Tuesday, December 31, 2019

Dantes Inferno The Theme of Anti-love in Canto XXVIII...

Dante’s Divine Comedy is a multi-layered epic, containing not only a story about his incredibly difficult journey from earth to the depths of hell then up to the peaks of heaven, but it also contains many insights on theology, politics, and even his own life. Broken into three canticles—Inferno, Purgatorio, and Paradiso—the work is written in the terza rima form. In Inferno—in 33 Cantos—Dante makes a vast journey through the nine circles of hell. In the Eighth Circle (specifically, the Ninth Pouch), Dante meets with those who â€Å"were, when alive, the sowers of dissension† (Inf. XXVIII.35-36). Dante encounters a myriad of characters in many realms of interest, including theological and political figures. This Canto adequately flows in the†¦show more content†¦XI.58-60). It is interesting to note here the way Dante describes the ninth pouch (reserved for those who sow scandal and schism): he states, â€Å"Who, even with untrammeled words and many attempts at telling, ever could recount in full the blood and wounds that I now saw? (Inf. XXVIII.1-3). Dante, even after travelling through most of hell, is shocked as he sees the state of souls in this circle: each of the scandalous and schism-causing souls is butchered by a demon as they walk by. They continue walking in a circle, healing in the process, and then butchered again. Dante discusses this circle with a few of the people damned to this punishment, including Mohammed. Of the people he discusses with in this pouch, Mohammed is most well known to our culture today and is the prophet of Islam. When Dante first sees him, he notes his gruesome state: No barrel†¦ever games as the one whom I saw ripped right from chin to where we fart: his bowels hung between his legs, one saw his vitals and the miserable sack that makes of what we swallow excrement (Inf. XXVIII.22-27). Can you even imagine how such a punishment can be justified purely based of the fact he initiated a religion? It is best to remember that, back in the days of Dante, the Muslim Empire was a force to be reckoned with, threatening to lay siege to Europe. Previous to

Sunday, December 22, 2019

Major Decision Making Term Paper Example

Essays on Major Decision Making and Implications for Marketers Term Paper The paper "Major Decision Making and Implications for Marketers" is a great example of a term paper on marketing. The objective of this report is to analyze the consumer decision-making behavior of three respondents in choosing accommodation options. The report is based on an analysis of the three respondent’s ratings of five evaluative criteria often considered by consumers in making accommodation choices. The five criteria are security, price, distance, occupation, and proximity to public transportation. The report drew on theories in demographics and personality to analyze the choices of three respondents based on the compensatory decision rule. The report established that:Consumer demographic characteristics affect the demand for housing and accommodation choices.Consumer personality dictates preferences for housing attributesThe report also identifies two major implications for marketers. The implication for marketers is that in marketing products and services to consumer s that require complex decision making, the marketing effort should guide the consumer to make a decision by emphasizing on the balancing or compensatory effect of strong attributes. Marketers should also reverse tailor their marketing effort to facilitate consumer decision making by specifically targeting demographics and personality types.IntroductionSelecting the most appropriate or suitable accommodation option is a major decision for most consumers. It normally includes consideration of many factors or influences which makes it a more complex process for consumers as compared to minor consumption activities such as purchasing a car, selecting a camera, a DVD player, book or an item of clothing. The objective of this report is to analyze the consumer decision-making behavior of three respondents in choosing accommodation options. The report is based on an analysis of the three respondent’s ratings of five evaluative criteria often considered by consumers in making accommo dation choices. The five criteria are security, price, distance, occupation, and proximity to public transportation. Respondents were asked to evaluate these five criteria according to the importance and then rank or evaluate six different accommodation options according to their ranking of the evaluative criteria. The five accommodation options presented to the respondents were;To rent/share a two-bedroom apartment in Melbourne CBDTo buy a two-bedroom apartment in Melbourne CBDTo rent share a two-bedroom apartment in FlemingtonTo buy a two-bedroom apartment in FlemingtonTo rent share a three-bedroom ocean view house in St. KildaTo buy a three-bedroom ocean view house in St. Kilda The respondent’s ranking of these attributes will be placed in a decision matrix and the compensatory decision rule applied to determine the most likely accommodation choice by the three respondents.

Saturday, December 14, 2019

Should People Seeking Government Assistance Free Essays

â€Å"Shouldn’t you have to pass a urine test to get a welfare check since I have to pass one to earn it for you? † That’s the question many, hardworking Americans are asking themselves. In today’s America, government aid is highly depended on. The US government has spent $498 billion dollars this year on welfare alone. We will write a custom essay sample on Should People Seeking Government Assistance? or any similar topic only for you Order Now Mandatory drug testing for welfare applicants is becoming a popular idea across the U. S. Many states including Alabama, Kentucky, Oklahoma and Louisiana are considering adopting laws that would require states to drug test welfare applicants. In Florida, Republican Gov. Rick Scott passed a law that required welfare applicants to pay for and pass a drug test from July through October 2011. According to the National Conference for State Legislatures, Florida was one of three states in 2011 to put a drug testing for public assistance in the books; twenty eight states in 2012 proposed similar measures. The Department of Children and Families reported that 108 people tested positive for drugs, while 3,936 adults showed no sign of drugs in their system. Another 2,306 people opted not to take the drug test, though the survey did not ask why they were refusing to take the test, so there is no data to show whether those people objected to the policy or had obtained employment and therefore canceled their application. In September 2011, a University of Central Florida student, with the help of the American Civil Liberties Union of Florida, sued the state over the new law mandating drug testing of all welfare applicants. A little more than a month after the suit was filed, a federal judge ordered a temporary stop to the drug testing. A bench trial is scheduled for March 2013 before U. S. District Judge Mary Scriven. Required drug tests for people seeking welfare benefits ended up costing taxpayers more than it saved. Of the 4,086 applicants who scheduled drug tests while the law was enforced, 108 people, or 2. 6 percent, failed, most often testing positive for marijuana. The numbers show that taxpayers spent $118,140 to reimburse people for drug test costs, at an average of $35 per screening. The state lost of Florida lost $45,780, and that’s not counting attorney and court fees and the thousands of hours of staff time it took to enforce this policy. Drug testing welfare applicants was considered unconstitutional by many citizens, they claimed it went against The Fourth Amendment. The Fourth Amendment of the U. S. Constitution provides, â€Å"The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized. Ultimately, these words strive to protect two fundamental liberty interests – the right to privacy and freedom from personal invasions. The Supreme Court has ruled out a number of incidents as to what an â€Å"unreasonable† search looks like. So far, it doesn’t look like a drug test to control how people on welfare spend their money. Supposedly, the mandatory drug tests are designed to reduce deficits, utilize tax-payer money more efficiently, and encourage â€Å"personal responsibility. The government now will have the power to kick people off welfare, or otherwise simply deny them welfare, should the person fail their mandated drug test. Aside from deterring these self-destructive behaviors, they believe they will also save millions of dollars because they suspect they will no longer have to subsidize the drug dependencies of a substantial amount of recipients. When Reagan became President in 1986, he began to push drug testing in the workplace, schools, and those applying for free benefits as part of the escalating war on drugs. Since then, drug testing has proliferated to the rest of society. For some businesses, it has become a major hiring tool, while for others it does not exist. For those that do use drug testing, it comes on many forms. Tests range from urine based to hair based to drug recognition experts; each test has its own strengths and weaknesses. The easiest and cheapest tests to perform are urine tests. The most basic and easiest to perform is called an EMIT test. EMIT stands for enzyme multiplied immunoassay technique and involves a urine sample from the subject. The test looks for certain enzymes that occur in the body when certain drugs are consumed. Unfortunately for employers, this test is one of the most undependable of the tests available. It can be easily beaten if the subject knows that they are being tested. Tests can be tampered with in many ways. Another urine test is the gas chromatography test. With this test the urine sample is separated into its component parts. The components are then carried by an inert gas into columns where the parts are separated by their boiling temperature. Each specific compound will be identifiable from the est by its unique separation time. This test is far more reliable than an EMIT test, but there are still instances of errors when certain legal substances are present. A test that is more reliable and harder still to beat is the RIA test. RIA stands for radio immunoassay and it uses the same process as the EMIT test except this test uses radioactive iodine as the detection method rather than an enzy me. Drug metabolite levels are inversely proportional to the level of radioactive particles present. The RIA test is much more reliable and even harder to beat than the gas chromatography test. However, the U. S. Military is the only major employer using the RIA test. This is due to the fact that the RIA test creates radioactive waste as a result which is extremely difficult to handle and dispose of. The next step up from the RIA test is the gas chromatography/mass spectrometry test. This test utilizes what the gas chromatography started, except that it takes the process further. After the urine has been separated into its basic components, the mass spectrometer analyzes the components and provides exact molecular identification for them. Since this test is the most expensive and the most accurate of the urine tests, businesses will usually only use this test to confirm a positive result on the EMIT test. The next cheapest test to perform is a saliva test. Saliva tests are becoming more common due to their relative unobtrusiveness and their ability to detect drug use in a more recent timeframe, usually within one week. The biggest problem with saliva tests is that there are no nationally accepted concentration cutoffs. Also, the saliva test is better at detecting methamphetamines and opiates but is much less capable of detecting THC and other cannabinoids. The last test on the list is the blood test. This test requires a sample of blood from the subject which is then sent to a lab for analysis. The cost of the blood test is quite high when compared to all the rest of the tests available. Businesses that are willing to pay for the blood test are getting the most accurate test that they can subject an employee or applicant to. The only problem with blood tests is that they can only detect substances that remain in the blood for a while. If a substance is easily flushed from the blood, it will not appear on a test if the subject has not used recently. Despite their reliability, blood tests are not used often. Most of the time, similar results can be obtained using a cheaper and less intrusive method of testing. Is this all fair? Many people argue it absolutely is. After all, welfare recipients receive millions of American dollars in aid every year. It would only be fair for them to be tested to ensure the assistance is dispersed of properly. Also, many places of employment practice random drug testing. If it happens in the workforce, why would it be unfair for welfare recipients? There are many pros and cons of this issue. The biggest positive outcome of this program is that it would discourage recipients from purchasing and using illegal drugs. This might mean they don’t even need the welfare in the first place. It could also keep children and society safer. It could help lower the demand for illegal drugs on the streets. It could possibly even save the system some money; as those who are on drugs would not receive welfare. It could even create new jobs for people to run the drug testing. However, there are many cons of mandatory drug testing for people on welfare as well. One of the biggest negatives is that it is costly. Illegal drug testing is not cheap. It could cost hundreds of thousands of dollars, even if just one of every five recipients was tested. However, this may be rationalized by saying that the cost that drugs have on our society in general would be lowered. Another negative is that some people who are on prescription medication could show false positives, and be discriminated against, even with a doctor’s involvement. How to cite Should People Seeking Government Assistance?, Essay examples

Friday, December 6, 2019

Social Research for Ethics and Reflexivity - myassignmenthelp.com

Question: Discuss about the Social Research for Ethics and Reflexivity. Answer: A research buyer asks for competitive proposals from a number of research suppliers. The buyer takes ideas from several of these proposals without offering payment for the ideas and then awards the contract to one of the research suppliers to conduct the study, using all the ideas. Discussion Ethical issue in this case is that, the research buyer overlooked the patenting policies of the research suppliers as he or she did not pay them for their proposals or apply for their permit to use their data in his study. If I was the manager I would have canceled the contract immediately to first ensure that the data to be used was effectively and legally acquired from the main researchers who were not notified before if its relevant to the study. The situation would have been avoided if the buyer researcher studied the suppliers research data, identified the one he wished to work with and carry on the contract awarding process. To other research data, the buyer researcher would have called the rest appreciate their efforts and request for their patent right to using their data. The organization would be positive about my action as I have followed protocol in giving awarding the contract and also in acquiring data, the future clients also will have trust in my activities (Guillemin and Gillam, 2004). While conducting an online survey for a client, a research firm inadvertently omits several questions regarding respondents demographic data. A researcher discovers this error after the survey is completed and the budget exhausted. She reports this to her superior, who is immediately concerned about possible harm to the firms reputation. The research firms upper management decides to impute (i.e., use some method to guess or determine the values of) the missing demographic data through Internet research tracking and linking data. This practice is only partially successful at reconstructing the data, and the client will not want to know why some data values are missing. Discussion Ethical issue in this case is fabricating or falsifying research data that is against research ethics. As the manager I would talk to the client to allow some more but adequate time to work on the missing data instead of falsifying data. The situation would have been avoided if the researcher in charge would have developed a plan with all the activities to ensure everything was done at the right time and place to give the right results. The Firm management would be overwhelmed by my decision to provide the client with the right information as it will enhance trust and faith to serve their clients effectively. Future client would be happy to relate with my services (OLIVER, 2010). References Guillemin, M. and Gillam, L., 2004. Ethics, reflexivity, and ethically important moments in research. Qualitative inquiry, 10(2), pp.261-280. OLIVER, P. (2010). The Student's Guide to Research Ethics. Maidenhead, McGraw-Hill International (UK) Ltd.