Religion In Whos Afraid Of Virginia Woolf Essays -

Religion In 'Who's Afraid Of Virginia Woolf?' In Edward Albee's controversial play, Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, religion plays a major, yet often overlooked theme. There are constant references to God and Jesus throughout the play; in the third act, ?The Exorcism,? George recites the Requiem for the Dead, the Catholic funeral mass. Throughout the play, these religious references and the character of Honey come to symbolize the failure of religion. Albee added these references to point out the fact that although religion is and has been ubiquitous, it still gives no answers. Most of the references to God and Jesus are swear words; ?God damn,? and ?Jesus Christ!? and the like. Even though these interjections are not the typical ?reference ' to God or Jesus, they bring a sense of knowing into the play's setting. The characters know about God and believe in Him. Martha claims to be an atheist, but that is doubtful because she especially uses ?God damn' to get her point across, and she gets very upset while George is reciting the Requiem. She knows that God is there, but won't admit it. George recites the Requiem when his and Martha's son ?dies.' The requiem was designed to comfort those people whose loved ones had passed on, so that they could let go. However, while George is reciting the requiem, Martha is in hysterics! She can not let go of her ?son' and she is not comforted until George stops reading the mass. The character of Honey is somewhat of a paradox. She is the goody-goody preacher's daughter on the surface, with dark secrets held beneath. She grew up surrounded by religion, and it did practically nothing to shape her morals. She appears to be the sweet, passive, pious woman that many preachers' daughters grow up to be, but we see more of her as the play goes on. When Nick and George are talking outside for the first time, Nick reveals that he only married Honey because he thought she was pregnant. Honey knew she wasn't pregnant, she only wanted to trap Nick into matrimony. Not a very Christian thing to do. Also, she has been taking birth control and concealing it from Nick. There are three things wrong with that. First, birth control itself is against Christian belief. Second, withholding important information from someone who should know that information is considered lying within the Christian church. Third and finally, her selfishness goes against everything she should have lea rned growing up in the home of a preacher. Albee made and still makes a point in this play. ?Although religion is supposed to be the answer, it gives none.' That point is supported by every religious reference he added in. Every reference to God and Jesus being a swear word, the requiem causing grief instead of comfort, and finally the preacher's daughter being everything but Christian. Albee definitely got his point across this time.

Evolution of Canada During 1920 essays

Evolution of Canada During 1920 essays Throughout history countries have evolved over time and Canada is no exception. In the decade of the twenties Canadian woman were given new roles and esteem within society. In addition technology in Canada improved vastly during the 1920s and prohibition opened new doors for Canadian families. The 1920s were a time of advancement for Canada and its population at large. Much technological advancement were established During the 1920's. Canadas economy soared to new heights as results of these advancements. New inventions that were once unaffordable could now be enjoyed by the typical Canadian family. One such technology, the dial telephone became the hot item to own. With the first regular dial telephone without a crank appearing in Toronto in 1924. By the end of the 1920s almost three-quarters of Canadian homes have telephones. This is a big difference considering only one quarter of Canadian homes had phone at the start of the 1920s. The telephone not only served as a mode of communication but a mode of unification throughout the Canadian nation. Before the telephones wide spread use the communication between the east and west coast was a mundane and lengthy process. Thus the telephone allowed for a more efficient economic system by increase of trade and unification. Furthermore, the twenties marked the first production and widespread use of a utomobiles within the society at large. The Model-T was the fist car to roll off the assembly line, and into the hearts of the Americans and Canadians. By 1927, the Model-T was found on the streets across north America. The coming of the automobile created more jobs, better transportation, and more significantly, cultural changes. The use of the automobile much like the telephone also began to unify the Canadian nation, making it possible to interact, without using a steam engine train. The 1920s marked many exceptional change ...

Human Resource Management, Performance Management Assignment

Human Resource Management, Performance Management - Assignment Example An efficient reward system is linked with the system of performance development, which relies on the performance related pay and also offers sufficient role in encouraging the performance of teams, groups, and individuals. Variable pay also plays an important part in boosting performance basically of star performers rather than fixed pay packages. Not many award practices may take the shape of bonuses, gain sharing, team-based motivation, ESOP’s, profit sharing, and also equity-based incentive rewards. 1 An effective management of award system may be advantageous for the performance of employees in many ways. First of all, it will instill an ownership sense amongst all the employees and may also give long-term focus with continual enhancement, lessens service operating costs, highlights teamwork, and reduces the dissatisfaction among employees and improved employee interest in company’s financial position. Only some organizations award their employees for achieving new skills which may adjoin value to the performance of employees and therefore facilitate the process of cross training, job rotation, and self managed work teams. Some organizations also recognize the additional performance by giving recognition rewards and also huge merit rewards for the employee commitment and achieving long-term advantageous outcomes.2 Performance management is a systematic process through which any organization involves its people as individuals and also as members of group, in enhancing the effectiveness of organization in achievement of the firm’s goals and mission. The performance of employee management includes consistently monitoring the performance, planning setting and work expectations, developing performance capacity, and also occasionally rating the performance in a summary fashion. It also considers rewards for good performance. In 1955, there were revisions made by the Government for performance appraisal and also for rewards regulations to bolster the sound management principles.

Potential output of Georgia(country) Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Potential output of Georgia(country) - Essay Example Georgia are agriculture (12.5%), industry (27.9%) and services (59.6%).3 According to Georgia Economic Review (2009) the nominal Gross Domestic Product of Georgia has increased from 8,564 in 2003 to 19,070 in 2008. It means that in the last five years, the total increase in nominal GDP of the country is about 123%. The real GDP growth rate 2008 of Georgia is 2.1% which means that the output level of the country has increased. The global financial crisis 2007-2009 has lowered the GDP of many countries while the output of Georgia even during the crisis has remained positive. The value of nominal GDP shows that major increase in nominal GDP is brought by inflationary pressures and increase in the worth of goods and services; however, real GDP explicitly shows that a small increase in output of the country has been also seen. Georgia is considered as a country rich in energy resources. However, in 2007, the total oil extraction was 55-60 thousand tons which was very low as compared to the annual demand of 750 thousand tons.4 On the other hand in the same year, the annual consumption of electricity in the country was about 8.5 billion kWh while the country production was higher than consumption, thereby making Georgia a net electricity exporter.5 â€Å"It is the only country in the region (which doesn’t have its own gas resource) that was not affected by gas crises in January 2009 (Georgia Economic Overview).† Georgia has huge opportunities in hydro energy because of the construction of 500 kv power transmission line to Turkey, 78 MV Paravani HPP and 38 MW Mtkwari HPP. Surprisingly, although its hydro energy output is so huge however, only 18% of hydro potential has been used. The overall industrial production growth rate of Georgia in 2008 is -1%. The potential output of agriculture sector of the country has started to cover the wreckage caused by civil unrest. In the Georgian agriculture, winemaking is the major area however, since Russia was the major importer of

What are the effects of temperature on electricity demand in Essay

What are the effects of temperature on electricity demand in Sacramento, California in July and August 2008 in the daytime - Essay Example Moreover, positive linear relationships have appeared between the electric consumption and the selected variables of weather conditions. For proper planning of future investments in energy generation sector, policy makers require forecasts of electricity demand. The demand of electricity consumption in California has more than quadrupled since 1960. There are various factors, which are contributing to the increased energy consumption in California such as uncertain regulatory environment, swift population growth and economic growth. Apart from that, climatic change is another factor, which can also influence the electric consumption thereby, affecting the long term planning of electricity supply. Since climatic changes such as lower heating demand and higher cooling demand can directly influence the energy consumption in any economy therefore, this research study will evaluate its effects on energy consumption in Sacramento, California. This research will also assist the policy makers to analyze the extent to which the weather conditions can affect the energy consumption in Sacramento. Therefore, it will be very usef ul to meet the challenge of energy consumption demands in Sacramento. After conducting this research study, the answers to various questions will be achieved such as, what is the impact of weather conditions on electricity consumption? What are the affects of global warming on electricity consumption? The forecasts of electricity demand in an economy are made in consideration to the factors such as technological changes, income of consumers, population growth and prices. However, researchers have found that weather conditions variables should be also used to forecast electricity demand. A huge literature work has been done to study this relationship. In California, the population growth in the hotter interior regions of the state is causing growth in cooling demand, which

Reviewing The Siemens Information And Communications Network Information Technology Essay

Reviewing The Siemens Information And Communications Network Information Technology Essay Siemens Information and Communications Network are composed of several regional development centers around the world. One of those, located in Bangalore, India, was given the tasks of developing two large scale Softwares during the 1990s. The first of those, called ADMOSS (Advanced Multifunctional Operator Service System) was designed to facilitate modern call centers with some 500 features. The second one which followed after five years was called NetManager, it had a user-friendly, and graphics based user interface and some 6,000 features regarding administration and maintenance of EWSD network-nodes and networks. Both of these projects suffered huge deadlines-slippages, faulty design (at least initially), undetected-till-last-stage errors, embarrassment with customers and miscommunications between ICNs Munich headquarter and its Bangalores development center1. The following is an attempt to analyze the issues, their causes and possible avoidances for any similar projects. By the late 1980s Munich has recognized the talented human resource available in India. It was huge, both in terms of head-counts and knowledge. It was cheap, initially available at just 20% cost of a similar German software developer, which later in decade increased to 25%. It also had unmatched performance, in personal computers programming, in which ICN has deficiency in available human resource. Most ICN developers had worked on large systems and had little to no experience of personal computers programming. In contrast, Indian programmers have grown up experimenting with earlier version of desktops and laptops and by 1990s have reached level of expertise in some areas. Capitalizing on this resource, ICN decided to have the two projects done in India, in spite of huge cultural incompatibilities, language problems, physical distance and visa issues. The first project given to Bangalore was in no way any minor thing. It was made for existing and large customers of Siemens that heavily depend on it. It might be a non-optimal decision made by Munich but being risky it also promises huge benefits at end. ADMOSS had to facilitate telemarketing interface with non-Siemens equipment and handle large conference calls for example, among its other tasks. No surprise that at peak, 150 software developers were working on ADMOSS in Bangalore alone, in addition of local and German managers, testers and other supporting staff. The project was managed centrally by Munich, sending specifications for each of the subsystem to a high managerial level in Bangalore. This decision of central management was made perhaps due to initial distrust by Germans on Indians as it was their first encounter with them. In India, each subsystem was managed by a German or Indian manager who works with little co-ordination with each other. Once a subsystem is developed and tested locally is sent to Munich where it is integrated with the rest of the system. This method, though gave high power to Munich and enforced strict quality control has a design flaw, a programmer might be expert and identify flaw in the subsystem he has worked on, but cannot easily identify any integration errors. This method would have worked if Munich had a good size of its own programmers who tackle all the integration errors. The matters became more complicated due to the fact that the requirements of the software were not totally finalized at the start. While programmers are accustomed to run-time wishes made by clients given after the development has started and try their best to accommodate that, in large systems such as ADMOSS which also requires very large scale of precision (99.999% or five nines) its very hard to accommodate that once a system is already in development. While the project was being developed, a ray of emails and faxes kept coming with change requests resulting in inevitable design flaws and test failures. Later on, the developers had to work long hours to wrinkle out those design flaws to ultimately produce highly reliable software. If we try to find who is responsible for that, the blame comes on the marketing team in Munich that may have over-promised and was definitely not documenting and discussing every requirement with client. Some blame also goes to the client, who being a la rge corporation itself and had used software since a long time should know that run-time modifications often corrupt the project and requires heroic efforts by programmers to save the day. On one occasion, work on a billing application was stopped midstream after half a years work because of customers changing needs. Although this type of work interruption involved only 15-20 personnel at Bangalore each year, a programmer admitted to feeling de-motivated wondering about the intensity of miscommunication between Bangalore and Munich. This sometimes leads to the problem discussed later, high employee turnover, where programmers attempt to shift to those jobs where requirements are perceived as stable. Finally, there was problem of lack of sufficient attention given by high managers in Munich. In the words of a senior project manager, not all specifications were finished by our Munich office since we ourselves were not given enough time! Finally, when all two million lines of ADMOSS code was compiled together to create an integrated system, many problems surfaced. Major of them are: subsystems were found to be more interdependent on each other than desired, and, test criteria and tools were different in Bangalore and Munich. The first of these appears to be a shortcoming on part of developers in Munich who were responsible for integration of the subsystems and in a significantly smaller way on the subsystems developers in India. The second one, is definitely a management lapse made by Munich headquarter, the same test beds as used in Munich must be provided to Bangalore at the initial stage to ensure local error-testing and removal. That would have saved a lots of monetarily and temporal costs that the company had to finally bare. ADMOSS was finally released to the German customer at the end of 1996. As Hans Hauer, VP of Software RD put it, This was with some embarrassment because as Germans we expect delivery on time and with quality. The system turned out not to be fully stabilized and kept crashing. There were some minor problems too, like the user-interface being unprofessional, as the client commented, flashy and distracting, resembling video game interfaces, too technical style of documentation etc. When we analyze the causes of these problems a few things come up: first, the part of embarrassment due to delay is a fault of Indians but not much because at least six months efforts were lost not by any mistake of programmers but by a huge blunder made by client and sales team (discussed above). Second, the part of embarrassment due to delivery of a low quality product is fault of Munich who delivered a product not fully tested. Third, the inappropriate design of user interface is perhaps due to non-suffici ent communication about its requirements made by managers to the programmers. In absence of any stated and restricted user interface requirements, the programmers made the user interface as they liked it which of course not satisfied the customer. Fourth, Indians attempt to make documentation too technical for customer is perhaps due to language problem and cultural mismatches, which cant be blamed to any party. In spite of all of these issues, with time, the Indo-German team corrected the system faults and delivered a stable, working system to Munich. ADMOSS ended up highly popular with customers. The Bangalore site remained active with after-sales service, eventually correcting over 90% of ongoing faults. The second project given to Bangalore was called NetManager. It would be a user-friendly and graphics-based software product that would offer telecom customers a complete range of facilities for performing all operating, administration and maintenance functions on EWSD nodes and networks (e.g. integration of new telephone subscribers, billing, enable traffic studies to understand customer needs, and provide system surveillance etc among its 6,000 functions). Work at Bangalore commenced in early 1996 with an initial force of 30 programmers. The june 1998 pilot release involved some 300,000 lines of code and proved a hit at the customer test sites. Munich learned from the past project and gave Bangalore the same test-bed it was using so that developer can test the system as they develop it. By November 1999, Bangalore sent its complete NetManager Version 2 to Munich for testing. Typically Munich tested stability (or reliability) of new software installed by launching it on Friday afternoon and hoping to find no errors in the test log on Monday. NetManager Version 2, however, ran only one hour before crashing to a halt. A check of the test logs ultimately revealed a staggering 700 faults hidden at various points along some 600,000 lines of computer programming code, with 100 categorized as serious Level 1 faults. Initial trouble-shooting indicated that each fault could not simply be corrected individually, since each correction could create ripple effects across the entire system. A late November 1999 workshop in Bangalore involving managers from Munich and India tracked down the root cause of quality problems. As it turned out, the Indian group assumed, as in the case of most desktop computing applications, that the system would be shut off at night, and that it was acceptable for a desktop-based computer system to crash once a week. This assumption was further reinforced by an understanding that operation of the EWSD switch itself would not depend on NetManager. Furthermore, the Indian team underestimated system usage by an entire order of magnitude. We were ignorant! admitted an Indian programmer, we didnt think of asking what loads to test with, but Munich were also at fault for not telling us! Some of these erroneous assumptions could ultimately be traced to different work schedules. In the crucial summer months, many Germans went ahead with their several weeks-long pre-booked family vacations, often without leaving contact information, stranding the Indians. During crisis periods, Indian programmers, in contrast, typically took only personal leaves of two or three days, and worked 70-80 hours per week or even more. Balanced against this, however the ongoing high attrition rate was in Bangalore. As we analyze the issues and their causes, it is found that although the requirements were stable this time, which was a huge accomplishment on part of marketing team and upper management, it was not fully communicated to developers. This can be traced to faults of middle and lower management. As was in the user interface design of ADMOSS, since requirements were not explicitly stated the programmers made their own assumptions which (like in previous project) didnt match the requirements of the company or the customer. Another cause was often unavailability of appropriate personnel at Munich for communication because at the most crucial summer season of development they are out on long vacations. They do so often without any means of communication left. In that case, a developer would either have to wait for the person to return (which was of course unacceptable) or make his or her own assumptions to continue with the development. The solution is either to reschedule the vacations time period to some less crucial months (lets say spring) or the person keep in contact with ICN through a phone. In case of a vacation trip to very remote location where telephone is unavailable, the person should call to company as soon as he reaches a near city or village with a telephone line. This lack of professionalism on part of Germans resulted in Indians taking no annual vacations, working double hours a week than they are paid for and taking the pain of late modifications in design and code. On part of Indians, the high turnover was a very big issue. Once a developer hop to a better paying job, almost entire computer code written by him or her immediately becomes useless for sometime until some other programmer decrypt it and in some cases even rewrite it. This may have resulted in delays and design flaws when somebody try to modify an already made design in his or her own way not thought by the original designer no longer in company. In January 2000, the NetManager was finally demonstrated to the client. Lots of errors came up. They were traced down to two root causes. First, the German testers presenting the software to the client were not well-prepared. Second, the test-bed provided to Bangalore by Munich in 1996 had gone outdated by now and was not the same test-bed Munich now uses or was used in the demonstration to client. Both of these causes can be easily traced to the faults on part of Germans. The testers had no acceptable reason for unpreparedness. The high management responsible for updating Bangalore with test-bed was ignorant towards this duty. We can conclude that, having worked together for well over half a decade the cultural differences between the two countries were handled well. With time Indians understood what is expected from them and Germans spent substantial time and money training its people to decode Indian communications. A German spent 3 years in Bangalore becoming expert in South Indian English accent and understanding of local culture and hidden meanings of phrases etc. But there is a limit to what humans can accomplish, the physical distance between Munich and Bangalore remained a reality, advent of faxes, telephone calls, emails and even video calls can never substitute face-to-face communication. Two developers working together on the same computer (as in Extreme Programming2) cannot be substituted with two developers chatting on an Instant Messenger (such as hotmail or yahoo) even if through Remote Desktop Sharing they can actually view each others computer screen and run actions on it. It is also learn ed that human conflicts in most cases can only be solved with real, face-to-face communication. In absence of hyper-fast physical transportation (such as one that reduce travel time between the two cities to less than one hour) and no visa restrictions the problems faced by ICN in development of ADMOSS and NetManager are very likely to raise its ugly head time and again.

J.B.Priestley’s play, An Inspector Calls :: English Literature

AN INPSECTOR CALLS The six long years of anguish and fear had ended and the people of Britain were just recovering from the effects of World War Two. J.B Priestly a writer, who at the time was fifty one, was deeply involved with the war being a member of the infantry, and only just escaped death on a number of occasions. After his experiences throughout the horrific war, Priestly picked back up on his career which started before all of the battling and turned his attentions to writing plays. His first play after the war was known to be ‘An Inspector Calls’, which was eventually published in the same year. The story involves that of different opinions and actions, and of regrets. The rich and celebrated Birling family are spending a happy evening together celebrating the engagement of Sheila Birling to Gerald Croft – a marriage that will result in the merging of two successful local businesses. Yet, just when everything seems to be going so well, they receive a surprise visit from an Inspector Goole who is investigating the suicide of a young girl. He questions each one of the family members and future family members in turn about the suicide of Eva Smith, and as the play unravels it becomes evident that each member of the family has been intertwined with her life. J.B Priestly uses his play ‘An Inspector Calls’ as a way of getting across his socio-political views. He believed that people of different classes were being treated completely oppositely and demanded that something should be done. One of the key ways he emphasises points thorough the whole play is by the dramatic techniques he uses. In the course of An Inspector Calls the Birling family and Gerald Croft change from a state of great self-satisfaction to a state of extreme self-doubt. The play is in 'real time' - in other words, the story lasts exactly as long as the play is on the stage. So, what happens in a comparatively short time to create such a dramatic contrast? How is the drama maintained and the audience involved? Probably the main and most obvious dramatic technique that J.B Priestly uses is through the characters. The characters act as J.B Priestley’s thoughts and actions, and his emotions are unveiled throughout the play via them. As one of the most important and main characters in the play, Mr Birling is used in many ways as a dramatic device. The fact he cares only about himself and his family and not about anyone else in the world. We know this to be true, as just before the inspector arrives

How Important Was the First World War in the Growth of the Labour Party in the Period from 1918 to 1924

Although the First World War played quite a large role in the growth of the labour party there were many other factors that contributed to their rise in popularity. Such as, the split of the coalition, the representation of the peoples act, and finally Clause IV. During the war the party was led by Arthur Henderson who was the first Labour MP to get into parliament and he played a great role in the War-time coalition. After a disagreement with Lloyd George in 1917, Henderson resigned from the War Cabinet. This benefited the Labour party because Henderson was able to focus of reorganising the party.This included being more efficient, more organised, the funding of the party was split efficiently and they drafted the Labour Constitution. This helped their growth because it gave them a lot of time to plan how they was going to work about gaining more support over the other parties and to be able to be and efficient stable party. However, the split of the coalition led to the unpopularit y of other parties because the British public felt that the Liberals and Conservatives were unreliable and not strong enough to run the country.The split of this coalition resulted mainly because of U-turns, failures and tension between both the parties. One of the examples of a U-turn was the breaking of pledges that the powers of the House of Lords would be strengthened. The last straw for the coalition was the ‘Chanak Crisis' which seemed likely to end up in a war with Turkey, and by this time many stable conservatives including backbench MP's say Lloyd George as a liability and the coalition was failing in its basic purpose; preventing the rise of the Labour party.As a result of their unpopularity, they were actually helping the Labour Party because the electorate was looking for a stable government that wouldn’t go back on their policies and almost cause another war because they didn’t want that. The Representation of the Peoples act of 1918, gave the vote t o more working-class people, including women over 40 who owned property, who looked for a ‘worker's party' to represent them. This was the Labour party helping them gain more voters because before you had to be a member of the overnment register or pay to vote, money which many working class people didn’t have. So when this act was brought in by Labour the workers saw they were there to help them and they obviously voted them so they had a better chance of improving their lives. The fact that the representation of the peoples act came about, meant that the electorate was a wider range of classes and they were more likely to gain votes from the Working-classes. Clause IV indicated a sense of direction and offered the electorate a doctrine that made them obviously different from other parties.The main difference between Liberals and Labour was the ‘socialist' nature of this clause. However, because the party was made up of Trade unionists and the socialists, the vag ueness of the clause worked to unite all the members of the party which disagreed on some things. This helped them grow in the sense that it showed they were committed to what they said they was going to do. it also showed the party was stable, due to no disagreements and everyone in the party was taken into consideration, showing a strength, unlike Liberals which were split into two because of different opinions.Overall, although the War gave Labour plenty of time to reorganise itself and stabilise itself, it didn’t increase its growth or popularity because everyone's focus was on winning the war and that was why the War-time coalition was made. However the mixture of the Labour Constitution, mainly Clause IV, the Representation of the peoples act and the failure of the Post-War coalition were very large factors in the growth of the Labour party, proving their stability and their aims to help a wider range of people, especially working class.

Why Presidents Use So Many Pens to Sign Bills Into Law

Why Presidents Use So Many Pens to Sign Bills Into Law Presidents often use several pens to sign a bill into law, a tradition dates back nearly a century  and continues to this day. President Donald Trump, for example, used several bill-signing pens on his first day in office when he put his signature on his first executive order,  instructing federal agencies to uphold the Affordable Care Act while also  working to minimize the unwarranted economic and regulatory burdens on American citizens and companies. Trump used so many pens and handed them out as souvenirs on Jan. 20, 2017, the day he was sworn into office, that he joked to staff: â€Å"I think we’re going to need some more pens, by the way ... The government is getting stingy, right?† Oddly enough, before Trump,  President Barack Obama  used nearly two dozen pens to sign that same legislation into law in  2010. Thats a lot of pens. Unlike his predecessor, Trump uses gold-plated pens from  A.T. Cross Co.  based in Rhode Island. The companys suggested retail price for the pens is $115 apiece. The practice of using several pens isnt universal, however. Obamas predecessor, President George W. Bush, never used more than one pen to sign a bill into law. Tradition   The first president to use more than one pen to sign a bill into law was Franklin Delano Roosevelt, who served in the White House from March 1933 until April 1945. According to Bradley H. Pattersons To Serve the President: Continuity and Innovation in the White House Staff, the president used several pens to sign bills of high public interest during signing ceremonies in the Oval Office. Most presidents now use multiple pens to sign those bills into law. So what did the president do with all those pens? He gave them away, most of the time. Presidents gave the pens as commemorative souvenirs to members of Congress or other dignitaries who had been active in getting the legislation passed.  Each pen was presented in a special box bearing the presidential seal and the name of the president who did the signing,  Patterson writes. Valuable Souvenirs Jim Kratsas of the Gerald R. Ford Presidential Museum told National Public Radio in 2010 that presidents have been using multiple pens so they can distribute them to lawmakers and others who were instrumental in shepherding the legislation through Congress at least since President Harry Truman was in office. As Time magazine put it: The more pens a President uses, the more thank-you gifts he can offer to those who helped create that piece of history. The pens used by presidents to sign important pieces of legislation are considered valuable and have shown up for sale in some cases. One pen showed up for sale on the Internet for $500. Examples Most modern presidents use more than one pen to sign landmark legislation into law.   President Bill Clinton used four pens to sign the  Line-Item Veto. He gave the pens to former Presidents  Gerald Ford, Jimmy Carter, Ronald Reagan, and George H.W. Bush, according to an account of the signing by Time magazine.Obama used 22 pens to sign health care reform legislation into law in March of 2010. He used a different pen for each letter or half letter of his name. This is gonna take a little while, Obama said. According to the Christian Science Monitor, it took Obama 1 minute and 35 seconds to sign the bill using those 22 pens.​President Lyndon Johnson used 72 pens when he signed the landmark Civil Rights Act of 1964.

Top Five Hardwood Killing Insects

Top Five Hardwood Killing Insects There are many insects that attack hardwood trees which ultimately cause death or devalue a tree in the urban landscape and rural forest to the point where they need to be cut. Here are five of the most costly and aggressive insects have been most troublesome to foresters and landowners.  We have ranked these insects according to their potential ability to cause both commercial wood product damage and aesthetic landscape degradation. The Top Hardwood Tree Killing Insects Gypsy Moth: The exotic gypsy moth is one of the most notorious pests of hardwood trees in the Eastern United States. Since 1980, the gypsy moth larvae have defoliated close to a million or more forested acres each year. The moth was introduced into the United States in 1862.The insect lays visible buff-colored egg masses as leaves emerge in the spring. These masses hatch into hungry larvae that quickly defoliate hardwoods. Several defoliations can frequently kill trees under stress.Emerald Ash Borer: The emerald ash borer (EAB ) is an exotic, wood-boring beetle discovered in Michigan in 2002. EAB is blamed for killing millions of ash trees annually and forcing regional quarantines on exporting  firewood and tree nursery stock in several states. This ash borer could potentially decimate arboricultural ash plantings and natural ash stands in the eastern United States.The EAB larvae feed on the cambial bark. These S-shaped feeding galleries will kill limbs and can ultimately girdle th e tree.  Infested ash trees exhibited a top-down crown dieback, dense sprouting from trunks (epicormic shoots), and other signs of tree stress including the yellowing of foliage called the ash yellows. Asian Longhorn Beetles/Borers: This group of insects includes the exotic Asian longhorned beetle (ALB). The ALB was first found in Brooklyn, New York in 1996 but has now been reported in 14 states and threatening more.The adult insects lay eggs in an opening in the bark. The larvae then bore large galleries deep into the wood. These feeding galleries disrupt the vascular functioning of the tree and eventually weaken the tree to the point that the tree literally falls apart and dies.Elm Bark Beetle: The native elm bark beetle and/or the European elm bark beetle is critical for the overland spread of Dutch elm disease (DED) and is worthy of being included in this worst list. The beetle does not critically harm a tree by its boring but  by transporting a deadly tree disease.The DED fungus is transmitted to healthy trees in two ways:  1) this bark beetle  transmits spores from diseased to healthy trees and 2) root grafting can also spread the disease when elms are tightly spaced. N one of the native North American  elms are immune to DED but the American elm is especially susceptible. Tent Caterpillars: The eastern tent caterpillar  (ETC) and forest tent caterpillars (FTC) are first seen in the spring in eastern U.S. deciduous forests. The ETC makes its nest in the fork of branches. The FTC actually builds no tent but is by far the most destructive of the two.The favorite food of tent caterpillars is wild cherry but oaks, maples, and many other shade and forest trees are attacked. The FTC can strip extensive stands of trees of all leaves. The attacked trees growth is affected.

Food mart Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Food mart - Essay Example Because the order quantity that he desired was not available at the closest store possible, Foodmart cannot be considered to have ripped Todd off by not having the correct amount of chocolate sauce on stock. Todd may not have been aware at the time, but Todd entered into a contract with Foodmart that contained several terms and conditions. This is not a special case; every customer who purchases items online need to be aware of all the fine details of the contract that they are entering into. For Foodmart’s online order contract, the customer cannot purchase items that were advertised for cheaper in print. In addition to this stipulation, the online sales contract states that orders placed online can only receive inventory that is available from the closest store in terms of location. Thus, Foodmart cannot be held accountable as they laid out all the terms and conditions in their online contract. If the customer chooses not to take notice of this, then it is solely the custome r’s responsibility and the company at hand cannot be held responsible. If the company chooses to reimburse Todd then that is their choice, but they have no legal obligation to do so. It may be to the company’s benefit to reimburse him once because he may prove to be a long-term customer. The benefits in this case may outweigh the negatives so it may be best to give Todd the benefit of the doubt this time only. If he is in a similar situation again, then Foodmart should advise him that there is nothing that they can do for him. Foodmart should try to avoid such a situation in the future by making its customers aware of the terms and conditions of any contract. This would avoid legal issues down the road and it would give assurances to a customer that everything will be done through legal means. Foodmart could make it easier for customers by writing its terms and conditions in simple and easy to understand words so that

Character Psychology of the Tale of Genji Essay

Character Psychology of the Tale of Genji - Essay Example The depiction of many relationships in this novel, particularly the relationship between Genji and Fujitsubo parallel several aspects of contemporary psychological theories. The theory of the Oedipus complex puts forward that males are inherently attracted to their mother while harboring a sense of aggression toward their fathers. This tension is palpable in many instances in the novel. A central motivation within the Heian court was for individuals to present a daughter to the Emperor or Heir Apparent in order to attain a higher degree of social status. Thus it was typical for the Emperor to engage in polygamous behavior. This process allowed his prestige to be more readily extended among people within the upper aristocracy (Tyler, 2001, xiii). In addition to the Empress, the Emperor had a number of Consorts and Intimates. A hierarchical structure was established with Empress holding the highest status with the Consorts and Intimates progressively lower in rank respectively. Genji is the protagonist in Shikibu's novel. As the Emperor's son, Genji was born to an Intimate that lost her father and had little political sway in the aristocratic circle (Tyler, 2001, xiii). ... Thus Genji serves the Imperial dominion as a senior government official (Tyler, 2001, xiii). While the novel contains many characters, including the women in Genji's life, the narrative returns to a focus on him. One of the main subjects in this novel is the nature of Genji's intimate connections and while he is involved in a number of relationships, there are recurrent themes that pervade the literature. Genji's mother died soon after childbirth and while he lacked the opportunity to know her well, he heard that Fujitsubo, his father's future Empress closely resembles her. Early in his life, Genji begins to adore her and later he has an intimate liaison with her from which their son will subsequently succeed to the throne (Tyler, 2001, xiv). This adoration for the mother figure of Fujitsubo will influence many aspects of Genji's future relationships. While he has relations with Fujitsubo, the nature of their connection is both discreet and brief. Genji is frustrated at the fact that he cannot attain or possess the embodiment of his desires as Fujitsubo is beyond his reach. Essentially, he attempts to recreate this special love in a young girl, Murasaki, who closely resembles her. Motivated by his desire for the mother figure, he personally grooms Murasaki to fill this role. When she becomes of age to marry, they are wed and she becomes the great love of his life (Tyler, 2001, xiv). Her death has a devastating effect on him. He becomes filled with hate as he cannot or will not accept the fact that he has survived her (Tyler, 2001, p. 761). His desire to live is largely diminished with the death of the mother figure. "Yearning too fondly for a twilight one autumn many years ago, I saw the end come at last in a cruel dream at dawn (Tyler, 2006,