Statues of Kouros and a Wounded Amazon Essay Example

Statues of Kouros and a Wounded Amazon Essay In this essay, I am going to discuss two pieces of art. The first piece of art is the marble statue of a Kouros (youth), the second is the marble statue of a wounded Amazon. Both of these pieces can be found in The Metropolitan Museum of Art which is in New York City. Going to the Met to actually see both of these sculptures really helped me see all the little details that pictures dont show. I was able to ask people who know all about these sculptures information about each of these, for example, I was able to ask what the Kouros and the wounded Amazon represented in their cultures. Each of these pieces of art are beautifully done, yet they are both very different in the sense of details and what their purpose is. The marble statue of a kouros(youth) is from the archaic period in history. The kouros is a Greek and Attic piece of art. It is dated back to around 590-580 B.C and was created in Greece. Unfortunately the artists who created this sculpture is unknown.The artist used naxian marble to create the kouros. The kouros stands at seventy-six and five eighths inches without the plinth. The head is twelve inches long, the face is eight and seven-eighths inches long and the width of the shoulders is twenty and five sixteenths inches. The kouros is classified as a stone sculpture. It is known as one of the earliest freestanding marble statues from Attica which is a region around Athens, Greece. (metmuseum.org) We will write a custom essay sample on Statues of Kouros and a Wounded Amazon specifically for you for only $16.38 $13.9/page Order now We will write a custom essay sample on Statues of Kouros and a Wounded Amazon specifically for you FOR ONLY $16.38 $13.9/page Hire Writer We will write a custom essay sample on Statues of Kouros and a Wounded Amazon specifically for you FOR ONLY $16.38 $13.9/page Hire Writer When I went to the Met and saw the kouros I was able to really look at the statue and see all the details within it. I was able to find out that the kouros is a free standing statue with only a piece of marble on the bottom to hold it up. The statue is a high relief where it is promptly off the surface and the statue has a large amount of mass. With the size of the statue it is classified as life-size. It is an idealized masculine figure. The statue doesnt take a three dimensional or two dimensional form instead it seems t

Classical Economists vs Utopian Socialists essays

Classical Economists vs Utopian Socialists essays There are many ways that to govern a country. Obviously, officials run most countries, but what kind of system do they govern by? Some of the most important systems used today are capitalism, socialism, and communism. As a coherent economic theory, classical economics start with Smith, continues with the British Economists Thomas Robert Malthus and David Ricardo. Although differences of opinion were numerous among the classical economists in the time span between Smiths Wealth of Nations and Ricardos Principles of Political Economy and Taxation, they all mainly agreed on major principles. All believed in private property, free markets, and, in Smiths words, The individual pursuit of private gain to increase the public good. They shared Smiths strong suspicion of government and his enthusiastic confidence in the power of self-interest represented by his famous invisible hand, which reconciled public benefit with personal quest of private gain. From Ricardo, classicists derived the notion of diminishing returns, which held that as more labor and capital were applied to land yields after a certain and not very advanced stage in the progress of agriculture steadily diminished. The central thesis of The Wealth of Nations is that capital is best employed for the production and distribution of wealth under conditions of governmental noninterference, or laissez-faire, and free trade. In Smiths view, the production and exchange of goods can be stimulated, and a consequent rise in the general standard of living attained, only through the efficient operations of private industrial and commercial entrepreneurs acting with a minimum of regulation and control by the governments. To explain this concept of government maintaining laissez-faire attitude toward the commercial endeavors, Smith proclaimed the principle of the invisible hand: Every individual in pursuing his or her o...

Use of Thematic Maps in Geography

Use of Thematic Maps in Geography A thematic map emphasizes a theme or topic, such as the average distribution of rainfall in an area. Theyre different from general reference maps because they dont just show natural and manmade features such as rivers, cities, political subdivisions, and highways. If these items appear on a thematic map, theyre reference points to enhance ones understanding of the maps theme and purpose. Normally, thematic maps use coastlines, city locations, and political boundaries as their basis. The maps theme is then layered onto this base map via different mapping programs and technologies such as geographic information systems (GIS). History Thematic maps didnt develop until the mid-17th century, because accurate base maps didnt exist before then. Once maps became accurate enough to correctly display coastlines, cities, and other boundaries, the first thematic maps were created. In 1686, for example, English astronomer Edmond Halley developed a star chart and published the first meteorological chart using base maps as his reference in an article he wrote about trade winds. In 1701, Halley published the first chart to show lines of magnetic variation,  a thematic map that later became useful in navigation. Halleys maps were largely used for navigation and study of the physical environment. In 1854, London doctor John Snow created the first thematic map used for problem analysis when he mapped choleras spread throughout the city. He began with a base map of Londons neighborhoods that included streets and water pump locations. He then mapped locations where people had died from cholera on that base map and found that the deaths clustered around one pump. He determined that the water coming from the pump was the cause of cholera. The first map of Paris showing population density was developed by Louis-Leger Vauthier, a French engineer. It used isolines (lines connecting points of equal value) to show population distribution throughout the city. He is believed to have been the first to use isolines to display a theme that didnt have to do with physical geography. Audiences and Sources The most significant factor to consider when designing thematic maps is the maps audience, which helps determine what items should be included on the map as reference points in addition to the theme. A map being made for a political scientist, for example, would need to show political boundaries, whereas one for a biologist might need contours showing elevation. The sources of thematic maps data are also important. Cartographers must find accurate, recent, reliable sources of information on a wide range of subjects, from environmental features to demographic data, to make the best possible maps. Once accurate data is found, there are various ways to use that data that must be considered with the maps theme. Univariate mapping deals with only one type of data and looks at the occurrence of one type of event. This process would be good for mapping a locations rainfall. Bivariate data mapping shows the distribution of two data sets and models their correlations, such as rainfall amounts relative to elevation. Multivariate data mapping, which uses two or more data sets, could look at rainfall, elevation, and the amount of vegetation relative to both, for example. Types of Thematic Maps Although cartographers can use data sets in different ways to create thematic maps, five thematic mapping techniques are used most often: The most common is the choropleth map, which portrays quantitative data as a color and can show density, percent, average value, or quantity of an event within a geographic area. Sequential colors represent increasing or decreasing positive or negative data values. Normally, each color also represents a range of values.Proportional or graduated symbols are used in another type of map to represent data associated with locations, such as cities. Data is displayed on these maps with proportionally sized symbols to show differences in occurrences. Circles are most often used, but squares and other geometric shapes are also suitable. The most common way to size these symbols is to make their areas proportional to the values to be depicted using mapping or drawing software.Another thematic map, the isarithmic or contour map, uses isolines to depict continuous values such as precipitation levels. These maps also can display three-dimensional values, such as elevation, on topographic maps. G enerally, data for isarithmic maps is gathered via measurable points (e.g. weather stations) or is collected by area (e.g. tons of corn per acre by county). Isarithmic maps also follow the basic rule that there are high and low sides in relation to the isoline. For example, in elevation, if the isoline is 500 feet, then one side must be higher than 500 feet and one side must be lower. A dot map, another type of thematic map, uses dots to show the presence of a theme and display a spatial pattern. A dot can represent one unit or several, depending on what is being depicted.Finally, dasymetric mapping is a complex variation on the choropleth map that uses statistics and additional information to combine areas with similar values instead of using the administrative boundaries common in a simple choropleth map.

The economy of Saudi Arabia Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

The economy of Saudi Arabia - Essay Example Saudi Arabia is promoting business privatization to facilitate economy diversification and national employment. Attempts at diversification center on energy production, telecommunications, natural gas breakthrough, and petrochemical divisions. In the country’s oil industry and service divisions, around 5.5 million employees are from foreign countries. Saudi government is principally centered on providing work for the big youth populace, which is deficient in education and technological expertise. Riyadh has maximized expenditures on job training and education, particularly with the opening of the King Abdallah University of Science and Technology, the country’s primary co-educational institution of higher education. To increase business ventures on foreign goods and services, Saudi Arabia joined the World Trade Organization (WTO) in 2005. The government started launching "economic cities" throughout the country to encourage economic growth. In 2004-2008, the continuing increase in the world’s oil price earned Saudi Arabia sufficient financial reserves to cope with worldwide financial disaster. However, in 2009, its economic development was hampered due to strict global credit, declining oil prices, and the large-scale economic crisis. This impediment delayed several economic expansion plans. Saudi establishments sustained the banking division throughout the global crisis by directing asset investments into banks, decreasing rates, and openly confirming Saudi administrations security of bank deposits (â€Å"Middle East: Saudi Arabia†). Saudi Arabia is the world’s biggest producer and exporter of petroleum. The oil industry was discovered in the 1930s but was commercially produced after World War II. In 1951, the Arabian-American Oil Company (ARAMCO) was established, granting 50% net earnings to Saudi Arabia. Since the 1960s, petroleum brought huge revenues to the Saudi

Financial Analysis Of Marks & Spencer Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 5250 words

Financial Analysis Of Marks & Spencer - Essay Example Marks & Spencer Board comprises of the Chairman, Chief Executive, one executive director. The Board is responsible for the success of the company. Through the Chief Executive, the Board delegates to management the overall performance of the company through the setting of clear objectives, building long-term management capability and ensuring that the business is managed in conformity with the business principles.  Marks & Spencer Board comprises of the Chairman, Chief Executive, one executive director, and four on-executive directors. The Board is responsible for the success of the company. Through the Chief Executive, the Board delegates to management the overall performance of the company through the setting of clear objectives, building long-term management capability and ensuring that the business is managed in conformity with the business principles.   Marks & Spencer is into food, clothing, household items, and financial services business located in the UK with some wholly- owned and franchised operations worldwide. 49.9% of business in the UK is derived from food sales which account for 3.2% of market share1. Food sales were up 2.4% in 2005, however, in 2006 food sales were up by 7%. M & S significant international presence contributed 9.1% to the Group’s pre-tax profits in 2006. Most of these profits were a result of strong food sales. Food comprises of a big chunk of M&S retail business.   M&S food has a sound reputation for outstanding quality and innovation.

The Comparison Of Forest Of Ar :: essays research papers

The Comparison of Forest of Arden versus Forest of Eden   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  It is the innate desire of man to seek a place of freedom, .an utopia, which allows him to escape into fantasies and away from the hardships of reality. In the play 'As you like it'; by William Shakespeare, the playwright indirectly compares the Forest of Arden to the Forest of Eden by exploring the theme of illusions, the idea of the forest as a place of refuge and Arden's mystical powers. The two forests are not only related by the fact that they sound similar but the many imageries and ideas that were mentioned in the play are somewhat related to the story of Genesis. In Duke Senior's first speech, he refers to 'the penalty of Adam'; , reminding the reader of the Fall of Man and the Garden of Eden. Therefore from the start, Arden is associated with a world of innocence and simplicity, in which man did not need to work. In the forest of Eden, the life of man is not controlled by time and ultimately, death. Whereas there are also suggestions of timelessness in the forest of Arden, as when Orlando points out that there is 'no clock in the forest'; . According to geographic sources, the Forest of Arden is in the Ardennes, France. In the play, Duke Senior and his followers live in the forest itself, while the shepherds live in the more open country on the edge of the forest. However, some elements in the play can be found in neither France nor England. For example: the deer, the oak trees, palm-trees; and also exotic animals such as a green-and-golden and a lioness roam the forest. Clearly then, the landscape belongs to the realm of fantasy. Although Arden seems as to be an idealistic world and resembles no known place, it is not merely an escape from real life. It is true that people flee to Arden from the cruelty of the world. The play opens outside Arden, in a world where cruelty, tyranny, and injustice reign; Arden provides a refuge from these evils. However, it is not an easy salvation. It is not even easy to get there: Rosalind, Celia, and Touchstone, and then Orlando and Adam, and finally Oliver, all arrive in Arden in a state of physical exhaustion. This relates to the fact that it is just as hard for us to enter the kingdom of God.

Critically evaluate Samuel Huntington’s claims in “The Clash of Civilizations?” Essay

The abrupt end of the Cold War meant that the bipolar model of thinking which had dominated the sphere of World Politics for decades became obsolete. This new phase led to a renewal in thinking in the study of International Relations dubbed â€Å"the hundred schools of thought† which led to a wide spectrum of visions about the uncertain future of world affairs. One of the more prominent visions was the late Professor Samuel Huntington’s â€Å"Clash of Civilizations? † published in a 1993 Foreign Affairs article, where he predicted a growing pattern of conflict based on differences in cultural, religious and historical identity of entities he labelled civilizations instead of the ideological differences of the Cold War Era. Huntington’s thesis was a Realist response to Fukuyama’s 1992 book, The End of History and the Last Man. Fukuyama argued that the post-1991 world was left with no viable ideological alternative to liberal democracy and the free market economy predicting a new era of global consensus on democracy, justice, human rights and cooperation. ‘The nation will continue to be a central pole of identification, even if more and more nations come to share common economic and political forms of organization. ‘i Huntington’s premise was that ‘The great divisions among humankind and the dominating source of conflict will be cultural. Nation states will remain as the most powerful actors in world affairs but the principal conflicts of global politics will occur between nations and groups of different civilizations. ‘ii The controversial nature of Huntington’s thesis ensured the stern critique by some of his fellow academics for reasons including oversimplification, neglecting contradicting factors and inaccurate predictions. The tragedy of 9/11 and the events that followed revived the confidence in his thesis by his supporters who saw this as the conformation of Huntington’s predictions notably the inconsolable clash between Islam and the West. Huntington begins by describing the historical evolution of the nature of conflicts in the Western World; from the competition between monarchs and emperors for territorial and mercantile expansion leading to the emergence of nation states beginning with the French Revolution, to the rise of ideological conflict after the Bolshevik Revolutioniii. His Eurocentric bias is clear early as he quotes and perpetuates an idea put forward before by William Lind that these were primarily ‘Western Civil Wars’. Labelling World War II, the deadliest military conflict in history which involved the majority of the world’s nations, as such greatly diminishes the involvement and sacrifices made by people across the world. Notably the Soviet Union which was mainly composed of nations Huntington would regard as part of a Slavic-Orthodox civilization sustained the highest amount of casualties totalling at around twenty-seven millioniv. Later in the paragraph, Huntington writes ‘peoples and governments of non-Western civilizations no longer remain the objects of history as targets of Western colonialism but join the West as movers of history’ as if to suggest that events occurring in non-western parts of the world somehow do not constitute as history if they don’t involve or have a felt effect upon Western society. Although the leadership of the West in fields such as science, technology and engineering for the larger part in recent centuries is indisputable; Jewish philosophy, Hindu mathematics, Muslim astronomy and engineering contributed significantly to the foundations of what we know today and this shouldn’t be undermined. The sharing and borrowing of ideas between the different corners of the world through the millennia’s that’s still going on today suggests a long-term cooperation instead of a clash of civilizations in our common pursuit of knowledge. According to Huntington a civilization is ‘ the highest cultural grouping of people and the broadest level of cultural identity’v. He divides the world’s population into seven civilizations as well as hinting at the possibility of a Caribbean and an African civilization; Africa being indeed a continent known for its vast diversity of cultures and traditionsvi. He defines a civilization by what he calls objective elements such as language, history and primarily religion as well as by the subjective self-identification of people. Huntington argues the onset of globalization has led to increased levels of interaction between peoples of different civilizations, which in turn intensifies civilization consciousness and brings to the forefront their cultural differences which unlike ideological and political differences are fundamental and much less mutable and hence less easily compromised. It’s clear that people instinctively identify themselves closely to others who share common traditions, customs and history; I hold the belief however that Huntington downplays the penetration of globalization and focuses on one aspect of its possible consequences. It’s not the differences that drive cultural conflict between peoples; it’s the lack of understanding which in turn creates prejudices and fears. The increased interactions between peoples have led to a wider acceptance of and fascination with other cultures, helping us understand why foreign societies live the way they do. Huntington argues: ‘†¦Russians cannot become Estonians and Azeri’s cannot become Armenian’vii. An Estonian living in Russia will absorb aspects of Russian culture depending on one’s willingness, length of stay and the extent to which one feels alienated or accepted by Russian society. Thus the objective elements invoked are not convincingly definitive in determining one’s identity; an Englishman may choose to convert to Islam while a Chinese citizen in Shanghai may choose to learn French as a pastime. Globalization in itself has penetrated the long-standing limitations in global trade of the past; politicians ever increasingly have to consider the global implications of domestic policy. More than ever national states around the world are dependent upon each other; the United States Demands Chinese goods while China needs the US to buy its goods. Huntington ascribes ideas such as constitutionalism, human rights, the rule of law, free markets and democracy as Western; unable to gain a foothold in other civilizations. He writes: ‘Modern democratic government originated in the West. When it has developed in non-western societies it has usually been the product of the western colonialism or imposition’viii. suggesting that somehow peoples of other civilizations may not be able to sustain or see the benefits of a form of democratic governance. The people of India would point out that democratic government was formed in their country despite, not because of the Westix. Today more than two-thirds of the world’s governments operate in some form of democracy, which reaffirms the idea that democracy is a universal value, contradicting Huntington’s view of its general Western exclusivity. If asked, most Middle-Easterners would prefer the idea of a democratic to authoritarian governancex; the limitation of democratic development in the region however is a product of the unstable and incompatible political landscape rather than the irreconcilability of the culture. Defining the religious aspects of the Western Civilization, Huntington justifies the grouping of Protestant and Catholic Christians into a single entity by emphasizing shared experiences in European history such as the Renaissance, the Enlightenment and the Industrial Revolution which in turn separates them from the Orthodox Christians beyond Central Europexi. Although it is evident that the closer proximity of those events has influenced Protestants and Catholics more than their Orthodox counterparts, the closer resemblance of Catholic and Orthodox practices and beliefs as opposed to Protestants is however neglected. Huntington consistently appeals to religion as the primary source of cultural identity, rightly so, to a Christian the creeds of their religion have a profound influence on their world view and thus how they would identify themselves. When speaking of the Islamic civilization however, Huntington doesn’t seem to make the effort to differentiate between the major denominations of Shia, Sunni and Sufism which have so strongly influenced the historical and especially current political landscape of the Middle-East. In a passionate attempt to warn his fellow Americans of the potential threats that their country may face in the post-Cold War environment, Huntington essentially perpetuated ideas that were dangerous and self-fulfilling. The existence of a Confucian-Islamic connection that may threaten the West described by Huntingtonxii is yet to be empirically verified, as the Chinese and US economies remain inter-linked and Barrack Obama moves towards a policy of dialogue in the Middle-East. Given the history of US foreign policy, legislators would have found Huntington’s paradigm easy to understand and convenient in terms of implementation. A worldview of distrust towards foreign powers that demands the maintaining of military superiority in the name of security panders to the powerful military industrial complex in the US. In order to maintain peace, global stability and have any hopes of dealing with transnational issues such as global warming, policy makers should regard all nations as members of the world community and work closer with international organizations such as the UN and WTO in establishing universal laws. The alienation and coercion of other governments will indeed create an atmosphere of antagonism and hostility.