Usage Mistakes #1

Usage Mistakes #1 Usage Mistakes #1 Usage Mistakes #1 By Mark Nichol The sentences below illustrate various types of mistakes in wording born from (not â€Å"borne out of†) ignorance or carelessness. 1. All the progress we have made to educate people about the hazards of smoking may be for not. The writer, perhaps unfamiliar with the term naught, assumed that the last word of the sentence is intended to denote negation rather than futility: â€Å"All the progress we have made to educate people about the hazards of smoking may be for naught.† 2. President Obama traveled to Cuba for a historical visit. A historical visit is one that occurs in history, though one should not refer to a visit this way; historical is superfluous. The writer meant to state that the visit is historic; that word means â€Å"of significance to history† (though it sometimes refers simply to something established or existing from the past): â€Å"President Obama traveled to Cuba for a historic visit.† (But shouldn’t it be â€Å"an historic visit†? No, because the correct pronunciation of historic is to sound the h, though many people, including me, believe it is easier to use an and treat the first letter of the following word as silent.) 3. His speech was a load of dribble. Some people seem to think that references such as the one here are to someone’s writing or utterance being worth no more than drool, but the correct word for foolish or silly talk (which can refer to slavering but is etymologically unrelated) is drivel: â€Å"His speech was a load of drivel.† 4. The list is virtually a whose-who of prominent community members. The pronoun whose has no place in this sentence. The phrase â€Å"who’s who† (the contraction is of â€Å"who is†) refers to a roster of notable people or things or summaries about them, or to such a group collectively: â€Å"The list is virtually a who’s who of prominent community members.† This usage- without a connecting hyphen- stems from publications with titles modeled on the phrase, such as Who’s Who in American Art. 5. Where does the US Jewish population predominately live? Predominate is a verb; the correct adjectival and adverbial forms are predominant and predominantly: â€Å"Where does the US Jewish population predominantly live?† Want to improve your English in five minutes a day? Get a subscription and start receiving our writing tips and exercises daily! Keep learning! Browse the Common Mistakes category, check our popular posts, or choose a related post below:Yours faithfully or Yours sincerely?When to Form a Plural with an Apostrophe40 Idioms with First

Avro Lancaster Bomber in World War II

Avro Lancaster Bomber in World War II The Avro Lancaster was a heavy bomber flown by the Royal Air Force during World War II. An evolution of the earlier and smaller Avro Manchester, the Lancaster became one of the backbones the RAFs nighttime bombing offensive against Germany. Possessing a large bomb bay, the aircraft proved capable of carrying a variety of exceptionally heavy weapons including Grand Slam and Tallboy bombs. The Lancaster was also adapted for special missions such as the Dambuster Raid (Operation Chastise) in 1943. During the course of the war, over 7,000 Lancaster were built with approximately 44%lost to enemy action. Design and Development The Lancaster originated with the design of the earlier Avro Manchester. Responding to Air Ministry Specification P.13/36 which called for a medium bomber capable of being used in all environments, Avro created the twin-engine Manchester in the late 1930s. Similar in appearance to its later cousin, the Manchester utilized the new Roll-Royce Vulture engine. First flying in July 1939, the type showed promise, but the Vulture engines proved highly unreliable. As a result only 200 Manchesters were built and these were withdrawn from service by 1942. As the Manchester program was struggling, Avros chief designer, Roy Chadwick, began work on an improved, four-engine version of the aircraft. Dubbed the Avro Type 683 Manchester III, Chadwicks new design utilized the more reliable Rolls-Royce Merlin engine and a larger wing. Renamed Lancaster, development progressed quickly as the Royal Air Force was engaged in World War II. The Lancaster was similar to its predecessor in that it was a mid-wing cantilever monoplane, featured a greenhouse-style canopy, turret nose, and a twin tail configuration. Built of all-metal construction, the Lancaster required a crew of seven: pilot, flight engineer, bombardier, radio operator, navigator, and two gunners. For protection, the Lancaster carried eight.30 cal. machine guns mounted in three turrets (nose, dorsal, and tail). Early models also featured a ventral turret but these were removed as they were difficult to site. Featuring a massive 33 ft.-long bomb bay, the Lancaster was capable carrying a load of up to 14,000 lbs. As work progressed, the prototype was assembled at Manchesters Ringway Airport. Production On January 9, 1941, it first took to the air with test pilot H.A. Bill Thorn at the controls. From the start it proved to be a well-designed aircraft and few changes were needed before moving into production. Accepted by the RAF, remaining Manchester orders were switched to the new Lancaster. A total of 7,377 Lancasters of all types were built during its production run. While the majority was built at Avros Chadderton plant, Lancasters were also built under contract by Metropolitan-Vickers, Armstrong-Whitworth, Austin Motor Company, and Vickers-Armstrong. The type was also built in Canada by Victory Aircraft. Avro Lancaster GeneralLength: 69 ft. 5 in. Wingspan: 102 ft. Height: 19 ft. 7 in. Wing Area: 1,300 sq. ft. Empty Weight: 36,828 lbs. Loaded Weight: 63,000 lbs. Crew: 7PerformanceEngines: 4 Ãâ€" Rolls-Royce Merlin XX V12 engines, 1,280 hp each Range: 3,000 miles Max Speed: 280 mph Ceiling: 23,500 ft. ArmamentGuns: 8 Ãâ€" .30 in (7.7 mm) machine guns Bombs: 14,000 lbs. depending on range, 1 x 22,000-lb. Grand Slam bomb Operational History First seeing service with No. 44 Squadron RAF in early 1942, the Lancaster quickly became one of Bomber Commands principal heavy bombers. Along with the Handley Page Halifax, the Lancaster carried the load of the British nighttime bomber offensive against Germany. Through the course of the war, Lancasters flew 156,000 sorties and dropped 681,638 tons of bombs. These missions were a hazardous duty and 3,249 Lancasters were lost in action (44% of all built). As the conflict progressed, the Lancaster was modified several times to accommodate new types of bombs. Avro Lancaster B.Is of 44 Squadron. Public Domain Initially capable of carrying 4,000-lb. blockbuster or cookie bombs, the addition of bulged doors to the bomb bay allowed the Lancaster to drop 8,000- and later 12,000-lb. blockbusters. Additional modifications to the aircraft allowed them to carry the 12,000-lb. Tallboy and 22,000-lb. Grand Slam earthquake bombs which were used against hardened targets. Directed by Air Chief Marshal Sir Arthur Bomber Harris, Lancasters played a key role in Operation Gomorrah which destroyed large parts of Hamburg in 1943. The aircraft was also widely used in Harris area bombing campaign which flattened many German cities. Special Missions During the course of its career, the Lancaster also achieved fame for conducting special, daring missions over hostile territory. One such mission, Operation Chastise a.k.a. the Dambuster Raids, saw specially modified Lancasters use Barnes Wallis bouncing Upkeep bombs to destroy key dams in the Ruhr Valley. Flown in May 1943, the mission was a success and provided a boost to British morale. In the fall of 1944, Lancasters conducted multiple strikes against the German battleship Tirpitz, first damaging and then sinking it. The destruction of the ship removed a key threat to Allied shipping. Upkeep bomb mounted on a Avro Lancaster. Public Domain Later Service In the final days of the war, the Lancaster conducted humanitarian missions over the Netherlands as part of Operation Manna. These flights saw the aircraft drop food and supplies to that nations starving population. With the end of the war in Europe in May 1945, many Lancasters were slated for transfer to the Pacific for operations against Japan. Intended to operate from bases in Okinawa, the Lancasters proved unnecessary following Japans surrender in September. Retained by the RAF after the war, Lancasters were also transferred to France and Argentina. Other Lancasters were converted into civilian aircraft. Lancasters remained in use by the French, largely in maritime search/rescue roles, until the mid-1960s. The Lancaster also spawned several derivatives including the Avro Lincoln. An enlarged Lancaster, the Lincoln arrived too late to see service during World War II. Other types to come from the Lancaster included the Avro York transport and the Avro Shackleton maritime patrol/airborne early warning aircraft.

Literature Response Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Literature Response - Essay Example The author introduces numerous characters in a strategic plot thereby developing a series of events and occurrences through the clever plot. Additionally, the author understands the essence of conflicts in sustaining stories. She introduces an antagonist and protagonist in the short story thus developing a story that provides a reflection of my life and the relationship between the members of my family among many other families in the society (Toth 33). Mrs. Louise Mallard, the key character in the short story who is also the protagonist in the story has a heart disease. This compels his family to care for her appropriately in order to cushion from any shocking news that would possibly kill her. The traits of the character coupled with her terminal illness are a resemblance to my mother’s situation. My mother suffers from high blood pressure, a condition the requires a dedicated care and effective handling in order to curb the occurrences of any undesirable uncertainties (Xudi ng 121). The author of the short story introduces and discusses numerous topical issues in the form of themes. Among the themes in the short story are family conflicts and death. Death is a natural phenomenon that refers to the end of human life. The occurrence of death causes pain to people who suffer from the loss of a beloved one. The reaction of people to the death of a beloved one depends on the nature of the relationship that existed between them. Death is a fundamental social occurrence in every society. The theme of death is evident in the society and in millions of families globally. I remember the death of grandmother, a woman that adored and raised me. The feeling was traumatic and I took several months to recover from her death.  

Object Oriented Programming is the main drain in project development Essay

Object Oriented Programming is the main drain in project development time due to its complexity - Essay Example Abstraction is simply defined as disregarding the extraneous functions, properties, or features and emphasizing the ones that are significant to the related program. Abstraction refers to taking the essential parts of the program and incorporating them into the program while putting away the parts of the program that may not be essential in the process of program development. Encapsulation in simple terms is summing up or rather putting together. Encapsulation is the way of assembling into a single object the data and the operations that affect the program’s data. Inheritance refers to the process of developing new and unique classes from the ones that have been existence. Inheritance also makes the new classes to acquire the attributes and behaviour of the previous classes. (Svenk 2003, p232.) The new attributes and behaviour of the former classes are incorporated into the new classes so as to suit their requirements. Inheritance may be either single or partial. Polymorphism is the capability of the program developed to perform similar operations on different types of objects. Each operation is implemented in a way that is apt to the objects that are in use in the program. Object oriented programming bundles procedures and data structures so that an object which is an illustration of class is able to operate on its own data structure. Polymorphism degree that is allowed varies and is of three major flavours referred to as parametric polymorphism, function overloading and sub-typing polymorphism. Parametric polymorphism allows the description of a class or function to be conceptual with respect to some set of types and is predominantly essential when describing abstract data type objects such as lists, arrays, queues, stacks, hash maps trees, graphs, and sets. Data stored in all these abstract data types is stored in a neutral way and is specified parametrically thus allowing the re-usability of the data. Parametric polymorphism allows a single function definition to be used with arguments of varying types. Parametric polymorphism is particularly useful in structural modelling due to the substantial number of parametric polymorphic modules. Function overloading allows the program to modify a function computation based on the types of its arguments as well as allowing a single function to be defined with many signatures. Function overloading helps improve the re-usability by increasing the applicability of the components involved thereof. It helps improve the applicability of the program in different fields since it can be applied in various modules seeing that the components are re-usable. The natural extension of functional overloading is to allow a component to identify various type signatures for its ports in the structural domain. Sub-typing is in such a manner that it allows a value of one type to be used in a place where a value of another type is a requirement so long as the first type is a subtype of the latter. This means that in function call, it is possible for data whose types are subtypes of the function types to be

Hirschi Social Control Theory Essay Example for Free

Hirschi Social Control Theory Essay I agree with Hirchi’s Theory to a certain extent only. This is because I believe it is not applicable to all people and to all situations. Yes, it may be true that when a person, as early as his childhood, conforms to fit into groups and find his place, he will probably be a person who is responsible and law-abiding. While we still have our own self-interests and individuality, we all want to feel we belong and mould our beliefs and involvements to form attachments. Also, as stated by Hirchi’s Theory, conformity is formed by four variables which we develop through our interactions with family and school, the four being: attachment, commitment, involvement and belief. For me, attachment and conformity to different social groups in the society does not guarantee a person for him to be less ready in committing a crime. Yes, a human being’s personality is partly formed by the environment where he is in—may be the attachment and conformity with his environment helps in molding a righteous and morally-upright personality. But in humanism, a human being has the absolute control to his life. He has free will and it is up to him how he will react to the stimuli created by his environment. In addition, psychologically, the formation of personality is still debatable whether it is nature or nurture. Nature says that a human being’s personality is genetic and on the other hand, nurture says that personality is molded by his environment. I think that some criminals can still be counseled psychologically targeting areas where in he has not yet matured and where he is still fixated—some of these may be the lack of attachment to social groups.

The World According To Garp Movie Report Essay -- essays research pape

It is very common to see a movie that has arisen from a famous novel, but there are some major differences seen when the transition from paper to screen takes place. The director of a movie has to try and fit a complete novel into an hour an a half to three our movie. Sometimes this adaptation works very well and the same points can be found if you read the book or watch the movie, but sometimes it does not work and some very major points and circumstances can be lost. In the World According to Garp the director George Roy Hill did a good job in fitting the major parts of the novel into the big screen adaptation. The movie, although a flop in the box office, received great reviews. One reviewer remarks, "The film bombed at the box office but remains an absorbing, if uneven work filled with intriguing--and eccentric--characters." (Jean Oppenheimer). The easiest thing to do when looking at the novel in comparison to the film is to look at what was left out. In Garp there were some instances that were changed for time sake, but nothing major was forgotten. The biggest change that I noticed when watching the movie is that they leave out all of the novels Garp writes. In the book we get to read passages from all of his books, but in the movie the only thing we know is that he is a writer and we never find out what he writes about. One of the major characters that was changed for the movie was a girl named Ellen James. Ellen James ...

Internal and External Constraints Facing Venetian Ices Ltd Essay

Constraints are laws, which the company must abide by. There are two different types of constraints; these are internal and external constraints. Internal constraints are those that the company controls their selves such as: * Availability of finance * Existing company policy * Peoples behaviour External constraints are decisions that are made outside the company’s control such as: * Government and EC legislation * Competitors behaviour * Lack of technology * The economic environment The internal constraints facing Venetian ices include: 1.Equipment Venetian Ices need equipment in order to produce their goods and also keep the ice cream frozen. So obviously they will need equipment such as freezers (to store the ice cream), new ice cream making machines in order to produce the ice cream for the customers. They will also need a mobile van, so that customers could get ice cream in different areas. Another equipment that Venetian Ices could have is packaging, this will be for customers who would want to buy a whole tub of ice cream from them. There are some problems, which may occur when replacement or extra equipment is needed. Venetian ices could in fact find themselves in a position where they are unable to afford the equipment that they would want available to them. In the case of additional equipment there may not be enough room on the sight of enough employees to operate all the machinery. 2. Financing the development of a Franchisee operation Venetian Ices must provide finance to their franchisees in order to get them started and set up in the business world. Venetian Ices can get their finance from a number of places and ways. The first is retained profit, but that can possible prove difficult for them, as small companies such as themselves only tend to make a small profit. They can also get their finance from selling as much ice cream as they possibly can. Venetian ices would have to buy all the equipment and premised that they would require when they are setting up a business up and also paying all of the workers in their franchisee. This means that when a new franchisee joins at first Venetian Ices have to spend a lot of capital and get little back in return. 3. Staffing for Increased Production Output By increasing the number of staff it would increase the output of the company, but this will mean having to pay out more money in order to pay their new employees. Also they may have a problem with the size of the premises. There could be a problem with the amount of people allowed to work in the building, if there isn’t enough room for everyone they would have to employ less people then they would like. Some External constraints that may affect Venetian Ices include: 1.Raising finance How much finance Venetian Ices can raise depends a lot on the public who purchase ice cream from them and also investors who decide to invest money in the company. This could cause a problem though because in winter ice cream is less popular and a whole lot less people would come and purchase ice cream during the cold period. This could therefore mean investors will not want to invest in an ice cream company, which for part of the reason will not raise much finance. 2. Planning Permission If Venetian Ices decided they wanted to expand their premises or decide to build new premises for their company, they would require planning permission from the local council or the government. If Venetian Ices did decide to go ahead with an extension or the building of a new building without a contract from the authorities then they could be taken to court and forced to abandon work on their new premises completely. 3. Franchising Venetian Ices do not have complete control over its franchisees, as the franchiser does not always check them on. This can mean that franchisees may run the business against the company policy and use different and methods. For example if the franchisee trains the staff in how to recruit then the staff must do exactly as they are told to, if they recruit people in a different way or people who Venetian Ices don’t want. This could lead to the company having a bad reputation. 4. Law Venetian Ices must follow and work by all the laws. There has being laws set about methods of employment, training, European regulations and also food which would defiantly apply to Venetian Ices. These laws can be checked often by government inspectors. 5. Tourism Tourism is a big market for Venetian Ices as they make up a large percentage of customers in some areas where there are mobile and ice cream parlours. Tourist also often purchases goods on impulse. However, Venetian Ices cannot insure that the number of tourists in a certain area will remain the same all the time. 6. Foot and Mouth Disease Another outbreak of foot and mouth can cause serious problems for Venetian Ices. Foot and Mouth affect cows, which Venetian ices, depends on for its main ingredient, which is milk. Another foot and mouth epidemic breaking out would make it hard obtaining the milk and also getting it transported as certain areas of the countryside would be shut off, therefore making transportation hard. Foot and mouth can also cause tourism to drop in certain areas and possibly even close. This would lead Venetian Ices in an awful position in them areas affected by foot and mouth. There could possibly be people who would want to stay away from the ice cream due to foot and mouth.

Advantages and Disadvantages of Internet †Essay Essay

INTRODUCTION Internet has become the most ever powerful tool for man throughout the world. The internet is a collection of various services and resources. Although, many people still think e-mail and World Wide Web as the principle constituents of internet, there is lot more in store than e-mail, chat rooms, celebrity web sites and search engines. It also became the best business tool of modern scenario. Today internet has brought a globe in a single room. Right from news across the corner of the world, wealth of knowledge to shopping, purchasing the tickets of your favorite movie-everything is at your finger tips. Internet has great potential and lot to offer†¦ however, like every single innovation in science and technology, internet has its own advantages and disadvantages. ADVANTAGES 1) COMMUNICATION: You can communicate with other through Internet around the world. You can talk by watching to one another; just you are talking with your friends in your drawing room. For this purpose, different services are provided on the Internet such as; * Chatting * Video conferencing * E-mail * Internet telephony etc 2) SHARING INFORMATION: You can share information with other people around the world. The scientist or researchers can interact with each other to share knowledge and to get guidance etc. Sharing information through Internet is very easy, cheap and fast method. 3) COLLECTION OF INFORMATION: A lot of information of different types is stored on the web server on the Internet. It means that billions websites contain different information  in the form of text and pictures. You can easily collect information on every topic of the world. For this purpose, special websites, called search engines are available on the Internet to search information of every topic of the world. The most popular search engines are altavista.com, search.com, yahoo.com, ask.com etc. The scientists, writers, engineers and many other people use these search engines to collect latest information for different purposes. Usually, the information on the Internet is free of cost. The information on the Internet is available 24 hours a day 4) SEARCHING PURPOSE: Students and children are among the top users who surf the Internet for research. Today, it is almost required that students should use the Internet for research for the purpose of gathering resources. Teachers have started giving assignments that require research on the Internet. Almost every coming day, researches on medical issues become much easier to locate. Numerous web sites available on the net are offering loads of information for people to research diseases and talk to doctors online at sites such as, America’s Doctor. During 1998 over 20 million people reported going online to retrieve health information. 5) ENTERTAINMENT: Entertainment is another popular raison d’à ªtre why many people prefer to surf the Internet. In fact, media of internet has become quite successful in trapping multifaceted entertainment factor. Downloading games, visiting chat rooms or just surfing the Web are some of the uses people have discovered. There are numerous games that may be downloaded from the Internet for free. The industry of online gaming has tasted dramatic and phenomenal attention by game lovers. Chat rooms are popular because users can meet new and interesting people. In fact, the Internet has been successfully used by people to find lifelong partners. When people surf the Web, there are numerous things that can be found. Music, hobbies, news and more can be found and shared on the Internet. 6) NEWS: You can get latest news of the world on the Internet. Most of the newspapers of the world are also available on the Internet. They have their websites from where you can get the latest news about the events happening in the world. These websites are periodically updated or they are immediately updated with latest news when any event happens around the world. 7) SERVICES: Many services are now provided on the internet such as online banking, job seeking, purchasing tickets for your favorite movies, guidance services on array of topics engulfing the every aspect of life, and hotel reservations. Often these services are not available off-line and can cost you more. 8) E-COMMERCE: Ecommerce is the concept used for any type of commercial maneuvering, or business deals that involves the transfer of information across the globe via Internet. It has become a phenomenon associated with any kind of shopping, almost anything. You name it and Ecommerce with its giant tentacles engulfing every single product and service will make you available at your door steps. It has got a real amazing and wide range of products from household needs, technology to entertainment. 9) ONLINE EDUCATION: Internet provides the facility to get online education. Many websites of different universities provide lectures and tutorials on different subjects or topics. You can also download these lectures or tutorials into your own computer. You can listen these lectures repeatedly and get a lot of knowledge. It is very cheap and easy way to get education. 10) ONLINE RESULTS: Today, most of the universities and education boards provide results on the Internet. The students can watch their results from any part of country or world. 11) ONLINE AIRLINES AND RAILWAY SCHEDULES: Many Airline companies and Pakistan Railway provide their schedules of flights and trains respectively on the Internet. 12) ONLINE MEDICAL ADVICE: Many websites are also available on the Internet to get information about different diseases. You can consult a panel of online doctors to get advice about any medical problem. In addition, a lot of material is also available on the Internet for research in medical field. DISADVANTAGES 1) THEFT OF PERSONAL INFORMATION: If you use the internet, you may be facing grave danger as your personal information such as name, address, credit card number etc. can be accessed by other culprits to make your problems worse. 2) SPAMMING: Spamming refers to sending unwanted e-mails in bulk, which provide no purpose and needlessly obstruct the entire system. Such illegal activities can be very frustrating for you, and so instead of just ignoring it, you should make an effort to try and stop these activities so that using the internet can become that much safer. 3) VIRUS THREAT: Virus is nothing but a program which disrupts the normal functioning of your computer systems. Computers attached to internet are more prone to virus attacks and they can end up into crashing your whole hard disk, causing you considerable headache. 4) PORNOGRAPHY: This is perhaps the biggest threat related to your children’s healthy mental life. A very serious issue concerning the Internet. There are thousands of pornographic sites on the Internet that can be easily found and can be a detrimental factor to letting children use the Internet. Though, internet can also create havoc, destruction and its misuse can be very fatal, the advantages of it outweigh its disadvantages. 5) INTERNET CAN BY ADDICTIVE: Some people just can’t live without it. They have no real friends and when Internet is down they are getting furious. Internet has some opponents but more and more people treats Internet like telephone, or radio. They use it for fun and work, and I think at present living without internet would be quite difficult. 6) FILTRATION OF INFORMATION: When a keyword is given to a search engine to search information of a specific topic, a large number of related links a displayed. In this case, it becomes difficult to filter out the required information. 7) ACCURACY OF INFORMATION: A lot of information about a particular topic is stored on the websites. Some information may be incorrect or not authentic. So, it becomes difficult to select the correct information. Sometimes you may be confused. 8) WASTAGE OF TIMES: A lot of time is wasted to collect the information on the Internet. Some people waste a lot of time in chatting or to play games. At home and offices, most of the people use Internet without any positive purpose. 9) ENGLISH LANGUAGE PROBLEMS: Most of the information on the Internet is available in English language. So, some people cannot avail the facility of Internet

The Natural Environment in Historical Rural England and Wales

The Natural Environment in Historical Rural England and Wales The historic natural environment has vast worth as an educational resource, both as a learning experience in its own right and as an instrument for other disciplines. Whether at school, in higher education or later in life, the fabric of ancient times represents an immense reservoir of information and learning prospects. This is as true of the oldest archaeological remains as it is of buildings of the last fifty years. They can provide insight into the individuals and the institutions that produced them and occupied them and about the societies they served.From prehistoric monuments to great country houses, from medieval churches to the towns of the Industrial Revolution, England and Wales are rich in historical evidence. The natural environment of rural England and Wales changed drastically over the period in discussion. Though their paths sometimes diverged and the two countries experienced some dissimilar growth and diversification patterns, the inhabitants and migrants of both th ese areas caused many similar changes; both settled into rural agricultural practices, clearing much of the open land and woodland for farming purposes.As well, climate changes oftentimes affected both countries in a similar fashion. From Neolithic times deforestation, extensive farming, grazing, enclosures, the creation of tracks and the coppicing of woodlands have radically transformed the landscape.The Neolithic EraThe Neolithic era is a time period during which people began to settle into small communities, dismissing their pre-existence as nomadic hunter-gatherers and embarking on agriculture and farming as a way of life. Near 4000 BC, the concept and technology of farming along with the first import of livestock crossed the Channel into England1. The progression from a hunter-gatherer existence to one subjugated by farming has in the past been designated the Neolithic Revolution. While there is evidence of swift transformations elsewhere in Europe, in Britain the...

Taiping Rebellion in Qing China

Taiping Rebellion in Qing China The Taiping Rebellion (1851-1864) was a millenarian uprising in southern China that began as a peasant rebellion  and turned into an extremely bloody civil war. It broke out in 1851, a Han Chinese reaction against the Qing Dynasty, which was ethnically Manchu. The rebellion was sparked by a famine in Guangxi Province, and Qing government repression of the resulting peasant protests. A would-be scholar named Hong Xiuquan, from the Hakka minority, had tried for years to pass the exacting imperial civil service examinations  but had failed each time. While suffering from a fever, Hong learned from a vision that he was the younger brother of Jesus Christ  and that he had a mission to rid China of Manchu rule and of Confucian ideas. Hong was influenced by an eccentric Baptist missionary from the United States named Issachar Jacox Roberts. Hong Xiuquans teachings and the famine sparked a January 1851 uprising in Jintian (now called Guiping), which the government quashed. In response, a rebel army of 10,000 men and women marched to Jintian and overran the garrison of Qing troops stationed there; this marks the official start of the Taiping Rebellion. Taiping Heavenly Kingdom To celebrate the victory, Hong Xiuquan announced the formation of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, with himself as king. His followers tied red cloths around their heads. The men also grew out their hair, which had been kept in the queue style as per Qing regulations. Growing long hair was a capital offense under Qing law. The Taiping Heavenly Kingdom had other policies that put it at odds with Beijing. It abolished private ownership of property, in an interesting foreshadowing of Maos communist ideology. Also, like the communists, the Taiping Kingdom declared men and women equal  and abolished social classes. However, based on Hongs understanding of Christianity, men and women were kept strictly segregated, and even married couples were prohibited from living together or having sex. This restriction did not apply to Hong himself, of courseas self-proclaimed king, he had a large number of concubines. The Heavenly Kingdom also outlawed foot binding, based its civil service exams on the Bible instead of Confucian texts, used a lunar calendar rather than a solar one, and outlawed vices such as opium, tobacco, alcohol, gambling, and prostitution. The Rebels The Taiping rebels early military success made them quite popular with the peasants of Guangxi, but their efforts to attract support from the middle-class landowners and from Europeans failed. Leadership of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom began to fracture, as well, and Hong Xiuquan went into seclusion. He issued proclamations, mostly of a religious nature, while the Machiavellian rebel general Yang Xiuqing took over military and political operations for the rebellion. Hong Xiuquans followers rose up against Yang in 1856, killing him, his family, and the rebel soldiers loyal to him. The Taiping Rebellion began to fail in 1861  when the rebels proved unable to take Shanghai. A coalition of Qing troops and Chinese soldiers under European officers defended the city, then set out to crush the rebellion in the southern provinces. After three years of bloody fighting, the Qing government had retaken most of the rebel areas. Hong Xiuquan died of food poisoning in June of 1864, leaving his hapless 15-year-old son on the throne. The Taiping Heavenly Kingdoms capital at Nanjing fell the following month after hard urban fighting, and the Qing troops executed the rebel leaders. At its peak, the Taiping Heavenly Army likely fielded approximately 500,000 soldiers, male and female. It initiated the idea of total war - every citizen living within the boundaries of the Heavenly Kingdom was trained to fight, thus civilians on either side could expect no mercy from the opposing army. Both opponents used scorched earth tactics, as well as mass executions. As a result, the Taiping Rebellion was likely the bloodiest war of the nineteenth century, with an estimated 20 - 30 million casualties, mostly civilians. Around 600 entire cities in Guangxi, Anhui, Nanjing, and Guangdong Provinces were wiped from the map. Despite this horrific outcome, and the founders millennial Christian inspiration, the Taiping Rebellion proved motivational for Mao Zedongs Red Army during the Chinese Civil War the following century. The Jintian Uprising that started it all has a prominent place on the Monument to the Peoples Heroes that stands today in Tiananmen Square, central Beijing.

Faith and Philosophy Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2750 words

Faith and Philosophy - Essay Example Likewise with Hegel, the notion of 'death' or 'is not' is always associated with its opposite, namely, 'being' or what is. To maintain that 'god is not' as Nietzsche argues, supposes too that she also is. Where some individuals are willing to risk their lives – to be 'what is not'', they must have faith in the reasonableness of this assumption. This parallel between Kierkegaard and Hegel will be kept in mind in the following analysis. What will be outlined first, is his notion of the truth of subjectivity in Kierkegaard. This is an important consideration for what will follow, given that it is an argument which best describes what existence ‘does not mean’, so to speak. It will be argued that his notion of subjectivity is born out of a sense of alienation from ‘traditional’ Christianity, and from Platonism, and that ‘faith’ itself is coextensive with ‘subjectivity’. Following this analysis of the truth of subjectivity, and wh at he means by subjectivity and the ‘form’ of isolation associated with the ‘knight of faith’. ... subject’, and it constitutes a theory concerning the meaning of existence – that is, what it means to exist, and moreover, it represents the activity of faith itself. In this respect, faith is not so much a concept as it is an activity or form of praxis. It is 'extra' philosophical or beyond philosophy in contrast with faith, as a form of praxis. The nature or essence of existence, is for Kierkegaard, ‘paradoxical’ [Kierkegaard 32]. It is paradoxical, because it can be described in two contradictory modes, namely, the finite and the infinite. And, implied by the notion of the infinite, are a number of similar or identical concepts. For examples, concepts such as the ‘eternal’, or ‘continuity’, ‘identity’ the ‘absolute’, ‘god’, and so forth. This paper will first give an analysis of a fragment in Kierkegaard’s within the context of his work titled Fear and Trembling, a work which recount s the biblical story of Abraham and Isaac taken from the Torah or the Old Testament (Genesis), and in brief, it concerns a father (Abraham) who is called upon by Yahweh or God to make a sacrifice of his only son Isaac, which is in turn, a parable which on the surface, concerns God’s testing Abraham’s convictions, courage, faith, obedience, and sense of obligation toward himself or herself. What transpires in this story, is that God calls upon Abraham to sacrifice his only son, and so he proceeds to carry out the task, only to have God or Jehweh stop him at the last moment and tell him that he has proven his ‘faith’ to him. In turn, God blesses Abraham for his faith. Before remarking on Kierkegaard, a brief remark will be made about the biblical story, and that is that it is quite short, and in the Revised Standard Edition (and not the Hebrew), there

Shall we dance Case Study Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Shall we dance - Case Study Example The ballroom dancing mostly targets the women who have a great interest and money to spend on dancing classes. The two business partners will offer global dance brands in an effort to promote the company Dance space into an excellent company (Griffin 584). The business idea has been implemented, and Tang starts to give the dance lessons and selling the video in various stores across Canada and Britain. The two have targeted about three websites for customers to mingle as well as download the earlier mentioned video with different varieties of dance videos (Griffin 584). However, the only limitation happens to capital since the company requires about 1.4 million dollars. The two have made an impression on Tim Draper who is an investor in various internet programs. The business partners hire a coach in preparation to meet Tim Draper but the coach advice them not to meet Tim since they do not have a well defined sales pitch (Griffin 584). The two had been now concentrated on the investm ents such that they forgot to come up with a solid sales pitch. On the meeting day, they give a performance and then discuss the prospects of the company. The two experts offer their arguments on the business preparation. Robert Herjavec disagrees with Beverly and Tang’s ideas and insists they should also target the young generation as well as the boomers are have no technologically awareness and using the websites cannot work (Griffin 584). Conversely, KO supports the ideas by the two but also insists that Beverly and Tang should revamp their language and that they should form different segments for different age groups (Griffin 584). Being a new company based on the interests of a given demographic group, the company owners need to analyze the external and internal S.W.O.T to come up effectively with a solid sales pitch. The company owners