Friday, March 20, 2020

Marketing Plan of Julies Bakeshop Essay Essays

Marketing Plan of Julies Bakeshop Essay Essays Marketing Plan of Julies Bakeshop Essay Essay Marketing Plan of Julies Bakeshop Essay Essay Essay Topic: The Birth Mark Introduction:It’s been old ages since the Betterhalf Restaurant was giving birth of their nutrient concern. Betterhalf is a resto- saloon nutrient service industry located at the centre of Veterans Medical Hospital that caters good delightful and pleasurably gustatory sensation nutrients to their mark clients the Intern Students. Doctors. Nurses. Medical Representatives and particularly Walk-ins. This eating house ensures that each client receives prompt. professional. friendly and gracious services and maintains the cleanliness of nutrients and well-comfortable atmosphere to their valued clients and employees. The eating house besides provides an low-cost monetary value to each of their repasts and one of their best marketer bill of fare repasts that their clients loved to eat at Betterhalf Restaurant are the Garlic Chicken with brown Sauce and a Buttered Chicken. For many old ages they served to their valued clients the chance they got from them was that each clients has a growing section like for illustration the Medical Representatives wants a comfy topographic point for their meetings on their opposite number. the best topographic point to be chosen was the Restaurant of Betterhalf because of the peaceable environment there that they can concentrate on. The clients can easy near to the Chief Executive Officer or CEO of the Betterhalf Restaurant because one of the promotional scheme of the eating house is through reserve because of they had a 3 functional room to used for keeping any of activities of a clients. As of their fiscal facets. Betterhalf Restaurant estimated net hard currency for each hebdomad is ?20. 000. 00 and for the whole month is ? 80. 000. 00. The net income of Betterhalf Restaurant is merely plenty to gave the compensations of its employees and the lone ground why the Chief executive officer is still keeping the concern i s because he is sing his societal duty to his subsidiaries. It‘s now seems that Betterhalf Restaurant may hold been excessively optimistic but it failed to expect several events in its selling planning. First. when it rainy seasons their net income were diminishing 30 % of its cyberspace gross revenues that truly affect to the expected income. Second. the location was the Betterhalf Restaurant built off seems that it is non convenient at all but it is â€Å"sadyain† by the clients and besides the atmosphere was hapless on goodlooking eating house unlike others. Last. they had hapless quality of promotional activities that can non capture the attending of a client. And to decide their quandary or their lacking off on their concern and to acquire a better roadmap to their success. We suggests that the company might hold done a better occupation is a cardinal facet of doing a better selling program to accomplish their aims including gauging the market chance. calculating gross revenues. finding the selling plans or an promotional ac tivities. developing and retent the clients good relationship towards the eating house and guaranting the company’s merchandise high quality to their valued clients.

Tuesday, March 3, 2020

How Resins Protect Trees and Increase Tree Value

How Resins Protect Trees and Increase Tree Value Tree resin (along with other gum and latex fluids) plays an extremely important function in trees by rapidly sealing over wounds  used as introductory pathways by invading insects and fungal disease agents. Organisms that try to enter a tree via a wound can be flushed out, can become stuck and trapped in the seal and can be overcome by the resins toxicity. It is also thought that resins have high antiseptic qualities that prevent decay and that they also lower the amount of water lost from the plants tissues. In any event, consistent resin flow is essential to the continued health of most conifers. If you have regularly handled or touched the bark or cones of pine, spruce or larch, you know about the fragrant sticky resin they copiously ooze. That resin is contained in ducts or blisters that run through the bark and wood and diminish in size and number as they enter roots and needles. Hemlocks, true cedars, and firs have resin mainly restricted to the bark. Wound trauma to a tree can stimulate the production of traumatic resin canals that help in containing the injury and help in healing any resulting infection. Resin-laden blisters contained in the conifer secrete the light liquid, which immediately loses oils to evaporation and forms a heavy solid scab. It is interesting to note that this reaction to trauma by a tree is used in the manufacturing process of certain commercial resins and essential oils by stimulating resin flow by inflicting a purposeful injury or bark irritation (see tapping below). The production of resin is very common in nature, but only a few plant families can be considered of commercial importance to resin collectors. These important resin producing plants include the Anacardiaceae (gum mastic), Burseraceae (incense tree), Hammamelidaceae (witch-hazel), Leguminosae, and Pinaceae (pine, spruce, fir, true cedar). How Resins Are Formed, Collected, and a Little History Resins are formed as a product of the oxidation process of a trees escaping essential oils - also called volatile oils, ethereal oils or aetherolea. As already mentioned, the resin is usually stored in ducts or blisters and frequently oozes out through the bark to harden when exposed to air. These resins, as well as being critical to a trees health, can be commercially valuable when collected or tapped. Resinous concoctions have been used for millennia in the form of waterproof and protective coatings made by the ancients. Varnished objects have been found in Egyptian tombs and the use of lacquer in the practice of their arts has been used in China and Japan for centuries. The Greeks and Romans were familiar with many of the same resinous materials that we use today. It is the ability of tree resins to harden as essential oils evaporate that makes them necessary to the production of commercial varnishes. These resins are readily dissolvable in solvents like alcohol or petroleum, surfaces are painted with the solutions and as the solvents and oils evaporate, a thin waterproof layer of resin remains. Tapping is usually necessary in order to obtain a sufficient amount to be of commercial value but can also be extracted during the processing of a tree species for another product - pine resins and oils that can be collected during the paper pulping process. Commercial hard resins are also frequently mined and extracted from ancient fossil materials like copal and amber for varnish. It is important to understand that resins, unlike gums, are insoluble in water, but they are easily dissolved in ether, alcohol and other solvents and used in many products. Other Resin-Based Products Hard transparent resins, like copals, dammars, mastic, and sandarac, are mainly used for varnishes and adhesives. The softer odoriferous oleo-resins like frankincense, elemi, turpentine, copaiba and the gum resins containing essential oils (ammoniacum, asafoetida, gamboge, myrrh, and scammony) are more often used for therapeutic purposes and incense. Resin, Kraft or pine soap (one trade name is Pine Sol) is made by reacting resin acids in wood with sodium hydroxide. Kraft soap is a byproduct of the Kraft process for manufacturing wood pulp and used as a super strength cleaner for heavily soiled and greasy cleaning jobs. Resin in the form of rosin is applied to the bows of string instruments because of its ability to add friction to bow hairs to increase sound quality. It is used similarly in sports to provide tack to grip bats and balls. Ballet dancers may apply crushed resin to their shoes to increase grip on a slippery floor.

Sunday, February 16, 2020

European Union (EU) Law Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3000 words

European Union (EU) Law - Essay Example Through proceedings, ECJ judges became deeply interested to take actions against conflicts creating depression for the transnational actors and other individuals who could claim that their rights under the Treaty of Rome were being violated by existing national law or administrative practice against national legal regimes and those actors, public and private, advantaged by national rules and practices 1. The ECJ is considered to be the most accurate jurisprudent body throughout the European community. So, there is no doubt that ECJ delegation in interpreting the treaties thereby ensuring that EU law is applied correctly in the member states is wrong. Similarly the European Parliament (EP) enjoys delegated powers in the legislative process through which EU policy is created, in the budgetary process through which the EU budget is shaped and adopted, under the control and supervision of the Commission. The empirical analysis demonstrates that the ECJ being a supranational institution have played an independent role in the development of a European enforcement system that is more constraining than national governments ever intended. Dissatisfied with existing means of enforcement at the European level and with governments' reluctance to delegate more powerful instruments, the ECJ and the Commission independently created and perfected a system of decentralized supervision, whereby individuals and national courts are engaged to monitor and enforce state compliance. This system of decentralized supervision is now an integral part of European governance which has influenced the course of European integration, not only by introducing new issues to the policy agenda, as is often argued, but also by securing a higher degree of compliance with the policy decisions that indeed are taken. What can one expect from close observation of such a system in which market integration has become the principle of ECJ policy-making as a result of non-majoritarian decisions taking into account only the contribution of Member States, for example, judicial law-making and Commission decisions. The best example is the implementation of such policies, which have been inclusive without much political attention, through interventions of the European Commission against infringements of Treaty obligations, and through the decisions that goes only in favour of the Member States with initial cooperation of the ECJ2. The doctrines of 'direct effect' and 'supremacy' have brought about the 'constitutionalization' in the ECJ law in the form of unseen competition and that even between individual stakeholders and Member States 3. It is considered those stakeholders' contribution matters the same way in policies implementation as that of Member States, however this is not the case. The ECJ along with the help of Commission has collectively sought out to shift the gravity in EU enforcement toward greater reliance on decentralized supervision through national courts. Exploiting its judicial independence and the absence of intrusive government control, it is said that the ECJ has strengthened the remedies available to individuals. ECJ has created a legal order in which individuals uphold the same rights as the Member States. However, the critical

Sunday, February 2, 2020

Talking about movie hurt lockeror apocalypse now Research Paper

Talking about movie hurt lockeror apocalypse now - Research Paper Example Ideological differences and socio-political issues result in violence related to modern warfare, and the film named as The Hurt Locker proves the same. First of all, one needs to realize that the influence of religious belief upon the political scenario of a nation is totally against democracy. To be specific, autocrats exploit and depend upon the influence of religion on national politics. Within the Middle Eastern context, the dependency on religion to crush democratic ideas is evident. The clash between the Middle Eastern nations and the west can be easily identified as the clash between socio-cultural and religious differences. When the term modern warfare is superimposed into the context of the fore pointed differences, one can see that the western nations support democracy and the Middle Eastern nations support autocracy and the influence of religion within their political context. In the film, the protagonist’s mission is not to fight against the so called enemy groups, but to provide humanitarian aid to the victims. Michael L. Gross makes clear that, â€Å"Humanitarian intervention is only justified when the weaker, rogue nation is so egregiously criminal that it is impossible to think their soldiers might somehow retain a measure of moral innocence† (49). Besides, this group cannot be considered as insurgents because their mission to defuse explosives and save innocent civilians and others. But the members of the protagonist’s group do not realize the significance of their mission. To be specific, they consider that their mission is to overpower their foes. This difference in perceiving the essence of one’s duty, or the protagonist’s view on his mission, is the core aspect of the movie. On the other side, the real villain (autocratic ruler) in the movie is still behind the ‘silver screen’ and tries to make use of innocent civilians as scapegoats of hostility. The protagonist knows this fact and deals with his

Saturday, January 25, 2020

Analysis of Data Leakage Prevention Solution

Analysis of Data Leakage Prevention Solution Anuja Vasant Kale, Vishwajeet Bajpayee, Shyam P Dubey ABSTRACT: In any organization or institution we have to deal with lots of data. Those data may contain confidential information about the customer, project related data, employee personal data etc. If such type of confidential data is leaked from the organization then it may affect on the organization health. Hence we have to enforce some policies in order to prevent data leakage. Data leakage is a loss of data which can be occurred on any storage device where the data is stored. There are two ways in which data can be leaked; if the system is hacked or if the internal resources intentionally or unintentionally make the data public. If the system is hacked then we have some existing technologies like antivirus, firewall etc which can prevent data from leakage. We will discuss here the second scenario where we provide data leakage prevention solutions. We make the use of a bayesian theorem for maintaining confidentiality of data in an organization. KEYWORDS: sensitive data, data leakage, internal attack, external attack, data leakage prevention, bayesian approach. Introduction Nowadays, Information Security became a vital and a major subject, especially with the spreading of information sharing among private and public networks for all organizations across different industrial sectors (e.g. telecom, banking, education all over the world). The importance of securing information is playing a significant role especially when sharing, distributing, accessing and publishing any information that had been classified as a sensitive, either for the organization itself or the clients who sharing their private information with the organization, such as information stored, shared, distributed and viewed through the electronic documents systems and/or images of paper documents systems widely used by a lot of organizations. Many of organizations have given a great deal of attention has been given to protecting their sensitive data from the outside threats by using a set of security countermeasures like: intrusion prevention systems, firewalls, and management of the vulnerability points inside them. So, organizations must now turn their attention to an equally critical situation that forms -for them- a great challenge today, that is: the problem of data leaking or loss from the inside. In fact, in many organizations there’s a gaping hole in controlling, monitoring, and protecting its business environment and electronic data assets from leaking or loss to the wrong individuals or groups intentionally or accidentally. This hole is the now ubiquitous in businesses, health, education organizations and individuals who need needed to communicate with each other over the Internet network. In our days, many of the electronic communications heavily used inside any organization for many purposes, for instance: local mail, instant messaging, web mail, data files transferring, and also organization website still go largely to different destinations without any limitations, monitoring, and controlling on its movements from the organization. Thus, the expected result for this issue is there is a big potential for the organization confidential information be falling into the wrong hands. Surely, from this significant point, the organization sensitive data should be protected very well, otherwise will be facing tragic results like: business loss, damaged reputation, bad publicity, loss of strategic customers, and loss of competitiveness with the other organizations. As a result, any organization using similar electronic document system must keep a close eye to secure sensitive data that had gone forth/back through this system or application to maintain reputation and business continuous, and ensure regulations, laws compliance, along with being different from others. One of the recent methodologies and technical solution has been raised to top is the Data Leakage Prevention (DLP) solution, which is basically protecting sensitive data of an organization from being viewed by wrong individuals, whether from outside or even inside the organization. This basically means that specific data can be viewed by only a specific set of an authorized individuals or groups for them. Related work As organizations progress into a more technological environment, the amount of digitally stored data increases dramatically. As a consequence, keeping track of where it is stored is no longer as easy as before. The modern workforce naturally creates and uses data sensitive to the organization to do their job. This data is then used across services such as email, business applications and cloud-services, as well as being accessed from multiple devices, including laptops and mobile phones. In many cases it is even hard for the users to manage the amount of data they deal with themselves, and the (ir) responsibility doesn’t end there. In addition, a user also needs to keep track of how sensitive data is and who should be allowed to access it. DLP is a recent type of security technology that works toward securing sensitive data in an automated and non-intrusive fashion. Through policies a DLP system automatically makes sure no sensitive data is stored, sent or accessed where it shouldn’t be, while still allowing users to use the tools and services they choose and need to fulfil their tasks. Unlike traditional white- and blacklisting, the DLP only blocks the actions where sensitive data is involved, e.g. sending e-mails is perfectly acceptable, but not if they contain sensitive data. DLP can also be set to handle different levels of sensitivity and document access control. To quote George Lawton: â€Å"DLP systems keep people from deliberately or inadvertently sending out sensitive material without authorization† [9]. In addition to protecting sensitive data, a modern DLP should be adaptive, mobile and as minimally intrusive as possible [7]. Adaptive means that it can work in different environments and be configured to meet the needs of a wide range of different businesses. Mobile means that it can still protect the data, even when the device is used outside the company network. The products today only fulfil this to a certain degree. DLP is still maturing, but unlike a few years ago, most vendors have standardized on the core functionality that defines a modern DLP solution. Proposed System In Today’s business world, many organizations use Information Systems to manage their sensitive and business critical information. The need to protect such a key component of the organization cannot be over emphasized. Data Loss/Leakage Prevention has been found to be one of the effective ways of preventing Data Loss. DLP solutions detect and prevent unauthorized attempts to copy or send sensitive data, both intentionally or/and unintentionally, without authorization, by people who are authorized to access the sensitive information.DLP is designed to detect potential data breach incidents in timely manner and this happens by monitoring data. Data Loss Prevention is found to be the data leakage/loss control mechanism that fits naturally with the organizational structure of businesses. It not only helps the organization protect structured data but it also helps protection and leakage prevention of unstructured data. In any organization or institution we have to maintain lots of sensitive data or confidential data. These data may contain the confidential information regarding the projects; customer privileged data or employee personal data; if such type of confidential data is leaked from the organization then it may affect on the organization health. Data leakage is a loss of data that occur on any device that stores data. It is a problem for anyone that uses a computer. Data loss happens when data may be physically or logically removed from the organization either intentionally or unintentionally. A data stored on any storage device can be leaked in two ways; if the system is hacked or if the internal resources intentionally or unintentionally make the data public. Hacking can be prevented by carefully configuring your Firewalls and other security devices. We will be discussing the second scenario i.e. if an internal resource makes the sensitive data public. Consider the possibility of an employee leaking the sensitive data. Now there are various ways in which data can leave the organization via internet, Email, webmail, FTP etc. Consider the possibility that an employee needs to forward the confidential data through Email or and uploading those files on to a server which can be accessed by outside world. Before reaching that confidential data to the unauthorized person we need to enforce some policies in order to avoid the violation of the organization health. To achieve the primary requirement is to scan the whole outbound traffic. We will maintain the DLP (data link prevention) server, which would scan the complete attachment to match the patterns. In case the patter matches, the attachment will be corrupted with the User designed message and an automated response E-mail will be sent out. This mechanism is shown in the figure below. Figure 3: The process of Data Leakage Prevention (DLP) mechanism. As shown in the above figure, there is an internal employee of the organization who is trying to send the confidential data via email. Now, before reaching that confidential data to the unauthorized person we need to enforce some policies. For that we are using the Data Leakage Prevention (DLP) Server. 3.1 Data Leakage Prevention (DLP) Server Data Leakage Prevention (DLP) is a computer security term which is used to identify, monitor, and protect data in use, data in motion, and data at rest [1]. DLP is used to identify sensitive content by using deep content analysis to per inside files and with the use if network communications. DLP is mainly designed to protect information assets in minimal interference in business processes. It also enforces protective controls to prevent unwanted incidents. DLP can also be used to reduce risk, and to improve data management practices and even lower compliance cost. DLP solution prevents confidential data loss by monitoring communications which goes outside of the organization, encrypting emails which contain confidential information. We are enabling conformity with global privacy and data security in securing outsourcing and partner communication. To check whether an email contains confidential data or not, DLP server makes the use of a Naive Bayes spam filtering. 3.2 Naive Bayes Algorithm Naà ¯ve Bayesian method is used for the learning process. Analyze a mail to calculate its probability of being a Spam using individual characteristic of words in the mail. For each word in the mail, calculate the following: S (w) = (number of Spam emails containing the word)/(total number of Spam emails) H (w) = (number of Ham emails containing the word)/(total number of Ham emails) P (w) = S(w)/(S(w)+H(w)) P (w) can be interpreted as the probability that a randomly chosen email containing the word w is Spam. Exceptions Say a word w =â€Å"success† appears only once and it is a Spam email. Then the above formula calculates P (w)=1. This doesn’t mean that all future mails containing this word will be considered as Spam. It will rather depend upon its degree of belief. The Bayesian method allows us to combine our intuitive background information with this collected data. Degree of belief f(w)= [(s*x)+(n*p(w))]/(s + n) s=Assumed strength of the background information. x= Assumed probability of the background information. n= no of emails received containing word w. Combining the probabilities Each email is represented by a set of probabilities. Combining these individual probabilities gives the overall indicator of spamminess. Fisher’s Method: H= Chi_inverse (-2*ln(Product of all(f(w)), 2*n) S= Chi_inverse (-2*ln(Product of all(1-f(w)), 2*n) I= [1+H-S]/2 Here, I is the Indicator of Spamminess. A Genetic Algorithm A mail can be divided into three parts: Body From Subject Genetic Algorithm can be used to get an appropriate weight say ÃŽ ±, ÃŽ ² and ÃŽ ³ for â€Å"body† part, â€Å"from† part and â€Å"subject† part. IFinal= ÃŽ ±*IBody+ ÃŽ ²*IFrom+ ÃŽ ³*ISubject The overall accuracy is a function of ÃŽ ±, ÃŽ ² and ÃŽ ³. Genetic Algorithm maximize the above function. Advantages of Bayesian Method Bayesian approach is self adapting. It keeps learning from the new spams. Bayesian method takes whole message into account. Bayesian method is easy to use and very accurate (Claimed Accuracy Percentage is 97). Bayesian approach is multi-lingual. Reduces the number of false positives. Conclusion Sensitive Data leaking prevention became one of the most pressing security issues facing Organizations today. The most effective solution to the problem is to see Data Leakage Prevention solution (DLP) as a part of your overall security problem. This solution can be fully integrated with other security tools within organization, to form a comprehensive security strategy plan to protect these data properly. Data Leakage Prevention (DLP) solution can be used effectively in reducing intentional sensitive data leakage actions, through monitoring user’s actions and protecting three groups of organizations data: data at rest, data in use, and data in motion. This solution can be regarded as â€Å"integrated† through achieving two main phases [two layers of defence]: protecting sensitive data and securing sensitive data of organization alike. The organization also needs to create an Acceptable Use Policy (AUP) for users, and at the same time ensuring both are compliant with or ganization policies. To avoid getting broad sided by a data leakage, organizations must evaluate their vulnerabilities and respond appropriately by many ways like: Endpoints protection, Gateway protection, and encryption data. References. [1]RichardE.Mackey,Available:http://viewer.media.bitpipe.com/1240246133_118/1258558418_168/sCompliance_sSecurity_Data- Protection_final.pdf [2] Bradley R. Hunter, Available: http://www.ironport.com/pdf/ironport_dlp_booklet.pdf [3]Webspy,Available:http://www.webspy.com/resources/whitepapers/2008 WebSpy Ltd Information Security and Data Loss Prevention.pdf [4] Data loss problems, Available: http://www.webspy.com/reso urces/whitepapers/2009WebSpy Ltd-Information Security and Data Loss Prevention.pdf [5] Report, the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative, Available: http://www.ustr.gov/about -us/press- office/reports-and-publications/archive [6] Lubich, H.P; â€Å"The changing roel of IT security in an Internet world, a business perspective†; Available: http://www.terena.nl/conference/archieve/tnc2000/proceedings/2A/2a2.html [7]Sithirasenan, E.;Muthukkumarasamy, V., â€Å"Word N-Gram Based Classification for Data Leakage Prevention†, Trust, Security and Privacy in Computing and Communications (TrustCom), 2013 12th IEEE International Conference on 16-18 July 2013, 578 – 585, Melbourne, VIC, 13971211, 10.1109/TrustCom.2013.71. [8]Pham, D.V. Threat analysis of portable hack tools from USB storage devices and protection solutions, IEEE ISBN: 978-1-4244-8001-2 [9] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Data_loss_prevention_software [10]http://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/solutions/enterprise-networks/data-loss-prevention/index .html [11] Bai Xiaoping; Wei Yuanfeng; , Study on the signal detection and simulation of universal serial bus 2.0 IP core circuit system, SoutheastCon, 2007. Proceedings. IEEE , vol., no., pp.59-62, 22-25 March 2007 [12] S. Jithesh and U. Naveen, Improved key management methodology for enhanced media security in IMS networks, New York, US: Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Inc., 2007, pp. 903-907. [13] AK. Gupta, U. Chandrashekhar, S.V. Sabnis and F.A, Building secure products and solutions, Bell Labs Technical Journal, Hoboken, US: John Wiley and Sons Inc., 2007.3, pp. 21-38 [14] R.A. Shaikh, S. Rajput, S.M.H. Zaidi and K. Sharif, Comparative analysis and design philosophy of next generation unified enterprise application security, Piscataway, US: Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Computer Society, 2005, pp. 517-524. [15] Data Leakage Prevention A newsletter for IT Professionals Issue 5. [16] Data Leakage Detection SandipA.Kale1, Prof. S.V.Kulkarni2 Department Of CSE, MIT College of Engg, Aurangabad, Dr.B.A.M.University, Aurangabad (M.S), India1, [17] Journal Of Information, Knowledge And Research In Computer Engineering Issn: 0975 – 6760| Nov 12 To Oct 13 | Volume – 02, Issue – 02| Page 534 Data Leakage Detection Nikhil Chaware 1,Prachi Bapat 2, Rituja Kad 3, Archana Jadhav 4, Prof.S.M.Sangve Copyright to IJIRCCE www.ijircce.com 1

Friday, January 17, 2020

Meaning of life †Existentialism Essay

? Throughout the story, Grendel is trying to find the meaning of life. He is trying to understand the purpose of living, and was looking for something to steer him in the right direction. In Chapter five, when Grendel finally meets the dragon, he finally believes that he has found the meaning of life. Grendel begins his life by being an existentialist. He was basically alone when he was young, and was left to figure out the world around him with no help. It was confusing to him, and that is how he developed the idea of existentialism. He believed that he alone existed. Existentialism stresses freedom of choice, and he had the power to do whatever he wanted to do, so it made sense. He eventually realizes that he does not control the world when he says, â€Å"I think, trying to suck in breath, and all that I do not see is useless, void. (Pg. 29)† After coming to this realization, Grendel looks for a different meaning to life. He then listens to the Shaper, who tells lies to make the Danes feel better about themselves and have a meaning to life. As much as he wants to believe the Shaper and live his life according to what he says, Grendel felt too ashamed believing in lies to do so. He decided that he would rather be an outcast if that was what it took to find the truth. He believed that he had found truth after talking to the dragon. The dragon is a nihilist. He sees no purpose in life. He claims to know everything, â€Å"the beginning, the present, and the end. (Pg. 62)† His basis behind nihilism is that everything eventually comes to an end, even himself. He thinks that there is no point in trying to better mankind because in the end it won’t matter. In the dragon’s mind, we are all fighting a lost cause, and there so there is no point in trying. He puts down humans, and especially the Shaper. He says that the shaper is just giving the Danes an illusion, and does not know any more than they do. The only important thing for the dragon is finding gold. The dragon tells all of this to Grendel, who is at first skeptical of what he is hearing. He began to take the dragon more seriously when the dragon says that humans needed him in order to think and scheme and that Grendel caused humans to have science and religion. This gave Grendel the identity that he had been looking for: â€Å"I was Grendel, Ruiner of Meadhalls, Wrecker of Kings. (Pg. 80)† Grendel became on board with nihilism. He now became â€Å"enraged† when he heard the Shaper tell his lies and felt like he was giving the Danes a purpose when he killed them, which only caused him to kill more. Grendel thought that he had found his purpose in life, although it ended up leading to his death. His belief in nihilism made him not stop killing, and also believe that he was important to the Danes. He believed that him killing Beowulf would be good for the Danes, and that is why he tried to kill him. Beowulf ended up killing Grendel. Had Grendel changed his views he would not have gotten killed by Beowulf and everyone would have been better off.

Thursday, January 9, 2020

Overview of the Country of Georgia

Technically located in Asia but having a European feel, the country of Georgia is a republic that was formerly part of the Soviet Union. It obtained its independence on April 9, 1991, when the USSR disbanded. Prior to that, it was called the Georgian Soviet Socialist Republic. Fast Facts: Georgia Capital: TbilisiPopulation: 4.003 million  (2018)Official Languages: Georgian, AbkhazCurrency: Lari (GEL)Form of Government: Semi-presidential republicClimate: Warm and pleasant; Mediterranean-like on Black Sea coastTotal Area: 26,911 square miles (69,700 square kilometers)Highest Point: Mta Shkhara at 17,038 feet (5,193 meters)Lowest Point: Black Sea at 0 feet (0 meters) Major Cities More than half of the population of the country lives in urban areas, including its capital of Tbilisi (population 1 million, 2018 estimate), Batumi, and Kutaisi. Government The government of Georgia is a republic, and it has a unicameral (one chamber) legislature (parliament). The leader of Georgia is president Giorgi Margvelashvili, with Giorgi Kvirikashvili serving as prime minister. People of Georgia The population of Georgia is about 4 million people but there is a declining population growth rate, coming in at 1.76 fertility rate (2.1 is the population replacement level). Major ethnic groups in Georgia include the Georgians, at almost 87 percent; Azeri, 6 percent (from Azerbaijan); and Armenian, at 4.5 percent. All others make up the remainder, including Russians, Ossetians, Yazidis, Ukrainians, Kists (an ethnic group primarily living in the Pankisi Gorge region), and Greeks. Languages The languages spoken in Georgia include Georgian, which is the countrys official language. The Georgian language is thought to have origins in ancient Aramaic and sounds (and looks) distinct and unlike any other languages. The BBC notes, Some consonants, for example, are pronounced from the back of the throat with a sudden guttural puff of air. Other languages spoken in Georgia include Azeri, Armenian, and Russian, but the official language of the Abkhazia region is Abkhaz. Religion The country of Georgia is 84 percent Orthodox Christian and 10 percent Muslim. Christianity became the official religion in the fourth century, though its location near the Ottoman and Persian empires and Mongols made it a battleground for influence there. Geography Georgia is strategically located in the Caucasus Mountains, and its highest point is Mount  Shkhara, at 16,627 feet (5,068 m). The country occasionally suffers from earthquakes, and one-third of the country is forested. Coming in at 26,911 square miles (69,700 sq km), it is slightly smaller than South Carolina and borders Armenia, Azerbaijan, Russia, Turkey, and the Black Sea. As would be expected, population density decreases with an increase in altitude, as the climate becomes more inhospitable and atmosphere thinner. Less than 2 percent of the population of the world lives above 8,000 feet. Climate Georgia has a pleasant Mediterranean, subtropical kind of climate in lower elevations and at the coast due to its latitudinal location along the Black Sea and protection from cold weather from the north via the Caucasus Mountains. Those mountains also give the country additional climates based on elevation, as at moderately high elevations, there is an alpine climate, without much of a summer. At the highest, there is snow and ice year-round. The countrys southeastern regions are the driest, as the rain amounts increase the closer one gets to the sea. Economy Georgia, with its pro-Western views and developing economy, hopes to join both NATO and the European Union. Its currency is the Georgian lari. Its agricultural products include grapes (and wine), sugar beets, tobacco, plants for essential oils, citrus fruits, and hazelnuts. People also raise bees, silkworms, poultry, sheep, goats, cattle, and pigs. About half of the economy comes from agricultural products, employing about one-quarter of the working population. Mining includes manganese, coal, talc, marble, copper, and gold, and the country also has various small industries, such as chemicals/fertilizer. History In the first century, Georgia was under the dominion of the Roman Empire. After time spent under the Persian, Arab, and Turkish empires, it had its own golden age in the 11th through 13th centuries. Then the Mongols came. Next, the Persian and Ottoman Empires each wanted to dominate the area. In the 1800s, it was the Russian Empire that took over. After a brief period of independence following the Russian Revolution, the country was absorbed into the USSR in 1921. In 2008, Russia and Georgia fought five days over the breakaway region of South Ossetia in the north. It and Abkhazia have long been outside of the control of the Georgian government. They have their own de-facto governments, are supported by Russia, and thousands of Russian troops are still occupying the region. South Ossetia had claimed independence from Georgia in the 1990s, creating a need for peacekeeping troops after some sporadic fighting. Abkhazia had also declared its independence, though both regions are technically still part of Georgia as far as most of the world is concerned. Russia has recognized their independence but also has built military bases there that fly the Russian flag, and its military has put up border fencing around peoples homes, through peoples fields, and in the middle of towns. The village of Khurvaleti (700 people) is split between Russian-controlled land and that which is under Georgian control.