ShantanuT01/DACTYL-Pretraining huggingface dataset:
The case of Lizzie Borden is considered to be one of the most gruesome during the 19 th century. The trial started in June 1983, during which Lizzie Borden was accused of murdering her father, Andrew Jackson Borden, and her stepmother, Abby Durfee Borden. At the end of the trial that lasted for several days, Lizzie was acquitted and gained certain recognition among people: some people still believed that she was a murder, and some people were sure that Lizzie had nothing in common with those terrible murders. Lots of literary works were devoted to that case, and Angela Carter’s piece of writing, The Fall River Axe Murders, is one of those literary masterpieces, which provide the reader with a chance to learn deeper the case and analyze it from several perspectives. Angela Carter underlines that Lizzie’s guilt was obvious, and Lizzie Borden made an attempt to create a kind of account of life in her household. But still, this author presents such an oppressive beginning and keeps the same style till the end of the story. By means of different evidences, Angela Carter represents both implicit and explicit arguments to prove that it was Lizzie Borden, who killed her father and stepmother, and even the weather served as reliable proof that Lizzie would be a murder. Angela Carter was one of the British writers, whose works were characterized by such issues like fantasy and sexuality. However, her The Fall River Axe Murders is not about sexuality and fantasy, it is about the real events, which happened at the end of the 19 th century, where the case of Lizzie Borden was concerned. From the very first lines of her story, Angela Carter tried to use evidences rather effectively in order to underline Lizzie’s guilt and participation in willful homicide. To my mind, all these evidences are more 1:10 than 10:1, because in spite of the fact that all the evidences, which could prove Lizzie’s guilt, were discussed and analyzed, and Lizzie could not do anything harmful to people, especially something like a murder. However, some of the evidences make me change my mind or, at least, pay to them my attention and analyze the situation from some other perspectives. First of all, from the very beginning, I realize that something not common for ordinary life should happen: “Hot, hot, hot. Even thought it is early in the morning, well before the factory whistle issues its peremptory summons from the dark, satanic mills to which the city owes its present pre-eminence in the cotton trade” (Carter, 131). I am always interested in and involved into discussions, which prove that the weather presages some changes. This is why the idea that something bad should happen, something that can burn the things, the mind, and the soul. So, I truly believe that weather condit
Introduction The term “the bottom of the pyramid” has gained prominence in the field of economics in recent past. As a concept, it is used to refer to the “largest, (but) poorest socio-economic” class at the bottom of the hypothetical pyramid used in economics to depict resource distribution (Gunther 9). Estimates of the number of people in the society who fall within this segment vary. The World Bank estimates that about 2.5 billion people globally fall under this segment (Gunther 9). These people, according to these estimates, these are the people who survive on less than $2.50 in a day (Gunther 9). The business world has been abuzz with this concept of “the bottom of the pyramid” given the sheer size of this market. Business analysts who are keen on formulating new business models that specifically target this population are the ones that use this term most of the times. They develop new business strategies using new technology to target this group of consumers (Karnani 6). They also refer to this strategy as the base of the pyramid model. Several writers with business inclinations have made this concept more popular by writing several books and articles on it. The books and articles exalt the potential market and the profits that business enterprises can make by targeting this market. The Fortune at the Bottom of the Pyramid by C. K Prahalad is such one book dedicated to this subject. This essay is going to review this book by Prahalad. The author will look at the organisation and structure of the book as well as the themes riding on the book. A critique of the book will also be provided along the way. C. K. Prahalad: A Brief Historical Overview Before embarking on the analysis and critical review of his book, it is important at this juncture to look briefly at the background of the author. With this background, the reader will have a clear picture of the kind of person that they are reading about in the paper, as well as their way of thinking. The background will create a link between Prahalad and the book within the mind of the reader. The late Coimbatore Krishnarao Prahalad was born on August 8, 1941, in Coimbatore region of Tamil Nadu (Viklund 9). He took after his father, who was an established Sanskrit scholar and a judge (Viklund 9). He graduated with a Bachelor of Science degree in Physics from Loyola College in Chennai. He is also a graduate of Harvard Business School, where he got his D.B.A degree in mid 1970s (Viklund 8). Before his death on April 16, 2010, this man was a renowned scholar and a professor at Stephen M. Ross School of Business at the University of Michigan (Karnani 7). He was a distinguished professor, and this means that his works at the time were taken seriously in the business world, and this continues today. Several works are credited to this scholar. This is for example The Core Competence of Corporation, which he co-authored with Gary Hamel, and Compe
Theorists and philosophers have been in existence since time immemorial. Some have successfully led the world abreast by coining very useful philosophies and are renowned to this day and age while some theories have been disputed and challenged over time. Among the famous philosophers and theorists of our generation who will be keenly looked at in this paper is Manuel Castells, the Spanish sociologist who is most credited for his major works in information society and communications research. Harold Innis is the Canadian professor who is most remembered for his works in communications theories. His works are considered to be in very difficult prose but nonetheless scholars view him as one of the most original Canadian thinkers who ever lived. Jürgen Habermas, the German philosopher is renowned for his philosophical works particularly in social theory and communication. Finally there is Karl Marx the German political theorist and philosopher whose works revolutionised 19 th century affairs in Germany. This paper will essentially look into the relationship between democracy, information, technology and society by comparing and contrasting the works of the four mentioned above. Harold Innis in his staples thesis is of the view that a society is developed as a result of what is common between all people. He claims that Canada came into being as a result of trade in basic commodities with Europe. It was through this trading that Canada’s cultural links with Europe were cemented. Harold attributes the development of strong institutions in Canada to the trade relations that were developed with the larger Europe region (“Harold Innis and the Staples Theory”, 2011). Karl Marx and Manuel Castells both are ardent respondents and believers of the European climate in which a complexity of influences is assumed to be the contextual background. They both react to social change in which their consecutive countries are overtaken by conservative forces. In this case Germany was overtaken by imperialists whereas Spain was under the influence of the fascist for a long period of time. In both these countries the conservative forces are similar in that they reduce the social freedom of their times through the triad of media forms, government controls and industry control. These were situated alongside other countries in Europe who were experiencing revolutions. The difference in both their views emerges in their interests, which are reveled from the concep
Max Weber believed that bureaucracy is the most important ingredient for functioning of a formal organization. The essential mix of power, authority, and bureaucracy helped such formal organizations to operate through complex technical relations and boundary spanning relations. Now, with the advent of the new business model, there has been a shift towards flatter, non-bureaucratic, informal organizations. The present interest of researchers lies in understanding the consequences of the post-bureaucratic management structure. Therefore, the essential functioning of a formal organization occurs through a seamless process of well-coordinated and controlled activities. However, with changes in external business environment, organizations tend to change their structure and design and evolve into a different form. This paper will discuss possible evolutionary structures for a formal bureaucratic organization. What is a formal organization? A formal organization may be defined as an institution where “collective effort is explicitly organized for specific ends.” (Blau & Scott, 2003, p. 223). These organizations may vary in size and complexity. One of the potent examples of such a formal organization is that of the army. These organizations are usually large, and larger they are, greater are the complexities involved. These organizations, also termed as machine bureaucratic organizations (Mintzberg, 1980), where division of labor is high with intensified specialization of work, formal information flow, usually in a top down manner, hierarchical authority structure, and a pyramidal organizational structure. The power or authority may or may not be centralized in such bureaucratic formal organizations (Mintzberg, 1980). Formal organizations have four types – mutual benefit organizations like unions, business based organizations like factories, service organizations as in social work agencies, and welfare public organizations like police department. However, one must remember that these large formal organizations are formed from the amalgamation of small simple organizations. However, there are other social processes that remain informally organized, and therefore become the reason for emergence of inner conflict within the organizations. The formal organizations, mostly fail to operate under its set rule and regulations in the modern world. According to Meyer & Rowan “Formal organizations are endemic in modern societies” (1977, p. 343). Today they face a number of problems in operations especially due to their over-complex bureaucratic structure. The first problem is related to coordination and communication (Blau & Scott, 2003). It is believed that when there is free flow of information there exists greater possibility of problem solving. In an
Introduction Japan’s tea ceremony captured the imagination of observers and practitioners all over the world. There is a mystical and practical aspect of the said ritual. This ancient form of tea preparation was created to accomplish certain spiritual goals. The most important facet is the need to control the body and mind to experience a profound sense of tranquility. Modern-day commemoration of the said ritual retains certain aspects of the spiritual need to experience harmony, balance, and mental power. However, the purpose and value of the ritual exceed religious pursuits. Modern-day commemoration of the Japanese tea ceremony recognizes the importance of harmony, wholeness, balance, and the need to nurture personal relationships. Background of the Tradition The world-renown Japanese tea ceremony is also known as Chado or Sado (Kato, 2004). This is a highly ritualized act characterized by the making and drinking of tea. The participants are expected to make and drink tea by a strict and formal protocol. Practitioners believe that there is a mystical or religious element to the said ceremony. Others are drawn to it due to the philosophical underpinnings of the said ritual. Be that as it may, the Japanese tea ceremony is a good example of a distinct Japanese cultural activity. History of the Tradition Historians agree that the universally recognized protocols in the said Japanese tea ceremony were established in the mid-sixteenth century. A historical approach to understanding the meaning and purpose of the said ritual reveals connections to Indian and Chinese culture. Historians believe that the use of tea leaves in the elaborate ceremony is a practice that may have been adopted from India or China. It is safe to assume that the historical tradition of this practice is linked to religious rituals. The earliest forms of the Japanese tea ceremony came into fruition to satisfy certain religious requirements, such as, the need to focus the mind in the act of meditation. There is also evidence to suggest that the ceremony was invented to develop a way to harmonize the flow of power in the spiritual and physical realm (Anderson, 1991). Historical accounts revealed that Japanese tea masters learned how to perform the basic elements of the tea preparation ritual from Chinese monks (Sadler, 2011). The Symbolism of the Food There is only one food item in this particular ritual. At the heart of the ceremony is the utilization of tea leaves. In other words, the whole ceremony is centered on the preparation of a certain type of beverage. The consumption of tea is a global pastime. Tea leaves are also popular because of its refreshment value. However, in this ceremony, the preparation and the act of consuming the beverage require certain precise actions. The extraction of the prized liquid from the tea leaves symbolizes health, wholeness, and the attainment of balance. Without a doubt, the sophisticated development of the said ceremony begins with the appreciation of the health benefits of tea leaves. C
Introduction In the modern world, so many organizations are using several strategies to enhance their performance and improve their competitive advantages. Some of the mostly relied on strategies are divestitures or mergers & acquisitions. The two though somehow different have some similarities. Mergers and Acquisitions refers to two companies combining together to form a single entity or one parent company absorbing another company and completely eliminating the entity of the target company to incorporate its operations in the parent company (DePamphilis, 2008). Divestitures or rather divestment on the other hand is the opposite of investment and refers to the reduction/addition of the firm’s partial assets or complete sale of an existing business by a firm due to some ethical or business reasons. One of the reasons behind the above corporate strategies is to increase the firm’s chances of survival in a market environment characterized by many competitors and in particular perfect market industry. This is because every firm is trying hard to retain a significant market share and increase its shareholder’s equity. In the recent past mergers & acquisitions and divestitures are increasingly being used by the organizations to strengthen their operations and increase their marketing penetration as well as expansion of their business activities (Harwood, 2006). No single firm is willing to be left behind in formulation and implementation of strategies that will enable it beat its business rivals in provision of the expected services or goods. The following brief report tries to focus on divestitures and how various firms, its advantages, risks and other associated financial aspects, have used it. The concept of Divestitures As pointed out earlier, the principal goal underlying divestitures is the improvement of business performance and gaining of more competitive advantages in the market. Divestitures take place in four different but interrelated forms (Weston, Mitchell & Mulherin, 2004). Firstly, there is complete sale of firm’s entire division or unit to another firm for cash or stock in the acquiring firm. Spin-off divestitures involve the entity’s owners being granted new stock that represent different and separate ownership rights in the specific unit that was divested. Once divestment has been accomplished, the specific unit creates its own directors and becomes a separate company. The shareholders own shares from two different companies rather than one but no cash is transferred in the entire process. In curve-out divestiture, the firm’s minority interest in a subsidiary company is disposed to new stockholders therefore, the parent company gains new equity financing and end up retaining the control. Finally, there is liquidation divesture in which the assets of a particular unit are sold off piecemeal instead of as an operating entity (Weston, Mitchell & Mulherin, 2004). The divesture entails restructuring of the company’s operation
Introduction Hardly there is a person nowadays who had not at least heard about stock markets, shares, and bonds. In the financial sphere, the desire to gain enormous profits often outweighs common sense and moral values. In the chapter “Blowing Bubbles,” Niall Fergusson traces back the history of stock markets, focusing on frauds and the most outrageous financial bubbles in the Western world. Fergusson notes that the joint-stock limited liability companies made possible the emergence of modern stock markets and respective financial schemes. In spite of being under the formal control of shareholders, the joint-stock company is strongly influenced by the stock exchange operations. The author states that “stock markets are mirrors of the human psyche” (Ferguson, 2008, p. 121), they are characterized by dramatic fluctuations. The bubble comes out when the investors seek easy profits while swindlers become eager to cheat them. When it turns out that the expected benefits do not correspond with the declared price for shares, the crafty insiders begin to sell the shares away. After share prices start to plummet, the outsiders try to quit, and the bubble bursts. Among other key features that make for the bubbles, Fergusson defines asymmetric information, cross-border capital flows, and easy credit creation (2008, p. 122). Chapter analysis Exploring the history of the greatest stock market bubbles, the author tells the extensive story of John Law of Edinburgh. Fergusson characterizes him as “an ambitious Scot, a convicted murderer, a compulsive gambler and a flawed financial genius” (2008, p. 126). Driving the conclusions from the XVII century limited liability Dutch United East India Company (VOC) and his unsuccessful experience in England, Law travelled to France and thanks to his cunning and shrewdness became one of the most prominent financial gamblers in European history. The French governors accepted Law’s idea of a private bank issuing paper money. It was later transformed into the Royal Bank of France, and Law used it to sell assets not secured by the state gold. Eventually, Law’s machinations ended in enormous inflation; the shares depreciated, the massive monetary bubble burst and the notorious bank, as well as subordinate Mississippi Company, was closed. In England, there was a similar crash of the South Sea Company, but this crash was much smaller because of the strong regulation of the monetary system by the government. The XX century was the richest one for stock market crashes. Among those crashes, the author defines the crash after World War I and the Great Depression. A big number of prerequisites of the crises can be named with the Federal Reserve System’s restrictive regulation among the decisive ones. Fergusson concludes that the primary lesson history gives us is that “inept or inflexible monetary policy in the wake of a sharp decline in asset prices can turn a correction into a recession and a recession into a depression” (2008, p. 163). However, even with the most solid knowledge, it is impossible to predict stock market crashes. The author finishes the chapter with the story of the Enr
Introduction Scholars believe that listening takes most of our time despite other activities. While listening we never think about the efforts we make, that is why people consider listening to be a passive process. Some of us always try to listen to another person attentively for him to understand every detail and remember as much information as possible. These people are completely involved into the process of communication and put a lot of effort for it, though they do not realize this fact. There exists such a type of activity as critical listening which can be viewed as an individual section of our communicative process. This kind of listening has its own characteristics and has been researched by many scholars. Main text Critical listening is a type of communication process that involves analysis and judgment of the remarks with the goal to get a complete understanding of the point. But such evaluation is considered to be an artificial obstacle on the way to good comprehension. The main goal of critical listening is not only to perceive the information but also to assess it to interpret the news that has just been heard. The people who are critical listeners always intend to ask probing questions; of course this type of communication activity requires a lot of skills. According to some investigations the following skills should be presented for the critical listening:   * Creating opinions and backing up all the pretensions;   * Differentiating views and facts that have been heard;   * Presenting broad ideas, challenging;   * Evaluating the main points that have been covered by the speaker;   * Following the flow of the speech and discovering the development of the ideas of the speaker.   * Making critical review of the speech. In my personal life critical listening is a part of interpersonal communication and relationship; by saying it I mean that I am a critical listener with my romantic partner. I always try to analyze what was said and evaluate the meaning of the words. To my way of thinking it is really important in romantic relations because I should understand the deep sense of every word, as it helps me to feel the inner state of my partner. Of course sometimes it can lead to some obstacle in our ideal and calm relations, but I consider that critical listening should always be presented in my life because I cannot remain indifferent towards my partner’s flow of thoughts. I myself do not like critics very much but I understand their importance and always try to understand and pay attention to them. There are a lot of cases when we meet critical listening in our life and even use it; I can even say that there are no places where we never face it. To illustrate it in more detail we can compare any family with the “field for debates” where all the members are the critical listeners. It is an open secret that we always try to evaluate the information presented by our close people and very often it results in conflicts and misunderstanding. One should remember some points not