An argument in favor of pro choice abortion for women with unwanted pregnancy Essay Example for Free

An argument in favor of pro choice abortion for women with unwanted pregnancy Essay Abortion Abortion is the ending of a pregnancy by the removal of a fetus or embryo before it is able to survive on its own. An individuals position on abortion is their own value system, most often there are two sides. Pro-life, which believe that a fetus should never be extracted and it is considered murder, and pro-choice. Pro-choice is the view that a woman should be able to choose for her own body and her own personal views. A woman should be able to choose herself if to get an abortion, someones religion should never change this. Also, an abortion can stop an unwanted birth, and are better legally done and regulated than done illegally. Religion is what most peoples reason for not believing in pro-choice. People believe that an embryo is considered a baby in the Bible, and that would be murder. But at what point is a fertilized egg considered a baby? In the bible, they continually state that no matter what stage, a woman who has a fertilized egg is pregnant with a child. Most medical websites state that after 8 weeks, the main organs begin to develop and work. Still, the abortion is required to be done in about 12 weeks. At this time, reflexes havent been developed and most tissues and organs havent finished development. This is not a child, these are living cells inside a human body.   People dont protest about exfoliating cells, so why cant women abort theirs? Abortion stops unwanted birth. Nowadays, people are stupid. Everyone makes terrible mistakes, like getting pregnant when they cant afford another mouth to feed, or havent graduated high school.   In extreme conditions, abortion can stop a woman giving birth to a child she didnt consent to. Abortion can be the best answer, even if it is hard to choose over other resolutions. Rape culture is a thing, there is one sexual assault every 107 seconds. A person who is in this poor situation may not want to have their child. But, it is up to the woman involved. If abortion is illegal, unsafe and unregulated ones will happen. A person doing this lacks the skills and safety that a trained professional has.   For example, an unsafe abortion may refer to an extremely dangerous life-threatening procedure that is in unhygienic conditions. The WHO states that there were 42 million pregnancies were voluntarily terminated in 2012. Of which, 20 million were unsafe. About 68,000 women die annually. Abortion is the ending of a pregnancy by voluntary means. Pro-Choice is what should be allowed, and accepted everywhere. A womans body is her own, and she should be able to use her own value system to make her decision. Pro-Choice should not be discouraged because of religious beliefs. An abortion can stop an unwanted birth and is better legally done than illegally. Her body her choice.

Using Enterprise Gamification For Improving Business Essay

Using Enterprise Gamification For Improving Business Essay Gamification is the concept of applying game-design thinking to non-game applications to make them more fun and engaging. (Gamification Wiki, 2012) Though a relatively new field, gamification has been used in a variety of applications albeit in a simpler manner, from driving customer loyalty through loyalty points to improving employee engagement within the workforce using titles such as Employee of the Month The latter is an example of enterprise gamification wherein enterprises use gamified systems to bring about internal change. However most such systems are currently heavily simplified and extrinsically focused, only looking to reward employees with badges, which leads to the danger of reducing the employees intrinsic motivations. Also, many of the enterprise gamification platforms have only been designed for use in the developed world and hence the need to explore how these might differ for an Indian audience with its different set of motivations and appeal to them. Taking these into account, this paper looks to explore how gamification works and what are the underlying psychological factors and how Indian enterprises can use it in their employee development process. The findings would lead to a proposed enterprise gamified framework for improving workplace motivations and the performance appraisal process currently being practiced in Indian organizations. Lastly we look at the possible limitations of having such a system in place at the enterprise level and explore areas of further development for future research. Introduction A common definition of gamification is the application of game elements in non game contexts (Deterding, 2011) At the heart of gamification is the objective of getting the desired behavioral response by appealing to the players motivations. A repeatedly used approach is to use the scoring elements used in video games and use them in a different context. Though the term is relatively new, this concept has been in application for centuries in the form of frequent flyer loyalty programs for customers, enterprise leader boards in the sales and customer care divisions. However, in recent years the concept has gradually seen an increasing no. of applications within the enterprise. Some of the examples are listed below Intranet The SAP community network is an internally used community network (intranet) where leader boards for domain experts in every domain is maintained Productivity Enhancement Call centers are using gamification techniques to improve representative performance by making use of leaderboards, levels, virtual badges and immediate feedback. The danger could be that it could be used as a tool to constantly monitor and pressurizing them. Efficiency Enhancement Efficiency enhancement is about improving general skill level of employees and not just the work related to their job. Helping employees deal with their emails is an example. Companies use gamification elements such as progress bars, virtual points and feedback on time spent for emails to help them deal with this. Seriosity is another company that has created a virtual currency around the emails. This helps employees decide which mails to deal with first and decide the urgency of the emails they are sending out to other employees. Knowledge Management Application called WhoWhatWhere is an enterprise collaboration system where consultants are encouraged to share information about what they are working on thereby making it easier for consultants working on similar projects to get in touch with them and seek help Innovation The UK Dept of Works Pension created the Ideastreet, essentially seen as a trading platform for ideas. Employees put forward ideas which have a inherent stock listed price associated with them. Other employees have the option of buying or selling these stocks so that a few of the ideas have a much higher market cap than the others. This has proved to be a well performing solution, with the no. of new ideas being implemented increasing by the tune of 54%. Recruiting and Onboarding Gamification is also being used for recruitment for certain managerial positions using online simulation games that depict real life scenarios and test the decision making skills of the players. This competition leads to a pool of best players who are then considered as potential candidates for the company. All the above mentioned examples of enterprise gamification and gamified systems in general, can be broadly classified according to what user motivations they cater to, which could be intrinsic or extrinsic motivations. The concern with gamified systems that are heavily extrinsically focused such as the one currently employed in call centers, is the long term negative impact that most organizations are not aware of. This is something that shall be addressed in detail in subsequent sections in this paper. Organisations that offer gamification platforms for employee engagement are growing in developed countries. Bunchball is currently one of the biggest which offers Nitro as a plugin gamification application to Salesforce. The Indian enterprise market however, is currently largely untapped and presents huge opportunities for the same. Most Indian employees find the current performance appraisal systems in most organizations highly inefficient and unsatisfactory. The current efforts of the HR professionals to improve employee seem to fall short with workplace morale and productivity running lower than desired. Taking these factors into consideration, this paper looks to propose an enterprise gamification model for improving intrinsic workplace motivations and the performance appraisal systems currently in place in Indian organizations. Theoretical Background What are Games? A formal broad definition applicable to all forms of games proposed by Zimmermann Salen, 2003 says that A game is a system in which players engage in artificial conflict, defined by rules, which result in a quantifiable outcome. However, what this definition lacks is the notion of a feedback system. The feedback system can take the form of points, levels, progress bars and serves to quantify the progress made by the user, how close/far the user is from the goal and provides motivation to keep on playing. In addition to this is the concept of voluntary participation. Be it indoor games such as monopoly, social games, alternate reality games to the most popular sports played today, voluntary participation requires that each one plays the game willingly, accepting the rules and goals of the system with the freedom to enter and leave the game whenever desired. This ensures that the artificially created challenging environment is not found threatening and can be experienced as a playful, safe and enjoyable activity. All these characteristics of the definition of a game are important and are modelled by Dignan in the figure below (Dignan, 2011): A definition of a game (Dignan, 2011) What makes Games so Engaging? Before we delve further, it is important to explore what is it about games that is so engaging and why it seems to be the answer to current workplace engagement and productivity issues according to us. An important research conducted by McGonigal to explore how playing games leads to human happiness has answers to this question. According to McGonigal (2011) studies have actually shown that people are at their happiest when doing hard work at the borders of their skill level. Only when people are continuously challenged according to their skill levels and continuously receive feedback on their work will they have a sustained engagement, otherwise they will end up getting bored.C:UsersmicaDesktopFlow.png This is also explained well by a central model for the appeal for video games the concept of flow. According to psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, people feel best when they are neither underchallenged nor overchallenged but at the right level of skills. And as people learn with time and repetition, challenges have to increase to keep up with growing skills. The research goes on to say that most of the traditionally considered relaxing activities such as watching TV, are actually mildly depressing. She argues that this is because companies often fail to continuously challenge employees at the right level in a structured way without giving them frequent feedback. In short, it goes on to proclaim that The Opposite of Work is not Play, it is Depression. Empirical studies also show how the responses that games elicit are very similar to real life emotions, if not the same. Even if the reward might be growing more crops in Farm Ville, the reward though purely fictitious elicits an emotional state that happens to be no different from a real life scenario. To summarize there are multiple dimensions to games that cater to different needs of the players and have been segregated as follows When it comes to the workplace, at a fundamental level we could conclude that the work in itself not the demotivating factor for workers in an organization. It is more so the lack of one or more of the above needs that results in a decrease in their morale over time. For example a rigid company structure could end up stifling the workers need for independence or autonomy. More so, the absence of a continuous challenge that gives employees an opportunity to master their skills and a more regular, robust feedback system that helps them figure where they stand is currently missing. A gamified system would serve the solution for this through continuous feedback on their current skill set and quantifying their scope of improvement. A choice provided to the user at various stages to set their own goals would mean that their need for autonomy is also served to. Throughout this paper, we would henceforth look at building a framework considering these factors. Using Games as a Form of Behavioural Change Dr. BJ Fogg of Stanford University developed a behavioural model which described three elements Motivation, Ability and Trigger that are necessary for behavioural change to occur. In essence, the greater the user motivation, more the probability of hard to do abilities being performed. Similarly if the motivation for the user is very low, the ability demanded to perform the task must be also very low ie easy to do. C:UsersmicaDesktopFogg.png Even when both motivation and ability are sufficiently high to reach the threshold, a trigger becomes necessary to be able to change the user behaviour. The model is intended to help designers identify what stops people from performing the intended behaviour. Game elements go a long way in incorporating this model to change user behavior in the following manner 1. Game dynamics use positive feedbacks in the form of points, scores, progress, social status etc which help in improving user motivation. 2. Through training and master of skills, they increase the perceived ability of users by making difficult jobs simpler and more manageable. 3. Game dynamics place triggers in the path of motivated users at the optimal level of user ability to trigger a behavioural change. Gamification for Motivational Design At the core of the gamification system is tapping into the right motivational factors that drive users. Since the motivators vary for different people, game systems needs to be customized accordingly. Broadly speaking, motivators can be divided into extrinsic and intrinsic motivators. Extrinsic motivators are driven by external rewards such as the desire for power and status. Intrinsic motivators are driven by the inherent joy of doing the task itself instead of using any external reward mechanisms. Such motivators at the workplace might include autonomy, mastery, curiosity and feeling connected to the overall cause of the company. Traditionally, most enterprises have essentially made use of extrinsic motivators to motivate employees and enhance productivity. But studies show that excessive focus on external rewards results in users losing their intrinsic motivation to perform the task that previously existed, which is not in the best interests of the user itself. If the organization starts using gamification based upon external rewards and then stops the rewards program, it will be worse off than when it started as users will be less likely to return to the behavior without the external reward (Deci, Koestner Ryan, 2001). Good gamification practise however emphasizes on intrinsic motivators to help them succeed in work life. Hence the concept of meaningful gamification takes it a level further through gamified designs, with the user at its centre, appealing to his/her intrinsic motivations and with a focus on providing user benefits without any adverse effects in the long run. Reiss Sixteen Motivators (2001) Despite the many theories in the field, few are based on actual scientific research. One of them was Steven Reiss who in his book Who am I comes up with 16 categories of motivators which are collected in a statistical manner using which he tries to explain human behaviour. Among the 16 we found only 11 categories to be relevant to the workplace as the rest were found to be related to basic physical needs such as consuming eating which is outside our scope. The 11 categories are presented below with a brief description of their desire profile and segregated into intrinsic and extrinsic motivators accordingly: The dominant motivators among this list would be different for the various profile segments, hence research would be necessary to figure out the most important motivators at work for Indian employees which will form the core of the gamification framework to be designed. Research Methodology A quantitative approach was adopted by means of a survey to capture the relative importance of the 11 Reiss motivators found to influence human behavior in a workplace environment. The sample size for the survey was 36 individuals working in different organizations across India. Respondents were asked to rate the importance of the motivators for them on a Likert Scale. After their responses were captured, a regression was run to establish a relationship between the respondents levels of motivation in a workplace and the various motivators. The relative importance of the motivators was then established by comparing their standardized coefficients. The process then led us to the motivators that were considered most important by Indian employees in the context of a workplace environment. C:UsersmicaDesktopTempg.png Research Methodology Process Leading to the Gamified Framework These dominant workplace motivators and barriers to adoption insights would then be used to design the appropriate game mechanics and come up with the final gamified system as shown in the figure above. Findings Analyzing the results of the survey showed us that Indian Employees are motivated by factors such as curiosity, independence,social contact status and not factors such as competition or power. This implies that the gamification structure that is created needs to have game layers that focuses on group tasks and freedom of players involved in the game. The game layers also need to emphasize on increasing ability since curiosityis an important motivator for Indian employees. On the basis of the results obtained we make the approach to design a gamified framework. Since there currently does not exist a fixed method of developing a gamified system we have given our recommendations based on these results and the theoretical construct described above. Choosing the Right Game Mechanics The biggest problem with todays workplace is the absence of any structured goals that provide an optimal challenge, real time feedback of ones own performance and how the contribution has an impact at an organizational level. In this context game mechanics serve the purpose of increasing either ability or motivation to accomplish the desired behaviour for the employees through real time feedback in the form of points, progress bars etc and other components. Since the major motivators in the Indian workplace context have been found to be curiosity, social contact status and independence/autonomy, care must be taken to see that different game mechanics are in place to cater to these motivations. Hence the following proposition consisting of three different features that serve a different purpose, appropriate mechanisms would be used 1. Personal Efficiency Model For Curiosity Autonomy Motivators To-do lists and progress bar map to track the employees personal goals such as time management, emails cleared, level of project completed etc both to increase ability and motivation. This is done by assigning progress to create incentives for players to complete goals they set for themselves. A sample diagram depicting the same is as given below C:UsersmicaDesktopPicture1.png Sample Visual Map of Individually Set Goals and Status of Completion To cater to the employees motivation for curiosity, a set of interactive quizzes and challenges of different levels testing his/her knowledge in the domain would be necessary. The levels would be of adaptable difficulty (such as in GMAT exams), based on the performance of the worker in the previous level. Customisation components to choose personal goals in different competency areas. This provides workers with a feeling of independence and autonomy. 2. Online Stock Market Model For Status and Social Contact Idea Resource A game where individuals come up with innovative ideas in their domain which are listed on the virtual stock exchange. Employees can now buy/sell these ideas using in game currency so that each idea now has a market cap too. Resource Management using in-game currency as extrinsic rewards for good idea suggestions 3. Peer Recognition and Social Features For Social Contact and Status Community features to encourage unexpected positive feedback from peers and improve motivation when individual contribution levels have reached. A similar interface to elicit positive peer feedback on a software called Rypple is shown in the figure. Social Badges to cater to the players need for appreciation from colleagues and flaunt their status C:UsersmicaDesktopwork.jpg Social Recognition Feature Employed on Rypple.com Designing a Gamification Framework There are three major frameworks and models included in this paper for the purpose of coming up with a gamification framework. There are Dignans Game Frame which describes all the necessary components of a behavioural game (Dignan, 2011), Dr. Reiss Sixteen motivators which describes what motivates the player (Reiss, 2001) and lastly Dr. Foggs Behaviour model which examines how a new behaviour is realised (Fogg, 2011). Dignan describes a behavioural game as made up by ten components which together design the framework Game Frame (Dignan, 2011). The Game Frame allows the designer to look at any behavioural game from the top down, understand its essential parts and see how they together make up a game. In this paper, Dignans Game Frame is used as a structure to describe the situation. This structure needs to be filled with information based on our research. However, to design how the game is played and the available tools for the players, one needs to know what kind of behaviour that is intended (outcome). Before designing how it is played, what currently inhibits the intended behaviour (the obstacles) were investigated from the survey results. The characteristics of these obstacles are then categorised in terms of lack of ability or motivation with Dr. Foggs behavioural model to investigate what kinds of mechanics that will be most efficient to promote the new behaviour. We now take each element of the Dignans frame to explain the overall gamification framework for our system. The Objective and Activity The objectives of this recommended gamified framework will be to encourage employee innovation at the workplace, improve the intrinsic motivation of the employee in alignment with the organizational objectives and to put in place a more robust performance feedback system. Reinforce good habits and real-time recognition and rewards. Recognize achievement publicly or give real rewards in the discount coupons. The main activities of the game will involve entering logs, giving feedback to peers and/or submitting ideas apart from setting custom goals. The Player Profile Based on the results that we obtained using our research, an attempt was made to create a profile for players involved in the system i.e. Indian employees. Since curiosity, status, Independence and social contact proved to be the most important indicators, certain inferences were drawn about the behavior of Indian Employees: Peer recognition and appreciation by fellow employees were significant Learning and development of new skills acts as a powerful motivator Employees remain driven if given the freedom to decide their own goals and pace to achieve those goals Team activities or tasks that involved the organization as a whole generates a lot of interest . Outcomes The last frame in Dignans game frame is the outcomes that are generated along the way of the game. The short-term outcomes should primarily be to get individual feedback on everyday activities at work. The long-term outcomes are to get a clearer picture of the career progress, improve employee morale through feedback. The outcomes of the game are to receive immediate individual feedback about the organizational impact of their contributions and to visualize the career progress. Defining the Feedback Cycle A significant feedback would be in the form of the community-like feature where employees can give feedback on each others personal goal statuses. The motivational factor will be increased by community-driven feedback and intangible rewards. These rewards should be in terms of in-game currency, and badges for reaching a certain personal achievement. One important part of the competence model is that the employees estimate their own performance. In terms of the feedback, this means that the employees need to estimate the value of their own performances in this system as well. Hence, when logging an activity, the employee needs to estimate how valuable that particular action is. Defining Resources and Skills Resources are the drivers of game using which a player moves forward within a game. The resources in the stock based platform for ideas is the virtual currency that players are allotted to buy/sell. Since the currency allotted to players is limited, players must ensure that they allocate it judiciously for ideas that they think will work best. In case of the Gamified feedback system, resources are the badges and points that act as motivators and used to display appreciation for ones efforts. Skills are specialized abilities one that puts to use in a behavioral game and can be categorized as physical, mental and social. Our gamified set up requires players to use their mental skills for generation of ideas and continuous learning and social skills that help individuals get their ideas to be popular and well traded. Triggers Certain activities work very well as triggers. For example simple activities like sending notifications to employees that tell him of his weekly performance in a domain vis-Ã  -vis another employee who is working in a similar domain could act a trigger for the employee .Notifications could also tell the employee of his weekly performance over his/her last weeks performance .The direct comparison is such cases could help employees set the pace for the rest of the week. Transparency Should an employees performance be revealed to other employees? It is a question that needs serious consideration. Often employees do not like the comparison that comes with the sharing of another employees progress and such comparisons could prove to be fatal. An example would be a gamification system based on leader boards employed by Disney for its laundry workers. The real time sharing of information about a workers performance and the continuous comparisons hampered employee performance and created a sense of nervousness amongst employees. On the other hand sharing information is an integral part of the feedback mechanism that allows one to comment and receive feedback on ones progress.A possible solution to the problem would be to let the employee decide by giving him the choice to reveal his/her personal information to whomsoever they want. System Limitations The suggested gamification system has its own strengths and weaknesses. One of the most obvious thing that needs to be ensured is long term engagement. Gamified setups are designed to achieve both short term and long term objectives and therefore needs to be continuously developed and maintained to ensure that players dont get bored. Emphasis must lie on increasing ability of the players and changing the motivational elements within the structure which involves bringing in new game elements and tweaking existing game mechanics Another limitation of a stock market like setup for Ideas is that there comes a time when stocks might be traded due to their association with people and not with ideas. There is an inherent danger of the system becoming a personality driven platform rather than a platform being idea driven. The other danger which has already been mentioned is that of a player getting too involved in the game and restricting his concerns to achieving a higher stock price for the ideas selected by him/her and not the ones that can bring a change. Finally there is the question of participation. Games require voluntary participation from all its players. A platform meant merely for ideas that does not fall within the purview of an employees personal responsibility may not encourage players to voluntarily participate. Employees may however be encouraged by their superiors to part of such a set up but this runs the risk of an employee engaging in the system with not much interest. Any social game requires participation and lack of interest to participate can prove detrimental to the setup. Ideas of System Future Potential and Further Development Even if the suggested game layer attempts to promote each activity by adding motivational elements, a big focus on increased ability has permeated the selection and design of the game mechanics. To achieve a greater impact, organizational elements at the workplace need to be included in the system so that in-game rewards have a clear connection to the consultants career. One step in that direction would be to incorporate projects as part of the game layer. That would allow log entries to be linked to specific project entities and the connection between the system and what the consultant actually do will be clearer (instituting a more relevant feedback loop). It would also create a good way for project leaders and management to give feedback. The down side, and the main reason that it is not proposed, is that it would bring an additional dimension, raising the commitment and time needed to use the system. There is also great potential in adding team based mechanics into the system. These could be project based teams or made up teams. There are many examples showing that the social component in team-based activities is a powerful way of affecting behavior. Dedication takes time but enables more ways to create relevant feedback loops, awards more strongly connected to the consultants professional situation, in-game currency that can be spent in various ways, team-based structure and challenges etc. It is all a question how deep the gamification system is allowed to permeate through the organisation. Another important aspect that needs to be considered before the implementation of a gamified system is to identify how it will impact the skill level of employees. Employee skills can be classified into -a) Core skills i.e. those skills that all employees in the organization are expected to have, b)Unique skills i.e. skills that are unique to an individual and c)Future skills i.e. skills that an employee would like to have in the future. A gamified set up works best in situations where employees can put to use their core skills to be part of a team-based activity for the greater organizational good or in situations where individuals can develop future skills as part of their personal responsibility. While it is imperative that organizations look closely towards data, employee behavior and organizational culture to create a gamification structure that can best support its objectives; it must take steps to ensure that an employee remains motivated to fulfill his responsibilities and does not get lost in the game.

Comparison of Hinduism and Judaism

Comparison of Hinduism and Judaism It is of great importance when comparing religions to take a careful consideration on fundamental beliefs and rituals each religion engages in. this gives and aids in understanding each religion quite clearly. A comparison enables analysis of disparity among different aspects of a religion as it relates to another religion. In this paper, a comparison of Hinduism and Judaism will be analyzed where a comparison of the beliefs of life after death and prayer/worship will be looked at. Judaism is a monotheistic religion and one of the first religions. The faith sorely believes in the reality of one God, who made a covenant, agreement between Him and the Jews. They were promised to be given provision so long as they obeyed the rules and did not deviate from the rules. The rules were originally written in two stone tablets and are known as The Ten Commandments, this rules and regulations are supposed to govern the interactions between man and man, and man with God. Jews do not try to convert other members of other religions as they regard themselves as specially and purposely chosen by God. Unlike the Judaism, it is extremely difficult to categorize Hinduism as either polytheistic or monotheistic because of the fundamental faith in the Universal spirit. Hindus believe in several gods and goddesses; but they are all reflections and dimensions of one Supreme Being Brahman or the Universal Spirit. Hinduism holds true that all in the universe is cyclic. The world has be en created, sustained, and destroyed many times. The god presents himself in three forms: Brahma, who created the world, Vishnu, who sustains and Shiva, who destroys the universe and begins the cycle again. Hindu people generally worship Vishnu and Shiva. Vishnu is said to have a kindly nature and is thought to try to protect the wellbeing of humanity. The god descends from heavens to earth in a physical form on every occasion a cataclysm faces the cosmos or if humankind needs consolation and guidance (Linda, 189). On the other hand Vishnu is exceptionally drawn in with humanity, Shiva is detached from people. He is from time to time reflected meditating alone. He has immense supremacy and is further than the parameters of good and evil. He saves man by removing mans sins. Judaism as well as Hinduism has faith that God is omnipresent and omnipotent; He is the creator, the protector and the destroyer. The Sustenance of the humanity on the earth simply relies heavily on the will of Go d and nothing ever moves without His doing. Prayer/worship is intertwined in the Hinduism and Judaism lifestyle. Prayer is the way of communication and worship (devotion) with God. Prayer is seen as an essential and innate act of relating with the gods. Judaism and Hinduism prayers are usually said in the morning, afternoon and evening. Prayers are basically used to call upon gods or diverse supernatural powers, for the interests of the people as individuals and as a community. Hindus use prayer books. Perhaps the most powerful Hindu prayer books are the Vedic hymns. During the utterance and recitation of the prayers the sounds and content of the prayer must be observed and a great stress is laid on the mode and process in which they are recited. Its believed that when a prayer is not properly chanted or the syllables arent pronounced correctly it could bring harm and may not lead to the intended purpose. Provided the Vedic mantras are chanted in the appropriate way and in accordance to a specific rhythm its believed they cont ain alluring mystical command to summon supernatural beings. The prayers praise the virtues and potencies of various gods and goddesses in order to seek favors from them. During public ceremonies the mantras are chanted loudly whereas there are some mantras, principally the private mantras which are meant to be kept undisclosed. The rules of Hinduism also stipulate that mantras should not be disclosed to those that are religiously lame and therefore unqualified. Deep devotional songs and dances accompany the prayers. In the spiritual realm of a Hindu worshipper a prayer has a greater implication. Incessant recitation of gods name is believed to lead to cleansing of the mind and internal transformation. It is seen as the most effective way of developing a close association with God and realizes the inner self. Puja is a daily ritual done in a sacred corner in a worship room of the home it keeps the Hindus aware of their family gods and mindful of their duties as individuals. Puja inv olves three steps: The first is seeing the family deity (darshana). A small statue or picture of the god is placed in the sacred spot. The second step is the worship of the god, or puja. The worshiper offers the god flowers, fruits, and cooked food (bhog). The third step is retrieving the blessed food (prasada) and consuming it (Van, 11). Prayer in the Judaism consists: Shacharit in the morning, Minchah and Maariv, in late afternoon and evening. On the Sabbath, there is an additional service, Mussaf, added on to the morning. One prayer is essential to each devotion service, morning and night, weekday, Shabbat, and holiday: the Amidah the Standing Prayer, which is also known as the Shmoneh Esrai, the Eighteen blessings, or the Silent Devotion, its a key prayer in many services, and it is the declaration of faith, Hear, O Israel! The Lord is our God! The Lord is One! (Van, 21). Its generally accepted that prayers should be recited privately and in solitude but sometimes Judaism encourages prayer in the company of others and for this basis Jews often try to come together to pray in public. Prayer is just like a second part of a person life, a daily diet. In that way, one comes to be peaceful speaking terms with God, who, in turn, becomes accessible, almost a dialogue partner. It is the peak experience of the prayer servi ce, emphasized by taking three steps backward to withdraw symbolically from your surroundings and three steps forward to symbolically enter the presence of Almighty God. It is recited silently, standing, and occasionally bowing (Linda, 190). Unlike the Hinduism where prayers are directed to gods, supernatural spirits and goddesses Judaism prayers are directed to God alone. Worship in both religions involves a strong observance of rules and guidelines in dressing, diet and general lifestyle as a way of maintaining external purity. The outer purity is perceived to be important in inculcating purity. Afterlife entails those beliefs held about life after an individual has died (Fisher, 156). Judaism and Hinduism believe in life after death. Jews have the suggestion of Heaven as their afterlife, they hold that if they have done right in the life they lived on Earth, and then they shall spend eternity in Heaven with their God. The Hindus accept as true that you are reincarnated until you reach the Brahma. Hindus believe in Karma which is the belief that if you do good things, then good things shall happen to you and vice versa (Selwyn, 19). When you die your final death in Hinduism, you reach the Brahma where the excruciating sequence of regeneration is finally ruined. Hinduism assumes the eternal reality of a universal spirit that guides all life on earth. A piece of the spirit called the atman is trapped inside humans and other living creatures. The most important desire of the atman is to be reunited with the universal spirit, and every aspect of an individuals life is governed b y it. When someone dies, their atman may be reunited, but most usually is reborn in a new body. A persons caste membership is a clear indication of how close he or she is to the desired reunion. While many differences are found among the doctrine and beliefs of life after death between these two religions some similarities also do exist, like how they have certain rules that their followers must obey to make it to heaven for the Judaism and Niverna for the Hinduism (Selwyn, 26). Each of the religions has guild lines and regulations that tell you what you should do to be a good person and appease their God or gods. They teach people how to live a correct life, and how to be kind to others while they are living on the Earth. Both religions believe in a final quiescent position for the spirit and both faiths hold high moral demeanor for their members such as benevolence to the underprivileged and altruistic sense of duty. Both religions also have sacred texts that are fundamental to their religions and provide instructions pertaining to relationship between people and God, and amongst people themselves. Also instructions pertaining to lifestyle, worship and performance of ritua ls are found in the sacred books. The religions have sacred locations where pilgrimages are undertaken by the faithful. Work cited Van Voorst, Robert. Anthology of World Scriptures. 7th Ed. Boston: Wadsworth Cengage, 2010: 11-25. Fisher, Mary Pat. Living Religions. New York: Prentice Hall, 2007: 151-159. Linda Woodhead, Paul Heelas. Religion in Modern Times: An Interpretive Anthology. New York: Willey Blackwell, 2007: 188-191. Selwyn Gurney. The Worlds Great Religions: An Anthology of Sacred Texts. Phoenix: Dover Publishers, 2009: 10-31.

Russian Composers Essay -- essays research papers fc

  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Russian composers are often mentioned in history as the most influential in the world. With style unlike any other, Russians are able to capture mood through a unique ability to capture exactly what they feel. Exactly how the Russians are able to do this is unknown, though through this, the greatest composers have turned out to be Russian. Tchaikovsky, Rachmaninoff and Shostakovich are all able to write and portray the most detailed feelings and moods, and it is to them that we owe the advancement of all music. Tchaikovsky is one of the most beloved composers in history. An inspired craftsman of melody, orchestration and tonal color, he wrote in an astonishing variety of musical forms, from symphonies to ballet scores to concertos (Sadie, 94). His life and work are the stuff of legend, and his personal struggles are almost as well recorded today as the methods by which he created his music (Osborne, 77). He was born in Votkinsk, Russia in 1840, and was initially trained in music by a French governess (Mason, 70). At ten, he moved to St. Petersburg, where he studied law and enrolled in jurisprudence school (Ewen, 72). After his graduation in 1859, he briefly held a job as a government clerk, but soon threw out that career in favor of his musical pursuits’ (Osborne, 77). Tchaikovsky entered the St. Petersburg Conservatory in 1861 and studied composition with Anton Rubinstein, then the most famed pianist and composer in Russia. Graduating in 1856, he found a position as a teacher at the Moscow Conservatory and began to write minor overtures, quartets and a larger symphonic work (Sadie, 94). In 1876, Tchaikovsky entered into a relationship, which would dominate most of his career as a composer. A wealth widow, Nedezhda von Meck, had heard that Tchaikovsky was in financial straits and without ever meeting the young musician, commissioned several works from him with pricey fees attached. Soon, she put the composer on a fixed allowance, which covered his basic living expenses, and this arrangement lasted for the next thirteen years, without the two ever meeting. By Madame von Meck’s generosity, Tchaikovsky was able to devote his energy to composition without hardship. Madame von Meck deserves the gratitude of every music lover who cherishes the work of this great composer (Mason, 70). In 1877, Tchaikovsky was married to Antonia... ...ed years. What do they all have in common? There is no documented reason, except that the all are Russian and both Rachmaminoff and Shostakovich probably studied Tchaikovsky works and this possibly influenced their own personal style. These composers should be considered the greatest composers as their music lives inside everyone alike, young and old, every race and nationality and it shall continue as we continue to honor these three great composers, Tchaikovsky, Rachmaninoff and Shostakovich.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   WORKS CITED Ewen, David. Composers of Tomorrows Music. New York: Dodd, Mead & Company, 1972. Mason, Daniel. The Romantic Composers. New York: Macmillan Company, 1970. Osborne, Charles, ed. The Dictionary of Composers. New York: Taplinger Publishing 1977. Sadie, Stanley, ed. The Norton Grove Encyclopedia ofMusic. New York: W.W.Norton & Company, 1994. Salzman, Eric. Twentieth-Century Music: An Introduction. New Jersey: Prentice-Hall, 1974. Williams, Edward. â€Å"Shostakovich, Dimitri† World Book Encyclopedia: World Book,1992.

Being Careful about Putting Animals in Captivity Essay -- essays resea

Animals in captivity. It has been an issue since the first zoo was opened. Many people are for and against it. I think that there are many pros and cons to having them in captivity. The main issue in the world is how do you possibly make it as close to the animal’s natural environment in captivity. It is almost impossible. You can’t start building sea world all over the ocean and hope the animals show up. I live in Agoura hills, big for horse property. At my grandma’s we have three Arabian horses. The thing is that they are wild animals, and need to do what they do best, RUN. We have three acres of pasture they can run around and play and be horses. Now let me tell you, they love their treats. Animals love to learn. I see it in our horses every day. They are happy. They get kept clean, fed, ridden, and get treats. Wild horses live on hundred of thousands of acres. If you take one of those and train it they love it. They like being fed, cleaned, and get treats. Now a lot of people would say that is different than keeping a killer whale at sea world. In some ways it is and in some ways it isn’t. The whales at sea world are always happy and love attention that they receive. I watched a program on the discovery channel a while a go. It was about the marine animals that were in captivity. Those whales loved being trained and getting a reward of fish when they do something correct. Now look at the con of this situation. Is this anything close to what they would get in nature. No. They do not get the mass oceans to swim. They do not get the freedom to live. But in some ways it is better. The have some of the most amazing trainers, vets, and marine experts in the world on call 24/7. Now I am not saying that we should take ... ...est care and get sick or die (Keiko in Mexico) So you see their a lot of pros and cons. Another point people bring up is the mental stability of the animal. There have been cases that have occurred where the animal snaps and attack the human is usually in captivity. If some idiot goes walking in the Brazilian forests and get attacked by a jaguar that’s his fault. The elephant that attacks humans is usually the humans fault. Either the elephant is cooped up to long and snaps or the trainer did something that made them snap. They are wild and this is the risk. Usually the animals don’t want to hurt the trainers or keepers. This is the risk of having wild animals in shows and captivity. If you can take the risk that is fine but you must make sure all the pros are met and cons kept in mind. They are wonderful creatures and they want to please, but there is a limit. Being Careful about Putting Animals in Captivity Essay -- essays resea Animals in captivity. It has been an issue since the first zoo was opened. Many people are for and against it. I think that there are many pros and cons to having them in captivity. The main issue in the world is how do you possibly make it as close to the animal’s natural environment in captivity. It is almost impossible. You can’t start building sea world all over the ocean and hope the animals show up. I live in Agoura hills, big for horse property. At my grandma’s we have three Arabian horses. The thing is that they are wild animals, and need to do what they do best, RUN. We have three acres of pasture they can run around and play and be horses. Now let me tell you, they love their treats. Animals love to learn. I see it in our horses every day. They are happy. They get kept clean, fed, ridden, and get treats. Wild horses live on hundred of thousands of acres. If you take one of those and train it they love it. They like being fed, cleaned, and get treats. Now a lot of people would say that is different than keeping a killer whale at sea world. In some ways it is and in some ways it isn’t. The whales at sea world are always happy and love attention that they receive. I watched a program on the discovery channel a while a go. It was about the marine animals that were in captivity. Those whales loved being trained and getting a reward of fish when they do something correct. Now look at the con of this situation. Is this anything close to what they would get in nature. No. They do not get the mass oceans to swim. They do not get the freedom to live. But in some ways it is better. The have some of the most amazing trainers, vets, and marine experts in the world on call 24/7. Now I am not saying that we should take ... ...est care and get sick or die (Keiko in Mexico) So you see their a lot of pros and cons. Another point people bring up is the mental stability of the animal. There have been cases that have occurred where the animal snaps and attack the human is usually in captivity. If some idiot goes walking in the Brazilian forests and get attacked by a jaguar that’s his fault. The elephant that attacks humans is usually the humans fault. Either the elephant is cooped up to long and snaps or the trainer did something that made them snap. They are wild and this is the risk. Usually the animals don’t want to hurt the trainers or keepers. This is the risk of having wild animals in shows and captivity. If you can take the risk that is fine but you must make sure all the pros are met and cons kept in mind. They are wonderful creatures and they want to please, but there is a limit.

Arthur Miller’s “Death of a Salesman” Essay

Who does not want to live the perfect life, the American Dream? Throughout Arthur Miller’s Death of a Salesman, Willy Loman is in pursuit of this Dream. Willy focuses on the idealistic American dream his entire life, associating it with financial success, an excellent reputation and being well liked. He makes victims of his wife and of his sons by subjecting them to mistreatment and deprivation of a strong male role model. According to the Webster’s Dictionary a victim is one who is subjected to oppression, hardship or mistreatment. Willy puts far too much pressure on his elder son Biff, not enough on his younger son Happy, and he makes a â€Å"yes-woman† out of his doting wife Linda. Willy’s ideas of the American Dream outweigh the realistic trials and tribulations that need to be overcome in order to achieve the Dream. The American Dream is one of success and Willy views success as being well liked. He wants Biff to be well liked and hence puts much pressure on him to be popular. During Willy’s flashbacks to 1929, Willy encourages Biff to be a good football player rather than a good student. Willy pays so much attention to Biff and puts so much pressure on him to succeed and to be well liked that Biff does not have anything concrete (such as marks) as a backup. Willy believes that even though Bernard can get the best marks in school, that he will not survive in the business world because he is not well liked (Miller 33). Biff wants to live up to his father’s dreams. He wants his dad to be proud of him. Before the football game at Ebbets Field, Biff promises â€Å"to break through for a touchdown,† just for his dad (32). As a teenager, and right up until he catches Willy cheating, Biff does everything he can to get into Willy’s good books. He is the star football player and popular enough to order his friends around: â€Å"Fellas! Everybody sweep out the furnace room!† (34). Then, all of a sudden, things change. After finding Willy and Miss Francis together, Biff comes to the conclusion that his father is not as important as he makes himself out to be: â€Å"he [Mr. Birnbaum] wouldn’t listen to you [Willy]† (120). This is the turning point in Biff’s life because he becomes a victim of Willy’s actions. At this point, in a hotel room in Boston, Biff gives up on his life and the dream of success when he decides that he is â€Å"not going there [the University of Virginia]† (120). Willy has ruined his son’s chances at getting a good education and a  successful career. Willy puts so much emphasis on Biff’s success, that he neglects Happy. As a result, Happy feels the need to follow in Willy’s footsteps in order to gain the level of respect and attention from his father that is given to Biff. Happy feels this neglect as a teenager and feels the need to satisfy his dad: â€Å"I’m losing weight, you notice, Pop?† (33). Happy wants to be popular and well liked in order to get some positive attention from Willy. Even as an adult, Happy holds on to the need to impress his dad and to keep him content with his life. Happy wants Biff to lie to their father about seeing Bill Oliver because Willy â€Å"is never so happy as when he’s looking forward to something† (105). Happy wants Willy to be pleased with Biff because that would keep Willy happy and could stop him from having flashbacks and talking to himself. Success in business is one of Willy’s goals for the American Dream and thus, Happy wants to be a businessman because he is seeking his father’s approval. While in pursuit of the American Dream, Willy needs someone to support him and to agree with all of his decisions. Linda is there for him throughout the hard times. She guides him by being supportive of his decisions and even supports his lying. She knows that he goes to Charley to â€Å"borrow fifty dollars a week and pretend[s] to [her] that it’s his pay† (57). Linda allows him to feel important, at least in front of his own family. Not only does she defend him in front of their sons, but she also tries to keep the peace between her husband and Biff. Willy doesn’t appreciate this as he should, turning on her when she tries to get him to listen to Biff, telling her † don’t take his [Biff’s] side all the time† (65 ). Later, when she tries to comfort him, he tells her to â€Å"get to bed† (134). She endures him yelling, â€Å"stop interrupting† (64) without breaking down, only to ask him whether she â€Å"should?sing† (68) to soothe him. He has trained her to take his harsh words and act like nothing has happened. Linda is the glue that keeps the Loman family together as she tries to get Willy and her sons to speak calmly and peacefully and to see the best in each other. Ultimately, the Loman family is affected by the American Dream gone awry.  Willy Loman is very focused on this dream and his family’s success in business. Consequently, he mistreats his sons and his wife, making victims of them. His sons do not have a strong male role model who they can look up to during their maturing years. Instead, they have a daydreaming, failing salesman for a father, whose sole objective in life is to live the American Dream. He has also trained their mother to agree and comply with everything he says. The American Dream implies happiness and for Willy Loman that happiness is to die the death of a salesman. We have to wonder how the idea of death can bring happiness to someone’s life.

Dialectical Pluralism on Metaphysical Philosophy

Metaphysics is the branch of philosophy resultantable for the study of embodyence. It is the buns of a experience base ingest. metaphysical Philosophy is marked out by two types of head. The low aims to be the roughly general investigation possible into the record of reality be there principles applying to all(prenominal)thing that is real, to each(prenominal) that is? if we abstr turn of events from the particular nature of existing things that which distinguishes them from each other, what can we know active them merely in virtue of the circumstance that they exist?The second type of inquiry actualiseks to uncover what is ultimately real, frequently take outering answers in sharp contrast to our free-and-easy experience of the world. The two inquires are not the same, since roughlyone quite unworried by the possibility that the world might truly be otherwise than it appears might palliate be engaged by the interrogatory of whether there were any general trut hs relevant to all existing things. But although different, the questions are related one might substantially expect a philosophers answer to the first to provide at least(prenominal) the underpinnings of their answer to the second.Aristotle proposed the first of these investigations. He called it first philosophy, sometimes also the acquaintance of being ( more(prenominal)-or-less what ontology means) tho at some point in antiquity his books on the topic came to be cognize as the metaphysics from the Greek for after infixed things, that is, what comes after the study of nature. This is as very much as we know of the origin of the word. Metaphysics is the foundation of philosophy. Without an explanation or an interpretation of the world around us, we would be helpless to strike with reality.We could not feed ourselves, or act to preserve our lives. The degree to which our metaphysical worldview is define is the degree to which we are able to labor the world, and act acc ordingly. Without this firm foundation, all knowledge becomes suspect. Any flaw in our view of reality will make it more difficult to live. Dialectical Pluralism, in philosophy, possibleness that considers the universe explicable in footing of umteen principles or composed of many ultimate substances.It describes no particular placement and may be embodied in such opposed philosophical concepts as materialism and idealism. Empedocles, G. W. von Leibniz, William James, and Bertrand Russel are among the philosophers generally considered as pluralistic. Pluralism is opposed to monism and dualism. A complex office involves a plurality of ontological kinds, and so invites the name pluralism. If some form of pluralism is true, and then none of the standard isms stands a jeopardy of coming to grips with the actual relationship amongst mind and physical world.The orthodox mind-body debate, attempting to wring a complex situation into bare(a) moulds, would be forever doomed to fai lure. The quaternary assumptions dictate a certain circumscribed range of basic options, and eventually every option in that range would project been tried stagnation and regressive palpitation would then be the natural result. In the long run, participants would have no pickaxe but to embrace anomaly or admit defeat. Dogged insistence on working within the orthodox role model would result in little but baroque encrustations of irrelevant detail.In short, if pluralism were true, we would expect to see exactly the kinds of problems that have in event been afflicting the mind-body debate. This constitutes a prima facie case for rejecting the quartette assumptions and embracing a pluralist orientation. Pluralism is absolutely reconciled with a hard-nosed realism which divorces the question of what kinds of mental entities in fact exist from the question of how we talk about people and what concepts we may have.A realist pluralism of this kind does not chastise to read ontologi cal commitments directly off our current language or concepts. It is perfectly willing to allow that family unit discourses and kin group concepts are inadequate to the ontological twist of mental reality. Distinctions built into ordinary ship canal of talking need not fall deep ontological distinctions, and there may be ontological differences among kinds of mental entities to which folk talk is entirely oblivious.