Thursday, December 26, 2019

Workers Compensation Free Essay Example, 1250 words

What are the advantages of the Workers compensation scheme? Most of the benefits to the workers compensation scheme are obvious from the information above. It gives a fair system to ensure that all workers are entitled to compensation from employers, and sets out the amounts that they are entitled to, which ensures that the compensation received is not subjective to the employer. It takes away the onus on the employee to prove the employer as being negligible and ensures that the process is the same for all employees, so there is appropriate guidance available for the employee to ensure that their claim for compensation is as quick and easy as possible, which is especially important during a time when they are probably already undergoing some form of pain and suffering. Not only is the process quicker, but the fact that the employee no longer has to actively pursue the case through the courts ensures that the litigation costs for both the employee and the employer are reduced. The s cheme is also an advantage to the employer5 in that they are aware of the exact costs that they would be liable for if such an accident were to occur, and this enables the employer to take out adequate insurance, based on a risk assessment of the job involved. We will write a custom essay sample on Workers Compensation or any topic specifically for you Only $17.96 $11.86/pageorder now In fact, in many states there are large penalties for companies who do not have adequate insurance cover, as it is mandatory by law. 6 Are there any disadvantages to the Workers compensation scheme? The answer to this question, as is usually the case with any form of legislation, is yes, there are disadvantages. The most obvious disadvantage in the system is that the employee is only entitled to around two thirds of their usual income. This can make a lot of difference, prticularly in houselholds with only one income earner. This is an inevitable outcome to such a bargain having been made with employers when the original schemes were introduced however. If the benefits received by the employee were any more then this would put great financial presure on companies, especially the smaller ones, as if they had people absent from work through sickness and injury they would probably also have to pay another individual to do the employees job until they returned. It would therefore probably encourage many companies to find other reasons to terminate the employees contract in order to save themselves this expense. One su ch example of an employer in which this could cause many problems would be in hospitals. Every year there are a large number of healthcare professionals, particularly nurses, who injure their backs at work and have to spend time off from work.

Tuesday, December 17, 2019

Megan Cooper . Instructor Klug. English 10B. April 21,

Megan Cooper Instructor Klug English 10B April 21, 2017 Analyzing Night Style The Holocaust was the systematic and bureaucratic murder of six million Jews by the Nazi party and its collaborators. During the era of the Holocaust, German authorities targeted many groups of people because of their perceived racial inferiority including Gypsies, the disabled, and some of the Slavic peoples. Other groups were persecuted on political, ideological, and behavioral grounds. Several authors have written about the Holocaust, but one author that touched many people the most was Elie Wiesel. Through the use of several style devices, Wiesel creates an impressionistic style which reflects the nature of his experiences in the Nazi†¦show more content†¦For example on page 25 a woman on the train with Elie named Madam Schà ¤chter cries, Jews listen to me, I see a fire! I see flames, huge flames! Wiesel uses her hallucinations to foreshadow what is about to happen to most of the men, women, and children arriving at the camps. The others on the train with her sa id, She is hallucinating because she is thirsty, poor woman. . . That s why she speaks of flames devouring her. . . However, in her fear, she is the most honest and accurate about what is going to happen. Everyone on the train hated Madame Schachter because she was screaming about her vision of flames which no one could see. When Elie and his father finally get off the train, they see the thick black smoke and smell the flesh in the air around them and they see, for the first time, that Madam Schachter s visions were true. Sentence fragments are spotted frequently throughout the text. On page 9 Wiesel writes, ANGUISH. He says that because the Germans coming and they re afraid. Another example is on page when he says, Anaphora is the repetition of a word or phrase at the beginning of successive clauses. When Wiesel writes, Never shall I forget that night, the first night in the camp, that turned my life into one long night seven times sealed. Never shall I forget that smoke. Never shall I forget the small faces of the children whose bodies I saw transformed

Monday, December 9, 2019

Management and Organizations in Global Environment Organization Scien

Question: Discuss about theManagement and Organizations in Global Environment for Organization Science. Answer: Structure and Strategy BCGs Yves Morieux view on Organization Design According to Fan, et al. (2013. P.1234) organizational structure involves how activities such as supervising, coordinating, directing, and work allocation are performed to assist the organization to arrive at its objectives. On the other hand, strategies refer to the sum of plans the firm is intending to undertake so as to achieve its goals. Morieux says that the organizational structure follows its strategies which are true in most cases. For the firm to achieve its set plans, which in this case we refer them as strategies, the organizational structure will be directed towards the guidelines and procedures explained in the policies. The structure will have to follow plans as discussed in the following activities. How Contingency Factors of Organizational Design are at work in the case of Zappos Contingent factors affecting an organizational design are; size, age, technology used, strategies and the environment of the enterprise (Csaszar, 2013, p.1096). Zippo Company has approximately 17 years of trading. This shows that the company is probably in its last stages of business. The management has had time to incorporate the organization and knows its strengths and weaknesses. The decision of Zippo to adopt holacracy is suitable since the method works effectively with old firms. For new businesses, it may cause ambiguities since the employees may not have adequate knowledge and skills to formulate decisions. Secondly is the size of the organization. Choosing an organizational design will require the management to assess how big the business is to avoid using an ineffective method which may lead to loss of control and power. Zappos is a medium sized company with about 1500 employees. For holacracy and team-based to be undertaken, a large firm will be desirable for the senior management to deal with the groups rather than dealing with an individual employee. This will save time and the groups will provide more information to the management than it initially knows. Finally, Zappos has a serene operating environment which provides it with near raw materials for shoe, handbag and cloth production. There is also a ready market at Las Vegas. Moreover, the company operates with the latest technology. Shamsuzzoha et al. (2013, p.130) said that the firm has been the cutting edge of innovation, and it was one of the early adopters of social media technology for advertising to market its products. The two features will assist the CEO to monitor the performance of the firm and right areas where the groups may forget to handle. The serene environment will make the teams work comfortably producing the best for Zippo. Ways which Innovative Culture is related to (Agile) Organizational Structure Creative culture refers to the art, custom, and habits. They characterize an organization, community or the entire nation but sustains and encourages innovation for risk and uncertainty reduction Innovative culture is related to an active organizational structure for it introduces the three Rs explained by (Wei, O'Neill, Lee, Zhou, 2013. P.1040). It improves the firm by recruiting whereby the management hires new, skilled and qualified employees to better performance. (Wei, O'Neill, Lee, and Zhou, 2013, p.1040) further, explain that retraining of current employees is essential to make them conversant with the current innovations such as new machines and computer programs. The last R is rewards or recognition where employees efforts are paid through job promotions, salary and wage increments. Week 4 Blog Structure refers to activities that make an organization to run while strategies are plans implemented for the structure to work. The two create a relationship where the first depends on the latter. Organizations can be governed by various means with Zappos introducing a unique style- holacracy. It is different from bureaucracy, but paper close to the team-based method. Factors of organizational design determine the governance style to use like Zappos which has favorable age, size, and serene environment for holacracy to work. For an active organizational structure, innovative culture is necessary for improving employees habits, custom, and art of working. Activities such as rewarding, re-training, and recruiting qualified is essential to make a firm to handle current global dynamics in the business industry. Week 6 Activity 1: Linear Programming Word Problem Insights into Rational Decision-Making Approach that can be drawn from this video First, a person should choose letters to represent the units of the brands. In our case, x and y are selected to represent the units of X and Y respectively. A master equation to solve the problem, which in this case is minimizing cost, is derived. (C=0.8x+0.5y). The values of x and y should be equal or greater than zero. Since the primary components of food here are fats and protein, two equations are derived which when plotted on a graph paper shall show the required side on the paper where cost can be minimized. To obtain the minimum cost, one has to consider the vertices constructed by plotting of the graph and substituting the vertices using the minimum cost function. In our case, the minimum cost which is 2.52 is achieved through coordinates (2.4, 1.2) Limitations of Linear Programming Xu Wang (2014. P.312) listed assumptions of linear programming as follows; Constants parameters- the method assumes that parameters are constant which may not be the case in reality. Complexity-since the method uses mathematical techniques, it is subject to trial and error due to rounding off of figures which may not give optimal solutions. Tackles a single objective- the method handles one problem at a time. For instance, in the example, it forms an equation to minimize cost. There could be more objectives not covered in the model. Values of coefficient parameters- It assumes that these values which may not be accurate and thus hard for a researcher to get the exact numerical values. Kinds of Situation that Linear Programming could be useful to Decision Making Can be used by producers when allocating resources to determine sufficient amounts of individual components to use for maximum profit (Rueda-Medina et al. (2013, p.137.) For example, manufacture of fat and oil for cooking. Linear programming may also be used in assessing micro and macroeconomic problems such as identifying the optimum point for demand and supply as well as investment, income, savings and consumption. The method is also applicable in the telecommunication industry for identifying the network design, call routing, and internet traffic. Week 6 Blog For rational decision making in economics, telecommunication and production sector, solutions can be achieved through the use of linear programming technique where an equation is derived with the parameters mostly denoted by letters x and y. Upon plotting a graph using the given values to make X and Y axes, a section containing positive, realistic values is obtained. The vertices coordinates are substituted in the main equation, and either the highest or the lowest answers are selected depending on the problem. The method assists in solving problems but it has been criticized in that it is complex, solves a single problem at a time, and the parameters are assumed to be constant. The assumption of linear variables and extracting real values of coefficient parameters cause further limitations of the approach. References Csaszar, F.A., 2013. An efficient frontier in organization design: Organizational structure as a determinant of exploration and exploitation. Organization Science, 24(4), pp.1083-1101. Fan, J.P., Wong, T.J. and Zhang, T., 2013. Institutions and organizational structure: The case of state-owned corporate pyramids. Journal of Law, Economics, and Organization, 29(6), pp.1217-1252. Gouveia, L.B., 2016. Holacracy as an alternative to organizations governance. Hawkins, N.M., Wright, D.J. and Capewell, S., 2013. Heart failure services in the United Kingdom: rethinking the machine bureaucracy. International journal of cardiology, 162(3), pp.143-148. Rueda-Medina, A.C., Franco, J.F., Rider, M.J., Padilha-Feltrin, A. and Romero, R., 2013. A mixed-integer linear programming approach for optimal type, size and allocation of distributed generation in radial distribution systems. Electric power systems research, 97, pp.133-143. Shamsuzzoha, A., Kankaanpaa, T., Carneiro, L.M., Almeida, R., Chiodi, A. and Fornasiero, R., 2013. Dynamic and collaborative business networks in the fashion industry. International Journal of Computer Integrated Manufacturing, 26(1-2), pp.125-139. Wei, Y.S., O'Neill, H., Lee, R.P. and Zhou, N., 2013. The impact of innovative culture on individual employees: The moderating role of market information sharing. Journal of Product Innovation Management, 30(5), pp.1027-1041. Xu, P. and Wang, L., 2014. An exact algorithm for the bi-level mixed integer linear programming problem under three simplifying assumptions. Computers operations research, 41, pp.309-318.

Monday, December 2, 2019

The best thrillers Essay Example For Students

The best thrillers Essay Which is why the birds are shown. Norman and Marion have a very serious conversation and you begin to see that maybe they trust each other. However when Marion decides to depart and go to bed, Norman begins to kick up a fuss. He complains a little but lets her go. When Marion goes into her bedroom she changes but whilst she does this Norman is in the next room spying on her through a hole. This shows that maybe he is attracted to her but at the same time it shows that maybe something isnt quite right with Norman and that he is slightly strange. We will write a custom essay on The best thrillers specifically for you for only $16.38 $13.9/page Order now Another one of the main scenes is the famous shower scene. This scene is after the parlour scene. We see Marion in the shower but Hitchcock is very careful and doesnt show any of Marions flesh from her upper thigh to her shoulders. Whilst Marion is in the shower we see a shadow emerge from behind the curtain. The shadow becomes clearer and we see a clearer picture of a knife. The shower curtain flies open and we see a dark figure stab Marion viciously with a knife. We never see the knife make contact with her skin. Unlike thrillers and horrors of today, where we see every limb torn apart and every stab wound spilling out blood. Hitchcock just showed us clips of the moving knife and parts of Marions skin. Chocolate was used for her blood as the film was black and white and for the sound of the stabbing, knifes were stabbed into melons. To make this scene more horrific and shocking Hitchcock used his stringed orchestra. The shower made a rhythmic and diagetic sound that contrasted with the high-pitched non-diagetic sounds of violins. The stabbing was in time with the music making it more shocking as the scene played on. The music created both suspense and horror. Many different angles were used with cameras in this scene. There were around thirteen different camera angles. They were short and changed quickly, this made it seem faster and more energetic. This enhanced the frenzied attack that was happening to Marion. Hitchcock used one of his recurring motifs in this scene. We see the bottomless depth technique used. When Marion is dead, she grabs the shower curtain and falls over the bath. We see her blood flow down into the plughole, where the camera focuses and stays there and the slowly changes into Marions eye that is still and not blinking. Her eye slowly fades and then goes onto the next scene. The last bit of the scene creates a very chilling and horrifying atmosphere. I have learned a lot about the film Psycho, I have been able to see the techniques he used and study them with further depth. I can see how he used the red herring and how he was easily able to manipulate the audience. In my opinion he was one of the greatest directors yet and Psycho was one of the best thrillers I have seen. He made every scene have a special technique and feature. From the start of the film he was able to mislead the audience, the opening shot was of Marion having an affair. We automatically think that this could be the heart and soul of the film when really it is only the start and soon that story line disappears. He would make the audience jump and hold their breath in suspense at parts of the film, that werent that important. For example when Marion is in the car, the traffic cop, who only wants to warn her about the weather conditions, stops her. At the time though it puts us in suspense not knowing what he want with Marion. Alfred Hitchcock was able to put many different techniques into practise and also pull them off very successfully. He was able to get a horrifying thriller past the very strict censorship. .ue8da4c6b040cc30bbfdaf3dbcc2b2a2a , .ue8da4c6b040cc30bbfdaf3dbcc2b2a2a .postImageUrl , .ue8da4c6b040cc30bbfdaf3dbcc2b2a2a .centered-text-area { min-height: 80px; position: relative; } .ue8da4c6b040cc30bbfdaf3dbcc2b2a2a , .ue8da4c6b040cc30bbfdaf3dbcc2b2a2a:hover , .ue8da4c6b040cc30bbfdaf3dbcc2b2a2a:visited , .ue8da4c6b040cc30bbfdaf3dbcc2b2a2a:active { border:0!important; } .ue8da4c6b040cc30bbfdaf3dbcc2b2a2a .clearfix:after { content: ""; display: table; clear: both; } .ue8da4c6b040cc30bbfdaf3dbcc2b2a2a { display: block; transition: background-color 250ms; webkit-transition: background-color 250ms; width: 100%; opacity: 1; transition: opacity 250ms; webkit-transition: opacity 250ms; background-color: #95A5A6; } .ue8da4c6b040cc30bbfdaf3dbcc2b2a2a:active , .ue8da4c6b040cc30bbfdaf3dbcc2b2a2a:hover { opacity: 1; transition: opacity 250ms; webkit-transition: opacity 250ms; background-color: #2C3E50; } .ue8da4c6b040cc30bbfdaf3dbcc2b2a2a .centered-text-area { width: 100%; position: relative ; } .ue8da4c6b040cc30bbfdaf3dbcc2b2a2a .ctaText { border-bottom: 0 solid #fff; color: #2980B9; font-size: 16px; font-weight: bold; margin: 0; padding: 0; text-decoration: underline; } .ue8da4c6b040cc30bbfdaf3dbcc2b2a2a .postTitle { color: #FFFFFF; font-size: 16px; font-weight: 600; margin: 0; padding: 0; width: 100%; } .ue8da4c6b040cc30bbfdaf3dbcc2b2a2a .ctaButton { background-color: #7F8C8D!important; color: #2980B9; border: none; border-radius: 3px; box-shadow: none; font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold; line-height: 26px; moz-border-radius: 3px; text-align: center; text-decoration: none; text-shadow: none; width: 80px; min-height: 80px; background: url(https://artscolumbia.org/wp-content/plugins/intelly-related-posts/assets/images/simple-arrow.png)no-repeat; position: absolute; right: 0; top: 0; } .ue8da4c6b040cc30bbfdaf3dbcc2b2a2a:hover .ctaButton { background-color: #34495E!important; } .ue8da4c6b040cc30bbfdaf3dbcc2b2a2a .centered-text { display: table; height: 80px; padding-left : 18px; top: 0; } .ue8da4c6b040cc30bbfdaf3dbcc2b2a2a .ue8da4c6b040cc30bbfdaf3dbcc2b2a2a-content { display: table-cell; margin: 0; padding: 0; padding-right: 108px; position: relative; vertical-align: middle; width: 100%; } .ue8da4c6b040cc30bbfdaf3dbcc2b2a2a:after { content: ""; display: block; clear: both; } READ: Narrative form and genre of the film EssayIn 1960 when the film was made the censorship was very strict and every film had to pass to get onto the cinema screens. Morality was a lot tighter and sex and violence was strictly forbidden. Hitchcock had a plan to get his film through the censor and of course it worked. To get his film past the censors he would put the most obscene shots into his film that were almost certain to be banned, in doing this it made his most outrageous scenes look like nothing and they would pass the censors with flying colours (another red herring). At first Hitchcock had made a reference that Norman and his mother had a sexual relationship. Of course that was banned straight away. The shower scene was the scene that caused the most concern, but you never saw the knife touch the skin and you would never see any part of Marions body from her neck to her thigh. As we know the censors wouldnt allow any contact of the knife on the body to be shown. There for a film produced like Scream made in 1996 wouldnt have stood a chance in 1960, they would just simply laugh at it. The censors had asked Hitchcock to edit that scene but he managed to trick them by saying that he had, when he hadnt made any changes at all. Hitchcock loved his shower scene so much that he was willing to get rid of the sexual scenes at the beginning of the film just to keep that scene. But he ended up with both. All of these techniques mentioned show just what an imaginative and creative director Hitchcock actually was. His film may have only taken three weeks to film and cost less than one million pounds but he still managed to get it through the censors and make it one of the best thrillers of its kind and one of the best known films of today. There have been many directors that have copied his techniques that he originally used. He is one of the most imitated film directors of all time. And as they say imitation is the most sincere form of flattery.

Wednesday, November 27, 2019

Over what issues, if any, was there a political consensus in the period 1945-1979 Essay Example

Over what issues, if any, was there a political consensus in the period 1945 Over what issues, if any, was there a political consensus in the period 1945-1979 Essay Over what issues, if any, was there a political consensus in the period 1945-1979 Essay The postwar political consensus is a much debated and controversial area of British politics. The postwar consensus is traditionally seen as lasting until 1979 over which time the political governing class was committed to Keynesian social democracy (as dubbed by Marquand). It involved a major world role for Britain; a welfare state based on cradle to grave provision of benefits and services for all citizens; and a mixed economy managed by governments on Keynesian lines in such a way as to maintain full employment. However, the evidence suggests that a political consensus did not exist or rather not in the traditional view. British governments are rarely revolutionary they are evolutionary and this would appear to be the case, certainly from 1945 to 1979 governments evolved to change. What did exist was a centre-left policy bias that had become convention because of the events in domestic politics of the Second World War. Britain had a war to win and collectivism was needed to mobilise the economy in the most efficient way possible. This led to a great expansion in the role of government in society. Whitehall grew to accommodate this role and there was now an institutional momentum behind greater government intervention in postwar Britain. New peacetime departments were in place, new administrative procedures were at an advanced stage of preparation, and new mentalities were ingrained in officials. This interventionism was firmly toward the left of the political spectrum; liberalism and tempered socialism were the fashionable tools to deal with societies ills. The Labour party and liberal intellectuals, for instance Keynes and Beveridge, dominated postwar planning. The Beveridge Report (1942) was the source of future policy commitments on social policy and full employment. The lack of Conservative impression on the postwar planning was due in part to the nature of Churchills relationship with the party and his greater concern with the war in progress. The impact of collectivism was really only properly felt by the two governments following the Second World War, both led by two significant figures from it Attlee and Churchill. Three key policy areas highlight the consensus reached, Britains world role, the welfare state and a mixed economy. British foreign policy from 1945 to 1955 was based on the view that Britains special relationship with the US, leadership of the Commonwealth, possession of nuclear weapons and large conventional military capability gave the country a continuing leading status as a world power. Events following 1955 firmly changed policy aims, breaking the supposed consensus. The Suez crisis of 1956 severely dented Britains claim to an independent world role. In 1962 the policy pursued by the two previous governments of an independent nuclear deterrent was ended when Britain became totally dependent on the US for the supply of nuclear weapons. By the mid-1960s the notion of the Commonwealth as a world force was at an end. Also membership of the EEC, which had been firmly off the agenda during the 1950s, became a pressing desire during the 1960s and on the third attempt in 1973 Britain became a member. This highlights that in foreign policy there was not a consensus extending until 1979, objectives changed by the mid-1950s. The major theme of postwar economic policy in Britain was closer government involvement in running the economy. The main elements of economic policy were: a largely private enterprise economy with a significant public sector of recently nationalised industries; governments acceptance of the responsibility to manage the economy at a level of demand sufficient to maintain a high and stable rate of employment; their adoption of Keynesian methods in order to do so; and the operation of a corporatist style partnership. The Attlee Government with nationalisation of major industries, for instance coal and railways, achieved the creation of a mixed economy. The Conservative Government of 1951 to 1964 only privatised steel and road haulage in response to the nationalisation, signalling the political consensus. Chancellors of both parties used a combination of fiscal techniques (for example tax rates) and monetary methods (for example interest rates) to manage the economy in a Keynesian manor. The government also employed corporate bias (Keith Middlemas) to avoid industrial conflict through close relationship with industry and trade unions. These policies remained broadly the same until they came under increasing strain with the economic crises of the 1970s. These led to the winter of discontent of 1979 and the election of New Right Conservatives. This ended the postwar consensus on economic policy with the Conservatives now pursuing the reduction of inflation over the maintenance of a low rate of unemployment. Tax cuts were introduced and the privatisation of public sector industries and services. Also relationships with the trade unions deteriorated, with legislation introduced to curb their influence. Therefore there was a political consensus from 1945 to 1979 on how to run the economy, though it began to collapse toward the end of the 1970s and completely ended with the introduction of monetarism under Thatcher. There was certainly political consensus in the area of the welfare state. The accepted basis of social policy was that a wide range of publicly provided benefits and universal services should be available to all on demonstration of need and, in the case of services, free at the point of receipt. The keystones of the welfare state were a National Health Service providing health care to all regardless of income, a comprehensive system of social security and pensions based on national insurance contributions, and a state educational service. These policies have been broadly upheld since their conception during the Second World War and implementation under the Attlee Government. There have of course been differences, for instance the Conservatives encouraged the purchase of council homes whilst Labour stressed the need to increase their stock. Even under Thatcher changes that were introduced were predominantly organisational and managerial and sought greater cost-consciousness, efficiency and diversity in the delivery of services rather than any erosion of the principles of taxpayer financing or of free services at the point of use. Therefore the broad principles of the welfare state remain to this day, outlasting the traditionally perceived end of the political consensus of 1979. Therefore in the three main policy areas of the political consensus consistency across all three in the same time period has only existed until 1955. Foreign policy changed dramatically after 1955 with the policy objective of maintaining Britain as a world power reversing to complete withdrawal from the Empire and joining the European Union. Also the dependence on America for a nuclear deterrent was at odds with the pursuit of an independent deterrent under the Attlee and Churchill Governments. Thus the postwar political consensus on foreign policy ended in 1955. The economic policies pursued after the Second World War were broadly consistent until 1979, with the goals of high employment and a mixed economy top of the agenda. Thatcherism was at odds with this, with low inflation as the target and privatisation of state industries. However, with the welfare state it would appear that the postwar consensus continues to this day, with cradle to grave services free at the point of service still in existence. The Thatcher Governments may have introduced market forces into to the welfare state but this has not changed the broad principles laid down by Beveridge in 1942. In conclusion, it is a misconception to see the period of 1945 to 1979 as a postwar political consensus. At most it can be argued that there was a centre-left domination of policy during this period, leading from the shift in public opinion and from the ability of Labour and leading liberals to command the postwar planning process. The breakdown of Britain during 1970s economically, then led to the introduction of what would appear to be a true political consensus. This is because in the three main policy areas, Britains world role, the welfare state and the economy. Thatcher, Major and Blair have pursued broadly similar policy objectives. It could conceivably be argued that the institution of Whitehall holds the key to policy direction. When the bureaucracy grew substantially during the Second World War it was under the auspices of Labour and liberal policy thinking. Thus policy implementation was biased toward the centre-left. After the Thatcherite reforms of the Civil Service during the 1980s, it may now have a bias toward the centre-right, therefore possibly explaining the policies pursued under the current Labour Government.

Saturday, November 23, 2019

The Pyramid of the Magician - Maya Site of Uxmal Mexico

The Pyramid of the Magician - Maya Site of Uxmal Mexico The Pyramid of the Magician, also known as the House of the Dwarf (Casa del Adivino, or Casa del Enano), is one of the most famous Maya monuments of Uxmal, an archaeological site in the Puuc region of Yucatan, in the northern Maya Lowland of Mexico. History Of the Pyramid Of the Magician Its name comes from a Maya tale of the 19th century, titled the Leyenda del Enano de Uxmal (The Legend of the Uxmal’s Dwarf). According to this legend, a dwarf constructed the pyramid in one night, helped by his mother, a witch. This building is one of the most impressive of Uxmal, measuring about 115 feet in height. It was constructed  over the Late and Terminal Classic periods, between AD 600 and 1000,  and five constructive phases have been detected. The one visible today is the latest one, built around AD 900-1000. The pyramid, over which the actual temple stands, has a peculiar elliptical form.  Two staircases lead to the top of the pyramid. The Eastern staircase, the wider, has a small temple along the way that cut the stairway in half. The second access stair, the Western, faces the Nunnery Quadrangle and is decorated with friezes of the rain god Chaac. The Pyramid of the Magician is the first building a visitor encounters entering the ceremonial area of Uxmal, just north of the Ball Game Court and the Palace of the Governor and east of the Nunnery Quadrangle. Several phases of the temple constructed on top of the pyramid are visible while ascending the pyramid from the base to the top. Five construction phases have been detected (Temple I, II, III, IV, V). The facades of the different phases  were decorated with stone masks of the rain god Chaac, typical of the Puuc architectural style of the region. Sources Mc Killop, Heather, 2004, The Ancient Maya. New Perspectives. ABC-CLIO. Santa Barbara, CaliforniaAA.VV. 2006, Los Mayas. Rutas Arqueologicas: Yucatan y Quintana Roo. Edicià ³n Especial de Arqueologia Mexicana, num. 21 (www.arqueomex.com)

Thursday, November 21, 2019

Freedom of Speech Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words - 5

Freedom of Speech - Essay Example The victims of fighting words are usually silenced by their relative powerless position in society. A common presumption that is usually made by the fighting words doctrine is that an encounter between two individuals that relatively have equal degrees of power will generally result in violence. Boss (2009), points out that freedom of speech is often described as being a liberal right; in this regard we all have an innate right to express all of our opinions without having to face any interference or inhibition from other people or the government (Paikin, 2014). However, Boss (2009) cautions that not all forms of verbal expression can be considered to be speech and similarly to most of the other liberty rights,freedom of speech is considered as not being an absolute right. All societies place limits on speech with the objective of preventing the occurrence of civil disorder and violence which in turn helps society in protecting its citizens against harassment, threats and fraud. The government can largely be considered as acting in an heteronomous manner when it moves to curtail the people’s freedom of speech. This is because there are now wide ranging concerns over how the government exercises censorship. The notion of censorship has traditionally been based on the assumption that the government and people in positions of authority have access to the truth and as such are well placed to make final decisions as to what exactly should be considered to be good and right. However, this authority has in recent years come under heavy criticism as a result of the fact that as a result of some perceived heteronomy on the part of the government. An example of this is the formulation and implementation of the Patriot Act. The Patriot Act makes it legal for law enforcement officials to now be able to search people’s bookstore and library records in