A areer in ice sculpting Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

A areer in ice sculpting - Essay Example When we see an ice sculpture glistening in the light we are mesmerized by the intricate designs that have the look of solid crystal.The beautiful piece of art is appreciated for its stunning form as it slowly melts away into the pool of water where it started. When the ice has melted and the sculpture gone, little thought is given to the artist that was at the core of its creation. Yet, someone took the initiative to learn this craft, to practice the trade, and apply their knowledge to generate an additional outlet for their artistry and an additional source of income. We are in awe as we wonder; how did they learn the art of ice sculpting and how do they apply it in the culinary trade For those people fortunate enough to know how to skillfully carve blocks of ice, life has been a series of instruction, catering events, and ice sculpting competitions.Learning the fine art of ice sculpting is done through advanced culinary training academies or professional associations that offer cla sses and seminars. The Academy of Ice Carving and Design offers classes that feature skill levels that start at basic sculpting for caterers to advanced classes in "sculpture skills; computer enhanced custom design; closed-cell ice engraving; multiple block fusing; [and] high-tech special effects" as well as safety and marketing (Ice Carving Training Certification Programs).

Investment Fundamentals and Portfolio Management Research Paper

Investment Fundamentals and Portfolio Management - Research Paper Example The company has registered gross profit of $24.3 billion in the fiscal 2011 that is an increase of 4.1% over previous year. That has been achieved through better management practices and customer focused policies (The Home Depot, Inc., 2012). A significant increase in operating income at $6.7 billion has been registered compared to $5.8 billion posted in fiscal year 2010 – that means an impressive 14.1% increase in operating income on yearly basis (The Home Depot, Inc., 2012). The remarkable performance has been possible through four major key initiatives: focusing on customer service, increasing productivity and efficiency, innovation and portfolio strategy providing value to the customers (The Home Depot, Inc., 2012). Increasing shareholder value has been one of the major objectives of the Home Depot. Accordingly, the company resorted to buy-back its own shares and garnered 97 million shares from the market amounting to $3.5 billion during the year ended January 2012. In November 2011, the company rewarded its shareholders by declaring a cash dividend of 29 cents per share, a 16% increase over previous quarter proving that the company values its shareholders (The Home Depot, Inc., 2012). As per Federal Reserve Report of June 2012, economic growth has taken a dip. GDP growth rate reduced to 2% annually in the first quarter this year after touching a 3% growth rate in the last quarter of 2011. Employment conditions though improved in the last quarter of 2011 and first quarter of 2012; however, it slowed down during April and May this year. The unemployment rate, a crucial macroeconomic factor, was registered 8.2 percent in the second quarter of 2012. The forecast has it that the economic growth is likely to be at moderate levels in coming quarters. The depressed housing market is one of the major bottlenecks for the economy to grow at a faster

Cleveland Not Cleaveland :: History, City Life

Cleveland, Ohio wasn’t always what it appears to be today. Cleveland is a very progressive culturally diverse city. It is steeped in history and culture and its residents have had a great impact on American culture and the way we live today. Cleveland is nothing but exciting. Cleveland is filled with great structure, history, and has wonderful attractions. Cleveland is an extraordinary city. Cleveland contains one of the oldest neighborhoods and has some very interesting ones at that. The Tremont neighborhood is one of Cleveland’s oldest and most historic neighborhoods. â€Å"Tremont is known for its numerous and varied restaurants† (Mitchell, â€Å"Tremont Neighborhood† 1). The â€Å"St. Augustine’s Catholic Church† is located in the Tremont neighborhood and is of Victorian Architecture. The â€Å"St. Johns Cantius is favored by the polish community and is also located in Tremont neighborhood (Mitchell, â€Å"Tremont Neighborhood† 2). Tremont can be exciting. Throughout the year, a variety of events take place in Tremont, such as, monthly art walks, Taste of Tremont Festival, Tremont Art and Cultural Festival, Church of the Assumptions Greek Festival, and the St. John Polish Festival. Another great neighborhood in Cleveland is North Coast Harbor. Lake Erie is simply beautiful. Lake Erie is u sed for recreational activities (Mitchell, â€Å"Best Things About Living In Cleveland† 1). There are two trolleys downtown. There are two lines for the trolleys (Mitchell, â€Å"Get on Board the New RTA Downtown Trolleys† 1). Cleveland is an awesome city to live in and is very diverse. Cleveland has a long and rich history. Cleveland was founded in 1796 (â€Å"Cleveland† 161). The first steamboat on Lake Erie was used for trade during the 1820’s. John d. Rockefeller started the Standard Oil Company during the 1860’s (â€Å"Cleveland, Ohio† 1). During the Civil War, Cleveland was part of the underground railroad (Usa Cities Online† 3). Cleveland is the world’s first city to be electrically lighted in 1879 (â€Å"Ohio Facts and Trivia† 3). America’s first traffic light was in Cleveland on August 5th, 1914 (Ohio Facts and Trivia1). The Cleveland Orchestra was founded in 1918 (Gale 172). The Cleveland clinic is one of the best hospitals in the United States. â€Å"The Cleveland clinic was established in 1921 by three WWI surgeons George Washington Crile, Frank Bunts, and William Lower (Mitchell, â€Å"About The Cleveland Clinic† 1). In Cleveland Harbor, The U.S.S. Cod is a WWII submarine in which visitors c an climb in (Pearson 2). It also contains aspects of what Cleveland’s society is today.

I and Thou Essay

Present essay engages in critical examination of basic concepts, observations and ideas, created by famous Jewish writer and philosopher Martin Buber in his book ‘I and Thou’. Buber’s book is often mentioned as one of the major influences in Western philosophical literature of the 20th century. Specifically, the philosophy of dialogue, promoted by Buber resonated with and influenced similar contribution of such philosophers and critiques, as Levinas, Bakthtine, existentialist philosopher (Sartre) and others. Based on the analysis of Buber’s ideas and their general philosophical context of the time, present essay defends the thesis that Buber’s philosophy should be regarded as a utopian project, characterized by the idealist vision of human society and nature and inability to find solution to real social contradictions. I and Thou In his analysis of ‘I’ in contemporary world Buber focuses on classic tradition of the philosophy of consciousness, derived from Descartes and Kant. In this tradition ‘I’ is understood as pure subject of autonomous reason and ethical actions. The novelty of Buber’s contribution is that he tries to dialectically link individual ‘I’ with Other (Thou). Unlike earlier attempts of Hegel and Husserl, Buber’s attempt is characterized by deep influences of Judaism religious tradition. Basically, Buber conceptualizes the binary opposition of I and Thou as the source of any human relationships in the real world. In contrast to ‘I’ relationship with ‘It’ (an object), ‘I’ –‘Thou’ pair is characterized with intersection and exchange between different consciousness, both individual (human) and objective (God). God is referred to by Buber as Eternal Thou, one that constructs the firmest tie with ‘I’. ‘It’ – ‘It’ relationship is regarded by Buber as the relationship which may be measured by the quantity of the objects we have in our daily life (Buber, 34). This relationship is not intimate and conscious. In contrast, â€Å"I†-‘Thou† is a living relationship between people lasting as long as another person is present in physical proximity and consciousness. The presence of an individual near another individual automatically results in the exposition of ‘I’-‘Thou’ relationship even if it not perceived consciously. Spiritual relationship between different subjects (‘I’ and ‘Thou’) is the basic law of human existence in general. Buber tries to interpret this law using hermeneutic method. He argues that even in language, saying ‘Thou’ implies addressing your words and feelings to a given person and hence, ‘Thou’ can not be detached from consciousness – it constitutes its distinct part. Using example of a tree, Buber shows that notwithstanding our perspective, a tree would always be an Object for us, because it lacks consciousness: â€Å"I can subdue its actual presence and form so sternly that I recognize it only as an expression of law. † (Buber, 51). Buber argues that I-Thou relationship can not be properly explained – it is best explicated by the concept of Love, reflected in God. God become ‘Thou’ when he is directly spoken too. According to Buber, God is present in every aspect of human consciousness including arts, culture and music. Therefore, I-Thou relationship finds its outmost realization in the link between God and an Individual. Critique of Buber’s ideas Notwithstanding positive role of Buber’s ideas in the formation of 20-th century existentialism and humanist philosophy of Dialogue, one should point to crucial drawbacks and deficiencies of Buber’s ideas and approach. As it was noted in the introduction, it seems to us that Buber falls into the trap of idealism and utopianism in the explanation of real human relations. Moreover, his use of religious doctrine of Judaism in addressing real world relationships may also seem to modern researchers problematic. First of all, human relationships in Buber’s book are conceptualized through the prism of individual consciousness, an approach that was revolutionary in 18 and 19-th centuries, but significantly fell behind modern developments in social psychology, social and political sciences. Buber treats human relations at the level of individual consciousness, however, it contradicts empirical facts, which argue that individual behavior is mediated and influenced by cultural codes, traditions, institutions, such as family, law, working organization, education etc. To say that human relationships may be reduced to abstract notions of ‘I’ and ‘Thou’ means avoiding difficult issues of social roles, positions other factors. To say it plainly, in Buber’s concept ‘I’ is an abstract notion – it is not a real, historical human being, but rather a certain philosophical concept. Moreover, it seems problematic to argue that ‘I’ is pure in its will and thoughts. Psychoanalytic approach to human subjectivity vividly demonstrated that human consciousness is influenced by sub-conscious destructive forces, often unknown by an individual. There is no denying the importance of the fact, that Buber’s interpretation of ‘I’ –‘Thou’ relations as the concentration of love, attachment is also idealist in essence. Such interpretation fails to see national, class and gender contradiction, which divide different human beings. Religious interpretation of God as ‘Eternal Thou’ also seems controversial from scientific point of view. Buber argues that God is present in every sphere of human life, including literature, music and culture. However, these are created by men and hence, no role of God in their formation is evident. Moreover, it seems problematic to argue that God as perceived in Judaic tradition is the expression of love and intimateness. As Old Testament suggests, God was rather a protector of eternal laws, who punished people for non-abidance, rather than was a center of universal love. Notwithstanding these evident drawbacks and contradictions, one should point to crucial contribution of Buber’s book to Western philosophy. No matter how utopian and idealist, Buber’s philosophy proved to be particularly instrumental in the development of French existentialism and Russian school of literary critique. Buber’s perspective on world as an inter-subjective relationship found its further development in the philosophy of Sartre, Kamu and other French philosopher. Levinas used Buber’s philosophy of dialogue in the analysis oral speech and narrative language. Paralleling this development, Russian literary critique Bakthtine used Buber’s ideas in his analysis of Dostoevsky’s protagonists through the prism of their dialogical relations at the level of consciousness. The last, but not the least, it should be mentioned, that Buber’s concepts were the paramount of humanist philosophy in the 20th century. Notwithstanding their idealist and utopian nature they served as regulative ideas of behavior for several generations of intellectuals, including such renowned as Erich Fromm and Herbert Marcuse. To sum it up, Buber’s book â€Å"I and Thou’ provides modern researcher with new concepts and ideas, many of which seem controversial and paradoxical. Basic deficiencies found in Buber’s philosophy are linked with his utopianism and idealism and lack of attention to modern developments in social science, social psychology. The unnecessary reduction of human society to individual level makes it impossible to see a broader picture of inter-group relations and general social institutions role in human behavior. Notwithstanding these deficiencies, Buber’s book provides a source of interesting and thought-provocative reading.

Biography of John Quincy Adams 6th President of the US

Born on July 11, 1767, in Braintree, Massachusetts, John Quincy Adams had a fascinating childhood. He grew up during the American Revolution. He lived and traveled throughout Europe. He was tutored by his parents and was an excellent student. He went to schools in Paris and Amsterdam. Back in America, he entered Harvard as a Junior. He graduated second in his class in 1787. He then studied law and was a voracious reader his whole life. Family Ties John Quincy Adams was the son of Americas second President,  John Adams. His mother Abigail Adams was highly influential as First Lady. She was extremely well read and kept up an erudite correspondence with Thomas Jefferson. John Quincy Adams had one sister, Abigail, and two brothers,  Charles and Thomas Boylston. On July 26, 1797, Adams married Louisa Catherine Johnson. She was the only foreign-born first lady. She was English by birth but spent much of her childhood in France. She and Adams married in England. Together they had three boys named  George Washington Adams, John Adams II, and Charles Francis who had an illustrious career as a diplomat. In addition, they had a girl named Louisa Catherine who died when she was one.   John Quincy Adams Career Before the Presidency Adams opened a law office before becoming a minister to the Netherlands (1794-7). He then was named Minister to Prussia (1797-1801). He served as a US Senator (1803-8) and was then appointed by James Madison as Minister to Russia (1809-14). He became Minister to Great Britain in 1815 before being named as James Monroes Secretary of State (1817-25). He was the chief negotiator of the Treaty of Ghent (1814). Election of 1824 No major caucuses or national conventions existed to nominate candidates for president. John Quincy Adams had three major opponents: Andrew Jackson, William Crawford, and Henry Clay. The campaign was full of sectional strife. Jackson was much more a man of the people than Adams and had widespread support. He won 42% of the popular vote versus Adams 32%. However, Jackson received 37% of the electoral votes and Adams got 32%. Since no one received a majority, the election was sent to the House. Corrupt Bargain With the election to be decided in the House, each state could cast one vote for president. Henry Clay dropped out and supported John Quincy Adams who was elected on the first vote. When Adams became president, he appointed Clay to be his Secretary of State. This led opponents to claim that a corrupt bargain had been made between the two of them. They both denied this. Clay even participated in a duel to prove his innocence in this matter. Events and Accomplishments of John Quincy Adams Presidency John Quincy Adams served only one term as president. He supported internal improvements including the extension of the Cumberland Road. In 1828, the so-called tariff of abominations was passed. Its goal was to protect domestic manufacturing. It was strongly opposed in the South and led Vice President John C. Calhoun to argue again for the right of nullification - to have South Carolina nullify it by ruling it unconstitutional. Post Presidential Period Adams became the only President elected to the US House in 1830 after serving as president. He served there 17 years. One key event during this time was his role in arguing before the Supreme Court to free the slave mutineers aboard the Amistad. He died after having a stroke on the floor of the US House on February 23, 1848. Historical Significance Adams was significant mainly for his time before being president as Secretary of State. He negotiated the Adams-Onis Treaty. He was key in advising Monroe to deliver the Monroe Doctrine without the joint agreement of Great Britain. His election in 1824 over Andrew Jackson had the effect of propelling Jackson into the presidency in 1828. He also was the first president to advocate federal support for internal improvements.

The Doubles Creation as a Necessary Anti-Hero Essay

â€Å"In literature the double is a result of the authors conscious or unconscious desire for a wider range of action, possibilities of behavior for his hero that go beyond the morally acceptable, and this wish will create itself in the form of a double, or anti-hero† writes Joyce Carol Oates in her piece â€Å"Tragic and Comic Visions in The Brothers Karamazov.† Just as Oates suggests that doubles are created in order for an author to extend a characters range of believable actions, doubles exist to bring about change in their original forms. Citing Mikhail Bakhtins criticism of Dostoyevskys creation technique, I intend to align the authors intentions with the intentions of his characters, and explain that due to the authors need for a wider†¦show more content†¦Through extensive research of dissociative fugue and the projection defense mechanism as well as in-depth analysis of each characters speech and action will help solidify my case for each and speak t o the reasoning for their creation of doubles. My second viewpoint is a bit more abstract in the sense that it deals solely with the concept of a literary double. This approach is not radically different from the take on the same theory that doubles are born out of an individuals need for further action they wish not to take responsibility for. This view asserts the creation of a literary double is somewhat of a cop out on the authors part. Mikhail Bakhtin, as well as countless other critics, have identified Dimitri, Ivan, and Alyosha Karamazov each as Dostoyevsky himself in differing phases of his life. In this manner, the novel is an â€Å"artistically organized† collection of languages, voices, and speech types (Rivkin 674). I will rely heavily on the work of Mikhail Bakhtin in my discussion of the differing voices (heteroglossia) within the novel, as well as a commentary on Bakhtins â€Å"Problems of Dostoevskys Creation by Rene Wellek. My research will aim to uncover t he multitude of voices that an author includes within each character of the story as well as a seemingly

Hubert Selby Jr.s Requiem For A Dream Essay example

Hubert Selby Jr.s Requiem for a Dream In Selbys 1978 novel Requiem for a Dream each character succumbs to self-gratification, which eventually and inevitably leads to self-destruction. The four main characters, Harry Goldfarb, Sara Goldfarb, Marion, and Tyrone C. Love each suffer from individual addictions, be it their dreams, illegal/legal narcotics, or even television. Ultimately not only their bodies and minds, but their very souls are destroyed by their addictions (Giles 104). Harry, a middle-class addict who is constantly affecting the trust and property of his mother Sara Goldfarb, is in what seems to be a dream-like, drug-induced romance with Marion. The novel begins with Harry taking his mothers television set, this†¦show more content†¦Sara Goldfarb is a lonely old woman. She has an obsession with television, partially because of her addiction to her dream. Sara even goes as far as to give up meals for the television set, and as she is watching she feels emotion for the characters: Â…Sara was so happy for them, then checked her money and realized she would have to go without lunch for a few days, but it was worth it to have the TV set. It wasnt the first time she gave up a meal for her setÂ… (13). Sara is constantly watching the same unspecified television program and one day receives a call from them (Lyle Russel of the McDick Corporation) (25). Mrs. Goldfarb, how would you like to be a contestant on one of televisions most poignant, most heartwarming programs? Oooo me? On the television She kept looking from the phone to the television, and back again, trying to look at both at the same time (25). After receiving this phone call the rest of Saras life goes into preparing for the television show and waiting for the McDick Corporation to call her back with more information. She soon begins to try several different diets, none of which are a success until she visits a doctor recommended by a friend. Her doctor puts her on diet pills, which subconsciously beco mes her third addiction. Without seeing the warning signsShow MoreRelatedThe Evolution of Baseball Technology: 1884-Present2676 Words   |  11 Pagescertainly lost our way as a nation. (Gutman 21) Today, aluminum bats account for nearly 75 % of all baseball bat sales and are used by nearly all Little League and college baseball teams (Wanner). The first baseball gloves were created in the 1880’s. They were work gloves that had the fingers chopped off after the first knuckle, aiding in protecting a player’s hands (Buckley 14). Later on, gloves became heavy leather pillows with fingers. Players were forced to catch the ball with two hands because