Fredric Jameson and the No Wave Art Movement Essay

In postmodern art, history is self-consciously reappropriated and re-fashioned into new forms. Postmodern art, Jameson argues, was a logical outcome of late-capitalism, which in its late stage has allowed society to abolish the distinction between high culture and mass culture, producing a culture of degradation. This was first taken up as an aesthetic by Andy Warhol. In the text, Postmodernism: Style and Subversion, 1970-1990, Adamson and Pavitt note that Jameson, â€Å"found Warhol’s glittering series Diamond Dust Shoes to be particularly unnerving because of its incorporation of ommodity culture† (70). Art, according to both Warhol and Jameson is above all, a commodity, something to be bought and sold. Warhol’s work illustrates Jameson’s contention that, â€Å"Aesthetic production today has become integrated into commodity production† (4). This conflation of art and commodity creates a field of cultural production that is incapable of depth and v aluable social critique. According to Jameson, the abstract aesthetic of modernism was an expression of the new social forms of abstraction specif ic to capitalism. In modernism, the universalization of the money-form manifests as a range of social abstractions including, for example, society’s dominant â€Å"way of seeing† and representing the world aesthetically. In the age of global capitalism, the utopian sublime of modernism, to which Jameson referred, has disappeared, and has been replaced by the postmodern cultural logic of consumption. With the universalization of capitalism, the distinction between culture and economics has collapsed. In postmodernism everything, including art and culture, is subject to the logic of commodif ication. In the text, The Cultural Turn, Jameson submits that postmodernity â€Å"makes the cultural economic at the same time that it turns the economic into so many forms of culture† (81). This essay submits that the No Wave art movement that occurred between 1974 – 1984 in New York’s Lower East Side is indeed postmodern, by Jameson’s standards, and yet resists this conflation of art and commodity that Jameson maintains is characteristic of this paradigm. Jameson’s text, Postmodernism, suggests that with art’s entry into the commodity sphere art becomes propelled not by ideas but by money (Adamson et. al, 70). John N. Duvall is critical of Jameson’s linkage between culture and commodif ication in the postmodern context. Duvall writes in his text, Troping History, â€Å"It is precisely change that, for Jameson, can no longer be imagined in postmodernism, since aesthetic production has been subsumed by commodity production, thus emptying the modernist aesthetic of affect and hence of political effect† (4). Jameson’s characterization of postmodern art as enveloped in commodif ication overlooks art produced during this period that consciously existed outside the margins of the art market and acted as a resistance to the conditions of a commodif ied artistic arena. As alluded to by Duvall in the previous quotation, Jameson does not account for the possibility of political art production in postmoderism. As Perry Anderson notes, â€Å"by the positioning of the postmodern between aesthetics and economics,† Jameson omits, â€Å"a sense of culture as a battlefield, that divides protagonists. That is the plane of politics understood as a space in its own right† (18). As Marvin J. Taylor describes, â€Å"Downtown artists were profoundly aware of the failure of modernist revolutions, but were unwilling to abandon the possibility of a better world† (22) 1. It is precisely this urge for a better world that Jameson contends is an impossibility in the context of late-capitalism, and absent from postmodern art production. To classify the No Wave Art Movement as postmodern requires a working definition of this cultural epoch. The postmodern paradigm is commonly associated with a range of aesthetic practices, involving irony, parody, self-consciousness, fragmentation, playful selfreflexivity and parataxis (Waugh, 325). Characterized largely by the qualities of appropriation and simulation many postmodern artists addressed mass media and commodif ication in their 1 The terms â€Å"No Wave† and â€Å"Downtown scene† are used synonymously in essays that describe movement. So too are these terms used interchangeably in this essay. work, including those artists in the No Wave Movement, specif ically Barabara Kruger, who came out of this movement and whom we look to specif ically at the end of this paper. As Glen Ward notes in his description of the chronology of postmodernism, â€Å"More complex ideas about postmodernism quickly infiltrated the art world. Next to painting, photography and media-based work regained the limelight in the mid-1980s by seeming to provide a more obviously political postmodernism† (41). Rather than being incorporated into the late-capitalist system some theorists argue that postmodern art is a response to capitalist corruption, voicing an opposition to the world of commodities rather than becoming entrenched in it. There is no shortage of theorists and critics who have characterized the No Wave Art movement within the postmodern paradigm. As Carlo Mccormick describes in his essay, A Crack in Time, which appears in The Downtown Book, â€Å"†¦ etween 1974 and 1984 in Downtown Manhattan occurred the true postmodern moment: a time when modernism was most certainly dead and, unmoored from its schematics, creativity was based on flux, uncertainty, and searching† (71). The No Wave Art movement can be characterized by several recurrent postmodern themes including notions of authenticity; the Downto wn scene questioned the function of terms like authorship, originality, appropriation and tied them to the transgressive practices of theft, piracy and plagiarism. The second recurrent theme explored in the No Wave scene included performativity; challenging notions of representation in an environment of fragmented and multiple identities. Thirdly, the No Wave art scene is inextricably linked to its politics. As Taylor describes, Downtown art was activist and aggressive. Work was informed by the feminist movement, queer activism, AIDs, and poverty in postwar United States. As an expression of these politics, the No Wave Movement sought to criticize notions of institutional accreditation. This included an exploration of power structures, including the role of education, technical skills and technique. In her description of the Downtown Scene Gumpbert writes, â€Å"What so many Downtown artists of this era did share is that they conceived their work as alternative, if not outright subversive, vis-a-vis traditional curatorial and exhibition practices. Incorrigibly and resolutely defiant, Downtown artists interrogated systems of accreditation, broke down generic disciplines, and directly engaged with political issues† (14). Artists of the No Wave Art scene engaged with the political issues that plagued New York City at the time. This signif ies a potent antithesis to Jameson’s notion of postmodern art as vacuous and incapable of politicization. Taylor writes, â€Å"Suspicious of easy assimilation into the traditional Uptown art scene, Downtown artists mounted a full-scale assault on the structures of society that had led to grinding poverty, homelessness, the Vietnam War, nuclear power, misogyny, racism homophobia and a host of other social problems† (22). As an aesthetic movement the No Wave Art scene stood as a highly politicized rejection of the evolution of art as commodity. It was also a domain of extreme artistic production, â€Å"â€Å"From graffiti art to appropriation to Neo-Geo, virtually every major development in American art during that period seems to have originated in one or more of the mostly small, mostly storefront spaces that sprang up in the contested urban zones that characterized a neighbourhood in the early stages of transition from slum to middle-class playground† (Gumpert, 84). The scene existed actively outside the art market, residing largely in â€Å"informal alternative spaces† (Gumpert, 13). As an expression of an alternative antiestablishment attitude much of the work produced at this time took the form of graffiti art or performance art. According to Gumpert, â€Å"Artists, took to the streets in the late 1970s† (11). Notable artists of this time include, the graffiti works of Jean-Michel Basquiat, Keith Herrings works in the city’s subway platforms and on sidewalks and Richard Hambleton, whose work appeared in poorly lit downtown alleys and construction sites (11). The No Wave movement was also composed of a subcultural punk scene, a host of postmodern writers and experimental filmmakers and video artists. Most famously perhaps was the Times Square Show, that took place in 1980 in an empty massage parlour, with works from more than a hundred artists. These examples demonstrate the desire of many of the artists in the No Wave art movement to â€Å"breakout of the framework of the established art world† (11). The work that is categorized as No Wave was characterized by a certain ephemerality, which allowed the artists and their works to resist the constraints of the commercial market. This offers a critique of Jameson’s assumption that art produced in the postmodern paradigm is inextricably linked with an economic motivation. As Gumpert explains in the forward for the text, The Downtown Book: The New York Art Scene 1974 – 1984, A majority of the works [shown in these spaces] were process oriented and situationally specif ic, involving a relationship between materials, concepts, actions and locations. They were sometimes spontaneous, improvisational, open-ended, and often collaborative. The works existed within a given time and then ceased to exist. As a result much of this work was labeled ephemeral, the intent being to create an experience rather than a product, and new terms were devised to describe it, such as installation and performance†¦ During this period†¦ artists out of necessity created and took control of their own contexts (10) In order to preserve much of the ephemeral work produced between 1974 – 1984 in New York, it was archived and documented in photographs, notes, and films. Irving Sandler accounts for the motives behind documentation in the No Wave art scene, â€Å"[they’re] sympathies were countercultural, they believed that the documentation of a work was not art and thus not salable. They had turned to process art†¦ installation art, body art, and conceptual art because they did not want to create art commodities. Many also believed†¦ that their refusal to produce salable objects would subvert the art market† (24). This demonstrates a anti-market sentiment in the production of postmodern No Wave art. Jameson does not account for this type of art production in the theories that he forwards in his text, Postmodernism. Writing about the No Wave literature, Robert Siegle identif ies a central insurgency against established structures of culture that existed in New York at that time. He wrote, â€Å"It is, then, an insurgency, but not one that expects to break free of some kind of specif ic corrupt institution. It is an insurgency against the silence of institutions, the muteness of the ideology of form, the unspoken violence of normalization† (4). Siegle describes No Wave writing as quintessentially postmodern in its approach to the â€Å"silence of institutions† and to the â€Å"position of the speaking subject†. Rather than attempting to overthrow institutions, No Wave literature, according to Siegle, is premised on the attempt to understand how the discourse of institutions constructs who we are, thereby using that knowledge to problematize cultural discourse. Although in his text, Suburban Ambush: Downtown Writing and the Fiction of Insurgency, Siegle speaks specif ically of writing, this assessment applies equally to all artists in the No Wave scene. Through the deployment of the postmodern techniques that Jameson describes, artwork in the No Wave context, was far from the depthless commodity that Jameson imagined. It was rather highly political, productive and subversive. In his text, Postmodernism and Consumer Society, Jameson furthers his claims that in postmodernism expressive depth is replaced by an aesthetic superficiality in a phenomenon that he describes as â€Å"the waning of affect†. This â€Å"waning† is directly associated to a diminished political imagination. Jameson uses a comparison of the work of painter Edvard Munch and Andy Warhol to evidence this modern to postmodern shift. He contends that in postmodernism historical depth is replaced by nostalgia. Simultaneously, parody is replaced by pastiche, and an art of surface and loss is substituted for a history which â€Å"remains forever out of reach† (198). Jameson feels, â€Å"it is no longer clear what artists and writers of the present period are supposed to be doing† (196). This invoking of nostalgia and pastiche creates a condition in which artists can only comment upon or reproduce past art. This is articulated with Jameson’s description of postmodern art practice as being characterized by â€Å"the failure of the new, the imprisonment in the past† (196). In, The Postmodern Turn, Kellner and Best describe Jameson’s theory noting, â€Å"Coolness, blankness, and apathy become new moods for the decelerating, recessionary postmodern condition in an age of downsizing and diminishing expectations† (134). Jameson seems to articulate his own failings in his description of postmodern art. He admits that he is confounded by the postmodern and political work of Hans Haacke who questioned the institution and capitalism through his postmodern art installations. Of Hacke, Jameson writes, â€Å"The case of Haacke poses, however, a†¦ problem, for his is a kind of cultural production which is clearly postmodern and equally clearly political and oppositional – something that does not compute within the paradigm and does not seem to have been theoretically foreseen by it† (159). The No Wave art movement equally confounds Jameson’s theory towards a postmodern art that is bound by a sense of complicity. Much critique has been garnered by Jameson’s position on the art of the postmodern. Theorist Linda Hutcheon is critical of Jameson’s positioning of pastiche as a baseless technique, But the looking to both the aesthetic and the historical past in postmodernist architecture is anything but what Jameson describes as pastiche, that is â€Å"the random cannibalization of all the styles of the past, the play of random stylistic allusion. † There is absolutely nothing random or â€Å"without principle† in the parodic recall and re-examination of the past†¦ To include irony and play is never necessarily to exclude seriousness of purpose in post-modernist art. To misunderstand this is to misunderstand the nature of much contemporary aesthetic production – even if it does make for neater theorizing. (26 -27) Downtown artists actively sought to address this issue of art production within a capitalist system. Their work is characterized by a postmodern multiplicity. In his essay on the Downtown scene, Siegle notes, Far from being defeated by contradictions, these postmoderns take form it the cue for an alternative logic. Far from being rendered hopeless by the seemingly inevitable drift of (inter)national politics, they borrow form disinformation the ironic habitation of familiar forms for cross-purposes. Far from being paralyzed by the anxiety of past masters’ influence, they appropriate them for commentary on classic motifs (such as mastery, originality, autonomy, representation) and art-world structures (such as publishing houses, galleries, museums, and criticism). Far from feeling compromised by the investment economics of art, they turn the art market into a microcosm of consumer capitalism and subvert its operations. 10) No Wave artists, though they invoked themes of capitalism, were in fact openly critical of it. They did not create art with the intention of financial gain. Taylor presents Bourdieu’s theory on cultural capital to elucidate the artistic practices of those in the No Wave art scene and their pursuit for symbolic capital rather than economic. He writes, â€Å"If th e whole field of cultural production could be thought of as all those artists, poets, musicians, editors, publishers, critics, performers†¦ hen there could be subsets of this group who did not all conform to the desire for economic capital, but rather, and mostly because their work was experimental, sought â€Å"symbolic capital† from their peers† (31). Jameson argued that postmodernism marks the final and complete incorporation of culture into the commodity system. This integration The No Wave art scene, in fact, actively critiqued this condition. Though the No Wave Art movement occurred under the conditions of late-capitalism, the work produced during this period does not embody this notion of depthless commodity Jameson maintains is the primary characteristic of postmodern art. Barbara Kruger is an example of a No Wave artist whose work engages with themes of the media and the market while being simultaneously postmodern, anti-capitalist, and political. Kruger’s work, particularly her piece, Untitled, (When I hear the word culture I take out my cheque-book), serves as a response to the commodity culture postmodernism is so entrenched in. This work directly addresses Jameson’s concern that postmodern art is incapable of an authentic engagement with politicization. Kruger evokes many postmodern themes in her work yet avoids the non-criticality of commodif ied art practice that Jameson forwards. Kruger invokes the postmodern technique of pastiche recombining previously articulated styles while actively producing new meanings through this act re-appropriation. For Jameson, â€Å"Pastiche is a recycling of the past without the critical edge of satire or the subversive role of parody; it is a gesture to the past in a mediasaturated culture that lives in a perpetual present† (Murphie, Potts, Macmillan, 58). Where Jameson forwarded the notion that pastiche was merely â€Å"blank parody† (184) Kruger enacts pastiche as a meaningful technique. As noted in Postmodernism: Style and Subversion 1970 – 1990, â€Å"She managed to break the conceptual barrier between art and mass media by selecting images from magazines from the 40s and 50s. Choosing them based on their poses and presenting phrases over them†¦ Stereotypes were thus turned into the vehicle for delivery of a totally different message† (368). Some of the postmodern themes deployed by Kruger include, the questioning of meta-narrative tructures, highlighting the decentred nature of contemporary culture, and the divorcing of sign and signif ier. In her work Kruger operates within the language and iconic system of consumer culture while offering a critique of those very conditions. As outlined in this essay Jameson’s theory of the cultural logic of late-capitalism fails to identify the critical aspect th at characterized much of the work produced under the conditions of postmodernism. This is specif ically demonstrated through the work of No Wave artists operating out of New york in the 1970s and 80s. While invoking the aesthetic themes common to postmodernism the work produced in the No Wave scene was highly political and did not act as a static representation of commodif ied art culture. The work of Barbara Kruger specif ically dealt with the concern of art as existing in a commodif ied global economy rather than simply falling victim to it. It was in fact the movement’s shift towards commodity that marked the No Wave’s scene’s decline. The year 1984 is signif icant to this movement’s trajectory. In his essay entitled, Playing the Field: The Downtown Scene and Cultural Production, An Introduction Marvin J. Taylor writes, â€Å"By 1984 the larger art world had encroached on the scene. That same year Mary Boone displayed and began to sell Basquiat’s paintings for up to $20, 000†¦ The major art journals, galleries, and auction houses had co-opted the restricted field of Downtown art, creating superstars and an influx of economic capital that would eventually overtake the symbolic capital† (36). It was exactly this move into the realm of the market that ended the production of postmodern art within the Downtown scene. Postmodern artists active in the No Wave art movement Jameson’s proposition that art made under postmodern conditions is incapable of exacting a political message. Works Cited: Adamson, Glenn, Jane Pavitt, and Paola Antonelli. Postmodernism: Style and Subversion, 1970-1990. London: V&A Pub. , 2011. Bertens, Hans. The Idea of Postmodernism: A History. London: Routledge, 1995. Cameron, Dan. East Village USA. New York: New Museum of Contemporary Art, 2004. Duvall, John N. Productive Postmodernism: Consuming Histories and Cultural Studies. Albany: State University of New York, 2002. Hager, Steven. Art after Midnight: The East Village Scene. New York: St. Martin’s, 1986. Hutcheon, Linda. A Poetics of Postmodernism: History, Theory, Fiction. New York: Routledge, 1988. Jameson, Fredric. Postmodernism, Or, The Cultural Logic of Late Capitalism. Durham: Duke UP, 1991. Jameson, Fredric. The Cultural Turn: Selected Writings on the Postmodern, 1983-1998. London: Verso, 1998. Kellner, Douglas, and Sean Homer. Fredric Jameson: A Critical Reader. Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire: Palgrave Macmillan, 2004. Murphie, Andrew, and John Potts. Culture and Technology. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2003. Perry Anderson. The Origins of Postmodernity. London: Verso, 1998. Sandler, Irving. Art of the Postmodern Era: From the Late 1960s to the Early 1990s. New York: Icon Editions, 1996 Siegle, Robert. Suburban Ambush: Downtown Writing and the Fiction of Insurgency. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1989. Taylor, Marvin J. The Downtown Book: The New York Art Scene, 1974-1984. Princeton, NJ: Princeton UP, 2006. Ward, Glenn. Postmodernism. Chicago: Contemporary, 2003. Print. Wheale, Nigel. The Postmodern Arts: An Introductory Reader. London: Routledge, 1995.

Chattanooga Ice Cream Case Essay

ABSTRACT In this paper I will do an analysis on what I think cause the downfall of Chattanooga Ice Cream. I will also give and observation of the Chattanooga Ice Cream Division and how lack of respect and communication caused them to lose one of their biggest clients. I assay Charlie Moore’s leadership style. I will see how things could have been handled differently, if they would have applied teamwork and good leadership to the equation. INTRODUCTION Chattanooga Ice Cream, Inc. was a division of Chattanooga Food Corporation, which was founded in 1936. The Ice Cream Division of Chattanooga Foods was one of the largest regional ice cream manufacturers in the United States, (Sloane, The Chattanooga Ice Cream Division, HBR, p.2). Following the loss of Stay & Shop one of their largest customer, Charlie Moore the division’s president and general manager, and his executive management had several  meetings to discuss the future of the division and their product. Moore was responsible for the outcome of the company’s future, and dealing with the conflicting attitudes and opinions of the members of his team. It was his responsibility to make sure everyone was on the same page to get the company back up and running properly. CHARLIE MOORE AS A LEADER If I had to give detail as to what type of leader Charlie Moore was on the DiSC he would be a S & C leader. He preferred an orderly environment. He believed in collaborating to get things accomplished. The Downfall of Chattanooga Ice Cream 4 He strived to make progress in the company. He wanted to help the company meet its goals with getting its products back on the market and being competitive. He also wanted to have the team make steady and careful progress toward meeting the goals for the company. Moore values group’s efforts. He is not an aggressive leader and tends to avoid competitive environments and conflict. â€Å"Disdaining such behavior, Moore feigned a deaf ear to it, hoping his subordinates would get the signal and cease complaining about each other.†,(Sloane,2003, p.2). These are all good qualities to have in a leader, but I think it also led to his failure as a leader. When Moore took over the division he came with a history of leading openly, preferring to operate in an environment of group decision making. He assumed that everyone would be able to come together in agreement as to what direction the company should go in. His judgment proved detrimental to the team. As the management team was incapable of coming to a compromise, because they had no respect for their teammates. Their action physically and verbally showed a lack of trust for one another. Everyone was pointing the finger, and no one person saw fault in their part of the company’s downfall. Moore never developed an environment of trust among his team members. Moore did not prepare the team for the change that was to come. He needed to â€Å"prepare organizations for change and help them cope as they struggle through it† Week 2, Lecture -What Great Leaders Do. Instead of showing â€Å"positive energy† (Welch, 2005, p.84) he called the team together to â€Å"mourn† (Sloane, 2003, p.1). So he had already set a negative atmosphere for the meeting. Moore showed a lack of Candor. As a leader he should have all the questions, and those questions should create a debate among the team members, â€Å"Rule 6: Leaders probe with curiosity that borders on skepticism, making sure your questions unleash debate and raise issues that get action† (Welch,2005,p.74). Charlie should have come into those meetings with a communication strategy. That way the team would have understanding, and everyone would support a common vision. THE TEAM DYNAMIC AND DYSFUNCTION All companies have ups and downs. All companies win accounts and loose accounts. What all companies should not have are teams that bicker, point the finger at each other and don’t communicate. This type of behavior is symptomatic of an unhealthy environment, and will be detrimental to a company. That is the type of behavior that was displayed by the Chattanooga Ice Cream Division. When the Shop & Stay account was lost each of the management team members seemed to think that the blame for the loss of the account laid in every other department other than their own. They thought that, that department needed to be corrected. Rather than taking a good close look at their department, and seeing what could be improved there. There were a lot of negative energy and emotions involved in the meetings, which halted the chance for real teamwork. There were too many Chiefs and not enough Indians. Everyone was acting as managers except for the real  manager. Moore was a leader who made decisions publically. Unlike the former manager of the division who made decisions privately without the consensus of the rest of the team. THE DOWNFALL OF CHATTANOOGA ICE CREAM 7 The old leadership did not foster an environment where team work and group decisions were accommodated. They in turn did not know how to communicate with one another, and the team dynamic became one of conflict. There were no clear operating rules for the team on how decisions were going to be made. Week 4, Lecture – Building High Performance Teams suggests that â€Å"when managers agree on ground rules in advance, the teams are much more likely to run efficiently,† which Moore did not do. RECOMMENDATIONS FOR CHATTANOOGA ICE CREAM DIVISION My first recommendation would be for Charlie Moore to see that is not just one of the team members. He is the Manager, their Supervisor. No goals can be obtained and no decisions can be made if he as there leader does not step up and take ownership of his role. You want bigger solutions ask questions; healthy debate, decisions, and actions will get everyone there† (Welch, 2005, p. 76). A team will only be as good as its leader. If I were the leader I would have the teams do research on the competitors. Then I would have them target other clients to take on our product to make up for the clients we lost. I would also create an environment to get the team motivated to accomplish a new goal, and have them focus their efforts on one vision. I would also strategically pair the team member’s individual weaknesses and strengths together, not only to complement each other, but to build credibility and trust among the team. As a leader I would start to build a foundation for candor, voice, and dignity going forward. By setting these rules in place the team will learn how to communicate effectively. By making  these changes this will ensure each individual has a voice, while not obstructing the process of productivity.

The Mighty Dung Beetle

While the majority of the human population quivers at the thought of ingesting manure, the mighty dung beetle rises to the challenge, and uses the manure in unique ways. Without dung beetles, pastures would be overrun with manure and flies- and parasites would run amuck. I’m no expert but according to the Sustainable Parasite Management division at the University of Pretoria in South Africa, affectionately known as PU, the dung beetle is beneficial to our environment. They help keep the soil cleaner, reduce pollution and algae formation in our waters, and acts as an organic pooper scooper for our livestock farms. First let’s begin by identifying the different types of dung beetles. These meadow muffin munchers are divided into three classifications, Rollers, Tunnellers and Dwellers. The Rollers do just that.. they roll the prairie patties into smooth, round balls called brood balls. Then they roll the brood balls away to a more desirable location. Once the rollers find the perfect location for their new abode, they bury it into the ground. The female will lay a single egg into the brood ball and then coat and seal it with a mixture of dung, saliva, and of course, her own fecal matter. After the egg hatches, the baby dung beetle devours the dung and lives in the brood ball until it reaches maturity. Then there are the Tunnellers. They dig tunnels in the ground in depths of between a few centimeters to 1 meter. This is large enough for them to live and move around in. Once the tunnel has been dug, they pull the manure in to the tunnel and place it throughout. Inside their new home is where the female lays her eggs. Storing the manure underground helps keep it fresh and protects the growing babies from predators and parasites. The last of the waste managers are the Dwellers who live on top of the pasture patty. The female lays her eggs on top of manure piles, and the entire development from egg to adult takes place inside the pile. Dwellers are smallest of the three and they seem to like cow patties the best for raising a family. The adults can be found in fresh, moist droppings, while the babies are slowly growing in dung that is drying out. Now that you know a little about the different types of dung beetles, let’s see how they are drawn to manure. Dr.  Patricia Richardson, Research Associate at the University of Texas, states, adult dung beetles are drawn to manure by odor. Many are species-specific in that they prefer a certain type of animal manure. Just like people searching for the perfect home, the dung beetle will fly up to ten miles in search of just the right patty. They can attack dung pats within seconds after they drop. Some dung beetles will even hitch a ride near the tails of animals in anticipation of a deposit. Once drawn by the odor, the adults use the liquid contents of the manure for their nourishment. In addition; a single cow patty can attract 60-80 adult flies. That would be a lot of flies if it were not for the competitive dung beetle. With all of the rolling and tunneling and dwelling of the dung beetle, flies and other harmful parasites don’t have a chance. Our society isn’t the first to appreciate the contributions of the dung beetles. The scarab is in the roller family of dung beetles. Yep! The Egyptians have long been known to have a fascination with the dropping dwellers. Jewelry has been crafted and carvings have been drafted in admiration of our mighty dung friends. In summation while the dung beetle keeps the soil cleaner, reduces pollution and algae formation in our waters, and acts as an organic pooper scooper for our livestock farms, it is also important to understand by removing the dung pat from its original location, this helps cut down on the fly population which is attracted to the dung pat. By making tunnels this will increase soil capacity to absorb and hold water. Therefore one can see how the dung beetle is very important to our environment. So if you really look at it, the world would be a much smeller place if it were not for the tireless efforts of the dung beetles.

Comparing & Contrasting: Cambodians & Filipinos Essay

Within the Asian country lie many cultures, beliefs, religions and much more. For example, the Cambodians and the Filipinos. Cambodia is located in southeastern Asia, bordering the gulf of Thailand, between Thailand, Vietnam, and Laos. The Philippines is located in Southeastern Asia, archipelago between the Philippine Sea and the South China Sea, east of Vietnam. Both countries have many differences and similarities. In the Cambodian culture there are many beliefs. A lot of Cambodians believe in superstition, an irrational belief arising from ignorance or fear. One of the major superstitions of the Cambodian culture is Spirits of our ancestors. Folk tales explain and describe how and why a spirit cant hurt you but they can discipline you, for example the flying head. The flying head only disciplines people when they are afraid and alone in the woods. Also when two people split a pole means that they would go their different ways and split their friendship. In the Filipino culture there are also many beliefs. Superstition and ghosts are also a main belief in the Philippines. One of the known folktale ghost story is called the Aswang. The name translates to â€Å"To be detached from one part of the body. This creature flies around at night sucking blood and attacking animals and people. It is said that during the horizon, the Aswang takes on the appearance of a dog, whose front legs are longer than the back legs. Most of the Cambodians believe in the religion Buddhism. They would take daily walks to the temple to light incenses, bring food for their deceased family member or monks. May 15th is a major holiday in the Cambodian culture, the day when their holy god they worship in the name of Buddha was born, the day he was enlightened, and the day he died. The way Cambodians greet a Buddha or monk is that they would put their palms together and bow for their respect. Cambodian New Year is also a major Cambodian holiday. Its a celebration or more like a festival with food stands to clothing. Most of the Filipinos take their belief for their religion to the extreme.  The main religion in the Philippines is Catholic, Christian or other forms of religion. People would hang themselves on a cross just like Jesus did just because they believe in their religion strongly. They would usually attend church on Sundays, they would sing, and listen to the pastor read from the bible. The two countries also do have some similarities. One example for a similarity is that both cultures sometimes eat with their hands. Another example is that they both have similar superstition beliefs and folktales, just different stories. When you arrive at either a Filipino or Cambodian house you would have to take off your shoes. Finally both cultures take respect seriously, you have to bow to your elders and bless them or they bless you. Within the Asian country lie many cultures, beliefs, religions and much more. Cambodians are very superstitious and believe in mostly Buddhism. Filipinos are also very superstitious but have different folktales and most Filipinos are Christian, Catholic, or some other type of religion. Both countries also have a lot of similarities in their cultures; they both respect their elders and take respect seriously. Works Cited Sampson, Andrew. Online interview. 15 Feb. 2008.

Business plan Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2250 words

Business plan - Essay Example It aims at providing management education which is at par with international standards. Over the last couple of demands for business management schools has gained a lot of momentum. GSBM will begin its operations locally in UK and will later on expand to Australian and Indian markets. The school will host its first local branch in London as this will be a London based business school. Thus, the first batch of its students will come from UK. The MBA market within UK is very competitive and is only expected to grown in the next couple of years. Macro-economic conditions within UK are extremely supportive and conducive to the growth of a new business school. Government policies and factors also favor the growth of MBA markets. Brief overview of the School and Program Design: Management skills are very critical for personal and professional development of people. They enhance the life style of people and improves their living standards. People who have managerial skills come across as ch arismatic; they are well managed and are able to attain their goals rather quickly. Thus management education helps students in providing them a strong platform for their career growth and success. The business requirements of the modern world want people who are sound on their management skills as it is important for organizational growth. The program design of GSBM will be built to develop management skills and core competencies of its students. The focus will be to produce students who can adapt themselves to the changing paradigm of the world and use their skills efficiency. The main objective of GSBM would be to provide management skills to its future leaders in the business world. The school will be based in London and will have operations spaced out in divisional units and campus. The school will expand from London to Australia and India. The school will aspire to offer quality educations to its student in management. The student will be given the opportunity to pick either o ne of the following as their majors: Finance Marketing Human Resource Management Each major choice will have its own set of electives and each student will be allowed to opt for his choice of electives. Other than the electives there will be some core management and social science related subjects which will be mandatory for every enrolled student to undertake. The primary aim of the program offered at GSBM is to equip students with the technical knowledge related to business strategy and environment ; to ensure they are well versed and aware of business activities and to equip them with sound management related knowledge. Generic Strategy: The primary objective of the school is to provide quality education to it’s students. It will not be opened with a profit-making perspective. It’s main aim is to produce well equipped management students who are able to stand out in the job market in the corporate world. For this purpose, a generic strategy will be followed. Michael Porter was of the view that a business should make a choice between two fundamental decisions when deciding it’s competitive advantage. The choice should be either to: 1. Compete on the basis of price OR 2. To compete on the basis of a differentiating point in the business. These two choices were further explained in the form of four generic competitive strategies which he argued were the main range of choices available for a successful business. They are: 1. Cost

Nagel and Russell on Absurdity Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

Nagel and Russell on Absurdity - Essay Example Thomas Nagel and Betrand Russell wrote about the absurdity that defines life. Many philosophers have focused on the issue of absurdity as it is one of the surging worries that human beings experience continually. This explains why different philosophers have been trying to highlight the causes of the debilitating feeling that every venture in life is absurd. Realizing the causes of the feeling of absurdity has not been enough. There is the ardent desire of understanding the different ways of dealing with absurdity. This paper will analyze the views of Nagel and BetrandRussell concerning the absurdity. Summary of the ‘Absurd’ by Nagel Nagel begins by highlighting the fact that many people often make known their feeling that life presents a lot of absurdity, sometimes in a continuous manner. However, he asserted that few of the reasons used to explain how the absurdities of life result serve as adequate defense to explain why life is that way. He provides examples of the reasons that people have put forward as potential causes of absurdity. One of these reasons is the opinion that whatever transpires in life at the moment does not present evidence that it will matter in a million years into the future. The feeling that current ventures in life do not present any feasibility of being crucial factors in a progression of a million years. Nagel refutes this claim by highlighting that such thinking invites critical thought of analyzing whether things really matter. If one can doubt whether something happening in the current life will matter in the future, then it is only rational to realize that whether that thing is b ringing happiness or misery, it may not even matter (Pojman 555). For other people, the absurdity of life emerges from the realization that human are minute forms in a vast universe. This perception of human life in terms of space and time in comparison with the entire universe does not suffice to explain the cause of absurdity in life. Nagel argues that this reason is insufficient because little would change even if humans occupied a larger proportion of the universe (556). He opined that living a longer life and occupying greater space would imply that absurdity would increase at the same proportion of space and time. Nagel also mentions that some people experience absurdity because they realize that all then justifications used to present life with meaning will eventually diminish. However, Nagel mentions that even if these justifications were reliable enough to define the entire process of life, they would diminish eventually. He further argues that even if a single justificatio n had the potential of defining an individual’s entire life, it would require an additional justification to make it worthwhile (556). According to him, all chains of justifications depend on external factors for their relevance, factor that makes them diminish at some point. With this argument, Nagel highlighted that it was pointless to blame the insufficiency of justifications for the absurdity of life. In the second part, Nagel begins by highlighting the fact that absurdity resulted from the crises and discrepancies between the pretexts and aspirations of an individual in life. However,he highlights that individual often visualize a way of adjusting aspirations. In case such an adjustment is impossibility, the individual tries to avoid the reality of the absurd situation. However, the feeling of absurdity increases when an individual does not find a valid escape from the previously defined aspirations (557). Moreover, Nagel highlighted that a person’s ambitions were possible causes of the feeling of absurdity especially if the person keeps searching changes that present the potential of altering life. This may often result is an individual takes life’s decisions activities too seriously. He highlights that although life needs constant attention, taking it too seriously can be detrimental causing absurdity. Moreover, perceiving others

Women in Greek Mythology Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Women in Greek Mythology - Essay Example In Greek mythology, women are seldom considered in isolation from men, though critics consider important exceptions below, and they seldom have scope for action on their own initiative. According to Dillon (2002): Numerous oppositions in the ways in which Women were categorised, often determined by their role in society, and also their ethnic origin, are reflected in the various dichotomies of citizen wife/foreign woman, slave/free, prostitute/wife, girl/woman, and woman priest/woman sorcerer, to name some, all of which could overlap, and influenced how, why, when and where they gave expression to their religious beliefs (5). Mostly, females are either (a) children, (b) nubile maidens or (c) married. What is absent from this female career structure is any stage between initiation and marriage - the stage which allows the male to become a warrior, prove himself and discover himself: men marry later than women (Dillon 2002). Widows are mostly ignored and single women cannot be allowed to exist, except for goddesses like Circe and Kalypso in the Odyssey. For instance, "Hera is most typically a goddess of women, and it is for that reason that she is on occasion worshipped as Maid, Wife, and Widow, the last title giving no little trouble to interpreters of her myths in classical times, seeing that her husband was immortal" (Rose 1991, 103). In Greek mythology, womanhood is depicted through religious ritual and values followed by women characters. It is not surprising that religious dogmas became the code of behavior for women who needed strong arguments to prove their decisions. Gods are supposed to be temperate, diligent, loyal, hard-working, and cheerful. Although the religion women's responsibility for one's destination in the next life and one's fortunes in this, the individuals form a tight-knit and strongly. The above picture is supported with a number of important cases of religious domination remaining important because it continues to serve a variety of important social functions. The realization that a woman has to devote herself to husband and live according to the values was typical for all mortal women. Even if women want to be equal to men they would never talk about this with their husband. Such behavior considered typical for this epoch (Lefkowitz, 1986). A special attention was given to the role of marriage. For instance, Orestes acquires his entitlement to the throne of Sparta by marriage with Menelaos' daughter, Hermione. Menelaos came to the throne through his marriage with Tyndareus' daughter, Helen. Odysseus' winning of Ikarios' daughter, Penelope, has a high profile in the mythology - a myth which Homer, in his characteristic way, replays through the perverted attempt of the suitors to win Penelope's hand in Ithaka. In these cases the succession to the throne passes via a woman. This is not 'matriarchy', for women are not queens in their own rite, nor is it 'matrilinearity' (Rosaldo, Lamphere 1974), for power passes via daughters and wives, not mothers. Indeed the marriage is called into existence precisely because the daughter cannot wield power herself. This belongs in the broader Greek cultural picture of the