Free Essays on Yam Gruel

Yam Gruel by Ryunosuke Akutagawa Commentary The story â€Å"Yam Gruel† is about a man under the name of Goi, who is supposedly so ordinary that he’s name was not even recorded for any relevance to this story. This story is set in the Heian Period, during the time of courtiers. He was just a plain, simple man, frequently ridiculed by other samurai and disrespected by commoners because of his â€Å"red nose† and plain manner of clothing. Now, one may wonder where the title of this story was taken from. Well, it was taken from Goi’s obsession of yam gruel, which is a special, very expensive delicacy consisting of yam and a rare root. Samurais of his status can only attain this type of delicacy one day out of the entire year at a special celebration in which is everyone is invited therefore the portion of one’s yam gruel is barely enough to attain satiety. At the celebration of Fujiwara Mototsune, Fujiwara, a very wealthy man, overheard Goi say that he hadn’t had enough yam gruel and dec ided to invite him over to his mansion to eat as much yam gruel as he wanted, which Goi agreed to of course which everyone teased and laughed about. So of the two went and traveled to Fujiwara’s place for the principle of satisfying Goi’s graving of yam gruel. They travel so far just for the sake of satisfying Goi’s cravings of yam gruel once and for all. However, when they finally traveled all that distance and the servants went to so much travel acquiring and preparing the yam gruel, Goi lost his desire to eat it and so he only ate a little portion of the entire amount that was prepared and the rest was given a the fox, the messenger who sent word to Fujiwara’s mansion to send men to meet them. Now this story may seem a bit silly but it’s deeper than it seems. You see, all his life Goi wanted to satisfy his craving of yam gruel, that was the only objective he seemed to have in life, in his simple, common life. He thought that b... Free Essays on Yam Gruel Free Essays on Yam Gruel Yam Gruel by Ryunosuke Akutagawa Commentary The story â€Å"Yam Gruel† is about a man under the name of Goi, who is supposedly so ordinary that he’s name was not even recorded for any relevance to this story. This story is set in the Heian Period, during the time of courtiers. He was just a plain, simple man, frequently ridiculed by other samurai and disrespected by commoners because of his â€Å"red nose† and plain manner of clothing. Now, one may wonder where the title of this story was taken from. Well, it was taken from Goi’s obsession of yam gruel, which is a special, very expensive delicacy consisting of yam and a rare root. Samurais of his status can only attain this type of delicacy one day out of the entire year at a special celebration in which is everyone is invited therefore the portion of one’s yam gruel is barely enough to attain satiety. At the celebration of Fujiwara Mototsune, Fujiwara, a very wealthy man, overheard Goi say that he hadn’t had enough yam gruel and dec ided to invite him over to his mansion to eat as much yam gruel as he wanted, which Goi agreed to of course which everyone teased and laughed about. So of the two went and traveled to Fujiwara’s place for the principle of satisfying Goi’s graving of yam gruel. They travel so far just for the sake of satisfying Goi’s cravings of yam gruel once and for all. However, when they finally traveled all that distance and the servants went to so much travel acquiring and preparing the yam gruel, Goi lost his desire to eat it and so he only ate a little portion of the entire amount that was prepared and the rest was given a the fox, the messenger who sent word to Fujiwara’s mansion to send men to meet them. Now this story may seem a bit silly but it’s deeper than it seems. You see, all his life Goi wanted to satisfy his craving of yam gruel, that was the only objective he seemed to have in life, in his simple, common life. He thought that b...

Economic Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words - 2

Economic - Essay Example Risk averse individuals are better off with purchase of insurance because they prefer certain losses to uncertain ones of the same scale. Given that the marginal utility of wealth is diminishing they are ready to give up certain and reasonable amount of money in the form of insurance premium to avoid chance of large and uncertain loss. Thus, it is in their interest to buy insurance because of certainty it provides. According to the expected utility model the individuals tend to undertake actions that increase the expected utility value (U), which can be expressed as the function of the income (Y). If the probability of the accident resulting in the loss of X is indicated as P and assuming that insurance company in the case of accident will pay the amount equal to X, the expected utility for an individual who does not buy insurance is equal to: If per unit tax on a good is imposed and the tax revenue is then used to offset the decrease in consumer surplus the consumers still would be worse of than before introduction of the tax. It happens because the consumer bears an excessive burden which is equal to the difference between the value of equivalent variation (compensation that allows the customer to achieve the same level of utility as before tax, graphically – vertical distance between pre- and post-tax indifference curves) and tax revenue that the government can use in order to offset the effect of tax (graphically - vertical distance between corresponding budget constraint lines). It may be beneficial for the companies offering service or good A to introduce a choice of price and service options in order to target the groups of customers with different levels of income and needs. The optimal bundle of the service A and all the other goods will vary depending on the budget constraint and marginal utility of A for a certain group. Introducing number of variations A1, A2,†¦., An (from low price – low service to higher priced

Contemporary issues in conflict and security Essay

Contemporary issues in conflict and security - Essay Example Terrorism has severe social, economic, and psychological impacts on the targeted people. Analysis proves that terrorism often has a genuine grievance to fight for. Also, the strategies they adopt are not considerably crueler than the strategies adopted by many superpowers. Thirdly, it has become evident that terrorism is considerably more unethical because it often targets innocent third parties as the victims. The solution does not lie in armed suppression, but in adopting peaceful ways. Attention should be given to the reasons behind grievances and they should be removed. Also, free communication and liberty should be encouraged in every nation. Lastly, instead of revenge and martyrdom, values like peace and cooperation should be instilled in people. Introduction Terrorism has become one of the most complex and oft-changing phenomena in the international sphere. As a result, it has gained an important position in the agenda of most nations. The surprising fact is that terrorism is present in various forms and various structures, and they have various motivating factors behind them. The root causes of terrorism One can find innumerous reasons behind terrorism when one looks into the works of various scholars who already studied the various aspects of terrorism. As a result, as Crenshaw (1981) opines in the article ‘The causes of terrorism’, it is difficult to find general explanations for terrorism. However, the scholar manages to divide the causes into two categories; the preconditions which are known as root causes and the precipitants which are known as trigger causes. It is possible to further the root causes into enabling factors which mean the factors which offer an opportunity for terrorism to come up, and situations which are direct motivations for terrorist campaigns (ibid). According to Ross (1996), the causes can be divided into three categories, namely structural causes, psychological causes, and rational choice. Following this, Gupta (2004, p. 19) introduced the argument based on ethnicity, religion, and nationalism. According to his opinion, terrorism takes birth when a leading figure manages to give a proper direction to the frustration faced by a number of people and manage to formulate a feeling of collective identity; and also the feeling of ‘we’ versus ‘them’ is successfully developed along with this (ibid). The work by O’Brien (1996) looked into the reasons behind terrorism. According to the scholar, there is a link between the foreign policy of superpowers during the times of international crisis and international terrorism. In order to substantiate his view, the scholar provides the example of the United States and Iraq. Through the work, the scholar proves that the possibility of terrorism increases when one party feels victimized by the superpower (ibid). Another study by Krueger and Malenkov (2003) named ‘Education, poverty and terrorism: is there a casual conne ction?† looks into the impact of lack of education and poverty on people’s tendency to become terrorists. However, after a thorough study of the situation in Israel and Palestine, the scholars reach the conclusion that there is no direct link between education, poverty and terrorism (ibid). In fact, the study observed that the terrorists from those areas were generally better educated that others. Also, the study reveals that the

Null Hypothesis Process Analysis Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words - 1

Null Hypothesis Process Analysis - Essay Example In addition, the organization adopts the null hypothesis that, it is policies rather than approaches which determine organizations productivity. As such, the essay develops a critical analysis through which to evaluate the individual theory against the organizational null hypothesis. Currently, the organization applies the null hypothesis that there exists no productivity impact based on the management approach used. Therefore, the hypothesis is established on the assumption that an organization’s policy influences its productivity and future market success. The global market system is changing with increasing global competitions from both local and international organisations. There is the need to develop systems and practices to increase global market presence and competitiveness. To this end, the organization argued that one of the strategic approaches through which to achieve increased competition was through the reduction of the overall costs of production in the organiza tion. Also, the organization adopted the need to reduce infrastructure development and installation costs required in the development and adoption of modern technology. As Heneman and Greenberger (85) stated, although this approach reduces organizational management costs in the short run period, this hypothesis can be disapproved in the future. On one hand, the application and use of paper work reduces an organisations strategic competitive through reduced response time. With the application and use of paperwork HR management approach.

Prejudice Paper Essay Example for Free

Prejudice Paper Essay Through our own personal experience, Professor McAuliff would like us to use the topics we discussed throughout the semester to show an understanding of the concepts. Using my experience with prejudice I will be providing how what I learned in the social psychology textbook. Prejudice has been a very relevant topic I have related with throughout my life. In addition to reading and thinking about the concepts covered in the text, an important part of the learning process includes applying these concepts to your own life and experiences. Prejudice is a preconceived negative judgment of a group and its individual members (Myers). Prejudice is an attitude essentially that can be either positive or negative judgments. More than likely the prejudice someone is faced with is negative. Being that it is an attitude you also have to know about the ABC’s of attitudes. A is for the affect or feelings. B is for the behavior tendency or inclination to act. And C is for the cognitions or beliefs. They also help tie into stereotypes and discrimination. Stereotypes is a negative evaluation in which you generalize the personal attributes of a group. Discrimination is an unjustified behavior toward ones group. Whether it is conscious or automatic prejudice is your quick response to associations. â€Å"Although our [conscious] minds are in the right places and we may truly believe we are not prejudiced, our hearts aren’t quite there yet† (John Dovido, Time, 2009). With so many races in the world, it is often easy to see how quickly we are to label one another. Racial prejudice is Sco? 1 prime example of people labeled what a person should be. It goes far beyond enough for racial prejudice within the same groups some identify themselves with. People tend to point out what is wrong in their group before they admit their wrongs. In some groups you have anti- whatever the group is because a hatred developed from society. Prejudice is spread out throughout the world. Not strictly a racial epidemic it can be anything from youth disliking the elderly to genders disliking genders. It affects everyone the same especially from the negative side. When it is automatic your unconscious associations can be influenced by perceptions and reactions you have. Especially for gender prejudice, the gender role norms come into play. People have ideas on how men and women ought to behave. Often prejudice and stereotype do get confused in this area. Stereotypes only support prejudice beliefs and attitudes are separate. With more separation prejudice has social inequalities. They allow for one group to seek dominance over the other. Making groups break off into a particular status. Creating this social hierarchy that can create hostility amongst groups. Status is looked the most in regards to the negative feeling that appear in prejudice socially. Rich versus the poor is the most common social dominance orientation. The fact of the matter is people want to be on top of the hierarchy. Prejudice coming in so many forms is easy to grasp the idea of it being everywhere. Nothing beats facing prejudice for the first time. As an African American male I have been faced with plenty of different forms of prejudice. I can recall being discriminated against just for being not only black but intelligent within my own group of black people. My very own cousin would tease me and call me a â€Å"white boy†, which I am clearly not, because I was interested in school. I was the first of many of my cousins to graduate high school and instead of being proud me they would tell me I was uppity or not black enough for them. It is very hard when your very own Sco? 2 family doesn’t expect you. I wanted some much to conform to what they did but I wasn’t thety pe of person who wanted to live a life. My cousins definitely are your stereotypical black people. I have found myself in a different social class than them just because I have worked harder than they have to be something more than someone running the streets. I can agree with racial prejudice the author discusses in the textbook because it has yet to die out. However racial prejudice in the black community in my opinion is at an all-time high and very prevalent. Though we have changed since the 1940’s the anti-black prejudices haven’t. Social dominance is felt whether if it is whites being above blacks or other blacks be above other blacks. Prime example is how black rappers spend their money on material items instead of investing or saving just to compete with who have more money or more material items than they do. â€Å"What you want, a Bentley? Fur coat? A diamond chain? All you blacks want all the same things, a line from Kanye West’s song New Slaves. He plays off of the typical stereotypes imposed on the black community, usually considered as hood dreams. Condescendingly, he uses the term â€Å"blacks† as a euphemism and expands on this idea when he says â€Å"I know that we the new slaves† (rapgenius. com, Kanye West, 2013). Prejudice exists in our unconscious and conscious forms. It is a preconceived negative attitude that can affect some of our beliefs. It can arise in a social sources and lead people to split in groups. â€Å"Unequal status breeds prejudice† (Myers). Whether it is implicit or explicit all prejudice can mirrored from group to group. It may be a subtle action, but the small action that creates the worst problems. References Dovidio, John (2009). Prejudice Researcher. TIME. Sco? 3 Myers, D. G. (2013). Social Psychology (11th Ed. ). New York: McGraw-Hill. RapGenius. com (2013). Kanye West- New Slave Lyrics Sco? 4.

Importance of Spyware Essay -- Computer Software

The Importance of Spyware â€Å"Spyware consists of computer software that gathers and reports information about a computer without the users’ knowledge or consent† (â€Å"Spyware†). Spyware is a major problem for many users. It causes problems with the setup and general operation of a computer. It is one of the most typical internet intruders today and many users are unaware of what spyware is and they do not know how to recognize or prevent it. Spyware is different than a computer virus because a virus travels into the computer system without permission from the user. Spyware may be obtained by clicking the â€Å"I agree† option on the installation agreement before actually reading the entire contract. Some examples of typical spyware include: Direct Revenue, Cydoor, Xupiter, XXXDial, and SpyKiller (â€Å"What is Spyware?†). Most spyware is the result of downloading documents from the Internet. In this respect, spyware is similar to a Trojan horse. Spy ware can also come from clicking the advertisement pop-up screens, and through email. According to National Cyber-Security Alliance, 90% of home PC’s have been infected with some type of Spyware (â€Å"Spyware†). In order to determine if a user has been infected with spyware, there are some vital signs to look for and recognize. There will be some defective functionality, where the spyware will keep track of the steps the user takes without the user’s knowledge of it. There is also a loss of privacy when spyware has infected a computer. The spyware can send private user information back to the Internet vendor; therefore it reduces the user privacy. There may also be an increased amount of pop-up advertisements on the computer screen while connected to the Inte... ... Anti-Spyware programs. Although spyware is a major problem for computer owners today, the advance of anti-spyware programs from software companies, along with help from the users, will ultimately aid in the termination of spyware altogether. Works Cited â€Å"How to Find, Remove, and Prevent Spyware, Internet Intruders, and Pop-Ups.† Los Angeles Chinese Learning Center. 3 April 2005. http://chinese-school.netfirms.com/computer-article-spyware-pop-ups.html â€Å"Microsoft AntiSpyware.† Wikipedia Encyclopedia. 3 April 2005. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_AntiSpyware â€Å"Spyware.† Wikipedia Encyclopedia. 3 April 2005. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spyware â€Å"What is Spyware?† PC Pitstop. 3 April 2005. http://www.pcpitstop.com/spycheck/whatis.asp

Participant Observation and Grand Theory Essay

Bronislaw Malinowski, with his ground-breaking field work of the Trobriand Islander community in the beginning of the 20th century still today counts as a pioneer, if not the founder of the British Social Anthropology. In his famous book Argonauts of the Western Pacific. An Account of Native Enterprise and Adventure in the Archipelagos of Melanesian New Guinea that was first published in 1922 he develops an elaborate methodological framework for ethnographical research, also known as ‘participant observation’. This method will highly influence the anthropological way of approaching its field of study and hence its theoretical landscape from then on. Looking at Malinowski’s description of the clan system of the Trobriand community, his descriptive and specifying style of formulation becomes apparent: â€Å"Each of the four clans has its own name: Malasi, Lukuba, Lukwasisiga, Lukulabuta. (†¦) There are special combinations of the clan names with formative roots, to descrive men and women and the mixed plurality belonging to the same clan: Tomalasi – a Malasi man; Immalasi – a Malasi women; Memalasi – the Malasi people (†¦). Near the village of Laba’I, on the northern shore of the main island, there is a spot called Obukula, which is marked by a coral outcrop. Obukula is, in fact, a ‘hole’ (dubwadebula), or ‘house’ (bwala); that is to say, one of the points from which the first ancestors of the linage emerged. † (Malinowski 1929: 496 f. , italics in original) This very nuanced and case specific example of the material gained from his methodological approach gives rise to the question if Malinowski’s heritage of participant observation has forever distanced Anthropology from bringing forward grand theories? To be able to consider and discuss this question, it is important to first define what Malinowski circumscribed when he laid out his dogma for ethnographical research by the term participant observation. Secondly, a closer inspection of the dictum ‘grand theory’ is indispensable for our purpose and will be clarified in the second section of this essay. Subsequently, we will look at these two concepts and their relationship to one another in section three in order to approach the question whether Anthropology can be viewed as a science able to produce grand theories. I. Participant observation In the foreword to Argonauts of the Western Pacific Malinowski states that he has â€Å"lived in that [Trobriand Island] archipelago for about two years (†¦), during which time [he] naturally acquired a thorough knowledge of the language. [He] did [his] work entirely alone, living for the greater part of the time right in the village. † (1966: xvi). This statement already contains the essence of participant observation in fieldwork. The hallmark of this methodological way of collecting data is the immersion of the researcher into her or his field of study over a long period of time and the personal part taking in the interactions of the people in the community studied. When Malinowski defined this new approach of ‘first-hand’ observation he broke with the, at that time prevailing tradition of ‘armchair’ ethnography. In this prior approach, ethnographers compiled data gained from historical sources to deduce theories about certain aspects of a usually ‘native’ community (Osterhoudt 2010). One of the main contributions of Malinowski’s new method to anthropological theory was that by participating and observing behaviour in the sample community he found out that a discrepancy between actual behaviour and narrative statements exists. â€Å"The smoothness and uniformity, which the mere verbal statement suggest as the only shape of human conduct, disappears with a better knowledge of cultural reality. † (Malinowski 1979: 83). This discovery in itself already composes a point of criticism towards the preceding ethnographical ‘arm-chair’ approach to data collection and evaluation. Even though participant observation is based on a seemingly broad and intuitive research design, it would, however, be incorrect to assume that this approach would be free of any directive principles on how to collect relevant data. Therefore, Malinowski describes how first, the researcher must â€Å"possess real scientific aims† (Malinowski 1966: 6) and be familiar with the theoretical background of anthropology. Further, the researcher should live in the field among the natives all by herself/ himself, and lastly the researcher has to stick to special and strict scientific methods, such as drawing â€Å"tables of kinship terms, genealogies, maps, plans and diagrams† (idib. 1966: 10) to collect, prepare and record her/his data. The previous example of the clan system provides a sense of the detailed and case specific information that is obtained by the application of participant observation. Besides the kind of the data collected, it should also be looked at the area of research and Malinowski’s suggestion of the subject to be studied. He proposes that the â€Å"field worker observes human beings acting within an environmental setting, natural and artificial; influenced by it, and in turn transforming it in co-operation with each other. † (Malinowski 1939: 940). Thus, he focuses on the individual as a starting point and its relation to, and mutual dependence on a social group. The inquiries of a researcher will hence have to include a â€Å"specific study of the individual, as well as the group within which he has to live and work. † (idib. 1939: 950). The collective life within that group or society is widely to be seen in certain types of activities, ‘institutions’ such as the â€Å"economy, education, or social control and political system in place† (idib. 1939: 954). These institutions, as he points out, can be seen as a fruitful base to investigate the individual’s motives and values and they will provide â€Å"insight into the process by which the individual is conditioned or culturally formed and of the group mechanisms of this process. † (idib. 1939: 954). II. Grand Theory In the following, the dictum ‘grand theory’ will be specified and by doing so distinguished into two different tendencies of understanding the concept. Wiarda (2010) defines a grand theory in his book Grand Theories and Ideologies in the Social Sciences as â€Å"those large, overarching explanations of social and political behavior—liberalism, Marxism, socialism, positivism, corporatism, political culture, institutionalism, psychoanalysis, rational choice theory, environmentalism (Jared Diamond), sociobiology, and now chemistry and genetics—that give coherence to the social sciences, help us to organize and think about change and modernization, and give us models to understand complex behavior. † (Wiarda 2010: x) This definition of grand theory as an ‘overarching explanation’ is in line with Anthony Good’s (1996) understanding of a ‘generalizing science’ that produces â€Å"universal, descriptive and predictive laws† (idib. 1996: 34). Here a grand theory is understood as a theorem providing a universal and structural framework that gives meaning to particular and individual phenomena ‘on the ground’. In this process the â€Å"importance of the local and the contingent, (†¦) the extent to which our own concepts and attitudes have been shaped† (Skinner 1985: 8) builds also a part of the universal framework. The second tendency to conceive the idea of grand theory goes a step further and is mainly characterized by C. Wright Mills application of it. He vigorously criticised the concept in his book The Sociological Imagination (1959): â€Å"The basic cause of grand theory is the initial choice of a level of thinking so general that its practitioners cannot logically get down to observation. They never, as grand theorists, get down from the higher generalities to problems in their historical and structural contexts. This absence of a firm sense of genuine problems, in turn, makes for the unreality so noticeable in their pages. † (idib. 1959: 33) As this quote shows, Mills’ understanding of a grand theory goes beyond our first definition. In this second understanding Mills implies that scientists generating grand theories are engrossed in their endeavour to build abstract, normative and all-embracing frameworks and thus neglect the study of the ‘meaning’ behind their constructs. The individual with its particular values and interpretations, as well as variety on the scale of the actual area of research fall behind. III. Participant Observation and its relation to Grand Theory Taken the just outlined conception of grand theory influenced by Mills and putting it in relationship with Malinowski’s methodology of participant observation, the answer to our question whether or not Malinowski’s heritage barred the way of Anthropology to ever produce grand theories appears unambiguously to be ‘yes’. Participant observation in its very nature is close to the individual and aims to explore, over a long period of time, which social and cultural forces influence the human being in a specific setting. Therefore, with regards to Mills conception of grand theory, Anthropology has a birth defect called participant observation that will always prevent it from producing highly abstract grand theories, which stand in no relation to the circumstances from where they were deduced from. A closer look reveals that Malinowski’s understanding of the anthropological formation of theory aligns with Mills criticism towards highly abstract grand theories: â€Å"It would be easy to quote works of high repute, and with a scientific hall-mark on them, in which wholesale generalisations are laid down before us, and we are not informed at all by what actual experiences the writers have reached their conclusions. (†¦) I consider that only such ethnographic sources are of unquestionable scientific value, in which we can clearly draw the line between, on the one hand, the result of direct observation and of native statements and interpretations and on the other, the inferences of the author, based on his common sense of psychological insight. † (Malinowski 1966: 3) Here Malinowski differences between two approaches of data processing. One approach leads to mere ‘wholesale generalisations’ and the other approach also includes the ‘actual experiences’ the researcher faced on the local level that explain on what assumptions and observations her or his generalizations are based on. He hence supports the notion of Anthropology as a science of producing generalisations, as long as they are comprehensible and in direct relation to the reality on the ground. Malinowski’s ethnographies exist to a vast amount of descriptive details that are very specific to certain social groups or individual preferences and he has hence often been criticized as an ‘empiricist’ (see Firth 1957). Also, one could argue that his attempt to put his findings in a neat structured box with columns, as he has done in his article Group and Individual in Functional Analysis (1966) seem rather compelled. Nevertheless, he was able to provide social science with universal and generalizing frameworks on, inter alia, on how social institutions function in relation to society. He states that â€Å"social institutions have a definite organisation, (†¦) they are governed by authority, law and order in their public and personal relations, while the latter are, besides, under the control of extremely complex ties of kinship and clanship. † (Malinowski 1966: 10). Malinowski’s suggestion to use institution as a starting point for social and cultural analysis has â€Å"produced integrated descriptions instead of loosely classified catalogues of traits, and has stimulated the fuller recording of case material from actual behavior as a supplement to the listing of ideal patterns. † (Murdock 1943: 443). Following Malinowski’s ethnographic method and theory construction therefore aims to create a firm framework of the â€Å"social constitution† that â€Å"disentangle[s] the laws and regularities of all cultural phenomena from the irrelevances. † (Malinowski 1966: 10f. ). His approach is thus far more that only an accumulation of meaningless observations of an individuals life in a very specific society. Considering these arguments, Malinowski approach can, indeed, be seen as congruent with our first tendency to understand grand theory. The answer to our initial question should hence be that Anthropology is a science that can certainly produce grand theories in the sense of generalized frameworks and universalistic theories, without neglecting the importance of the â€Å"local and the contingent† (Skinner 1985: 12). Furthermore, Anthropology can be viewed as an established science with its own field of study being the human being and its social group as well as their mutual dependencies and influences. â€Å"Anthropology stands in a clear relationship to the other basic science, because it is concerned with studying phenomena at one clearly discriminate level vis-a-vis those other sciences. † (Good 1996: 32)