Saturday, January 25, 2020

Dominant Women in Society :: essays research papers

In the story Hunger as Ideology by Susan Bordo women are portrayed as passive and inferior to men. Bordo looks into advertisements to prove her point about how visible it is that women are how they are suppose to be dainty and quaint. In the movie â€Å"The Thomas Crown Affair† it is totally opposite; the woman in this story is independent, strong, and self-reliant. She is able to outsmart him and prove to him that she is able to survive without any help. The modern women has transformed and broken the stereotype and have made their way into society as an equal. Nowadays, advertisements depict how women should act, dress, and eat. For example in Hunger as Ideology, it show two different advertisements for Haagen-Dazs Ice cream, one with a man who just finished a half-pint smiling, the other with a woman who just took a bite from her ice cream bar. Although very discreet, the message is visible to consumers. Another example, are the sugar-free Jell-o ads, where an attractive slender woman is leaning back on a chair eating jell-o from a glass. Above the picture is a quote which says, â€Å"I’m a girl who just can’t say no. I insist on dessert†. To the side of the ad, it states, â€Å"Every woman is entitles to her just desserts. Just as long as dessert is Sugar Free Jell-O Gelatin. It’s light and fruity and fun. And it’s only calories.† This ad emphasizes on how women want dessert, but its only okay to have it if its sugar free. â€Å"The dessert you don’t have to desert† because itâ€⠄¢s sugar free. Same concept with the Wonder Light Bread, in this ad two women are side by side on a park bench one holding a carrot, the other happily smiling with a sandwich and the ad saying, â€Å" You’ll think your cheating, but you know your not†¦It’s Wonder Light bread†. These ads accentuate how its okay to eat a lot, as long as you eat â€Å"light†. Women look upon these ads and are convinced that this is how they are suppose to be, but in the Thomas Crown Affair, the message is completely opposite. Catherine Banning, is the insurance lawyer for the case against the stolen Monet painting in the â€Å"Thomas Crown Affair†. It is evident that she is a strong independent woman who needs not to rely on anyone especially a man.

Friday, January 17, 2020

A Smart System for Now and the Future

What organization would turn away from a system which eliminated waste? In today’s business climate of doing things faster, better and at less cost and with less waste, the Lean system of management and/or manufacturing has been proven to eliminate overproduction, wasted steps and movements, unnecessary transport and conveyance times, and waiting periods. Sayer and Williams (2007) in their book, â€Å"Lean for Dummies† demonstrate the advantages of this concept. Sayer and Williams (2007) compare the Lean concept of business and organizational strategy to the physical and mental strength of the athletic or physically fit:   There is nothing there that cannot be used, no excess fat, and no waste (p. 10). Where previous business practice involved the mass production of a product to be sold to the masses, management would find they were often left with extra inventory. Inventory not sold is a lost profit potential, the inventory itself requires space to store and is yet another waste, and a surplus of inventory results in price fluctuations that may not be beneficial to the organization. With Lean thinking, the process of manufacturing or managing product development is completely customer driven with the focus on the needs of the customer and the advantage to the customer if competitive advantage is foremost. The culture of an organization, according to Sayer and Williams (2007), must value individual creativity and empowerment to secure a satisfied customer base. Lean thinking eliminates the traditional hierarchy of corporate management and embodies individual work teams where individual creativity can flourish. Lean management also reduces the risk of occupational injury by virtue of scaling back wasted steps and movements of individual employees. Continual process improvement and quality assurance monitoring embody the importance of employee empowerment to secure this satisfied customer base. Sayer and Williams (2007) underscore how Lean management systems are able to make continuous process improvements during projects or work floors by utilizing Six Sigma practices. Project management via team leaders periodically meet at their workstations or places of project development and participate in worksite analyses, value stream mapping interpretation and otherwise focus on project improvement. A project can be improved or redesigned mid-project if necessary, further boosting performance, reducing costs and increasing customer satisfaction. Using impact and effort assessments, Six Sigma practitioners can determine what is the least effort required – in terms of costs, inputs, and employee needs – to have the greatest impact to a project and, ultimately, the satisfaction to the customer. Six Sigma uses data analysis, logical cause analysis, and other trending tools to determine value-added potentials to a project (p.97.) Utilizing value stream mapping, an organization or manufacturer works toward the goal of flow, without stoppage, without broken equipment and an increase in multitasking (p. 41). Understanding flow and data will dictate where waste can be eliminated (p. 80). Henry Ford, according to Sayer and Williams (2007), was the primary pioneer of Lean manufacturing concepts. Given the technology of his day, Ford was able to increase the quality of his cars at a reduced cost to the purchasers by managing and reducing waste at his manufacturing plant (p. 17). Ford understood the value-added effects of less waste of time and effort would have on his employees and his customers (p.17). Ford understood his plant should not waste space for production, not waste the time his employees took to move about workstations or between workstations, and have the necessary tools to do the job but without excess implements that might go unused (p.44). According to Sayer and Williams (2007), Lean thinking requires a corporate or organizational culture of quality. The Toyota manufacturing system uses Lean thinking as a new paradigm of manufacturing excellence, relying on continuous improvement and thinking where everyone is a problem solver. Toyota applies â€Å"Just in Time† concepts to Lean manufacturing, where the right part is assembled by the right person at the right time (p. 35). Relying on elimination of waste as its goal, Lean thinking demands the right combination of quality and service. â€Å"The customer is willing to give you their money for your product or service only when they believe it’s a fair exchange of value,† (Sayer and Williams, 2007, p.14). The customer ultimately has a need for a particular product or service and sets the tone for meeting that need and defines the purpose of the product development or production. According to Sayer and Williams, (2007), it is imperative to identify who the customer is and to determine what the customer considers valuable in order to apply Lean concepts to an organization (p. 28). All of these concepts require constant data gathering; the tallying up of effort, process distribution, causation of outcomes, and work sampling. According to Sayer and Williams (2007), data, portrayed in a diagrammatic visual aid such as a Scatter Plot, provides conclusions and predictions about what can happen next (p. 185). Pareto Charting allows a visual representation of where are actual costs (p. 183). Lean thinking is about constant evaluation of data. Lean concepts cannot be adopted by an organization without development of a culture of trust and respect. These values must be demonstrated toward employees as well as customers. In order for management to go beyond stated or implied principles, they must demonstrate trust and respect toward employees. According to Sayer and Williams (2007), fundamental applications of Lean corporate values are demonstrated when the organization fosters â€Å"personal safety, employee security, challenges and engages employees, celebrates wins, offers continuous growth and education, exercises effective communication† (p. 215). Lean thinking is not limited to manufacturing cars or widgets. As Sayer and Williams (2007) point out, â€Å"The future of Lean across all industries are limitless† (p. 311). As Lean thinking is seen as not the next gimmick of business practice but the future of business practices, Lean practices will be seen in industries such as health care, engineering, construction, and other industries wishing to increase performance and decrease costs to achieve customer satisfaction. In the field of health care, for example, Lean practices result in reduced errors, reduced waiting times, increased staff productivity and increased patient education (p. 310). Lean practices are seen already as a method to eliminate waste, reduce cost, and those values translate to customer satisfaction in almost every industry. Lean practices have been put into place by industry leaders many years before the term ‘Lean’ was coined. Lean practices are the answer to reduced overproduction, reduced wait times, fewer steps between workstations and reduced transport times. References Sayer, N. and Williams, B (March 2007). Lean for dummies. Indianapolis, Indiana: Wiley Publishing Inc.                           

Wednesday, January 8, 2020

A Book History of the Epic of Gilgamesh and Looking at the Book as Artifact - Free Essay Example

Sample details Pages: 4 Words: 1140 Downloads: 3 Date added: 2019/07/29 Category History Essay Level High school Tags: Gilgamesh Essay Did you like this example? What was the first book? You can argue that it goes back as far as someone placing their hand on a wall in a cave and leaving their mark behind. It could be argued that it was the hieroglyphics, it could be argued it was stone tablets from 2100 BC. There is an immense number of firsts. The Epic of Gilgamesh is one of the oldest book artifacts that has been unearthed. Don’t waste time! Our writers will create an original "A Book History of the Epic of Gilgamesh and Looking at the Book as Artifact" essay for you Create order The Epic of Gilgamesh is a cuneiform text which is estimated to have been written in 2100 BC. This paper explores the book history of the Epic of Gilgamesh as well as examining the book as an artifact. What is the Epic of Gilgamesh? A History Gilgamesh was first discovered and translated in the 19th century. The story became popular quickly because the 11th tablet detailed the events of the Flood story from the Book of Genesis in the Old Testament. In Mesopotamian culture the language of learning, Sumerian and Akkadian was a treasured curriculum that had to be mastered by student scribes. According to Andrew George in the Penguin edition of the Epic of Gilgamesh: The Babylonian Epic Poem and Other Texts in Akkadian and Sumerian (Preface and Introduction), all the literature that we have in Sumerian derives from the tablets written by these young Babylonian scribal apprentices, many of which were found in the remains of the houses of their teachers . It can be assumed that the Epic of Gilgamesh was written by these scribes due to the fact that not only were the tablets found in the remains of the scribes teachers homes, but also because not many would have been well enough educated in order to write this epic. The Sumerian literary texts that achieved the most publicity are the five poems of Gilgamesh. However, these are not the same as the Babylonian Gilgamesh epic that were written in Akkadian but are separate tales with similar themes. The Sumerian poems acted as a source material for the Babylonian epic. So even one of the oldest books in history, has even more history behind it and couldnt have developed without older Sumerian texts. Other Akkadian works have been recovered from this time frame. Some of them were well kept and finely written, these include three Babylonian tablets of Gilgamesh which we owe our knowledge of the story to. The Discovery of the Tablets Gilgamesh was first discovered and translated in the 19th century. The story became popular quickly because the 11th tablet detailed the events of the Flood story from the Book of Genesis in the Old Testament. The 11th tablet was excavated in Kouyunjik (now Nineveh, Iraq) by Hormuzd Rassam. The tablet is 15.24 centimeters long, 13.33 in width, and 3.17 centimeters in thickness and is made of clay . The fragment of the tablet has inscription on both sides with 49 and 51 lines as well as 45 and 49 lines. The tablet describes Ea, a god, told Utu-napishtim about the flood to destroy the earth. He told Utu to make a boat and save Utu and his family. Utu agreed, and when he, the birds, and the beasts were aboard the door shuts and the rest of mankind died. After six days the flood let up. The gods were mad at Utu and he and the animals could not find a final resting place. He made a sacrifice and Ea interceded and gave them an abode at the mouth of the river Euphrates. The next prominent tablet that was discovered was the 5th tablet. It was acquired from the Sulaymaniyah Museum in 2011 and was discovered to hold text from the Epic of Gilgamesh. The fifth tablet (in two parts) details the story of Gilgamesh and Enkidu as they fight the protector of the Cedar Forest, Humbaba. The earliest texts of Gilgamesh were written by the Sumerians in the third millennium B.C.E. in Mesopotamia. By the second millennium the story was inscribed on 11 tablets. Additionally, Assyrian scribes added a tablet that describes Gilgameshs arrangements for death and his future in the underworld in the 8th century B.C.E. One part of the fifth tablet is known as the Standard Babylonian version of the Gilgamesh Epic. It is written in cuneiform employing the writing system of wedge-shaped symbols used throughout the Near East in the first four millennia B.C.E. The tablet measures 4.3 by 3.7 inches and 1.2 inches thick. This tablet is believed to have been unearthed at a Babylo nian site. There were arguments whether the tablet was Old Babylonian or Neo-Babylonian. Andrew George, the British academic who wrote the translation of the Epic of Gilgamesh I quoted in my first report, believes that it is a typical Neo-Babylonian script which was not written later than the sixth century B.C.E. Two tablets represent the story of Tablet V. The Neo-Assyrian tablet from Nineveh and the Late Babylonian tablet from Uruk that Andrew George speaks of. Gilgamesh is still to this day constantly evolving as new pieces are still being discovered. After the US invaded Iraq and looted the Iraqi museums, the Sulaymaniyah Museum started an initiative in which they paid smugglers to obtain artifacts on their journey to other countries. The museum did not ask any questions regarding where it came from, how much it was, or who was selling it. The museum believed this would keep smugglers from selling to other buyers due to legal ramifications. In 2011, they discovered a collection of clay tablets. The collection was almost 90 clay tablets of different contents and shapes, they were all covered in mud. Some were in fragments while others were in pristine condition. The location is unknown due to the fact that the museum refused to ask questions to protect smugglers. It is believed that they were illegally obtained from the southern part of Babel which was previously Babylon or what was previously Mesopotamia. Professor Farouk Al-Rawi who teaches at the School of Oriental and African Studies was responsible for examining each item and appraising them. The seller did not know what the tablet was, only that it was really large, and he wanted a large sum of money for it. Professor Al-Rawi, knowing he had something greater, told Mr. Hashim to buy it and give the seller what he wanted. They bought it for $800. Professor Al-Rawi was cleaning the tablet and noticed that the three sections of the tablet were joined together, although it is unknown who put them together. Eventually, Al-Rawi discovered that he was working on one of the tablets from the Epic of Gilgamesh. It took five days in November 2012 to read and translate the cuneiform text. The tablet is inscribed in Neo-Babylonian cuneiform. It is number T.1447 in the Sulaymaniyah Museum. It is 11cm tall, 9.5 cm in length, and 3cm in thickness. It is dated between 2003-1595 BCE, although Al-Rawi dates it between 626-539 BCE.