Sunday, August 2, 2020

Invasion of the Stikmen

Invasion of the Stikmen Some of you that frequent the blogs may remember that last year around finals time, MIT had an invasion Well as I walked to lab last week, I noticed something interesting on a crosswalk on Memorial Drive. At first, I thought it was just a random piece of trash. but upon closer inspection I discovered this! What was that strange sticker doing on the crosswalk? Well I honestly had no idea the first time I encountered it And as I wandered around campus I stumbled upon yet another one! So I thought to myself, What are these strange creations?!? Baffled by these little men, I tracked down my friend Steven 15 (my go-to person for all MIT happenins) to ask him if he knew anything about them. As usual, Steven was in the loop. He mentioned how he had stumbled upon an article that talked about these creation named Stikmen. Turns out an anoymous artist has been placing these little guys in cities all over the US! Its pretty awesome that we can find a set of these around MIT! Theres a couple more of them around campus, but I didnt want to spoil the location of them all! If youre on campus, see if you can find some new ones (:

Wednesday, May 6, 2020

The Effect of Divorce on Children Free Essays

AN ESSAY The Effect of Divorce on Children Family values are highly praised. When the family is broken up it can lead to divorce and ultimately many negative implications. So what is effect of divorce on children? Is it always negative? Needless to say, in today’s society, divorce has become a norm in our lives. We will write a custom essay sample on The Effect of Divorce on Children or any similar topic only for you Order Now Married couples today split up due to many different reasons, either because of conflicts in the marriage, lost of romantic feelings, a spouse committing an affair or some other type of marriage problems. Most of these divorced couples have children that are very young and very often don’t have an idea how to deal with an event like a divorce. These children will have to learn to deal with their parent’s divorce, sometimes at very young age, affecting them in a positive or negative way. To begin with, divorce hurts children more than parents realize. It is always a traumatic experience in a person’s life, especially a child’s. When parents divorce, children are not always understand it. This omission can lead to problems with the child’s perception of daily life. The impact divorce has on a family is more prominent to the children of the family than the parents. First of all, children have many of their own daily struggles to cope with, such as peer pressure. Adults sometimes forget what it is like to be a child. Many parents do not realize how something like divorce could possibly affect their children as much as it does themselves. As the case may be, children are strongly affected by divorce as they experience some kind of emotional change. Children’s relationships with their friends and relatives may become damaged. Secondly, divorce can also create an unhappy, unfriendly environment for the children. They may not like the person that their mother or father has chosen to be with. This can cause conflicts between stepparents, parents, and children. Children would also have the mental problem of choosing which parent to live with. This can cause a child to be confused and stressed because of the love the child has for both parents. He or she may start to show favoritism towards one of the parents. What is more, kids may look towards other things or relationships to ensure the trust that they were deprived from. For example, children may start taking drugs to relieve them of the stress they have gone through with their parents divorce. Besides, divorce can also cause children to look at marriage as being negative rather than positive. Some children may have problems with future relationships due to the example they receive from their own parents. To my mind, divorce can have long lasting affects on children. Divorce will never be considered a positive solution, nor will children ever be not affected by it in a negative way. Before couples get divorce, they should consider their children first and how it will affect them. Divorce may be the way out for parents, but it always hurts children’s psychological and social health. How to cite The Effect of Divorce on Children, Papers

Thursday, April 30, 2020

The Supermarket Case Analysis free essay sample

The story is about a supermarket chain with 12 stores all throughout NY, from the chic Manhattan to the cluttered Downtown. But as goes one of the clauses of the Darwinian Theory, the more deprived you are, more the competition, more the crime. So, understandably, the low income areas face a lot of vandalism, pilferage etc. causing a lot of overhead costs for the company. The company has a same-price policy which cannot be breached. So what does the distribution manager do? Simple! He decides to send the low quality and poorest cuts of meat to the stores in this region to maintain the profitability. Here comes the catch. Since the stores are facing losses in the region, the customer’s forced to go with less value for his well earned money. Seems like an ‘ethical dilemma’. Bingo!! It’s time for us, as Group 1, to step in. So, we were now supposed to analyse if the economic rationale of the manager was a justification sufficient enough for his decision to sell inferior goods to some of his clients. We will write a custom essay sample on The Supermarket Case Analysis or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page The Debate We decided to look at the case Kurosawa style i. . with diverse perspectives and thus came up with the debate format where both the sides were given an equal opportunity to put forward their case in terms of the ethical theories learnt in class and beyond. It’s an ethical evil!!! Hey!! It’s not that big a deal!! LogicEthical Theory usedLogicEthical Theory used The manager’s not only harming the customer’s interests but he’s also putting the company’s long term reputation at stake. Also, the asymmetry in information goes against the society’s norm of equal rights. Theory of Utilitarianism and John Rawls Theory of Fair Justice The company is providing services of a superstore in the area and thus benefiting a lot of people. The quality of the product is after all only a ‘little’ inferior. Theory of Utilitarianism It is also his duty to fulfil his customers’ requirements and provide them with similar quality of products for similar prices. Theory of DeontologyThe manager has the duty of earning profits for his shareholders by cutting down the overhead costs. Theory of Deontology The society believes in the idea of equal rights to every individual and so the manager’s action will be illegal in such a society. Theory of RightsSince the manager is not doing anything illegal, it is not unethical. Also the business of a business is to do business. What’s wrong in that? Theory of Managerial Egoism The manager’s decision makes the lower pecking order worse off by treating the lower income group regions as dumping grounds for inferior quality of goods. This is cheating and thus, a vice. Theory of Affirmative Action and Theory of VirtueThe vandals are from this locality (assumptions) and so the losses should be borne by the locales. Tit for Tat Similar incidents by Calvin Klein and Costco led to huge long term losses to them. Casuists’ TheoryBait and Switch is a common business practice followed worldwide. And the customer would never know. Casuists’ Theory The Consensus Whoa!! Didn’t know there were so many ethics-related viewpoints to a single dilemma. Well, all said and done, it was time to come to a common solution. The group’s solution for the store (with no consulting fee charged!! ) was straight forward – to invest in security measures, with crossed fingers that this actually is effective enough to considerably reduce the crime rate in the region. There are so many long term costs involved if we let the ‘quality differentiation’ strategy. Once this comes with out in media, the company’s image would have seen a define downfall. The core problem is ‘crime rate’ and not ‘overheads’ – so it makes perfect sense to increase the security measures and let the quality remain the same. The security costs will be distributed over a time. Also, being a low income area, the normal overhead costs like rentals and wages are already low giving us scope to invest in some fruitful security measure.

Saturday, March 21, 2020

Work and the City Essay Example

Work and the City Essay Example Work and the City Essay Work and the City Essay In the â€Å"Allegory of California† and â€Å"Construction†, both artworks both graphically symbolized the condition of workers in the industrialized period but situated in two different locations, a rural place in a powerful first world country and a city at a developing nation. Mexican painter Diego Rivera’s mural represented the California landscape in which illustrated a workplace that connected the agricultural side with the advancements of technology. Rivera made a â€Å"positive view of the hybridization of the mechanical and the organic, of culture and nature† (Sackman 3). Meanwhile, Brazilian photographer Sebastiao Salgado’s photograph depicted a seemingly captured moment of a construction worker gazing at the beauty of the city at the expense of his own safety by merely hanging on unstable bars of steels without any safety precautions. According to Salgado, â€Å"photography is the simultaneous recognition, in a fraction of a second, of the significance of an event as well as of a precise organization of forms which give that event its proper expression† (cited in Ritchin, â€Å"The Lyric Documentarian†). Rivera showed the condition of workers during the 1930s while Salgado displayed the status of workers in the 1990s. The â€Å"Allegory of California† manifested the several types of work that were prevalent during that time. It showed farmers farming their crops, miners mining for gold, engineers creating new technologies and scientists conducting studies. The only endangerment that was demonstrated was the effects of technological advancements to nature and human workforce. The rise of the machines can destroy the beauty and richness of the beauty of nature and it can also replace the capabilities of human in terms of providing essential products and services. On the other hand, the â€Å"Construction† by Salgado showed a more evident form of danger for a worker. Thy physical aspect of the work environment illustrated the work hazard of the place because of the absence of precautionary safety elements such as safety harness, protective clothing, warning signs and other s. More so, the hanging position of the worker indicated the possibility or the imminent threat of falling hundreds of feet to the ground. This construction site at Rasuna complex of apartment and office buildings in the commercial and financial district of Kuningan in Indonesia showed the neglect of most employers over the safety of their workers. The mural of â€Å"  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   â€Å"Allegory of California† was created by Rivera to remind the upper class that the resources that they have consumed and enjoyed were products of hard arduous labor of farmers and workers.   Rivera’s representation of the workforce emphasized their importance in the development of a society. However, through the combination of the â€Å"the labor of workers, the power of technology and, ultimately, the fertility of the earth,† the condition of social inequality is upheld and the commoditization of resources is actuated (Sackman 10). The images represented a stratified society wherein workers are at the bottom or middle level of the pyramid who do all the laborious works in order to provide for other members of the society. Meanwhile, the photograph of Salgado symbolized an unsung hero who performs his duties at the expense of risking his own life for monetary rewards. This scenario showed how countries like Indonesia, a developing country, have disregarded the condition of their labor force in order to minimize the cost of their project. Salgado in most of his photographs had demonstrated a very creative and subtle form of social conscience (Wald 4). Salgado makes sure that every image that he takes; he captures the essence of that image â€Å"including culture and the internal resources that allow for self-determination,† in which promotes compassion and awareness for the viewers† (cited in Ritchin, â€Å"The Lyric Documentarian†). Moreover, a mural compared to a photograph, I think that a photograph is more powerful and persuasive than a mural or a painting because in photographs reality is captured without any enhancements or alterations. Paintings and murals are artist’s outputs based on his understanding and perspective about the subject matter. A subject can either exaggerate or downplay depending on the artist’s mood or thinking. But photographs, particularly Salgado’s works, are â€Å"confined to the moment by the mechanics of the camera, which are drawn less to celebrating and taming an instant’s arbitrariness, their   material manifestations, but more to articulating their eternity, their ephemeral profundity, and to locating a mythic, entwining presence (cited in Ritchin, â€Å"The Lyric Documentarian†).

Wednesday, March 4, 2020

Determiners What They Are and How to Use Them

Determiners What They Are and How to Use Them Determiners: What They Are and How to Use Them We use determiners in front of nouns to show what they refer to. The difference between â€Å"a hat† and â€Å"my hat,† for instance, is that â€Å"my† shows that the hat belongs to me. This makes determiners very important for clear communication, so make sure you know which terms to use in different situations. Articles (The / A / An) Articles are the most basic determiners to specify what you’re discussing. They  come in two kinds: the definite article (â€Å"the†) and the indefinite article (â€Å"a† or â€Å"an†). The definite article – â€Å"the† – is used when we refer to something specific. If I say â€Å"I am going to the library,† for example, I have a particular library in mind (not just any library). The indefinite article is used when not referring to a specific entity. If I go looking for â€Å"a library,† I’m not searching for a specific library (any library will do). Possessives (My / Your / His / Her / Its / Our / Their) A possessive determiner indicates ownership, like with â€Å"my hat† above. Other singular determiners include â€Å"your,† â€Å"his,† â€Å"her† and â€Å"its.† Plural determiners (i.e., determiners used to indicate something belongs to a group) include â€Å"our† (â€Å"welcome to our party!†), â€Å"their† (â€Å"I don’t want to go to their party†) and â€Å"your† (â€Å"I’m glad I went to your party†). Note that â€Å"your† can be either  singular or plural. Demonstratives (This / That / These / Those) Demonstrative determiners usually tell us about the position of something relative to the speaker. â€Å"This† (singular) and â€Å"these† (plural) indicate something is close. â€Å"That† (singular) and â€Å"those† (plural) usually apply when something is far away. Determiners (This, That, These, Those) As with â€Å"the,† demonstratives  are used when we refer  to something in particular (e.g., â€Å"this cake† and â€Å"that cake† both refer to a specific cake, unlike â€Å"a cake†). We also use â€Å"this† to refer to something we have just mentioned. This makes it possible to follow on from a preceding sentence without having to re-identify the thing being discussed. Quantifiers (All / Any / Some / Every) This category of determiners includes a wide variety of terms relating to quantity, including â€Å"all,† â€Å"any,† â€Å"both,† â€Å"either,† â€Å"enough,† â€Å"a few,† â€Å"some,† â€Å"every† and many others. Like â€Å"a† or â€Å"an,† these words do not specify singular things, but nevertheless tell us something about the noun being described, usually to do with the number or quantity being discussed. In the sentence â€Å"I will cuddle every puppy,† for example, â€Å"every† shows I’m referring to every single puppy in the room, in the world, or every puppy available. In â€Å"I will cuddle any puppy,† meanwhile, the determiner â€Å"any† shows that, while I’m happy to cuddle a puppy, I will not necessarily commit to cuddling all of them. No matter how adorable they are. Sorry, little dude. Youll have to cuddle yourself. [Photo: Jonathon Kriz]