Elephant Free Essays

Elephant was a movie based on an average high school In the last ten years, showing the experiences, different emotions and actions students have. While this movie In the end focuses on two boys, we see many different students throughout the movie and their part In high school. Even though this Is to be based on an average high school, I believe at times they showed an unrealistic portrayal on students and teachers with some of their actions in this movie. We will write a custom essay sample on Elephant or any similar topic only for you Order Now Not far into the movie they show a cone of girls in gym class, all wearing shorts outside except one, Michelle. Which is nothing wrong with that, but what happens is the teachers makes a comment on her wearing sweats, telling her she needs to Join the rest of the girls, by wearing shorts. Otherwise, by her not following these instructions, it would lead to a drop in her marks. Michelle to me seems like an insecure girl, not wanting to show her body off. And no school I feel would make girls who are insecure about their body have to feel uncomfortable by wearing shorts, Just because every other girl in class was confident and wears shorts. I also found this movie made students look stupid, making them so oblivious to what was happening around them. As the two boys enter the school, stalking around the halls with those massive guns In their hands, you see not one student scream or even notice what was happening. Especially in the library which was full of kids, one of the boys marched right in, gun in the air, and it takes for him o actually shoot it after awhile for anyone to scream or run. Not to mention how as the shooting starts, students weren’t even running out of the school. In so many of the scenes when you see students running away they completely ignore the doors as if they weren’t even there. They Just run past or go up the stairs. No student would actually choose to run up a couple flights of stairs then to just run outside, getting away from this tragedy. How to cite Elephant, Papers

Good Life by One Republic free essay sample

Days turn to night, night turns to whatever we want, Were young enough to say: Oh, this has gotta be the good life, This has gotta be the good life, This could really be a good life, good life. I say, Oh, got this feeling that you cant fight, Like this city is on fire tonight, This could really be a good life, a good, good life. Oh, a good, good life! Nothing is more simple, yet so beautifully written or sung than Good Life by OneRepublic. In my life, I truly do not care for where I live, and I always dream of living in a better place in a big city, where I could be happy for my whole life. Unfortunately, all of us dream this, but in this world, that dream cannot come true. But, this song shows how to look at the bright side of life, and how you can make your life happy and enjoyable, no matter where you are or who you are with. We will write a custom essay sample on Good Life by One Republic or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page I may not like where I am at the moment, but this song shows me the positives of life: I have a family that loves me, friends who truly care about me, and a God who loves and protects me wherever I go. Listening to this song always gets me a little emotional. When I first heard it, I was at a camp at the University of Chicago (NSLC, National Student Leadership Conference), and we took part in an event called Dyadic where people would get to know each other. With my TA group, we talked while this song was playing in the background, and people began to open up, saying things they never told people before. Some peoples parents had divorced, others had strokes or were no longer alive. Some kids came from sad backgrounds, and somehow, they managed to be a positive influence, even when life for them was so rough. In my life, however, I havent really faced any real problems. The only major one was my father had prostate cancer, but God saved him, and he is healthy, with the cancer 100 percent removed from his body! This song truly describes my life, and how Im living the good life. Even when things may seem to be going rough, or not my way, I know that it could be much worse than my little, tiny problem. Recently, 30 U.S. soldiers were shot down from a helicopter in Afghanistan, serving our country. I cant even imagine what their families are going through right now. Millions of teens have divorced parents, single parents, or even none at all. This song shows me how lucky I really am. Compared to many people in this world, I really am living the Good Life.

Othello Essays (1528 words) - Othello, Iago, Roderigo,

On a recent episode of House, a popular television show, a competitive bicyclist was admitted to the hospital after having a close encounter with death. The doctors completed examination after examination until they concluded that the patient?s illness was the result of his use of illegal paraphernalia. At this point, the doctors had to make a moral decision as to whether or not to report their patient on the basis of his cheating. On one hand, the patient was worshiped by children and his reputation would be ruined if he were to be turned in. Dr. Allison Cameron believed that the patient deserved to be turned in and that the children who worshiped him deserved to know the truth about the patient. She said that the patient ?isn?t who he says he is.? However, Dr. James Wilson questioned, ?Who cares who he says he is In today?s society, just as there was in the House episode, there is a disconnect between appearance and reality. A person?s appearance, how an individual is described from what can be seen on the outside, may be far from reality, or what is on the inside. The theme of appearance versus reality, however, is far from being something that has just appeared in recent years. In fact, this theme is present in many of William Shakespeare?s works, specifically Othello, which date back to the late 1500?s and the early 1600?s. The first instance in which the theme of appearance versus reality appears is with Othello. Othello appears to be loved and respected by his peers. And even though most of his peers describe him as the ?valiant Moor?, ?valiant Othello? or the ?brave Moor?, some characters do not truly see Othello as described (Shakespeare I,iii,47-48; I,iii,288). For instance, Iago?s statement of ?I hate the Moor? clearly demonstrates how some characters show abhorrence toward Othello (Shakespeare I,iii,350). Also, during the initial acts of the play, Othello is portrayed as a strong and confident character. However, all of the allegations that Iago makes about Desdemona being unfaithful to Othello quickly breaks Othello down and he becomes easily ?driven to jealousy? (McCulloch 77). Othello is also socially insecure, which may be attributed to him being a black man in a white man?s world. Not to mention, he is a black man in a high ranking position that requires him to give orders to white men. Addi tionally, Othello appears to be one who is calm and has self control, even under the most difficult of circumstances. But, Othello turns to rage and revenge in the final acts of the play. In fact, Othello, who had never struck Desdemona before, strikes her during one of their conversations and, on many other occasions, raises his voice at Desdemona. These actions, which are far from the actions of a calm and collected man, surprises other characters, including Lodovicio who makes the following comment: Is this the noble Moor, whom our fill senate Call all in all sufficient? Is this the nature Whom passion could not shake, whose solid virtue The shot of accident nor dart of chance Could neither graze nor pierce? (Shakespeare IV,i,249-253) Othello is not the character that others thought he was. Another instance in which the theme of appearance versus reality appears is within Othello and Desdemona?s relationship. According to Cahn, the love between Othello and Desdemona, the foundation of the story, is itself based on illusion (17). When Othello is describing to Brabantio how Desdemona fell in love with Othello, he makes the following comment: My story being done, She gave my story for my pains a world of sighs. She swore, in faith, ?twas strange, ?twas passing strange, ?Twas pitiful, ?twas wondrous pitiful. She wished she had not heard it, yet she wished That Heaven made her such a man. (Shakespeare I,iii,157-162) Desdemona, being wooed by the ?hero at the core of this story? and the story of his life, is not in love with, but is infatuated with Othello (Cahn 17). ?She does not know Othello as a man, but only as a fantasy figure? (Cahn 17). In essence, Desdemona is in love with the heroic actions and noble deeds of Othello rather than his inner being, his character, and his personality. Similarly, Othello is not in love with

Knowledge management systems

Knowledge management systems Introduction With the rapid advancement in technology, managers have realised the essence of information technology in enhancing the performance of their organization (Nonaka and Takeuchi, 2005).. It is with regards to this that the concept of knowledge management systems, a paradigm of knowledge management (KM) has increased in popularity for the last several years (Stewart, 2007).Advertising We will write a custom essay sample on Knowledge management systems specifically for you for only $16.05 $11/page Learn More Knowledge management systems incorporates knowledge management (KM) and information technology (IT) to enhance the process of creation, development, utilization, transfer and storage of information within an organization. This paper therefore shall expound on literature in knowledge management systems and information technology to determine the theories and concepts that are present in the field. Literature Review Different scholars have develope d different systems that can be used to classify data, knowledge and information. Vance (1997) came up with a hierarchical system of classification that has been adopted by many scholars in the field of information technology. The importance of knowledge in an organization has been stressed with respect to this hierarchical classification of data, information and knowledge presented by Vance (1997). Thus, knowledge originates from personal information that has been stored in the minds of individuals. This information is useful in the process of generating facts, procedures and concepts and decisions to enhance the overall performance of an organization (Fahey and Prusak, 2008). Knowledge management has always been viewed as an integral component of the overall success of an organization. Managers usually integrate this concept to improve the level of operation of their organization to achieve a competitive edge over rivals within the industries in which their organizations operate i n. This is because, knowledge management is a tool that improves the innovation and responsiveness of an organization (Glazer, 1998). The operation of knowledge management systems is based on information technology (IT) (Machlup, 2010). The aim of these systems is to ensure that the process of information and knowledge creation within an organization is effective and efficient. IT plays a critical role in the development and support of knowledge management systems. As Alavi and Leidner (2001) asserted, the basis of knowledge management system is based on information technology. As such, IT supports the process of knowledge management in a number of ways. For instance, an organization can search for a specialist in a given field by utilizing information found on online directories and stored databases.Advertising Looking for essay on business economics? Let's see if we can help you! Get your first paper with 15% OFF Learn More Through IT, organizations can al so share information and enhance its operations through virtual teams, reviewing information from previous projects stored on a database. An organization can also have a clear understanding of the needs of its clients by critically analyzing and evaluating stored transactions data. With these examples, it will be difficult to clearly point out the role of IT in supporting knowledge management as its use is diversified. In addition to this, it is also impossible to develop a specific technology to support the process of knowledge management within an organization (Holtshouse, 2009). However, Alavi and Leidner (2001) narrowed down the application of IT in knowledge management to the following three areas: Coding and sharing of data Development of corporate directories Development of knowledge links and networks Coding and Sharing Of Data Coding and sharing of data that promote best practices within an organization has been one of the main areas in which IT has been used to enhance t he process of knowledge management (Spender, 2006). This process is mainly achieved through internal benchmarking. Here, information regarding the best practices that have been reported to enhance the effectiveness and efficiency of operations are stored and shared among individuals and different departments within an organization. This ensures that the knowledge with regards to the best practices is made available to all hence boosting the performance of individuals and improving the overall performance of the firm. With this in place, the operations of a firm shall be conducted in an effective and efficient manner increasing level of profitability and the ease at which an organization can achieve its short term and long-term goals and objectives. Development of Corporate Directories IT also plays a critical role in supporting knowledge management by enhancing the process of developing corporate directories. Retrieving stored data is one of the main challenges that organizations fa ce prompting the development of knowledge management. This is because most of the information in organizations is not stored properly hence retrieving them become a problem. In addition to this, most of the data found in organizations is not coded. This makes the task of retrieving and actually utilizing such information to benefit an organization to be difficult. Therefore, with the help of IT, coding of information via internal mapping expertise has ensured that firms are now able to retrieve information at ease.Advertising We will write a custom essay sample on Knowledge management systems specifically for you for only $16.05 $11/page Learn More This has greatly reduced the level of repeated mistakes that came up as a result of the implementation of poor practices (Robertson et al, 2006). Instead, internal mapping has ensured that only best practices are retrieved and used to enhance the overall performance of an organization. Development of Knowledge Li nks and Knowledge Links Networks IT has also played a critical role in the development of knowledge networks via knowledge management systems. Knowledge networks are essential in sharing of information among individuals, departments and to a larger extent, different organizations. Chrysler is an example of an organization that greatly benefited from knowledge networks. According to Alavi and Leidner (2001), Chrysler faced a critical challenge after it modified its operations from functional to platform based organization units. In the process, the company realised that its operations would deteriorate unless suspension specialists would have an effective and reliable means of communication through which they will exchange and share ideas across various platforms (Alavi and Leidner, 2001). This led to the development of Tech Cul that enabled Chrysler to bring individuals together from different backgrounds. This system enabled virtual and face-to-face communications among professiona ls from different fields of expertise. It enabled people them to share ideas and come up with solutions to collective problems that they were facing. This ultimately improved the performance of the company by developing high quality products. From the discussions that have been presented in this paper, it is evident that information and knowledge are essential components of an organization. They play a critical role in enhancing the operations of an organization enabling it to achieve its short term and long-term goals and objectives. It is with regards to this that managers and scholars always emphasize on the importance of knowledge management. However, to ensure this practice is conducted in an effective and efficient manner, the process has incorporated IT through knowledge management systems to enhance the process of coding and sharing of data, development of corporate dictionaries and knowledge networks that improve the process of creating, developing, sharing and storing of k nowledge within an organization. Current Practice In the modern world, information technology has taken over all the aspects of our lives including the management of organizations. Most of the organizations in the world have adopted and incorporated the concept of information technology to improve their operations to meet the needs and desires of their customers and to stand at a competitive edge over their rivals. Knowledge management systems have been one of the facets of IT that firms have incorporated to manage the knowledge and information present in their systems.Advertising Looking for essay on business economics? Let's see if we can help you! Get your first paper with 15% OFF Learn More Knowledge management has played an essential role in the process of storing and retrieving data. According to Spanbauer (2007), the operations of modern organizations are entirely based on the use of emails. Members of an organization use emails as the main form of communication and storage. However, Spanbauer (2007) goes ahead to state that the major problem with the use of emails it that it does not store data in a systematic way hence making it difficult to retrieve information whenever needed. It is with regards to this that organizations such as Garner have found it essential to use applications such as Customer Coversation System (CCS) and Illumo to enhance the process of data storage, sharing and retrieval within an organization. It is as a result of such data storage and retrieval systems that strategic and innovative discoveries have emerged from. Viagra, an erectile dysfunction drug was discovered through this process. During its early days, Viagra was used to suppress con ditions that led to heart failure. However, during its administration, nurses discovered that it had a side effect (erection on male patients). This side effect was recorded and stored. This information was later discovered by a doctor during a cross-data study and resulted in the development of a multi-billion dollar industry (Bushell, 2001). It is with regards to this that organizations in the modern word find it essential to systematically store and share information. Knowledge management systems are solutions to organizations that have to record, maintain, store, retrieve and share bulky datasets and information. Braue (2011) interviewed the lead construction engineer of Connect East, Barry King. Connect East had been contracted by the Victorian government to maintain Melbourne’s East Link toll road (Braue, 2011). To ensure that this process is conducted professionally in an effective and efficient manner, King and his team need to maintain the records of all assets to me et the requirements of enterprise asset management (EAM). This includes maintaining records for all the equipments, machineries, and spares that are used in the process of maintaining the road. Purchasing, depreciation and amortization records also need to be maintained. These records need to be presented to the Victorian government and other stakeholders in the company especially due to the fact that the project is almost nearing its completion. However, with the use of IBM’s Maximo, Connect East has been able to maintain systematic records. According to King, this tool has enabled the organization to achieve optimum performance with regards to effective record keeping thus reducing the operating costs (Braue, 2011). During its early years, social networks were viewed as platforms through which individuals can interact with their friends and family. However, with time, organizations have found it virtually impossible to operate without social network sites (Dancy et al, 2012 ). According to Dancy et al, organizations in the 21st century are using social media as a platform for developing, maintaining, retaining and sharing knowledge within the organization its self and with other stakeholders. Professionals in the field of information technology view social media as a means through which organizations can collaborate to improve the effectiveness and efficiency of their services through knowledge retention and sharing (Amidon, 1997). Social media has enabled organizations to interact with people outside the domain of their operations and actually get first hand feedback on their operations and means through which they can enhance their services. It is with regards to this that most organizations have pages on social network sites such as Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, MySpace and so on. These pages enable them to have direct contact with their stakeholders especially their customers enabling them to understand their needs and preferences. Additionally, thr ough knowledge sharing, social media acts as platforms through which ideas on service improvement can be shared. It is thus evident that organizations in the modern world have embraced the importance of knowledge management systems. This is because most organizations in the world are using varies applications, tools and technologies to enhance the process of keeping, retrieving and sharing their records through platforms such as social media. This has in turn improved the effectiveness and efficiency of their operations ensuring that organizations achieve their operational goals and objectives and at the same time, stand at a competitive edge in their respective industries. Comparison of Literature and Current Practice Knowledge and information has been regarded as a key asset in any organization. It is with regards to this that organizations that create, store, retrieve, utilize and share knowledge in an effective and efficient manner stand at a competitive edge. This has increased the importance and emphasis of the incorporation of knowledge management systems in the operations of organizations. In practice, it has been identified that organizations utilize knowledge management systems to achieve this goal. For instance, the operations of modern organizations are entirely based on emails. However, to enhance the process in which information contained in emails can be stored, retrieved and utilized in a systematic manner, Spanbauer (2007) stated that organization are using applications and technologies such as CCS and Illumo. On the other hand, an organization such as Connect East has utilized knowledge management systems to ensure that its information is stored in a manner that it can be easily retrieved and presented to the contacting government and other shareholders. Finally, modern organizations are now using social media as a platform of interacting with shareholders and sharing knowledge. This has enhanced the services and products provided by firms as a result of information sharing. Conclusion It is always the goal of any manager to ensure that his/her organization is experiencing an exponential growth in value. However, in the modern era, the value of an organization is not mainly based on its tangible assets but by its intangible assets. Therefore, the information within an organization plays a critical role in enhancing its operations and dictating the growth patterns that it exhibits. This has led to the incorporation of the concept of knowledge management (KM) in the running and management of organizations. Knowledge is an essential asset that plays a critical role in ensuring the success of an organization in the short run and in the long run. It is with regards to this realization that organizations have found it essential to develop systems through the incorporation of information technology to ensure that information is stored in a systematic manner hence enabling easy retrieval and utilization to achieve the goals and objectives of an organization. Therefore, for organizations to ensure that their operations are effective and efficient, they need to embrace the concept of knowledge management system to achieve their set goals and objectives. References Alavi, M and Leidner, D 2001, ‘Review: Knowledge management and knowledge management systems: conceptual foundations and research issues’, MIS Quarterly, vol. 25 no. 1, pp. 107-136. Amidon, D 1997, Innovation Strategy for the Knowledge Economy : The Ken Awakening, Heinemann, London. Braue, C 2011, The challenges of asset management: Part one. Web. Bushell, S 2001, In the know. Web. Dancy, C, Busch, B and Howard, K 2012, IT service management going social. Web. Fahey, L and Prusak, L 2008, ‘The Eleven Deadliest Sins of Knowledge Management’, California Management Review, vol. 40 no. 3, pp. 265-276. Glazer, R 1998, ‘Measuring the Knower: Towards a Theory of Knowledge Equity’, California Management Review, vol. 40 no. 3, pp. 175-194. Holtshouse, D 2009, ‘Knowledge Research Issues’, California Management Review vol. 40 no. 3, pp. 277-280. Machlup, F 2010, Knowledge: Its Creation, Distribution, and Economic Significance, Princeton University Press, Princeton. Nonaka, I and Takeuchi, H 2005, The Knowledge Creating Company, Oxford University Press, Oxford. Robertson, M, Swan, J, and Newell, S 2006, ‘The Role of Networks in the Diffusion of Technological Innovation’, Journal of Management Studies, vol. 33 no. 2, pp. 335-361. Spanbauer, C 2007, Knowledge management 2.0. Web. Spender, J 2006, ‘Organizational Knowledge, Learning, and Memory: Three Concepts in Search of a Theory’, Journal of Organizational Change Management, vol. 9 no. 1, pp. 63-78. Stewart, T 2007, Intellectual Capital: The New Wealth of Organizations, Nicholas Brealey, Chicago. Vance, D 1997, Information, Knowledge and Wisdom: The Epistemic Hierarchy and Computer Based Information System, Sa ge, New York.

A Brief History of English and American Literature Essay Example for Free

A Brief History of English and American Literature Essay History (2020) , England (167) , American literature (133) , Alfred Tennyson (6) , Idylls of the King (2) , Merlin (1) company About StudyMoose Contact Careers Help Center Donate a Paper Legal Terms & Conditions Privacy Policy Complaints ? The Norman conquest of England, in the 11th century, made a break in the natural growth of the English language and literature. The old English or Anglo−Saxon had been a purely Germanic speech, with a complicated grammar and a full set of inflections. For three hundred years following the battle of Hastings. this native tongue was driven from the king’s court and the courts of law, from parliament, school, and university. During all this time there were two languages spoken in England. Norman French was the birth−tongue of the upper classes and English of the lower. When the latter finally got the better in the struggle, and became, about the middle of the 14th century, the national speech of all England, it was no longer the English of King Alfred. It was a new language, a grammarless tongue, almost wholly {12} stripped of its inflections. It had lost a half of its old words, and had filled their places with French equivalents. The Norman lawyers had introduced legal terms; the ladies and courtiers, words of dress and courtesy. The knight had imported the vocabulary of war and of the chase. The master−builders of the Norman castles and cathedrals contributed technical expressions proper to the architect and the mason. The art of cooking was French. The naming of the living animals, ox, swine, sheep, deer, was left to the Saxon churl who had the herding of them, while the dressed meats, beef, pork, mutton, venison, received their baptism from the table−talk of his Norman master. The four orders of begging friars, and especially the Franciscans or Gray Friars, introduced into England in 1224, became intermediaries between the high and the low. They went about preaching to the poor, and in their sermons they intermingled French with English. In their hands, too, was almost all the science of the day; their medicine, botany, and astronomy displaced the old nomenclature of leechdom, wort−cunnin g, and star−craft. And, finally, the translators of French poems often found it easier to transfer a foreign word bodily than to seek out a native synonym, particularly when the former supplied them with a rhyme. But the innovation reached even to the commonest words in every−day use, so that voice drove out steven, poor drove out earm, and color, use, and place made good their footing beside hue, {13}wont, and stead. A great part of the English words that were left were so changed in spelling and pronunciation as to be practically new. Chaucer stands, in date, midway between King Alfred and Alfred Tennyson, but his English differs vastly more from the former’s than from the latter’s. To Chaucer Anglo−Saxon was as much a dead language as it is to us. The classical Anglo−Saxon, moreover, had been the Wessex dialect, spoken and written at Alfred’s capital, Winchester. When the French had displaced this as the language of culture, there was no longer a â€Å"king’s English† or any literary standard. The sources of modern standard English are to be found in the East Midland, spoken in Lincoln, Norfolk, Suffolk, Cambridge, and neighboring shires . Here the old Anglian had been corrupted by the Danish settlers, and rapidly threw off its inflections when it became a spoken and no longer a written language, after the Conquest. The West Saxon, clinging more tenaciously to ancient forms, sunk into the position of a local dialect; while the East Midland, spreading to London, Oxford, and Cambridge, became the literary English in which Chaucer wrote. The Normans brought in also new intellectual influences and new forms of literature. They were a cosmopolitan people, and they connected England with the continent. Lanfranc and Anselm, the first two Norman archbishops of Canterbury, were learned and splendid prelates of a {14} type quite unknown to the Anglo−Saxons. They introduced the scholastic philosophy taught at the University of Paris, and the reformed discipline of the Norman abbeys. They bound the English Church more closely to Rome, and officered it with Normans. English bishops were deprived of their sees for illiteracy, and French abbots were set over monasteries of Saxon monks. Down to the middle of the 14th century the learned literature of England was mostly in Latin, and the polite literature in French. English did not at any time altogether cease to be a written language, but the extant remains of the period from 1066 to 1200 are few and, with one exception, unimportant. After 1200 English came more and more into written use, but mainly in translations, paraphrases, and imitations of French works. The native genius was at school, and followed awkwardly. The Anglo−Saxon poetry, for example, had been rhythmical and alliterative. It was commonly written in lines containing four rhythmical accents and with three of the accented syllables alliterating. R_este hine thà ¢ r_à ºm−heort; r_à ©ced hlifade G_eà ¡p and g_à ³ld−fà ¢h, gà ¤st inne swà ¤f. Rested him then the great−hearted; the hall towered Roomy and gold−bright, the guest slept within. This rude energetic verse the Saxon scà ´p had sung to his harp or glee−beam, dwelling on the {15} emphatic syllables, passing swiftly over the others which were of undetermined number and position in the line. It was now displaced by the smooth metrical verse with rhymed endings, which the French introduced and which our modern poets use, a verse fitted to be recited rather than sung. The old English alliterative verse continued, indeed, in occasional use to the 16th century. But it was linked to a forgotten literature and an obsolete dialect, and was doomed to give way. Chaucer lent his great authority to the more modern verse system, and his own literary models and inspirers were all foreign, French or Italian. Literature in England began to be once more English and truly national in the hands of Chaucer and his contemporaries, but it was the literature of a nation cut off from its own past by three centuries of foreign rule. The most noteworthy English document of the 11th and 12th centuries was the continuation of the Anglo−Saxon chronicle. Copies of these annals, differing somewhat among themselves, had been kept at the monasteries in Winchester, Abingdon, Worcester, and elsewhere. The yearly entries were mostly brief, dry records of passing events, though occasionally they become full and animated. The fen country of Cambridge and Lincolnshire was a region of monasteries. Here were the great abbeys of Peterborough and Croyland and Ely minster. One of the earliest English songs tells how the savage heart of the Danish {16} king Cnut was softened by the singing of the monks in Ely. Merie sungen muneches binnen Ely Tha Cnut chyning reu ther by; Roweth, cnihtes, noer the land, And here we thes muneches sang. It was among the dikes and marshes of this fen country that the bold outlaw Hereward, â€Å"the last of the English,† held out for some years against the conqueror. And it was here, in the rich abbey of Burch or Peterborough, the ancient Medeshamstede (meadow−homestead) that the chronicle was continued for nearly a century after the Conquest, breaking off abruptly in 1154, the date of King Stephen’s death. Peterborough had received a new Norman abbot, Turold, â€Å"a very stern man,† and the entry in the chronicle for 1170 tells how Hereward and his gang, with his Danish backers, thereupon plundered the abbey of its treasures, which were first removed to Ely, and then carried off by the Danish fleet and sunk, lost, or squandered. The English in the later portions of this Peterborough chronicle becomes gradually more modern, and falls away more and more from the strict grammatical standards of the classical Anglo−Saxon. It is a most valuable historical monument, and some passages of it are written with great vividness, notably the sketch of William the Conqueror put down in the year of his death (1086) by one who had â€Å"looked upon him and at another time dwelt in his court.† {17} â€Å"He who was before a rich king, and lord of many a land, he had not then of all his land but a piece of seven feet. . . . Likewise he was a very stark man and a terrible, so that one durst do nothing against his will. . . . Among other things is not to be forgotten the good peace that he made in this land, so that a man might fare over his kingdom with his bosom full of gold unhurt. He set up a great deer preserve, and he laid laws therewith that whoso should slay hart or hind, he should be blinded. As greatly did he love the tall deer as if he were their father.† With the discontinuance of the Peterborough annals, English history written in English prose ceased for three hundred years. The thread of the nation’s story was kept up in Latin chronicles, compiled by writers partly of English and partly of Norman descent. The earliest of these, such as Ordericus Vitalis, Simeon ofDurham, Henry of Huntingdon, and William of Malmesbury, were contemporary with the later entries of the Saxon chronicle. The last of them, Matthew of Westminster, finished his work in 1273. About 1300 Robert, a monk of Gloucester, composed a chronicle in English verse, following in the main the authority of the Latin chronicles, and he was succeeded by other rhyming chroniclers in the 14th century. In the hands of these the true history of the Saxon times was overlaid with an ever−increasing mass of fable and legend. All real knowledge of the period {18} dwindled away until in Capgrave’s Chronicle of England, written in prose in 1463−64, hardly any thing of it is left. In history as in literature the English had forgotten their past, and had turned to foreign sources. It is noteworthy that Shakspere, who borrowed his subjects and his heroes sometimes from authentic English history, sometimes from the legendary history of ancient Britain, Denmark,and Scotland, as in Lear, Hamlet, and Macbeth, ignores the Saxon period altogether. And Spenser, who gives in his second book of the Faerie Queene, a resumà © of the reigns of fabulous British kings—the supposed ancestors of Queen Elizabeth, his royal patron—has nothing to say of the real kings of early England. So completely had the true record faded away that it made no appeal to the imaginations of our most patriotic poets. The Saxon Alfred had been dethroned by the British Arthur, and the conquered Welsh had imposed their fictitious genealogies upon the dynasty of the conquerors. In the Roman de Rou, a verse chronicle of the dukes of Normandy, written by the Norman Wace, it is related that at the battle of Hastings the French jongleur, Taillefer, spurred out before the van of William’s army, tossing his lance in the air and chanting of â€Å"Charlemagne and of Roland, of Oliver and the peers who died at Roncesvals.† This incident is prophetic of the victory which Norman song, no less than Norman arms, was to win over England. The lines which Taillefer {19} sang were from the Chanson de Roland, the oldest and best of the French hero sagas. The heathen Northmen, who had ravaged the coasts of France in the 10th century, had become in the course of one hundred and fifty years, completely identified with the French. They had accepted Christianity, intermarried with the native women, and forgotten their own Norse tongue. The race thus formed was the most brilliant in Europe. The warlike, adventurous spirit of the vikings mingled in its blood with the French nimbleness of wit and fondness for display. The Normans were a nation of knights−errant, with a passion for prowess and for courtesy. Their architecture was at once strong and graceful. Their women were skilled in embroidery, a splendid sample of which is preserved in the famous Bayeux tapestry, in which the conqueror’s wife, Matilda, and the ladies of her court wrought the history of the Conquest. This national taste for decoration expressed itself not only in the ceremonious pomp of feast and chase and tourney, but likewise in literature. The most characteristic contribution of the Normans to English poetry were the metrical romances or chivalry tales. These were sung or recited by the minstrels, who were among the retainers of every great feudal baron, or by the jongleurs, who wandered from court to castle. There is a whole literature of these romans d’ aventure in the Anglo−Norman dialect of French. Many of them are {20} very long—often thirty, forty, or fifty thousand lines—written sometimes in a strophic form, sometimes in long Alexandrines, but commonly in the short, eight−syllabled rhyming couplet. Numbers of them were turned into English verse in the 13th, 14th, and 15th centuries. The translations were usually inferior to the originals. The French trouvere (finder or poet) told his story in a straight−forward, prosaic fashion, omitting no details in the action and unrolling endless descriptions of dresses, trappings, gardens, etc. He invented plots and situations full of fine possibilities by which later poets have profited, but his own handling of them was feeble and prolix. Yet there was a simplicity about the old French language and a certain elegance and delicacy in the diction of the trouveres which the rude, unformed English failed to catch. The heroes of these romances were of various climes: Guy of Warwick, and Richard the Lion Heart of England, Havelok the Dane, Sir Troilus of Troy, Charlemagne, and Alexander. But, strangely enough, the favorite hero of English romance was that mythical Arthur of Britain, whom Welsh legend had celebrated as the most formidable enemy of the Sassenach invaders and their victor in twelve great battles. The language and literature of the ancient Cymry or Welsh had made no impression on their Anglo−Saxon conquerors. There are a few Welsh borrowings in the English speech, such as bard and druid; but in the old Anglo−Saxon literature there are {21} no more traces of British song and story than if the two races had been sundered by the ocean instead of being borderers for over six hundred years. But the Welsh had their own national traditions, and after the Norman Conquest these were set free from the isolation of their Celtic tongue and, in an indirect form, entered into the general literature of Europe. The French came into contact with the old British literature in two places: in the Welsh marches in England and in the province of Brittany in France, where the population is of Cymric race and spoke, and still to some extent speaks, a Cymric dialect akin to the Welsh. About 1140 Geoffrey of Monmouth, a Benedictine monk, seemingly of Welsh descent, who lived at the court of Henry the First and became afterward bishop of St. Asaph, produced in Latin a so−called Historia Britonum in which it was told how Brutus, the great grandson of Aeneas, came to Britain, and founded there his kingdom called after him, and his city of New Troy (Troynovant) on the site of the later London. An air of historic gravity was given to this tissue of Welsh legends by an exact chronology and the genealogy of theBritish kings, and the author referred, as his authority, to an imaginary Welsh book given him, as he said, by a certain Walter, archdeacon of Oxford. Here appeared that line of fabulous British princes which has become so familiar to modern readers in the plays of Shakspere and the poems of Tennyson: Lear and his {22} three daughters; Cymbeline, Gorboduc, the subject of the earliest regular English tragedy, composed by Sackville and acted in 1562; Locrine and his Queen Gwendolen, and his daughter Sabrina, who gave her name to the river Severn, was made immortal by an exquisite song in Milton’s Comus, and became the heroine of the tragedy of Locrine, once attributed to Shakspere; and above all, Arthur, the son of Uther Pendragon, and the founder of the Table Round. In 1155 Wace, the author of the Roman de Rou, turned Geoffrey’s work into a French poem entitled Brut d’ Angleterre, â€Å"brut† being a Welsh word meaning chronicle. About the year 1200 Wace’s poem was Englished by Layamon, a priest of Arley Regis, on the border stream of Severn. Layamon’s Brut is in thirty thousand lines, partly alliterative and partly rhymed, but written in pure Saxon English with hardly any French words. The style is rude but vigorous, and, at times, highly imaginative. Wace had amplified Geoffrey’s chronicle somewhat, but Layamon made much larger additions, derived, no doubt, from legends current on the Welsh border. In particular the story of Arthur grew in his hands into something like fullness. He tells of the enchantments of Merlin, the wizard; of the unfaithfulness of Arthur’s queen,Guenever; and the treachery of his nephew, Modred. His narration of the last great battle between Arthur and Modred; of the wounding of the king—â€Å"fifteen fiendly wounds he had, one might in the least {23} three gloves thrust—†; and of the little boat with â€Å"two women therein, wonderly dight,† which came to bear him away to Avalun and the Queen Argante, â€Å"sheenest of all elves,† whence he shall come again, according to Merlin’s prophecy, to rule the Britons; all this left little, in essentials, for Tennyson to add in his Death of Arthur. This new material for fiction was eagerly seized upon by the Norman romancers. The story of Arthur drew to itself other stories which were afloat. A Brief History of English and American Literature. (2016, Dec 10).

Is Deterrence Still a Useful Concept in the Post-Cold War World Research Paper

Is Deterrence Still a Useful Concept in the Post-Cold War World - Research Paper Example In the immediate aftermath of the Second World War, international policymakers became increasingly preoccupied with the potential ramifications of nuclear warfare in creating an imbalance within the world political order. After the nuclear attacks on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Stalin asserted that â€Å"A single demand for your comrades†¦ Provide us with atomic weapons in the shortest possible time. You know that Hiroshima has shaken the whole world. The balance has been destroyed. Provide the bomb – it will remove a great danger from us1†. From a historical perspective, the Cold War phase following the Second World War led to what has been termed the â€Å"First Nuclear Age†2. This phase highlights how nuclear weapons’ programmes were rooted in the need of both superpowers to assert power in the arms race3. Moreover, Walton & Gray submit that the demise of this superpower rivalry has re-ignited the nuclear proliferation question in arms control measures within the world political framework4. This in itself highlights that the stability of international relations and the political balance at the international level is inherently dependent on the axis of nuclear control. Therefore, whilst the deterrence theory undoubtedly plays a central role in the relationship between nuclear war programmes and international relations, the inherent weakness of the theory is the failure to account for the changing global political climate, whereby nuclear strategy and proliferation is shaped by a correlation of complex, mu ltifarious.

Advanced Project management -Master Level scenario based report Essay

Advanced Project management -Master Level scenario based report - Essay Example According to Kanter (1995) such an action will not constitute an adequate response. This is so because success is based on an organisation’s ability to create, rather than predict the future by developing those products that will literally transform the way the world thinks and view it self and the needs (Kanter 1995:71). Within the context of today’s global competition, businesses and firms no-longer compete as individual companies but try to corporate with other businesses in their activities (Wu & Chien 2007:2). These researchers went further to argue that, this strategy has become quite common in many businesses and in project management it is becoming a best practice. The conventional vertical integrated company based business model is gradually being replaced by collaborative relationship between many fragmented, but complementary and specialized value stars and constellation (Wu & Chien:1). Having said these, this report focuses on some of the pertinent issues affecting a project organization. The report first of all examine the changing environment of the contemporary organization, there after attention is shifted to the evaluation of the current management structure being used by my organization. The third part of the report focuses on the current project management processes in an organization to see if they are effective or there exist certain deficiencies. The last part of the report present recommendation in the form of a conclusion. In business, environmental analysis is an appreciation of an organisations activities vis-Ã  -vis its environment (Lin& Lee 2006). Such analysis has become imperatively necessary in the light of increase competition as present, subsequent operations and strategies direction will be dependent on the result (Lin& Lee 2006). According to Johnson et al (2007), it is a process by which a business gathers