Background Information about The Russo-Japanese War of 1904-1905 :: Russian Japan History Foreign Affairs Essays

Background Information about The Russo-Japanese War of 1904-1905 By 1905, a revolution was immanent, Tsar’s power was to be challenged and the reasons for this are to be laid out here in this essay. Was the Tsar’s non-reformist attitude solely to blame or was the nature of Tsardom destined to destroy itself? We need to look at the foundations of the revolution in order to fully understand this and make an informed response to these questions. The foundations are laid out into five main parts, including short and long-term factors. The two main long-term factors being that the Tsar alienated many of the classes within Russia and his policy of non-reform led to repression. As these factors developed, other incidents became short-term factors. The failure in the Japanese War was a huge blow to Tsardom and undermined their ethos that Tsardom was the right regime for Russia and the political spring that came as the Tsar relaxed censorship brought an avalanche of criticism for Tsardom. Finally, the humiliation at Port Arthur triggered the protest at the Winter Palace, which developed into Bloody Sunday and was the birth of the revolution. Investigating the first of the long-term factors causing the revolution, it seemed necessary to go back to examine the structure of Tsarist Russia pre-1905 to get a fuller picture. This period posed a problem for Nicholas II. The regime itself reinforced any class divisions from the bureaucracy to the peasants and alienated them even further. As, â€Å"the truth is Nicholas was never in touch with the common people. He never knew what it was like to worry where the next meal was coming from. He never had to. † He did not understand the way that Russia worked in practise. He could not, or would not, empathise with the peasants’ hardships of the land and his ideas of Russia’s troubles were laughable. Consequently, by 1905 he had estranged his subjects, including even some of the gentry’ folk that had been so loyal to Tsardom in the past. They were a class in decline and it was partly due to the Tsar’s incompetence. Owing to Russia’s economic ba ckwardness, the landowners found it almost impossible to farm for a profit. The gentry had no market for their produce, as their target market was near penniless and thus could not afford to purchase crops from the landowners. The Tsar did little to rectify the situation and in fact took land off the gentry following the emancipation of the Serfs and issued bonds, which were effectively I.

Mr. Burns as Scrooge of Springfield

In the history of modern popular culture, there have been few American satires as influential and successful as the animated television show, The Simpsons.   With Homer, Marge, Bart, Lisa, and baby Maggie living in the everytown of Springfield, U.S.A., they find themselves in many situations common to most Americans, including being under the rule of ruthless corporate raiders like Charles Montgomery Burns.As owner of the Springfield Nuclear Power Plant, Mr. Burns displays all the characteristics of a classic egoist, though his satirical portrayal takes many of the attributes and accentuates them to the point of ridiculousness.   Mr. Burns shows absolutely no charitable tendencies, is concerned solely with money and power, and cares little for anyone other than himself, which makes him anything but a relativist or utilitarian, but seems to make him more of an ethical egoist.Mr. Burns is a corporate raider, characterized on the show as being over a century old, putting him amongst the original robber barons.   The character himself is actually based on an amalgam of media magnate William Randolph Hearst and his fictional counterpart Charles Foster Kane, both characters that focused solely on their power and how to use and enhance it.   In The Simpsons, almost every story concerning Mr. Burns includes his blatant disregard for anyone else other than himself and his own interests.One of the most obvious depictions of Burns’ ethics comes in the two-part episode called â€Å"Who Shot Mr. Burns?†Ã‚   In the episode, oil is discovered beneath Springfield Elementary School, and the school seems poised to get a windfall of money from the discovery.   This will allow the terribly dilapidated and underfunded school to make many improvements in every aspect of the curriculum.   However, Mr. Burns discovers the oil and creates a slant drilling company that will draw the oil up from an angle, in the process destroying the Springfield Retirement Home and making the popular Moe’s Tavern uninhabitable for humans.   In addition to alienating the school, destroying the retirement home, and putting Moe’s out of business, Mr. Burns also fails to remember the name of his decade-long employee, Homer Simpson.His selfishness and self-absorption have managed to anger just about everyone in town, though he is only concerned with making more money and becoming even more powerful.   He finally reveals his grand scheme to his loyal assistant Waylon Smithers, which is to build a giant device that will block out the sun in Springfield and require all the citizens in town to use electricity from his plant twenty-four hours a day.   He even feels so good that he wants to steal candy from a baby.When his loyal assistant objects, Burns quickly fires him, never realizing that Smithers’ life desire was merely to work for Mr. Burns.   Burns is blind to everything and everyone, and he finally succeeds at blocking out the su n, incurring the anger of everyone in town.   It is when he celebrates his victory he is shot by an unknown assailant, who after a cliffhanger, is revealed to be baby Maggie Simpson as he attempts to steal her candy and subsequently shot by his own gun (â€Å"Who Shot Mr. Burns?†).While the over three-hundred episodes of The Simpsons have many instances of Mr. Burns making ethically questionable decisions in the name of money and power, this episode remains one of the most famous and obvious examples of his selfishness.   To Burns, nothing is as important as his business success, and this is the single factor dictating his ethics and his actions.   Burns’ morality bleeds into every aspect of his life outside of business, though to him there are no other concerns than business.Morality and ethics are important to every aspect of human life, including in business, and many ethical theorists have sought to understand the extent of morality and the duty that individu als and organizations have to other individuals and organizations.   Though no laws of morality or ethics have been established, there are four core concepts presented by ethical theorists: ethical relativism, which espouses that ethics is a question of individual choice and preference; impartiality, which suggests that humans should treat each other as equals where none count more than others; sympathy, which is the imaginative ability to put oneself in another’s shoes; and moral sufficiency, which seeks to answer just how much moral decency is reasonably possible (Gibson 62-63).In business matters, these issues and the questions they pose are even greater, as businesses have the potential to create great benefit for others, or do them great harm, all the while trying to maximize profit and retain success.   Mr. Burns is far from an ethical relativist, for he shows no concern for the benefit of others.   In fact, he takes joy out of creating misery for others, as long as their misery is profitable to him.   He assumes responsibility for his actions without shame, and feels no remorse if anyone is hurt.   After all, one of his greatest desires was to take candy from a baby, for no other reason than he could.In the essay, â€Å"Thinking Ethically,† the authors attempt to apply various ethical approaches to moral issues in business, which could apply to Mr. Burns’ actions.   One of the first and most widely known approaches is the utilitarian approach, which seeks to achieve the greatest good for the greatest number of individuals.   The way to analyze the utilitarian approach is to identify the various course of action available, ask who will be affected by each action and what benefits and harms will come from them, and choose the action that will produce the greatest benefits and least harm (Velasquez 64).Mr. Burns, if anything, purposefully contradicts this mode of action, as he derives pleasure in the misery of those he va nquishes in the name of greater profit and power, even if these people are innocent.   Another ethical approach is the Rights Approach, which espouses that an action is moral as long as it falls within the moral rights of an individual, while the Fairness or Justice Approach which states that favoritism and discrimination are wrong.The Common Good Approach focuses on ensuring that social policies, social systems, institutions, and environments on which we depend are beneficial to all; the Virtue Approach assumes that there are certain ideals towards which humans should strive, which provide for the full development of humanity (66).   By approaching situations of ethical ambiguity with these theories, one has a better chance of choosing the correct mode of action.   For Burns, all of these ethical approaches are not applicable, for he fails to ever consider how his actions may affect anyone else negatively.Or, when he does think about it, he gets pleasure in being able to impo se his power to the point where he can bring misery to others through his actions, as in his celebration after blotting out the sun despite the protests of everyone in the entire town, including his closest supporter Smithers.In Donelson Forsyth’s article, â€Å"Judging the Morality of Business Practices: The Influence of Personal Moral Philosophies,† he examines the ways business leaders approach ethical relativism and how it does not need to necessarily defeat the moral enterprise.   However, to someone like Mr. Burns, ethics are nothing more than an afterthought, while the bottom line is the only thing that matters.While studies have suggested the impact of relativism and idealism on moral judgment and behavior depends on the nature of the social institution, individual differences in personal moral philosophy suggests that humans will most likely never reach the ideal of complete agreement, but can aim for a fuller understanding of one’s own and othersâ₠¬â„¢ reactions to various types of business practices (Forsyth 75).   In the case of Burns, he only agrees and appreciates with those that share his views on profiteering and power, even though he remains skeptical and suspicious of every threat; and he considers virtually everybody a threat to his wealth and power.This is why, despite having more money than anyone in town and never being able to spend it all, all the instances when Mr. Burns is asked to contribute even a little of his money to help someone else, he vehemently rejects the request.   This has been seen many times in the show, from Homer asking for help with a sick dog to a girl scout trying to sell Mr. Burns cookies only to have him â€Å"release the hounds† on her.Mr. Burns greed and complete lack of charity display his true nature as an ethical egoist.   In Peter Singer’s article, â€Å"The Singer Solution to World Poverty,† the author proposes that if people in affluent countries like th e United States donated a small portion of their money that would normally be spent on luxury items, then the money can be used to help out poverty stricken peoples around the world.He uses examples of how this can be done, by citing the costs incurred by someone who buys a new television merely to upgrade from an older one.   He claims that if this money was donated to such charities as Unicef or Oxfam America that it would do a greater deal of good for the most possible people, thereby having the greatest utility value.   By choosing to buy the television and not donate the money, Singer feels that a person is making a questionable moral decision, even though few in the situation actually feel this way.Singer uses a more provocative hypothetical example of a man named Bob, who has an uninsurable classic car that he will sell to insure that he has money for his retirement.   In the situation, Bob is forced to make a decision as a train bears down on his car and a little boy; Bob has a choice whether to save the boy or the car, but not both, and Bob chooses the car and lets the boy die.   While this dramatic example seems to highlight the undesirable attributes of self-interest, Singer claims that the â€Å"difference between Bob and those who can afford to donate to overseas aid organizations but don't is that only Bob can save the child on the tracks, whereas there are hundreds of millions of people who can give $200 to overseas aid organization† (Singer).By Singer’s logic, those that are not donating to these organizations are committing an act similar to the one performed by Bob.   Mr. Burns would not only laugh at such a concept, but would relish the fact that anyone asking for help would be suffering.   If in the same situation, he would most certainly save the car, and most likely praise Bob for saving his car, before figuring out a way to get the car from Bob for himself.Mr. Burns utilizes his power to inflict his will upon ot hers, and only respects those who do the same.   As, all humans are born with free will, the decision to be charitable or uncharitable rests within that freedom.   The German Enlightenment philosopher Immanuel Kant contributed much to the Western discussion of ethics and free will, and his conception of freedom and virtue are reasoned by â€Å"the critical distinction of the two modes of representation (the sensible and the intellectual) and the consequent limitation of the conceptions of the pure understanding and of the principles which flow from them† (Kant).Kant attempts to distinguish between the empirical and rational conceptions of free will and how it influences virtue, questioning whether freedom is the independent choices of free will or merely the practical reaction to circumstance and causality.   To this end, Kantianism is highly dependent upon reason to figure out the proper decision concerning virtue, and his ethics rely on obligation to reason more than emotions or goals.   Thus, the Kantian approach to donation and charity would be the duty of those that have the means to donate.   Burns would patently disagree.   Most certainly, Mr. Burns is an ethical egoist.Ethical egoism is a philosophical practice that encourages individuals to pursue their own self-interests.   While it is idealistic to think of helping unknown masses with one’s own hard earned money, it is also naà ¯ve to think that people should feel obligated to do so.   A person who works hard to make money to buy fine things is entitled to those things.   Just because a person is successful and can afford luxury items does not mean that they are obligated to help strangers because it serves some sort of utilitarian purpose.   If anything, much of this altruism merely perpetuates a cycle in which those who are poor become accustomed to the aid of those who are not.   If they pursued their own self-interests, they would be better able to rise above their own struggles and create a successful world for themselves.Ethical egoism is not entirely without the concept of helping others, however it focuses not on people that an individual will never meet, but the people in his or her life and those that the person loves and touches personally.   If one’s family is in trouble and one possesses the ability to give assistance, this is in the individual’s best interest, as it will lead to happiness.   However, for an extreme example like Mr. Burns, there is no one that he wishes to help, save for the occasional cute pet or his old stuffed teddy bear.   Mr. Burns is a classic example of an ethical egoist, and no one should expect him to do anything for anyone other than himself.   And, in the twenty years that The Simpsons have been on television, he has done nothing but loyally follow his ethical egoist values.Works Cited:Forsyth, Donelson R.. â€Å"Judging the Morality of Business Practices: The Influence of Pers onalMoral Philosophies.† Business Ethics: People, Profits, and the Planet. Ed. Kevin Gibson. New York: McGraw-Hill Humanities, 2005. 67-76.Gibson, Kevin. â€Å"The Theoretical Backdrop of Business Ethics.† Business Ethics: People, Profits,and the Planet. Ed. Kevin Gibson. New York: McGraw-Hill Humanities, 2005. 61-63.Kant, Immanuel. The Critique Of Pure Reason. Ed. J. M. D. Meiklejohn. 1781. eserver.org. 4Apr 2008. ;http://philosophy.eserver.org/kant/critique-of-pure-reason.txt;.Velasquez, Manuel, ; Claire Andre, Tomas Shanks, S.J., and Michael J. Meyer. â€Å"ThinkingEthically: A Framework for Moral Decision Making.† Business Ethics: People, Profits, and the Planet. Ed. Kevin Gibson. New York: McGraw-Hill Humanities, 2005. 64-67.Singer, Peter. â€Å"The Singer Solution to World Poverty.† The New York Times Magazine. 5 Sep1999; pp. 60-63. Utilitarian Philosophers. 4 Apr 2008. ;http://www.utilitarian.net/singer/by/19990905.htm;â€Å"Who Shot Mr. Burns?â₠¬  The Simpsons. Bill Oakley and Josh Weinstein. 20th Century Fox. 21May 1995.

Fibonacci Sequence Essays

Fibonacci Sequence Essays Fibonacci Sequence Essay Fibonacci Sequence Essay Fibonacci Sequence Fibonacci, also known as the Leonardo of Pisa, born in the early 1770’s AD in Pisa, Italy, has had a huge impact on today’s math, and is used in everyday jobs all over the world. After living with his dad, a North African educator, he discovered these ways of math by traveling along the Mediterranean Coast learning their ways of math. With the inspiration from the â€Å"Hindu-Arabic† numerical system, Fibonacci created the 0-9 number system we still use to this day. One of his most important and interesting discoveries is probably what is known as the Fibonacci sequence. It goes like this: 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, 21, 34, 55, 89, 144, and so on. He discovered this sequence through an experiment on an over population and breeding of rabbits. He then realized that if you add the last two numbers together you get the next one. The Fibonacci sequence can be found almost anywhere including: architecture, economics, music, aesthetics, and most famously known, nature. For example the way seeds are arranged on a sunflower or pinecone, uses the Fibonacci sequence to prevent over crowding. It can also be seen in spiral galaxies, shells, the way water falls on a spider web, and even in your own body. Did you know that if you go from the bone in the tip of your finger to it’s middle it should be two fingernails long, followed by the base at about 5 fingernails, and the final bone goes all the way to about the middle of your palm which is the length of about 8 fingernails? : There are other example of this in your body to such as a DNA strand is 34 by 21 angstroms. Mozart uses it in his world-known sonatas by how many measures he puts in each section of his music. Or on a piano, if you look at the scale, there are 13 keys, 8 are white, and 5 black, which are split into groups of 2 and 3. When it comes to architecture, it’s been used as early as 2,560 BC on the Great Giza Pyramids. Leonardo DaVinci always tried to use this sequence throughout his artwork to, due to its aesthetic appeal. As for economics, some people believe that the stock market follows a sequence like Fibonacci’s but this is still being strongly debated. Yet even today, Fibonacci is known as the greatest European mathematician of the middle ages and will never be forgotten for his math contributions. I believe we are just discovering how many uses there really are for the Fibonacci Sequence, and I’m excited to see how they will evolve and become an even bigger part of our daily lives.

9 Funny Santa Claus Quotes Add Laughter to the Holidays

9 Funny Santa Claus Quotes Add Laughter to the Holidays Why does Santa Claus enter a house through a sooty fireplace? Why can he not simply knock at the door? The magic of Christmas, perhaps, lies in the mystery of Santa Claus. If you love Santa Claus, you will love these funny Santa quotes. But be warned, some of these quotes have wicked humor. Funny Quotes About Santa Claus Lee Lauer One of the problems we have in this country is that too many adults believe in Santa Claus, and too many children dont. Jack Handy If you ever have to steal money from your kid, and later on he discovers its gone, I think a good thing to do is to blame it on Santa Claus. Samuel Butler Nobody shoots at Santa Claus. James Gould A cynic is just a man who found out when he was about ten that there wasnt any Santa Claus, and hes still upset. Robert Paul You know youre getting old when Santa starts looking younger. Arlo Guthrie Santa Claus wears a Red Suit, he must be a communist. And a beard and long hair - must be a pacifist. Whats in that pipe that hes smoking? Bernard Manning I once bought my kids a set of batteries for Christmas with a note on it saying toys not included. Tom Armstrong Let me see if Ive got this Santa business straight. You say he wears a beard, has no discernible source of income and flies to cities all over the world under cover of darkness? You sure this guy isnt laundering illegal drug money? George Carlin Santa is very jolly because he knows where all the bad girls live.

Setting Climate and Culture - The Manager's Responsibility Essay

Setting Climate and Culture - The Manager's Responsibility - Essay Example I believe, establishing and maintaining open communications in an organization is one of the most prime methods of making your employee role playing towards the company's goals and objectives. It makes and feels your company's employees more valuable. Moreover, open communication also results in high productivity with cost effectiveness. It has been observed that conflict between workers and management occurs when communication fails. To create an open communication environment, manager should make a clear distinction among workers to communicate about work issues and listen carefully to supervisor instructions and answer him/her as asked. "A supportive communication climate encourages open, constructive, honest and effective interaction. A defensive climate, on the other hand, leads to competitive and destructive conflict. The competent communicator strives to maintain a supportive communication climate". (http://planet.tvi.edu/idc/Documents/ClassroomClimateweb.htm) I prefer the supportive communication instead of defensive because as far as problem orientation is concerned, the supportive communication provides invitation to the group of workers to open their views by working together to reach a solution of a problem. The supportive communication is responsive to all employees; it coveys a message that is understandable and generates interest problem solving steps. The supportive behavior creates equality among all employees and consequently, the supportive communication in an organization creates message that indicates equal worth of all subjugated employees. On the other hand, the defensive communication lack essence of problems and thus, it creates communication gap in many ways. "Organizational values are moral boundaries - the lines the organization will not cross. They are the ethical standards by which organizations measure themselves, and by which they invite the Community to measure them. The working credo you will create from these values will be a commitment to the community to do your work in a way they would be proud of". (http://www.help4nonprofits.com/ValuesExercise.pdf) One can determine the organizational values of employees by cononsidering the following points, and if necessary do communicate with the employees: (1) What working standards are adopting by the employees and to what extent they are good in decision making process and in what order they are taking decisions (2) What behavior they want to reward either they want supportive behavior or defensive behavior However, on the side of an employer, it is a very important factor considering the organizational values of the employees to make sure that whether the employees are getting competitive fringe benefits or not along with good salaries and sound working conditions. It is a significant part of a manger's duty that he/she should evaluate and understand how ethics can make employees performance better. As far as demographic make up of an organization is concerned, it includes gender, race, level, grade and so on. In my organization, there are different (ethnicities) people are working; Black, white, Hispanic and some employees belong to other countries - they are not

Comprehensive School Health Program Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Comprehensive School Health Program - Essay Example The second controversial issue is that with the healthy foods on the menu, students have a choice between vegetables or fruits, but they do not have to eat them. Research shows that many students do not eat two out of the five lunch options offered in a day. According to the journal Public Health Nutrition over five hundred elementary school trays studied, students throw away a third of the grain, vegetables, and fruits (Minelli & Breckon 2009). One of the most common budgetary constraint faced by most comprehensive school health programs is insufficient funds needed for evaluation. Often these programs and projects budgets are inadequate regarding the financial support they get. As a result, evaluation funds are usually relocated to other activities. The consequence of this is that the assessment designs are over simplified. It is a way in which schools find it easy to reduce the cost and time requirements that are associated with the valuation process. Oversimplification of evaluations, designs, and procedures of the CSHPs can result in the reciprocated controversies that are related to it. A decent example of an institute that implemented creative measures to tackle budget constraints is Woodland Hills School. The school was faced with budget shrinks and pension costs increasing; the institution had to come up with creative methods to raise funds to cater for the costs. One of the imaginative means applied is through fund raisers that the institution arranged in conjunction with the parents.

To what extent are outcomes determined by current public health policy Essay

To what extent are outcomes determined by current public health policy for children affected by parental substances abuse satisfactory in the UK - Essay Example Likewise, people who have been casualties of kid misuse or who have been brought up in neediness are more at danger (Sora, 1997). Despondency and low respect toward oneself additionally can prompt substance ill-use. At the point when individuals, kids and teenagers particularly, start to have companions who use medications or acknowledge medication use as the "standard", they are more inclined to create substance ill-use issues themselves (Magill, 2011). Children are affected badly when their parents are involved in substance abuse. Many of the researches have shown that the kids go into depression and even they become victims of substance abuse (Straussner & Fewell, 2006). Another issue which can be highlighted in this case is that, when their parents are involved in substance abuse, the children are unable to enjoy their childhood days and tend to lose on it as they have to take up to early responsibilities of supporting themselves or even their family for that matter (Barlow, 2010). There are various organizations in various countries such Children 1st in Scotland. There have been various approach improvements lately planned to endeavour to handle the issue of parental substance misuse, and the issues brought on by medications and liquor all the more by and large (Kar, 1999). Archives, for example, the Scottish Officials direction, Getting Our Necessities Right, and the Activity Anticipate Liquor Abuse (2002) have attempted to recommend system to working with individuals who abuse substances. More exertion is required to concentrate on keeping individuals from getting to be entangled in this society, and helping the individuals who are at danger of substance misuse refocus on supporting their families (Fisher & Roget, 2009). Making decisions about the best interests and future well-being of a child is complex. Every youngster and their