Research Paper on Feminism

Research Paper on Feminism Introduction A feminism critique of science and technology springs out from the Foucauldian insights of the intimate relations between knowledge and power. Knowing the world is, through naming it, a way to control it, and it has real effects of oppression and control. Representations work on the represented, and thus, epistemology not only to an extent determines ontology, but by the same token it is a tool to change a world of inequalities. A feminist critique seeks both to unveil actual structures of inequality, such as underrepresentation of women in important and world-shaping  discourses of science and technology, and to criticise the culture of it, or the ideology, that invests it with meaning and hides power relationships. It is a project of criticising both the underrepresentation of women in science and technology, and the more or less dubious rationalisations and naturalisations of science and of womens place in it (see Kember 1996). Science and technology are extremely central areas for the production and use of contemporary knowledge. Both being matters of knowledge, they are social, cultural and historical entities, and not neutral or separate spheres from the rest of society. Feminist critics have called for a new and better successor science (Stanley Wise 1990), to replace what is seen as an essentially old, masculine, logo- and phallocentric one, and they have tried to say something about what this science should be. However, traps of essentialising the feminine have been lurking, in effect continuing the older preconceptions of essential qualities of woman. Alternative and non-essentialistic conceptualisations of the relations across boundaries of machine and body, human and animal were in the beginning not very sophisticatedly explored by feminists of the 70s and 80s. Via an increasing awareness to unpack problematic categories of `women and `technology, a more recent (80s and 90s ) direction of a postmodern bending of boundaries and shifting subject positions was explored by radical, post-modern scientists or feminists. Theorists such as Donna Haraway and Rosi Braidotti have tried to open up for a nomadic and embodied localised and contextualised definition of women and female experience, nevertheless keeping a political agenda for social change. I will reflect on their contributions to feminist criticism of science and technology after an outline of some criticisms that preceeded them. Feminism critique of science and technology Women have been underrepresented in what is criticised as being an masculine endavour, a dominating and totalising science. Western epistemology and its oppositions between mind / body, rational thought / emotion, culture / nature, man / woman, modern / traditional are hierarchically structured to evaluate the terms to the left as superior and there to control the ones on the right. Judy Wajcman (1991) delineates a history of feminist critiques of science and technology, and notes that since science, technology and medicine provide us with our icons of progress, we revere the rational over the emotional and judge scientific and technological development as an index of societys advancement. However, this century has ruptured our securities as to whether science endowes society with solutions or is itself the reason for destruction and crisis. A concern about gender, science and technology continues the scepticism, but is fairly recent. Early critique from the 60s and 70s questioned the meagre access of women to scientific institutions and revealed structural barriers that hindered their participation. They also turned their attention to questions of how science had been abused by men to suppress women, for instance by providing scientific support for biological sex roles. In this view, science produced knowledge consistently smothered in male bias, but could quite possibly be put to better uses in the right hands. In these case, the motive was getting more women into science and the unfulfilment were seen to lie in women themselves and how their motivations were wrongfully shaped by expectations to feminine `natural interests. Science itself was not the problem. A similar essentially value-free science was seen as a possibility for radicals in the 60s and 70s, but continuing Marxist analysis revealed how the neutral ideal of science was itself a piece of ideology shaped by history and power, being as much a figment of ideology as were the essentialisms that placed women as `unfit to do sober, scientific work. In the 80s, seeing science as patriarchal rose from problematisations of science within feminism itself. Whether science and technology was inherently masculine, or essentially neutral but male biased, it resulted in an inherent patriarchality and made feminists ask the question of how a science apparetly so deeply involved in distinctively masculine projects can possibly be used for emancipatory ends (Harding, ref. in Wajcman 1991:5). In each case, what followed were attempts to find out what a better science would be either an entirely new and feminist one or one cleansed of its male bias. In order not to just put more biological women into a masculine, power-driven and authoritiative science, science itself had got to be changed. Re-examining the scientific revolution and arguing that the emerging science wsa fundamentally based on the masculine projects of reason and objectivity, the dichotomies between culture and nature, mind and body, objectivity and subjectivity and public and private were seen as hierarchically evaluated and gendered in that the latter part were systematically associated with the feminine. (Wajcman 1991:5) Feminists have argued for a feminisation of science, for a new successor science to replace the old masculinist one. The problem comes when one argues against dominating, oppressive and exclusive ideologies of women-not-in-technology, and at the same time tries to ground a new and bett er science on perceived `feminist values, as opposed to the `bad masculine ones. The pitfalls of a continuation of dichotomies and essentialism are still there. Eco-feminists celebrated conventional qualities of the feminine of holism, care, empathy and being in tune with nature, and a psychoanalytically informed critique would posit that childhood separation put in men essential cognitive characteristics of establishing masculine power and identity through rigid control and separation between self and other thus shaping science into an objectifying power game. Haraways critique of feminism against origin stories Donna Haraway (1991) criticises feminism for continuing a just as totalising project of taxonomy of its own history and of women, as the ones conventionally conducted by Western science. She identifies traditions of `Western science and politics as being the tradition of racist, male-dominant capitalism; the tradition of progress; the tradition of the appropriation of nature as resource for the productions of culture, and writes that her Cyborg Manifesto is an effort to contribute to socialist-feminist culture and theory in a postmodernist, non-naturalist mode [] imagining a world without gender. (1991:150) She is deconstructive and radical in her criticisms of Western capitalism as well as of certain versions of feminism put forward by some feminists. They are both caught up in a dualistic world-view, where one either is or isnt, for instance, `woman, `black, or `human, and she points out that feminists have constituted themselves as totalities; how else could the `Western author incorporate its others? (160) A polyvocality, of feminisms and of women, disappeared into attempts to establish genealogies of essences. All such quests for essence are articuations of West ern humanisms inclination to origin myths, where an original state of balance, fullness and unity was disrupted. A project of changing the world would in this vein be to search to reestablish the unity and posit essential shared but subject to evolution or disruption features between people. Haraway blames both Marxism and psychoanalysis of positing such stories of initial bliss and following rupture. We can draw the parallel further to colonial and anthropological divisions between the West and the Rest, or modern and traditional society, where the project was ordering a messy world of the First Encounter through representation of the other. Walter Benjamins concerns with mimesis, alterity and modernity is, writes Michael Taussig, fully congruent with [] the (Euroamerican) culture of modernity as a sudden rejuxtaposition of the very old with the very new. (Taussig 1993:20). A dualistic world-view, where `traditional society sometimes seen as a lost Arcadia, sometimes as a savage earlier stage of evolution is in opposition to modernity, as staticness is opposed to change.Destroying the other simultaneously with conquering them is the colonialist legacy and goes together with the anthropologys world of a withering mosaic of tribes. Whether one sees modernity and Western science and technology as disrupting the world as breach of a unity between nature and humans or as the pinnacle of knowledge and the appliance of rational thought to lift the world from savagery and magic into Enlightenment and well-being for all what is common is a dualistic world view positing origin stories and which through hierarchy, control and difference subjugates nature and other Others. Feminist criticism have deconstructed the museums of scientific knowledge and the veils of naturalisations of womens subordination.The structures of what meaning is given to `feminine and `masculine change through time, history and discourse, and science and technology cannot be seen to be in any way set apart from sociological power structures and semiotic meaning processes. It is not so that power or economic structures determine meaning processes they influence one another, yet frequently cooperate to create ideology and underwrite hegemony. Getting out of ideology, of dichotomies that have shaped knowledge of the world and thus the world itself, doesnt happen quickly or painlessly. Difficulties with getting away from essentialising a feminine identity, thus continuing connotations real and symbolic to subjugation, illustrates this general point. However, there is still a feminist project. Defining femininity based on hierarchy or one shared experience of being `woman spurring a pan-global identity is out of place, but further unwrapping of the concepts of `man, `woman and `technology entails a beginning and a need for relativisation and localisation of definition and experience. The next step, reconstruction of a common feminine identity on which to base political struggle, have often stranded. Because in these attempts to recasts epistemology, they are out of touch with an ontological reality of different experiences, of a multiplicity of subjects who as a rule dont subscribe to just one identity and one identity fully. As Wajcman concludes (with Harding) there is no `woman to whose social experience the feminist empiricist and standpoint approaches can appeal; there are instead the `fractured identities of women' (1991:11). The fractured identities come from social experience of gender as well as of class, race and culture. That the Western / humanist / Enlightenment ways of viewing, dividing and ruling the world now should be well out of place, is illustrated in a delineation of the ontology of our contemporary world system, what Donna Haraway terms the informatics of domination (1991:161). A movement from an organic, industrial society or the White Capitalist Patriarchy to a polymorphous information system entails fundamental changes. Boundary-keeping absolute dualisms have been replaced by boundary-transgressing, relative positions in information systems. Science and technology lie behind blurrings of boundaries; biology and evolutionary theory questions the rigid division between human and animal. Information processing and reproductive technologies brings organism and machine, the physical and non-physical closer. These are deadly machines, because they are about the simulation of consciuosness. A crucial feature of biologics and communications sciences in the informatics of domination is their t ranslation of the world into a problem of coding (164), parallel to the general trends of world economic systems who depend on uninterrupted circulation of information. This radical rearrangement in world-wide social relations tied to science and technology entails that if it ever was possible to define the world and gain knowledge about it in dualistic and positive terms before, it certainly isnt now. In this system, connections and affinity takes over the roles of belonging and identity, and are both necessary and possible; The consequences of the informatics of domination on the home, workplace, market, public arena, the body itself dispersing and interfaced in myriad ways makes potent oppositional movements difficult to imagine and essential for survival (163) As a fresh, clean slate unmarred by culture and history is not available, how can existing cultural signifiers of femininity, of technology be put to use, not essentialising, but still focus on womens subjectivity and feminist politics? For Haraway, the figure of the cyborg provides a fiction to illustrate and put to strategic use in this process of survival. Cyborgs are wary of holism b ut needy for connection (151). An ironic political myth Donna Haraways cyborg, the figuration set up in A Cyborg Manifesto is first of all ontologically grounded: By the late twentieth century, our time, a mythic time, we are all chimeras, theorized and fabricated hybrids of machine and organism; in short, we are cyborgs. (150) A cyborg being a cybernetic organism, an interface of machine and organism, and we cannot separate ourselves from technology or science that produces it. Moreover, our ontological cyborg-ness gives us our politics. The cyborg is a fiction, an image, of humanness in a world where boundaries are broken, and the metaphor for a world of non-bounded entities, where shifting identities rise from positions in the matrices of economies, biologies and epistemologies. It is a fiction which is both imaginary and materially real. The informatics of domination is the life-world of the cyborg, and this world system is frighteningly feminising (making extremely vulnerable) work and people. Haraway sees the cybernetic system of informatics of domination as a massive intensificaion of social and cultural insecurity and impoverishment (172), without positing Marxist dualisms of base and superstructure. She thereby escapes a rigid understanding of domination and false consciuosness and can go on to look for subtler connections, emerging pleasures and experiences. The dualistic world-view mentioned before, incorporating Enlightenment science as well as Marxism, focus on modernity as loss or break from an earlier s tage of harmony, or savagery. It has serious problems saying anything about postmodernist experience other as further fragmentation, and is not the theoretical framework to articulate emerging meanings of contemporary practices. Haraway spots the lack of sufficiently subtle connections for collectively building effective theories of experience (173), but still sees hope if we are able to learn from our fusions and boundary-transgressions instead of just being made vulnerable by them. Western capitalism, science and technology have produced an illigitemate offspring, the cyborg. Being the typical entity of the informatics of domination, it embodies difference and transgressions and inhabits a possibility f or strategic, political use. Communications technologies and biotechnologies are crucial tools defining our bodies (164) and they hover somewhere between tools to embody new social relations for women and as myths enforcing essentialised meanings. Haraway, being a scientist hersel f, does not see science in itself as inherently or essentially masculine. The boundaries are permeable, the knowledge is constructed and technology are really social relations, and therein lies the possibility to navigate structures of knowledge to seize the tools that marked women as other (175). Bricolage seizing the tools Cyborgs were created in a complex scientific-technological industry of military and medical science, serving as interfaces to enhance control, vision and violence. Seizing these tools, using the image of cyborgs, means working against the science that conceives itself of making objective tools to work on the world to create disembodied knowledge and instrumental technology. Structures and idioms of oppression and dominance have produced the elements of cyborg imagery, but they can be put to alternative use. I would like to parallel this with the opposition between Claude Levi-Strauss ideal types Ingenieur and the Bricoleur. Levi-Strauss (1972) treated science and bricolage as being two different but parallel modes of acquiring knowledge, that is, epistemologies. The ingenieur is the one who makes new knowledge out of `nothing. His tools and concepts are transparent means to an end, removed from the concrete world, and they are not bound up in previous practice or attached with meaning. Of course, contrary to what western science would like to think of itself, the bricoleur can be spotted as well. He builds on old meanings and of structures of power he is creating knowledge out of fragments of meaning already found in the world. Bricolage was identified with magic and myth, and the bricoleur is adept in a large number of diverse tasks, even though the repertoire of tools is limited to whatever is at hand. They are finite and heterogenous and bears no relation to the current project. In discussing Haraways cyborg, it should be clear that meanings are given to gender, work and difference through the praxis of the social relations of technology in the informatics of domination. Mythical thought is a kind of intellectual `bricolage, writes Levi- Strauss, and Haraways cyborg is a myth about identity and boundaries made up of the remnants of industrial society and the continued capitalism of the informatics of domination. Levi-Strauss pinned the difference down to being compliant with literate societies versus pre-literate ones. The literate, scientific Western side is reflected in Haraways discussion of the writing and the name as being masculine and phallocentric. (175) Origin stories are phallocentric, but the cyborg writing is different. In a world where the boundary between the `primitive and the `civilized no longer holds, cyborg writing is not about searching for the perfect name of the singular work. To seize the tools that marked women as other to gain back a power to survival is the basis for cyborg writing, not original innocence. (175) Western science has been based on the ideology of the rational ingenieur who creates anew, while overlooking the continuities, the guesswork, the axioms of mathematical rules and discriminatory gender differences, overlooking the bricoleur in it who thrives on connotation, ideology and culture. Feminism critique of science and technology has helped revealing and debunking these structures, because they are dubious in their foundation and have excluded women from production of knowledge and technology. Assessing western science as cultural bricolage has been deconstructing its knowledge, in feminist and other critiques. However, stating that bricolage takes place, is not necessary to call for an abandonment of science altogether on the reason that it fails to live up to its objectivist claims. A bricolage does not result in pure relativism or subjectivity from lack of being objective, it is objective in its being intersubjective. In using the cyborg imagery in order to construct a n ew feminist science, we are not trying to search out a new monistically objective science, but using `whatever is at hand politically, ironically and pragmatically to create a new epistemology that values different experiences. If science has produced disembodied knowledge, or at least certainly told the story of objectivity and neutrality to itself, a new and feminist science is still possible according to Haraway. This is, as I have tried to show, grounded in old tools as well as contemporary experiences of fluid identities and contingencies. The cyborg is ironic and produces no monistic truth. Because it is a hybrid, it embodies difference, and the notion of partial perspectives provides a new basis of scientific objectivity, and this objectivity is enhanced, not weakened, by multiple standpoints and partial views. Sarah Kember (1996) points out that embodied knowledge incorporates experience, desires and politics of the self, and therefore cannot make universalist truth claims. It can tell of others standpoints as well as ones own, and recognise a multiplicity of equally valid feminist standpoints . They are put to the task of undermining existing epistemological structures and scientific hierarchical separations. Experiences of whom are named as `black, `lesbians, `old are embodied and can be told. Even though we try to avoid essentialising categories and names for peoples identities or differences it is quite possible to take these categories and names (`black, `woman) as a starting point, with the connotations they already have. They will include their own transgressions and contestations around labelling, escaping, meaning, identity and lack of identity, and become stories others can hear and share, and accept as some of many possible and equally valid feminisms and femininities. There i s no drive in cyborgs to produce total theory (181) but experience of boundaries, their construction and deconstruction. Donna Haraway argues against origin myths, dreams of original wholeness and future oneness. Cyborg politics is about revelling in boundary stories and transgressions, thus reversing and displacing the hierarchical dualisms of naturalised identities. Haraway stresses the cyborg subject position as partial, ironic and faithful to blasphemy. Cyborgs are always on the move, always embodying difference differently, and the only thing it takes for granted is irony. Irony mocks power and the dualisms in which we have explained our bodies and our tools to ourselves. (1991:181) Science and technology have pushed their projects to the limits, revealing the blurred boundaries of mind and machine. She takes inspiration from the anthropologist Mary Douglas, who explores the connections between bodily boundaries and social boundaries. Body imagery provides idioms for a world view, and is thus a political language and a narration of society itself. She is Durkheimian in that the rituals and boundary-myths are all, really, about society and its perpetuation and wholeness. Bodily inscribed notions of pollution, purity and danger is at stake in the maintenance of social boundaries, and in primitive society as well as in our own, bodily functions are socially treated; women are separated in menstrual huts, or they are being subjected to controlled choices surrounding conception and childbirth. The cyborg embraces the possibilities inherent in the breakdown of clean distinctions between organism and machine, and finds pleasure in these potent and taboo fusions. Science and technology needs to be positively recast not written off and the boundary-transgression involves being (in) the machine in opposition to what earth mothers and technophobic feminists think; machines can be prosthetic devices, intimate components, friendly selves. We dont need organic holism (Haraway 1991:178). The imagery of implants and oneness with the machine is motivated by a political need to reconcile women with science. Science is not going to go away, and it is useful in that it still can provide objective views of the world they give accounts of the world that can check arbitrary power (Penley Ross 1991:2). About longing for enchantment and unity Why introduce the image of the cyborg? As Judith Squires (1996) has pointed out, Haraways feminist critique is really sufficient without it; one can reject the homogenising strategies of grand narratvies and challenge the universal pretensions of modernist thought [] one can explore the possibilities of flexible, transitory identities without ever making recourse to cyborg imagery. (Squires 1996:206) She identifies the lure of the cyborg image as feeding the old will to transcend the bodily nature of the female and exist purely in the cerebral realm of individual autonomy. If Haraway herself never lost sight of the nitty-gritty of lived social relations (Squires 1996:207), her ungendered unconsciuos-less cyborg may be, as a myth and an image, too ephemeral to separate itself from an interpretation of a bodyless mind. The cyborgian transgression of boundaries entails both both pleasure and responsibility in their constructions, but it may seem that the construction that takes place n ext to deconstruction, and the political responsibility following affinities by choice could be overlooked. Separating good and bad cyborgs is essential to Haraways political project; cyborgs that mock and check power are good, and the military-medical ones are bad. But these boundaries are, ironically, themselves blurred. The cyborg as it is found in medicine and military technology and in popular culture (e.g personalities of science fiction such as Terminator, Robocop and the like) are quite different from Haraways ideals, and give rise to speculation. One is the fetishistic use of body- or vision-enhancing technology, reinforcing a hierarchical relationship between self and other (Kember 1996:240), and intensifying the old opposition between mind and matter. For cyberpunks, it is a matter of getting out of the meat, the complete opposite to embodiment of female experience. The breakdown of boundaries is at issue here as well, but results in a pleasurable reinforcement of them instead of transgressing them to redefine difference. That [the simultaneity of] the breakdown of clean distinc tions between organism and machine and similar distinctions structure in the Western self [] cracks the matrices of domination and opens geometric possibilities (Haraway 1991:174), that is somewhat inherent contradictions and paradoxes in the informatics of domination, give rise to speculations of a feminine revenge of technology on human patriarchy. Associations of the female to the technological matrix (which is the word for the webs of interconnected pieces of information technology as well as having the etymologies of `mother and `womb (Springer 1991:306)) and a natural force is known from ecofeminism as well as industrialisms linking of women to machines capable of vast, uncontrollable destruction (Springer 1991). `Old, industrial age paradoxes of fear and love for technology are analogue to the paradoxical status of the image of the cyborg in the information age, and the object of the thrill and the fears has shifted from huge, thrusting machines to sleek microchips and the th rill of control over information [and] the thrill of escape from the confines of the body. As such, cyborg imagery serves to reinforce patriarchy, and as Claudia Springer goes on to note in an essay critical of the masculinist phantasies and the pleasure of the interface, uncertainty is a central characteristic of postmodernism and the essence of the cyborg. But [] patriarchy continues to uphold gender difference. (Springer 1991:310) Haraways political myth is apparently still waiting to become reality. There is a danger in the production of myths and ideals, navigating in popular and scientific culture to put existing signifiers in new relations. That problem is of course that the project fails, in that old meanings that structures old social relations persist. The evoking of an elusive concept, urging it to be employed without giving any strict recipies is of course a great asset, and provides goods to think with. Being a Manifesto, Haraways article throws out new idea(l)s, and avoiding gendering her cyborg, or providing it with an unconscious, she escapes a couple of essentialisms of `women and identity. The paradoxical nature of the cyborg is, as Constance Penley puts it a suggestive and productive one, but she and Andrew Ross, in an interview with Donna Haraway (1991) wonder how a philosophy of partialism can become beat mainstream sciences promise for completion and become popular for people who want to resolve a sense of loss or absence in their lives. Popular culture seems t o be more about looking for identity and wholeness than what vanguard theorists see as contingencies. Haraway still rejects holisms as denying mortality and a deadly fantasy (PenleyRoss 1991:16), but considers the question perhaps to be related to ones of psychoanalysis which she in her Manifesto excluded from the image of the cyborg. However, in retrospective, she reconsiders the limitations of both the ungenderedness and the absence of an unconscious from her cyborg. She admits that a resistance towards psychoanalysis perhaps made the unconscious disappear when it was really the Oedipal stories about split subjects she wanted to avoid. An unconscious may account for a lived subjectivity and would add to the genderless cyborg a differentiation on the basis of sexuality, which could add a bit more `meat, as it were, on the ideal cyborg. As Jaqueline Rose points out, the feminine unconscious is not a given original harmonious state then ruptured and split it is a constant `failure endlessly repeated and relived moment by moment throughout our individual histories. Coupling feminism and psychoanalysis, she holds that feminisms affinity with psychoanalysis rests above all with this recognition that there is a resistance to identity at the very heart of psychic life (Rose 1986:91). While Haraway resists the Oedipal stories because their persuasive power and their stories are all to familiar and the narratives of the unconscious much too conservative, muych too heterosexual, much to familial, much too exclusive (PenleyRoss 1991:9), she would be open for more localised and alternative Oedipal stories. Braidotti the nomad Rosi Braidotti takes inspiration from Haraways cyborg in developing her own `nomadic subject as another feminist figuration, but in contrast to Haraways cyborg, the nomad is equipped with gender and an unconscious. Her nomadic consciousness is one feminists should cultivate, and it develops the notion of a corporeal materiality by emphasizing the embodied and therefore sexually differentiated structure of the speaking subject. (Braidotti 1994:3) Braidotti thus adds body and sexuality to the cyborg, and in stressing that the nomadic project allows for internal contradicyiton and attempts to negotiate between unconscious structures of desire and consciuos political choices, she equips it with a psychoanalytic unconsious, which consequently lets the nomadic thinking take in consideration of the pain involved in processes of change and transformation (1994:31). Change is desired, and to slowly transform representations, her method is to repeat them, to mime them. She evokes Levi-Strauss bricolage as an ideal method, also providing a way to transdisciplinarity crossing the borders of phallocentric, monistic sciences. Her bricolage steals notions and concepts lying around from earlier contexts, and deliberately uses them outside those contexts. The mimesis involved in the reworking of established representation will expose them and consume them from within. The mimesis is a praxis of as if, based on the subversive potential of repetitions. Michael Taussig evokes the mimesis as a kind of sympathetic magic defined in the late 19th century by James Frazer in his huge ethnological synthesis The Golden Bough and captured in the notion that In some way or another one can protect oneself from the spirits by portraying them (Taussig 1993:1). A need to set up a discontinuity, grab and hold, and then to scrutinise and reactivate a strange culture in ones own terms is the anthropological Western mimetic project. As explained by Michael Taussig, mimesis is a double process of reification-and-fetishization (Taussig 1993:13), of copying a unique existence and bring it in contact with ones own body, and [t]he ability to mime, and mime well [] is the capacity to Other (1993:19). For Braidotti, the project is to Other back because the copy is not just a copy, but reveals and displays connections and details never seen before, as in the photograph, it is a power tool. It is also a project of positive mimesis, of recreation and new co nstruction of positive feminist nomadic figurations. The knowledge / power relation is still at work in Braidottis mimetic ventures; in the chapter Mothers, Monsters and Machines (1994), she states her nomadic style is best suited to make adequate representations of female experience. To mime representations without regard for disciplinary boundaries, she conjures up a history of intersecting historic conceptualisations of women, and treats them as discourses, not definite objects. The normative and controlling association of female difference with negative, monstrous, deviant distance is analysed, and Braidotti thus uncovers ideologies of essentialism, the ascriptions of womens monstrosity out of lack, displacement; as sign of the in between areas, of the indefinite, the ambiguous (1994:83). Evoking machines, Braidotti shows that the conceptualisations of negative female otherness were embedded in scientific, political and discursive field of technology, and adding biotechnology, t odays links between the mother, the monster and the machine becomes obvious. Thus, she has traced historical roots to contemporary manipulation of life and mechanizing of the matenal function and images of the feminine in relation to reproductive and bio-technology. Conclusion Feminist critiques of science and technology have struggled with old essentialist concepts of womanhood. References to nature and sexuality are never unproblematic as they are always embedded and made by social relations of power and work. The task has been shown to be to go to work on epistemology, through deconstructing ideologies of gender and technology. Hopes for a feminist successor science have been problematic, in that science itself has been held by many to embody patriarchial ideas of power and monolithic knowledge. Even though a common experience of woman has not been defined, a common sense of marginalisation and of not being happy about the ascribed categories of identity lies behind any attempt to reconstruct feminism and science. Haraways cyborg is a good tool to think with, in that it stresses radical irony and faithlessness in established scientific projects that can be seen to threaten the survival of humans (as well as animals). It is grounded on a hope for a bette r science, not one that produces more knowledge, more data, but one which uncovers power structures awaiting a genderless society. As such, it is problematic and Utopian. Genderless cyborgs are not real cyborgs, but ideals. Braidottis additions of sexuality and the unconscious can in addition to writing similar revealing stories as the cyborg ones, account for lived experiences of subjectivity, of sexuality, of bodies and of the double desire and fear of change. Both represent blueprints for more stories situated, `thick, speculative, ethnographic or autobiographic accounts that ironically and non-essentially can rework representations of women. The figurations of cyborgs and nomadic subjects are often vague and cannot be discovered without a context of cultural discourse of technology and womanhood. Some, such as Haraway and Braidotti excel on mapping them out, but finding concrete embodiments of a sort of ideal cyborg is rather hard. The issue is not about making perfect heroes, but illuminating aspects of subjective experience of being a woman (or something differently gendered or othered) in a technological society. Social relations of science and technology form knowledge about the world and they also provide metaphors and reference points for drawing out a postmodern map of categories, sex and difference. Laurie Anderson is mentioned both by Kember as a nomad who is perhaps as close to being a cyborg as anyone[243] and by Braidotti as a great example of effective parodic nomadic style, in the as-if mode. Her incorporation of high technology into subjective stories about attempts to gain control and backfiring, being a humorous prankster reversing situations and people as well as telling stories of loss, her deceptively simple performances and texts embodies one way of telling cyborg stories.

Swath vs. Swatch

Swath vs. Swatch Swath vs. Swatch Swath vs. Swatch By Maeve Maddox A reader sent me this extract, asking if it might provide material for a post topic: Charles Darwin did a fine job of showing why his theory of evolution explained the living world better than any creationist ideas could, and evidence has piled up ever since, but a swatch of the American public remain unconvinced. The reader was referring to the use of swatch where the context calls for swath. The example appeared in Forbes Magazine. The editors there have since corrected swatch to swath and even include the following addendum: â€Å"An earlier version of this story contained a typo in the word swath.† Unfortunately, about 172 other sites, which copied part or all of the original Forbes article, continue to display the error. I have found the same error- perhaps they are also typos- on news sites. Here are two: During the visit to the site where construction has started and a smoothened dirt road cuts through a wide swatch of the land where olive trees used to stand, border police arrived.- Catholic News. Stanley denounced the demand that American Jews â€Å"unequivocally support Israel against criticism† when â€Å"Israeli policies of the moment can and do betray values held by a large swatch of American Jewry.†- Progressive.

Starting a Business Online Part 2 Term Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Starting a Business Online Part 2 - Term Paper Example This is because our domain provides has given a very good reputation for our business despite being new in the domain. The domain has acted us a promotional avenue where it draws the potential clients and the well displayed contents encourages people to choose or buy service from the website. Determining whether to sell or not a domain name depends on the business value of the domain name (Kalakota & Robinson 2003).   A domain valuation is a key tool of determining the value of the website. The process is relatively complex for individuals who do not have experience. The URL brokers are very critical aspects in determining the domain value. I will turn down the offer to sell the domain name since it will have negative implication on the business. The business sell will drop down if we sell the domain name. Moreover, finding our business in the internet will be very cumbersome. The reputation and the hard work that has been invested in the business to make the business credible and relevant will be hugely jeopardized. Most companies which have excelled in terms of domain have supplied a lot of determination and hard work. The usability and the convenience of the software used in e-commerce is a very critical aspect when it comes attracting and maintaining. The however most software developers do not consider when they are developing their systems. Usability is how the easy the users can use the module of a system. If the module for example the catalogue module is simple and clear, then it can attract the attention of the user. How organized the module is assisting the users in accomplishing their task with a lot of simplicity. The availability of effective shopping cart abilities is critical in ensuring that the customer’s purchasing via internet is increased. Lack of an effective shopping card result less sells and waste of time. The module ensures automation of the complete shopping process. This makes the whole purchasing process simple and automated . Shopping card saves money, time and makes the happy. The criteria of creating a shopping are very critical since the usability and the effectiveness of a shopping process is very crucial. The processing of purchasing transaction process is equally important. The transaction process starts from ordering, processing, payment and delivering process. The procedure should b short and clearly so the records of all the procedures are recorded and processed in an effective manner. Moreover, the processing of the purchase involves the transfer of money. The security of the payment processing is critical since the security of money is very crucial. The web usability can be increased by ensuring that the all the usability features of the different section are effectively attended to. For instance, the ability of a customer to go through the ordering process within the shortest time possible assists in attracting more and maintaining those who have used the service. The most effective ways of improving the usability of a website is by increasing web traffic, SEO and market segmentation. Search engine optimization is the best way of improving the traffic. Search engine optimization is a method used to increase the traffic to a website using techniques which raises the ranking of you search engine in the website. The technique is related to Google. Some of the aspects which are considering in maximizing search engine include: Check out- the web manager should

Statement of Purpose Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words - 7

Statement of Purpose - Essay Example er, the element finance run in my family as my mother and father handles their own business and my education in finance would aid both of them considerably. It is my mother’s trade in Gold at metatrader software program that invoked me to start a finance related study .On one winter break, I voluntarily started studying the trade market, accustomed myself with the finance news, updated forex calendar, indulged in online trading chart and scrutinized technical analyzing tools. All of these sparked in me a passion to learn more about finance, especially quantitative finance. The uncertainty and fluctuation in the financial field pulled me strongly into it as I found it to be really challenging. This was the moment of truth and I decided to take up a credible course in quantitative financial studies. At the same time, I also realized the importance of finance in this sophisticated world and how much this study can help me in building my future. My excitement in learning finance related course soon turned out into a consolidated passion and solidified my desire to devote my future to the field of finance and investment. The quantitative finance course offered by your esteemed organization impressed me greatly and convinced me to get admission in it in a chase to follow up my dreams and desires. I understood that this quantitative program has the potentiality to manage assets and minimize risk which is the core aim of any business related study. I foresee that finance related course has the power to destroy or flourish the status of a business. This even more strengthened my decision to learn quantitative finance course. Moreover, it is when the financial crisis hit the world in 2009, I completely understood the importance of financial study on an international platform. I would like to confess here that the appropriate course offered by your prestige university has the impeccable ability to construct my future in a positive manner. I can put down in front of you

Engine Management Essay Example for Free

Engine Management Essay Engine Management System ensure that engines run cleanly and efficiently in a wide variety of conditions, they are for the most part reliable and require little or no maintenance. Two basic functions performed by an EMS: (1) to meter fuel to the engine in the right quantity and (2) to provide a spark at the right time. An EMS is a self contained custom built computer which controls the running of an engine by monitoring the engine speed, load and temperature and providing the ignition spark at the right time for the prevailing conditions and metering the fuel to the engine in the exact quantity required. There are two discrete subsystems in operation within the EMS The fuel or injection system and The ignition system. When the engine is running its requirements for fuel and ignition timing will vary according to certain engine conditions, the main two being engine speed and engine load. This Map injection gives the appropriate fuel or timing setting for each possible speed and load condition. There will normally be a map for the injector timings (fuel map) and a separate map for the ignition timing settings (ignition map) within the EMS. Each map has entries for a pre-determined range of engine speeds (called speed sites) and a predetermined range of engine load conditions (called load sites), which generally indicate how far open the throttle is. The EMS knows the engine speed (derived from the crank sensor or distributor pickup) and the engine load (from the Throttle Position Sensor or airflow meter) and will use these two values to ‘look-up’ the appropriate fuel and timing settings in each map. If the current engine telemetry falls between the sites in the map then the value is interpolated between the nearest two sites. Normally there will be speed sites every 500 or so RPM and 8 to 16 load sites between closed and open throttle. In the example below speed sites are spaced every 1000-RPM and the eight load sites are numbered 0 to 7. An all-new line of V6 engines, with more horsepower, powers the 2006 Mercedes-Benz C-Class and more advanced technology than before. The luxury models feature a high-tech seven-speed automatic transmission, and the C350 Luxury sedan has the classic Mercedes balance of ride quality and handling. The line also includes sport models for those who want a sportier driving experience. Inside, the C-Class cars look and feel like a Mercedes-Benz, with firm, supportive seats and mostly high-quality materials. The C-Class delivers Mercedes engineering and safety technology, with optional all-wheel-drive that will improve traction in wet or wintry conditions. New engines for 2006 complement the substantial C-Class updates made just a year ago.   Mercedes redesigned the C-Class interior for 2005, freshened the exterior styling and further distinguished the sport models from the standard luxury sedans. A new six-speed manual transmission greatly improved shift action. New paint technology imbeds microscopic ceramic flakes in the clear coat finish, increasing its resistance to chipping and degradation over time. Aerodynamically, the C-Class cars are among the most efficient in the Mercedes-Benz family. The C-Class boasts a drag coefficient of 0.27, which helps minimize wind noise and improves fuel efficiency.   Interior Features The C-Class interior looks like the inside of a Mercedes-Benz should, and for the most part, it feels that way, too. A model re-alignment for 2006 has increased the level of luxury in the least expensive models. Fabric upholstery and manually operated seats can no longer be found in the C-Class line. The C-Class got a thorough interior re-do for the 2005 model year so the 2006 models benefit from that. The dashboard, instruments and seats were redesigned, and materials were revised throughout. The instrument cluster now features four gauges, with a chromed-ringed tachometer and speedometer of identical size sitting front and center. To the left and right of these are smaller fuel and temperature gauges. In the middle sits an LCD display with various system and trip functions. Fashioned in the mold of the larger Mercedes E-Class, the instrument cluster is deeply hooded and virtually eliminates glare on the dials. The backlit script is clear and easy to read. Audio controls are now located in what we consider the optimal spot: above the climate control switches, which sit at the bottom of the stack. Both audio and climate knobs are large and easy to locate. The switchgear is, for the most part, easy to use and understand. The stalk controls have a beefy feel with positive detents. Redundant buttons on the steering wheel let the driver operate the audio and telephone functions without removing a hand from the wheel. Lighting inside is effective, with good illumination for entry in the dark and excellent map lights for reading. The C-Class glove box is a good size, unless you order the CD changer, in which case you lose most of its storage space. In general, the C-Class sedans are trimmed with good-quality interior materials. Driving Impressions The 2006 Mercedes-Benz C-Class sedans have been improved across the board, thanks to a new family of V6 engines. The least powerful of the new C-Class engines, the 2.5-liter V6 in the C230 Sport sedan, rated at 201 horsepower, offers more power than the supercharged four-cylinder engine it replaces. As important, it is far smoother at all speeds and generally, fewer courses in feel, sound or the amount of vibration it generates. The 228-hp 3.0-liter V6 in the C280 Luxury sedan is much more powerful and satisfying than the anemic 2.6-liter V6 in the 2005 C240 (previously the best selling C-Class). Even the biggest V6, which was our favorite engine on the 2005 models, is much better for 2006. The 3.5-liter V6 in the C350 generates 268 horsepower, 20 percent more than the 3.2 in the 2005 C320, which improves acceleration performance considerably. Matched with either the six-speed manual or the high-tech seven-speed automatic, the new engine makes the C350 more responsive than the 2005 C320. The 3.5-liter V6 has fully variable valve timing to deliver an impressive amount of torque from idle all the way to the red line. The C350 responds more immediately than the C320, no matter how fast it is already traveling when the driver presses the accelerator. The new engine is also noticeably smoother, particularly at high rpm. In addition, thanks the seven-speed automatic, the improved performance comes without a corresponding decrease in fuel mileage. All of the C-Class cars offer nice steering, effective brakes and a good balance between ride and handling. Before choosing between a Luxury or Sport model, C-Class buyers should carefully consider whether a smooth ride or sharper handling is preferred because the trade-off between comfort and response changes with the model. The Sport models are more firmly sprung than the standard Luxury models. All C-Class models are quiet inside, even when blasting along at 80 mph. These sedans are aerodynamically slippery cars, and very little wind noise penetrates the cabin. As mentioned, the C-Class offers a choice of transmissions. The seven-speed automatic that comes on the C280 and C350 Luxury sedans is superior to five-speed automatics that come on most cars (to say nothing of an old-fashioned four-speed automatic). With more gears, it offers better acceleration performance and responsiveness around town as well as enhanced fuel efficiency. Gear changes are barely noticeable in normal driving, especially in the higher gears. This transmission allows significantly quicker acceleration for highway passing situations, and it does not have to go through every gear. Step on the gas and the transmission will skip down to the appropriate gear, switching from seventh to fifth, for example, and from there directly to third, meaning two downshifts instead of four. As for the manual transmission, Mercedes has lowered the ratio for first gear for quicker acceleration off the line, but kept an overdrive sixth gear for quiet, low-rev highway cruising and better fuel economy. More important, the old cable-operated shift mechanism has been replaced by a solid, direct rod. The result is easier, quicker and more precise shifting, and the improved action contributes greatly to a more rewarding, engaging driving experience. Shift effort is low, and the gears are easier to hit. For manual fans, we can heartily recommend the C230 Sport sedan. If you prefer an automatic but want a Sport model, we encourage you to step up to the C350 Sport sedan with the optional automatic. The optional 4MATIC all-wheel-drive system delivers power to all four wheels. It is fully automatic and on all the time, so there are no buttons to push and no special knowledge is needed; just drive the car. The system uses electronic traction control to vary torque each of the four wheels, diverting power to the tires with the best grip. Even if three wheels lose traction, 4MATIC can direct power to the one remaining tire with grip. The result is better stability and improved handling in slippery conditions, with a greatly reduced chance of being stuck. 4MATIC does dampen engine response and slow acceleration slightly, and lowers fuel mileage a bit. However, for those who drive through harsh winters, all-wheel drive is worth it. All-wheel-drive sedans such as the C-Class are proof that you do not need an SUV to confidently handle rough weather. In fact, a car tends to handle better in icy conditions than a truck. We consider all-wheel drive a valuable asset in the rainy Northwest or for the harsh winters of the Midwest and Northeast, and 4MATIC is priced much lower on the C-Class models than it is on other Mercedes models. Braking is excellent. Every C-Class model has good-sized brake rotors, and the Sport sedans feature cross-drilled rotors in front for better resistance to fade. (Braking effectiveness fades away as brakes get hot from repeated hard use.) All C-Class cars come with Electronic Brake-force Distribution (EBD) and Brake Assist. EBD can reduce stopping distances and improve stability when braking by distributing brake pressure between the front and rear wheels, giving more to the tires that are gripping best. Break Assist senses a panic-braking situation and helps ensure full braking force even if the driver makes the mistake of relaxing pressure on the brake pedal. The net effect is short, no-fuss stopping. In everyday use, the C-Class brakes are progressive in pedal feel. The C55 AMG might be the most impressive C-Class yet. It is a sports sedan in the extreme sense, capable of amazing acceleration, and handling and braking on par with exotic sports cars. It is capable of accelerating from 0 to 60 mph in an exotic-grade 4.9 seconds, according to Mercedes. The old C32 was super quick, too, but the C55 is less crude and more refined. Its big V8 engine is smoother, more tractable and less intrusive when a driver is cruising the freeway or just trundling along, and its deep, V8 exhaust note better suits the sportiest C-Class of all. How to maintain the engine of a car If we will take one look, why cars break down? We can see several things. Sometimes cars start having problems after accidents. Sometimes it may be a factory defect or design flaw. Heavy conditions like, for example, driving only short trips without letting the engine to warm up fully also make the engine life shorter. Corrosion is another factor for example, park the car for a few months in place with high humidity and later it will probably have more problems than the vehicle driven all this time on daily basis.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   One of the most reasons for a car to break down is maintenance. There are important remainders to maintain the car in good shape. A regular oil change may keep engine running, avoid overheating the engine, changing spark plug, air filter, timing belt and other items from maintenance schedule may save from money. Fixing a small problem will avoid a serious damage in your car. Engine Oil Change Regular oil change is very important in maintaining a car. Engine oil has limited life after a certain point, it starts losing lubricating qualities and carbonizes. Once it happens, the engine is contaminated with carbon deposits or sludge that significantly shorten engines life. When you change oil at or before manufacturer suggested interval, you change the oil before this carbonizing point, engine remains clean and once refilled with new oil ready to work hard again. If the engine oil has not been changed for long, carbon deposits start clogging the oil pick-up screen decreasing oil supply and increasing friction. Through the engine ventilation system the same carbon, deposits build up inside the throttle body and EGR system causing rough idle and possible check engine light. Compression decreases and engine start wearing much faster. If you do not remember when you changed the oil in your car last time just check the oil on the dipstick. Moreover, every time you change the oil, the oil filter should be replaced as well. For correct oil type, engine oil capacity, maintenance schedule, etc. check your car owners manual or find car technical information. B.  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Checking the engine oil Check the engine oil at least once a month or even more if the car has a mileage. Driving with extremely low oil level (less than min.) or with low oil pressure warning lamp on may cause serious engine damage. Have your engine be inspected as soon as possible if the oil pressure gauge indicates extremely low oil pressure. Always use the appropriate engine oil type. Change the oil if you notice that the color is black. Check your parking space for leaks. If you find any, fix it before it results in more serious vehicle problem Concerning the type of oil that you will use there are a comparison with synthetic oil and conventional mineral oil. The advantage of synthetic oil is that it can withstand higher temperature and can work longer without losing its lubricating qualities. It does not get thicker at below-zero temperatures providing good engine lubrication at a cold start. However, since it is more thinner a high-mileage engine filled with synthetic oil will more likely to develop leaks and you will more likely to hear lifters tapping noise at a start. Therefore, If you have low mileage or turbo engine and driving under heavy conditions such as high temperature, excessive load, long intervals without an oil change, etc., or simply want to provide extra protection for your engine, synthetic oil may be a good solution. Nevertheless, I do not think it is worth to use synthetic oil in high-mileage engines thicker mineral oil will provide better protection as long as you change it regularly. C.  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Engine cooling system Engine overheating causes serious engine damage. In order to avoid the engine overheating: Check the coolant level periodically. It should be at least at the min mark in the coolant reservoir. If it is lower, add the coolant bringing the level to the max mark. Avoid coolant leak it may cause an engine overheating. The engine temperature start rising higher than the normal, have your engine inspected. Check the front of the radiator sometimes it may be obstructed with leaves or dust. It is one of the possible reasons for the overheating. Never open the radiator or the coolant overflow reservoir when engine is hot! Tune –up, Timing Belt, Fuel Injector flush There are certain vehicle components that need periodical replacement such as: The fuel filter-dirty fuel filter may cause engine stalling and loss of engine power. Air filter dirty air filter causes loss of engine power, increased fuel consumption, airflow sensor failure, etc. Engine coolant old engine coolant loses its anti-corrosive and other characteristics and may cause water pump to fail. Spark plugs simply spark plugs replacement can significantly improve the engine performance. Timing belt timing belt failure may cause serious engine damage, especially if its diesel engine. Battery The battery filled with harmful acid solution and can produce explosive gases. Handling a battery be careful and always use protective glasses and gloves. Do not use open fire, smoke, or create a spark near battery. Most of batteries nowadays are maintenance free. All you check is battery terminals that should not be loose or corroded. Corroded battery terminals will cause all kind of problem: blinking instrument lights, low charge, no-start, dim headlights, check engine and ABS malfunction light etc. If you see any acid leaks, cracks or any other damage replace the battery. Acid leaking from the battery destroys everything underneath. If there is any problems with your engine, such as irregular noise or smell, or performance problems, leaks or smoke, or check engine light is on, etc., have your car inspected with a mechanic. It is always better to fix any small problem right away before they can cause engine damage. Be aware, some mechanics will try to scare you because they always want to sell you more job than your car really needs, so always ask to explain everything, to show you what exactly is wrong and why. For vehicles with turbocharger, the Turbocharger serves to pump more air into the engine boosting engine power without increasing the engine volume. This turbo charger works at a very high temperature that why it requires a quality engine oil. Low quality, or old contaminated oil can be easily cooked under high temperature in the turbocharger causing it to fail. Here are some considerations: 1.  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   If it is not against manufacturer recommendations, use synthetic oil, or at least be very accurate with regular oil changes. 2.  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   When you stop the car after hard driving (speeding, accelerating, etc.) do not shut the engine off right away, let it idle for a while to cool down the turbocharger. 3.  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Very long uphill driving under constant load may also cause turbo to overheat, try to avoid it if possible. There are few tips on how to improve the emission test result. 1.  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Change oil before testing. For old or high mileage car using thicker oil may help. 2.  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Change spark plugs and air filter if it was a while ago since you have changed them last time. Complete tune-up may be an option for older cars. 3.  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Flushing the fuel injectors usually help. Before conducting the test you must check and adjust the tire pressure, fill the car with premium gas. Take a car for a spin on a freeway it helps to clean spark plugs and catalytic converter and make sure, the engine is fully warmed up before test. If you have check engine light on, exhaust leaks, broken gas cap, or any other problem with vehicle emission system it needs to be repaired before the test all those items will be inspected during the emission test. Reference: Samarins.com ;Illustrated guide to car buyers and owners. (2006)â€Å"Few tips on engine maintenance† http://www.samarins.com/maintenance/engmain.html Aol.com (2006); â€Å"Engine Management†. http://members.aol.com/dvandrews/ems.htm#topics Auto Mall USA (2006) â€Å" Mercedes Benz C-Class† http://www.automallusa.net/1996/mercedes-benz/e-class/reviews.html Horst Bauer   (2004)â€Å"Diesel Engine Management† Robert Bosch GmbH p.9 Horst Bauer (2004)â€Å"Gasoline Engine Management† Robert Bosch GmbH p.9 Hutchinson Education. (2004) †Fundamentals of Automotive Electronics â€Å" V. A. W. Hillier 1987,1996

Effective support strategies for learners Essay -- essays research pap

Effective classrooms have a positive and purposeful atmosphere, where students and teachers feel valued, and work together in a supportive and safe environment. The effective classroom is one where students learn, and teachers help them to do so without spending much of their time managing 'problem' or 'difficult' behaviour. However, this is not an easy task, and at one time or another teachers may experience difficulty in maintaining a harmonious working environment. The main focus of this chapter is to explore ways of establishing and sustaining a purposeful, working atmosphere in the classroom. Behaviour management and maintaining discipline is clearly a concern for teachers when seeking to establish themselves in a new school context or with a new class, even for those who have plenty of successful experience. For short-term supply teachers, the challenge is increased by the number of different classes they may encounter on a daily or weekly basis. There is no shortage of advice in relation to behaviour management and there are marked differences of opinion across the teaching profession about behaviour and discipline in schools. What is certain is that there is no 'right' way to manage all situations. The learning climate you create is crucial. Students are affected not only by the physical environment which surrounds them, but also by your own expectations and attitudes. Remember that small things matter. ICT must become an integral and natural part of the learning pro...

Australia at the Turn of the Century

Weekends provided free time for some working peoples to relax and be entertained, though some families still had to work on weekends for the extra money. The upper and middle classes possessed a more comfortable life style due to their wealth. Because of their wealth, not all their time was devoted to work, therefore leaving more time for leisure activities. Sports that were mostly restricted to upper and middle classes or those who could afford them were Tennis, Golf, Rowing, Hunting and Car racing. Owning motor cars was very rare, and only the very wealthiest of families had them. Families who did have cars would travel to the country side or the beach for picnics. Garden parties, theatre and black and white motion pictures were also popular. Church was, and still is an important part of Sunday mornings. Once high speed paper press was brought in, more and more books were being published and mass produced, this lead to improved literacy skills. Back then, streets were dusty, dirty and noisy – crowded with people and horses. To cross the street, you had to walk through mud, dirt and horse manure. From the 19th century, life expectancy rose from 54, to now, 78. Up until 1980’s when bathrooms were installed, people had a ‘dunny’ or ‘privy,’ which consisted of a can with a seat resting on top. Because waste was not collected or taken away for weeks at a time, diseases were picked up and passed on more easily. When the flushing toilet came in, it was obviously the most hygienic choice, but not everyone could afford the upgrade. People often died from diseases that are easily prevented or treated today. In the 19th century, electricity was invented, but again, not everyone could afford it in their home. Also the first telephone was introduced to Sydney in 1880. Up until 1906 it was illegal to swim at the beach between 6am and 8pm. In the 1860’s it was fashionable for woman to have a small waist and lots of bunched up material in the skirt of their dress. Under their dresses, woman would wear garments known as ‘crinolines’ and ‘corsets.’ Crinolines were used to make the skirt become like a bell shape. Poor families did not have nice dresses and clothes, they had rags, and the poorest of families didn’t even have shoes for their children.

Not Satisfied with School Canteen Food Essay

On the 20th March 2013, there had been an incident at Papakura High School. A school fight between two junior girls, at lunch time on the school field, me and a friend were sitting on the field at the time, we then had seen one of the girls come up on the field with a lot of people, and she had asked us if we had seen anonymous, but we told her no. Rumours had been told to these girls and this is why they had a fight. Everyone crowded around the two girls and was telling them to fight and pushing them into each other. So the girl who had walked on to the field had taken the first hit, which was a closed fist. The girls had begun to fight and punch each other; the fight had eventually stopped because a senior student had pulled the girls away from each other. The student had also got the teachers involved in this situation. After this incident the two girls had been taken to the Deputies office, to write a statement about, what caused them to fight, why they had a fight, which had started it, how can they resolve this etc. The girls had done writing there statements. Me and a friend also had to write statements because we were witnesses and had seen what happened, me and my friend were separated into two different rooms, and had to each talk to the dean about what we had seen and heard. The girls ended up talking about what happened and talked everything out, me and my friend also had to sit in the same room. When we all had a chance to talk about this incident we were all told about what would happen if this happened again, also me and a friend had got given a five dollar lunch time voucher. Then the girls had become friends and made a mends, although the girls had sorted it out they still had to pay the consequences and they both had a three day suspension. The girls had returned back to school after their suspension. My friend and I also those two girls had to have another talk to our dean. We had to talk about the incident again. He had thanked us for our time and our help with this incident. Our dean had given the two girls task to help them out throughout the year, and to keep them on track. Me and my friend were offered to help look out for these girls out of class time, to make sure they are doing the right thing, and hanging out with the right people.

The Role of Bamboo in Japanese Culture

The Role of Bamboo in Japanese Culture The Japanese word for bamboo is take. Bamboo in Japanese Culture Bamboo is a very strong plant. Because of its sturdy root structure, it is a  symbol of prosperity in Japan. For years, people were told to run into the bamboo groves in the event of an earthquake, because the bamboos strong root structure would hold the earth together. Simple and unadorned, the bamboo is also symbolic of purity and innocence. Take o watta youna hito literally translates into a man like fresh-split bamboo and refers to a man with a frank nature. Bamboo appears in many ancient tales. Taketori Monogatari (Tale of the Bamboo Cutter) also known as Kaguya-hime (The Princess Kaguya) is the oldest narrative literature in kana script, and one of the most beloved stories in Japan. The story is about Kaguya-hime, who is found inside a bamboo stalk. An old man and woman raise her and she becomes a beautiful woman. Although many young men propose to her, she never marries. Eventually on an evening when the moon is full, she returns to the moon, as it was her place of birth. Bamboo and sasa (bamboo grass) are used in many festivals to ward off evil. On Tanabata (July 7), people write their wishes on strips of paper of various colors and hang them on sasa. Click this link to learn more about Tanabata. Bamboo Meaning Take ni ki o tsugu (putting bamboo and wood together) is synonymous with disharmony. Yabuisha (yabu are bamboo groves and isha is a doctor) refers to an incompetent doctor (quack). Though its origin is not clear, it is probably because just as bamboo leaves rustle in the slightest breeze, an incompetent doctor makes a great to-do about even the slightest illness. Yabuhebi (hebi is a snake) means to reap an ill fortune from an unnecessary act. It comes from the likelihood that poking a bamboo bush may flush a snake. It is a similar expression to, let sleeping dogs lie. Bamboo is found all over in Japan because the warm, humid climate is well suited to its cultivation. It is frequently used in construction and handicrafts. Shakuhachi, is a wind instrument made of bamboo. Bamboo sprouts (takenoko) also have long been used in Japanese cuisine. The pine, bamboo, and plum (sho-chiku-bai) are an auspicious combination symbolizing long life, hardiness, and vitality. The pine stands for longevity and endurance, and the bamboo is for flexibility and strength, and the plum represents a young spirit. This trio is often used in restaurants as a name for the three levels of quality (and price) of its offerings. It is used instead of directly stating quality or price (e.g. the highest quality would be pine). Sho- chiku-bai is also used for the name of a sake (Japanese alcohol) brand. Sentence of the Week English: Shakuhachi is a wind instrument made of bamboo. Japanese: Shakuhachi wa take kara tsukurareta kangakki desu. Grammar Tsukurareta is the passive form of the verb tsukuru. Here is another example. Passive form in Japanese is formed by the verb ending changes. U-verbs (Group 1 verbs): replace ~u by ~areru kaku - kakarerukiku - kikarerunomu - nomareruomou - omowareru Ru-verbs (Group 2 verbs): replace ~ru by ~rareru taberu - taberareumiru - mirareruderu - derareruhairu - hairareru Irregular verbs (Group 3 verbs) kuru - korarerusuru - sareru Gakki means instrument. Here are different kinds of instruments. Kangakki - wind instrumentGengakki - stringed instrumentDagakki - percussion instrumenttake - bambookangakki - a wind instrumentWain wa budou kara tsukurareru. - Wine is made from grapes.Kono ie wa renga de tsukurareteiru. - This house is made of brick.

USS Maryland (BB-46) in World War II

USS Maryland (BB-46) in World War II USS Maryland (BB-46) was the second ship of the US Navys Colorado-class of battleship. Entering service in 1921, the battleship briefly served in the Atlantic before spending the majority of its career in the Pacific. At Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, when the  Japanese attacked, Maryland sustained two bomb hits but remained afloat and endeavored to fight off the enemy aircraft. Repaired after the attack, the battleship played a support role in the early campaigns in the Pacific such the   Battle of Midway. In 1943, Maryland joined in the Allies island-hopping campaign across the Pacific and routinely provided naval gunfire support for troops ashore. The following year, it joined several other Pearl Harbor survivors in dealing out revenge on the Japanese at the Battle of Surigao Strait. Marylands later activities included supporting the invasion of Okinawa and aiding in transporting American troops home as part of Operation Magic Carpet. Design The fifth and last class  of Standard-type battleship  (Nevada, Pennsylvania, New Mexico, and Tennessee) developed for the US Navy, the Colorado-class represented an evolution of its predecessors. Conceived prior to the building of the Nevada-class, the Standard-type approach called for battleships that had common operational and tactical characteristics. These included the employment of oil-fired boilers rather than coal and the use of an  Ã¢â‚¬Å"all or nothing† armor scheme. This armor arrangement saw key areas of the vessel, such as magazines and engineering, heavily protected while less important areas were left unarmored. In addition, Standard-type battleships were to have a tactical turn radius of 700 yards or less and a minimum top speed of 21 knots.    Though similar to the preceding Tennessee-class, the Colorado-class mounted eight 16 guns in four twin turrets as opposed to the earlier vessels which carried twelve 14 guns in four triple turrets. The US Navy had been assessing the use of 16 guns for a few years and following successful tests of the weapon, discussions commenced regarding their use on the earlier Standard-type designs. This did not move forward due to the cost involved in altering these battleships and increasing their displacement to accommodate the new guns. In 1917, Secretary of the Navy Josephus Daniels finally permitted the use of 16 guns on the condition that the new class not incorporate any other major design changes. The Colorado-class also carried a secondary battery of twelve to fourteen 5 guns and an anti-aircraft armament of four 3 guns.    Construction The second ship of the class, USS Maryland (BB-46) was laid down at Newport News Shipbuilding on April 24, 1917. Construction moved forward on the vessel and on March 20, 1920, it slid into the water with Elizabeth S. Lee, daughter-in-law of Maryland Senator Blair Lee, acting as sponsor. An additional fifteen months of work followed and on July 21, 1921, Maryland entered commission, with Captain C.F. Preston in command. Departing Newport News, it conducted a shakedown cruise along the East Coast. USS Maryland (BB-46) - Overview Nation:  United StatesType:  BattleshipShipyard:  Newport News ShipbuildingLaid Down:  April 24, 1917Launched:  March  20, 1920Commissioned:  July 21, 1921Fate:  Sold for scrap Specifications (as built) Displacement:  32,600  tonsLength:  624  ft.Beam:  97  ft., 6 in.Draft:  30  ft., 6 in.Propulsion:  Turbo-electric transmission  turning 4 propellersSpeed:  21.17 knotsComplement:  1,080  men Armament (as built) 8 Ãâ€" 16  in. gun (4  Ãƒâ€" 2)12  Ãƒâ€" 5 in. guns4 Ãâ€" 3 in. guns2 Ãâ€" 21 in. torpedo tubes Interwar Years Serving as flagship for Commander-in-Chief, US Atlantic Fleet Admiral Hilary P. Jones, Maryland traveled extensively in 1922. After taking part in graduation festivities at the US Naval Academy, it steamed north to Boston where it played a role in celebrating the anniversary of the Battle of Bunker Hill. Embarking Secretary of State Charles Evans Hughes on August 18, Maryland transported him south to Rio de Janeiro. Returning in September, it took part in fleet exercises the following spring before shifting to the West Coast. Serving in the Battle Fleet, Maryland and other battleships conducted a goodwill cruise to Australia and New Zealand in 1925. Three years later, the battleship carried President-elect Herbert Hoover on a tour of Latin American before returning to the United States for an overhaul. Pearl Harbor Resuming routine peacetime exercises and training, Maryland continued to largely operate in the Pacific during the 1930s. Steaming to Hawaii in April 1940, the battleship took part in Fleet Problem XXI which simulated a defense of the islands. Due to rising tensions with Japan, the fleet remained in Hawaiian waters following the exercise and shifted its base to Pearl Harbor. On the morning of December 7, 1941, Maryland was moored along Battleship Row inboard of USS Oklahoma (BB-37) when the Japanese attacked and pulled the United States into World War II. Responding with anti-aircraft fire, the battleship was protected from torpedo attack by Oklahoma. When its neighbor capsized early in the attack, many of its crew jumped aboard Maryland and aided in the ships defense.   In the course of the fighting, Maryland sustained hits from two armor-piercing bombs which caused some flooding. Remaining afloat, the battleship departed Pearl Harbor later in December and steamed to Puget Sound Navy Yard for repairs and an overhaul. Emerging from the yard on February 26, 1942, Maryland moved through shakedown cruises and training. Rejoining combat operations in June, it played a support role during the pivotal Battle of Midway. Ordered back to San Francisco, Maryland spent part of the summer in training exercises before joining USS Colorado (BB-45) for patrol duty around Fiji. Island-Hopping Shifting to the New Hebrides in early 1943, Maryland operated off Efate before moving south to Espiritu Santo. Returning to Pearl Harbor in August, the battleship underwent a five-week overhaul which included enhancements to its anti-aircraft defenses. Named flagship of Rear Admiral Harry W. Hills V Amphibious Force and Southern Attack Force, Maryland put to sea on October 20 to take part in the invasion of Tarawa. Opening fire on Japanese positions on November 20, the battleship provided naval gunfire support for the Marines ashore throughout the battle. After a brief voyage to the West Coast for repairs, Maryland rejoined the fleet and made for the Marshall Islands. Arriving, it covered the landings on Roi-Namur on January 30, 1944, before aiding in the assault on Kwajalein the following day.   With the completion of operations in the Marshalls, Maryland received orders to commence an overhaul and re-gunning at Puget Sound. Leaving the yard on May 5, it joined Task Force 52 for participation in the Marianas Campaign.   Reaching Saipan, Maryland commenced firing on the island on June 14. Covering the landings the next day, the battleship pounded Japanese targets as the fighting raged. On June 22, Maryland sustained a torpedo hit from a Mitsubishi G4M Betty which opened a hole in the battleships bow. Withdrawn from the battle, it moved to Eniwetok before proceeding back to Pearl Harbor. Due to the damage to the bow, this voyage was conducted in reverse. Repaired in 34 days, Maryland steamed to the Solomon Islands before joining Rear Admiral Jesse B. Oldendorfs Western Fire Support Group for the invasion of Peleliu. Attacking on September 12, the battleship reprised its support role and aided Allied forces ashore until the island fell. Surigao Strait Okinawa On October 12, Maryland sortied from Manus to provide cover for the landings on Leyte in the Philippines. Striking six days later, it remained in the area as Allied forces went ashore on October 20. As the wider Battle of Leyte Gulf commenced, Maryland and Oldendorfs other battleships shifted south to cover the Surigao Strait. Attacked on the night of October 24, the American ships crossed the Japanese T and sank two Japanese battleships (Yamashiro Fuso) and a heavy cruiser  (Mogami). Continuing to operate in the Philippines, Maryland sustained a kamikaze hit on November 29 which caused damage between the forward turrets as well as killed 31 and wounded 30. Repaired at Pearl Harbor, the battleship was out of action until March 4, 1945.    Reaching Ulithi, Maryland joined Task Force 54 and departed for the invasion of Okinawa on March 21. Initially tasked with eliminating targets on the islands south coast, the battleship then shifted west as the fighting progressed. Moving north with TF54 on April 7, Maryland sought to counter Operation Ten-Go which involved the Japanese battleship Yamato. This effort succumbed to American carrier planes before TF54 arrived. That evening, Maryland took a kamikaze hit on Turret No.3 which killed 10 and injured 37.   Despite the resulting damage, the battleship remained on station for another week. Ordered to escort transports to Guam, it then proceeded to Pearl Harbor and on to Puget Sound for repairs and an overhaul.    Final Actions Arriving, Maryland had its 5 guns replaced and enhancements made to the crews quarters. Work on the ship ended in August just as the Japanese ceased hostilities. Ordered to take part in Operation Magic Carpet, the battleship assisted in returning American servicemen to the United States. Operating between Pearl Harbor and the West Coast, Maryland transported over 8,000 men home before completing this mission in early December. Moved into reserve status on July 16, 1946, the battleship left commission on April 3, 1947. The US Navy retained Maryland for another twelve years until selling the ship for scrap on July 8, 1959.

Explain the differences between a thesis statement and a hypothesis Essay

Explain the differences between a thesis statement and a hypothesis - Essay Example Hypothesis: this is a tentative but educated guess about how things work. It is constructed as, ‘’if this happens, then that will happen’’. Hypothesis must be something that can be tested (Bruce 2014). 1) Thesis statement actually shows, in a nutshell what the reader expects to find in the essay just before they begin reading it. On the other hand, a hypothesis is a theory that has been postulated and stands to be proved by the research in case it is true or false. Therefore, thesis statement is more definite and do not need to be proved, unlike a hypothesis which is just a postulation and must be proved by an experiment. 2) A thesis statement is a line within a paragraph which gives the reader a limelight of what the writer’s argument is, it is like a roadmap. On the other hand, a hypothesis is a statement which is listed and can be numbered. There can be many hypotheses about the research that can be tested by the research if they are true or false. 3) Through a thesis statement, the reader can get a glimpse of what the storyline or the essay is all about since it states what you need to find in the essay and sometimes, the side of the argument taken by the writer. On the other hand, hypothesis cannot be used to give a reader an idea about an essay since it does not always follow unless tested and

Briefing Note Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Briefing Note - Essay Example The international legal tenets of self-determination loom large over the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. One of the questions that have long been without a clear answer is whether Palestine is entitled to independence and self determination in an area it deems to be its ancestral homeland. International law does not allow nations to disregard peremptory norms, which are the international embodiment of the principles of justice and fairness (Caplan 12). The democratic principle of self-determination is one of the peremptory norms guarded under international law. In 1918 the British occupied the Palestinian territory and the following year, Palestine came under Class A Mandate. Until that mandate was terminated, it was agreed that the country’s independence would be provisionally recognized. A White Paper was issued in 1939 which formally stated the British Government approval of the formation of an independent Palestinian State in which both Arabs and Jews would â€Å"share in g overnment in such a way as to ensure that the essential interests of each community were safeguarded† (Scobbie, Hibbin and Siegman 4). In 1948, Palestine’s population was made up of 74% Arabs and 26% Jews. It was therefore expected that Palestine would have become an independent state at the end of the Mandate, but this expectation did not materialize. Rather, the State of Israel was proclaimed in 1948. Arab states rejected the formation of Israel and the partition of Palestine, but the rest of the world welcomed the newest nation into the world (Tessler 33). The establishment of an independent Israel nation saw the beginning of an Israeli-Palestinian conflict that has never been resolved to this day. In 1993, the Oslo Peace Accord was signed between Israel and the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) (Antonius 10). The Peace Accord grated Palestinians an interim period of five years of self rule. The main issues covered in the signing of the accord included transfer of power to Palestinians. This transfer of power and responsibilities from Israel to Palestine included control over the West Bank and Gaza (Lubell 3). This was meant to enable Palestinians to control their own affairs. The Accord granted Israel full control of its borders and Jerusalem, which had been one of the areas under contention in the conflicts between the two countries. In the same accord, the PLO formally recognized the right of Israel as a state to exist in peace (Caplan 20). Both countries formally agreed to conduct peace talks so as to end many years of conflict between them. Since 2000, Israeli occupation of the west Bank and Gaza flamed several armed conflicts between the two countries (Antonius 17). In 2008, Israeli troops carried out an offensive against Hamas on the Gaza strip. The offensive finally came to an end after three weeks on January 17, 2009 after Israel and Hamas both announced a ceasefire. During the 3 week offensive 1,300 Palestinians, mostly civilian s lost their lives. 400 of these were children. Another 5000 received injuries. Of these 1800 were children and 800 were women. The Israelis lost 13 people, 3 of whom were civilians. Human lives were not the only ones destroyed in this offensive. Much of the Gaza strip was left in ruins. Thousands were left homeless and without food and water (Scobbie, Hibbin and Siegman 14). The west, and in particular were in full support of Israel’