Religion Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words - 10

Religion - Essay Example Khan tackles this question as a public figure in the United States. She talks about growing up in America and how for a long time all she wanted to do was fit in. She turned her back on her faith and on the teachings of prophet Mohammed. Eventually, she began to see a Allah-shaped hole in her life and rediscovered her faith. But she felt that Muslims should reach out to other faiths in their community in order to share ideas and concepts and to help bind the community together. She has done this through her interfaith dialogues in New York. She has worked hard to bring disparate people together. For her, Mohammed teaches that we are the children of God and that the divisions sometimes generated by faith are false ones that can and should be overcome. Of course, this takes a great deal of work, so Khan must work tirelessly to promote her message. Islam is a soft thing, not a hard thing, and violence must be removed from the faith. People need to have a better understanding of the fait h, Khan believes. Part of being a Muslim involves your own personal faith, but part also involves sharing with others what Islam is really about. After the terrorist attacks in New York, Khan began to really pick up this thread and do her best to show people that Islam is a religion of peace not of war and that people should learn more about what it really means. Some of the best ambassadors, she thinks, are artists from the community rather than fire-breathing imams. This softer side of Islam, the artistic side, is what she believes is sometimes lost in the mix. So she does her best to communicate through a number of interfaith dialogues with people of different religions and persuasions. 2. Why are there different interpretations in Islam, and what is your opinion about these different interpretations? - Support you opinion with relevant material and avoid critical or offensive remarks. Islam is a very large religion with many

The Body in Ancient Art Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

The Body in Ancient Art - Essay Example The statues play a vital role in the study of the glorious past of the different cultures. Greek civilization is among those ancient civilizations, which is depicted through Roman sculpture. The Roman sculptures gained incredible popularity in around 1 to 200 years B.C. It was basically influenced by the Greeks. Nude statues which are the Greek style became trendy due to their innate beauty. They were supposed to be the symbol of love and affection for somebody. All these statues are vivid and they represent their own time. When God created man there might be a certain figure before his vision. And he shaped man according to that vision. The divine father devoted himself entirely and put all efforts to create an extraordinary and unique creation. The body of human being is an amazing dream of the heavenly father, which HE manifested in the form of the human body. This marvelous creation of the Lord has been appreciated by the human being whom HE formed. Human body has been the captivating subject for the poets, philosophers, writers, painters and the sculptures. When God created the first man and first woman, i.e. Adam and Eve, they were living their life in a very innate form and that is nudity. Here let me give an example of a very huge nude statue of Bahubali which is located in a small town of southern India called Shravanbelgola. The statue is somewhat similar with the Greek mythological sculpture, though its aim is different and that is asceticism, total isolation from the worldly pleasures. The giant nude statue of Bahubali is an unusual specimen of sculpture. Unlike Indian philosophy, Greek idealism is to gain maximum worldly pleasure. Whatever aims and reasons might be, the stripped body of a man has been the interesting subject for the painters and the sculptors. This nudity is the quite original form of the humanity which appealed to the great painters and sculptors. The faction of male nudity was a pervasive

The Actual Cause Of The Hundred Years War

The Actual Cause Of The Hundred Years War The actual cause of the war was between France and England over who was the heir to the throne. (Which Throne?) After the death of Frances Charles lV, both France and England claimed the crown because Charles had left no direct successor. Edward lll, King of England, asserted that he in fact had a superior claim to the throne because his mother was Philip the Fairs daughter. This then, was one of the primary causes of the Hundred Years War. The economic conflict was clearly another cause of this great war. England had major financial interest in the wool industry in Flanders and France supported the Scots in their wars against England. England had much better troops, a more efficient government and thousands of English soldiers were more than willing to campaign in France, and get rich in the process. The Hundred Years War is broken up into three stages or phases. The first lasted until the signature of the Treaty of Bretigny in 1360(1337-1360). The second phase lasted from 1360-1413 when Henry V became king, and the third phase lasted from 1413-1453. The first phase was marked by English victories in France and alliances with French feudal lords. The second phase was marked by English inactivity and French raids keeping The English on the defensive. The third phase began with major and dramatic English victories but ended in defeat and Englands nearly complete withdrawal from France. The entire war is just a series of on and off warfare against France and England, from(1337-1453). The war was nothing more than sieges, raids, sea and land battles, and long periods truce. The counts of Flanders were vassals to the king of France, but the English saw Flanders as their major center for their foreign trade due to its cloth manufacture. The English also controlled southern France after Eleanor of Aquitaine married King Henry ll in the mid 12th century. Therefore the French were allies with the Scots to control a northern stronghold, called the Auld Alliance. The two countries also fought over the English channel and the north sea. In 1337, King Phillip Vl of France moved his troops to the English control of Aquitaine. In 1340, the English won a major naval victory at Sluys. King Edward lll then declared himself King of France. In 1346, the English forces defeated the French at Crecy, and then in 1347, the English captured Calais. In 1350, John ll became King of France after Philip Vl died. In 1356 when the English defeated the French at Poitiers King John ll was captured. He died in 1346. IN 1360, the Treaty of Bretigny was signed, giving the English complete control of Aquitaine and ending the first phase of the long war. As the war dragged on the English lost land and money causing the English peasants to revolt in 1381. After the Treaty of Troyes in 1420, King Henry V was recognized as heir to the French throne. Then in 1427 after both Henry V and Charles V died Henry Vl was heir to the throne despite being an infant. After the war, the English lost focus on controlling continental territory and began to strengthen its maritime supremacy. The most significant result was that the nobility and secular leaders were busy fighting each other at a time when western Europe desperately needed leadership. Each side had their advantages. Henry V was a master of siege warfare, allowing for major English victories. Towns ere encircled by protective forts. Attack methods included blockades, digging tunnels, and catapults used to hurl rocks, flaming arrows, and filth into the air. The siege cannon, used after 1400, led to the end of the castle and fort. Sea battles involved 20-50 castle like ships. Generally, the English won on the sea. French had a population around 16,000,000 far richer and populous than England. At one point, the French fielded an army of over 50,000 compared to the Britains who maybe mustered up 32,000. In almost every engagement the English were outnumbered. Britains most successful strategies were avoiding pitched battles, engaging in quick, profitable raids, steal what you can and destroy everything else. The use of the English defensive positions was the use of the longbow. The arrows could penetrate an inch of wood or the armor of a Knight at 200 yards. A longbow could also be fired more rapidly, and was affective than a crossbow. Henry landed in Normandy intending on taking Calais, having 2,000 infantry and 6,000 archers and some primitive cannon. His drive was blocked by many heavily armored French knight who obviously forgot the lessons of Crecy and Poitiers. The war brought about dissimilar results for the French and the English. Both countries saw an increase in their monarchial rule, it was due to different reasons. England couldnt hold on in France and effectively rule the burden was too great. U nlike France, over the course of the war England also experienced a strengthening of the parliament. The French on the other hand experienced a increase in monarchial authority due to the peoples recognition and complaints with the feudal systems shortcomings, including its limitations in fighting and protection of the serfs. The eventual expulsion of the English and the consolidation of the kingdom made France one of the greatest counties during this time period.

Misery and the American Dream in The Great Gatsby Essay -- The Great G

"No— Gatsby turned out all right in the end. It is what preyed on Gatsby, what foul dust floated in the wake of his dreams that temporarily closed out my interest in the abortive sorrows and short-winded elations of men." When F. Scott Fitzgerald wrote these words in The Great Gatsby in 1925, he perfectly described the human struggle of the time. This was, by no means, accidental--for Fitzgerald wrote meticulously and very rarely did he leave a line unrevised. No— Fitzgerald knew what he was doing; he was, in two sentences, criticizing American society like no one else had. Oh!, and what that "foul dust" turned out to be: the foundation of our morality, our greatest aspiration and our heaviest of fetters, the American Dream. It is this ideal--which our society seems to have internalized--that renders all humans, not just Americans, miserable and empty. What makes The Great Gatsby the greatest American novel is not the lyrical, charming, and rapturous nature of Fitzgerald's prose style; no-- it is its tenacity, the courage of Fitzgerald to stare look America in the eyes and tell her that she is wrong, that she leads a meaningless life, that she must abandon her innate instincts in order to b e truly happy. It is this honesty, as is epitomized in Nick, that makes Gatsby such an amazing statement and such an enduring work of art. It is impossible to analyze The Great Gatsby without paying close attention to the context in which it was written. The Great Gatsby was written in between World War I and The Great Depression. The former created by an appetite for power and the latter created by an appetite for pleasure. It was this unappeasable appetite for pleasure that The Great Gatsby criticizes. Jay Gatsby is the greatest vi... ...te in protest, he was a rebel and criticized American society with tenacity. Gatsby was a miserable man. He is in despair, his love is fleeting him and he cannot find happiness without Daisy; he is condemned to be miserable-- all dreamers are. Gatsby criticizes materialism. Gatsby has known Melancholy for too long perhaps, to make himself happy. There is no stronger image in my mind than that of Gatsby walking around New York City, trying to find purpose, trying to find a new way to live, an alternate route toward happiness. Gatsby does not want to "be a root in the dark" but he cannot convince himself that he will be happy. Gatsby's aspirations are too idealistic for him to ever be happy, for him to rid his existence of misery. Gatsby, until he is satisfied, will walk around his existence utterly miserable; his mind will never romp the Earth like the mind of God.

Microsoft Marketing Plan

Microsoft Corporation 1. 1 Executive Summary The purpose of this article is to highlight the current marketing strategies of Microsoft Corporation and also to identify the lacking areas where Microsoft should develop new strategies to with stand with the throat cutting market challenges. 1. 2 Mission Statement Empower people through great software anytime, anyplace, and on any device. 1. 3 Our Values As a company, and as individuals, we value integrity, honesty, openness, personal excellence, constructive self-criticism, continual self-improvement, and mutual respect.We are committed to our customers and partners and have a passion for technology. We take on big challenges, and pride ourselves on seeing them through. We hold ourselves accountable to our customers, shareholders, partners, and employees by honoring our commitments, providing results, and striving for the highest quality. (Microsoft Corporation, 2010) 1. 4 Company Profile At Microsoft, everyone one is motivated and insp ired every day, by how their customers use their software to find creative, solutions to business problems, develop breakthrough ideas, and stay connected to what's most important to them.Microsoft run business, in much the same way, and believe in their five different business divisions, which offers the greatest potential to serve customers. They are: a. Windows ; Windows Live Division: Includes the Windows product family, and is responsible for our relationships with personal computer manufacturers, as well as online software and services through Windows Live. b. Server and Tools:Software server products, services and solutions, include: Windows Server operating system, Microsoft SQL Server, Visual Studio, Silverlight, System Centre products, Forefront security products, Biz Talk Server, and Microsoft Consulting Services. c. Online Services Division: Consists of an online advertising platform with offerings for publishers and advertisers, and online information; offerings such as Bing and the MSN portals and channels. d. Microsoft Business Division: Includes the Microsoft Office suites, desktop programs, servers, and services and solutions; Microsoft Dynamics; and Unified Communications business solutions. . Entertainment and Devices Division: Consists of the Xbox video game system, including consoles and accessories, Xbox Live operations, Zune digital music and entertainment device; Mediaroom, mobile and embedded device platforms, Surface computing platform, and Windows Automotive. We are committed long term to the mission of helping our customers realize their full potential. Just as we constantly update and improve our products, we want to continually evolve our company to be in the best position to accelerate new technologies as they emerge and to better serve our customers. (Microsoft Corporation, 2009) 1. 5 SWOT Analysis . 5. 1 STRENGTHS: i. Microsoft is one of the huge reputable global brands currently in the market. It is recognizable for couple of reasons, it was known to be one of the largest software developers and it’s developed a customer base of near about thirty million people all around the world. ii. It has built its brand image on the successful development of its computer software namely the Windows series of products. iii. Brand is everything, Microsoft is one of the best established, highly visible and healthy IT brands in the World, and holds a very loyal set of passionate customers that advocates and uses the brand.By loyal customers, it means that Microsoft retains old customers as well as recruits new ones too. iv. The corporation is alienated in several central offices inside the United States and all around the globe making the distribution channel and development of its products easily approachable to every consumer. It helps the company to launch new products and services across the globe at the same time. 1. 5. 2 WEAKNESSES: i. Microsoft lacks a solid client age and service support centre on the in ternet.This issue has to be rectified in order to overcome since problems and bugs with regards to their products must be fixed rapidly to attain efficiency. The lack of a customer service centre would erode the integrity and quality perceived by costumers on Microsoft products. ii. Generally Microsoft products have compatibility issues with different hardwares and softwares platforms manufactured by other companies, hence this sort of compatibility issue would then limit the ability of the customer to buy all products made by Microsoft since it would affect the stability and performance of a computer. ii. Microsoft does not share the programming codes of its softwares making modification difficult if bugs and other malfunctions are detected by programmers not affiliated to the company. 1. 5. 3 OPPORTUNITIES: i. Microsoft has expanded its market share by entering into the Chinese market by producing computer programs based on the Chinese language and giving discretionary authority t o the Chinese government to censure and to eaves drop on emails, documents and webpage. ii. Microsoft has also diversified its products.During the past years the company has ventured into fields such as game design, game developing and publishing and the production of game consoles such as the Xbox. iii. The company has also branched out to provide free email and news services to its customers. It has also developed softwares and computer programs that are vital in organizing business spreadsheets and data. 1. 5. 4 THREATS: i. Microsoft has created a set of example for all existing and forthcoming software developing houses to follow the same footsteps for such a drastic success. ii.Early competitor of Microsoft in the operating systems industry is the Linux program which was developed by independent programmers. this program gave very though time to Microsoft due to of its user friendly and can be obtain free of charge. iii. Because the company is diversifying in various fields it started to compete with the products being produced by such companies who have been experts in their parent industry. The company might eventually lost its battles in making its products competitive when put side by side with products made by corporations which has established heir name and reputation to the customers. iv. Microsoft is losing its market share steadily, due to increase in competition and diversified products offered by their competitors. A recent publication (Thinking Made Easy: SWOT Analysis of Microsoft) 1. 6 PESTEL ANALYSIS APESTEL analysisis a set of tools or an investigation of the important factors that are chronologically changing which influences on a businessexternally. PESTEL is abbreviated as Political, Economical, Social, Technological, Environmental ; Legal impacts.Politically influences on organisation like abrupt changes in government, inconsistency in their policies. Economic changes relate to changes in the macro economical conditions such as unstabl e economical conditions, rise in people standards or fluctuations in interest rates, etc. Social changes relate to changes in society (either globally or locally) such as changes in lifestyles e. g. more women going out to work, changes in customers buying behaviours. Technological changes relate to the entrance of new high tech inventions and ideas such as the development of the robotics and internet as business tools.Environmental changes means the impact on production oriented organisation with the environmental policies like all textile manufacturing units were transferred to Asian markets from Manchester UK due to its adverse effect on the environment. PESTEL Analysis a. Political Microsoft is highly affected by the political scenario there in USA. Microsoft is becoming one of the giant companies globally. It has created huge monopoly across the globe. US government is now trying to break up Microsoft into several different companies so that to maintain equal competition throug hout the market.One of the other reasons in splitting up Microsoft Corporation that it is becoming so much stronger that it could be a threat for even US government in near future. b. Economical Being such a versatile company and the market share they have, Microsoft plays major role in bringing up the country economies they have set-upped their businesses. According to an independent studies that the economies of the country shoots up three times when Microsoft starts businesses in that country. c. SocialMicrosoft has an edge on all of its competitors that socially more people are inclined towards Pentium platforms so naturally it helped a lot to have more market share rather than others. Market segment of Pentium users is considerably very huge but it would be threat for Microsoft that they are losing its share with an average pace, due to their unsatisfied customers. d. Technological It was a decade earlier that Microsoft was the leader in producing high tech softwares and gadget s, but now they are getting tough competition from global phenomenon brand ‘Apple’.No doubt Microsoft adopts and market new technology as soon as it could be but still i e. Environmental Microsoft follows very strict policies to make sure that the company remains in full compliance with international environmental regulations and the specifically environmental requirements of each country/region where they are doing their business. Microsoft reduces waste disposal, where possible through source reduction and recycling at company facilities. All waste safely and responsibly handled and disposed of properly. f. LegalMicrosoft is playing vital role in legal aspect of their pirated products like Windows and other softwares. They are trying their level best to reduce the usage of their pirated softwares. They are introducing different security features which may reduce the usage of pirated products. 1. 7 Porter’s Generic Strategies Michael Porter has proposed three ge neric strategies that provide a good starting point for strategic thinking; overall cost leadership, differentiation, focus and combination of all these three strategies is known as stuck in the middle.Microsoft is a versatile company it produces series of products and services which caters different market segments, and according to every particular segments they developed their specific strategy for different product segments. a. Overall cost leadership Microsoft’s has out scoured its major software houses towards Asian markets, that help them to develop efficient and yet low cost softwares with low overhead or manufacturing cost.The added benefit of companies going globally is that they get access to their local market, and one of the reasons Microsoft has established software house in India is to expand their Indian market share. b. Differentiation The other strategy which Microsoft is keep following since very early stages, is of their differentiated products and softwar es. With the launch of Windows the most user friendly and c. Focus Microsoft has narrow down its market segments, they identified the need of their customers and created segments within the segments.For example at first there was only one segment of computer games lovers but now Microsoft has narrow down this segment and created a separate gaming console for gamers called Microsoft Xbox 360. 1. 8 Implementation Plans As a marketing adviser, I would redefine the marketing structure by improving their segmentation, targeting and positioning strategies. Last year Microsoft launched Xbox 360 gaming console, it was segmented for kids to teens gaming needs and it was positioned as a complete home entertainment solutions which merges video gaming, internet and DVD playback.The Xbox 360 is the most robust and high tech gaming console in current market. Sony Playstation 2 is currently the market leader with almost more than 50% of the gaming console market share. The Xbox was launched the pr evious year and positioned as the complete home entertainment solution combine video gaming, the Internet and DVD playback. The Xbox is the most robust gaming console on the market, but faces stiff competition in its product category. Microsoft is trying its level best to become the market leader in this category by dethroning Sony.To accomplish this goal, Microsoft has to restructure its targeting strategy; specifically they should stick to a specific age group people so that they could focus their efforts on them. They should more focus on people aged between 16 to 24, due to the high tech device and this age group are very high gamers. This age group people are substantial knowledge how to use high tech equipment and themselves fascinated by the entire features Microsoft is offering. Secondly, these age group people are good source of marketers by influencing their friends and family circles by introducing them and flavouring them its joy.Considering various opportunities and cha llenges ahead, Microsoft must continue to narrow down their campaign specifically on the heavy male gamers, since this demographic category are usually trendsetters in the society and they are even very early innovators too. Microsoft should work out on the differentiation strategy, in the current market scenario Microsoft is the only one who is offering online and network gaming on their gaming consoles where as Sony and Nintendo are not offering such features, so Microsoft should invest more capital for marketing in such area which make them set ahead among their competitors.In the software development side, Microsoft is facing huge customers losses by one of its competitors namely OpenOffice, they are offering complete range of office softwares free of cost, thus giving very tough time to Microsoft Office software, in such critical situation my opinion would be going towards differentiated strategy.Technically Microsoft should develop such uniqueness in their Office software so t hat customers (majority of them are students) can’t think to adopt free softwares rather than paid one, customers should have high perception in their mind that paid must have great value rather than free one. This can be achieved if Microsoft creates a monopoly by creating incompatible extensions of Office which can only be viewed and edited on exclusively Microsoft Office. Bibliography Hollensen, S. (2004). Marketing Management.Illinois: Pearson Education Limited. Kotler, P. (2002). Marketing Management (Eleventh ed. ). California: Prentice. Microsoft Corporation. (2010). About Microsoft: Your Potential. Our Passion. Retrieved March 12, 2010, from Microsoft Website: http://www. microsoft. com/About/default. mspx Microsoft Corporation. (2009, December 4). Our Commitment to Our Customers. Retrieved March 12, 2010, from Microsoft Corporation Website: http://www. microsoft. com/about/companyinformation/ourbusinesses/business. mspx

Genetics Lab Report

Reshmi Radhakrishnan, TA: Jared Tues Rm 24 Experiment 6 Purpose: To analyze if diploid yeast strain heterozygous for ARG8 ADE2 HIS3/arg8 ade2 his3 on chromosome XV and TRP1/trp1 on chromosome IV irradiated with UV light underwent mitotic recombination to form homozygous recessive ade2/ade2 mutants. The ade2/ade2 mutant are selected then plated on different media to observe if the homozygous recessive mutants were due to mitotic recombination. Controls: If all the red cells grew on the CSM-Trp plates, than it would show that they are wild type for the TRP1 gene.All of the plates showed thick white colonies for the CSM-Trp plates. They should have been red because the ade2 colony streaked on the plate was red. They were still white because the adenine from the plate had not been exhausted. However, the cells are ade2- because they are red on all the other replica plates. The CSM-Ade plates are also a control. In order to ensure that the cells are ade2-, they would not be able to grown on this plate or have sparse red colonies. Because the cells have the dysfunctional form of the ade2 gene, they would not be able to survive with adenine present in the plate.Since YPD plate was the last replica plate, it was used as a control to make sure that the transfer was effective for all the other plates. Since red colonies appear red on all the other media plates, it is concluded that the transfer was effective. Results: Growth on the replica plating Plate| 1| 2| 3| 4| CSM-Arg| Red colonies| Red| Red| Red| CSM-Ade| Sparse Red| No growth| Sparse Red | Sparse Red| CSM-His| Sparse Red| Red| Red| Red| CSM-Trp| White| White| White | White| YPD| Red| Red | Red| Red| Conclusion: We plated the red colonies or sectors on CSM-Arg, CSM-His, and CSM-His to iscern the genotype of each colony or sector. Colony 1 is ade1 his3 because of the sparse red growth seen on the CSM-Ade and CSM-His plate. Colony 2, 3 and 4 are ade2. The colonies on the CSM-Trp plates were white but should have bee n red. They were white because they haven’t exhausted the adenine present in the plate. Many of the ade2 cells were also his3 because the recombination occurred between the ade2 gene and centromere. Since mitotic recombination is rare, the chance of double recombination is improbable so the cells would ARG8.Further Questions: i. Yeast can also exist in haploid form. So the ade2 his3 arg8 genotype is possible if there is only one copy of the chromosome and there is loss of the chromosome that was wild type for all the genes. ii. Red sectors in white colonies arise mitotic recombination, by loss of the entire chromosome containing the ade2+ allele, by a deletion of the portion of the chromosome containing the ade2+ allele, or by spontaneous mutation of the ade2+ allele to an ade2- allele. ii. Red colonies were ade2 before the first division on the plate. Red sectors arise from successive divisions after on the plate. Red colonies can also arise from loss of chromosome with the ADE2 allele, mutation of the ADE2 allele, or deletion of the ADE2 allele. iv. If it is a red sector, it is possible to be due to recombination. However reversion from ade2 to ADE2, cannot be distinguished from the white colonies because they look they same phenotypically.