Sunday, September 15, 2019
Invention that you wish it never exist Essay
Inventions, ideally, are result of needs and necessities of a certain generation of humankind. Human beings prospered and progressed over time because of his inquisitive nature and the ability to explore. Discoveries and inventions helped them to know more about the mother earth and made them to make their stay on this planet more comfortable. Needs and necessities of different ages and times encouraged humankind to come up with new inventions, however, some inventions simply originated to serve the whims and fancies of some men in authority who abused their influence and knowledge to invent something which put a questionmark on mere existence of human race on this planet. An invention without which this world would be a much better place is the invention of weapons of mass destruction also known WMDs. A weapon of mass destruction is a nuclear, radiological, biological, chemical or other weapon that can kill and bring significant harm to a large number of humans or cause great damage to man-made structures (e.g. buildings), natural structures (e.g. mountains), or the biosphere. These weapons were developed initially by industrialized nations liks United States, Japan, Germany etc as a weapon of self defence to deter the enemy against any possible aggression and attack (Deterrence theory of international politics). However, in due course of time these weapons emerged as a threat to the very existence of human race on this planet. The deterrence theory failed to prevent wars and battles between nations and rather led to beginning of an arms race between nations. India and Pakistan, 2 south asian neighbours developed nuclear weapons in 1998 but still had a war in 1999 and still have skirmishes on their borders on almost daily basis. The application of nuclear bomb by United States against Japan, use of chemical weapons by Germans against Jews in concentration camps made the world to realize the ferocity and dangers of these weapons. More recently, the use of Chemical weapons in Syrian Civil War had brought the world to brink of another war when US tried to int ervene in order to maintain the sanctity of Chemical weapons convention. The world have realized the uselessness of these weapons and tried to control, ban and regulate their usage through conventions and treaties like Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC), Biological and Toxin Weapons Convention (BWC), Partial Test Ban Treaty, Outer Space Treaty, Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), Seabedà Arms Control Treaty, Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty (CTBT, has not entered into force). These weapons not only are capable of killing millions of lives but also affect future generations, cause irreversible and irreparable damage to environment, drain resources of nations on non-productive activities. Secondly, there is an imminent threat of misuse of these weapons by terrorist organizations and anti-human elements that can use it to kill thousands of innocent lives. Threat of possession of such weapons was a major reason for US attack on Iraq. Thirdly, such weapons lead to power struggles and pose a danger to establishment of world peace. Fourthly, even poor nations spend a considerable amount of their scarce resources on production and storage of these weapons instead of using these resources for the welfare of their poor and undernourished citizens. Thus, based on the arguments above we can easily conclude, this world would have been a much better place, had there been no weapons of mass destruction. After all, the ever more sophisticated weapons piling up in the arsenals of the wealthiest and the mightiest can kill the illiterate, the ill, the poor and the hungry, but they cannot kill ignorance, illness, poverty or hunger. Wars may be fought with weapons, but they are won by men. It is the spirit of men who follow and of the man who leads that gains the victory. It is high time that the world shall bid goodbye to WMDs and make this world a much better place to live in. References: 1. http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/keywords/weapons.html#w4hFA17ZzOdtj8bc.99 2. https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/tag/weapons-of-mass-destruction 3. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Weapon_of_mass_destruction 4. http://sangwhopark.blogspot.in/2011/11/18-what-invention-would-world-be-better.html
Saturday, September 14, 2019
Response to Don Marquis’ “Why Abortion Is Immoral”
Don Marquis' ââ¬Å"Why Abortion is Immoralâ⬠In his essay ââ¬Å"Why Abortion is Immoral,â⬠Don Marquis argues against the morality of abortion on the premise that the value of a fetus' future is so great that it is immoral to take that potential future away from it. Essentially, he contends, abortion is tantamount to murder: killing an individual is prima facie wrong because the loss of the goods of one's future is the worst loss a human can suffer. He calls this potential future a ââ¬Å"future-like-ours,â⬠which is the basis for his contentions.In the next few pages I will delineate the general progression of his argument, and later, will evaluate the plausibility of said argument. Though Marquis makes both logical and compelling claims, there are several concerns and weaknesses that arise from his argument that must be considered. Marquis establishes his argument with the exploration of why killing humans is wrong, in any case. The clear answer, he says, is that k illing is wrong because of its ââ¬Å"effect on the victimâ⬠(Ethical Issues in Modern Medicine, 558).Taking one's life deprives the victim of ââ¬Å"all the experiences, activities, projects, and enjoyments that would otherwise have constituted one's future,â⬠and this is the greatest loss that any human can suffer (558). This theory of wrongness can account for why it is also wrong to kill infants and young children, whereas other theories that make narrower claims (e. g. ââ¬Å"It is prima facie wrong to kill only rational agents) do not stand in such cases. There are obvious implications concerning the ethics of abortion with this theory in place.Marquis contends that ââ¬Å"The future of a standard fetus includes a set of experiences, projects, activities, and such which are identical with the futures of adult human beingsâ⬠¦ â⬠(559). It follows then, that because it is wrong to kill humans, it is also wrong to kill potential humans, and so abortion is prima facie seriously wrong. Fetuses have a viable, valuable future, which Marquis calls a ââ¬Å"future-like-ours. â⬠So, he adds, whether one has ââ¬Å"immediate past experiences or notâ⬠does not matter when it comes to killing, because it is the value of the potential future that must be taken into onsideration (561). Marquis goes on to refute other theories of wrongness of killing. One such example is that valuing one's future implies a valuer, but fetuses obviously cannot value their futures, and so their futures are not valuable to them. However, Marquis counters this notion by providing us with an example: one may think during a time of despair that his ââ¬Å"future is of no worth whatsoever,â⬠but he is wrong to think so because ââ¬Å"others rightly see valueâ⬠¦ in itâ⬠(561).So, just because a fetus cannot appreciate its own future, we are aware of the value of its potential future, so abortion is still wrong. Other claims put forth that to be an actu al victim, one requires mentation. However, we still recognize that it is wrong to kill those that are unconscious or in a coma (who have prospects of emerging out of their states), so it follows that mentation is not a necessary condition to be a victim. Marquis' refutations provide for his very strong and compelling argument against abortion.I will grant Marquis that his progression of logic is rational; if a fetus were allowed to fully develop, it would indeed become a sentient being with the capacity of enjoying a prosperous future. However, some ambiguities arise as a result of his claims and it is difficult to say how Marquis would respond. The first concern I would like to address regards the case of a fetus with a debilitating disease. With today's technology, it is quite easy to detect any abnormalities in a fetus very early on in the pregnancy.Say, for example, a couple finds out that their fetus has some sort of affliction that will make him terminally ill. They want to a bort the fetus because they cannot stand the notion of bringing a child into the world that, although sentient and rational, will have a markedly reduced life span and suffer greatly throughout whatever life he has. How would Marquis respond in this case? He might argue that though the child will suffer, he still has a potential future in which he formulate goals, and have experiences and projects.However, we must note that during his argument, Marquis says ââ¬Å"If the patient's future is intolerableâ⬠¦ we want our account to allow killing the patientâ⬠and that ââ¬Å"it is the value of the patient's future which is doing the work in rendering the morality of killing the patient intelligibleâ⬠(561). Obviously, a quandary arises. Does the fetus in our example have a future that is less valuable than that of a normal one? Can we justify aborting this fetus, because although he will be rational and most likely capable of having experiences, the scope of his suffering will be exceedingly great?Are we in any sort of position to prescribe the value of someone else's future without knowing exactly how it will play out? So while it is plausible that Marquis would still argue from an anti-abortionist stance due to its potential future, this decision will very probably not sit well with the parents who have to watch their child suffer throughout his shortened life. This is one ambiguity that exists in Marquis' argument that has no easy answer, and is worth noting. We must recognize that cannot say with such conviction that we know what a future-like-ours entails.It seems presumptuous to assert that a future-like-ours is always a positive thing; how can we account for the fetus in the previous example, or an inner-city child essentially having to raise himself because his parents are absent? What about the child who is stuck in a situation with abusive parents, with no one to turn to for help? Though I grant Marquis the soundness of his general argument , and the premise that all fetuses have a potential future, we cannot infer from this claim that this future will necessarily be a positive one.It becomes a murky and essentially taboo dilemma to even ask if the lives of these children are worth living, and if they would have been better off being aborted in the womb. Marquis may still claim that every fetus has a right to life no matter what, but because he does not consider these cases in his argument, it is worth noting that the answers might not be so straightforward and that more complicated cases do exist. The main concern I would like to note regarding Marquis' argument is that he does not once consider the rights of the mother and the value of her future.Although Marquis treats the fetus as an independent being, we must at least recognize that the fetus' life depends on its mother's: it receives all of its nutrition from her and it develops in her womb. So, how would Marquis respond to a situation in which the mother will su rely (or even has the remote chance) of dying in childbirth, even if the fetus will not? Here, we have two potential futures contesting each other, because this is a one or the other situation ââ¬â either the fetus must die or the mother will in delivering it.Similar to the example mentioned previously of the sick fetus, it is not easy to simply prescribe one of their futures with more value than the other one. An anti-abortionist could possibly make the argument that the fetus' life should be saved because it has a longer future to attain, since the mother has already lived a significant portion of her life. However, one could contend that because the mother is already a sentient, rational being and already has goals and projects set in place for her life, her right to life should take precedence over the fetus, who still has no capacity to value its future.To take away the future of the mother would be more cruel than to take it away from the unaware fetus. Furthermore, what a bout a situation in which the mother is a teenager, and adoption is out of the question? Say, for example, she has to drop out of school and get a low-paying job, and struggles greatly for a significant amount of time trying to provide for herself and her baby. What has happened to her future-like-ours? Both the mother and the child are in dire situations, and it is obvious that the mother would have been in a better current situation had the fetus been aborted, as uncomfortable as that contention may make us.The case of the child, however, is much more complex because again, it is difficult to weigh his suffering with his capacity for potentiating a future. I would not like to argue one way or another, but would simply like to note that it is unclear how Marquis would respond to these predicaments and should have noted such in the essay. As I conclude enumerating the ambiguities that arise from Marquis' contentions, I would like to consider the hypothetical case in which Marquis di d allow for an abortion, in, for example, the case of the fetus that has some sort of debilitating disease.He might contend that the inevitable suffering in the fetus' ââ¬Å"future-like-oursâ⬠outweighs the positive value of his potential future, so an abortion in this case would be permissible. However, what does this do for the integrity of the future-like-ours argument? If we can begin to make exceptions like this, where can we draw the line of what constitutes a ââ¬Å"goodâ⬠or ââ¬Å"badâ⬠future-like-ours? If Marquis begins to allow for such xceptions, it seems to diminish the value of his theory as a whole, because it connotes that the futures of some fetuses are less valuable than others even if they are both capable of having potential experiences, dreams, projects, etc. On a broader and related scope, if an anti-abortionist who argues on the sanctity-of-life theory makes an exception for the abortion of a fetus who was the product of a rape or is in a situ ation where the mother cannot provide for it, it invalidates their entire premise. Both fetuses are innocent and have equal rights to their future.So, if Marquis did make an exception, it would compromise the integrity of his argument. Marquis makes very compelling and interesting claims in his essay, and takes a novel approach in the controversy over abortion. He uses a strong premise that is not too broad or too narrow in scope, as some anti-abortionists and pro-life activists end up doing in their reasoning. However, as mentioned above, ambiguities do arise from his argument, the most significant of which being the consideration of the mother's right to a future.With this considered, it becomes clear that a ââ¬Å"future-like-oursâ⬠may not be as clear-cut of an idea as Marquis would like us to think. The essay would have been stronger and more lucid if Marquis considered ââ¬Å"futures-like-oursâ⬠that are not exactly futures like ours. By virtue of the sheer breadth a nd variety of experiences that humans experience as a species, it is much more difficult to define a future-like-ours than Marquis delineates in his essay.
Friday, September 13, 2019
Assignment 2 Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words
Assignment 2 - Essay Example There are different types of e-business methods. The most famous ones are Business-to-Business (B2B), Business-to-Consumer (B2C), Mobile or m-Commerce and Consumer-to-Consumer (C2C) business. The B2B model is the most famous amongst all the e-business models (Rahulshams, 2011). Effects of E-Business on Project Management Business to Business or B2B has changed the entire project management strategies. Earlier a company has to manufacture products and sell them. They have to come up with efficient marketing plans to sell their products and a detailed project management report. But, e-business eliminated such needs completely. Websites providing B2B and B2C services like the Elance.com and Ebay.com influenced the way business was done like never before. The importance of project management got reduced greatly because of e-business. Positive effects: E-business reduced the dependability on project management saving billions of dollars spent on planning and executing a core plan. Negativ e effects: E-business paved way for any person to become a master with some software. Those who just preferred e-commerce without giving importance to core e-business strategies failed drastically leading to the burst of the dotcom bubble very soon. Huge companies like Ebay.com and Amazon succeeded mainly because they were able to integrate all core process related to their business starting from inventory to customer details and the products stock details together in a secure way using various e-business features. Small companies which failed to provide such e-infrastructure failed mainly because of information mismanagement and the inability to gain customer satisfaction. Effects of E-Business on Supply Chain Management Traditional way of doing business involved purchasing goods from suppliers, storing them in a warehouse, transporting them to the shops where it will be sold to the customers. E-business eliminated the need to maintain separate warehouses. Huge companies like Wal-M art switched to e-business many years before they established a website for themselves and entered e-commerce. They started by automating the inventory and supply chain process. The suppliers bought in packed products directly to the stores, eliminating the need for a separate warehouse and the transporting necessities. Their supply chain management underwent major changes under the influence of the IT sector. Positive effects: Changes made by Wal-Mart in their supply chain management influenced many other industries to follow the same. The traditional way of storing goods in warehouses started to dwindle slowly. Many industries like healthcare started to invest millions in training their suppliers to follow a uniform standard. More value was given to adding value to the goods rather than labelling it or sticking to the process. For example, consider the logistics industry. Earlier companies like Blue Dart and Fed Ex used to transport goods directly with their label. Nowadays they u se the services of various freight forwarding agencies to transport goods as fast as possible. Speed is the added value here and importance given to transport goods under a particular label is reduced. The supply chain management process is changed using advanced technologies to make the procedure much easier to manage and provide a better service to the customer. IBM conducted a detailed research on how
Thursday, September 12, 2019
Speech using the Rogerian style of argumentation Essay
Speech using the Rogerian style of argumentation - Essay Example Several instances have been reported concerning the increased aggression among the victims. Others also report increased criminal or violent behavior among the victims. In other situations, corporal punishment in schools can lead to escalated antisocial behavior and moral internalization among the learners. My position differs from those who argue that corporal punishment should not be banned in schools or other learning institutions. My position is that corporal punishment in schools and other learning institutions should be banned. This does not include normal discipline mechanisms that parent use at home. It also does not include the nonviolent punitive methods employed by teachers to enhance discipline among learners. Corporal punishment in public and private schools and other learning institutions should be banned because it poses devastating effects on the learners. These include loss of good family relationship and damage to education. It leads to all forms of violation of the fundamental rights of children such as the right to education and good
Wednesday, September 11, 2019
Influences in the teaching enviroment Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words
Influences in the teaching enviroment - Essay Example This primarily requires the teacher to understand the nature of disruptive behavior and form strategies to deal with such students. A good teacher is one who is prepared for everything and is always ahead of the students. A good teacher will never lose any of his/her audience. They will always maintain a connection and eye contact with the pack to ensure maximum participation (Ryan, & Patrick, 2001). The most common factors which lead to disruptive behavior of students in the classroom are the following The students lose interest in the subject and get bored from the confined environment. When the students lose their focus from the topic they start behaving in a disruptive manner. Misbehavior with the teacher and violating the rules of school by the students is the most common form of disruptive behavior. Students indulge into wrong habits or they feel good by bullying others. Some students deliberately behave badly to get noticed. They do this to get famous amongst their peers. Stud ents who are self centered and like it when people circle them while walking often argue without any reason. They think that they are always right and always have an argument ready. Some students genuinely have a bad behavior and they cannot do anything to control their behavior. Autism and other disorders like the spectrum disorder are observed in such students. This disruptive behavior which the students show affects the teachers and makes it difficult for them to control the class. A good teacher is one who exactly knows the audience they are addressing to. They maintain full contact with all the students and the lecture delivery is such that the students donââ¬â¢t feel bored at any point. For teachers it is said that when the attention of one student is lost the whole class is lost (Kaplan, Gheen, & Midgley, 2002). The classroom environment is very impulsive and volatile. The mood, reaction and the behavior of the students keep on changing. In professional education teachers fail to deliver because of disruption and misconduct in the behavior of the students. Disruptive behavior is like a virus, it spreads throughout the class. If one student misbehaves the whole class gets an urge to misbehave. The examples of disruptive and negative classroom environment behavior are Personal attack by the students either physical or verbal Excessive use of electronic devices in the classroom Leaving of class without the permission of the teacher Sleeping during classes and not paying heed to the teacher Ignoring teachers instructions and arguing with the teacher unnecessarily by showing an aggressive or hostile behavior Bullying the students or the teachers or portraying displeasure through an unacceptable behavior like shouting and arguing unnecessarily (Teaching Academy, n.d) The most efficient strategy which the teachers can use to deal with the disruptive behavior of the students is to ensure that the interest of the students is maintained constantly. The course material must be made interesting and relevancy of the subject must be delivered to the students. New methods and interactive techniques must be proposed to make learning and interaction easy like discussion, games and group activities. A teacher must encourage participation because it is the only way they could get feedback of whether the topic is being delivered to the students or not. This is the technology age and to attract the attention of the students new methods
Tuesday, September 10, 2019
IKEA Analysis Report (Operations management)1 Assignment
IKEA Analysis Report (Operations management)1 - Assignment Example For example, in last 60 years the company has penetrated in almost 35 countries by establishing more than 300 retail outlets with the help of joint ventures, foreign direct investment, merger-acquisition, franchising etc. Euromonitor International (2009) has reported that, IKEA has the capacity to earn more than â⠬20 billion annually from its retail operation. When it comes to value delivery, the company delivers value to customers in the form of readymade furniture, functional home furnishing items and tailor made home furnishing solutions. Low price and Scandinavian stylish design can be treated as unique selling proposition (USP) for IKEA (IKEA PS, 2012). Value proposition of IKEA is not limited to its ability differentiate its product offering through innovation but also includes its ability to position itself as a unique brand among its target segment. For example, IKEA targets customers who are ready to engage with the brand and participate in the selling process. These cu stomers are ready to self transport and self assemble the furniture parts in order to get quality furniture products at affordable price. IKEA designs its product for customers after conducting detailed market research for understanding the needs and wants of customers. In some cases, the company establishes strategic partnership with local players in order to understand desired value proposition for local customers. For example, IKEA has established partnership with Ikano Group in order to penetrate in Malaysian and Singaporean furniture market (Ikano Group, 2008). The strategic partnership has helped the Swedish furniture retailer to deliver value to Malaysian and Singaporean which can satisfy their needs and wants. Value Chain Von Krogh & Cusumano (2001) and Nickerson & Zenger (2005) have stated that IKEA uses different sources in order to deliver value to customers. For example, the company has established more than 45 purchasing centers and trading offices in order to collect r esources from suppliers (Tarnovskaya, Ghauri & Elg, 2006). Suppliers of different parts of furniture has to sign a contract with IKEA which is states that, all suppliers are expect to adhere all the legal norms, environment act, ethical norms of their respective country while sourcing the supplies. For example, in Russia, supply managers of the IKEA check all the shops of potential entrepreneurs or suppliers in order to find the right suppliers (Tarnovskaya, Ghauri & Elg, 2006). Throughout the supply chain the Swedish furniture retailing giant tries to ensure that their suppliers behave in socially, environmentally and ethically responsible manner. For example, in Poland, IKEA has opened its purchasing offices and supplier base that are capable of sourcing supplies in 20% cheaper rates in comparison to their European counterparts while the IKEA has also forced its supplier base in Scandinavian region to reduce carbon emission in the supplying process. Overall, it can be surmised tha t IKEA is successful in maintaining the three verticals of value delivery process, 1- delivering affordable products to customers (economic), 2- delivering product which can satisfy the social and cultural dimension of customers and 3- decreasing carbon footprint throughout the value chain in order to offer environment friendly products to customers. Intangible Products Core values of IKEA can be classified as biggest intangible
Monday, September 9, 2019
The Exploitative Nature of Beauty Pageants Essay
The Exploitative Nature of Beauty Pageants - Essay Example The author researched the subject and acquired statistics demonstrating the malevolent influence of beauty pageants on young vulnerable girls as well as mature women. He was also able to locate and speak with a number of former beauty queens who were quite frank in giving the details of how their lives had been affected by their participation in the beauty pageants. The authorââ¬â¢s friends were somewhat skeptical about his choice of topic because they are all models. Moreover, all the information he got about what life really is like for a beauty queen convinced him that the benefits of the title ââ¬Ëbeauty queenââ¬â¢ are far outweighed by the drawbacks caused by it. The researcherââ¬â¢s aim was to inform the audience, which consisted of young women and men in their twenties and thirties about the many emerging beauty queen competitions in the area and convince them that these pageants were destructive and would ruin the self-esteem of any woman or girl that agreed to pa rticipate in them. The author had done a lot of research and documented his discussions with former beauty queens who gave him permission to use their stories. The author was able to use such information in his speech with astounding success. He also mentioned the dates on which he had conducted the interviews so as to demonstrate how recent the issue is. Usually, the researcher is quite nervous before delivering a speech. However, this time he was pleasantly surprised to find that he was excited and could not wait to deliver his speech; particularly when the author saw the gathering audience. Corporate workers and a large group of models sat at the front while the youth occupied large spaces in the back. The researcherââ¬â¢s model friends and he had sat up arguing about the reasons why beauty contents are destructive, and he was still charged for that experience. The author launched into his speech with gusto, though he tried to avoid speaking too fast in order to cover all the points in his speech. The author asked a few models he recognized in the audience about what they did o a daily basis to maintain their low weight. This sparked immediate discussions among the audience members; with some shouting answers and others murmuring about anorexia. From the stance adopted by nearly all the members of the audience, the author could tell that his subject was very interesting.
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