend the time preparing your food every day. It’s quick and easy, unlike cooking and buying all the ingredients for a recipe. Whenever you are hungry, you just need to swallow one pill and your hunger is satisfied. A trip to the grocery store is easy and less expensive with only a few pills on your list. No need to waste gas and drive to a restaurant to get a good pizza, you can just grab a pill from the grocery store and eat on the way home. The production of these pills will create jobs and the need for people to create other inventions, such as devices to mix pills. Food in a pill is inexpensive and can save people money, because all you need to do is buy a few pills, not a whole entire meal. Family gatherings can be easier, when instead of rushing around trying to prepare all three courses, you can relax and meet with relatives while only having to hand out pills for dinner. Food in a pill will change the world and create innovation that will increase the experience of daily life.

Descartes Dream Argument Essay

How do we know we are not dreaming some particular experience we are having, or we are not dreaming all our experience of this world? When we dream we imagine things happening often with the same sense of reality as we do when we are awake. In Descartes dream argument, he states there are no reliable signs distinguishing sleeping from waking. In his dream argument, he is not saying we are merely dreaming all of what we experience, nor, is he saying we can distinguish dreaming from being awake. I think his point is we cannot be for sure what we experience as being real in this world is actually real. When Descartes remembers occasions when he is dreaming, he falsely believes he is awake. Reflecting on this, Descartes thinks he cannot ever tell whether or not he is dreaming. How can he know he perceives his hands right now? Maybe, it is all just a dream. If it were just a dream everything would seem to be the same. In order to have knowledge the suggestion he is dreaming is false, he somehow has to have some knowledge of being awake. I believe his dream argument could be formed in this way: 1. When we are dreaming we are not in a good position to tell whether we are actually dreaming or awake. 2. Any experience you are having right now could also mean you are dreaming. In other words, you can’t possibly know you are dreaming even if it is a dream. 3a. For each of your experiences, you can’t tell whether your experience is a dream or not. (You can’t tell which of your dreams is a waking experience or a dreaming experience). 3b. For all you know, all of your experiences may be dreams. (You may be walking around in a dream, never having any walking experiences) Most philosophers think the dream argument supports both conclusions, but many philosophers also think this argument is strong enough to support 3a but not 3b. It is not really clear whether Descartes is arguing for the stronger claim or the weaker claim. It could be 3b, the weaker claim, is enough to support his purpose. Maybe he does not need a stronger claim to prove his theory. The last step in Descartes argument says if he cannot tell whether he is dreaming, then how can he trust any of his senses telling him about the environment? To know anything about the external world on the basis of his sensory experiences, it seems like Descartes would have to know those experiences are not all just a dream: To know anything about the external world on the basis or your sensory experiences, you have to know that you are not dreaming. I believe the things in my dreams must have been patterned after real things. So, even if I might be dreaming now, I know the world has colors, things that take up space, have shape, quantity, and a place in space and time. Now if you pull premises 1-4 together, we get the result of the conclusion: 5. Therefore, you can’t know anything about the external world based on your sensory experiences. In an interpretation of Descartes Dream Argument, premise 1 supports premise two and premise 3a and 3b support premise 4. So let us take a look at premise 2, 4, and the conclusion. This looks like the valid inference rule, such as modus ponens. P ? Q P__________ Therefore, Q However, that is not what is exactly happening in the dream argument. For premise 4 says to know you would have to know you are not dreaming. But premise 3 says you cannot know you are dreaming. In order for Modus Ponens argument to work, it would have to contain the premise: â€Å"I know I am dreaming. † Since Descartes cannot actually declare he is dreaming, it will not work. So there goes the premise of the argument. The most Descartes can say in his argument is â€Å"you can’t tell whether you experience is a dream,† premise two states â€Å"You can’t possibly know you are dreaming,† to premise 3, â€Å"you can’t tell if you are dreaming† to the conclusion, â€Å"You can’t know anything. † In order for Modus Ponens to work once again Descartes would have to know he was dreaming. As stated above he cannot state his position as if he is dreaming, so there goes the premises argument. So if this is not a valid argument, then perhaps there is a way to revise my interpretation on Descartes’ Dream argument so it turns out to be a valid rgument. Can we make the argument valid by changing premise 4? 2. Any experience you are having right now could also mean that you are dreaming. In other words, you can’t possibly know that you are dreaming even if it really is a dream. 4. I know that I am dreaming. Therefore, you can’t know anything about the external world based on your sensory experiences. This is now valid but is Descartes actually dreaming? Lets try switching around premises one. 1. If I cannot distinguish with certainty between sense perceptions and dreams, then I cannot believe anything based on images as true. . I cannot distinguish with certainty between sense perceptions and dreams. 3. Therefore, I cannot believe as true anything based on images. The argument is now valid again. But the question remains, whether the argument is sound and all the premises are true. A dream is a dream because its external conditions make it a dream and not because of a sense perception. If I am asleep and having an image of a body, than I am dreaming. If I am awake and having an image of a body, then I am not dreaming. Usually I am having a sense perception, but it could also be a hallucination. Dreaming is a certain kind of state. The only way to know you are not dreaming is to know you are not in a state of being asleep and having mental images, sounds, etc. No amount of images, sounds, can tell me I am in the state of being asleep and having images, sounds, etc. before my mind. If premise 2 is true, you can never be certain you are dreaming, as opposed to having sense perception. For instance, I can never step outside of myself to check what state I am in. It is indeed possible I could be dreaming. Descartes, however, has a very different kind of reply to the dream argument. He does not challenge premise 2 at all, instead he challenges premise one: If I cannot distinguish with certainty between sense perceptions and dreams, then I cannot believe as true anything based on images, etc. Descartes states in meditation one, â€Å"Nevertheless, it surely must be admitted that the things seen during slumber are, as it were, like plain images, which could only have been produced in the likeness of true things, and these general things —eyes, hands, head, and the whole body,–are not imaginary things, but are true and exist. This statement is actually very clear because the reply is the contents of dreams (Mt. Everest, other people, houses, etc) must come from reality. We get images through the world that we live in, so even if I am dreaming, I know there are mountains, people, and houses. They must exist in order to have dreams like the ones I have. If the world was different then I would have different kinds of dreams. † In Descartes final thoughts he admits it seems to be possible I am now dreaming even though no one could know anything about the world around us. I think Descartes point to be made throughout the dream argument is we are able we are not dreaming if we are to know an external world around us. If we are to know our external world around us, then we would have a better understanding of why we dream. It would also give us a better understand to distinguish from being awake to dreaming. It seems to me the point throughout his dream argument the point he is trying to make is we cannot be sure of what we experience as being real in the world is actually real. Descartes may have not made his point to be valid or true, but made us think outside the box, there are other possible choices to why we experience these thoughts when we dream.

Social responsibility Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

Social responsibility - Research Paper Example Usually social responsibility measures are assigned to a small group or an individual, often within the human resources management department. Employees tasked to carry out this responsibility have to focus on social subject matters in three primary domains (Anderson 15): 1. Total compliance with international, federal, state, and local legislative laws and acts; 2. Moral and ethical standards and procedures under which the firm will operate; and 3. Philanthropic giving Most business organizations face challenges in developing and implementing socially responsible measures. Still, all businesses should consider and participate in this area. To function without serious losses or disruptions, a business should always fulfill their legal obligations. It should formulate, execute, and monitor moral and ethical guidelines for all members of the organization. In the philanthropic domain, where there is greater freedom of activities in where, when, and how the company should plan about and resolve numerous issues before creating just and practical course of action (Clegg & Rhodes 57). With more involved citizens and government, social responsibility has continued to receive much attention and popularity over the recent years (McShane & Steen 105). Social responsibility will keep on demanding more effort, time, and resources. Skilled and diverse management is needed in all the domains of social responsibility. Businesses, the government, and society should team up more strongly in the future if major developments are to be achieved in the area of social responsibility. What is Social Responsibility? The concept of corporate social responsibility (CSR) is usually associated with related concepts like stakeholder management, corporate social responsiveness, and corporate citizenship. All these concepts refer to a company’s responsibilities outside its main purpose that involves generating a profit (Blackburn, Doran, & Shrader 195). A primary reason for the multifa ceted nature of CSR is that it binds society and business. It requires no extensive study to understand the different debates over social responsibility occurring across society. Two major concepts appear to be vital to the understanding of social responsibility, namely sustainability and responsibility (Clegg & Rhodes 53). Sustainability is a standard concept on the external and internal environment as regards intangible and tangible resources. Intangible resources, such as skills and knowledge, must be recognized and developed. Tangible resources, such as oil and raw materials, should be utilized with precise care and, preferably, substituted by alternatives and reused (Anderson 18-20). It is in the interest of the company to thoroughly care for the pooled intangible and tangible resources and to manifest this in its operations. On the other hand, responsibility today implies not just economic, but also environmental and social responsibility. Companies are persuaded to surpass th e economic perspective and consider a broader framework. This challenge may be viewed as indirect or direct societal demands to integrate environmental and social principles into business activities (Anderson 24). In recent times, it has become somewhat widespread to define this responsibility as CSR.