ShantanuT01/DACTYL-Pretraining huggingface dataset:
One of the most notable aspects of today’s geopolitical realities in the world is that fact that, as time goes on; China grows increasingly more powerful, in the military, economic, and political senses of this word, which in turn causes much concern in the West. After all, the process does pose an undeniable threat to the ability of Western countries to continue enjoying an undisputed dominance in the world. The fact that this threat is being actualised, as we speak, can be illustrated, in regards to what happened to be the essence of China’s current foreign policy. In my paper, I will explore the validity of this suggestion at length, while promoting the idea that the manner, in which China acts in the arena of international politics, is reflective of two historical experiences that this country has had in the past – the so-called Opium Wars (1839-1860) and the Tiananmen Square protests (1989). The reason for this is that, in the eyes of China’s leaders, both of the mentioned events leave no doubt about the legitimacy of the specifically Realist theory of international relations (IR). Today, China’s foreign policy can be best described as being closely affiliated with the main principle of the Realist paradigm of IR. According to it, regardless of what happens to be the officially adopted political/social ideology in a particular country, this country never ceases to be preoccupied with ensuring its ‘place under the Sun’, as its main priority. What it means is that the actual international agenda of just about any country on this planet is being solely concerned with: a) political/economic expansion, b) maintenance of a political stability within, c) competition with other states. 1 The main indications that, while conceptualising its geopolitical stance, China remains thoroughly observant of this specific provision are as follows: China continues to provide increasing amounts of economic/financial aid to the Third and Second World countries, while investing in these countries’ infrastructural projects. According to Heinemeyer, “China has lent more money to other developing countries over the past two years (2010-2011) than the World Bank… Loans of at least $110 billion were signed, in contrast to the World Bank with around $100 billion”. 2 It is understood, of course, that China does not act in such a manner, because of some philanthropic considerations, on its part, but because it helps this country to expand the range of its economic influence in the world, which in turn is expected to empower China geopolitically. Since the year 2004, China began establishing the so-called Confucian Institutes, throughout the world, the number of which is now estimated to account for 480. Officially, the purpose of these institutes is to popularise Chinese culture and to help people in other countries to learn Mandarin. As Szczudlik-Tatar noted, “The (Confucian) Institutes operate under the auspices of the Ministry of Education… The objective of the Institutes is to promote the teaching of Chinese abroad. The Institutes also o
Twilight Saga Book series and movies versus the Vampire Diaries and True Blood Introduction and background The twilight saga is a series of films based on romance and fantasy produced by summit entertainment. The series is based on some very successful series of novels by an American, Stephenie Meyer. The twilight series of novels has undergone various dramatic twists and turns over time by first being rejected by a number of agents prior to publishing. On production in paperback, it went ahead to be in the bestsellers top list before becoming the worlds number one. The series of movies has been able to gross well over $1.7 billion all over the world. At the moment it consists of three motion pictures. The first release, Twilight came out in November 2008 followed by The Twilight Saga: New Moon in November 2009. The second release broke the records at box office being the biggest opening day in history by clocking a gross of $72.7 million. The third release was The Twilight Saga: New Eclipse. It was released on 30 th June 2010 being the first in its series to be released in IMAX. The production of the movies had started sometimes in 2004 by paramount pictures though there was a bit of difference in the content and the one in the novel. This led summit pictures to acquire the rights of production where it grossed an opening day of $35.7million through Twilight . Following this, they instantaneously announced the production of New Moon having obtained the rights to have the production line of the novels earlier in the same month. There is a projection for the release of Breaking Dawn in two parts which will begin by November 2011 and the last part in November 2012. Major products The Twilight series of movies has been produced alongside other movies by summit entertainment LLC. Twilight was the first success story for summit after making a worldwide gross of $408,773,703. Another movie by the same company is “ knowing ” which made a worldwide gross of $182,492,056. Some other movies are the hurt locker, next day air, astro boy, sorority row and the hit new moon which bagged $295,114,155 in the US and a total of $709,711,008 in total all over the world. Twilight is the first movie in the series. It is based on love between two diverse creatures, that is a vampire and a human being and the various issues which ensue fro that relattionship. This movie opened with a gross of $35.7 million and up to now has made US$ 384.9 million. The DVD for the movie has additionally sold $181 million. The second release in 2009 was “The Twilight Saga: The New Moon”. This movie set various records in the theatres after its release. Some of the records were broken by the Eclipse which is its sequel as both clocked the highest opening day in the domestic history of the United States (Fradkin, 2009). A tabulated show of the reception of all the films is as below.
Consumers differ in their desires on issue of labeling of genetically modified foods. Those having less defined views are of the perception that labeling should be mandatory while those with stronger viewpoints see labeling as nonessential. A clear understanding of the genetically modified foods in terms of their risks and benefits could help determine the preferences of consumers for genetically modified foods and GM labeling policy. Radas, Teisl and Roe (336) try to justify the varying viewpoints as regards genetically modified foods and their labeling. Hypotheses have just been made without any validity being tested. The authors say that industrial leaders are for the idea that consumers accept genetically modified food because the public depict a tendency of consuming them while academic records indicate that human beings are more concerned with the GM technology, have not decided about GM foods and desire to have GM food labeled. The authors are compelled to conduct this study on GM foods so as to establish if human beings see labeling as something important as regards genetically modified foods. Also, there are varying theories on GM foods making it complicated to interpret reported attitude levels even though consumers would have otherwise made clear distinctions. An example is that early studies indicated lowered prices as the greatest benefit of GM foods. Recent studies have explored scenarios where individuals derive non-price benefits from GM foods which may include derivation of higher nutritional value. Recent studies have proposed that since consumers use the risk to benefit ratio when considering GM foods, consumers should be segmented according to their evaluation of GM foods because of their heterogeneous nature. The objective of this article is to establish if consumers vary in risk/benefit evaluation as regards GM foods and how these variants in evaluation relate with desires for GM labeling policy. Consumer judgment on GM foods is based on limited information, thus it is biased as it does not factor all the risks and benefits of GM foods. This article points out that from the results of the study, there are three different kinds of consumers; the “risk avoiders”, “the risk dismissers”, and the “balanced and interested” group which was the largest segment and had no strong commitment to risk taking or risk dismissal. This segment was found to contain the least educated individuals and had less income. The study also indicated that this group was stricter as regards to GM labeling and demanded a lot of information which is important to them as they are still undecided on GM foods. Thus with presentation of the right information they can make an informed decision on whether GM food is good for them. The “balanced and the interested” group also had strong feelings regarding risks though they also found benefits of GM foods quite important. With the balanced and interested being the largest group, providing the right information can help distinguish their preferences as far as GM food is concerned. It can be deduced from the above facts that human beings lack a clear understanding of GM foods as regards
Introduction Tribal recognition in the United States of American government refers to the process through which a particular tribe is recognized by the federal government, or to an individual person being given membership to a tribe that is recognized by the federal government. Currently, there are over five hundred tribal governments that are recognized by the federal government in the United States of America. The rights of the tribes are recognized by the United States of America government and the government gives much support to these tribes’ sovereignty and their own self-determination. The tribes have a right to set up legal requirements needed for one to become a member. More so, these tribes may make their own government, enforce criminal and civil laws, impose a tax, issue licenses and control activities and guard their territories. The limits to their powers are the same limits that are encountered by the states. For instance, states, as well as tribes, are not allowed to make war, participate in relations with other countries or make up the money. To gain recognition from the federal government by a tribe, several criteria must be met by this tribe. The government regards it as essential for a group to prove its descent from one historical tribe and the tribe’s members should be in a position to identify their ancestry to rolls of the tribe together with other records that give the account back to the year 1900 (Appalachian Voice, 1999: Para. 6). This paper is basically going to look at the Indian tribes in regard to their recognition by the federal government. The Recognition of the Indian Tribes Archaeologists suggest that Indians occupied the region along the Lumber River, which the Indians themselves referred to as Lumbee, fourteen thousand years ago. (Encyclopedia of North American Indians, 2007: Para 1). The Indians got their name from this river and thus were referred to as the Lumbees. The Lumbees originated from the Cheraw and Siouan-speaking Indians and these people have lived in the area that is currently known to be Robeson in North Carolina since the eighteenth century. The start of the struggle by the Lumbee Tribe to gain recognition from the federal government can be traced back over a hundred years ago to the year 1888, at a time when a petition was signed by tribal leaders, forty-four in number, looking for help for their people especially for providing funds for the tribal schools. After the petition being referred to the Department of the Interior by congress, the tribes’ request was turned down by the commissioner with the claims that the agency did not have enough resources. Since 1899, various bills have been brought to Congress to recognize the tribe. The North Carolina state gave the Lumbee Tribe various names in recognition of acts of the tribe basing on the local historians’ representat
Outline This paper answers three questions namely what are the essential differences in the views of Jomini and Clausewitz? What is the applicability of Clausewitz’s two metaphors describing his ‘wonderful’ trinity; which do you think is more applicable to modern strategy and why? And how would Clausewitz explain General Douglas MacArthur’s maxim that “there is no substitute for victory? The paper outlines basic differences between the views of Jomini and Clausewitz in terms of applicability of views at the levels of war, their different target audience, differences in the mechanics of war, and differences in opinion on the philosophical basis of war. Next, the paper looks at the Clausewitzian metaphors of the chameleon and three magnets in relation to the ‘wonderful trinity’ of emotion, chance, and rationality and its relevance to modern strategy. The paper concludes that the metaphor of the chameleon was still relevant as the war in the modern era presented itself in varied colors but its basic character remained the same. The second metaphor regarding the three magnets was concluded to be not as relevant as modern strategy pays the least attention to emotion, lesser attention to chance, and is predominantly focused on rationality; hence the metaphor has little relevance. lastly, MacArthur’s maxim that there is no substitute for victory in war is explained in Clausewitzian terms of war being a continuation of state policy by other means, concept of total victory, the annihilation of enemy forces, and the non-specificity of war having to be ‘Just’. Classic Security Philosophers: Pre and Early 19 th Centuries What are the essential differences in the views of Jomini and Clausewitz? Ans. Jomini’s focus was more on the operational aspects of war strategy in that he concentrated on bases, lines of operation and objective points. 1 Jomini espoused the geometrics of warfighting where ‘objective points’ consisted of ‘points of maneuver’ and ‘geographical objective points’ 2 . Clausewitz on the other hand paid less importance to geometrics in the conduct of overall strategy. Clausewitz’s focus was concentrated more on the higher strategic levels of war and statecraft . His famous maxim “war is a continuation of state policy by other means 3 ’ has been the staple of grand strategy philosophy of nations down the ages. Jomini’s fundame
Executive Summary GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) has been facing numerous management challenges since its inception in 2000. This has culminated in huge court fines and a reputation on the verge on destruction. Additionally, the company faces huge operational challenges despite vast resources spread across the globe. Many pundits attribute this crisis at GSK to weak leadership. This paper looks into management structure at GSK with the aim of dissecting the type of leadership style employed. In light of this dissection, the author recommends the most effective leadership style to steer GSK to the next level and to enable it to handle previous management misjudgements. The author finds that Transactional Leadership style has been prevalent at GSK for quite some time. This leadership style is attributed to managerial pitfalls at GSK. The author recommends use of transformational style of leadership. Transformational leaders are dynamic, creative, proactive, and have the ability to save the company from itself. While Transformational Leaders show sensitivity to people’s needs, develop visionary objectives, and take risks after taking the right precautions, transactional leaders shy away from risks and employ short cuts to amass short-term gains. Transformational leaders, the author finds out, are agents of change and have exceptional skills for winning the support of their followers. Experts recommend that companies that are on the verge of collapse should employ transformational leaders to help the situation. While the author concedes this is the best style, he takes note of the need to use all styles interchangeably in the management’s structure of GSK. Katz model is one such interview tool that the author recommends. The company should also revise the process of identifying immeasurable leadership qualities. This will improve the image of GSK and put the company in the path of reputational and managerial health. Introduction GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) is a British multinational pharmaceutical company headquartered in Brentford, London, with operations in USA’s Research Triangle Park, North Carolina. GSK has been implementing different leadership strategies to overcome the impact of competition in the global pharmaceutical industry. This has been imperative to the company since it has considerably optimized the population of its global clients. Nevertheless, GSK’s inability to implement leadership strategies appropriately has resulted in a series of operational challenges. Formation and Global Expansion GlaxoSmithKline was founded in the year 2000, following the merger of SmithKline Beecham and GlaxoWellcome. The following year, GSK purchased Block Drug for US$1.24 Billion. In 2006, the company acquired CNS Inc. a US-based consumer healthcare company, for US$566. Following the CNS Inc. acquisition, GSK increased its range of products and realized extra sales of £81 million. Additionally, in the same year, GSK invested £8 million in a joint venture with
Introduction Every person has a set of beliefs in life that determines their actions and decisions. These beliefs are either constructive or destructive depending on the effect they have on the believer’s outlook on life and the world. People develop beliefs from many sources. For instance, many people take up values that are instilled in them by their parents and guardians who act as role models and mentors. However, as they grow and develop their mental faculties, they start doubting and reviewing certain beliefs. Their life experiences, friends, and exposure to reality are some of the factors that contribute to such shifts in belief and attitude towards diverse occurrences in life. Change in one’s belief system affects every aspect of life because the process of developing new viewpoints and turning them into convictions is critical. The conviction that destiny is determined by external factors is a common belief that many people hold. In my childhood, I believed that external forces such as society, the environment, family background, and the economy are the determinants of one’s destiny. However, different life experiences disabused me of that viewpoint later in life. Currently, I accept as true that destiny is predominantly determined by internal factors such as personal responsibility, discipline, grit, will, self-control, purpose, and persistence. Main body My perspective changed when I joined a high school where students are expected to be more responsible and accountable. Working on assignments, managing finances, finding passions and hobbies, creating relationships, resisting peer pressure, and managing time are critical factors that determine success in high school. I realized that external factors such as rules, school policies, teachers, and peer pressure had little influence on my life. Factors such as self-control, discipline, focus, and willingness to work hard had a greater effect on my life. The view that destiny is determined by external factors was largely due to a lack of experience and knowledge regarding the recurrent dynamics of life. As a child, I had no means of testing the validity of the belief because my parents provided for all my needs. However, reality dawned on me after joining high school. I had to start taking care of myself
Introduction The term expressionism originated in France in 1901 to describe the paintings of the artists around Henri Matisse. These artists had a unique way of making their work which involved modification of the depictions of nature according to their own subjectivity. The virtual arts had increased the use of abstract characteristics in their creations. Expressionism was introduced to other parts of the world from the year 1911. It was influenced by the German aesthetic philosophy of the late-nineteenth century. Expressionism involves transforming the world according to the inner desires. It is an active and euphoric creation, not just inert reception. (Colquhoun 2007). Expressionist Architecture According to Colquhoun, expressionism is a permanent and recurrent occurrence in modern architecture. Adolf Behne was the first person to relate architecture with expressionism. Modern architecture aims at developing structural intensity which is based on expression, dynamics and rhythm. This also includes the use of new materials like steel, glass and concrete. In expressionism there is unsettled tension between the analytical approaches and emotional approaches whereby the attitudes and feelings are projected into technology. (Colquhoun 2007). Modernism and Modernity Modernism is a movement in music, literature, drama and visual areas which disallows the use of the old standards of the nature of art. This included how it should be created, used and its meaning. Modernism emphasizes on impressionism and subjectivity in visual arts and writing. Modernity is a set of political philosophical and ethical ideas which establish the basis of the aesthetic aspect of modernism. It is essentially about rationality and rationalization i.e., creating order from anarchy. The assumption is that the more rationality, the more order there is and the more order in society the better it will function. It is assumed that modern societies try to eliminate anything that is not orderly or that may upset order. Modernity in architecture and industrial design was in response to the technological and societal changes. The new machines forced the architects to think, portray and participate in the world. Many modern architects maintain that they do not follow a specific style in design. Modern design is interested in exploring new material, refusing the historical precedents and simplifying the designs by reducing the ornaments used. (Klages 2007). Expressionism had been widely rejected in the 1920’s. Lukacs and other Marxist intellectuals had rejected it as dissolute. However various ar