Philosophers Matrix Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words - 1

Philosophers Matrix - Essay Example Through education, the individual is able to develop skills that enable him to be able to modify the environment he is in, in order to suit his demands. Therefore according to this theorist, through learning, the learner is able to acquire new behavior through the process of conditioning. Bode came up with the theory of cognitivism and he considered the patterns of learning as being a critical feature that led to change of behavior among individuals. He saw the memory system as being an active system that was organized in order to be able to process information. The knowledge processed played a vital role in learning. According to this theorist, learning is brain based and the ability for the brain to be able to differentiate between the wrong and right enables them to learn faster. This explains why in the learning institution we have students who tend to understand faster than the others. Rules and general principles that will guide the process are formulated by the learner. This enables the learner to become vital in the practical world real context. Learners are introduced to culture by more skilled members. The teacher acts as the facilitator who gives guidelines to be followed by the students and they are allowed to consult where they get stuck. The teacher encourages the learners to discover principles and new skills for themselves. It is through the skills that they are able to construct knowledge and solve the daily realistic problems. Transformative learning theorists argue that it is through the process of constructing and appropriating new ideas that one can understand the meaning and experience of the world (Ileris 82). One can only effect change through the process of reference as it is through such frame that we are able to define the views of the world. The fact that teachers are likely to insist on the idea of learning new skills, learners engage themselves more in classroom

Culture,power,globalisation and inequality Essay

Culture,power,globalisation and inequality - Essay Example Power relates to which classes, groups, organisations, parties as well as individuals have the greatest influence over what happens within their own respective countries, and sometimes upon an international or even global basis. Power can be cultural, military, naval, political, religious, or social in its origins and actual usage.2 Globalisation is the way in which cultural, economic, political, religious, and social factors interact with each other in order to increase the power of non-state actors at the expense of nation states and also individuals. Inequality is a result of the ways in which the process of globalisation and the capitalist economic system operate and make some countries, organisations, or businesses richer whilst making others poorer.3 The United States was mightier than a superpower, and the term ‘uberpower’ was developed to describe American dominance over the international system. In other words the United States is the mightiest nation upon the earth and no single nation can hope to overturn its dominance of the global economy or the spreading of its liberal culture and values throughout the world. It is the capitalist economic system encouraged by Britain and then the United States that has done much to shape culture, power, globalisation, and inequality within the modern world.4 Conversely the sheer apparent might, economic and cultural influence of the United States meant Al-Qaeda saw it as their greatest enemy in a bipolar military contest between the militantly Islamic and un-Islamic. Al-Qaeda had made increasingly daring attacks on American targets and interests during the 1990s that meant they wished to carry out bolder attacks. The United States maybe an uberpower or the global hegemon, that is the greatest power within the international system but all Al-Qaeda has to do is survive and the war continues. The Americans are left with the

Seven Ancient Wonders Of The World

Seven Ancient Wonders Of The World The seven ancient wonders of the world are one of the most extraordinary lists of artifacts in history. Even today there are several different branches of this list that include different categories of wonders in the world. Some of the other popular lists include wonders of the modern, medieval, natural world, and several others. Among the latest seven wonders is the Wilder beast migration scenario visible Maasai Mara game reserve in East Africa, which is being claimed to, seen from outer space great distances in the atmosphere. The great walls of china are also visible from outer space, built in 200 years B.C and stretches over eight thousand kilometers have also been featured in this list. Listing of the seven wonders can be traced back to the ancient Greek historians who developed a trend of documenting the most amazing sceneries and features in their land together with the surrounding regions that they had knowledge about during their time. The very first list of seven wonders wa s documented around first or second century before Christ (B.C) by Greek historians and consisted of constructions or natural sceneries around the modern day Mediterranean region together with some parts of Asia (Roberts, 16). This list came to be known as the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World. The list is credited to historians like Antipater of Sidon, Diodoros and Herodotus although Antipater is given much of the credit. In this regard, this paper aims at discussing which of the ancient wonders should not have been included in the list. The first seven wonders to have been documented in human history included the great pyramid of Giza, Statue of Zeus at Olympia, temple of Artemis at Ephesus, Hanging gardens of Babylon, Mausoleum of Halicarnassus, Colossus of Rhodes and Lighthouse of Alexandria. During that time, the above named were classified as the most spectacular and remarkable manmade structures but some people have argued that this would not have been the case had the Greek historians and travelers had more knowledge about other regions of the world. Different people point out that certain wonders In the list should not have been included but according to my own point of view, the hanging gardens of Babylon should not have been included in that list for a number of reasons. For a long time now, there has been a raging debate on the actual existence of the gardens in question (Optic 6). Up to date, there has never been concrete proof that the gardens of Babylon actually existed in the areas documented during the first account. In Babylonian history both now and in the past, there is no such documentation of its existence, which casts doubt about whether the Greek historians were right or wrong (Price Clayton, 22). Compared to the other wonders of the time, there has been sufficient proof of existence and has been presented with ruins of some being seen even as of date. In fact, the Great pyramid of Giza is still physically visible even today. People living in regions where other members in the list had documented the existence of the respective structures in the writings, drawings and other types but Babylonians had not. This is a strong reason as to why the hanging gardens should not have been included considering prove of existence of the other six. Secondly, it cannot be said as to who really was responsible for building the gardens if they indeed existed. The Greek historians who developed the list attributed the building to Nebuchadnezzar II, a powerful king who reigned around 600 B.C but other documentation shows otherwise. It is now a well-known fact that no artifacts, ruins, and walls of Nebuchadnezzars kingdom have ever shown that he was responsible for building the gardens (Price Clayton, 32). Other historians of the ancient times recorded that a man named Sennacherib was the one who built the hanging gardens after he took over the kingdom of Assyria in the year 705 B.C. Other historians of both modern and ancient times argue that the Gardens were a creation of the mind and artistry build upon stories that were taken to Greece by visitors who came from Babylonia. Being a land that had great architecture, tower of Babel, fertile soils, Palm tree plantations, beautiful gardens and great prosperity, merchants and soldiers who went back to Greece gave exaggerated stories about the region ruled by Nebuchadnezzar. On hearing this, artists and historians created mental pictures of the place and eventually came up with drawings. For this reason, I think hanging garden should have been excluded from the list. Largely, the intention of constructing a building determines whether it will have great value or not. Some buildings are constructed for use as residential areas, places of worship, food stores, recreational and libraries among other reasons. In ancient times, buildings were built for various reasons some of which are explained above. With respect to the seven manmade structures that were listed as wonder of the world, all of them had a distinct purpose for their creation but according to my own personal view, the main intention for constructing the gardens was relatively less valuable or meaningless compared to the other six. The great Pyramid of Giza was built to act as a tomb for pharaohs, temple of Artemis at Ephesus as a place of worship, Lighthouse of Alexandria as a guide to seafarers or sailors. Similarly, Statue of Zeus at Olympia as a depiction of matured artistry, and Colossus of Rhodes a symbol of one of many gods worshipped by Greeks called Helios. On the other hand, the hanging gardens had been built to make Nebuchadnezzars wife feel more as if she was at her ancestral home (Woods Michael, 69). In short, it was built to satisfy the ego of only one person resulting to wastage of massive financial resources, human labor, and time. All the other structures had been for a noble course of either helping humanity, understanding life aspects more or helping create a better link between humans and their God but the gardens had been built to impact just one person who happened to be the wife of a king. The actual location of the gardens is a matter of speculation and not factual like is the case with the other constructions (Clayton Prince 58). Given that, ruins the other six structures have precise locations that are known to historians and ordinary persons, documentation of the gardens in relation to different historian of the time confirm that the precise location of the place is not known. There is a possibility that the gardens, if they ever existed may have been built elsewhere and not in the place recorded by historians as Babylonia (Woods Michael, 97). Studies conducted by modern day archeologists strongly show that the place believed to be the zone where hanging gardens were situated based off ancient Greek historical accounts is actually Nineveh gardens, modern day Tigris which used to be in the kingdom of Assyria. This is strong evidence that Greek historians must have confused the two places making it odd to be included in the list of seven wonders of the ancient worl d. There also exists a major difference between type of architecture used in construction of hanging gardens and others in the record. The gardens had been built using a mixture of clay and straw, which underwent a hardening process to make construction bricks. All the others were constructed using tough or special stones that had the capability of withstanding all types of unfavorable weather conditions for a long period. According to ancient records, walls of the hanging gardens could be fully destructed by exposure to water only that it was it a desert region that experienced region. It is said that the gardens were easily destroyed by an earthquake to an extent where not even ruins remained, an indication that they were less superior to the other wonders. In relation to height, the hanging gardens of Babylon are documented to have been about eighty feet. Others like the Lighthouse of Alexandria were approximately one hundred and twenty meters high and could be seen from long distances. Sailors of the time could see the tower from as far as twenty-six miles and the great pyramid remained to be the tallest manmade structure on earth for over three thousand years. This means that the other six structures were appealing to the human eye compared to the hanging gardens. Having trees and other plants together with a river around it, the gardens could never have been appealing when the desert sun dried up the waters and made vegetation turn brown. From all the above arguments, it would be right to conclude that the hanging gardens should not have been included in that list of ancient wonders given the many weaknesses it had compared to the others.

What Matters in Life? :: English Literature, Personal Values

What Matters? What matters most to you in the world today? People often ask this question. I must say being 26 I have been asked this question many times in my life. The response I always give was my career. Winning and surfing, you see they are the only things that should matter. But I did not once stop to think that maybe the things that mattered more then just a surfing career was my family. I hardly got to see my children in the first stages of their life, never got to see them take their first step or say their first word because I was always out surfing and living up to my dream of being the one that no one could beat. This al changed drastically one year just after my daughters fifth birthday. I arrived home from a surfing tournament to find my wife and two kids homeless. Lucky for them they weren’t in the house at the time of the fire. The police say that it was because I was the â€Å"unbeatable† one and that the other Pro-surfers just wanted to be in the spot light for once. But I say it was a message. A message that maybe it was time to stay at home and help out. A time to watch my children grow up and be there for them. As we walked through the house going from room to room looking a tall that had been destroyed. All I could think of was my awards and trophies that I would no longer have to show off to the people that came over, to camera reporters when they do interviews about me. My wife asked me â€Å"if we were in the house at the time†¦what would you have taken with you? I replied with â€Å"Oh of course my medals and trophies† she sat down as tears welled up in her eyes and said to me â€Å"Yes. But what about the pictures that can never be replaced, you can always get more trophies†. It was at this point where I thought long and hard about what I would really take with me if I was given the time. I had thought of clothes and blankets, of the kids toys, but my mind was now set on what really matters. All the things that I wanted to take with me could be replaced, the only things that could never be replaces where the photos and the memories.

Analyze in detail how Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck Essay

John Steinbeck’s first hand experience of what life was like during the American Depression allowed him to write an accurate novel on life during this dull time. It also gives us a good idea of certain aspects of the Depression; about how migrant workers lived and also how they were treated. The Depression changed people’s thoughts and views on life, how sensitive they were to others and how they acted around people. This is especially true of the migrant workers in Of Mice and Men. Loneliness took a major role in the migrant workers’ lives. The vast majority of the workers traveled alone across America, moving from ranch to ranch. Family values were non-existent, because of this they didn’t belong anywhere. The workers believed it was survival of the fittest between them. There were a large number of drifting workers, all-looking for the same jobs. Competition for work was fierce. There was a general feeling of loneliness at the time for the workers. George emphasizes this feeling when he is talking to Lennie by the brush: ‘Guys like us, which work on ranches, are the loneliest guys in the world. They got no family. They don’t belong no place.’ Because of a vast amount of suspicion on the ranch the workers often chose a solitary existence. It also made relationships between the workers very shallow. It would seem that the majority of the workers could not forge a meaningful relationship. Yet, it wasn’t just the workers who felt lonely. Curley’s wife also displays loneliness: ‘I get awful lonely’†¦Ã¢â‚¬â„¢You can talk to people, but I can’t talk to nobody but Curley.’ Crooks also seems very lonely: ‘I tell ya a guy gets too lonely, an’ he gets sick.’ Both Crooks and Curley’s wife also choose a life of solitude because of the suspicion. It is harder for them to establish meaningful relationships because the obstacles of discrimination and sexism that exists on the ranch. Loneliness was common for almost everyone. Different people did different things to try and cope with loneliness. Some would play cards. Some would play horseshoes. Crooks would read his books and Curley’s wife tries attention seeking by hanging around the bunks. They did anything to avoid the loneliness and boredom. Entertainment was a form of escape from their boring lives. Apart from the simple things the workers would do during the month like cards and horseshoes, there was no entertainment, so they all looked forward to the end of the month: ‘Well, a guy got to have some fun sometime.’ This was when they would get their pay and go into town. They would spend their money on drink and prostitutes. Again, anything that would allow them to escape from their lonely lives. It was normal for the workers to spend the best part of the night in a â€Å"whore house† where they could get alcohol and women. ‘A guy can go in an’ get drunk and get ever’thing out his system all at once, an’ no messes.’ And once that night was done that was it until the end of the next month. This demonstrates the attitude on the ranch toward women: they are just objects which can be used whenever they please. They aren’t considered as eqaul at all. The attitude towards Curley’s wife is another example of how women were poorly treated, poorly regarded and were by a long way, less equal than men. Newly married and in an unfamiliar place, she is not allowed to talk to anyone but Curley. She resents this and approaches the other ranch workers with the excuse of looking for Curley. The men instantly have their guard up and assure each other that she is nothing but trouble. They regard her as a woman to be used and make no attempt to get to know her. Probably the most important aspect of workers’ lives was the dream they all shared. But because of their tendencies to go into town at the end of the month they would never realize their dream, as many of their dreams involved saving up money, whoich usually they wasted. Crooks sums it up quite well: ‘I seen hundreds of men come by on the road an’ on the ranches with their bindles on their back an’ that same damn thing in their heads. Hundreds of them. They come, an’ they quit an’ they go on; an’ every damn one of ’em’s got a little piece of land in his head. An’ every goddamn one of ’em ever gets it. Just like heaven.’ It was a simple dream. All they wanted was to own their own place. A piece of land and a house to live in, somewhere they weren’t told what to do, a place where they could choose who could stay on their land and who had to move on, and a place where at the end of the harvest they could keep what they had harvested. George points this out: ‘I’d have my own little place, an’ I’d be bringing in my own crops, ‘stead of doin’ all the work and not getting what comes up outa the ground.’ But for most this dream would never be fulfilled. Their loneliness would always be with them. This would mean they would have to escape from their loneliness by going into town and spending their money. But without money they would never be able to buy their own place. As with loneliness, having dreams was not exclusive to the workers. Curley’s wife often dreamt of what her life would have been like if she would have been in movies: ‘Coulda been in the movies, an’ had nice clothes-all them nice clothes like they wear. An’ I coulda sat in them big hotels, an’ had pictures took of me.’ As for George and Lennie there is hope. They have each other to look after one another and are not as lonely as the other migrant’s. ‘Because†¦because I got you to look after me, and you got me to look after you.’ says Lennie. Because they have each other, they have a better chance of realizing their dream. They both have someone to talk to and travel with which helps them not get so lonely. It is this companionship that gives them their chance. Also, because of their companionship, they are very different from all the other workers on the ranch. None of the other workers had someone to travel with. Their companionship is seen as very unusual: ‘Well, I never seen a guy take so much trouble for another guy.’ says Carlson. Slim also says: ‘I hardly never seen two guys travel together.’ It was a rare thing to see during that period. It was also rare for the workers show genuine care for each other of for anyone else. George and Lennie a re an exception to this. Along with the good things that came with travelling together, George and Lennie’s companionship also brought along suspicion. Suspicion was very common on the ranches. The boss is suspicious as soon as George and Lennie arrive. He is suspicious of George because he won’t let Lennie speak: ‘I said what stake you got in this guy? You takin’ his pay away from him?’ He later says ‘I got my eye on you.’ It isn’t just the boss who is wary of the workers. It seems everyone is suspicious of each other: ‘Maybe ever’body in the whole damn world is scared of each other.’ says Slim. This is emphasized a lot by the way hardly anyone travels together and by the way George accuses Candy of listening in on his conversation with Lennie: ‘Say, what the hell you doin’ listenin’?’ Curley is also suspicious of anybody when it comes to his new wife. He runs around a lot looking for her and at one point accuses Slim of messing with her. Finally, most of the men on the ranch are worried about talking to Curley’s wife. They accuse her of giving men the eye and think she is a tart. There is a large amount of suspicion all over the ranch aimed at anyone around the ranch itself. As well as a lot of suspicion, maybe leading to the following, there was also a fair amount of violence. Curley is the main source of violence on the ranch. He was jealous and suspicious of people and this leads to him causing trouble. He is said to pick on big guys the most because he was so small: ‘He hates big guys. He’s alla time picking scraps with big guys.’ He is also said to be a good boxer and has proved this by doing well in certain tournaments. He’s often wary and is ready for a fight: His eyes flashed over George, took in his height, measured his reach, and looked at his trim middle. Curley finally demonstrates his foul temper and his willingness to fight by picking on Lennie and hitting him several times. George mentions the sense of violence on the ranch: ‘After a long time they get mean. They get wantin’ to fight all the time.’ Another side to the violence on the ranch is the attraction of it. Whit is very eager when he sees Curley going after Slim: ‘I guess maybe I’d like to see this.’ and ‘But I like to see the fuss if it comes off. Come on le’s go.’ Crooks is a target of the violence also. The time at Christmas when they set after him is an example of this. He is often verbally abused as well. The workers are very casual about racist language. They use words like ‘nigger’ behind his back and even to his face: ‘Sure the stable buck’s a nigger.’ ‘Nigger huh?’ ‘Yeah. Nice fella, too.’ And such words are even said to his face: ‘Listen, Nigger.’ says Curley’s wife. Racism was still very common during this period and segregation was also common. Crooks wasn’t allowed in the white workers’ bunk house and he is put in the barn, by himself, which had very poor living conditions. He had to put up with a lot of abuse and discrimination and because of this he had developed a protective shell, which he would withdraw back into whenever he was being abused, this made him suspicious of anyone trying to help him or take an interest in him. Crooks was a dignified man and would often refer to his mauled book of rights to emphasize he had rights. He would also refer to his book if he thought someone was doing something that impeded his rights. Crooks was also very lonely and he craves someone to talk to as much as any of the other workers on the ranch. A good example of his dignity and his loneliness mixed together is when Lennie comes into his room he tries to be angry but he knows he needs someone to talk to and allows Lennie to stay in his room. Women were used and treated unfairly during this period also. During this time women were generally seen as a possession. Men believed that they owned the women and that they could use them however or for whatever they wanted. This is shown by the way the workers talk about the women at the whorehouses and also by the way the workers talk about Curley’s wife. She is seen, as something Curley owns, an item or possession not a person. She is also referred to as jail-bait, a tart and nothing but trouble. Quotes like ‘Jesus, what a tramp.’, ‘Don’t you even look at that bitch.’ and ‘Well, I think Curley’s married†¦a tart.’ which refer to Curley’s wife all emphasize the disrespect shown to women in this period. Although men liked to think women were their possessions, they also had other possessions. They would carry around little things like razors and keep them in a bindle while traveling. When they weren’t traveling they would keep their possessions in an apple crate hung up on the wall. They never carried around much and things would get left behind; for example, the roach killer that got left behind by the last worker that occupied George’s bunk. Hygiene wasn’t all that good. As well as the roach infested bunks there were rats underneath the floorboards. The food wasn’t all that good either and medicine was very simple. Candy tells about how one guy would clean the potatoes if they had spots on them and he would scrape off the red bits in the eggs. Candy also complains of a stomachache the turnips gave him and asks for some whiskey to treat his stomachache. Overall life in the bunkhouses was very harsh. In conclusion, the novel has given us a very clear picture of what life like for the migrant workers moving from ranch to ranch. Loneliness was a serious part of their lives. It was part of a vicious circle that included entertainment, money and their dream. Their dreams were what kept them going. But loneliness would continue to stop them realizing their dreams. They were so lonely they needed the entertainment to help them escape from their loneliness and boredom after work. This cost money; money they needed to realize their dream, and from entertainment they wasted the money they needed to realize a dream, and found themselves lonely again, causing the vicious circle to continue. Life was very rough on the workers. No family to speak of or get closed to. They believed that they didn’t belong anywhere. They went to a ranch, worked up a stake and then blew it in the nearest town. This would happen every month and even though the workers dreamt, the vast majority eventually realized their dream would never come true. But kept dreaming to keep up some hope even though deep down they realized it was not possible.

Strawberry Dna Extraction and Quantitative Hypothesis Development

We wanted to extract, see and analyze DNA from a single strawberry( 12. 11 g). The long, thick fibers of DNA store the information for the functioning of the chemistry of life. DNA is present in every cell of plants and animals. The DNA found in strawberry cells can be extracted using common, everyday materials. To start the procedure we needed the following supplies; one strawberry, one plastic cup, 10 ml of Cell Lysis Buffer (10% detergent, 1% NaCl), one plastic zip-lock bag, one coffee filter, and 25 ml of ice cold Ethanol.The first step of the process was to obtain the weight of the plastic cup by itself, get a strawberry, remove the stem and leave, put it in the plastic cup and then record the weight of plastic cup with strawberry. The results of this first step was; weight of plastic cup: 9. 63 g, weight of plastic cup and strawberry: 21. 74 g. The following step was to place the strawberry in the zip-lock bag, close it and start smashing the strawberry until it was completely broken up, the strawberry had a smoothie-like look. 0 ml of Cell Lysis Buffer was added to the strawberry and gentle massaged it for about one minute. This buffer, which has detergent in it, is to dissolve the cell and nuclear membranes and salts to break the ionic bonds between the histones and DNA, it separates DNA from strawberry. During this step, my lab partner prepared the coffee filter to filter the solution as determine by our instructor. We pour the cell lysate on the coffee filter and allowed it to go through it, to help it, we used a spoon and gently pushed the substance to get the most liquid out of it without braking the coffee filter.Before the filtration the texture looked solid, but after it looked like strawberry juice. Our instructor added 25 ml of ice cold ethanol to the cup and obtain the DNA. We could observe a solid white, mucus like material forming out of the â€Å"juice†. The excess of liquid was removed from the cup, and the cup and DNA was weighted, resulting of 10. 81 g, which was subtracted from the cup weight, having 1. 18 g as the weight of DNA. After this, we calculated the % of the strawberry that was DNA. We concluded that the DNA from strawberry was 9. 74%