Friday, November 29, 2019

Macbeth As A Tragic Hero Essays - Characters In Macbeth,

Macbeth as a Tragic Hero In the play Macbeth by William Shakespeare, we discover that Macbeth is a tragic hero. Macbeth is very ambitious, courageous, and a moral coward: all these things lead to his tragic death at the end of the play. At the beginning of the play, Shakespeare defines Macbeth as a hero very clearly. From the courages in defense of Scotland is significant in the opening scene. However, he is very ambitious to be king. At the beginning of the play, he was loyal to the king. While he did imagine of murder his mind rejects it and said, "Why, if fate will have me king, why, chance may crown me," - Act I, Sc 3, p.44-45. Yet increasingly his ambition defeated his good nature. When Duncan named Malcolm the Prince of Cumberland, Macbeth decided on the murder of Duncan. When Duncan arrived at Inverness, Macbeth controled his ambition for the time being and did not kill Duncan. The failing of his decision was soon reflected by Lady Macbeth who called him a coward. From then on, after the murder of Dun can, Macbeth entered into a life of evil. Since he overcomed his good nature, he no longer needed to be with his friend Banquo. He wanted to protect his ambition, by killing the king, and now he killed Banquo, due to the prediction of what the witches said about Banquo's son becoming the king. Macbeth wanted to ensure that he would reach his ambition without problems. Macbeth, who now no longer needed any encouragement from Lady Macbeth, started to leave her in ignorance of his plans. Near the end of the play, Lady Macbeth sleepwalked and had a dream about the killing of Duncan and Banquo. She died because of all this pressure and her guilt about the murder. Soul of Macbeth have been destroyed since Macbeth love Lady Macbeth very much, as shown in Act I, Sc. 5, p.58, "My Dearest Love." The power of nemesis is shown clearly at the end of the play when Macduff came back to murder Macbeth. Macbeth would never have guessed that Macduff would come back for revenge for the killing in Macd uff's household. This nemesis shows an additional force beyond Macbeth's control. Because of Macbeth's strong beliefs in ambition and the witches, when he found out Macduff was not born of woman, and also found out the Birnam Wood had been seen moving, he realized that the third apparition had deceived him and he understood he was no longer safe. Through the development of this tragedy, Macbeth has turned from a fine natured person to an evil person. His ambition, strong belief in the witches, has brought him to a tragic end of his life, and caused many people to lose their lives.

Monday, November 25, 2019

Make Time to Be Solitary

Make Time to Be Solitary Loneliness expresses the pain of being alone and solitude expresses the glory of being alone. ~ Paul Tillich Books take many hours to write, which gives the public the impression that writers are lonely, solitary creatures. The average person cannot stand being alone. However, its next to impossible to be alone anymore. Im not talking about people interference, though that is an issue. How often do you write without access to the internet? Your phone? Earbuds or background music? Most writers arent solitary. On the contrary they usually cannot stand not to be connected. And maintaining that connection means you are not completely alone which could be impacting your writing. You may think you need the noise, connection, or music because your brain cannot take the concept of being totally shut off from it. Youve convinced yourself you need that accompaniment. Truth is, being focused on one, intense thing like creative writing is a challenge. We multi-task so much these days that we have lost touch with single-tasking. If we are too long silent online, or do not answer our phone, other people worry. Actually, when people are able to slide away into solitary mode and remain there a while, other people become concerned about broken, abnormal behavior. You arent depressed, are you? In reality, all the stimuli we cant keep up with might be more the cause of said depression. Suzanne Degges-White, a psychology professor at Northern Illinois University, says: â€Å"You can’t make good decisions if you don’t ever give yourself time to reflect.† And â€Å"if you’re constantly engaged in the world, it’s harder to make space for those moments of genius.† Resource: https://www.chicagotribune.com/lifestyles/sc-fam-need-for-alone-time-1225-story.html Gaming  on your phone is not alone time. Background music is not alone time. Anything conflicting with alone time saps brain function. Find time where nothing is required of you. Absolutely nothing. Regenerate with alone time, then try writing with nothing else active around you. Attempt pure, unadulterated thinking about your story. This allows your writing to pour instead of fighting its way around the distractions.

Friday, November 22, 2019

BDM midterm

BDM midterm Essay Ralph Edmund loves steak and potatoes. Therefore, he has decided to go on a steady diet of only these two foods for all his meals. Ralph realizes that this is not the healthiest diet, so he wants to make sure that he eats the right quantities of the two foods to satisfy some key nutritional requirements. He has obtained the following nutritional and costs data. The Oak Works is a family owned business that makes hand crafted dining room tables and chairs. They obtain the oak from a local tree farm, which ships them 2500 pounds of oak each month. Each table uses 50 pounds of oak while each chair uses 25 pounds of oak. The family builds all the furniture itself and has 480 hours of labour available each month. Each table or chair requires 6 hours of labour. Each table nets Oak Works $400 in profit, while each chair nets them $100 in profit. Since chairs are often sold with tables they want to produce at least twice as many chairs as tables. Formula a linear program to maximize profit. BDM midterm. (2016, May 16).

Wednesday, November 20, 2019

Logistics Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words - 6

Logistics - Essay Example FedEx is an American international courier delivery company. The organization has massive information stored in its computer vaults in its Memphis headquarters (FedEx, 2014). The major challenge for FedEx in the early 2000s was to help their global partners access this information, make business for themselves and in turn business for FedEx. To solve this challenge, FedEx connected its partners through an online portal. Check Point Software Technologies is the firm that provided the needed software that was customized by FedEx’s IT workforce. Tied to the firm’s payment processing system, AutoPay, the portal provides access to various reports including revenues brought in by each partner compared to their budgets (Hemmatfar, Salchi & Bayat, 2010). This is in line with the objective of business intelligence of comparing actual performance to set goals (Gendron, 2013). The portal could also be queried to provide information on delivery performance and help in making decisi ons on best locations for new satellite bureaus. Thus, FedEx is able to track and monitor its processes. It provides real-time management updates to pave way for appropriate adjustment plans. Therefore, business intelligence has been critical for FedEx’s continuous planning. In the same way, business intelligence could be used in the logistics industry in general to make timely and well informed business

Monday, November 18, 2019

The relationship between employee engagement and organisational Research Paper

The relationship between employee engagement and organisational performance - Research Paper Example Moreover, the survey also stated that 28% of the global workforce is engaged, 54% is not engaged and 17% is actively disengaged. It was also found that with high level of employees’ engagement organizations tens to do well in the competitive business environment. The discussion aims to investigate the complex issues in contemporary HRM by focusing more on socio-economic issues offering challenges to HR practioners. The discussion underpins relevant literature to seek answer for the key issue revolving around socio-economic issues posing as a great challenge for contemporary HRM that is yet to be defined and understood fully in the current business environment. Majority of the literature stated that high level of employee engagement leads to better organizational performance but organizations need to be transparent and honest in their approach while making their employees fully engaged to accomplish stated goals and objectives. Based on the analysis of the literature in the con text of employees’ engagement and organizations performance, it was concluded that strengthening the relationship between employees and organizations matters the most in order to enhance the overall organizational performance. ... Robinson, et al (2004) stated that employee engagement is the involvement of employees with enthusiasm for work that often results in better organizational performance. Furthermore, Fernandez (2007) stated that employee engagement is the positive attitude held by employees for their organization’s values and objectives that is created by effective relationship between employers and employees. Coffman (2000) stated that there is a positive relationship between employee engagement and organizational performance as engaged employees are more likely to help organizations through their dedicated approach and efforts. Meere (2005) conducted a survey on 360000 employees from 41 companies of 10 different countries and found that operating and net profit drastically reduced with low engagement of employees. Clifton (2008) stated that employee engagement is closely linked to the organizational performance but also requires organizations to form sustainable relationship with employees. O n the other hand, Vance (2006) believed that every organization has different ways of engaging their employees to enhance organizational performance. However, motivation and compassionate behaviour always help organizations to engage their employees to perform well along with putting their best foot forward in achieving the proposed goals and objectives in a systematic and enthusiastic manner. On the basis of the above discussion, it can be said that employee engagement leads to better organizational performance but organizations need to maintain good relationship with employees in order to win their confidence and loyalty resulting in better engagement and better creation of value and thus enhancing the overall organizational performance. Employee Engagement and Organizational Performance

Saturday, November 16, 2019

British Airways Essay Example for Free

British Airways Essay In 1987, British Airways was privatised, and over the next decade turned from a loss-making nationalised company into The Worlds Favourite Airline a market-leading and very profitable plc. The strategy that transformed the company into a marketing-led and efficient operation was conceived and implemented by Lord King as Chairman, aided by Sir Colin (subsequently Lord) Marshall: two tough businessmen who confronted staff inefficiencies and so improved service effectiveness that BA was rated international business travellers favourite airline for several years in the 1990s. Lord King having retired, Lord Marshall became Chairman and was succeeded as Chief Executive by Bob Ayling, a long-time BA manager. Ayling set in train a strategy to turn BA into a global airline transcending the flag-carrier status (the role of a nations leading airline) it shared with Air France, Lufthansa, Swissair, Alitalia, Iberia into an airline with no national home operating throughout the world. The dropping of the overtly British heritage and associations was reflected in a changed brand strategy. Away went aeroplane liveries featuring the Union flag, to be replaced by tailfins bearing themed designs from around the world. This was to address the global traveller a savvy (mainly business) customer whose criteria for purchase were service levels, range of destinations, promptness not price. But the re-branding became a debacle. Customers, staff, alliance partners, shareholders and retailers (travel agents) all liked the British heritage and imagery and rebelled against the turn to an anonymous, characterless new style. Ayling also focused on cost-reduction programmes which antagonised and demotivated BAs staff and customers noticed the deterioration in behaviour of staff whose commitment to customer service suddenly plummeted. The upshot was that Ayling was ousted in a boardroom coup in March 2000. During his reign, a loss of 244m in the year to March 31 2000 the first since privatisation was recorded and the groups market value had fallen  by half. A New Face. In May 2000, Rod Eddington joined BA as Chief Executive. He was previously Managing Directory of Cathay Pacific and Executive Chairman of Ansett, an Australian airline. Eddingtons immediate actions were designed to restore profitability to BAs operations and to restore the Union Flag to BAs planes! He set about reducing the fleet, moving to smaller aircraft, cutting clearly unprofitable routes. He also targeted high-yield customers, the traditional mainstay segment for BA. Matching supply with demand was the overall concern, to restore positive cash flow. Strategically, BAs longtime search for a merger partner was resumed. A link with American Airlines, the first choice partner, was out of the question after US regulatory authorities squashed the idea. A proposed merger with KLM, the Dutch flag carrier, was discussed in some depth, but that foundered on doubts over the long-term financial benefits, and arguments over the relative shares each airline would have in the merged company. Low-Cost Airlines. Meanwhile, the airline industry was undergoing a seismic shift with the rise of low-cost no frills airlines. Ryanair and easyJet had, at first, demonstrated the existence of a new market for cheap airline travel which had not been tapped by traditional airlines. But then they began to expand and to compete for passengers that normally would have gone to BA even business class customers couldnt see the reason to pay  £100 for breakfast (the difference in price between BA and easyJet between London and Edinburgh.) BAs response (under Bob Ayling) was to form GO as a direct response to the no-frills competitor. Operating out of Stansted airport, GO was operated entirely separately from BA, so none of the high-cost culture was inherited. Launched in the face of vociferous opposition from easyJet, GO nevertheless established itself in the market though at what cost, no-one could guess. Rod Eddington soon decided that his focus on premium customers made GOs operations inconsistent with that of BA as a whole. GO was sold in May 2001 for  £100m to 3i, a UK venture capital and private equity group. GO was subsequently sold on to easy Jet for 375m. However, the driving of aggressive strategies from budget airlines is still forcing flag-carriers to re-assess their business models. The Outcome. For the year ended March 2001, Eddingtons steps had yielded a quadrupling of operating profits. Market share on key routes had been lost as cuts in fleet and routes bit, but BA believed it had lost customers who paid deeply-discounted fares. BA continued its vigorous pursuit of high-yield passengers. September 11th. So, all seemed to be going well. The brand was being restored, financial performance was improving and the only real problem was lack of progress on forming a partnership with a US carrier, prevented by the regulators. Then came September 11th, and the airline market fell apart. The consequences were swift passenger numbers fell 28%, US airports were closed for a week, Swissair, Sabena, US Airlines and nearly, Aer Lingus, went bust. Alitalia lost 570m, Lufthansa 400m. Altogether the industry lost 7bn and shed 120,000 jobs 13,000 at BA and passenger numbers are still running at 13% below normal on transatlantic routes. In contrast, passenger numbers and financial results at low-cost carriers easyJet and Ryanair were rising impressively. Then came Sars, the Iraq war and the continuing sluggishness of the world economy, all deeply damaging to passenger numbers. Strategy at BA was thrown into disarray. Current Strategy. With the travel market is still subject to global economic and political uncertainty, BA has repeated its forecasts for lower revenues. However, the fundamentals of this business are stronger than they have been for four or five years John Rishton, Finance Director, says BA is generating cash, and is conserving that cash. (FT and D.Tel. 6.11.02). The operational imperatives to cope with the turbulent environment are expressed in BAs Future Size and Shape initiative which is intended to: Achieve significant cost reductions. Originally targeted at 650m, the cost savings are now expected to save an annualised  £1.1bn over 3 years (FT 19.3.03). Simplified operations and minimal overheads is the aim. Cut capacity, to match supply of aircraft and flights to the reduced demand. Cut staffing levels. A further 3,000 job cuts planned for March 2004 have been brought forward to September 2003. Change BAs business model. Aware that no-frills competition is not going to go away, but that BA possesses a positive service heritage, BA wants to create an offering that combines the best bits of BA and the no-frills model. Martin George, BAs director of marketing and commercial development, explains our customers like the BA product convenient airports, high frequency, good level of service but want it at the right price, and thats what well give them. Its about changing our business model to allow us to compete profitably (Management Today, September 2000). Rationalise BAs internal UK and short-haul business CitiExpress has been formed from the activities of subsidiaries Brymon, BRAL, Manx and BA Regional. To stem heavy losses on this short-haul network, some rationalisation has been done it has pulled out of Cardiff and Leeds-Bradford airports, and will cut its current fleet from 82 to 50 all-jet planes by end-2005. However, it is expanding operations from Manchester, and from London City airport to Paris and Frankfurt. (FT 18.12.02). It is recognised that BA started to take the bitter medicine of cost cuts and restructuring earlier and in bigger doses than rivals in Europe and North America, and that Rod Eddington has pushed through changes that were long overdue. But is this enough? can BA wrest back the short haul market from easyJet and Ryanair, while maintaining its position in the longhaul market Strike! In July 2003, just at the start of the busy holiday season, BA was hit by an unofficial strike by Heathrow check-in and sales staff who were objecting to a hasty introduction of a swipe-card automatic clocking system. 500 flights were cancelled, affecting 100,000 passengers. The damage to BAs service reputation was enormous. Both management and union leaders were taken by surprise, and it brought to a head the existence of restrictive practices going back 40 or 50 years which both sides have to confront. Performance. Results for the year ending 31st March 2003 showed a pretax profit of 135 on turnover down 7.8% to  £7.69bn, up from a loss of 335 in the year to March 2002. The results included a charge of 84m for the planned ending of Concorde flights in October, and a fourth-quarter loss (January to March) of 200m. These positive results were entirely down to cost reduction. No  dividend was paid a consequence of the need to conserve cash. Operating margin at 3.8% is way below Eddingtons target of 10%. (D.Tel, 20.5.03, FT, 21.5.03). In the first quarter of the 2003-04 year, a pretax loss of  £45m was incurred the effect of the Heathrow strike was put at 30-40m. The business environment. However, Rod Eddington sees the furure business environment as very hard to read, but expects it to get tougher. 2003-04 was meant, according to analysts, to be BAs year of recovery, but it is not now expected to happen. (DTel, 11.2.03) A critical development is the start of talks between the EU and the USA to dismantle the web of regulations that have controlled the development of international aviation since the mid-1940s. Eddington, as chairman of the Association of European Airlines, insists that truly global airlines are impossible in the current regulatory environment. If it were left to the market, international airlines would undoubtedly follow in the footsteps of other industries and would seek the benefits of scale and scope that are currently denied them. A truly global airline..would be free to operate wherever its customers demanded, free to grow organically or through acquisition and free to charge whatever the market would bear. These talks are likely to be very long. However, it potentially offers the opportunity for an opening of the two biggest airline markets and lead to substantial consolidation of participants. (FT, 29.9.03). The takeover of KLM, the Dutch flag carrier, by Air France, may be the precursor to the consolidation expected. BA sees no threat from what is now Europes largest airline. D.Tel, 1.01.03).

Thursday, November 14, 2019

Graduation Speech: Thanks for the Good Times :: Graduation Speech, Commencement Address

Hello classmates of 2012. It is almost time for us to depart from one another. We will go our own ways and achieve our goals very soon, but before we go, I would like to share some memories with everyone. I have attended Tates Creek High School (TC) for two years. And during those two years, I have learned a lot from the school staff and from my peers. They all have taught me something new. This is what makes them so awesome. The school is small and so diverse that it makes it easier to meet everyone. It took me seven years in elementary school to get to know just about everyone, but at TC, I knew just about everyone in less than a year. The students are kind and very helpful. They help each other with assignments and help one another with catching up on homework when they have missed school. The staff here at TC are great. They help the students with questions on homework assignments and on just about anything. They are also here to listen to us and when we need someone to talk to, we can go talk to any one of them and they'll be there to help. We receive a lot of homework everyday, but it's no big deal. With many homework assignments, I am not able to slack off. I have to finish all of my assignmanets for one reason, and that reason is to not get any incomplete stamps. The homework load keeps me busy and keeps me from doing bad things that a lot of other middle school children are doing. There are nights where I have very little time or no time at all for fun, except for the weekends. On some days of the week, I have to do things after school. TC has set up enrichment classes for the students to do homework. I usually sign up for homework jumpstart, that way, I am able to get a jump start on my homework. The enrichment class helps me a lot, that way I'll have time to go do other things after school. TC has high standards for education. The staff here, at TC wants all of their students to be successful people in the future. They want what's best for us that's why they push us to try our best in everything we do. Our Basic Standard Testing scores are very high.

Monday, November 11, 2019

Culture Theory and Popular Culture Essay

The study of culture has, over the last few years, been quite dramatically transformed as questions of modernity and post-modernity have replaced the more familiar concepts of ideology and hegemony which, from the mid-1970s until the mid-1980s, anchored cultural analysis firmly within the neo-Marxist field mapped out by Althusser and Gramsci. Modernity and post-modernity have also moved far beyond the academic fields of media or cultural studies. Hardly one branch of the arts, humanities or social sciences has remained untouched by the debates which have accompanied their presence. They have also found their way into the ‘quality’ press and on to TV, and of course they have entered the art school studios informing and giving shape to the way in which art practitioners including architects, painters and film-makers define and execute their work. Good or bad, to be welcomed or reviled, these terms have corresponded to some sea-change in the way in which cultural intellectuals and practitioners experience and seek to understand the world in the late 1980s and into the 1990s. Storey claimed that â€Å"postmodernism has disturbed many of the old certainties surrounding questions of cultural value. † This work will consider the issues of postmodernism versus modernism mostly from the perspective of the critics of postmodernism with reference to ‘good’ and ‘bad’ taste. Post-modern cultural movements first emerged in the 1960s in painting, architecture, and literary criticism. Pop art challenged modernist art by experimenting with new cultural forms and contents that embraced everyday life, radical eclecticism, subcultures, mass media, and consumerism. Sociologist Daniel Bell was one of the first to take up the challenge of postmodernism. In The Cultural Contradictions of Capitalism (1976) he identified a moral crisis in Western society bound up with the decline of Puritan bourgeois culture and the ascendence of a post-modern culture that he described in terms of an aesthetic relativism and a hedonistic individualism. Yet the most formidable critic of postmodernism and defender of modernity has been German philosopher and heir to the Frankfurt School tradition of critical theory — Jurgen Habermas. There are two problems with postmodernism. The first problem comes into focus around the meaning of the term fragmentation. This is a word which, through over-usage in recent cultural debates, has become shorn of meaning. Post-modernity has been associated by Fredric Jameson (1984) with the emergence of a broken, fractured shadow of a ‘man’. The tinny shallowness of mass culture is, he argues, directly reflected in the schizophrenic subject of contemporary mass consciousness. Against Jameson, Stuart Hall (1981) has recently said that it is just this decentring of consciousness which allows him, as a black person, to emerge, divided, yes, but now fully foregrounded on the post-modern stage. ‘So one of the fascinating things about this discussion is to find myself centred at last. Now that, in the postmodern age, you all feel so dispersed I become centred. What I’ve thought of as dispersed and fragmented comes, paradoxically, to be the representative modern condition! This is coming home with a vengeance’ (34). These are, then, two perspectives on the problem of postmodern fragmentation. There is Jameson, who looks back nostalgically to the notion of unity or totality and who sees in this a kind of prerequisite for radical politics, a goal to be striven for. And there is Hall, who sees in fragmentation something more reflective of the ongoing and historical condition of subaltern groups. Jameson’s unified ‘man’ could be taken to be a preFreudian, Enlightenment subject, and thus be discredited by those who have paid attention to Lacan’s notion of the fragmented subject. But the endorsement of post-modern fragmentation is equally not without its own problems. Have ‘we’ become more fragmented than before? Can we specifically name a time and a place for the moment of fragmentation? Is fragmentation the ‘other’ of ‘humanity’? Or is the representation of fragmentation coincidental with political empowerment and liberation? Christopher Norris (1990) has argued that post-modernity (and postmodern fragmentation) stands at the end of the long line of intellectual inquiry which starts with Saussure, works its way through post-structuralism and Lacanian psychoanalysis and ends with Baudrillard. In Norris’s terms fragmentation is to be understood as marking an absolute and irreparable break with the unified subject, a break which is now writ large in culture. Present-day fragmented subjectivity is captured and expressed in post-modern cultural forms, a kind of superficial pick-and-mix of styles. According to Jameson, however, unfragmented subjectivity, by contrast, produced great works of uncluttered ‘heroic’ modernism. There is a degree of slippage in the connections being made here. The problem lies, at least partly, in the imprecise use of the word ‘fragmentation’. There is a vacillation between the ‘high’ psychoanalytical use of Lacan and a much looser notion, one which seems to sum up unsatisfactory aspects of contemporary cultural experience. Modernists, however, also felt confused and fragmented. Fragmentation, as a kind of ‘structure of feeling’, is by no means the sole property of those living under the shadow of the post-modern condition. Bewilderment, anxiety, panic: such expressions can be attributed to any historical moment as it is transposed into cultural and artistic expression over the last a hundred and fifty years. The category of fragmentation seems to have become either too technical to be of general use (i. e. in Lacan’s work) or too vague to mean anything more than torn apart. The second question which might be asked of neo-Marxist critics of postmodernity, concerns determination, and the return to a form of economic reductionism in cultural theory. Fredric Jameson argues that postmodernism is the cultural logic of capital, but his argument, as Paul Hirst writing about trends in both New Times and post-modern writing, has suggested, ‘slips from a rigid causal determinism into casual metaphor’ (45). Jameson, going back to Mandel’s Late Capitalism, has argued that the kinds of cultural phenomena which might be described as post-modern form part of the logic of advanced or late capitalism. This does away, at a sweep, with the difficult issue of explaining the precise nature of the social and ideological relationships which mediate between the economy and the sphere of culture and it simultaneously restores a rather old-fashioned notion of determination to that place it had occupied prior to Althusser’s ‘relative autonomy’ and his idea of determination ‘in the last instance’ (67). Quoting Lyotard, Harvey (1989) takes up the notion of the temporary contract as the hallmark of post-modern social relations. What he sees prevailing in production, in the guise of new forms of work, he also sees prevailing in emotional life and in culture, in the temporary contract of love and sexuality. Like Jameson he decries this state and looks forward to something more robust and more reliable, something from which a less fractured sense of self and community might emerge. He views postmodern culture disparagingly, as aesthetic rather than ethical, reflecting an avoidance of politics rather than a rising to the challenge of a politics posed by new or changing conditions of production. Despite their sweeping rejection of post-modern writing, both Jameson and Harvey take advantage of the conceptual and methodological breadth found in these theories to circumvent (or short-circuit) the key problems which have arisen in cultural studies in the attempt to specify and under-stand the social relations which connect culture to the conditions of its production. Their conceptual leap into a critique of postmodernism allows these writers to avoid confronting more directly the place of Marxism in cultural studies from the late 1980s into the 1990s, a moment at which Marxism cannot be seen in terms other than those of eclipse or decline. Postmodernism exists, therefore, as something of a convenient bete noire. It allows for the evasion of the logic of cultural studies, if we take that logic to be the problematizing of the relations between culture and the economy and between culture and politics, in an age where the field of culture appears to be increasingly expansive and where both politics and economics might even be seen, at one level, as being conducted in and through culture. Structuralism has replaced old orthodoxies with new ones. This is apparent in its rereading of texts highly placed within an already existing literary or aesthetic hierarchy. Elsewhere it constructs a new hierarchy, with Hollywood classics at the top, followed by selected advertising images, and girls’ and women’s magazines rounding it off. Other forms of representation, particularly music and dance, are missing altogether. Andreas Huyssen in his 1984 introduction to postmodernism draws attention to this ‘high’ structuralist preference for the works of high modernism, especially the writing of James Joyce or Mallarme. ‘There is no doubt that centre stage in critical theory is held by the classical modernists: Flaubert†¦in Barthes†¦Mallarme and Artaud in Derrida, Magritte†¦ in Foucault†¦Joyce and Artaud in Kristeva†¦and so on ad infinitum’ (Huyssen, 1984:39). He argues that this reproduces unhelpfully the old distinction between the high arts and the ‘low’, less serious, popular arts. He goes on to comment: ‘Pop in the broadest sense was the context in which a notion of the post-modern first took shape†¦and the most significant trends within postmodernism have challenged modernism’s relentless hostility to mass culture. High theory was simply not equipped to deal with multilayered pop. Nor did it ever show much enthusiasm about this set of forms, perhaps because pop has never signified within one discrete discourse, but instead combines images with performance, music with film or video, and pin-ups with the magazine form itself’ (Huyssen, 1984:16). In recent article, where Hebdige (1988) engages directly with the question of postmodernism, he disavows the playful elements in Subculture†¦and, more manifestly, in the new fashion and style magazines. In contrast with what he sees now as an excess of style, a celebration of artifice and a strong cultural preference for pastiche, Hebdige seeks out the reassuringly real. He suggests that the slick joky tone of postmodernism, especially that found on the pages of The Face, represents a disengagement with the real, and an evasion of social responsibility. He therefore insists on a return to the world of hunger, exploitation and oppression and with it a resurrection of unfragmented, recognizable subjectivity. He fleetingly engages with an important characteristic of the post-modern condition, that is, the death of subjectivity and the emergence, in its place, of widespread social schizophrenia. Hebdige seems to be saying that if this rupturing of identity is what postmodernism is about, then he would rather turn his back on it. The position of Clement Greenberg in his 1980 lecture entitled The Notion of the â€Å"Post-Modern† could be summarized in the following terms: modernism in painting has been, since its inception with Manet and the impressionists, a heroic struggle against the encroachment of bad taste or kitsch in the domain of art; postmodernism is only the latest name under which commercial bad taste, masquerading as sophisticated â€Å"advancedness,† challenges the integrity of art. Any deviation from modernism, then, involves a betrayal or corruption of aesthetic standards. Seen from this vantage point, the â€Å"post-modern† cannot be much more than a renewed â€Å"urge to relax,† particularly pervasive after the advent of pop art, with its deleterious effects on the art world. This type of argument (modernism’s self-conscious mission, to exorcise bad taste from the domain of high art, is today as urgent as it ever was) appears in a variety of forms and shapes in the writings of the defenders of modernist purity against the infiltrations of commercialism and fashion. This realized art, however, is not in a harmonious universal style as Mondrian was envisaging. It consists mostly in forms of art considered banal, sentimental, and in bad taste by most in the Fine Art artworld. Further, because so many people have no interest in Fine Art, it is often thought that visual art has somehow lost its relevance and potency. People ask what the point of art is, and whether it is worthwhile spending public money on art. When people think of art, they think of Fine Art, and the influence of Fine Art seems to be in decline. However, although Fine Art seems to be in decline as a cultural force, visual art has more power in culture now than it ever had. Visual art is not all Fine Art. There is a diversity of kinds of art in contemporary culture. Besides Fine Art, there is also Popular Art, Design Art, and advertising. What Fine Art does for us is just a small part of the total cultural value we get from art. As traditional culture recedes from memory, and technology changes our lifestyles, people look for new values and lifestyles. These new values and lifestyles are carried by the art broadcast over the mass media and on the products we buy. The mass-media arts define our heroes and tell us about the good. Advertisements define pleasure and lifestyle. With mass-market goods we dress our bodies and houses in art, thus using art to define who we are. These contemporary visual arts play a large part in shaping our values, fantasies, and lifestyles. However, conventional art histories tend not to treat the other powerful visual arts of our own time beyond Fine Art, namely, Popular Art, Design Art, and advertising. Advertising is not considered â€Å"art† because it is not functionless beyond being aesthetic. Also, the advertising does not typically show personal expressive creativity. So, the Design Arts are typically considered mere decoration. Popular Art is thought of as in bad taste, banal, sentimental, and so not worthy of consideration either. Since art histories are only looking at â€Å"good† art, they tend not to consider these other arts. Standing as they most often do within the Fine Art art world, art historians use the ideology and sense of artistic value of Fine Art to evaluate all art. From the perspective of the contemporary art world, Popular Art is thought of as a kind of Fine Art; that is, bad Fine Art or Fine Art in bad taste. It seems hackneyed and banal to the Fine Art art world. From their perspective, popular taste is bad taste. For example, Osvaldo Yero, an artist who emerged in the 1990s, has based his work on the technique and poetics of the plaster figures. These figures, mostly decorations, but also religious images, were perhaps considered the last gasp of bad taste. They constituted the epitome of â€Å"uncultivated† appropriation of icons from the â€Å"high† culture as well as from mass culture, done in a poor and artificial material par excellence, worked clumsily in a semi-industrial technique and polychromed with pretentious attempts at elegance. They symbolized the triumph of â€Å"vulgarity, † the failure of the â€Å"aesthetic education of the masses† proposed by socialism. By the 1920s business and advertising agencies had realized that putting style and color choices into the products they made increased consumption. Through the use of advertising and by designing stylistic variety into their products, manufacturers elevated things into the category of fashion goods that had before just been utility goods, like towels, bedding, and bathroom fixtures. Previously these items did not have any style component, but now designers added decoration to their functional design. This meant that now consumers could choose products not just for function, but also for style. People could now have pink sheets, green toilets, and blue phones. There is a tension in design style between aesthetic formalist styles like the international style, and design styles that are figurative. Those favoring figurative design tend to think of products as coming in a great variety and designed to appeal to the various tastes of consumers. Here the style of the products are not dictated by function, but by market pressures. This is a further development of design for sales. This gave rise to what is known as niche marketing, where the styling is targeted to a smaller, more specific group than mass marketing is. Thus, they shun the idea of a unified worldwide machine aesthetic. For example, a razor can be pink with flowers on it to target it to female users, and black with blue accent lines to target it to male users. The razor is the same, but the razor is packaged with different styling to sell the product to different markets. In designing for niche markets, the styling reflects the class, age group, profession, and aspirations of the target group. This goes hand in hand with advertising, and requires a great deal of research to discover what these values are and what styling motifs succeed in communicating them. The exemplary text or the single, richly coded image gives way to the textual thickness and the visual density of everyday life, as though the slow, even languid ‘look’ of the semiologist is, by the 1980s, out of tempo with the times. The field of postmodernism certainly expresses a frustration, not merely with this seemingly languid pace, but with its increasing inability to make tangible connections between the general conditions of life today and the practice of cultural analysis. Structuralism has also replaced old orthodoxies with new ones. This is apparent in its rereading of texts highly placed within an already existing literary or aesthetic hierarchy. Elsewhere it constructs a new hierarchy, with Hollywood classics at the top, followed by selected advertising images, and girls’ and women’s magazines rounding it off. Other forms of representation, particularly music and dance, are missing altogether. Huyssen argues that â€Å"Pop in the broadest sense was the context in which a notion of the post-modern first took shape, and the most significant trends within postmodernism have challenged modernism’s relentless hostility to mass culture. High theory was simply not equipped to deal with multilayered pop. † References Bell, Daniel. (1976). The Cultural Contradictions of Capitalism. New York: Basic Books. C. Norris, ‘Lost in the funhouse: Baudrillard and the politics of postmodernism’, in R. Boyne and A. Rattansi (eds) Postmodernism and Society, London, Macmillan, 1990. Hall, Stuart, Connell, Ian and Curti, Lidia (1981). ‘The â€Å"unity† of current affairs television’, in T. Bennett et al. (eds) Popular Television and Film, London: BFI. Harvey, David (1989). The Condition of Postmodernity, Oxford: Blackwell. Hebdige, Dick (1979). Subculture: The Meaning of Style, London: Routledge. Huyssen, A. (1984). ‘Mapping the postmodern’, New German Critique 33. Jameson, Fredric (1984). ‘Postmodernism, or the cultural logic of late capitalism’, New Left Review 146.

Saturday, November 9, 2019

Othello and Racism Essay

Held a captive and cannot escape the grips of racism, Othello must battle with this matter from day one till his call of death. Just because his skin tone is unusual from Venice and its citizens, makes Othello an outcast . Although born a black moor, Othello has all the great characteristics a man should have. Being courageous, honorable, intelligent and all the aspects a woman would want in a husband. He grew up to be a venetian military general who has risen to high position of power is viewed in two means. One, since Othello belongs to the military realm he hence deserves the respect and authority any other general should receive. Second view is highly different and because the race role is a huge issue, it essentially eliminates the first way people would view Othello. But this doesn’t stop Desdemona from falling in love with him and making him her husband. The color of Othello’s skin doesn’t bother Desdemona one bit which isn’t the case for the rest of the characters seen throughout the play. Before Othello’s name is even mentioned in the play, racial slurs are being said and the audience is being introduced to how Othello will be treated. In Act I Scene I, Rodrigo and Iago talk about â€Å"the moor†, â€Å"the thick-lips† and â€Å"the old black ram† . Small comments like these slowly bring out the characteristics that multiple characters share in this play. Iago and Rodrigo aren’t the only ones who have a problem with Othello; Desdemona’s father ,Brabantio, is in the same boat with Iago and Rodrigo. Brabantio is a self-important the Venetian Senator whose main priorities are his job and his daughter. If one of these main concerns aren’t necessarily going his way, then there could be a problem. Othello encounters this the hard way unfortunately. Brabantio hears news about how his daughter has gotten married but not to any regular guy, to a moor.

Thursday, November 7, 2019

Possibilities of Stem Cell Research

Possibilities of Stem Cell Research Free Online Research Papers Abstract Discovering, isolating, and culturing stem cells are being described as the single most significant scientific medical breakthrough this century. The cells uniqueness biologically is the virtue that warrants this description. Alone, stem cells have the ability to infinitely self-regenerate and retain the remarkable capability of differentiating to all forms of cell tissues. In addition to this, culturing stem cells hold much tremendous potential for developments of new regenerative types of medicine that will treat disabling or terminal conditions and diseases that otherwise would not have a cure. Ironically, the discovery of tremendous medical potentials to improve and prolong lives through stem cells come trenchant, intractable queries about life’s true value. Collecting stem cells from embryos destroys the embryo they are collected from. In other words, the results are an expiration of an embryo in the earliest stage of a human potential life. This is where the issue about life’s value begins to emerge and asks perhaps the most poignant and stark question of if the life of that already in existence should be spared at the expense of an embryo in the earliest form of possible life. Does a life in existence have more value than the potential life of an embryo? Never the less, the most ethical and moral response to justify this question is in no way obvious. The answer is not apparent immediately, but forces the question of what criteria should be counted as appropriate for assessing any possible response. Even knowing what the correct terminology and concepts for structuring the central questions seems contentious. What does seem clear is how remiss it would be to fail engaging in these questions without commensurating the Importance, complexity, and depth of the issue. Stem Cell Research Possibilities Many of the world’s exceptional advancements have come directly from medical research: numerous types of medications for pain, cures for diseases, and infinite amounts of discoveries that have impacted the perception of medical research’s scientific side. Medical research brings good and bad; there have been amazing breakthroughs and devastating failures. The potentials of medical research are either the best or worst thing to happen to humankind. The good and bad of stem cell research are clouded by controversy. Medical histories greatest discoveries could be stem cell research. Although this research has the potential to cure most illnesses and diseases, many ethical and moral issues must be considered. Imagine future capabilities of growing a new heart someone needs, or being able to cure a loved ones disease. These possibilities are closer to being realized with stem cell research which is something all our bodies grow. If researchers are able to figure out how to c ontrol stem cells, they will be able to provide cures for a wide variety of debilitating conditions. Researchers are adamant that in the next 10 years, stem cells will provide solutions to questions and heal diseases caused by failure of cells and repairing tissues not capable of self regeneration. Stem cell research can potentially prevent and cure many diseases, but do these potential benefits outweigh the concerns? This debate continues to keep the nation on edge. The issue is complicated by the fact that there are different ways to obtain stem cells for research purposes. As long as means of stem cell research is done in a way that will not harm others, it will serve as a benefit to humanities and our future. Is stem cell research unethical? This is a question that societies majority faces daily. Like most other public issues, stem cell research has two sides. However, one needs to have an understanding of the study before having a valid opinion. The National Institute of Health says, A stem cell is a cell that has the ability to divide (self replicate) for indefinite periodsunder the right conditions, or given the right signals, stem cells can give rise (differentiate) to the many different cell types that make up the organism. That is, stem cells have the potential to develop into mature cells that have characteristics, shapes and specialized functions, such as heart cells, skin cells, or nerve cells(NIH, 2007). Until the last decade most people had not heard of stem cell research, nor did they know what they did. In today’s world stem cell information and their function is readily available. People now learn new information about stem cells from newspaper articles, radio and t elevision news, or the Internet. Currently though the idea of researching stem cells raises strong debate. Columnist Charles Krauthammer, though a proponent of legal abortion, joins many pro-life Christians in fearing the slippery slope in this realm of bioethics: You dont need religion to tremble at the thought of unrestricted embryo research. You simply have to have a healthy respect for the human capacity for doing evil in pursuit of the good. (Christianity Today, 2007) One of the biggest debate reasons is the process in which stem cells are obtained. The main two ways stem cells are obtained is through surplus embryos found at fertility clinics and the discarded fetal tissue of abortions. Stem cells, collected from embryos, are cells that are not developed to their specified stage. Thus, a stem cell is capable of developing into any human cell the adult body has or needs. Week-old embryos are destroyed in the process of collecting stem cells. This seems to be the reason that the issue of stem cell research is almost as debated as abortion. Unlike abortion, in which life is destroyed, stem cells give life because they hold the key to the cures for many disabilities and diseases. Dolly the cloned sheep was born on February 24, 1997, and the United States stem cell research efforts have been a widely debated issue ever since. The debate reached all time highs following President Bush’s August 9, 2001 speech which was in support of funding stem cell research. The vast majority of Americans strongly support the advancement of biomedical research through the application of their tax dollars, said Daniel Perry, executive director of the Alliance for Aging Research. Surveys consistently show Americans want to see greater efforts against serious and life-threatening diseases. (Bettelheim, A., 2000) Couples not capable of conceiving their children on their own often try in vitro fertilization. The In vitro fertilization method usually prepares about 10 embryos, but only selects three or four to be implanted. The two ways surplus embryos are handled are freezing spares using liquid nitrogen or to dispose of them. Risks encountered freezing are the embryos dying during freezing or the thawing process. Unused embryos that are not frozen are discarded by being exposed to air, flushed down a sink, or burned. (Faden, R. R., Gearhart, J.D., 2005). The embryos are still alive when they are frozen or discarded. The solution would be to donate excess embryos for the purpose of research. Scientists would then be able to further the research of stem cell possibilities. There are some cases where excess embryos are not wasted. In these cases embryos are frozen and another couple eventually adopts them. (Hall, C. T., 2006) Although this seems to be a good fate for excess embryos, the risk of dying while thawing remains. The ethical issue arising from the research of stem cells is solely based upon the stem cell source. The argument is reasonable because the cells come from an embryo, which dies once the cells are obtained. In the early stages of stem cell research, all stem cell samples are obtained from in vitro clinics stored excess embryos. Scientists must get permission from donors to collect stem cells and study the embryos. This is the cause of outcry from pro-life communities. Pro-lifers believe that each embryo has the potential of life. The pro-life groups claim the problem can be solved by collecting cells in a more ethical way. One alternative would be to collect stem cells from fetuses that are aborted. Another way would be to collect stem cell samples from healthy adult volunteers. This would be an alternate to embryonic research of stem cells, but adult stems do not hold the same potentials. Stem cell research relating to the Embryos Bill 2002 allowed only excess embryos existing prior to April 5, 2002, to be utilized for researching purpose in accordance with the regime of licensing. It is a fact that the excess embryos would have most likely expired or succumbed anyway. The excess embryos would have still been destroyed however; the expiration process would have been natural. On the surface, it appears there is no difference if harm or the expiration of the excess embryos came from research or natural causes. The embryos expire in both cases. This impression is somewhat oversimplified. Some argue there are distinct ethical and moral differences between omissions and acts and between failing to passively intervene to prevent death and actively, knowingly killing. Although each has the same outcome, the act of bringing death about by oneself is argued as worse morally. Many argue that since both alternatives result in the expiration of the embryo, the logical answer is t o go option that has the potential to provide the most benefits. This rationale would most likely change, indeed, if the present alternatives were to change. If, for example, if research were being done on embryos created for research purposes and not pre-existing embryos predetermined to expire. (Rickhard, M., 2002) Many scientists believe the key to finding cures lays in stem cell research. This research will potentially cure diseases such as diabetes, Alzheimer’s, and Parkinson’s disease. Stem cells hold the possibility in becoming the human body’s different types of tissue, bone, muscle, and nerve. Theoretically, stem cells could grow a harvest of organ replacements for virtually all parts of a human’s body. But Ian Wilmut, the scientist whose team at Scotlands Roslin Institute cloned Dolly born July 5, 1996, and euthanized in 2003 because of lung disease says the most interesting thing about the past decade is what has not happened. (Weise, E., n.d.) While ethical issues and questions will continue clouding opinions on the medical advancements made possible by the research of stem cells, these issues and questions must not allow us to ignore all the advancements of stem cell research. The focus should be that scientists are striving to enhance and preserve the g ift of life, not how and where cells are collected. Although both sides present reasonable arguments, it is crucial to understand the potentials. Stem cell research holds life enhancing potential. Such benefits may only be a potential, but in order to have the opportunity for exceptional advancements risks must be taken. Many of the world’s greatest advancements were based strictly upon a potential for improvement. When stem cell research potentials are realized, its greatness will provide endless rewards. Philosopher John A. Robertson said, â€Å"In taking such a stance, persons define or constitute themselves as highly protective of human life.† Robertson notes, however, that this same symbolic respect for life can be expressed through allowing embryos to be created so that others lives can be prolonged, or deaths averted. (Rickhard, M., 2002) References Bettelheim, A. (2000). Senate Argues Promise and Peril Of Human Stem Cell Research. CQ Weekly, 58(8), 357. Retrieved Sunday, April 27, 2007, from the Academic Search Premier database. Weise, E. (n.d.). Dolly was worlds hello to clonings possibilities. USA Today, Retrieved Sunday, April 27, 2007, from the Academic Search Premier database. The Slope Really Is Slippery. (2007). Christianity Today, Retrieved Sunday, April 27, 2007, from the MasterFILE Premier database. Rickhard, Maurice (2002, November 12). Parlinfo Web. Retrieved June 2, 2007, from Parliament of Australia Web site: http://wopared.aph.gov.au The Presidents Council on Bioethics. Human Cloning and Human Dignity: An Ethical Inquiry. Washington: Public Affairs, October 2002. 400 pages. Available online: bioethics.gov/reports/cloningreport/index.html. National Bioethics Advisory Commission. Ethical Issues in Human Stem Cell Research. Rockville, MD: NBAC, 1999. Volume I: Report and Recommendations of the National Bioethics Advisory Commission. Volume II: Commissioned Papers, January 2000. Volume III: Religious Perspectives, June 2000. Statement by the President, dated September 13, 1999. Available online: www.georgetown.edu/research/nrcbl/nbac/pubs.html. Faden, Ruth R., Gearhart, John D. (2005). â€Å"Facts on Stem Cells.†. 2005, 9, Retrieved May 13, 2007, from washingtonpost.com/. Hall, Carl T. (2006). The forgotten embryo: Fertility clinics must store or destroy the surplus that is part of the process.. SF Gate News, 12, Retrieved April 24, 2007, from sfgate.com/ National Institutes of Health (NIH), (2007). Stem cell information. Retrieved May 13, 2007, from National Institutes of Health (NIH) Web site: http://stemcells.nih.gov/ Research Papers on Possibilities of Stem Cell ResearchGenetic EngineeringResearch Process Part OneLifes What IfsBionic Assembly System: A New Concept of SelfStandardized TestingInfluences of Socio-Economic Status of Married MalesArguments for Physician-Assisted Suicide (PAS)Analysis of Ebay Expanding into AsiaBringing Democracy to AfricaCapital Punishment

Monday, November 4, 2019

Social Psychology - Definition Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Social Psychology - Definition - Essay Example The theoretical postulates in social facilitation help just in identifying and isolating the individual traits concerning the formation and transformation of the individual self. Despite excessive theorizing on the subject there has been a truly articulate wider focus on the phenomenon of social facilitation with a clearer contrast between autonomous individual actions and socially facilitated reflex-based responses. The underlying nuances are obviously delineated to produce a coherent process of development from one premise to the next (Heffernan, 2002). In the first instance when Norman Triplett carried out research into the performance by cyclists taking part in a race, he realized that individual cyclists tended to perform better simply because they were being observed by others. Thus they separately developed a tendency to achieve faster times on the clock in each race (Sternberg, 2003). The critical perception of performance as is based on the cause-and-effect analysis would show that the theoretical parameters developed by Triplett were though original under the circumstances were essentially connected with a body of a priori principles that produce parallel processes of behavioral paradigms among individuals. This causal link is so important in understanding the norm-based behaviors among certain classes of people. In fact in the process of theorizing the psychological perspective on conventional behaviors of the individual and the cognitive perceptive response to external stimuli have been combined together to produce a convergence/divergence contingency model of behavioral response (Baron, & Byrne, 2002). According to the Stanford Prison Experiment carried out by a group of researchers led by Professor Phillip Zimbardo at the University of Stanford in 1971 even before 36 hours lapsed on the experiment at least one prisoner in the experiment group was discovered to suffer from acute tension, continuous crying, anger and incoherent thinking (www.prisonexp.org). The group that acted like authorities in the experiment did not believe him because they felt he was conning to compel them into releasing him. According to drive theory that human organisms have some needs. If and when these needs were deprived the subject person would experience some emotional disturbance or tension. As and when the n eed is satisfied the level of drive diminishes and the concerned organism would function as normally as it was before. However the theory tells that drive would increase as the time goes on (Haney, Banks, & Zimbardo, 1973). This process is similar to a feedback and control mechanism.Psychologists who have studied such creatures like rats and cockroaches have found that their behavioral tendencies in some instances closely resemble that of humans (Davey, 2004). Cottrell was responsible for the Evaluation Apprehension Theory (1972). According to EPT people rapidly learn what social rewards and punishments would be received by subject people for good performance and

Saturday, November 2, 2019

Quantitative research critique Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Quantitative critique - Research Paper Example The authors feel that the distinction between these atypical medications and the comorbidity with weight gain and diabetes is an important distinction. Furthermore, this certainly has ramifications for nursing in regards to the diet and importance of monitoring signs of diabetes and increased weight gain in this cohort. The population under study and the quantitative analysis of the data is appropriate and meaningful for this study. Literature Review: The references cited, while not extensive, are suitable for the size of the study. Twenty-two references are used directly. Of these, seven are directly related to the effects the study is analyzing. The others relate to the specific mediations under study as well as the general information regarding diabetes and adiposity. Twenty are current and date from 2002 forward, only two are older, (1) the American Diabetes Association’s â€Å"Report of the expert committee on the diagnosis and classification of diabetes mellitus.† dates from 1997 but is only used as a general reference and (2) Gray and Fujioka (1991) â€Å"Use of relative weight and body mass index for the determination of adiposity,† also for general guidelines. ... In a survey of diabetes associated with clozapine, glycemic control improved after clozapine was stopped in 78% of individuals who developed diabetes; 62% of these patients no longer required hypoglycemic drugs. Of 12 patients who were restarted on clozapine, 9 developed hyperglycemia again. (Cohen, 2004, 3) While other references used generalized this effect there is other literature that directly supports it. For instance, in a study they did not reference, Koller and Doraiswamy (2002) showed in their research that 78% of the group had improved glycemic balance once they stopped taking or decreased the dosage of olanzapine and that if olanzapine was restarted eight out of ten patients had a recurrence of hyperglycemia. So it is clear that there were previous studies which connected the same inferences the authors are stating. There is also some research that counter-indicates their results as to weight gain to some extent: †¦patients taking antipsychotic drugs can develop diab etes without significant weight gain or can lose weight. Furthermore, their diabetes usually improves rapidly when the antipsychotic drug is withdrawn, without significant reduction in body weight, and often recurs rapidly if the drug is started again. (Wirshing, 2001, 8) They do cite another study from Wirshing, Boyd and Meng (2002) which does concur with their weight gain hypothesis. Furthermore, as far back as 1999, the diabetic inducing effects off clozapine and olanzapine were already known: Several cases of new-onset diabetes attributed to clozapine and olanzapine were associated with acute pancreatitis. It is possible, therefore, that antipsychotic-induced diabetes results from chemical damage to the pancreas. However, diabetes