Capitalism and the American Dream

SOCI 2013 17 April 2013 How Capitalism Affects the American Dream Capitalism is defined as â€Å"an economic system in which the ownership of the means of production- like land, factories, large sums of money, and machines – is in private hands† (SOC 10). Social Philosopher Karl Marx strongly believed that in the end, capitalism simply wouldn’t work for several different reasons. His idea became known as Marxian conflict theory. While the functionalist theory examines groups’ order and cohesion, the conflict theory examines ways groups disagree and struggle for power.Marx predicted that capitalism would cause continuous tension between the haves and the have -not’s; the have-not’s mostly being the minorities and the poor. He believed that capitalist societies would be reduced to two social classes; the capitalist class (the bourgeoisie or the rich) and the working class (the proletariat or the poor), and that this division would eventually ca use some sort of social upheaval. Generation Y is in trouble with the years to come seeing as it is against the odds that one will becomes part of the small percentage of people that are the capitalists.If our economic system remains the same, the generations to come will become nothing more than workers for the bourgeoisie. Karl Marx gave five reasons in particular as to why capitalism will fail. It will result in monopolies, inflation, unemployment, lack of income, and the wealthy ultimately ruling the world and making the rules. This all will result in reduced quality goods, poverty, poor legislation, and people not being able to afford the necessities of life.The first reason Marx gave as to why capitalism won’t work is that in a capitalist economy, monopolies are unavoidable. A monopoly is when one supplier of a particular commodity is the only supplier. Monopolies eliminate competition. This gives the supplier the power to charge high prices and reduce the quality of th e products because the consumers don’t have any other choices. An example of this would be cable TV verses things like Dish TV, the iPad, and Netflix. Not as many people want to pay for cable when it is much easier and cheaper to view television shows and movies n other ways. The same concept is happening to land line phones. Gasoline companies are obvious example of monopolies, in which the easiest mode of transportation is a motor vehicle. In this case, people eventually will have no choice but to purchase gasoline. OPEC (Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries) now controls 46% of all the oil produced in the world, making it a huge global monopoly. Paying high prices for lower quality products will only cause more and more problems for future generations.The second reason Marx gave was that because there is no centralized planning in capitalism, meaning that over-production of products is inevitable, and in turn, causes inflation and depressions. Over production is when too many goods are produced and supply outdoes demand. Companies are left with stocks they cannot sell and are forced to shut down as a result. Another reason capitalism doesn’t work is that unemployment levels are raised. Demands for labor saving machinery force employers to let people go.The worldwide unemployment rate is 6% while the United States, a capitalistic economy, has an unemployment rate of about 8%. According to Marx, unemployment is unavoidable in our economic system. Unemployment also plays into the fourth reason Marx gave, which is that employers will try to maximize their profits by reducing labor expenses and firing people, thus creating a situation where the unemployed don’t have enough income to buy the goods produced, creating the contradiction of causing profits to fall, which starts the cycle all over again.The fifth, and perhaps the most startling reason Marx gave, is that the control of the state will be by the wealthy, the effect of wh ich is laws benefiting themselves. The wealthiest 1% of people in the United States control 42% of the wealth in our country. Many of these super rich are the ones that own the monopolies like the oil suppliers or are politicians that make laws that are ultimately in their favor. Even if a person in the generations to come were to work hard and have a good paying, stable job, it is still very unlikely that they will be one of he super rich, allowing them to be safe from the current and/or potential economic depressions. Thus, it is safe to conclude that Marx was correct in his predictions that a capitalistic country will eventually fail. Works Cited Amadeo, Kimberly. â€Å"Monopoly. † About. com. N. p.. Web. 15 Apr 2013. . Benokraitis, Nijole. SOC. 2nd Edition. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth, Cengage Learning, 2012. 9,10,14,151,152. Print. Kopicatsu, . â€Å"Karl Marx: Why Capitalism Will Fail. † The Escapist. N. p. , 16 Sept 2011. Web. 15 Apr 2013. lt;http://www. escapistmaga zine. com/forums/read/528. 313395-Karl-Marx-Why-Capitalism-Will-Fail> â€Å"Top 1 Percent Control 42 Percent of Financial Wealth in the U. S. – How Average Americans are Lured into Debt Servitude by Promises of Mega Wealth.. † My Budget 360. N. p.. Web. 15 Apr 2013. . â€Å"Unemployment. † Wikipedia. N. p. , 13 Apr 2013. Web. 15 Apr 2013. .

Othello & Racism Essay

In Shakespeare’s play Othello the main character is Iago, although the play’s protagonist, at least during some points of the play is Othello. This paper will seek to examine the roles of Victorian stereotypes in the destruction of Othello’s character especially in the hoodwinking qualities of Iago in splitting up Desdemona and Othello The first scene of the play is set in the streets of Venice where Roderigo and Iago are in deep disagreement with what is later revealed to be a plot to destroy Othello’s marriage to Desdemona. Othello is the object of hatred of both Roderigo and Iago, as Iago states, â€Å"Your heart is burst, you have lost half your soul; Even now, now, very now, an old black ram Is topping your white ewe. † (Shakespeare I, I 97-9) Roderigo is especially racist toward Othello in the company of Iago, as Orkin states, â€Å"Roderigo too is proficient at racist insult†¦and falling upon the racist stereotype of lust-ridden black man when he calls to Brabantino that his daughter has given himself to the ‘gross clasps of a lascivious Moor’ (Shakespeare I. i. 126, Orkin 168). The evil scheme is two-fold; one, to break up the marriage of Othello and Desdemona so that Roderigo can woo Desdemona and eventually make her fall in love with him, two, that Iago can finally have his revenge on Othello. Iago suspects that Othello has slept with his wife Emilia and he detests Othello for passing him over for a promotion that he felt he deserved more than the less experienced soldier Michael Cassio. In the first few scenes of the play, Othello’s name is never mentioned, emphasizing the secrecy in Roderigo and Iago’s dealings. Instead, Othello is referred to as â€Å" the Moor† and descriptive phrases such as â€Å" thick lips†, â€Å" a Barbary horse† are used to refer to Othello’s person, which emphasizes Victorian stereotypes of the African race. While alone with Othello, Iago implies the possibility that Desdemona is having an affair with Cassio. Iago manages to persuade Othello to doubt Desdemona’s loyalty and love for him. He tells Othello to closely examine his wife’s actions when she is with Cassio, as Othello states, â€Å"She loved me for the dangers I had pass’d, And I loved her that she did pity them. This only is the witchcraft I have used: Here comes the lady; let her witness it.. (Shakespeare I, iii193-6). Othello’s first gift to Desdemona was a handkerchief, which is a very Victorian gift to give to a lady. This supposedly trivial object later becomes the piece of evidence that Iago uses to destroy Othello’s marriage, and as Othello laments at the close of the play, â€Å"I had been happy, if the general camp, Pioners and all, had tasted her sweet body, So I had nothing known. O, now, for ever Farewell the tranquil mind! farewell content! Farewell the plumed troop, and the big wars, That make ambition virtue! O, farewell! Farewell the neighing steed, and the shrill trump, The spirit-stirring drum, the ear-piercing fife, The royal banner, and all quality, Pride, pomp and circumstance of glorious war! And, O you mortal engines, whose rude throats The immortal Jove’s dead clamours counterfeit, Farewell! Othello’s occupation’s gone!. (Shakespeare III, iii, 397-409). One evening, as Desdemona and Emilia inform Othello that dinner is ready, Othello complains of a headache. Desdemona promptly offers her handkerchief to bind his head to relieve the pain. Othello comments that the handkerchief is too small and pushes it away. Desdemona unknowingly loses grip of the handkerchief as she and Othello walk out of the room. Emilia picks up the handkerchief, remembering that Iago had asked her a number of times to steal it, she is delighted at the prospect of surprising her husband. At the same time as Iago was to plant Desdemona’s handkerchief in Cassio’s room, Othello who discovers his plot is infuriated and exclaims that he’d rather witness deception first hand than assume infidelity without conclusive evidence. At this point, Iago, ever the manipulator, manages to get his way again by fabricating another story that Cassio once called out Desdemona’s name in his sleep and that Cassio acted as if he were kissing Desdemona. Iago reinforced his claim by claiming to have seen Cassio wipe his beard with the handkerchief. This enrages Othello and he vows to seek revenge on Cassio and Desdemona for the alleged infidelity. Once again, Iago succeeds and even manages to get promoted to lieutenant. In the play, Desdemona’s handkerchief is the symbol of faithfulness and later in the play the symbol of truth. It is the handkerchief which symbolizes Othello’s internalization of Victorian mores into his character which allow him to believe Iago’s tripe about Desdemona’s infedelity, and which ultimately leads to his downfall, his loss of love, and his shame. Work Cited Greenblatt, Stephen, et al. , eds. The Norton Shakespeare. New York: W. W. Norton, 1997. Orkin, Martin. Othello and the ‘Plain Face’ of Racism. Shakespeare Quarterly. Vol. 38, No. 2. (Summer 1987). Pp. 166-188.

New Developments in Technology Management

The teaching of technology management has a long history in business schools. However, the nature and focus of such curricula have changed in recent years, due to several trends. The rise of a knowledge-based economy has brought greater attention to the management and commercialization of intellectual property (Markman, Siegel, & Wright, 2008).Questions regarding the appropriate business models to foster successful commercialization have been further complicated by the rise of â€Å"open-source† innovation (e. g. , Linux, a software company that has captured substantial market share). And new institutions (e. g. , incubators and science parks; Phan, Siegel, & Wright, 2005) and new organizational forms (e. g. , research joint ventures [RJVs], and technology alliances) have emerged that may also have profound effects on technology management education.Nonprofit institutions, most notably universities and federal laboratories, have become much more aggressive in protecting and ex ploiting their intellectual property (Siegel & Wright, 2007). Such institutions, es324 Copyright of the Academy of Management, all rights reserved. Contents may not be copied, emailed, posted to a listserv, or otherwise transmitted without the copyright holder’s express written permission. Users may print, download or email articles for individual use only. pecially universities, are also working much more closely with industry and government.These trends and growing involvement of government and nongovernmental institutions in innovation and commercialization have led to growing international recognition of the narrowness of technology management education as it is practiced today. Some business and engineering schools have responded to these developments by designing new courses and curricula related to technological entrepreneurship. Some countries with centralized educational systems (e. g. , Japan, Singapore, and Ireland) are graduating â€Å"bilingual engineers† with capabilities in technology and business.Yet, this trend of marrying technology with management education is still far from being in the mainstream. Another important development in stimulating and changing the nature of the demand for technology management education is the rise of knowledge and intellectual property management as a professional field. In many countries, national governments have supported these initiatives by en- 2009 Phan, Siegel, and Wright 325 acting legislation to facilitate public–private research partnerships, technology transfer (through patenting and licensing) from universities to firms (e. g. , the Bayh–Dole Act of 1980), and collaborative research.For example, the EU, China, and Singapore have established technology-based venture funds to stimulate the development of technologybased start-up companies. In the United States, the national â€Å"public sector venture capital† for technology-based new ventures, the Small Business Inn ovation Research (SBIR) program and numerous state-level programs with similar goals (e. g. , Ben Franklin Technology Partners, Pennsylvania, and the Massachusetts Technology Development Corporation) have propelled technology transfer issues to the forefront of university technology management curricula.Government is also providing subsidies for research joint ventures involving universities and firms (e. g. , the Commerce Department’s Advanced Technology Program/Technology Innovation Program), shared use of expertise and laboratory facilities (e. g. , the National Science Foundation’s Engineering Research Centers and Industry– University Cooperative Research Centers), and programs to promote management and entrepreneurship education among scientists and engineers (e. g. the Science Enterprise Challenge in the U. K. ). These and other trends discussed here have led to experimentation and innovation in technology management pedagogy and content, which is the focu s of this special issue. For example, it is obvious that the rise in collaborative research and commercialization has important educational implications, since it implies that team-work has become more important in science and engineering, especially when both innovation and commercialization are involved.This has resulted in the increasingly popular use of real-life team projects as the primary method of delivering discovery-based learning. Our purpose in this special issue is to assess the implications of these trends for technology management curricula in business schools. In spring 2008, we issued an open Call for Papers on the Academy of Management website, the Social Science Research Network, and other venues. We received 38 manuscripts, which were reviewed according to AMLE standards for the Research & Reviews section.Papers were also solicited for the Essays, Dialogues, & Interviews and Exemplary Contribution sections, which were subject to the usual peer-review process. Bas ed on the results, we selected several manuscripts for inclusion which are summarized in Table 1. The remainder of this essay is organized as fol- lows: First, we describe recent public policy changes, which have promoted university– industry partnerships, collaborative research, and technology transfer from universities and federal labs to the private sector.Then, we discuss the educational implications of these trends, drawing on some of the lessons learned from the papers in special issue. Finally, we outline an agenda for additional research on technology management education. PUBLIC POLICY INITIATIVES INFLUENCING TECHNOLOGY MANAGEMENT In recent decades, we have witnessed rapid growth in the incidence of a variety of research partnerships and technology commercialization involving corporations, universities, nonprofit organizations, and government agencies.This growth can be attributed to three policy initiatives: †¢ Policies promoting the transfer of technology from universities and federal labs to firms †¢ A large increase in the incidence of public– private partnerships †¢ Relaxation of antitrust enforcement related to collaborative research Examples of such technology partnerships are research joint ventures, strategic alliances and networks involving high-technology organizations, industry consortia (e. g. SEMATECH), cooperative research and development agreements (CRADAs) involving federal labs and firms, engineering research centers (ERCs), and industry– university cooperative research centers (IUCRCs) sponsored by the U. S. National Science Foundation, federally funded research and development centers, science parks and high-technology incubators (many of which are located at universities), and licensing and sponsored research agreements involving universities, government laboratories, firms, and university-based start-ups. Table 2 summarizes the key U. S. egislation promoting government– university œindustry partnerships, collaborative research, and technology transfer/commercialization. The most important legislation in this regard is the Bayh–Dole Act of 1980, which dramatically changed the rules of the game with respect to the ownership of intellectual property rights of technologies emerging from federal research grants. Bayh–Dole conferred the right to universities to patent and claim the scientific discoveries arising from U. S. government-funded research, instituted a uniform patent policy across federal agencies, and lifted numerous restrictions on technology licensing.As a result of this legis- 326 Academy of Management Learning & Education September TABLE 1 Summary of Papers Authors Barr, Baker, Markham, & Kingon Key Research Question Discovering how to teach technological entrepreneurship skills that will help bridge the â€Å"valley of death† in COT between creation of technology and emergence of a commercial venture. Theory/Framework Van Burg et al. (2008) science-based design framework of five factors critical to enhance science-based start-ups; cognitive theory; theory of planned action.Data/Methods Analysis of development of a COT program for MBA, PhD, and master’s students at North Carolina State over 14year period. Findings/Conclusions Enactive mastery experiences have to be perceived as authentic and real to have desired effect; importance of loosely structured handson engagement; program needs to be real, intensive, interdisciplinary and iterative; need to create temporal checkpoints, decenter business plans, to structure large blocks of time, to emphasize and balance team diversity, generate technology flow, beware of idiosyncratic heuristics.Significant positive effects of the program on student perceptions of the multidisciplinary capabilities needed to operate in a technological business environment. Thursby, Thursby, & Fuller What are the benefits and challenges of integrated approaches to graduate edu cation in technological entrepreneurship? Theory of the Firm—Economic Approach to Evaluation. Austin, Nolan, & O’Donnell How to design a student experience in technology management that addresses the learning cycle more completely, while maintaining very high levels of student engagement. Experiential learning theory.Ordered logit analysis of program assessment data including pre- and postsurveys and a control group relating to a NSF-sponsored integrated program at Georgia Tech and Emory University involving PhD, MBA, and JD students. Programs at universities in two countries, MNC executives, and open enrollment course at a business school; combination of case and traditional lecture-based approaches; narrative approach based on monomyth; student course feedback and follow-up 1 year later. Verzat, Byrne, & Fayolle Boni, Weingart, & Evenson What teaching methods can be used to create entrepreneurial engineers that have a keen sense of teamwork?Are games an appropriate p edagogical device to meet the specific learning needs of engineering students? Can games help engineering students learn about teamwork? How to teach skills of creating disruptive innovations and develop new business opportunities through blending entrepreneurial thought and action, design thinking, and team building. Education science and team process; Kirkpatrick’s 4level hierarchy of evaluation. Use of team games in a traditional elitist French teaching context that emphasizes individual learning; evaluation data collected from 111 groups on initial reaction to the game and interviews 3 months later.Approach works at multiple student levels with same materials but emphasis differs across groups; able to use with introductory and capstone courses; approach acts as a leveler in class as all can engage with the ‘story’; issues concerning integration of supplementary materials, lack of ‘closure’ in each class, use of fictionalized cases. Games rated a positive reaction from students despite being an informal departure from normal formal approach; real learning outcome in exposing students to importance of team working.Disruptive innovation, entrepreneurial leadership, design thinking, and team building. Capstone course for MBA Entrepreneurship in Organizations & Design master’s students at Carnegie Mellon involving team teaching; Multidisciplinary teams of designers, technologists, and business student entrepreneurs. It is important to blend three perspectives for effective commercialization of innovation: (1) entrepreneurial thought and action, (2) design thinking, and (3) teambuilding.A key feature of this project-based course is the collaboration between MBA students and School of Design students, which leads to the development of new business opportunities. (table continues) 2009 Phan, Siegel, and Wright 327 TABLE 1 Continued Authors Clarysse, Mosey, & Lambrecht Key Research Question What are implications for developm ents in technology management education of contemporary challenges such as globalization, open innovation, and the need for corporate renewal (and venturing)? Theory/Framework Technology management skills provision.Data/Methods Qualitative analysis based on interviews with 10 technology management education demand- and supply-side actors in universities, consultancies, and corporations across Europe. Findings/Conclusions Technology Management Educations is a dynamic field moving from traditional MBA focused programs towards more entrepreneurial ‘bootcamps’, from a case study oriented teaching style towards a mentoring approach and from an emphasis upon general business towards working across disciplines yet being sensitive to underlying technologies; a shift from general to specific skills; Linkages between business schools and technology chools is an important element of this change. Courses in IP management, management of industrial R&D, systems architecture and engin eering could only be offered by transfer to School of Engineering; traditional professional degrees can be enhanced by integrating management of technology programs into core engineering curriculum; advantages of offering part-time courses for those in employment.Need to find a subtle balance between traditional didactic courses, presentations of leading edge research, workshops and meetings with practitioners, field studies and involvement in real projects through internships (including outside France); need for faculty to have close links with industry both domestically and abroad; important use of concurrent teaching modes. Hang, Ang, Wong, & Subramanian How can management of technology programs & curricula be designed to meet the needs of a small newly developed Asian country?Action learning as a foundation for curriculum design in technology intensive technology management programs. Qualitative analysis of transfer of MSc in Management of Technology from business school to a sc hool of engineering in Singapore Mustar How to develop a highly selective technology management course for students in a leading French engineering school, in an institutional and country environment traditionally resistant to the notion of entrepreneurship, that develops their entrepreneurial skills but which goes beyond an introductory course on how to start a business.How to combine the acquisition of knowledge and the development of skills. How to develop their entrepreneurial skills and their ability to take responsibilities. How to encourage imagination, creativity, involvement, and risk taking. Qualitative analysis of the case of innovation and entrepreneurship in Mines Paris-Tech, a leading French engineering school. lation, U. S. research universities established technology transfer offices to manage and protect their intellectual property.The Stevenson–Wydler Act, enacted in the same year as Bayh–Dole and then extended in 1986, required federal labs to adopt technology transfer as part of their mission and also authorized cooperative research and development agreements (CRADAs) between the labs and private organizations. The National Cooperative Research Act (NCRA) of 1984 and the National Cooperative Research and Production Act (NCRPA) of 1993, promoted collabo- 328 Academy of Management Learning & Education September TABLE 2 Key U. S.Legislation Promoting Government–University–Federal Lab–Industry Partnerships, Collaborative Research, Technology Transfer/Commercialization Legislation Bayh–Dole Act of 1980 Key Aspects of Legislation Transferred ownership of intellectual property from federal agencies (which sponsor most basic research) to universities; Spurred the growth of university technology transfer offices, which manage university patenting and licensing. Required federal labs to adopt technology transfer as a part of their mission; Authorized cooperative research and development agreements (CRADAs) be tween federal labs and private organizations.Created the Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) and the Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) programs, which require each federal agency to allocate a percentage (now 2. 5%) of their research budget to small business research with commercial potential. NCRA and NCRPA actively encouraged the formation of research joint ventures and joint production ventures among U. S. firms. Institutions Affected by Legislation Universities; teaching hospitals; firms Stevenson–Wydler Technology Innovation Act of 1980; Federal Technology Transfer Act of 1986 Federal labs; firms Small Business Innovation Development Act of 1982Universities; small firms; venture capital firms National Cooperative Research Act (NCRA) of 1984; National Cooperative Research and Production Act (NCRPA) of 1993 Omnibus Trade and Competitiveness Act of 1988; America COMPETES Act (2007) Firms; universities The 1988 act established the Advanced Technology Program (A TP), a public–private research program. In 2007, the America COMPETES Act created the successor to ATP, the Technology Innovation Program (TIP). Firms; universities rative research by eliminating antitrust concerns associated with joint research even when these projects involved firms in the same industry.The NCRA created a registration process, later expanded by the National Cooperative Research and Production Act (NCRPA) of 1993, under which research joint ventures (RJVs) can disclose their research intentions to the Department of Justice. The most notable research joint venture established via the NCRA registration process was SEMATECH (SEmiconductor MAnufacturing TECHnology), a not-for-profit research consortium, which provided a pilot manufacturing facility, where member companies could improve their semiconductor manufacturing process technologies.Other legislation created two key publicly funded technology programs: (1) the Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) and the Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) programs, which require each federal agency to allocate a percentage (now 2. 5%) of their research budgets to small businesses with commercial promise, and (2) the Advanced Technology Program (ATP), a public– private research program, which funds collaborative research on generic technologies. In 2007, the America COMPETEs Act created the successor to ATP, the Technology Innovation Program (TIP).Universities are actively involved in both programs, working closely with large firms on ATP/ TIP research projects, as well as with small companies on SBIR/STTR, sometimes founding these firms. As a result, many technology management curricula in the United States are now infused with a public policy dimension that was previously missing. Table 3 presents global evidence on key policy changes relating to the legislative and support environment for technology commercialization in five nations: France, Germany, Italy, Singapore, and the Un ited Kingdom.For example, according to Meyer (2008), Austria, Denmark, Finland, Germany, Italy, and Japan have adopted â€Å"Bayh–Dole like† legislation, emphasizing a â€Å"patent-centered† model of university and national laboratory technology transfer. The United Kingdom and Israel have always had a system of university-owned 2009 TABLE 3 Legislative and Support Environment for Technology Commercialization in France, Germany, Italy, Singapore, and the U. K. Germany 1999 Public researchers receive the right to be the owner of their IP.This is the opposite of the Bayh–Dole Act, but oftentimes the university makes a formal contract on an individual basis to give the IP rights to the university. 2002 Employer Invention Law: Invention belongs to the employer not to the professor. 2000–2006 Restructuring of various laws to make it easier to commercialize technology from universities, get part of the royalties as an academic, take equity in start-ups, etc. Italy Singapore U. K. No formal Bayh–Dole Act. In the case of UK public research organizations the IP is owned by the institution and the royalties associated with the IP are distributed between the relevant parties.The distribution of royalties is organized on an institutional basis. Milestone France I. University Ownership of Intellectual Property Arising From Federal (National) Research Grants (e. g. , Bayh–Dole Act in U. S. ) Not relevant as all IP belongs to universities/public research institutes following the â€Å"code intellectuelle de la propriete. † II. Other Key Changes 1999 Innovation Act gives the possibility to academics who are civil servants to participate as a partner or a manager in a new company and to take equity (previously illegal for civil servants).This Act encourages the creation of new start-up firms by students. 2002 Decree that regulates and increases the personal income an academic can receive from IP (50%). Phan, Siegel, and W right III. Financial Support 1999 11 (pre-) seed capital funds created to invest in innovative start-ups and take equity (investment in 150 spinoffs in 8 yrs). Creation of the annual National Competition for the creation of technologically innovative startups (grant from 45,000 to 450,000 Euros); 12,927 projects have been presented between 1999 and 2007: 1,879 have been funded.Creation of 29 incubators between 1999 and 2007; they hosted 1993 projects giving birth to 1,239 new firms. Between 1999 and 2007, these 3 schemes have benefited 1,760 new firms (taking into account that a company can benefit from different schemes). Around 50% are academic spin-offs. 2000 EXIST: public program that assists spin-offs through preseed capital and management support. 2002 EEF-Fund: Researchers can receive a scholarship to start a spin-off. 2002 22 TTOs established which take care of IP management. 999 National Research Commission created, which annually funds about 5-10 proposals for spin-offs, a mounting to 30,000 Euro, on average. 2005 Quantica Fund. First interuniversity seed capital fund (a form of public–private partnership) is created. 2005 Italian University technology transfer offices have to join together in groups of four and bid for money (100,000 Euro/university) to sponsor their day-today operations. 1963 Forms tripartite macroeconomic structure of industry, labor, and government as basis for funding innovation and economic development. 001–2008 National initiative to focus on microelectronics, biotechnology, nanotechnology, materials science, healthcare and life sciences as part of national innovation initiative. The right to commercialize IP are assigned to the faculty. 2001 Economic Development Board charged with the implementation of the 5-Year Science and Technology Plan which includes initiatives to target key technology sectors, attract foreign investment and human capital, and accelerate technological entrepreneurship and technology commerc ialization.Agency for Science, Technology and Research or A*STAR) created to fund and create infrastructure of industry– university joint research efforts in strategic technology sectors. 2005 The government’s funding plan is to increase R&D expenditure to 3% of GDP by 2010, from the 2004 R&D expenditure of $2. 5 billion US (about 2. 25% of GDP). 2007 Public sector R&D budgets more than doubled to $13. 55 US billion from 2005, comprised of $5 billion US for the National Research Foundation (NRF), $5. 4 billion US for the Public Research Institutes housed in the Agency for Science, Technology and Research (A*STAR). 1. 05 billion US for academic (universitybased) research. $2. 1 billion US for the Economic Development Board (EDB) to promote private sector R&D. 1970 onward Various schemes to promote collaborative projects between universities and industry, including Knowledge Transfer Networks. 1998–2004 Higher education reaches out to business and the community to provide funding to establish corporate liaison offices and collaborative projects. 1998 University Challenge Funds (UCFs): Universities were granted funds to support spin-off and limited incubation support. 001 onward HEIF (Higher Education Innovation Fund) provides permanent flow of funding to support & develop universities’ capacity to act as drivers of growth in the knowledge economy (various rounds up to 2008). (table continues) 329 330 TABLE 3 Continued Germany Italy Singapore UK Milestone France In 2005, six â€Å"Maisons de l’entrepreneuriat† in different universities have been created. They aim at facilitating the promotion of the entrepreneurial spirit and mind-set and â€Å"sensitization† to the new business start-up or new activities.Academy of Management Learning & Education Science Enterprise Challenge funding (1991/2001), to encourage culture open to entrepreneurship required for successful knowledge transfer from science base. Teaching ent repreneurship to support the commercialization of science and technology to produce graduates and postgraduates better able to engage in enterprise. Establish a network of UK universities specializing in teaching and practice of commercialization and entrepreneurialism in science and technology. 005 Medici Fellowship Scheme, pilot providing 50 fellowships over 2 years focusing on commercialization of biomedical research; fellows required to have significant prior research; local training in host institution in finance, marketing, IP, & business strategy; fellows encouraged to develop links with practitioners; postpilot further funding obtained to extend remit to include engineering researchers from 2007–2009; analogous schemes subsequently created by Research Councils and Regional Development Agencies and from 2007–2009 mainly focused in life sciences.Regional Development Agencies providing broad spectrum of assistance to develop more productive links between universit ies and industry. 2007–2011 Technology Strategy Board strategic plan envisages investing ? 1 billion of public funds plus matched funds from industry over 2008-2011, in doubling number of innovation platforms, a strategic review of Knowledge Transfer Networks, doubling number of Knowledge Transfer Partnerships, developing strategy to rapidly commercialize new and emerging technologies, piloting a new Small Business Research Initiative.September Information sources: Clarysse et al. (2007); Mustar & Wright (2009); and Koh & Phan (In Press). 2009 Phan, Siegel, and Wright 331 intellectual property. An increase in funding for technological entrepreneurship in many countries (see Table 3) has also stimulated greater interaction among firms, universities, and national labs, as well as the rise of intellectual property management curricula and courses at these institutions (for detailed comparison of France and the U. K. , see Mustar & Wright, 2009).EDUCATIONAL IMPLICATIONS OF THESE TRENDS The end result of these global trends is an increased emphasis on collaborative research, commercialization of intellectual property, entrepreneurship, venture capital, and research centers dedicated to emerging technologies, such as Organic LEDs, nanotechnology, biotechnology, materials science, MEMS, and so on. Such trends have brought new issues and perspectives, propelling the role of education to the forefront of discourse (e. g. , the recent AMLE special issue on entrepreneurship education).Conventional technology management and management of innovation curricula have focused largely on understanding the technology and innovation strategies of multinational firms (Nambisan & Willemon, 2003). There has been, until recently, less emphasis on start-up and entrepreneurial technology-based firms. The differences can be significant. For example, in the traditional curriculum, the role of teamwork, especially linking interdisciplinary teams of agents (scientists, technology ma nagers, and entrepreneurs) and institutions (firms, universities, government agencies) have not been stressed.That is, the individual and institutional levels of analyses have been ignored, such that technology management education curricula have been confined to how organizations respond to technological challenges. The developments in technology management education considered in this special issue can be seen as a response to the challenges leveled at business schools to be relevant to the practice of management (Pfeffer & Fong, 2002, 2004; Starkey, Hatchuel, & Tempest, 2004).At the same time, such programs that reside in business schools, when detached from the engineering and science faculties of their universities, run the risk of treating the technology component as a special case of general management. Our review of the literature and the lessons learned from this special issue suggest that a fully matured technology management program should treat technology with a capital â€Å"T† rather than the small one it has been to date. To accomplish this design goal, business schools eed to appoint program directors with strong boundary-spanning skills that can link up with technology-based units on and off campus by colocating or partnering with such institutions. We note that the challenge of integration is not easily solved. Over the years, business schools in the United States and United Kingdom have chosen to remain independent from the rest of their universities. This was partially enabled by the largesse of endowments in the 1980s and 1990s pouring in from private foundations and industrialists seeking to establish their names in perpetuity.Clarysse, Mosey, and Lambrecht (this issue) hypothesize that this is not a wise strategy for business schools administering technology management curricula. The authors conclude that business schools should expand their educational mission to include the education of engineering and science professors and res earchers, and the training of postgraduate science and engineering students, since these individuals are more likely to choose an industry or technology-specific master’s degree, instead of a traditional MBA.More generally, business schools need to have a stronger connection to schools of engineering and the sciences, and other technology-orientated organizations in the areas of medicine, public health, and pharmacy, as well as science-based business incubators and science parks. While acknowledging Clarysse et al. ’s points, we are concerned that each of these institutions has different paradigms, norms, standards, and values, as well as diverse languages and codes. Thus, it may be necessary to develop a shared syntax of boundary objects that include repositories, standardized forms, objects and models (Carlile, 2002).These communication devices enable individuals in business schools and technologybased schools to learn about their differences and dependencies, as wel l as jointly to evolve their knowledge bases about how things work â€Å"on the other side. † Hence, the recruitment and development of boundary spanners (such as program managers, center directors, or interdisciplinary faculty members) who can communicate across schools are important to facilitate such integration (see e. . , the Medici Scheme, Table 3). Another concern regarding the optimal design of technology management curricula arises in relation to the overall configuration of business schools. Ambos, Makela, Birkinshaw, and D’Este (2008) have argued that for universities to be effective at technology commercialization there is a need for ambidexterity in the organizational structures of these traditional research and teaching institutions.Similarly, with respect to technology 332 Academy of Management Learning & Education September management education, business schools must make their organizations more porous, for example, through the hiring and promotion of faculty with science and engineering degrees. Such ambidexterity configurations will enable business schools to more tightly bind the traditional business disciplines to science and engineering disciplines. The papers in this pecial issue challenge the proposition of Suddaby and Greenwood (2001), who asserted that business schools can sustain demand for new managerial knowledge through the education and accreditation of a continuing stream of management students. While it is true that there has been substantial growth in demand for courses in entrepreneurship and innovation in MBA and undergraduate programs, the ability of business schools to deliver these programs beyond an introductory level is open to debate, especially when faculty in such schools traditionally lack exposure to the hard sciences and technology disciplines.A third concern in the design of technology management curricula raised herein is the notion of avoiding polar extremes in content coverage, which are emphasiz ing theoretically rigorous, but highly abstract research or stressing practical content based on â€Å"war stories† and conventional wisdom. Placing too much emphasis on practical experience may have negative consequences since the mental models that such pedagogies create can quickly become obsolete, particularly in light of the fast evolving technologies the curricula are supposed to address (Locke & Schone, 2004).In ? other words, practice-oriented technology management curricula may inspire students to become more entrepreneurially oriented, but without the concomitant development of critical thinking skills, such as the ability to assess risks and recognize the inevitable downsides of entrepreneurial activity. Technology management curricula that are light on practice, however, can produce students who may find the challenge of boundary spanning, a key skill for successful technology managers, too great to scale.Van Burg, Romme, Gilsing, and Reymenk (2008) have outlined a design science-based model for the development of academic spin-offs that is grounded in both theory and practice. As noted by Barr, Baker, Markham, and Kingon (this issue), new developments in technology management education stress the importance of active involvement (experiential learning) models that are authentic and real. Many technology management curricula mimic those of entrepreneurship, in that they include a ealthy dose of business plan writing, ostensibly as products of courses on commercialization and opportunity search. There is considerable debate over the usefulness of business plans in practice, even though venture capitalists and banks demand them. Indeed, Barr, Baker, Markham, and Kingon (this issue) challenge the effectiveness of teaching the preparation of a business plan. They suggest that it is preferable to deemphasize the writing of a plan because it tends to restrict creativity and the search for more appropriate solutions.Yet, as a pedagogical tool, we t hink that business plans, when used appropriately, can be a useful way to garner a student’s attention on a comprehensive set of issues that should be considered when commercializing an invention. A shift is taking place from traditional technology management curricula toward more entrepreneurially based courses that require interdisciplinary skills. As part of this development, there is a need for interdisciplinary team-learning activities to be a central part of curriculum development in technology management education.Team composition needs to be addressed carefully to enable participants to gain full benefits. Thursby, Thursby, and Fuller (this issue) present an interesting example of teams of law, business, science, and engineering students converging to commercialize innovations developed at Emory University and the Georgia Institute of Technology. Developments in technology management education also pose major faculty recruitment challenges. Many business school facult y members do teaching, research, and service (including consulting) that is focused on large corporations.Traditional business school academics typically lack the appropriate context-specific business creation skills that are increasingly demanded as central to technology management education (Wright, Piva, Mosey, & Lockett, 2008). As noted in Barr, Baker, Markham, and Kingon (this issue), the recruitment of adjunct faculty members should be focused on those who can serve as mentors to students. There is also a need to consider recruitment and training of faculty who can act as boundary spanners.The time-consuming nature of developing interdisciplinary curricula raises a concern about possible conflicts with the promotion-and-tenure process, which also needs to be addressed in recruitment and retention. AGENDY FOR FURTHER RESEARCH ON TECHNOLOGY EDUCATION To build on the findings of this special issue, we identify a number of areas for further research. 2009 Phan, Siegel, and Wright 333 These are summarized in Table 4, where we identify a series of research questions relating to institutional issues, the interaction between education and practice, the advancement of business schools, and evaluation.Universities typically have well-established conventions and practices concerning the management of their activities. The traditional academic culture of the university (the classic â€Å"ivory tower†) embodies a system of values that opposes the commercialization of research through company creation. When university administration is decentralized, with no mechanism for integration, links between business schools and technologyoriented units of universities may be weak or in- formal.This suggests a need for the development and implementation of clear and well-defined strategies, processes, and policies regarding new venture formation and approaches to technology management education that incorporate entrepreneurial activities. Institutional frictions and thei r impact upon intraorganization knowledge transfer are wellknown (Szulanski, 1996). These frictions in the interactions between different elements of the university may frustrate the development of interdisciplinary technology management curricula.Transferring personnel across organizational boundaries has been identified as an important mechanism to effect knowledge transfer (Inkpen & Tsang, TABLE 4 Research Agenda Institutional Issues How do incentive systems for faculty encourage the time-intensive development of effective technology management courses? What institutional challenges constrain the cross-disciplinary development of technology management education? What are resource implications for universities attempting to develop interdisciplinary technology management education?Interaction Between Education and Practice How can technology management education processes be transferred to promote the creation and development of spin-offs? How can universities develop integration processes among technology management education and technology transfer offices, incubators, and science parks? How can business schools enhance (effective) engagement with leading-edge technological entrepreneurs? Advancement of Business Schools How can the necessary specific skills now required for technology management education be developed within business schools?Do business schools have the requisite career structures for faculty involved in technology management education? (e. g. , adjunct, nontenure track faculty). What is the role of business school faculty in contributing to the development of technology management education? Evaluation Issues How effective are different developments in technology management education? Is it possible to have a valid control group in evaluation of technology management education? From a corporate perspective (since many students are sponsored by companies), how effective are technology management programs?What are the most appropriate metho ds for evaluating the effectiveness of technology management education? What decision making processes are most effective in promoting interdisciplinary teaching and research, and integration in technology management education (top-down vs. bottom-up)? Does development of technology management education represent a need to reevaluate the whole position of business schools within universities, or is there a need for ambidexterity? What are the roles of different competitors within the segments of the broad technology management space?What challenges arise in addressing â€Å"language barriers† between business school and technology/ engineering faculty and how can they be overcome? What is the best way to train technology managers who must engage in boundary spanning among industry, the entrepreneurial community, academia, and government? What challenges arise in integrating research with new developments in technology management education? Is it possible to build evaluation i nto the design of technology management education programs, so we can identify â€Å"best practices† and benchmark comparable programs? 34 Academy of Management Learning & Education September 2005). Universities may need to consider the facilitation of exchanges of staff between schools or the development of faculty with boundary-spanning skills. Academics may identify more closely with their discipline than with the business school or university and may seek to marginalize â€Å"tribes† from â€Å"outside disciplines† (Becher & Trowler, 2001). This concern is especially salient if the objective is to integrate research with new developments in technology management education.Differences in language and goals between business schools and science- and technology-based departments exacerbate these problems. Business schools may also lack credibility with conventional, â€Å"pure† scientists, who perceive them as professional schools with little research tra dition. This may be a major issue in universities with strong science departments and weak business schools (Wright et al. , 2008). However, even this effect is likely to vary between disciplines, as some departments, for example, engineering and medicine, may be closer in the sense of being professional schools than the pure science departments.It may also be important to focus on the role of technology managers within the university. Siegel, Waldman, and Link (2003) found that the key impediment to effective university technology transfer tended to be organizational in nature. In a subsequent field study (Siegel, Waldman, Atwater, & Link, 2004), the authors found there are deficiencies in the technology transfer office and other areas of the university involved in technology commercialization with respect to marketing skills and entrepreneurial experience.This finding has been confirmed with more systematic data by Markman, Phan, Balkin, and Gianodis (2004), who explained this res ult by reporting that universities were not actively recruiting individuals with such skills and experience. Instead, representative institutions appear to be focusing on expertise in patent law and licensing or technical expertise. To develop effective curricula, the expertise that business school faculty need to interact with science and technology departments may be discipline specific.Yet the background of business school faculty typically makes it difficult for them to convey sufficiently context-specific material for different groups of technologists. To this end, Siegel and Phan (2005) suggest the creation of formal training programs for university personnel on the issue of technology management. Thursby, Thursby, and Fuller (this issue) report that an integrated graduate program on technological entrepreneurship has a positive impact on student perceptions of the multidisciplinary capabil- ties needed to operate in a technologically oriented business environment. Taking a pa ge from Souitaris, Zerbinati, and Al-Laham (2007), who drew on the theory of planned behavior to demonstrate that entrepreneurship programs raised risktaking attitudes and inspired entrepreneurial intention among students, we suggest that technology management curricula can similarly inspire students to think creatively about how they can convert science to commercial ventures by immersing them in the experience of technology and opportunity evaluation early on in the program.Authors of evaluation studies need to find ways of incorporating the measurement of postprogram outcomes, such as new venturing and career trajectories, through more longitudinal studies. More specifically, it would be extremely useful to build evaluation into the design of such programs, so that we can identify â€Å"best practices† and benchmark comparable programs as we do for other types of programs. A critical methodological issue in evaluation concerns whether it is possible to have a viable contro l group for such a study. The papers in this special issue represent a number of different institutional contexts worldwide.A final question one can ask, after reading these papers, is whether there are developments that suggest a convergence in program design towards a universal model, or are we likely to experience a wide variation due to adaptations to the local contexts? Locke and Schone (2004) highlight ? important differences in the interaction between business schools and industry in Europe compared to those in the United States. They suggest that the relations between business school faculty and other scientists have traditionally been stronger in the United States than in the United Kingdom and France.Further, subjects taught in business schools in France, the United Kingdom, and the United States tend to be close to praxis, and professors have usually had practical experience. To contrast, in Germany management education has always been strongly oriented toward science, wi th academics having little business experience/ contact with industry; this pattern appears to have persisted despite pressure for convergence to an Anglo-Saxon business school model (Muller-Camen & Salzgeber, 2005).Mustar (this issue) and Verzat, Byrne, and Fayolle (this issue) illustrate the challenges of introducing entrepreneurial elements to the traditional approach to technology and engineering training in France. Hang, Ang, Wong, and Subramanian (this issue) argue that there was a need to design a program to meet the needs of a small newly developed Asian country. In sum, while the elements of technology man- 2009 Phan, Siegel, and Wright 335 agement curricula appear to be very similar, in part driven by the institutional hegemony of U. S. ased models, there is some indication of local adaptation in pedagogy, delivery mechanisms, and sequencing of content, based on government initiatives, types of corporations that employ the local graduates of such programs, and the capabili ties of the universities delivering them. REFERENCES Ambos, T. , Makela, K. , Birkinshaw, J. , & D’Este, P. 2008. When does university research get commercialized? Creating ambidexterity in research institutions. Journal of Management Studies, 45: 1424 –1447. Becher, T. , & Trowler, P. R. 2001. Academic tribes and territories.Buckingham: The Society for Research into Higher Education and Open University Press. Carlile, R. P. 2002. A pragmatic view of knowledge and boundaries: Boundary objects in new product development. Organization Science, 13: 442– 455. Inkpen, A. , & Tsang, E. 2005. Social capital, networks and knowledge transfer. Academy of Management Review, 30(1): 146 – 165. Koh, W. , & Phan, P. In Press. The National Innovation System in Singapore. In V. K. , Narayanan, & G. O’Connor, (Eds. ), Encyclopedia for Technology, Innovation and Management, Blackwell Press: U. K. Locke, R. , & Schone, K. 2004.The entrepreneurial shift: Ameri? canizat ion in European high-technology management education. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Markman, G. , Phan, P. , Balkin, D. , & Gianiodis, P. 2004. Entrepreneurship from the ivory tower: Do incentive systems matter? Journal of Technology Transfer, 29(3– 4): 353–364. Markman, G. , Siegel, D. , & Wright, M. 2008. Research and technology commercialization. Journal of Management Studies, 45: 1401–1423. Meyer, M. 2008. University patenting and IP management approaches in Europe. Brighton: SPRU, University of Sussex. Muller-Camen, M. , & Salzgeber, S. 2005.Changes in academic work and the chair regime: The case of German business administration academics. Organization Studies, 26(2): 271– 290. Mustar, P. , & Wright, M. 2009. Convergence or path dependency in policies to foster the creation of university spin-off firms? A comparison of France and the United Kingdom. Journal of Technology Transfer, forthcoming. Nambisan, S. , & Willemon, D. 2003. A global st udy of graduate management of technology programmes. Technovation, 23: 949 –962. Pfeffer, J. , & Fong, C. T. 2002. The end of business schools? Less success than meets the eye. Academy of Management Learning and Education, 1(1): 78 –95.Pfeffer, J. , & Fong, C. T. 2004. The business school â€Å"business†: Some lessons from the U. S. experience. Journal of Management Studies, 41(8): 1501–1520. Phan, P. , Siegel, D. S. , & Wright, M. 2005. Science parks and incubators: Observations, synthesis and future research. Journal of Business Venturing, 20(2): 165–182. Siegel, D. S. , & Phan, P. 2005. Analyzing the effectiveness of university technology transfer: Implications for entrepreneurship education. In G. D. Libecap, (Ed. ), Advances in the study of entrepreneurship, innovation, and economic growth, volume 16: University entrepreneurship and technology transfer: 1–38.JAI Press: Oxford, UK. Siegel, D. S. , Waldman, D. , & Link, A. N. 2003. Assess ing the impact of organizational practices on the productivity of university technology transfer offices: An exploratory study. Research Policy, 32(1): 27– 48. Siegel, D. S. , Waldman, D. , Atwater, L. , & Link, A. N. 2004. Toward a model of the effective transfer of scientific knowledge from academicians to practitioners: Qualitative evidence from the commercialization of university technologies. Journal of Engineering and Technology Management, 21(1–2): 115–142. Siegel, D. S. , & Wright M. 2007. Intellectual property: The assessment.Oxford Review of Economic Policy, 23(4): 529 –540. Souitaris V. , Zerbinati, S. , & Al-Laham, A. 2007. Do entrepreneurship programmes raise entrepreneurial intentions of science and engineering students? The effects of learning, inspiration and resources. Journal of Business Venturing, 22(4): 566 –591. Starkey, K. , Hatchuel, A. , & Tempest, S. 2004. Rethinking the business school. Journal of Management Studies, 41(8) : 1521–1532. Suddaby, R. , & Greenwood, R. 2001. Colonizing knowledge: Commodification as a dynamic of jurisdictional expansion in professional service firms. Human Relations, 54: 933–953.Szulanski, G. 1996. Exploring internal stickiness: Impediments to the transfer of best practice within the firm. Strategic Management Journal, 17: 27– 43. Van Burg, E. , Romme, G. L. , Gilsing, V. A, & Reymenk, I. M. M. J. 2008. Creating university spin-offs: A science-based design perspective. Journal of Product Innovation Management, 25: 114 –128. Wright, M. , Piva, E. , Mosey, S. , & Lockett, A. 2009. Academic entrepreneurship and the role of business schools. Journal of Technology Transfer. Phillip Phan is professor and vice dean for Faculty and Research at The Johns Hopkins University Carey Business School.Between 2000 and 2007, he was the Warren H. Bruggeman ’46 and Pauline Urban Bruggeman Distinguished Professor of Management at Rensselaer Polytechnic Insti tute. Phil is associate editor for the Journal of Business Venturing, the Journal of Financial Stability, and the Journal of Technology Transfer. His most recent books are Theoretical Advances in Family Enterprise Research (InfoAge Press); Entrepreneurship and Economic Development in Emerging Regions (Edward Elgar); and Taking Back the Boardroom: Thriving as a Director in the 21st Century (Imperial College Press).Donald Siegel is dean of the School of Business and professor of management at the University at Albany, SUNY. Don is editor of the Journal of Technology Transfer, associate editor of 336 Academy of Management Learning & Education Journal of Business Venturing, Journal of Productivity Analysis, and Academy of Management Learning & Education. His most recent books are Innovation, Entrepreneurship, and Technological Change (Oxford University Press); and the Handbook of Corporate Social Responsibility (Oxford University Press).He has received grants or fellowships from the Slo an Foundation, National Science Foundation, NBER, American Statistical Association, W. E. Upjohn Institute for Employment Research, and the U. S. Department of Labor. Professor Siegel is a member of the Advisory Committee to the Secretary of Commerce on â€Å"Measuring Innovation in the 21st Century Economy. † Mike Wright has been professor of financial studies at Nottingham University Business School since 1989 and director of the Centre for Management Buy-out Research since 1986.He has written over 25 books and more than 250 papers in academic and professional journals on management buy-outs, venture capital, habitual entrepreneurs, corporate governance, and related topics. He served two terms as an editor of Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice (1994 –1999) and is currently a consulting editor of Journal of Management Studies and an associate editor of Strategic Entrepreneurship Journal. Mike is also program chair of the Academy of Management Entrepreneurship Divisi on. His latest books include Academic Entrepreneurship in Europe and Private Equity and Management Buyouts. September

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IS HOMOSEXUALITY A VALID SEXUAL IDENTITY - Research Paper Example This paper will explore one of the main issues that reside in ethics, that is, whether homosexuality is immoral, and if it ought to be considered as a valid sexual identity. The author of this paper will argue that homosexuality should be accepted as a valid sexual identity because none of the arguments presented against homosexuality are valid. This paper will primarily deal with the nature and harm argument as presented by John Corvino. After of which, the author shall then present her analysis regarding the said issue at hand. For, upon proving that the arguments against homosexuality are by far, invalid, the author have as well shown both the importance of moral reasoning, and more importantly, that there exists no reasonable ground to deem homosexuality as something out rightly immoral. The Nature and Harm Argument At this day and age, homosexuality is inevitably growing in all parts of the globe. And along with this is the growing number of differing opinions about the said mat ter. This section shall address the associated harm and unnaturalness charge that the opponents of homosexuality advocate. For, it is for this reason that homosexuality is deemed as something immoral. In what follows is an analysis of the so-called nature and harm argument presented by John Corvino, in his defense of homosexuality. â€Å"Many who object to homosexuality argue that it is unnatural and therefore immoral† (Vaughn 231). ... The idea that animals could provide us with a sexual standard is simply amusing. And even if it were possible, it would not prove that homosexuality is immoral 3. The underlying thought here is that all innate desires are good ones and should therefore be acted upon. However, regardless of something being innate or not, it doesn’t follow that one should or should not act upon them. Likewise, determining the origin of the respective feeling or desire will not determine whether it is moral or immoral to act upon them 4. Since people can and do use their sexual organs to procreate, it does not follow that they should not use them for other purposes. And granted that homosexual intercourse utilizes sexual organs for other purposes aside from procreation, it does not follow that their act of fulfilling that purpose is immoral. 5. When some act is disgusting, it does not mean that it is wrong and thus, immoral. Therefore, the charge against homosexuality as something â€Å"unnatura l† is, according to Corvino, longer on rhetorical flourish than on philosophical cogency. Upon analyzing the flow of the argument from nature, it seems that the underlying thought of the entire argument rests upon a false assumption, i.e. that any act, which is not in accordance to nature is therefore immoral. And despite the fact that there could be no logical connection between the unnaturalness and immorality of any given act, Corvino’s line of defense does not give any justice to the status of homosexuality as that which does not contribute any immoral consequences. In other words, he merely argues against the contention of homosexuality as something unnatural, but does not provide another argument or alternative that shows philosophical cogency. It

Designing a Safer Passenger Aircraft Essay Example for Free

Designing a Safer Passenger Aircraft Essay Aircrafts have become more advanced and fast, but they are drastically affected by ignorance and design incapability. However these structures can fly with more than 200 passengers and heavy cargo, but when they crash, they take away with them many lives and damage valuable property. To prevent such loses several aviation safety agencies like EASA(European Aviation Safety Agency) and FAA(Federal Aviation Administration) have been functioning. These agencies implement and monitor safety rules for aircrafts. They also certify and approve organizations involved in the design, manufacture and maintenance of aeronautical products. Safety of an aircraft depends on every smallest possible detail of it. For designing a safer passenger aircraft a lot of investigation has to be done on flight failures, to prevent such failures. There are four main aspects considered while designing an aircraft: Aerodynamics, Propulsion, Structures and materials, Stability and control. An overview on the design of a fixed wing aircraft: The structure of an aircraft is configured as follows: A fuselage is a long cylindrical body with tapered ends to make its shape aerodynamically smooth. Fuselage carries flight crew, passengers, payload, fuel and engine. Fuselage also holds a large wing which provides sufficient lifting force to the aircraft due to the shape of its cross section (aerofoil). This large wing has ailerons to control rolling motion. The vertical stabilizers present at the rear end of the aircraft, stabilizes the yaw motion and horizontal stabilizers stabilizes the pitch. Elevators are mounted to the horizontal stabilizers and it controls the pitch of the aircraft. Engines provide the trust required for the aircraft. The landing gear is a set of wheels that supports the plane on ground. Control system of an aircraft: Yoke controls the pitch and roll motion of an aircraft. Rudder pedals control the rudder and thus it controls the motion about the yaw axis. Throttle lever controls the thrust produces by each engine and brakes slow or stop the airplane on ground. There are controls for flaps and spoilers. A tiller is used to steer the plane on ground. An automatic flight management system helps pilot in maintaining altitude or mode of flight. Analysis of investigation reports of some airplane crashes and preventive measures in design: A Pilatus aircraft crashed near Bert Mooney airport in July, 2011 due to loss of control. Investigation reports showed that there was icing within the fuel system causing low fuel pressure state as fuel system icing inhibitor was not added to the fuel before flight. All jet fuels contain trace amounts of water that form crystals and block the fuel system. Icing inhibitors decrease the freezing point to about -40? C preventing water from freezing. Some chemical detector can be introduced that could detect the concentration of icing inhibitors present in the fuel. An alarm can also be added to the electronic system of the aircraft which will remind the pilot of adding icing inhibitors while refueling. Aircrafts flying in cold weather develop icing on wings which greatly impair wings ability to generate sufficient lift. Air Florida flight crashed on take-off in January, 1982 as a result of ice on its wings. Modern airliners are designed to prevent accumulation of ice on wings, engines or tails either by routing heated area towards icing or by using inflatable rubber tubes that expand and break off any accumulated ice. Similar method can be used in the design or the accumulated ice can also be removed by sending small amplitude vibrations to the accumulated area. A Boeing cargo airplane experienced ground fire before engine start-up at San Francisco International airport. Investigation blames the design of the supplemental oxygen system hoses and the lack of positive separation between electrical wiring and electrically conductive oxygen system components. The lack of positive separation allowed a short circuit to breach a combustible oxygen hose, release oxygen, and initiate a fire. This can be taken care of in the design and either separation between the oxygen hoses and wiring can be increased or insulation of wiring can be made more strong. Composite materials used in structure of an aircraft consist of layers of fibers embedded in a resin matrix. These layers separate from each other when subjected to cyclic stress and they lose strength. This failure is not shown on the surface. An amphibian plane suffered a structural failure in Florida. The right wing of the aircraft separated during normal flight due to lack of maintenance. Ultrasound based instrument method is used to detect such failures in designing a safer aircraft. As in Air France Concorde crash case, pilot detected fire very late. Installation of video cameras at critical places can be a preventive measure as pilot will be able to keep a watch on plane if there is no other failure detecting mechanism. During high speed landing or take-off extreme pressure and heat build-up in tyres and in such conditions tyres burst. This is equivalent to explosion of 4-5 dynamites. This could damage the fuel tank or engines and even initiate a fire. Some cooling mechanism within tyres can be used to prevent such conditions of high temperature and pressure. Above safety concerns and all other governing factors can be considered to design a safer passenger aircraft. Apart form these problems foreign object debris, positive lightning, bird strike, volcanic ash can also be taken care of while designing an aircraft. Ground based navigation aids can also be improved by improving GPS systems and some backup modes of communication may help in significant reduction in air crashes due to lack of information and misleading.

An Analysis Of To His Coy Mistress English Literature Essay

An Analysis Of To His Coy Mistress English Literature Essay In the poem To His Coy Mistress the speaker carefully tells a subtle and valid argument as to why the woman or his addressee should be sexually attracted to him. The man attempts this sexual proposition through flair in manipulating reason, form and imagery like the vegetable garden. The reasoning would be familiar someone who studied somewhere renaissance England, as it is suggests of a sort of classical philosophical logic; the others are entailing a statement, a counter-statement and a resolution. In line with this method the authors speaker coded his argument in a classical imagery. The first section runs from lines 1 to 20, here the man sets out his view that if Had we but world enough, and time he would not rush the process of finding love and respect. The man establishes a sort of world unconfined by space and time by using the world he had to create the subjunctive tense. This passage of the poem is highly paradoxical however the man is aware that this is purely a hypothetical state before he even begins speaks the words, he cleverly lays out his point of view knowing the impossibility of his announcement. The man aims not only to smooth talk but also to impress the mistress using vivid imagery. To Flatter, but also to amaze her with his knowledge of Asia, the speaker refers to the Ganges and the Humber Rivers to emphasize the distance he would allegedly endure without her if time permitted. The exotic imagery of Asia is in line about British trade and exploration in the region. It also provided an escape from the relatively weak image of everyday life in En gland at the time even if the image of the Far East was unrealistic. This is how he dealt with the idea of space. To confront the concept of time, he uses biblical references to mark the permanent nature of reality. By using a story out of the Old Testament the image of the great flood that purged the earth as a start point and then used the image that Armageddon will ultimately occur at the conversion of the Jews as an end point, the man tries to show the vastness of predicted human existence. At the same time however he subtly hints toward the second more nihilistic section of the poem. If you look at this imagery it is interesting in two respects; first it suggests that physical human life has been ended by God and will be ended by him again. Thus providing a backdrop for the speakers argument that in reality life is temperamental and therefore procreation should not be delayed at the expense of morality. The image is interesting in a second way as it may be Marvells way, as a Puritan, of condemning the speakers attitude, suggesting that the speaker may be punished for sinfully trying to indu lge in base luxury. The speaker goes on to describe his vegetable love, many possible interpretations can be applied to this image. Firstly there is the sexual connotation whereby the vegetable operates as a phallic image, acting as a prelude to the speakers suggestions. As The Norton Anthology of Poetry suggests in the footnote, the vegetable symbolizes a slow unconscious growth of love, emphasizing the sincerity and power of his feelings as they grow vaster than empires. However the irony here lies in the fact that the speaker fully understands that he does not have time to spare and thus his love has developed quickly, consciously and almost forcibly. To finish the first section the speaker begins assigning years of devotion to each part of the mistresses body. It is notable a significant time is spent admiring her breasts, which seems to be a sexually motivated act as opposed to the shorter length of time spent on her eyes, which are often more associated with true love. The hyperbolic statements increase in unrealism to an incomprehensible age to every part; it seems that the speaker is being generous in his admiration but he is cognizant of the lack of weight in his words due to their unattainable status. The next section runs from lines 21 to 32, here the speaker moves away from the hypothetical to reality but retains the melodramatic language used in the previous section to sustain the tenacity of his points. Time here is portrayed as chasing the speaker as opposed to being something the speaker is in control of as in the end of the last section. This is done using the image of a winged chariot, this has classical associations with Greek mythology which relates to his form of argument. The meter of the poem is restrictively regular, this structure emphasizes the idea that time is constantly progressing; reflecting the speakers argument. Space is no longer inhabited by images of movement and life like the rivers previously mentioned but instead: before us lie / Deserts of vast eternity. The desert has strong connection with death, an issue that the man develops upon and progresses within this section. The speaker implies on lines 26-7 that the only exploration of the mistresss body that will be undertaken will be by the worms that are decomposing her body if she remains in her coy state. This thought that her sexuality should not be wasted is elaborated upon with a crude pun on line 29: And your quaint honor turn to dust These images of deterioration linked to sexuality are intended to shock persuade the mistress into not wasting her youth. The speakers sly and ironic tone is revealed to the reader in lines 31-2: The graves a fine and private place, But none, I think, do there embrace. The tone here is clearly sarcastic; the reader enjoys these ironic statements due to the falsity and overacting involved in Marvells speaker as he tries to woo the mistress. The purpose of this second section is to provide a counter-statement to the first section. Discord has been created within the poem; the first section sets out a space where the speaker has an infinite amount of time and space to engage with the mistress, but in the second, time and life are construed as being fleeting and temperamental. This tension is intended to make the mistress feel uneasy and anxious about herself as a young single woman; prompting her to change her attitude towards courtship. To conclude the argument and disagreement between the two former opposite parts the speaker offers a resolution. The reader can easily predict what this will be as the speakers suggestive tone throughout the poem points towards sexual unification. The speakers intention is described using fantastic and abstract lexical choices and phrases. The passage is full of images and language related to movement, physicality and violence such as transpires, like amorous birds of prey and devour. The speaker asserts his masculinity in these images, implying his sexual expertise in an attempt to better his offer. The speaker energetically expresses his make the most of it mentality suggesting that as a combined force, represented in the form of a ball in this section, they will be able to tear our pleasure with rough strife / through the iron gates of life. This notion that together they can conquer life is emphasized on the last two lines where, in agreement with the classical imagery throughout the poem, the speaker admits although he cannot stop the sun together: we will make him run. The mistress is lead to believe that if she submits to her pursuer the winged chariot of time from the previous section will be reversed, with the mistress and speaker in the dominant position. Thus the speaker has concluded his logical progression, firstly operating in an unattainable hypothetical state, then switching to a morbid reality and finally concluding in copulation as a form of mastery over time. Although the reader can see faults in the reasoning employed, admiration is still felt towards the speaker for elaborately crafting his speech in his pursuit of the mistress.

The Self Reflective Essay English Language Essay

The Self Reflective Essay English Language Essay Writing of an essay starts with a pre-writing process whereby the writer identifies appropriate invention strategies for his/her essay. This requires evaluation of invention techniques in order to use the ones that convey the objective of the essay to targeted audience. A good essay should have good flow of ideas that are well coordinated to keep the audience reading. It is important to peer review and critique an essay from a different writer as this enables one to critique his/her first draft of essay and make necessary corrections during essay revision. This self reflective essay addresses challenges faced while writing an essay and reflectively proposes solutions to such challenges. Self Reflective Essay In writing my essay, the pre- writing strategies that I used were brainstorming, cubing and classical invention. Brainstorming enabled me to break up a block in my thinking and come up with the right ideas concerning essay topic. I started by writing down every association regarding the subject in order to gain focus by subordinating the list of what I wrote into parts that would form the essay. This led me to cubing technique, which helped me to organize my thoughts and gain perspective that would most likely yield right ideas concerning essay topic. In my application for cubing technique, I attempted to describe, compare, associate, analyze and argue for and against the essay topic. I combined cubing technique with classical invention technique to ensure that I give detailed descriptions in my essay definitions, comparisons, relationships, circumstances and testimonies. Combining these three strategies for my prewriting effectively ensured that the essay addressed all relevant area s of essay topic because what was not clear using brainstorming strategy was addressed by cubing and classical invention techniques, which have provisions for more detailed information. I realized that applying different pre-writing techniques is the key to good essay because one technique provides for what is missing in the other one. For example, using brainstorming technique alone gave me many ideas on the subject, which I organized using Cubin and classical invention techniques. These techniques proved effective and I would consider using them for my next essay. My purpose for writing this essay was to prove to the audience that time has come for educators to change from traditional classroom teaching and learning approaches to disruptive innovative teaching strategies outside classroom that are more exciting to learners and teachers. My audience for the essay was learners and educators. I wanted the audience to know that students who travel to different parts of the world develop better social skills, are less rigid. They are more accommodative, have better problem solving skills and end up being better decision makers than the ones who do not. I wanted the audience to understand that learning should not be confined within classrooms but it should be innovative enough to build learners reasoning, social and cognitive skills. I wanted to completely capture the attention of the audience and get them into thinking about international travel learning and international conferences as disruptive innovative multicultural learning techniques that w ould equip learners with firsthand experience on different cultures. I wanted to move the audience into thinking of their next international travel learning destination by the time they are through with reading the essay. In previewing my peerà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢s essay, I looked for main ideas conveyed in the essay, clarity of the ideas and how the ideas have been expressed and coordinated to flow and capture the attention of the targeted audience. I also looked at how convincing and practical my peerà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢s ideas were to the targeted audience. I learned that essays that are not well organized lack flow of information being conveyed and discourage the audience from reading further. I discovered the great need to organize an essay and bring out flow of ideas right from introduction to conclusion in order to establish a direct connection between the essay and the audience. This captures interest of the audience and motivates them to keep reading. I therefore felt that I should apply the same technique as applied in my peer reviewed article and improve on my articleà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢s clarity of ideas. In revising my essay, I started by revisiting my objective for writing the article in order to get a clear picture of the message that I wanted to convey to my audience. I then started reading my article as I critiqued it with an aim of establishing areas of improvement. I realized that my ideas needed to flow smoothly from one idea to another. The main revision involved linking up ideas to make my essay flow and keep the audienceà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢s interest captured throughout their reading. I revised the essay to ensure that it meets its objectives in conveying required message to audience and to establish a strong connection between my targeted audience and ideas being conveyed as this would make the audience to think along my school of thought. The revised draft was far much better than the original draft, with an excellent flow of ideas. I learned that revising an essay is important because it eliminates grammatical errors and brings out coordinated flow of ideas that keep the a udience motivated to continue reading. The strongest aspect of my essay was the clear convincing ideas that supported my essay objective and kept the audience motivated to read. Furthermore, there was an excellent flow of ideas in my essay that were well coordinated to make the audience evaluate themselves in my school of thought as conveyed by the essay. The weakest aspect of my essay was getting ideas to flow as most of my ideas were initially mixed up. However, this was addressed through revision of the essay. The writing challenges that I frequently ran into while writing this essay was getting the right words to explain ideas and capture the attention of audience. To address this challenge, I wrote one sentence at a time and read it to see if it clearly conveys required message before going to the next sentence. This was however time consuming although it gave my essay the right words and coordination to capture the attention of audience. For the next assignment I prefer to start by reviewing a peer article before I embark on mine as critiquing the peer article will make me write a better essay.

Graduation Speech: Measure Your Success by Your Relationships :: Free Graduation Speech

Raoul Wallenberg, a man who saved thousands from the horrors of the Holocaust, told the story of a Rabbi and the lesson that he taught to his young learners. The Rabbi asked the young boys the following question: When is it that night turns into day? One boy offered that perhaps it was when he was on his way home from a friend's house, and he could see the sun coming up over the top of his house in the distance. The Rabbi kindly replied that no, that was not it. Another boy suggested that perhaps it was when he was in the forest, and he could see the sun coming through the tops of the trees above him. The Rabbi once again turned down the answer. And then the Rabbi gave the correct response. The point at which night turns into day is when you can look into the eyes of a perfect stranger and see your brother. Let me rephrase that: the point at which we truly become intelligent people, meaning our eyes are no longer clouded over by the darkness of ignorance, is when we can recognize each other for who we really are. Until we reach that point, we have not become intelligent people. Many people believe that intelligence stems from letter grades or from innate brilliance. I have to admit that I've thought that way too. But such is not the case. So, then, what is the importance of all this? Of college? Of all the hard work? The importance is not the facts that you have rolling around your brain when you graduate but the experiences that have changed your soul. So don't let anyone tell you what an incredible success you are because you make a huge amount of money a year. Don't believe the passerby who immediately is intimidated by the letters PHD after your name. Don't feel bad because you don't understand the principles of