Implement a marketing solution (case study) Case Study

Implement a marketing solution ( ) - Case Study Example 2007). By taking the consumers' needs and wants into consideration, Gillette is offering those products with proper design and accuracy for achieving customer satisfaction. It is a product which provides ultimate satisfaction to its consumers. The main feature of Gillette is that it is having five blade frontage technologies. Even though Gillette is having a brand loyalty among the consumers, still it is facing healthy competition from rivalries. The fact behind this is none other than the expensive price tags that Gillette products come with, as compared to other products. Despite being one of the leading companies in the industry, they are facing competition. Following are the leading competitors of Gillette fusion razor: The primary market for Gillette is basically the wholesale distributors in the market. The distributors are the first purchaser of the product. There is a direct relation between the producer and the distributor. Secondary market is the second stage in the movement of a product in the market. Secondary market represents the retailers of the product. The consumers normally buy the product from the secondary market. 1) Increased quality: this strategy of Gillette states that the company is not interested in making profits at the cost of qual

A Midsummer Nights Dream Essay Example for Free

A Midsummer Nights Dream Essay Compare and contrast the writers presentation of love and hate in The End of the Affair, A Midsummer Nights Dream and the poems of Robert Browning The recurring themes of love and hate are prominent in Graham Greenes The End of the Affair, Shakespeares A Midsummer Nights Dream and the poems of Robert Browning, and are in many cases evidently the inspiration for the stories and characters that are created within these texts. In A Midsummer Nights Dream, Shakespeare explores the contrasting emotions of love and hate by involving such impossibilities as magic and fairies in his tale, primarily as a device to bring out in his characters every feeling that is experienced whilst one is in Love or tormented by Hate, including jealousy, control and despair. It is an analysis, rather than just a story, of love and hate. The poems of Robert Browning namely The Laboratory, My Last Duchess and The Light Woman on the other hand, present scenarios in which the contrast of love and hate is present. These poems are not so much an analysis of love and hate as they are a presentation of the effect that these emotions can have on an individual. The End of the Affair is a comparatively more comprehensive examination of the effects of love on a man, and how love is able to create jealousy and insecurity, which can potentially transform into hate, obsession and a lust for control. This is a sentiment expressed by Maurice Bendrix whilst writing about the snowball effect that insecurity can create in a relationship: Insecurity twists meanings and poisons trust. From the very beginning of Act One of A Midsummer Nights Dream, we see that love causes and fuels a need for control and hateful emotions a motif which runs throughout the entire play. Egeuss parental love for Hermia is too strong for him to allow his daughter to marry a man about whom he knows very little, therefore Hermias love for Lysander causes Egeus to hate him, to the extent that he accuses Lysander of stealing his daughter: With cunning hast thou filched my daughters heart/Turned her obedience, which is due to me/To stubborn harshness. Similarly, Robert Brownings The Laboratory includes a female main character who is so consumed by jealousy after her husband becomes enamoured with her rivals, Elise and Pauline, that she has visited an alchemist in order to create a poison that would kill both of them without sparing any of the pain of death. This character, too, accuses her rivals of stealing her love: Shes not little, no minion like me! /Thats why she ensnared him. Interestingly, both Egeus and The Laboratorys main character speak of their loved ones as if they are possessions that are being taken away from them. Egeuss use of the word filch implies that his daughters heart is something of quite superficial value that has literally been stolen, whilst the Laboratory womans inclusion of the word ensnare in her description portrays the image of an animal being unwittingly trapped and taken from her. This shows how ones love for an individual can inspire a need for control over them. If control is not attainable, possessive love can convert into hatred towards potential rivals for control. Maurice Bendrix is a man obsessed with control. He admits that, in order to feel sexual desire towards a woman, he must feel that they are inferior to him: I have always found it hard to feel sexual desire without some sense of superiority, mental or physical. However, when he falls in love with the woman who is the exception to this rule Sarah his lack of control over their relationship inspires hatred within him. Unlike the protagonists of The Laboratory or A Midsummer Nights Dream, Bendrix is the oppressive character who is consciously attempting to take Sarah away from her husband Henry, yet it seems that Henry does not hate Bendrix at all in fact, things are quite the opposite. In parts of the novel, Bendrix hates Henry because, even though Henry and Sarah havent even consummated their marriage, his mere existence prevents Bendrix from having as much control over Sarah as he desires for example, when Henry is ill and Sarah stays at home to look after him, out of a sense of duty more than anything, Bendrix immediately feels inferior to Henry, and he writes I had felt friendship and sympathy for Henry, but already he had become an enemy, to be mocked and resented and covertly run down. Interestingly, Bendrix describes Henry here as his enemy a declaration which is made at various points throughout the novel. Its as though a battle for control over Sarah is being waged between two or three separate parties: Bendrix, the physical lover; Henry, the lawful husband, and, in the time before Sarahs death, even God, who Bendrix describes as a jealous God. On the other hand, Bendrix also hates the fact that Henry doesnt try to have more control over Sarah, which means that she could be having affairs with any number of other men: I hated his blinkers even when I had benefited from them, knowing that others could benefit too. There are also times when Bendrix is disturbed by how easily Sarah can so nonchalantly cope with their secret relationship when she is in front of Henry: We kissed and heard the squeak of the stair, and I watched sadly the calmness of her face when Henry came in. In these cases, it is love which once again fuels hatred towards Henry and suspicion towards Sarah when it is distorted by the emotion of jealousy. Furthermore, all three authors portray the ways in which relationships are affected by the passing of time. Robert Brownings My Last Duchess is a dramatic monologue about a Duke who once loved his wife, otherwise he would not have married her, but eventually began to loathe her recalcitrant ways, proclaiming things like She liked whateer/She looked on, and her looks went everywhere. When the Dukes love for his Duchess was young, his infatuation with her would have compelled him to ignore her imperfections, much like how the main character in The Laboratory places the blame of her husbands infidelity on her rivals rather than him because of her blind love for him. However, as time passed, the Duke began to realise that his wife was far less subservient than he had first thought, which twisted his love for her into frustration and jealousy. Throughout the monologue, the Duke lists a number of incidents in which the Duchess makes him feel jealous, and he expresses his belief that She had/A heart how shall I say? Too soon made glad. It is as though he is using the Duchesss alleged infidelity to justify her murder. The Dukes frustration is reflected in the structure of the poem its not separated into stanzas and there are fluctuations in line length, even though there is a steady rhyme scheme. The chaos within the Dukes mind is also shown via Brownings use of caesura throughout the text; the Duke interjects his own sentences with sudden remarks of disgust and loathing whenever an opportunity arises to once again belittle his wife, for example: She thanked men, good! But thanked/Somehow I know not how as if she ranked/My gift of a nine-hundred-years-old-name/With anybodys gift. The fact that he believes that his own family name is a better gift than any other is also evidence of what a selfish, inadequate husband he was, and the hate that he shows towards his wife is unjustified, and is a result of his own personality flaws. Conversely, there are some who believe that the Dukes loathing is caused by the Duchesss own lack of commitment to the marriage; the Duke only wants feel secure in her love, but she treats him like anybody else. Similarly to the Dukes relationship with the Duchess, Oberons relationship with Titania is also one which varies greatly over time. It is a shallow relationship, considering that its stability seems to rest entirely on the shoulders of a magical changeling boy who is under the guardianship of Titania, but is desired by Oberon. He directly makes his need for the changeling boy known to Titania in Act Two, Scene One: I do but beg a little changeling boy/To be my henchman. Much like Brownings My Last Duchess, a lot of the conflict between the two parties is caused by the wife not giving the husband what he wants. Because of this, Oberons jealousy towards Titania early on in the play is so strong that it causes a series of events which Titania calls the forgeries of jealousy crops are ruined, frogs rain from the sky and livestock has been killed. These are the physical embodiments of Oberons hatred towards his wife. The hatred that stems from her defiance of his request later comes to a climax when he wishes death upon her with his love in idleness juice: The next thing when she, waking, looks upon -/Be it on lion, bear, or wolf, or bull/On meddling monkey, or on busy ape -/She shall pursue it with the soul of love. However, once Oberon has stolen Titanias changeling boy whilst she is distracted by Bottoms artificial love, thus gaining control of the relationship, his attitude towards Titania changes and his love for her is no longer blinded by jealousy, calling the love in idleness a hateful imperfection of her eyes and Titania my sweet Queen. The contrast between the hate and jealousy that Oberon feels for Titania at the beginning of the play and the love that he feels for her towards the end shows that love can be a fickle emotion; if one of the many fine balances that a relationship relies on is knocked out of its equilibrium, then love can be blinded by emotions such as jealousy and possibly hatred. In The End of the Affair, there are three characters whose feelings of both love and hate towards one another change over time: Sarah, Bendrix and Henry. Book Three, which is almost entirely comprised of Sarahs diary entries, is far more coherently structured than the rest of the novel, which is unreliably narrated by Bendrix. This is because Sarahs diary was intended to be read by nobody else, therefore it is a truthful account of thoughts and feelings, whereas Bendrixs accounts are often over-thought to the tiniest detail, which often leads to recollections of the past or even contradictions, such as referring to Henry as his enemy on one page, and then as Poor Henry on the next. Henry is also the source of the only inconsistency in Sarahs writings on one page, she writes I love Henry: I want him to be happy and then on the next page she writes To hell with Henry. I want somebody wholl accept the truth about me and doesnt need protection. Furthermore, Book Three is also a plot device used by Greene in order to fill in the gaps of Bendrixs unreliable narrative and to provide the reader with Sarahs perspective of the affair and her feelings of love over time. We discover in Book Three that Sarahs decision to devote herself to God was the ultimate expression of everlasting love. In Sarahs mind, the only way to save Bendrixs life after the bomb explosion was to stop seeing Bendrix and start believing in God, but we know that this was a last resort because she writes So I said, I love him and Ill do anything if You make him alive. This prayer also served as a vow to love Bendrix forever, even if it meant not seeing him; she used God as an example of how this is possible: People can love without seeing each other, cant they, they love You all their lives without seeing You. Unlike the Duke in My Last Duchess, Sarahs love for Bendrix doesnt deteriorate over time, it just gets stronger. Sarah is more like Titania in A Midsummer Nights Dream, because even though she constantly fears the end of the affair, and even though she has the occasional argument with Bendrix, which may for a short time provide an illusion of hate, she will always love him in the long run, just like Titania and Oberon. All three authors create characters within their texts that exist solely to create conflict or perform acts of hate, sometimes out of some whimsical impulse and sometimes because of misguided love. In The End of the Affair, Bendrix makes several references to a demon that tells him to do or say hateful things for example, after Bendrix tells Henry about how he hired Mr. Parkis (who is also highly skilled in, as Bendrix calls it, the devils game) to follow Sarah, with the intention of hurting him, he writes The demon had done its work. I felt drained of venom. Although Bendrix writes about the demon as though it is an entirely independent entity, there are some who believe that, as a man who insists on being in control, Bendrix quietly thinks that he is the demons creator, because he is not the kind of man who would listen to such things from anybody else. I believe that Bendrixs demon is his sense of jealousy that compels him to hurt whoever puts doubt into his mind. He doesnt hurt Henry simply because he feels like it, he hurts him because his existence means that theres always a possibility that he could take Sarah from him he is the enemy, after all; the one who, according to Bendrix, sometimes has the upper-hand in the battle of love: Didnt he in the end possess the winning cards the cards of gentleness, humility and trust? . The protagonist of Robert Brownings A Light Woman is similar to Maurice Bendrix in that he is assured in the knowledge that he is always right, even though what he thinks is right can cause emotional pain to other people. The poem portrays the fickleness of love through the light woman, who wishes to add the protagonists friend To her nine-and-ninety other spoils/The hundredth for a whim! she thinks of love as a shallow thing to be briefly sampled, rather than savoured. When the protagonist diverts the light womans poisonous attention away from his friend, however, he views it as a hateful act: One should master ones passions, (love, in chief)/And be loyal to ones friends! . Although the protagonist had the best intentions, his act of love towards his friend was misguided. He is also an arrogant person, similar to the Duke, because he compares himself to an eagle and his friend to a wren: The eagle am I, with my fame in the world/The wren is he, with his maiden face. This narcissism leads him to toy with the emotions of the light woman once he has gained her attention, comparing her to a ripened pear: Just a touch and off it came;/Tis mine,- can I let it fall? he doesnt show any concern for the emotions of the woman, he simply doesnt know whether to physically have his way with her or not, having no mind to eat it, thats the worst! , using the pear analogy again. He decides not to respond to the womans advances, thus hurting her feelings as well his original act of love has resulted in a perceived act of hate towards two different people. Despite this, however, he still insists that he did the right thing: Yet think of my friend, and the burning coals/He played with for bits of stone! even though he has inadvertently hurt his friends feelings, he believes that he has saved him from suffering heartbreak as the result of being misguided by the light woman. In A Midsummer Nights Dream, Shakespeares use of Puck to spread the love that Oberon wishes to happen is a device used to create conflict between the characters of the play, thus allowing Shakespeare to present different aspects of love and hate. Like Bendrixs demon, Oberon tells Puck to carry out his act of malevolence out for him when he orders the love in idleness juice to be dropped into Titanias eyes in order to make her full of hateful fantasies. However, similarly to the protagonist of A Light Woman, Oberons good intentions when he tells Puck to douse an Athenian mans eyes with the same juice fall awry when Puck mistakenly places the wrong drops into the wrong eyes. This attempt to create love instead creates a hatred which culminates in Lysander and Demetrius fighting and Hermia wanting to kill Helena, who decides to flee the conflict: Your hands than mine are quicker for a fray;/My legs are longer, though, to run away! . Similarly to the protagonist of The Laboratory, who accuses women of ensnaring her husband, Hermia calls Helena a thief of love, which again shows the need for control in a relationship by referring to lovers as possessions. In conclusion, the recurring themes of love and hate are prominent in Graham Greenes The End of the Affair, Shakespeares A Midsummer Nights Dream and the poems of Robert Browning. The texts explore the need for control in a relationship, and how, if the balance of control is uneven then love can create hateful feelings such as jealousy. The effects of time on love and hate are portrayed in a number of different ways it sometimes causes fear and paranoia, love can be fickle and superficial over time, and sometimes love fades away, only to be replaced by loathing. All three authors use devices in order to create conflict and sabotage love; these are Bendrixs demonic sense of jealousy, a meddling friend and a mischievous fairy. Love is so closely linked to hate that it is capable of causing both joy and pain. Love and hate are complicated, fickle, difficult, blind, chaotic and ultimately quite inexplicable. As Lysander announces in line 134 of Act One, Scene One: The course of true love never did run smooth.

Does Young Goodman Brown Achieve Goodness? Essay -- Young Goodman Brow

Does Young Goodman Brown Achieve Goodness?  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Nathaniel Hawthorne often emphasizes the ambiguous nature of sin, that good and evil do not exist in parallel with each other but at many times intersect with each other in his fiction. In "Young Goodman Brown," Hawthorne applies what he believes is the virtue of recognizing cosmic irony of taking into account the contradictions inherent in the human condition, to his portrayal of Young Goodman Brown. According to Hawthorne's view, Browns failure to recognize the inherent sinfulness in himself as well as the rest of humanity, results, not in a rewarding life of reveling in righteousness, but in isolation and obscurity. Hawthorne juxtaposes the village of Salem, Massachusetts in the early 1690's, where doctrinal law and Puritan theology rule, with the mystical forest where evil and the supernatural reside to symbolically represent Brown's own misguided perception of the mutual exclusivity of good and evil. Brown connects the world of goodness with his wife Faith, who he believes he is leaving behind in the village while he makes his journey into the wilderness. He describes her as a "blessed angel on earth" to whom he vows to return "after this one night I'll cling to her skirts forever and follow her to heaven"(65, 65). Brown's characterization of Faith indicates that he believes he can travel between the world of sin and the world of goodness and remain unscathed or unchanged by the experience. However, Hawthorne creates the conflict of the ambiguous nature of sin in humanity for Brown with certain key symbols. For instance, Hawthorne uses Faith's pink ribbons, to symbolize the notion that although the world of the village is supposed to be that of goodness and purit... ...able fact that sin is a part of human nature. The inability of Brown and Hilda to recognize Hawthorne's concept that humanity resides not on either the side of evil or the side of virtue, but somewhere in between the two where one can acknowledge one's own sinfulness as well as the sins of humanity, but one can also feel compassion for ones fellow human beings despite the sin, is what causes their weakness. Young Goodman Brown, by not noticing the nature of Faith's pink ribbons and Hilda, by looking at "humanity with angel eyes"(55) rather than with the eyes of a woman, both sacrifice the compassion which would allow them to make meaningful and satisfying connections with their fellow human beings. Works Cited: Hawthorne, Nathaniel. â€Å"Young Goodman Brown.† The Norton Anthology of American Literature. Julia Reidhead. New York: W.W. Norton & Company, Inc. 1998.

Albert Camus Essay

This is the commentary on the book â€Å"The Outsider† written by Albert Camus. I decided to set up my commentary writing about: characters, theme, style, time & place and symbolism. The Outsider is a story about a man called Monsieur Meursault, who lives his life in total simplicity and simple enjoyment, but whom society eventually roots out, humiliates and crushes. He lives for the truth. The novel is divided into two parts. In part one his mother dies and he has to go to the funeral. He does not about his mother, so he does not mourn his mother at all. Next day he meets a woman called Marie, with whom he used to work with and they start dating. Meursault invites her out, they go to the cinema and afterwards they sleep together. Later Meursault helps his neighbour Raymond to write a letter to his girlfriend, which leads to the culmination of the book. Raymond and Meursault are now friends and they go to a party where they meet Raymond’s girlfriend’s brother and the Arab, a fight breaks out and the brother attacks Raymond. Meursault goes back to the beach and kills the Arab. Part two is about his trial for murder. The prosecutor is very cruel and Meursault is to be guillotined. At the end he argues with prison chaplain about God and religion. Finally, Meursault finds peace and he thinks perhaps after death his existence may be less absurd; he may be more closely aligned with the universe. He accepts his destiny with clear understanding. In the book â€Å"Outsider† there are three major characters and three minor characters I am going to write about. Characters in Camus novels and plays are keenly aware of the meaninglessness of the human condition, assert their humanity by rebelling against their circumstances. Monsieur Meursault is the central character in the novel. He is emotionless and a careless person; society sees him as an outsider or even a monster. Even though he is honest and as a character he is both disturbing and fascinating. He only seems to care for the most fleeting of sensations and gives no thought to future consequences, for example killing the Arab. For him the events that are important for most people do not mean anything, like the fact that his mother is dead, that Marie loves him and wants to get married. He simply does not care about that. Meursault is amoral; he cannot make difference between good and bad. Raymond asked him to write the letter for his girlfriend, which Meursault does without realising the consequences. Meursault’s indifference seems to apply solely to his understanding of himself. At the end of the novel he realizes that the universe is like him, totally different to human life and that people’s life do not have any meaning or importance, so at the end he is completed as a character. Raymond Sintes is a friend and a neighbour of Meursault. Raymond is a bit like Meursault, he is lonely, he keeps away from other people and he is a cold person. Raymond definitely dislikes women. If Meursault is just different and annoyed with himself, then Raymond on the other hand is a cruel and a violent person, and he knows how to use other people, as he uses Meursault. For example, he has problems with his ex-girlfriend, he beats and abuses her. He says to Meursault that he needs to punish her, which actually leads to conflict with the Arab. Raymond initiates action. Although he only seems to use Meursault, he actually testifies for him and feels a bit responsible. Marie Cardona is the girl who loves Meursault and he likes her as well, but he does not love her. Marie seems to be good-hearted, she accepts everything that Meursault does, including his behaviour and careless. Marie is cheerful, honest and loyal to Meursault. Marie loves Meursault a lot and wants to marry him; she says that she probably loves him because he is so peculiar. Marie also delights in physical contact; they do not kiss in public places. Marie’s physical affection for Meursault signals a deeper sentimental and emotional attachment. Marie acts in a strange way, because Meursault does not care about her at all, but Marie just forgets that and loves him still, and she stays loyal to him even when he is in the prison, she goes to see him. Probably, she enjoys the freedom, because Meursault does not take any interest in her life when they are not together. Marie never grasps the indifference of the universe and she never comes to understand the redemptive value of abandoning hope. Salamano is Meursault’s neighbour. An older man living with his dog (spaniel). He seems to be a very lonely and depressive person and he is filled with anger that he expresses by beating his dog. Meursault does not know him very well, but he always hears Salamano fighting with his dog. Once Meursault hears him crying and he goes to see what has happened, Salamano tells him that his dog is missing and he is really upset. From that, you can see that even if he was beating his dog, he actually loved it very much and the spaniel was the only friend he ever had. Salamano testifies for Meursault in the trial. The Arab is the friend of Raymond’s ex-girlfriend’s brother and he actually plays only a small role in the novel, which is important. You can see that The Arab is a person who wants revenge and he and Raymond’s ex-girlfriends brother are the ones who follow Meursault and Raymond to the beach and start the fight. Meursault is quite cruel to him, after he falls down, Meursault shoots him four times. Maman is not a living character, but is still important. Meursault has a very cold relationship with her; he sent her a home, where she lived out her remaining days. The fact that she is dead, and how Meursault acted in the funeral causes much trouble for him even later. His mother sets in motion society’s negative image of his personality. The novel â€Å"Outsider† was established in 1940’s after the Second World War in France. There is very big effect of the war on people’s religious beliefs. The meaninglessness of human life is one of the major components of Camus’ absurdist philosophy. He finds that human life has no redeeming purpose and the only thing that makes sense is death. In the novel you can see that Meursault finds his peace at the end. He understands that it does not matter whether he dies by execution or normal death. Meursault realizes that he is so different from the universe and the universe is indifferent to him. Like everyone else on this earth, Meursault was born, he will die, and he will not have any further importance to the universe. The importance of the physical world. Meursault is more interested in the physical aspects of the world around him rather than in its social or emotional aspects. In the â€Å"Outsider†, Meursault’s attention centres on his own body, physical contact with Marie, on the weather and on the nature. For example at his mother’s funeral the heat causes much more trouble to him, than the fact that his mother is dead. He also suffers on the beach, because of the sun. Which represents the obsessive effect of society. The story is written in the first person, in the kind of spare, economic style. The flat, impersonal style is perfectly matched to the subject matter. Sentences to not follow upon each other in a logical train, they succeed each other, almost without apparent connection. Camus tries to avoid causal conjunctions, but the ones Meursault uses are â€Å"and† and â€Å"then†, word which do not show motivation. At the end of the book, the language changes a bit. From being very passive it suddenly becomes an obsessive and legal language. The last two paragraphs are the culminating ones, blissful expression of passionate love of life. The sun is one of the symbols in the novel. The sun is usually associated with positive and good things, like societies generally, however they both can become overpowering. They beat down on people, smothering them just like the sun beats down upon Meursault. The sun is presented whenever the force of society is strong within Meursault. There is sun during the funeral, in the court hall, which claims to possess the right to judge people, and on the beach when he kills the Arab. But there is no sun in the cell, because the overpowering force society has been removed. The crucifix symbolizes Christianity, which stands as antagonism to Camus absurdist worldview. Christianity conceived a rational order for the universe based on god’s creation and direction of the world. The chaplain’s insistence that Meursault turn to god does not represent a wish that he should accept particularly Christian beliefs so much as a desire that he holds the principle of a important universe in general. When Meursault defies the magistrate by rejecting Christianity, he totally discards all systems that seek to define a realistic order within human existence.

Eliminating Genetically Modified Foods Essay

What comes to mind when reading the words genetic modification or Bacillus thurigiensis (abbreviated Bt)? I envision laboratories and science experiments, when in reality these words are related to the food we eat every day. What most Americans do not know is the threat that genetically modified food presents to our communities. PLU should do everything in its power to ensure that its students and faculty members are not exposed to genetically modified foods and crops that have been â€Å"protected† through the usage of Bt that has been artificially incorporated into crops, at least while eating on campus. We also need to educate those individuals about the truths of genetic modification and how it can potentially harm the lives of our generation and those to come. After all, PLU’s slogan is â€Å"educating for lives of thoughtful inquiry, service, leadership and care – for other people for their communities and for the earth. † If we can raise awareness of genetic modification on campus, we can help spread the importance of eliminating it to the rest of our community. Researchers have recently found that genetically modified foods have more baggage than advertised, baggage such as the risk of formation of allergies, exposure to toxins in herbicides, and a significant reduction in nutritional value. The genetic modification of crops began in the 1980s and has been growing in popularity ever since. In 1994, researchers successfully genetically modified tomatoes for human consumption. The genetic modification involved deleting a gene which produced the enzyme polygalacturonase which helps in fruit softening. This meant that the tomatoes could ripen on the vine but not spoil by the time they reached the store (â€Å"Tomatoes†). Tomatoes are no longer genetically modified, but are instead made to postpone ripening when the green tomato is picked; they are then taken to a processing plant and â€Å"artificially gassed with ethylene until they are the rosy-red skin tones of a ripe tomato† (Estabrook p. x). Seeing the words gassed and ethylene in the same context as human consumption seems concerning. Unfortunately, many Americans are unaware of how their food has been treated when they are consuming it. Some produce is â€Å"too good to be true† because they seem perfect, without a blemish or bruise, not to mention free from flavor. But, I now know that this is due to gasses that act as a sort of make-up. The tomatoes in PLU’s commons are unsatisfactory in taste, but impeccable in terms of looks. This leads me to think that PLU is purchasing out of season, gassed tomatoes that are bred to be green, as opposed to better quality organically grown produce. This brings nutritional value into question. In a study conducted by the U. S. Department of Agriculture, â€Å"100 grams of fresh tomato today has 30 percent less vitamin C, 30 percent less thiamin, 19 percent less niacin, and 62 percent less calcium than it did in the 1960s,† not to mention fourteen times as much sodium (Estabrook p. x). Who would have thought that an individual’s sky rocketing levels of sodium was not only from McDonalds french fries, but also from what they thought of as a healthy alternative, a tomato bought from the grocery store. Parents are unknowingly buying these tomatoes with the intention of feeding their children something healthy, but in reality they are being undermined by the U. S. Agricultural System. What really is genetic modification? It can be defined as: â€Å"organisms that have had specific changes introduced into their DNA by genetic engineering techniques† (Genetically Modified). According to Assistant Professor Romey Haberle, these types of â€Å"genetic engineering techniques† include the usage of either a gene gun or a natural vector, which sounds just as bad as the ethylene gas previously stated. A gene gun is just that, a gun. Its purpose is to inject cells with specific genetic information into plants or other cells. Natural vector is the usage of DNA cells as a means of transportation into a plant’s cells. The DNA cells contain other specific and modified cells that are foreign to the plant in which it is being injected. These two types of genetic engineering are used to produce specific plants that can have special immunities to certain insecticides, or even to alter the crops’ general composition. Guns and natural vectors are the most common ways of studying and performing genetic modification in today’s agricultural world. â€Å"Bacillus thurigiensis (Bt) is an insecticide with unusual properties that make it useful for pest control in certain situations† (W. S. Cranshaw). An insecticide is a poison designed for insects. In the past it was usually sprayed over fields in an effort to reduce the amount of crops lost to insects. There has recently been in increase in the amount of crops that have this toxin genetically modified to into its DNA, making it impossible to wash off or get rid of. Unfortunately, the crops resist the effects but the toxin is still present on crops as they grow and are picked. Bt works by â€Å"producing proteins that react with the cells of the gut lining within insects†¦these proteins then paralyze the digestive system, and the infected insect stops feeding within hours† (W. S. Cranshaw). In short, Bt causes the insect to die from starvation since their digestive tract is unable to digest. This makes me question the safety of using this product within proximity of humans since it specifically attacks the gut lining of the digestive system. An unfortunate incident with Bt in the Philippines almost caused 100 members of a community to become ill. A crop within close proximity to their area of living had been sprayed with Bt. This crop was then pollinated, filling the air with pollen. The town’s people began to show symptoms of headaches, dizziness, extreme stomach pain, vomiting, chest pains, fever, and allergies plus respiratory, intestinal and skin reactions. Trying to get to the root of the problem, blood tests proved that 39 of the victims showed an anti-body response to the Bt-toxin. This means that the Bt toxin had traveled from the crops to their internal systems. Other villagers also encountered animal deaths from the same problems (Lendman p. 7). This shows that Bt is not suitable for human consumption or human contact. My concern is that PLU will purchase and serve food that has this same toxin present. Yes, the chances of this happening are rare, but we can eliminate the risk altogether by purchasing non-genetically modified produce that has not been exposed to the Bt toxin. PLU’s dining services do a great job of offering fresh and healthy foods for all meals of the day. Each menu is clearly labeled as to whether its food is all natural – grown without fertilizers or pesticides, locally grown, vegan – free from all animal products, vegetarian, or organic. However, organic is rarely seen. The most common labels seen are the locally grown and all natural labels, but it is usually only next to the grilled or sliced chicken breast. PLU should make an effort to move away from genetically modified foods and begin advertising the elimination of engineered foods on the menus. We could do this by allotting more of our food budget to buying organically grown food. We know that to be labeled as â€Å"organic† a farm has to adapt to specific regulations such as not utilizing pesticides or other harmful preservatives and of course, to stay away from genetically modified seeds or plants. I believe that most PLU students are aware of the benefits of organically grown produce but I do not think they are educated as to the benefits of eating non-genetically modified foods. PLU recently had food and water seminars, these seminars present a perfect opportunity to speak and educate about the negatives of eating genetically modified food in order to educate them to help others and make the right decisions for our earth. Most PLU students are interested in the environment and doing what we can to ensure sustainability, this includes the usage of harmful pesticides to our environment. By eating organic we can make a small impact in reducing the amount of non-organic produce bought and distributed. We also reduce the possibility of consuming these same pesticides that pose a threat to our atmosphere by avoiding them all together. By educating the students at PLU about the potential hazards that genetically modified food can present we can influence and encourage the right decisions to be made, the decision of going organic and avoiding genetic modification at all costs. The controversy of golden rice is one that has caused much disagreement within the world of genetic modification. Golden rice is a genetically engineered grain that is being used to â€Å"help fight vitamin A deficiency in the developing world, a disease that contributes to the deaths of 8 million young children in the world† (Ronald). Although this statistic demonstrates the drastic improvement of the overall health in the most underdeveloped parts of the world, it fails to include the â€Å"massive changes in the natural functioning of a plants DNA. Native genes can be mutated, deleted, permanently turned on or off and the inserted gene can become truncated, fragmented, mixed with other genes, inverted or multiplied, and the GM protein it produces may have unintended characteristics† (Lendman p. 2) that could compromise the health of the individual or community consuming it. Researchers have failed to imply the potential harmful effects on gut function, liver function, kidney function, the immune system, endocrine system, blood composition, allergic response and even the potential to cause cancer because of the mutilated DNA that is being ingested by our bodies every time we eat genetically modified foods. Researchers are so quick to glorify the one added nutrient to golden rice that they forget, or rather choose to not advertise the adverse and undesired side effects that could come from eating rice that has a complex and unnatural DNA. Yes, vitamin A deficiency is a real and prominent problem in today’s underdeveloped nations, but solving the problem with genetically altered â€Å"golden rice† presents the risks of forming allergies, being exposed to toxins such as pesticides, and ultimately causing cancer. Instead of investing most of our resources and money into genetically modifying vitamin A into rice, we could donate it to charities that provide food to those underdeveloped countries that are impoverished and are in need of proper nutrition. Allergies seem to be more and more common in today’s society. I too, have been directly impacted. One of my best friends from my junior high and high school years has a deathly peanut and soybean allergy. She constantly carries around an epinephrine auto-injector, abbreviated â€Å"epi-pen,† that she is required to use if she comes into contact with any kind of nut. We find ourselves constantly reading labels and isolating what she can and cannot eat, a practice which is tedious and inconvenient. Her soybean allergy is not as prevalent as her peanut allergy, but it is still concerning. She had an experience of eating an ice cream popsicle, in which she took two bites and her lips started to swell with red hives. Even after carefully analyzing the ingredient list, she still had a reaction to some kind of soybean that had been present within one of the ingredients. Soybeans are present in many foods, and 93% of the soybeans used in the U. S.are genetically modified (â€Å"Genetically Modified†). They are created to withstand herbicides used to kill weeds. This means that 93% of the soybeans used in food across America have the herbicides glyphosate or glufosinate within them since they are modified to resist the harmful effects that the weeds encounter when they are sprayed with a herbicide, the same herbicide that is designed to kill insects and weeds. Our bodies are not meant to ingest these harmful herbicides, so some children react adversely to soybeans that have been genetically altered. Nut allergies seem to be the most common allergy in today’s communities. â€Å"From 1997 to 2007, the prevalence of reported food allergy increased 18% among children under age 18† (Prevalence). This increase in food allergies seems to directly mimic the pattern of genetically modified food’s rise in popularity. Is this comparison ironic? I do not think so. PLU’s ability to specifically mark the types of allergens present in each meal is very important to the rising of today’s allergies that so many young adults are affected by. â€Å"As of 2012 there are many outgoing court cases and FDA investigation into genetically modified foods† (Genetically Modified). There is obviously a concern for the welfare of our communities and the production of genetically modified foods, and PLU should take into consideration the recent increase in food allergies in children, the push for organically grown food, the lost nutrition, and the potential for cancer development. By educating the minds of PLU students about the harmful effects genetically modified food presents to society we can promote for lives of thoughtful inquiry, service, leadership and care both for others and for our planet. These contributors all add up to one conclusion: the reduction or elimination of genetically modified food in our diets. I do not want to pick up the baggage that genetically modified food carries, do you? Works Cited Cranshaw, W. S. â€Å"Bacillus Thuringiensis. † Colorado State University Extension. Dec. 2008. Web. 23 Mar. 2012. . Estabrook, Barry. Tomatoland: How Modern Industrial Agriculture Destroyed Our Most Alluring Fruit. Kansas City: Andrews McMeel, 2011. Print. â€Å"Genetically Modified Food. † 20 Mar. 2012. Web. 23 Mar. 2012. . Lendman, Stephen. â€Å"GlobalResearch.ca – Centre for Research on Globalization. † GlobalResearch. ca. 22 Feb. 2008. Web. 23 Mar. 2012. . â€Å"Prevalence of Food Allergies in Today’s World. † 23 Mar. 2012. Web. 23 Mar. 2012. . Ronald, Pamela. â€Å"What If Organic Farmers Joined Forces with Genetic Engineers? † July 2008: 35-38. Web. 19 Mar. 2012. â€Å"Tomatoes. † GMO Compass. 27 Nov. 2006. Web. 17 Apr. 2012. .

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buy custom Esta Noche essay Esta Noche is poetry that does inspire me emotionally in the sense it does bring out that character of the maid against the gays. In the first instance it is emotionally shocking to have a maid amidst the gays and in gay club. What is likely to happen does leave me with sadness and uncertainty. In addition, Esta Noche does create anxiety to me generally. The fact driving this is the unpredictable environment that the presence of the club and the maid creates. This is the emotional effect that the work is able to create and inspiration of in me. According to Dickinson (2010, Pp. 5), the author plays on literacy conventions by adopting specific ways of spelling words and the sense in which he arranges the words to invent sentences and their conjunction into longer texts. This is depicted in the following excerpt; . . . She tosses back her hair - risky gesture and raises her arms like a widow in a blood tragedy, all will and black lace, and lip-syncs "You and Me against the World". . (Osborne, Murdocca, Brovelli, 2008. Pp. 14). To play against the literacy conventions used by the author I opt to shorten sentences; for example, "You and Me against the World" could instead be us against the rest, and make them more precise and achieve clarity of facts and details (Gregorie, 2008. Pp. 10). Substituting the words with synonyms is my option in literacy conventions used by the author. Esta Noche does create very positive impressions in me. I devour from the reading the sense of anxiety and mechanisms of handling it under some uncertain circumstances and create a relief. In addition, I derive from Esta Noche the extreme of undertaking unpredictable circumstances as I strive to achieve a goal or objective. The maid did not hesitate to take part despite the uncertainty surrounding her presence in the club. Thus, I too drew the sense of matching ahead with courage towards accomplishment of a mission. Further more, the reading has instilled me the need of attaining precision in all undertakings which was built on the fact that if a drag queen`s wig becomes dislodged, she is undone (Hooper, 2007, Pp.6). This has made me more careful in my doings. Buy custom Esta Noche essay

Jimmie Lee Jackson essays

Jimmie Lee Jackson essays In 1951 a movement in the south which was an attempt to help civil rights and led to a serious of non-violent events. These events then later were disasters in black history and caused hundreds of African Americans to suffer. My story starts along that time line in which I had the devastation to watch my best friend fall to the people, the White community. I am a white male and I am proud of who I am and who I came to be. Jimmie Lee Jackson was born in 1938 the same year I was. We grew up as neighbors and I had known him very well all my life. An innocent young man who always wanted to look out for others black or white. His salary was also struck at $700.00 a year, and could not attend school with me for he was denied. The movement of civil rights was led by a man named Martin Luther King Jr. His non-violent approach towards helping blacks was hoped to gain a goal of what we know now as the salad bowl theory. Jackson was the youngest deacon at his church. As far as I know he was farming and logging for work. The movement began with marches and forceful action by the members of the Klan and police. American began to realize the pain of the black community. Around 9:30 pm of February 18, more then 200 marches began walking. The marchers were then asked to stop the revolt and leave. The lights in the street went out and caused total chaos. The troopers were beating men left and right, sometimes hitting the woman even. Jimmie and his family went inside a caf for cover, but his dad was hit with a club and Jimmie tried to take him to the hospital but they couldnt get out. A trooper then struck his mother of the head and Jimmie retaliated by hitting the trooper. The other troopers began beating him senseless repeatedly. A man pulled out his gun and murdered my best friend. All Jimmie was doing was marching for his ...