Tuesday, November 26, 2019

Free Essays on Imagination

Imagination The imagination builds fantasy landscapes and experience and then moves into them to see what they’re like. A great deal of us imagine thing we can not control. For example when we dream or when our mind gets away from us we cannot control the out come or what’s going to happen next. Then there are those imaginations we can control. For example you are sitting somewhere, anywhere and you spot this special some one you start thinking should I go over there and talk to that some one, but then you think what if. Your mind goes into this fantasy role play mode. Now remember you are controlling this imagination. So you get to decide what the out come should be to best fit you. I most cases our imagination is a lot more desirable then the real world. Sometime people take there imagination to far they start affecting they’re bodies. I think the best example for this is people who are anorexics. A lot of people, mainly young woman have this imagine of them tha t society put of them to be skinner. So these young women will change there bodies to what they think society what them to look like and these young women will start making them self throw up after every time they eat because it is easier and less pain full then surgery. But the problem is that they don’t stop. They just think I’m to fat I need to be skinner.... Free Essays on Imagination Free Essays on Imagination Imagination The imagination builds fantasy landscapes and experience and then moves into them to see what they’re like. A great deal of us imagine thing we can not control. For example when we dream or when our mind gets away from us we cannot control the out come or what’s going to happen next. Then there are those imaginations we can control. For example you are sitting somewhere, anywhere and you spot this special some one you start thinking should I go over there and talk to that some one, but then you think what if. Your mind goes into this fantasy role play mode. Now remember you are controlling this imagination. So you get to decide what the out come should be to best fit you. I most cases our imagination is a lot more desirable then the real world. Sometime people take there imagination to far they start affecting they’re bodies. I think the best example for this is people who are anorexics. A lot of people, mainly young woman have this imagine of them tha t society put of them to be skinner. So these young women will change there bodies to what they think society what them to look like and these young women will start making them self throw up after every time they eat because it is easier and less pain full then surgery. But the problem is that they don’t stop. They just think I’m to fat I need to be skinner....

Saturday, November 23, 2019

How to Easily Get Iron Out of Your Breakfast Cereal

How to Easily Get Iron Out of Your Breakfast Cereal ​Cold breakfast cereals are usually fortified with iron. What does the iron look like? Use this easy experiment to find out. It only takes about 15 minutes! What You Need 2-3 cups fortified cerealMagnetBowlSpoon or another utensilWaterBlender (optional)Napkin How to Get Iron from Breakfast Cereal Pour the cereal into the bowl or blender.Add sufficient water to completely cover the cereal (its not an exact measurement - you can add as much as you like as iron doesnt dissolve in water)Mash the cereal with a spoon or mix it with the water using a blender. The more finely ground the cereal is, the easier it will be to get the iron.Stir the magnet through the crushed cereal. Iron is heavy and will sink, so be sure to pay attention to the bottom of the bowl. If you used a blender, make sure you can get to the particles at the bottom of the jar.Look for the black fuzz or iron on the magnet. Its easiest to see the iron if you wipe the iron on a white napkin or paper towel. Mmmm Mmm Good!

Thursday, November 21, 2019

Research Paper on Data Mining Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

On Data Mining - Research Paper Example This marks their preferences which are used for understanding how often they would shop, where they travel to for getting a brand and what kind of price they are ready to pay for obtaining the said product. Data mining has come of age because it has been linked up with understanding the people in particular and how they employ the basic dictum of buying and selling. This also helps the companies to comprehend how well their target base is shifting its basis and what kind of changes are happening within their fore. The manner in which this personal information is being made use of suggests that the unethical norms and routines are on the upsurge, and these need to be controlled for all the right reasons. Data mining is important to understand because its usage has been openly discussed, criticized and analyzed upon. It has touched upon the significant pointers which have paid emphasis on the way the user privacy levels have been transgressed upon of late, and how these have meant seri ous problems for them; no matter they are available in a physical form or a virtual one (Greenberg, 2006). The data mining procedures are usually given the cover by the people who conduct the same. They believe that it is an ethical process which is good for the company and hence they go about conducting the same business data mining activities. Also they believe staunchly that they must know more in order to give back towards their own business entireties. The personal information that has been saved by the companies in the wake of the data mining procedures is somewhat of a confusing debate. This is because the data mining activities shall be the cornerstone of their reaching towards new and unique customers of products and services. By this, they can find out how the new and unique customers would have their respective preferences and how this shall help the brand (and the company) to develop as a result of the same undertakings. For the users, they seem to be living in an unprot ected zone. This is because they are unaware who is secretly tracking their information and which individual or company is trying its best to reach out to this user in the future. There is a sense of susceptibility with regards to the users when they are unaware of who is going to contact them next and in what capacity this contact will be established. Perhaps, it is about time that the companies realized that there must be an ethical way to bring about contact with the people than merely reaching out to them as strangers. However, much needs to be understood and that too in a proper manner to achieve sound results (Gopalani, 2011). The personal information is important for everyone because it changes the course of one’s entirety. If this is compromised upon, it will mean that the people are being taken for granted by these companies, which is simply deemed as unacceptable on their part. The data mining techniques might look very glamorous to these companies but what they see m to forget is the fact that these companies have a major responsibility to take care of. The reason why people seem to be not protected from the data mining techniques which are in use is because they know already that their information and private data is being compromised upon, and hence the need to set things right. The privacy levels will resolve quite a lot of problems if there are concerted efforts made by the data mining

Tuesday, November 19, 2019

David Hume and Immanuel Kant on our ideas of right and wrong Essay

David Hume and Immanuel Kant on our ideas of right and wrong - Essay Example The human soul is always on the look out for the answers that haunt their reasoning. Philosophy provides one with the answers to all the questions concerned with the universe, human existence, understanding, morality, ethics and the like. One of the major questions that have been asked all through the history is about the meaning and ideology of right and wrong. What is right and what is wrong? How can you identify something as right or wrong? These are some of the questions that involve the awareness of the philosophy concerning right and wrong. Philosophical ethics, as termed by David Hume, deal with such questions and this branch of philosophy methodizes and, sometimes, corrects the practice in which human beings engage in everyday life. Accordingly, we try to understand the right things of life in difficult situations trying to do the good in respect of what we are and how we act in order to strive to do the right things as human beings and to avoid the things that are bad. Somet imes called meta-ethics, the specific part of the philosophical ethics discusses what right and good mean and how to act out for a life of good avoiding the bad in daily life. David Hume and Immanuel Kant are two of the most prominent philosophers to deal with the ides of right and wrong. David Hume (1711-1776), philosopher, historian, political theorist, social scientist, and essayist in his An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding (1758) and A Treatise of Human Nature (1739) provide a good knowledge about the understanding of right and wrong. ... The ideas of Hume had their impact on Metaphysics, Epistemology, and Psychology. "Hume is remarkable in that he does not shy away from conclusions that might seem unlikely or unreasonable. Ultimately, he concludes that we have no good reason to believe almost everything we believe about the world, but that this is not such a bad thing. Nature helps us to get by where reason lets us down." (Hume. 2006). The empiricist philosopher tries to make clear the rigidity of scientific methodology rely on philosophical reasoning. According to him, we can understand the world only as a matter of fact and so only experience can prove this. Relations of ideas cannot speak exactly for the existence of human beings, the universe or God. Thus, right and wrong are concepts that need to be experienced rather than described. This empirical understanding of the ideas of right and wrong is needed to have the clear picture of things. In the work An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding Hume discusses the origin and association of ideas. He distinguishes between impressions and ideas which will give us his notion of idea in general. Idea, for him, is livelier than impressions. Also, Hume talks about the train of thoughts, associating different ideas and explains the three kinds of relations between ideas. They are resemblance, contiguity in space-time, and cause-and-effect. Hume discusses the concepts of right and wrong and other related ideas of ethics, prolifically, in his A Treatise of Human Nature (1739). This is an expanded form of the discussions in the short essay An Enquiry concerning the Principles of Morals. In an empirical way, Hume argues that the moral

Sunday, November 17, 2019

Mesopotamia Case Essay Example for Free

Mesopotamia Case Essay HISTORY OF MESOPOTAMIAN RELIGION The name Mesopotamia, is a Greek name which means ‘the land between the rivers’, refers to the geographic region which lies near the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers and not to any particular civilization. The land of Mesopotamia is made fertile by the irregular and often violent flooding of the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers. While these floods aided agricultural endeavors by adding rich silt to the soil every year, it took a tremendous amount of human labor to successfully irrigate the land and to protect the young plants from the surging flood waters. Given the combination of fertile soil and the need for organized human labor, perhaps it is not surprising that the first civilization developed in Mesopotamia. Sumerians were the first settlers in Sumeria. By c.3500 BCE, the Sumerians had developed many of the features that characterized subsequent civilizations. Cuneiform was a system of writing established by the Sumerians which became the dominant system of writing in Mesopotamia for over 2000 years. Mesopotamia is widely recognized as one of the regions in the Near East first experiencing the developmental transition to hydraulic and urban civilization, duly celebrated as a â€Å"cradle of civilization† and the eastern segment of the Fertile Crescent. Mesopotamian religion is the religious beliefs and practices of the Sumerians and Akkadians, which were noted the first developed civilizations and religions; and later of their successors, the Babylonians and Assyrians. (Lindemans, 2007). In general terms, it constitutes the greater part of what is now Iraq, eastern Syria, and south-eastern Turkey. The deities of Sumer were usually associated with aspects of nature, such as fertility of the fields and livestock. Among the most important of the many Mesopatamian gods were Anu, the god of heaven; Enki the god of water; and Enlil, the earth god. Deities were often associated with particular cities. Astral deities such as Shamash and Sin were also worshipped. The Mesopatamians are skilled astrologers who studied the movements of heavenly bodies. Priests also determined the will of the gods through the observation of omens, especially by reading the entrails of sacrificed animals. The king functioned as the chief priest, presiding at the new-year festival held in spring, when the kingship is renewed and the triumph of the deity over the powers of chaos was celebrated. In Mesopotamia, each city state had its own god who owned it, and although other gods were admitted, they were always subordinate to the city god. Everyone had to belong to a temple, whatever rank they had in society. If they belonged to the temple of Marduk, they considered themselves ‘the people of the God Marduk’. The god was the lord and the people served him as slaves or at least as servants. Part of everyone’s produce belonged to the god and had to be brought as a sacrifice. The land itself belonged to the god and had to be leased from him. God have never been any good at signing agreements so the contracts were signed on his behalf by the priests. The main festival in Mesopotamia was the New Year Festival held in spring or in autumn. Its significance was the renewal of the land through the sprouting of new buds or the end of the summer scorching. The Sumerian drama focused on Dumuzi or Tammuz, the creative power of Spring while the Goddess was Inanna, the fertility of nature. The drama went this way: the earth goddess conceived a handsome son who later became her lover and begat the next son – a ritual performed by the king and his consort or the head priest and priestess in a ritual coupling. The son died and everyone wailed but the new son was born and everyone rejoiced. In the tropics the vegetation died in the summer heat but in northern climates it died with the onset of frost, so the times were not necessarily the same. (Amytas, 2002) In an article of Sumerian Religion it was said that reincarnation is a concept suitable for Mesopotamians because it was so real and explicit that it was not worth reporting the striking obvious. The Mesopotamians, took painstaking notes of the coming of the sunrise and sunset every day, the return of the seasons, the planets and the stars, always revolving and returning to chartered points in the skies. Thus, they did believe that everything was cyclic, and probably considered life and death as such as well (cited in Adapa). MESOPOTAMIAN MYTHOLOGY The two following stories are one of the descent and ascent stories of Mesopotamian Religion (Amytas, 2002) Descents to the underworld are a constant theme in Mesopotamia and tell about the triumph of the spirit over desire, wrong doings or guilt. Descent stories always contain the warning that one should not venture to ‘the Land of No Return’, that the laws of ‘Great Below’ cannot be changed and it designs the foremost. Nevertheless, Inanna descended to meet Her other Self, the Great Judge and Queen of the Underworld, Ereshkigal, and She who is the Lover and Beloved resurfaced as the vision of triumphant humanity that transcends all deaths. Enlil descended after having raped Ninlil, who immediately took matters in her hands and went down after Him to conquer Her beloved back, achieving major growth along the process herself from maiden to Consort of Lord Air. Even Enlil, the most important of the young Anunnaki gods, had to undergo punishment for a terrible act in the most romantic and intense of all descent stories. However, Ninlil, as the Beloved and Hardest Judge Enlil could have ever had, flew after him for the rescue to bring him back to the Heights Above, to become Enlil’s partner in all levels. All of them faced awesome trials and returned back to the Heights after achieving much healing and growth. It is therefore clear that returns from the Underworld, despite all warnings against venturing over there, can be achieved, but only by the triumph of the spirit, by conquering one’s own weaknesses, by a necessary loss to achieve a major growth. In the myth of Adapa, Adap ascends to the Heavens to meet Anu so that he could justify himself in front of the Skyfather for having been disrespectful to the South Wind. Adapa is the proto-Solomon, the sage and the priest-king of Eridu. He refuses immortality to come back to the Middleworld instead of remaining with the Great Gods in the Great Above, as Anu had given him the opportunity to stay there by eating and drinking from the table of the gods. Adapa refuses the offering, because Enki, Adapa’s personal god, had warned him not to, if Adapa did not want to die. A possible experience for this passage is the following: in the end Adapa understood that he would have eventually eternal life after living a full life in the physical world, and not in the moment he had been offered the gift by Anu. He did not need eternal life when he was offered it by Anu, because he was needed on earth, he was the priest-king the foundation of the state which was being built in Eridu, the place where kingship descended from the heavens. Again, it is a Mesopatamian ascent story with a return, whose mystery show the cycle and the link between heaven and earth, the Great Above and the Great Below not as opposite worlds, but matching complements, in a never-ending cycle. PHOENICIAN LETTERS (Amytas, 2007) The Phoenician Letters is a piece of mystery teachings in a written form from a master to a devoted acolyte in the Mesopotamian tradition, a sort of retro-Caballa. It involves 10 letters, each involving a god/goddess (Rimon-Adad, Nabu, Ishtar, Nergal, Shamash, Marduk, Anu, Enlil, Ea-Enki, Sin-Nana) by the master to the acolyte exchanged during the period of two years. The letters cover the training of a future-priest king by a master kept unknown up to the last letter. The quotations on the chapter of Nergal on the next paragraph are about reincarnation, the Eternal Return. Notice that the piece of metal that is left from the burning of what should be burnt may refer to that part of matter in us that is primeval and without blemish, the seed of the Great Mother that they all carry within, represented by the metal attributions of Mesopotamians deities, or the imperishable in them, their Personal Gods. On Ishtar, â€Å"But Ishtar is all this and more. She is the reborn†¦Know, o Prince, that death is the source of life, life is the cause of death. Dumuzi her lover must die in order to live. She is the rhythm, and all rhythms have an end, this is death, all have a beginning (pages 34-35).   On Nergal: â€Å"There are many forms of heroism. There is that form that represents a magnificent stupidity, where the hero achieves nothing, saving neither his people nor his own life, but taking with him down into death as many of the enemy as possible. He will fight in the underworld that battle which he did not win, for it is sad that as a man dies, all that he has done is presented to him, to see if he regrets his actions or not. If he regrets and pines for the things that he failed to do or the errors he has made, then this is a weight he must carry into his next time of living (Lishtar’s emphasis). Herein is the tale of justice: the assessors of hell visit upon each man his crimes, and according as he loves them or hates them, he will be attracted to the same events, time without end, till the actions of his life be without blemish† (page 41). CREATION OF MAN (and WOMAN) SUMERIAN VERSION Enki, the Magician, and Ninhursag, the Earth Mother, create humankind from the fertile waters of the Abzu and a pinch of clay, breathing into the mix the spirit of a slain god. It is in the myth that the spirit of the slain god resonates in each and every being as a drumbeat, life force, to remind them of its sacrifice. According to Amytas, the myth was a wondrous metaphor that shows incarnation as a gift from Divine Consciousness bestowed upon all humankind, all that lives and breathes. The bond that was thus established between heaven and earth from the beginning of Sumerian religion, whereby from this moment on humankind is called upon to continue for the gods the workings of existence and faithful servants. This metaphor shows the truth all initiates have experiences from times immemorial. Spirit can only incarnate through love, the same way we can only ascend to the heights of religious and visionary experience by giving spiritual body to our soul’s design. Slain in this context may very well mean the necessary loss to achieve higher consciousness, the disrobing and vulnerability needed to enter both Great Above and the Depths Below enforced. Furthermore, the myth of the ‘Creation of Man and Woman’ can be interpreted according to the Sumerians as the never-ending miracle of spirit entering matter and for those of them who live their lives in the light of the Mesopotamian tradition. From the beginning of Sumerian Religion, from the creation of man and woman it is therefore present the everlasting bond between matter and spirit. As concluded by Amytas,† the part of us who belongs to the everlasting spirit will be then confronted by our life achievements and judged by the Annunaki of the Underworld. These deities will be the judges of our souls and decide when we are ready to return from the ‘Land of No Return’. It is for all these reasons that we suggest that the Eternal Return might have been a core understated principle of Mesopotamian religion.† THE BABYLON AND ITS PEOPLE Many scholars believe the first great historian, Herodotus, a Greek who traveled widely over the ancient world several centuries before the birth of Chris, visited the city of Babylon in its decline. He has left a description of the city but, because he could not speak Babylonian, his remarkable statements must come largely from the lips of the guides. The harvest was, Herodotus says, twice or thrice as bountiful as in other lands, the ears of wheat and barley growing to a phenomenal size. Rich groves of palm trees waved in the breeze all over the plain and so expert were the food growers that from the fruit of the palm they got bread, wine and honey. From their scattered villages they looked with pride toward Babel – the Greeks called it Babylon – or the gate of the God. They had no physician. Marriage, he says, was by purchase or auction sale. His most famous statement about the morals of ancient Babylon is to the effect that every woman had once in her life to prostitute herself in what Herodotus calls ‘the court of Venus’, meaning the court of the temple of the goddess Ishtar. There she was compelled to stand until some man threw her a coin, saying, â€Å"the goddess Mylitta prosper thee,† and taking her away to his couch. (Shirlie) On the contrary, in regard to its morals and its women he totally misunderstood his informants. There was no auction of wives in Babylon, and there was no such law as the prostitution of every woman at the temple of Ishtar. By that time, Ishtar was a patroness of virtue and the chief refuge of sinners. Women had in ancient Babylon a position of respect and prestige scarcely lower than they have won in modern times and the law of sexual purity was most drastically enforced upon both sexes. The Babylonian code of laws was compiled by King Hammurabi. This code was found carved on a black diorite column seven feet high in the ruins of Susa in 1901. A conqueror of Babylon about 1100 BC had stolen it and carried it off to the hills. On the upper part of it is a figure of Hammurabi in an attitude of worship before the sun-god, Shamash. The king says he made the code himself. Babylon, supposed to have been a sink of iniquity, in which chastity was unknown, an example followed the clauses of the next paragraph in the Hammurabi Code of four thousand years ago. MESOPOTAMIAN CONCEPTS OF DISEASE AND HEALING Mesopotamian diseases are often blamed on pre-existing spirits: gods, ghosts, etc. Each spirit corresponds or is responsible for a specific disease. For example, ‘Hand of God X’, of the stomach corresponds to what is called a disease of stomach. A number of diseases simply were identified by names, ‘bennu’ for example. Also it was recognized that various organs could simply malfunction causing illnesses. Mesopotamian uses plants as treatment for diseases although this cannot be relative for magical purposes. In addition, specific offerings are made to a particular god or ghost when it was considered to be a causative factor, but these offerings are not indicated in the medical texts, and must have been found in other texts. There two distinct types of professional medical practitioners in Mesopotamia, the ashipu known as the ‘sorcerer’ and the asu which may be referred to as the ‘physician’. The ashipu diagnoses the ailment. In the case of internal diseases, this most often meant that the ashipu determined which god or demon was causing the illness. The ashipu also attempted to determine if the disease was the result of some error or sin on the part of the patient. The phrase, â€Å"the Hand of†¦Ã¢â‚¬  was used to indicate the divine entity responsible for the ailment in question, who could then be propitiated by the patient. The ashipu could also attempt to cure the patient by means of charms and spells that were designed to entice away or drive out the spirit causing the disease. On the other hand, asu is the specialist in herbal remedies and deals with were often classifiable as empirical applications of medication. For example, when treating wounds the asu relied on three fundamental techniques: washing, bandaging and making plasters on which appear in the world’s oldest known medical document (c. 2100 BCE). CONCLUSION Mesopotamian religion in accordance with my research clearly implies that it is the foundation of many religions since, Sargon, who founded the Babylon and created the first Mesopotamian empire, lived over two thousand years before Christ and even a thousand years before the presumed time of Moses of the Christian bible. One example would be the comparison in the story of Moses: one of the clay tablets covered with the cuneiform writing of the Babylonians and Assyrians refers to Sargon, the great king. His mother bore him in secret. After the birth she made a little ark or boat of reeds or rushes, coated it with pitch, which is natural there. She placed the baby in it and she set it afloat on the river, doubtless expecting it to die but hoping it might be saved. The child was destined to be a mighty leader and the gods took care of him. A water-carrier found the ark and reared the child, until the goddess Ishtar saw and fell in love with the youth, and made him king over the land. To sum it all up, learning man’s history always is a very interesting subject, it’s like being transported to a different world where oneself could be alienated. For me it would not matter because the most important thing is that you have respect to all men regardless of their religion. Bibliography Williams, Tyler. Ideas of Origins and Creation in Ancient Mesopatamia. 2007 Lindemans, M.F. Mesopotamian Mythology. 2007 Amytas, Voluptua. Sumerian Religion and the Eternal Return. 2002 Shirlie. God or Goddess? The Son Gods. 1999 http://www.oriental.cam.ac.uk/jmc http://www.archaeowiki.org/Mesopotamia

Thursday, November 14, 2019

Handspring SWOT Analysis :: Business

Handspring SWOT Analysis Strengths 1. Strong Board of Directors. Jeff Harkins, Donna Dubinsky, and Ed Colligan are considered industry leaders. In fact they had been credited with reviving the handheld computing industry. The Palm Pilot which they developed was the most successful product launch in computing history. 2. Good brand identity, strong reputation. By the summer of 2000, Handspring had a 40% market share. There was a four month backlog in orders when Handspring first entered market. 3. Integration of hardware and software for ease of use. Handspring had a license for the Palm operating system. Hawkins created what he called a â€Å"virtual company† to bring hardware design and manufacturing companies together to bring the product to market. Also unlike Palm, Handspring had their hardware and software developer working together to develop a communicator that addressed how people actually use their wireless devices. In developing the Treo, Handspring employed ethnographer who observed how people used their cell phones and PDAs. 4. A company with focused products. The Visor line was continued to have a large market share in the PDA user market. The Treo line was to focus on the increasing functionality by combine PDAs with Cell phone technology to become a communicator. 5. Convenience seen in all in one Treo product. Phone + organizer + e-mail + Web Weaknesses 1. Inability to differentiate from competitors. The Palm OS had been licensed to many companies and made up the lion’s share of the PDA business. All of the major competitors have the same OS. 2. Low expertise in other areas and functionality. A Strand Consulting report stated that handspring would have difficulty surviving the smart phone market because the lack experience in the mobile phone market. 3. Profit margins are shrinking despite an 18% increase in sales. This was a result of downward pricing pressures from an increasing amount of competitors. 4. Divided focus of Harkins. Harkins had recently formed the non-profit Redwood Neuroscience Institute to pursue his lifelong passion for brain research. This of course meant that he no longer 100% focus on Handspring. Opportunities 1. The handheld industry is still changing and currently no company is standing on stable ground. Handspring SWOT Analysis :: Business Handspring SWOT Analysis Strengths 1. Strong Board of Directors. Jeff Harkins, Donna Dubinsky, and Ed Colligan are considered industry leaders. In fact they had been credited with reviving the handheld computing industry. The Palm Pilot which they developed was the most successful product launch in computing history. 2. Good brand identity, strong reputation. By the summer of 2000, Handspring had a 40% market share. There was a four month backlog in orders when Handspring first entered market. 3. Integration of hardware and software for ease of use. Handspring had a license for the Palm operating system. Hawkins created what he called a â€Å"virtual company† to bring hardware design and manufacturing companies together to bring the product to market. Also unlike Palm, Handspring had their hardware and software developer working together to develop a communicator that addressed how people actually use their wireless devices. In developing the Treo, Handspring employed ethnographer who observed how people used their cell phones and PDAs. 4. A company with focused products. The Visor line was continued to have a large market share in the PDA user market. The Treo line was to focus on the increasing functionality by combine PDAs with Cell phone technology to become a communicator. 5. Convenience seen in all in one Treo product. Phone + organizer + e-mail + Web Weaknesses 1. Inability to differentiate from competitors. The Palm OS had been licensed to many companies and made up the lion’s share of the PDA business. All of the major competitors have the same OS. 2. Low expertise in other areas and functionality. A Strand Consulting report stated that handspring would have difficulty surviving the smart phone market because the lack experience in the mobile phone market. 3. Profit margins are shrinking despite an 18% increase in sales. This was a result of downward pricing pressures from an increasing amount of competitors. 4. Divided focus of Harkins. Harkins had recently formed the non-profit Redwood Neuroscience Institute to pursue his lifelong passion for brain research. This of course meant that he no longer 100% focus on Handspring. Opportunities 1. The handheld industry is still changing and currently no company is standing on stable ground.

Tuesday, November 12, 2019

On Dumpster Diving Review

In the article â€Å"On Dumpster Diving†, Eighner states â€Å"After all, the finding of objects is becoming something of an urban art† (455). This shows Eighner is not embarrassed about this practice because it really is meaningful and helps him to survive. Although this art is view for so many people as disgusting, after reading this article and analyzing it, dumpster diving involve certain skills, knowledge and values that makes me think when using them, dumpster diving is a whole different thing than just a nasty practice. I can recall the times I threw good food, supplies and even clothes that I thought were not useful or simply I did not like anymore, and regret it because it makes me feel like the type of college students Eighner mentions in his writing. â€Å"To live in the streets I must anticipate my needs to a certain extent: I must pick up and save warm bedding I find in August because it will not be found in Dumpsters in November† (406). It is incredible how people like us with our hands full of privileges call some things garbage while for those that lack of them have to take advantage to sustain their lives in the present and the future. Now, I am certain that my trash will look different, or otherwise it will make me feel bad since I know someone else might want that piece of bread or need that pair of shoes. As I read over and over Eighner’s lines he looks wiser to me. He emphasizes the value of things and how anything becomes useful, or in other words sustainability â€Å"†¦ things of interest turn up every day and some days are finds of great value. I personally think the main point of this writing is to open people’s eyes and see how we do not appreciate anything around us, and not only the material stuff but also our environment and community. We do not take care of our natural resources and waste them as if they were infinite, we do the same with our things, we stereotype people without t hinking that every single person in different. And if all together put a little of interest and work toward our community, it would make sustainability easier.