Thursday, December 26, 2019

Bronsted-Lowry Acid Definition

In 1923, chemists Johannes Nicolaus Brà ¸nsted and Thomas Martin Lowry independently described acids and bases based on whether they donate or accept hydrogen ions (H). The groups of acids and bases defined in this manner came to be known as either Bronsted, Lowry-Bronsted, or  Bronsted-Lowry acids and bases. A Bronsted-Lowry acid is defined as a substance that gives up or donates hydrogen ions during a chemical reaction. In contrast, a Bronsted-Lowry base accepts hydrogen ions. Another way of looking at it is that a Bronsted-Lowry acid donates protons, while the base accepts protons. Species that can either donate or accept protons, depending on the situation, are considered to be amphoteric. The Bronsted-Lowry theory differs from the Arrhenius theory is allowing acids and bases that dont necessarily contain hydrogen cations and hydroxide anions. Key Takeaways: Bronsted-Lowry Acid The Bronsted-Lowry theory of acids and bases was proposed independently in 1923 by Johannes Nicolaus Brà ¸nsted and Thomas Martin Lowry.A Bronsted-Lowry acid is a chemical species that donates one or more hydrogen ions in a reaction. In contrast, a Bronsted-Lowry base accepts hydrogen ions. When it donates its proton, the acid becomes its conjugate base.A more general look at the theory is an acid as a proton donor and a base as a proton acceptor. Conjugate Acids and Bases in Bronsted-Lowry Theory Every Bronsted-Lowry acid donates its proton to a species which is its conjugate base. Every Bronsted-Lowry base similarly accepts a proton from its conjugate acid. For example, in the reaction: HCl (aq) NH3 (aq)→ NH4 (aq) Cl- (aq) Hydrochloric acid (HCl)  donates a proton to ammonia (NH3) to form the ammonium cation (NH4) and the chloride anion (Cl-). Hydrochloric acid is a Bronsted-Lowry acid; the chloride ion is its conjugate base. Ammonia is a Bronsted-Lowry base; its conjugate acid is the ammonium ion. Sources Brà ¶nsted, J. N. (1923). Einige Bemerkungen à ¼ber den Begriff der Sà ¤uren und Basen [Some observations about the concept of acids and bases]. Recueil des Travaux Chimiques des Pays-Bas. 42 (8): 718–728. doi:10.1002/recl.19230420815Lowry, T. M. (1923). The uniqueness of hydrogen. Journal of the Society of Chemical Industry. 42 (3): 43–47. doi:10.1002/jctb.5000420302

Tuesday, December 17, 2019

Rich, Wealth, Poverty, And Healthcare Essay - 1619 Words

Jackeline Arias Radford Skudrna ENGL101 26 November, 2016 Rich in Wealth means Rich in health In the 2000’s health care costs began to rise again after having risen at â€Å"double the rate of inflation,† in the 1990’s, it left 44 million Americans with no coverage. Between other costs of living like, childcare, food, housing, and rising costs of healthcare, some struggling low-income families were forced to choose between one of those necessities or paying for their healthcare. A study by CNBC showed that the main reason for bankruptcy in the US is medical expenses. The high costs of health care made access to quality health care a luxury only the wealthy could afford. Poverty in the US is an existing issue in the US with 43.1 million people living below the poverty line, reported by the Census Bureau in 2015. â€Å"Health insurance, poverty, and healthcare are all interconnected,† states Annals, this is because those living in poverty or low-income families are unable to afford health insurance. Due to this those living before the poverty line often don’t have access to primary care. Primary care is essential to good health, it provides access to physician’s care, and preventative care. Having limited access to healthcare is a main reason low-income individuals are more sick, lack of access to medical care to treat illnesses only worsens diseases that should be treated or managed early on. But it wasn’t just the uninsured suffering from limited access to health care, thoseShow MoreRelatedRich And Poor Countries : The Economic Conditions Of The World1245 Words   |  5 Pagesthanks to the industrial revolution and tech nological advances, while other countries stagnated in poverty. These actions defined the current socio-economic conditions of the world. Today, there is a considerable difference between rich and poor countries. That is, developed countries do a very good job in providing the basic necessities for their populations such as food, education, healthcare and more. Meanwhile poor countries lack of these resources and they do not even have the technicalRead MoreIssues Of Inequality And Poor Healthcare Essay1694 Words   |  7 PagesIssues of inequality and poor healthcare, while are arguably equal in importance to the livelihood of human beings, differ in the tractability for change. 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Information on incomeRead MoreThe Article â€Å"Editorial Defunding Planned Parenthood Hurts1642 Words   |  7 PagesThe article â€Å"Editorial Defunding Planned Parenthood hurts the healthcare system,† states that Republicans, who dominate control in Congress, prioritize to defund Planned Parenthood. This proposal has been proposed previously, but it has not been able to surpass Obama’s veto. Since this is no longer the case, Republicans are now taking action to remove all federal funding such as Medicaid reimbursements. The proposed removal of funds is due t o the fact that Planned Parenthood is associated with abortionsRead MoreThe Education and Healthcare Gap1686 Words   |  7 Pageslegal rights of minorities. However, this legal equality is undermined by a pervasive and broadening socioeconomic inequality, especially in regards to healthcare and education. These issues disproportionately affect minorities. This paper will first touch on two other types of inequality: civic and income. 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Monday, December 9, 2019

Political Economy of Financial Harmonization

Question: Discuss about the Political Economy of Financial Harmonization. Answer: Introduction: Chairperson of IASB has set certain criteria of reporting financial information that considers that the financial information must be comparable from company and company, important for the investment financial decisions, faithful depiction of the economic reality and should be neutral that favors neither either the non-user capital of supplier that is neither seller nor buyer of the securities. In the recent days complex economic environment, particularly the capital markets considers to meet, the criteria set by the IASB because of the need of the organizations to focus on the common shareholders (Camfferman and Zeff 2015). Financial reporting these days addresses such criteria as this considers focusing on the information for the credit and investment decisions. Organizations these days are highly aware of addressing the IASB financial reporting criteria in order to offer accurate image of its performance and for addressing the needs of all user groups of such information. Reliability of Financial Accounting Information despite Several Limitations and Publishing Such Information in Public Domain The financial accounting information has certain limitations, which considers that financial accounting does not offer information for evaluating process because of several factors such as seasonal fluctuations in business volume. Reliability of the financial information is deemed to be relied upon in order to represent the conditions and events those are intended to be represented (Arnold 2012). Reliability of the financial information is rooted from representational verifiability, neutrality and faithfulness. Despite such limitations, reliability of the information can be determined if the information is complied with the IASB regulations of faithful representation. Financial information should be published in the public domain only if it is easily accessible to the general public member when requested by them. However, it must be considered that public domain disclosure must reveal something new. For instance, such information must be elaborative and is able to place information i n new context (Camfferman and Zeff 2015). Reference List Arnold, P.J., 2012. The political economy of financial harmonization: The East Asian financial crisis and the rise of international accounting standards.Accounting, Organizations and Society,37(6), pp.361-381. Camfferman, K. and Zeff, S.A., 2015.Aiming for global accounting standards: the International Accounting Standards Board, 2001-2011. Oxford University Press, USA.

Monday, December 2, 2019

Truth Essays - Philosophical Methodology, Philosophical Movements

Truth There are three ways in which one is able to find truth: through reason (A is A), by utilizing the senses (paper burns) or by faith (God is all loving). As the period of the Renaissance came to a close, the popular paradigm for philosophers shifted from faith to reason and finally settling on the senses. Thinkers began to challenge authorities, including great teachers such as Aristotle and Plato, and through skepticism the modern world began. The French philosopher, Ren? Descartes who implemented reason to find truth, as well as the British empiricist David Hume with his usage of analytic-synthetic distinction, most effectively utilized the practices of skepticism in the modern world. Ren? Descartes was the first philosopher to introduce the intellectual system known as ?radical doubt.? According to Descartes, everything he had learned before could have possibly been tainted by society or the senses, therefore he began to tear down the edifice of knowledge and rebuild it from the foundations up? (Palmer 157). It was not that everything necessarily had to be false, but physical laws could not offer absolute certainty. Therefore Descartes used reason alone as his tool towards gaining absolute truth; truth being something that one could not possibly doubt. In his conclusion, Descartes found that the only thing that holds absolutely true is his existence. His famous quote, ?Cogito ergo sum? can be translated into ?I think, therefore I am.? By this Descartes implied that when you doubt, someone is doubting, and you cannot doubt that you are. With this revelation, the French philosopher continued to define selfhood as his consciousness. For in Descartes terms, it was pl ausible to doubt that one has a body, but impossible to doubt the existence of one's mind; therefore self and mind must be identical? (Palmer 162). Hume on the other hand, took a different approach to the idea of self. He believed that there in fact was no such thing as selfhood. Instead he asserts that ?it must be some one impression, that gives rise to every real idea. But self?is not any one impression, but that to which our several impressions and ideas are supposed to have a reference (597). By this he implies that in order to form concrete ideas, ones impressions of pain, pleasure, joy, etc. must be invariable throughout time. This, Hume states, we know without a doubt to be impossible. Passions succeed each other over time and give rise to new passions, therefore it cannot be from any of these impressions?that the idea of self is derived, and consequently there is no such idea? (597). Although like Descartes, Hume practiced the art of radical skepticism, he felt that if he could not utilize his senses to prove something it was meaningless. Hume continued development of Leibniz's analytical-synthetic distinction, or in Hume's words a distinction between relations of ideas and matters of fact? (Palmer 197). Analytical propositions are true by definition and are a priori, and therefore necessarily true. Synthetic propositions are not true by definition and posteriori, and consequently can be false. However while Hume used these propositions to define analysis, his main clarification was that while one has the two levels of knowledge, that which is sensible and that which is found through reason, there is no separation between the two.

Tuesday, November 26, 2019

Five Steps to Applying to Law School

Five Steps to Applying to Law School How do you get into law school? One step at a time. Even if you havent taken the LSAT yet, get a full understanding of the entire process with this step-by-step guide for applying to law school. 1. Take the LSAT The first step in applying to law school is taking the  LSAT. Your LSAT is basically tied with your GPA for the most important number for law schools. The test is designed to measure skills that are considered essential for success in law school. Scores range from 120 to 180, with 120 being the lowest possible score and 180 the highest possible score.† The average LSAT score is about 150. You can see the LSAT percentiles of the top 25 law schools in the nation for reference. Be sure to prepare as much as possible for the test  as its best that you only take it once. You can take it again if you are unhappy with your first score, but be sure to ask yourself  these five questions  before you retake the LSAT. For more advice on LSAT prep, click  here. 2. Register With the LSDAS If you didnt do so when signing up for the LSAT, register with the LSDAS  as it will make applying to law schools much easier. This is the main system that law schools use to collect all the application requirements from their students. Therefore, creating an account is essential to the application process. 3. Decide Where to Apply to Law School Applying to law school can get expensive, so its important to narrow down your list. You can also  visit schools  to get a feel for what it would be like to be a student there. Read through our extensive law school profiles and have in mind that if your score is above the 75th percentile at a given school, they are likely to offer you some money to attend their school. Therefore, keep your GPA and LSAT scores in mind while you are looking for schools. It’s a good idea to match your scores to your law school.   4. Write Your  Personal Statement LSAT scores and grades are the most important parts of law school applications, but  personal statements run a close third. Your goal in the  personal statement is  to show the  admissions committee  why you would be a valuable addition to their law school, and its never too early to get started on writing it. Don’t expect to produce a perfect statement on your first try. It is a good thing to constantly revise, go through several drafts, and consult with teachers and advisors. 5. Get Recommendations Law school recommendations  are the final piece to your application puzzle, and with some planning ahead of time, you can be sure to get glowing letters of recommendations from your referees. Ideally, you want to ask a teacher that you have a great relationship with or someone who can really speak to your character and potential. 6. Don’t Forget Financial Aid Unfortunately, even after finishing everything mentioned above, you’re not quite done. But you can’t forget this important step in the application process - it could save you a good amount of money.Each law school on your list may have a different application for applying to financial aid, so you need to research the process of each school separately. Schools may offer grants or loan programs in addition to merit scholarships. But don’t just limit your search for financial aid to your law school: there are many outside scholarships you can apply for to help decrease the cost of law school. Any kind of aid helps to lower your potential debt.

Saturday, November 23, 2019

Imaginary vs. Imaginative

Imaginary vs. Imaginative Imaginary vs. Imaginative Imaginary vs. Imaginative By Maeve Maddox Reading that a child in Texas was suspended for bringing â€Å"an imaginary ring† to school, I marveled that the school officials were able to detect the ring’s presence. Here’s the headline: Texas School Suspends 9-Year-Old for Terrorism Because He Brought Imaginary Hobbit Ring To School In fact, the child brought a real ring to school, presumably a replica of the ring carried by Bilbo Baggins in the Peter Jackson movie The Hobbit. The ring was real, but its magical powers were imaginary. The English word image derives from Latin imago. One meaning of image is â€Å"mental picture.† Something imaginary or imagined exists in the mind. Here is a review of image words with definitions and examples: imagination (noun): The power or capacity to form internal images or ideas of objects and situations not actually present to the senses. Example: It is because of the  development of the imagination  during childhood that adults are able to do many of the tasks that daily life demands.   imaginary (adjective): Existing only in imagination or fancy; having no real existence; not real or actual. Example: Lilliput is an imaginary country visited by Gulliver. imaginative (adjective): relating to, or concerned in the exercise of imagination as a mental faculty. Example: Imaginative Artists Find New Ways to Deal With the Western Landscape Tradition imagine (verb): conceive in the mind. Example: The universe is not only stranger than  we  imagine, it is stranger than  we can imagine. imagined (past participle): invented, created in the imagination. Example: The second basic axiom concerning power is that the powerful always try to create  an outside enemy, real or imagined, to bind the followers to the leaders.   Errors also occur with the pairs imaginary/imagined and imaginary/imaginative: Incorrect: It is easy to  perceive  a country as an  imaginary enemy. Correct : It is easy to  perceive  a country as an  imagined enemy. The country actually exists, so it can’t be imaginary. It can, however, be â€Å"an imagined enemy.† Incorrect: Children learn from experience: from what happens around them, from what they see, hear, smell, taste and touch.  To absorb those experiences and make sense of the world, they need to be engaged in imaginary play. Correct : Children learn from experience: from what happens around them, from what they see, hear, smell, taste and touch.  To absorb those experiences and make sense of the world, they need to be engaged in imaginative play. The play is not imaginary; it is real. Because the child is exercising imagination, the play is imaginative. Want to improve your English in five minutes a day? Get a subscription and start receiving our writing tips and exercises daily! Keep learning! Browse the Misused Words category, check our popular posts, or choose a related post below:85 Synonyms for â€Å"Help†Latin Words and Expressions: All You Need to KnowAppropriate vs. Apropos vs. Apt

Thursday, November 21, 2019

Produce a report elaborating on the key strategic and operational Case Study

Produce a report elaborating on the key strategic and operational issues faced by the operations manager(s) in SPICE VILLAGE RES - Case Study Example In addition, the problems of the case will be addressed and recommendations will be also provided. Finally the report will conclude highlighting the important findings of the study. Table of Contents Introduction 4 Customers 5 Markets Supplied 5 Market-Order Winners and Order Qualifiers 6 PART II 8 Manufacturing Process and Service Delivery 9 Infrastructure to manage the delivery System 9 Conclusion 10 Bibliography 11 Introduction Spice Village is a Pakistani restaurant which is located in Upper Tooting Road in London. The restaurant is considered as one of the most authentic Tandoori restaurants of UK. The restaurant was opened in the year 2004 and has its branches in Southall and Tooting (Spicevillageltd, n.d. (a)). Initially, the restaurant was operated from a small shop, but the rising popularity and demand of the customers has allowed the company to expand its branches in 2008. It is known for offering unique dining experiences to the consumers. Some of the noteworthy dishes of Spice Village are Kebabs, Nihari, Chops, Biriyanis, Karahi and few other dishes from fish. Apart from these dishes, the restaurant also sells chicken dishes, vegetable dishes, soft drinks and deserts, and some other special dishes. From the time of its inception, the company has witnessed tremendous successes. Based on high success rate, the company has also carried out expansions to the other parts of London. The particular area where the restaurant is situated comprises many other restaurants. Spice Villages has almost 25 competitors. Nevertheless, Spice Village is the largest among the existing players of the market in which it operates. With stylish and elegant setting and astonishing store ambience, the company has been able to attract many customers. It has a seating capacity of 220, which acts as a competitive advantage to the firm (Spicevillageltd, n.d. (b)). Spice Village has also achieved various other credentials to its name. For example, the restaurant has won Tiffin Cup award and was also declared as ‘the top nosh† restaurant by The Guardian (Khan, n.d.). Such achievements and good market reputation have helped the company gain substantial market share. The next half of the report will shed light on the strategic context of the company. PART I Customers Spice Village sells a wide range of products to the customers. The primary rationale behind adopting a differentiation strategy is to cater to a large customer base. The special dishes include Kebabs, Nihari, Chops, Biriyanis, Karahi and dishes made of fish. In addition, the restaurant also sells chicken dishes, vegetable dishes, soft drinks and deserts, and some other special customized menus. Thus, from the strategy it is clear that the company tries to cater to a diversified group of customer. Nonetheless, as the menu is basically Pakistani, the restaurant mainly targets Pakistani population and other Asians. The company does not prefer catering to the Chinese, Scandinavians and Afri can customers for some specified reasons. For example, the Chinese people are not targeted as the employees, and the owners of the restaurants do not understand the Chinese language. On the other hand, the restaurant owners think that Scandinavians eat extremely slow and can block the places of other potential customers. Finally, regarding the Africans, the restaurant owner perceives that Africans want the food to be served as soon as possible and cheap. The restaurant also does not sell any sort of alcoholic products, which restricts them to

Tuesday, November 19, 2019

The Role of Traditional Political Parties in the Democratization Essay

The Role of Traditional Political Parties in the Democratization Process in Latin America - Essay Example Almost each of the nations in Central America, South America, and the Caribbean had experienced having such kinds of governments in their history. Among the most prominent names in Latin America’s list of authoritarian governments are Somoza of Nicaragua, Batista of Cuba, Duvalier of Haiti, Trujillo of Dominican Republic, Peron of Argentina, Noriega of Panama, and Pinochet of Chile. The path to power that is quite common among them is the coup d’etat. A number of these dictators were brought to power after they had overthrown duly elected governments. There were also those civilians who were democratically elected into office only to usurp all the powers vested in the legislative bodies and ruled by decrees instead with the aid of the military. Despite the fact that major parts of the region were under military dictatorships for long time, there were still traditional parties that did assert their influence on politics in each of the countries in Latin America. The impa ct of the traditional political parties in governance was, however, reduced with the rise of authoritarian regimes. It must be pointed out though that it was the main characteristics of the said political parties that brought about the emergence of dictators and despots. In the 19th century, when many of the countries in region won their independence from Spain and other colonizers, political power was exclusively held by the upper classes, particularly the landed and the business elites. However, the upper classes were also divided when it comes to issues related to how their country must be governed. Upon the departure of the Spanish colonialists, political debates revolved around the treatment of the Catholic Church, which virtually shared power with the colonial administrators, as well as the form of government to be established in post-colonial and modern Latin America (Bray 76). The liberals wanted a state that is absolutely free from the meddling of the Church, a form of gove rnment that devolves power to the localities, and capitalism. The conservatives, on the other hand, insisted that the Church should retain the privileges and power that it has had since the colonial era. They wanted a more centralized form of government and the protection of the interests of the landed elite. The liberals and conservatives of the 19th century were the origins of the traditional parties that later on developed and gained greater influence by the 1900s. It is clear though that with such respective agenda, neither of the two political forces had the democratic interests of the masses in their minds, although the liberals were sympathetic to the masses because they need public support for their issues against the conservatives. However, both the liberals and the conservatives do not address â€Å"the basic problem of incorporating masses of Indians and Negroes into society or to the overwhelming poverty and ignorance of the general population† (Bray 76). Hence, e ven if government power changed hands between the two, real democracy did not occur but the traditional political parties remained. It was only when social turmoil worsened because of inequalities, that the military officers took over through coup d’etat. The usual excuses made by the military officers for launching the coups were that public order needs to re-established, that the spread of communism must be prevented, and that

Sunday, November 17, 2019

The Structure of Scientific Revolutions by Thomas A. Khun Essay Example for Free

The Structure of Scientific Revolutions by Thomas A. Khun Essay In The Structure of Scientific Revolutions, Thomas A. Khun argues that scientific progress is not a matter of the slow, steady accumulation of knowledge over time but, rather, that it is characterized by long-standing beliefs about the world being radically overturned by the discovery of new information that fails to conform to existing frameworks. He also argues that the nature of the progress of science tends to be mischaracterized in textbooks and in educational practices, which typically cast the progress of science as a cumulative acquisition of knowledge where one breakthrough follows logically from the last.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   In the essay, Khun uses the term â€Å"paradigm† to describe what science at large currently holds to be true about nature. The definition of a paradigm is a temporal one subject to change and any given paradigm only survives so long as it is useful to the working scientist.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   â€Å"These [paradigms] I take to be universally recognized scientific achievements that for a time provide model problems and solutions to a community of practitioners† (p. ix), he states in the book’s foreword.   This   definition of a scientific paradigm is essential to Khun’s reasoning. Kuhn goes on to deconstruct the process by which revolutions take place, how they are generally brought to be accepted and how they influence the work and attitudes of the scientists that work within their parameters. For Kuhn, a revolution in paradigm equals a revolution in science.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   The paradigm is central to the work of what Khun calls â€Å"normal science†   which he defines as â€Å"†¦firmly based upon one or more past scientific achievements, achievements that some particular scientific community acknowledges for a time as supplying the foundation for its further practice. (p. 10)† This is the stuff of text books, the academy and what forms the majority of scientific research. Much of normal science concerns itself with fitting what information is gathered by practitioners into the predefined â€Å"box† provided by the current paradigm. Described by the author as â€Å"mopping up† operations, these endeavors occupy the working lives of most scientist. Practitioners of normal science are not concerned with the discovery of new information that fails to fit the existing paradigm (p. 24).   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   In the workplace, the word â€Å"paradigm† has taken on a much less structured definition than that used by Kuhn. A paradigm may well describe a current consensus of scientific thought and practice or it might describe a series of results expected of the practitioner by they who fund the experiments. It could describe a corporate paradigm—a word that corporations do not hesitate to use and stretch to the point of nonsense-that serves as a working model for how the business at hand ought to be carried out. The use of the word paradigm in the workplace differs significantly from Khun’s. Where Kuhn is careful to offer a clear, concise definition of the term, in the casual language of the workplace a â€Å"paradigm† can refer to almost anything that serves as a model from which something is expanded.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   The story of the evolution of science is   a story of one paradigm being replaced by another. For a new paradigm to emerge, it must be so compelling and so better-suited to explaining the observed universe that it draws scientists away from the old paradigm which preceded it. It also must leave enough to be discovered that those who engage in research are compelled to embrace the new paradigm (p. 10). Once the new paradigm becomes the establishment view, the work of normal science becomes concerned with refining the empirical research that necessitated the creation of the new paradigm.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   The work of gathering factual information about the universe and the influence of the current paradigm on that gathering is a defining characteristic of normal science. Kuhn breaks the process of fact gathering into three distinct categories: the gathering of facts that the paradigm shows to be particularly revealing; the gathering of facts that can be compared to the predictions of the theory; and, the gathering of facts which allow the resolution of ambiguities in the existing paradigm.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   The first type of fact gathering often concerns itself with refining data to a greater degree of accuracy than was previously possible. The accuracy of the data scientists are able to gather using a refractor telescope   is far exceeded by the accuracy of the information they are able to gather with a radio telescope. The pursuit of such refinements takes up a great deal of the resources of normal science. It is precisely because the existing paradigm holds that the accuracy of data describing the position and movement of stellar objects is of the utmost importance that resources are committed to such pursuits. In the field of normal science, a practitioner may become regarded as particularly accomplished through these endeavors. As Kuhn puts it: From Tycho Brahe to E.O. Lawrence, some scientists have acquired great reputations, not from any novelty of their discoveries, but from the precision, reliability, and scope of the methods they developed for the redetermination of a previously known sort of fact . (p. 26) In this instance, normal science seeks not to innovate, but to refine the means by which the paradigm is validated.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   It is also imperative for the paradigm to more accurately make useful predictions and a second focus of normal science concerns itself with this. To this end, specialized equipment is created that allows more precise measurements of natural phenomena which serves to bring data more in line with the predictions of the paradigm. In these cases, the paradigm not only dictates the question, but the methodology by which the answer is to be obtained. The existence of the paradigm sets the problem to be solved; often the paradigm theory is implicated directly in the design of the apparatus able to solve the problem (p. 27).   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   As Kuhn sees it, the machinery, method and the question itself all owe their design, and the nature of their application, to the paradigm they are intended to investigate.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Kuhn’s third class of fact-gathering endeavors concerns itself with further refining the paradigm itself.   This is the most important class of fact-gathering in normal science (p. 27) and Kuhn divides it into subtypes, being those which seek to establish a mathematical constant, those which aim toward the creation of qualitative laws and those which aim to articulate a paradigm in ways that describe phenomena closely-related to those which the paradigm was originally designed to describe. He describes this third class of data-gathering activities as more closely resembling exploration than the others (p. 29).   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Kuhn observes that normal science finds itself with a lot of mopping up to be done on behalf of the paradigm. Mopping up can be understood as the work necessary to make findings fit the paradigm.   Mopping up can also be understood by what it does not endeavor to do. Normal science, in its mop up efforts, does not strive to find anomalies and novelties that do not fit within the relevant paradigm, nor does it tend to pay much attention to those anomalies it does discover. Normal scientists don’t concern themselves with inventing new paradigms nor are they particularly tolerant of those who do (p. 24).   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   While this could be interpreted as an excessively narrow, almost dogmatic, situation, Kuhn holds that such experimentation facilitates advancement within the paradigm and, thus, the advancement of science as a whole. Even though the work may be being done in the service of the paradigm more than in the interest of novel discovery, it still serves a useful purpose. As in many other instances in the book, Kuhn gives an historical example to shore up his argument. †¦ the men who designed the experiments that were to distinguish between the various theories of heating by compression were generally the same men who had made up the versions being compared. They were working both with fact and with theory , and their work produced not simply new information but a more precise paradigm, obtained by the elimination of ambiguities that the original from which they worked had retained(p. 34).   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   In this way, normal science working under a paradigm does increase the accuracy and understanding of the natural world, however inflexible the basis for that work may be. An element of normal science that Khun finds characteristic is that it contains an aspect of   Ã¢â‚¬Å"puzzle-solving†(p. 36).   Puzzles are a category of problems that require one to think creatively to find a solution. What makes puzzles particularly relevant is that there is only one correct answer to the puzzle. While a puzzle-solver may find a novel way to fit together the pieces of a jigsaw puzzle, it would be judged as wrong if that novelty did not result in the picture offered as the correct solution. Similarly, much of normal science concerns itself with finding answers which are known in advance of whatever effort is made to find them.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   A practitioner of normal science seldom sets out to conduct an experiment for which he does not already suspect he has the result. The power of the paradigm is to make those predictions accurately and the lure of the puzzle is that it presents a problem where the skill of the scientist can be ascertained by their ability to find answers that may have eluded previous researchers (p. 38). There is a certain addictive property in this, to be sure, particularly to those with the sort of curiosity-driven personality that lends itself to the practice of science.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚     Ã¢â‚¬Å"There must also be rules that limit both the nature of acceptable solutions and the steps by which they are to be obtained† (p. 38) .   Again, the box with all its rigidity serves to paradoxically advance understanding the universe through its restrictions. There must be expectations for without expectations there is no way to define what is anomalous; no way to determine what is novel. Kuhn uses the example of a machine that measures wavelengths of light. The machine’s designer must demonstrate that they are, indeed, measuring the wavelengths of light as they are understood by current theory. Any unexplained anomalies that fail to fit with what is expected are likely to be seen as a flaw in the design of the experiment that renders its findings essentially useless (p. 39).   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   There is an obvious workplace connection to Kuhn’s description of how a paradigm functions to at once restrict and advance science. Were an anomaly to become commonplace enough that it merited investigation, then perhaps resources and time will be allocated to that pursuit. However, the tendency of normal science being to ignore or suppress anomalous findings, it is more likely that those anomalies will be disregarded altogether for cause of their adding nothing to the existing paradigm under which the scientists, and thus the workplace, operate. But, in cases where those anomalies cannot be ignored, where they are not truly anomalous but, rather, repeatedly-observed novel facts, the seeds for innovation are sewn.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   A novel discovery can shatter a scientific paradigm and bring about changes that could have never been expected. â€Å"After they [novelties] have become parts of science, the enterprise, at least of those specialists in whose particular field the novelties lie, is never quite the same again† (p.52)   .   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   For a discovery to be truly novel, it must satisfy two criteria: it must not be predicted by the current paradigm and it must be something for which the scientist was not prepared. When this situation occurs, the paradigm cannot simply be added to in order to explain the novelty. The scientist must â€Å"learn to see nature in a different way† (p. 53) before the fact becomes a scientific fact.   Seeing nature in a different way, however, presents a crisis.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   If the anomaly, upon investigation, becomes recurrent, a process starts where it becomes clear the that the paradigm must change. This cause a great deal of anxiety in the scientific community as a paradigm shift inevitably means that the techniques and foundations of science need rewritten. Kuhn remarks: â€Å"As one might expect, that insecurity is generated by the persistent failure of the puzzles of normal science to come out as they should. Failure of existing rules is the prelude to a search for new ones† (p. 68). This is an important observation for the practicing scientist. While it is easy enough to regard anomalies as a failure of equipment design or of the practitioner, keeping one’s mind open to the possibility that a novel, and potentially important, phenomena has been observed is imperative to the progress of science. Further study within the paradigm may serve to identify the anomalous as the norm and thereby advance the paradigm as a whole. The study of the anomalies within the paradigm is, perhaps ironically, the best way to advance the paradigm itself. â€Å"So long as the tools a paradigm supplies continue to prove capable of solving the problems it defines, science moves fastest and penetrates most deeply through confident employment of those tools† (p. 76).   Khun regards the crisis as an opportunity. â€Å"The significance of crises is the indication they provide that an occasion for retooling has arrived† (p. 76) . Now that the crisis is at hand, what remains to be seen is how the scientific community will act toward it.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   It may seem that Kuhn is sometimes disparaging toward science for its rather strict adherence to its guiding paradigms. However, there are counterinstances to any paradigm that occur in most any research and, therefore, any research presents crisis (p. 81). Normal science does well to be pragmatic in the face of anomalous data, if only for the sake of saving time and money that can be directed toward more useful research. Scientists generally do not line up to renounce their existing paradigm in the face of anomalies.   Even persistent anomalies that cannot be explained by a mistake do not generally present a crisis (p. 81). Oftentimes, continued work within the existing paradigm will serve to resolve the anomalies. Sometimes these counterinstances are set aside to be resolved later if they prove not particularly disruptive.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   The process of a paradigm being rewritten has its own historical pattern. â€Å"All crises begin with the blurring of a paradigm and the consequent loosening of the rules for normal research† (p. 84) . When this occurs, science returns to a state similar to that which existed before the creation of the paradigm now in question. There is ambiguity, the opportunity for innovation and creativity but within a small, clearly defined area. This situation, however, is where revolution is fermented.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   The construction of the new paradigm is not a slow, cumulative process, it is a complete â€Å"reconstruction of the field from new fundamentals† (p. 85). There will be a period where both paradigms are used to solve problems but the difference between the means by which the problem is solved will be decidedly different in each model. The process of redefining the paradigm is part of extraordinary science. When scientists are confronted with crises, they react by embracing different attitudes toward the existing paradigm. The proliferation of competing articulations, the willingness to try anything, the expression of explicit discontent, the recourse to philosophy and to debate of fundamentals, all these are symptoms of a transition from normal to extraordinary research (p. 91).   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   After setting up the playing field, Kuhn begins to describe the actual process by which a revolution takes place. He references the nature of political revolution as a parallel. â€Å"Political revolutions are inaugurated by a growing sense, often restricted to a segment of the political community, that existing institutions have ceased adequately to meet the problems posed by an environment that they have in part created† (p. 92) . Possibly more than in any other part of the essay, Kuhn start to flex his intellectual power in this chapter. He uses as one example of the parallel the discovery of the X-ray. For most astronomers, x-rays presented no real problem and were easily enough assimilated into their existing paradigm. For a particular group of scientists, however, specifically those who worked with radiation theory or whose work involved the use of cathode ray tubes, x-rays violated the laws of the paradigm under which they worked.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Like a political revolution, the new paradigm seeks to replace the old in part because the old paradigm does not allow for the existence of the new. They are not compatible in the same way that ruler by a hereditary monarch was not compatible with the new paradigm of representative democracy that characterized the American revolution. For there to be a need for a new paradigm, the old must be logically incapable of providing an explanation for the anomaly, or anomalies, that served as the impetus for its being questioned.    It follows that the new paradigm must make predictions that are inherently different from those of its predecessor (p. 97). For the new to come into its own, parts of the old must be sacrificed (p. 93). As the crisis deepens, competing camps vie for relevance, each offering its own solution to the problem at hand. They each attract their adherence and the auspices of the old paradigm are no longer sufficient to unite the divided camps. As is the case with political revolutions, there is a freewheeling period where there is no clear authority.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   The debate between the new paradigms is essential.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Each one lures adherents with its promises of usefulness and its vision of life under the new paradigm.   Scientists do not leave their paradigms easily. In fact, rather than being left out in the cold, most scientists will not reject their existing paradigm until a viable alternative is offered (p. 77).   Kuhn holds that the study of persuasive argument is as important as the study of logical and reasoned argument in periods during which practitioners are undertaking the process of finding a viable alternative to a no-longer adequate paradigm (p. 94).   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Kuhn holds that scientific revolutions invariably resolve with the world view of the scientific community having been forever changed (p. 111). What was once familiar is now new, what was once established as accurate is now proven to be something less than that by the new paradigm. Paradoxically, the new perception depends upon the new paradigm just as the old mode of seeing the world depended upon adherence to the discarded paradigm. Without a point of reference, the world becomes incoherent. Where scientific revolutions are concerned, there may be a shift in paradigm but there is always a paradigm, whether it be contemporary or past its relevance. As Kuhn argues in previous chapters, it is from this structure that innovation flows and, therefore, the constant presence of a paradigm is not necessarily a failing on the part of science.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Though the world of science may have been turned on its ear, one is unlikely to ever get this impression from textbooks and courses. The paradigm, once established, becomes victim to what Khun calls the â€Å"invisibility† of scientific revolutions. This could be seen as a true weakness in the scientific community. Like those that ferment and enable political revolutions, scientists tend to rewrite history in such a way that omits the conflict, controversy and creativity that led to the revolution that gave birth to the current paradigm. †¦scientists are more affected by the temptation to rewrite history, partly because the results of scientific research show no obvious dependence upon the historical context of the inquiry, and partly because, expect during crisis and revolution, the scientist’s contemporary position seems so secure (p. 138).   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Thus, this remarkable history of revolution in thought, in practice and in humankind’s knowledge of the universe is glossed over in textbooks. The revolutions that once turned the world on its ear, at least for scientists, become the realm of normal science and the practitioners go back to mopping up reality to make it conform to the predictions of the new paradigm just as they did in the service of the old. Kuhn makes his case mostly by citing textbooks as an example of how history is rewritten but, since text books are the tool of the trade where the teaching of science is concerned, the significance is obvious.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   However, the way in which the paradigm is regarded has its advantages. †¦once the acceptance of a common paradigm has freed the scientific community from the need constantly [sic] re-examine its first principles, the members of that community can concentrate exclusively upon the subtlest and most esoteric of the phenomena that concern it. Inevitably, that does increase both the effectiveness and the efficiency with which the group as a while solves new problems (p. 164) . Here, again, is the theme of the â€Å"box† of the paradigm allowing scientists to explore beyond its limits. The efficiency with which scientists can work under a shared paradigm and the reliable set of tools with which it provides them are priceless. Perhaps, this is the reason the scientific community works so hard to preserve whatever paradigm is relevant at the time; it is not the fear of the new but the fear of the loss of what has proven itself valuable.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   What is interesting about Kuhn’s essay is that he does not use the word â€Å"truth†-excepting in a quotation from Francis Bacon—a fact that he point out himself (p. 170). Kuhn holds that there may not be a need for any such lofty goal. â€Å"Can we not account for both science’s existence and its success in term of evolution from the community’s state of knowledge at any given time?† (p. 171)   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   This is a powerful idea. Perhaps, a better understanding of the universe is not a goal but a thing better defined-and accomplished-if it is understood to be an ongoing process. Kuhn also provides a powerful question for those who would regard, or characterize, science as a form of dogma: â€Å"Does it really help to imagine that there is some one full, objective, true account of nature and that the proper measure of scientific achievement is the extent to which it brings us closer to that ultimate goal?† (p. 171)   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   A poignant question, indeed. Is there an endpoint to science? Is there a point where there will be nothing left to learn, nothing left to explore and when the collected work of science will entail all that there is to know about the universe? If history is any indication, such a situation is unlikely. The story of science, and Kuhn argues this convincingly, can be seen as a continuing process without any particular goal in site. There may be the subset of goals toward which the practitioner of normal science works, but these are simple goals relating to the desired outcome for one experiment or another, not goals set for science as a whole. That is to say, to work toward a better understanding of the orbit of Jupiter is not to work toward anything so esoteric as a better understanding of the universe, it is to simply add to the ongoing process of scientific revolution by examining one subset of data within a paradigm. The value of Kuhn’s essay extends beyond what value it may have to practitioners of science. It provides a framework that can help anyone, scientist or not, understand the means by which science determines what is an accurate description of the natural world. Science currently finds itself challenged on many fronts for many reasons, most of them having little to do with science and a great deal to do with politics and theology. Kuhn’s essay provides a potent reply to the casting of science as dogmatic or religious in nature.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Personally, I feel that this book is of the utmost value to anyone engaged in the practice of science at any level. What Kuhn manages to do in this essay is to communicate what amounts to an understanding of understanding itself. The scientific method has proven over and over again to be the most accurate means that humanity has devised to make sense of the universe. But science must strive to understand itself as much as it strives to understand the universe.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   The only sure protection against dogmatism is the acknowledgement that all theories are temporal, subject to unexpected and radical change and that they function to explain nature as it is currently understood. There is an important distinction between our current understanding of the universe, our paradigm, and the reality of the universe. Our understanding is always limited to the cumulative experiences of scientists past and present, which, along with those significant moments of revolution have provided the best means available to make accurate and useful predictions. The nature of science, however, is one of constant evolution. As Kuhn argues, this evolution is not a process remarkable for its consistency so much as it is a process remarkable for being punctuated by research and discoveries that cause huge leaps forward in understanding. A scientist who does not understand this may well find themselves consigned to a life of puzzle-solving exercises designed to confirm what is already known rather than experiencing what I would submit is the true passion-inducing aspect of science, the discovery of novel facts that turn the world of science upside down and test the limits of the scientific community’s ability to assimilate and understand those discoveries. Probably the most radical contrast between science and dogma is that science, in its best practice, never shies away from examining itself, its conclusions and the accuracy of the beliefs it encourages. It may not submit itself easily to such tests but it will given time and the impetus of novelty. Kuhn’s essay provides a means by which one might acquire much insight into the workings of science and the scientific community and it provides a celebration of the many crises that have pushed science, and therefore humanity, forward in thought and understanding.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   I find myself in agreement with Kuhn’s conclusions about the ways in which the scientific community reacts to and eventually assimilates novel discoveries. Science, indeed, has been forced to concede long-held beliefs about the universe in the presence of new evidence which did not fit with old paradigms. The case of the evolution of life, where scientists once worked mightily to ensure that there was some room for theology, is one such instance. In the face of Darwin’s observations, science was forced to accept a new paradigm where the nature of living organisms was changed not by providence but by the environments in which they lived. More importantly than Darwin’s impact on theological theories of evolution, or the lack thereof, however, was the concept that evolution was not a goal-driven process (p. 171). This conflicted not only with the theologians of Darwin’s time, but with the accepted scientific theories, the paradigm, of biology as well. No longer was the march of life seen as a march forward toward any particular destination. It had now been more accurately described as a process dictated by the situations of individual organisms rather than the result of some grand design. There was no particular better or worse aspect to the wildlife on the Galapagos evolving to fit the islands on which they lived, the modifications inherited by way of natural selection simply flowed from the natural environment and, given a different environment, they would change again.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   From that new paradigm and from the practitioners of normal science who worked and continue to work within it came modern medicine, agricultural practices and many, many more achievements that are directly traceable to the current paradigm where life is believed to have evolved into its present state over billions of years of slow, cumulative changes. Without the flexibility to change the existing paradigm, we may have found ourselves unavailed of the knowledge of the double-helix, the methods by which bacteria develop resistance to antibiotics and the roots of genetic disease. As Kuhn points out, a radical paradigm shift such as that started by Darwin is necessary for a scientific revolution but the work of those practicing normal science, the geneticist working in the lab, the geologist using the paradigm that explains how a layer of rock strata may be assigned a probable age, the physicist whose work allows for technology such as carbon dating, are all as necessary for the acquisition of a better and more accurate understanding of the universe as is the revolution itself. And, further, that paradigm-driven research is the usual means by which revolutions in the scientific paradigm come to pass.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   That puzzle-solving work of the normal scientist will always draw some to the practice of science. The allure of finding a solution, of one’s research becoming part of the evidence that defines the current scientific understanding of the universe is a powerful one and one that should be encouraged. Normal science may have its elements of drudgery and it could be characterized as only confirming what is already known but that would be inaccurate. Science forms theories based on facts. The power of science to constantly discover new facts about our universe has for a long time been a source of hope and inspiration to humanity as a whole. However, the work of better refining our understanding is of equal value. Science must keep an open mind while continuing to adhere to the paradigms that have provided the best answers. Kuhn’s observant, thoughtful and enlightening essay provides a means for practitioners to better understand the importance of both. References Kuhn, T. (1991). The Structure of Scientific Revolutions. 3rd Ed. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press.

Thursday, November 14, 2019

Karl Marx and the Ideal Society Essay -- capital communism freedom wor

Karl Marx and the Ideal Society One of the greatest debates of all time has been regarding the issue of the freedom of mankind. The one determining factor, for Marx, it that freedom is linked with class conflict. As a historian, Karl Marx traced the history of mankind by the ways in which the economy operated and the role of classes within the economy. For Marx, the biggest question that needed to be answered was â€Å"Who owns freedom?† With this in mind, Marx gives us a solution to both the issues of freedom and class conflict in his critique of capitalism and theory of communism, which is the ideal society for Marx. His theory of communism is based on the â€Å"ultimate end of human history† because there will be freedom for all humankind. Marx saw communism as the ideal society because it is "the genuine resolution of the conflict between man and man- the true resolution of the strife between existence and essence...between freedom and necessity" that capitalism fosters. Marx was also committed t o the notion that theory and action go hand in hand. Marx dismissed earlier thinkers because they (philosophers) "have only interpreted the world in various ways; the point, however, is to change it." He also stated "Ideas cannot carry out anything at all. In order to carry out ideas men are needed who can exert practical force". However, Marx would have been appalled by the way his theory of communism was misused. It can be said, though, that Marx's theory of communism was clearly open for interpretation because he failed to offer "principles or guidelines of even the most general kind" for how the system of communism was to be fully established. It was this opportunity for interpretation that made Marx's theory of communism doomed for failure when it was used in practice.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Marx’s theory stems from the social conditions existing during his lifetime. This was when the industrial revolution was hitting its stride. Great technological advances were being made to the modes of production, especially in the areas of agriculture and textiles. This was the main factor that drove peasants from the countryside to find work in the cities. In addition, capitalism had emerged as the dominant form of economics. Marx contended that class is based upon the economic conditions of society. He identified class through the history of the changing modes of production. In a capital... ...leads to change. Marx certainly believed and documented this and based his theory of communism upon it. However, the gaps left in his theory have resulted in varying interpretation to what he originally envisioned. A society without class or state may very well have been achieved if his theory had given more direction as to the details for its establishment. Instead, Marx's theory has been twisted and rewritten to suit the interests of others. Perhaps the greatest problem with his theory "is that no one has tried it". Bibliography Bakunin: The Philosophy of Freedom, Brian Morris, Black Rose Books, 1993. Marxism and Class Theory, Frank Parkin, Columbia University Press, 1979. Marx: A Clear Guide, Edward Reiss, Pluto Press, 1997. Revolution and Counter-revolution in Germany, Frederick Engels, Foreign Languages Press, 1977. Capital, Karl Marx, Progress Publishers, 1971. German Ideology, Karl Marx and Frederick Engels, International Publishers, 1996. European Democracies, Jurg Steiner, Addison-Wesley Educational Publishers Inc., 1998. The Outlook: Worker-Capitalists of the World Unite, Jacob M. Schlesinger, The Wall Street Journal, Monday, November 15,1999.

Tuesday, November 12, 2019

How does Shakespeare create sympathy for Macbeth in the play? Essay

In the play Macbeth is portrayed as a tragic hero whose injudicious actions led by his vaulting ambition has resulted in a fatal ending which helps in creating a great deal of sympathy for Macbeth. Firstly Shakespeare creates sympathy for Macbeth through his more ambitious wife Lady Macbeth. She plays a major role in creating sympathy for Macbeth as she insults his masculinity be saying â€Å"Was the hope drunk Wherein you dress’d yourself ?†,which gives Macbeth no other option but to follow her. Shakespeare’s of rhetorical questions conveys how Lady Macbeth is manipulating Macbeth to kill Duncan. This for the Shakespearian audience would be quite shocking as she verbally bombards a soldier who was supposed to be really manly and aggressive, but Macbeth doesn’t really say anything back to her which is showing how he is been controlled by her. Furthermore, she uses personification which is another of her manipulative skill which reminds him about his ambition to be the Thane of Cawdor because drunken people often forget things. The audience see Lady Macbeth do this several times during Act1 scene 7 when she insults his sanity. For example, she says to â€Å"screw† his â€Å"courage† which leaves Macbeth to be feeble and accede what Lady Macbeth say him to do. Secondly, Shakespeare presents Macbeth as a victim of the scary encounter of Banquo’s Ghost. Firstly Macbeth ordains the ghost to â€Å"never shake Thy gory locks at him!† when he first catches the sight of the ghost. Macbeth’s use of the imperative his fatal attempts to take control of the supernatural, revealing a glimpse of the brave soldier the audience meet at the beginning of the play. He uses abominable imagery which portrays the disgusting and scary looks of the ghost as the audience wouldn’t be able to see the ghost i n the play. Furthermore the use of exclamation mark depicts Macbeth’s horror and fear, this is ironic as he was the one who got Banquo Murdered, also Shakespeare presents Macbeth as overthrown by Banquo and that Banquo was supposed to be the king as in the stage direction it says that Banquo ghost is sitting in Macbeth’s place ,showing how Macbeth doesn’t deserve his place making him an outcast rather than a powerful king. Furthermore, Shakespeare portrays how Macbeth is an ordinary man who is desperate for more normal life. Macbeth mentions how he wants â€Å"love, obedience, troops of friends† which lacks in his life. He uses long sentence filled with a list of things a king would have had and also which a are really essential for every human. Macbeth’s use of the word ‘obedience’ which he once had when he was a loyal soldier, recalling his past gives a glimpse of Macbeth’s regret over his nefarious actions. In addition, this is showing that he is tired of living the way he is and suggesting his love for lady Macbeth which has not returned to him as the audience can’t see this throughout the play. Moreover, when he finally loses Lady Macbeth when she kills herself, audience can then see that his chance of getting â€Å"love† is lost as he has lost everything he has. Moreover, Shakespeare creates a contrast between ‘noble Macbeth’ at the beginning and ‘devil Macbeth’ toward the end of the play when Macbeth has become an odious tyrant who doesn’t show any remorse in even killing his own best friend or even killing innocent Macduff’s baby. Shakespeare gives Macbeth a title â€Å"noble Macbeth† which not every soldier or king would often get he and he receives this by the king himself. He goes against the divine rights of a king which states how a king is equal to god but Macbeth goes against this with the help of his wife Lady Macbeth even though his conscience reminding him that he was overstepping the mark. Shakespeare’s use of diabolical imagery is taking the reference of how devil who was initially a really good angel but because of his pride and going against god he was forcefully sent to hell, likewise Macbeth’s was initially a really good person but because of bad influence he is turned into the person he is. Shakespeare makes so many biblical references of Macbeth forced being like the devil throughout the play like when Lady Macbeth says him to be the ‘serpent underneath’which is a reference to the snake in the creation story, which helps the audience refer to this and understand more easily as they would have really similar to these concepts. In conclusion with the use of Lady Macbeth Shakespeare creates sympathy for Macbeth as she was the one who first heightened his ambitions. He knows and relishes what is good, but he has chosen the opposite making his life a tragedy.

Sunday, November 10, 2019

Morality and Money Essay

No doubt, Money is an essential, almost indispensable article in the present day world. It is the’ money’ through which we can purchase all the necessary comforts and amenities of life. If you have money, you can obtain what seems impossible to others. It is the money which gives man, confidence, creditworthiness, credentials, capacity, capabilities and courage. In present day materialistic world, money has become very powerful. In the present day corruption, cut throat competition, callous degradation of moral and ethical values, are for the sake of grabbing and accumulating more and more money. The prestige, respect, social status, commanded by a person is calculated per his monetary status. Time has gone, when we valued a person in evaluated of his moral and ethical values. People were earlier known for keeping their words, for donating every thing to a donee. Now people are know in terms of their ranking in the list of rich of the world. Money has become the centre of all activities. Money and muscle power have become essential ingredients of a successful political leader. Money is regarded as omnipotent by a few people, particularly by the poor. As whatever one does not possess, one aspires it badly, and it becomes mono aim of achievement. For the rich, that owe lots of money, still craving to earn more and more, by hook or by crook, with fair or foul means, without caring even for their own health, own family. They are the servants of money, earning money not for the sake of themselves but for the sake of money and a time comes they find themselves unable to use the money for their happiness. They are unable to eat, unable to taste the most delicious dish, unable to move, walk or enjoy because they suffer from many diseases which are the result of their undue craving for wealth at the cost of health. Can one purchase anything with the power of money? No, one cannot. You cannot purchase inner satisfaction with money, you cannot purchase the lost youthfulness with money, you cannot purchase time from the death at any cost. Those who earn money simply to a have more money, more balance in their accounts are no better than the proverbial miser king ‘Midas’. Excessive love for money, make a man slave of money. Money is important for our life, but it is not the most important thing for a human being. Those who use money for fulfilling their necessities, acquiring reasonable comforts and for the welfare of a common good, are the masters of money. But those who earn money just for the sake of increasing its volume and number are slaves of the money. They are the most unfortunate creatures of God who know well that whatever money they are earning, can’t be taken an iota of that when they die even they are minting more and more money. What a paradox Money has become their master and they are just slaves, having no peace of mind, no moral and ethical values, no inner satisfaction. So it is rightly said that money is a good servant but a bad master. Let us use the money for our comfort, not for the sake of money, minting more and more money.

Thursday, November 7, 2019

How Race is Lived In America essays

How Race is Lived In America essays The three articles I had a chance to read were from The New York Times project examining the changing dimensions of racial and racialized experiences in the United States. The Minority Quarterback: Coaches Chose a White to Call the Plays. The Campus Found that Hard to Swallow, a story of a white minority in an all black university, The Way We Live Now: 7-16-00: Round Table; Writing about Race (And Trying to Talk About it), and A Conversation on Race; America, Seen Through the Filter of Race, were the three articles I read from the newspaper series How Race is Lived in America. These readings related very much to our class discussions and in our text books about race and communication/prejudice concepts. In the article The Minority Quarterback, I found that the title itself baffled me at first. The title showed me that I even have prejudice. From the definition formed in class that prejudice is based upon a faulty and inflexible generalization. For me, when I think of a quarterback, I think of a white playing the position. Since in the past of football most quarterbacks were dominantly white. So when I read the title I thought it was about a black quarterback playing the role and his struggle being the leader of the team. But the article was exactly opposite, which gave me a kick out of it for thinking that way. The story was about a white quarterback accepting a scholarship to play for a big time football school among black colleges. He was going to be the first white to start quarterback in the history of the black Southwestern Athletic Conference. His teammates were really unhappy about the situation; they believed that he got the position because he was white and not on his ability. The players picked on his weaknesses and made jokes that he was the typical bland white athlete. This is an example of antilocution one of the levels of prejudice...

Tuesday, November 5, 2019

Definition of Conjugation in English Grammar

Definition of Conjugation in English Grammar From the Latin join together, conjugation (pronunciation: kon-je-GA-shen) refers to the inflection of verbs for person, number, tense, and mood, also called a verbal paradigm. Conjugation In English Grammar Though the term conjugation is still used in some forms of traditional English grammar, contemporary linguists generally regard it as an unnecessary holdover from Latin and Old English. According to the  Oxford Companion to the English Language, the term conjugation is relevant to the grammar of Old English, in which there were seven conjugations of strong verbs, but not to Modern English, although irregular verbs can be divided into a number of pattern groups. Learning Conjugation Rules Remember when in grade school our teachers had us and the rest of class conjugate verbs? Together we pledged or maybe mumbled, I talk, You talk, He/She/It talks, We talk, You talk, They talk. Whatever language we were learning, at whatever age, conjugation taught us proper use of verb tenses, which in English are time distinctions grouped broadly by past, present, or future; also, each verb had to be connected to a personal pronoun acting as its subject.(Davis) Principle Parts Conjugation means breaking a verb down into its different forms to show person, number, tense, and voice.All verbs have three basic forms, which are called their principal parts. From these basic forms, you can make up the tense of any verb. The first principal part is the verb itself. This is the part with which you are most familiar: form, change, discuss. The second principal part is the past tense form. The third principal part is the past participle.(Williams) Aspects of Finiteness Frankly (and sadly) most of us learned basic conjugation in foreign-language class. We learned to conjugate verbs in Spanish, French, or Latin. Unfortunately, many people did not learn basic conjugation in English class. Some did not learn correct conjugation.When you conjugate a verb, you have to cover all three aspects of finiteness: time (thats tense), people (thats person, as in first person, second person, and third person), and quantity (thats number, either singular or plural.(Good) Verbal Paradigms: See and Talk Let us consider [...] the verbal paradigm in English to see how a paradigm works. A verb in English has several forms. The verb see has the forms see, sees, seeing, saw, and (have) seen. We take the lexical item itself to be see, which we pronounce see. Some of the forms of see are entirely predictable, some are not. When a form is predictable from the morphological paradigm, we say that it is regular; when a form is not predictable, it is irregular. So the form seen is not predictable as the past participle (She has never seen Paris like this), nor is the form saw as the past tense.On the other hand, a verb like talk is completely regular: talk, talks, talking, talked, and (have) talked. We want to capture the fact that saw and talked are both past tense forms, even though one is irregular and the other one is regular.(Culicover) The Lighter Side of Conjugations Rupinder continued to dominate the class, but she didnt seem to be learning anything. On a quiz at the end of the week she tried to conjugate the verb wake. Wake, she wrote. Past tense: woke. Past participle: wank. I didnt have the heart to tell her she was wrong.(Dixon) Conjugate This I cut class, you cut class, he, she, it cuts class. We cut class, they cut class. We all cut class. I cannot say this in Spanish because I did not go to Spanish today. Gracias a dios. Hasta luego.(Anderson) Resources and Further Reading Anderson, Laurie Halse. Speak. Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1999.Culicover, Peter W. Natural Language Syntax. Oxford University, 2009.Davis, Bob. Your Writing Well. International, 2014.Dixon, Glenn. Pilgrim in the Palace of Words: A Journey Through the 6,000 Languages of Earth. Dundurn, 2009.Good, C. Edward. A Grammar Book for You and I... Oops, Me!: All the Grammar You Need to Succeed in Life. Capital, 2002.McArthur, Tom, et al., editors. Oxford Companion to the English Language. 2nd ed., Oxford University, 2018.Williams, Karen Schneiter. Basic English Review. 9th ed., Cengage, 2010.

Sunday, November 3, 2019

Analysis of Plutocracy Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Analysis of Plutocracy - Essay Example He notes that such a rule can take varied forms. First, that some of the individuals who are at the helm of authority are rich and it is the wealth they possess that defines why they are in the high offices. The authority which such people exercise works in favor and the interest of the rich people. The actions that individuals in offices take are influenced by them since they have the primary influence on who hold the offices. Brenner notes that these aspects of plutocracy would not necessarily be exclusive. At some point, the government of the rich and for the rich may not be actually run by the rich. Brenner identifies certain circumstances in which the United States may be seen to be practicing plutocracy. One of the features of USA for the past decade is the gross income redistribution. He points at the statistics that point that since 1973, approximately 80% of the wealth generated nationally has gone to the 2% of upper-class America. Brenner points a few matters that define Plutocracy, including the suspension of equal application and protection by the law and when megabanks make profits which are illicit through the laundering of money for the drug cartels. The second article that the study needs to examine is the Robert Reich article in which he discusses The Koch Brothers and the Danger of American Plutocracy. In his argument, he points that blame should not be directed towards Charles and David Koch for having more wealth compared to the 40% of the Americans at the bottom put together. He notes that the two individuals have played by the rules and have obeyed the law, even with their petrochemical empire. Reich points that the point of departure from the rules is the efforts that the two brothers are making to use their wealth to change those particular rules in their favor. This action would be directly undermining the democracy that America has endeavored to protect. Â  

Friday, November 1, 2019

Case Study Evaluation Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

Case Study Evaluation - Essay Example As per the latest reports presented by the World Travel and Tourism Council, The sector has been demonstrating annual growth of 14% and also comprises of numerous tourism and leisure related projects which are worth more than ?35 billion. It is also important to mention that the tourism sector in Dubai comprises of 22.6% of the annual GDP of the Emirates (Dubai Update, 2008, p.1). The most important and prominent reason for the development of the sector is the location of the Dubai. Dubai is located between two of the major world tourism markets, namely, Asia and Europe. It does not take more than six or seven hours to fly from these regions to Dubai. This is coupled with the fact that is the home base of the Emirates which is one of the best airlines in the world. Accessibility accounts for one of the key factors for travelers and the location of Dubai at the gateway towards the Middle East provides major advantage to the region in terms of attracting visitors in the region. Coupled with sunshine round the year, world class infrastructure, high quality of services and also the best facilities of spas, restaurants, hotels and shops, Dubai accounts for an extremely popular and attractive destination for the ever increasing number of tourists. The place has been extremely effective in attracting tourists from across the globe which also accounts for one of the major reasons for the development of the tourism sector in the region. The increase in the number of tourists visiting the place since 1982 gets revealed through the following figure. Figure 1: International tourist arrivals in Dubai between 1982 and 2004 (Source: Henderson, 2006, p.3) Tourists have gradually gained extensive knowledge about the place and have developed a favorable impression about the place too. This has generated motivation among the tourists to visit the place and stay in a place which offers safety and security. Authorities have also played a major role in developing the safety and secu rity of the place and made huge public investments also. They have also actively implemented pro-tourism policies which have further provided a stimulus for the growth of the place through tourism. As apparent from the figure the rate of tourist visitors have remained substantially high in the region. The huge developmental potential of the place has also driven its tourism growth rapidly. As per the information provided by the WTCC, Middle East accounts for the only region in the world which achieved a growth of 7% in its tours and travel sector. This accounts for a total of approximately ?125 billion. This growth has also been able to generate and sustain 10.3% of employment of the region which corresponds to generation of roughly 5.7 million numbers of jobs (Dubai Update, 2008, p.2). Potential issues involved during the development of tourism Political and economic stabilities are few of the primary issues which could retard the progress of the tourism sector of any nation. Insta bility in the above two aspects might lead to volatility and disturbances which would deter not only tourists from visiting the place

Tuesday, October 29, 2019

Project Coursework Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Project - Coursework Example This organization was founded back in 1902 and together with its subsidiaries; it engages is production, marketing and distribution of non-alcoholic beverages, most of which belong to the Coca Cola Company. The CCBCC trades in sparkling beverages like energy drinks, and still beverages such as bottled mineral water, tea, ready to drink coffee, juices, enhanced water as well as sports drinks. The beverage agreement under which it operates is the cola agreement and the allied beverage agreement that allows the company to produce distribute and market the sparkling beverage products of the COCA COLA Company in specified regions. This company sells and distributes its products directly to retail stores and other outlets. Food markets, institutional accounts, and vending machine outlet are some of the outlets served by this company. The bottling rights used by this company were issued to it directly by the Coca Cola Company to bottle in the area covering North Carolina, South Carolina and West Virginia. It also covers some parts of Alabama, Mississippi, Kentucky, Virginia, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Florida and Georgia. This company has fulltime employees that amount to 5,000 and part time employees amounting to 1,500. The total number of employees in this company is about 6,500. The top leardership of the company is composed of the Board of Directors whose members are together with; J. Frank Harrison (Chairman of the Board and the Chief Executive officer), Henry W. Slint (President, COO, Secretary and Director), William H Jones (Independent Director) , Morgan Harrison Everett (Director and Director Community Relations), and James H. Morgan (Independent Director) (Nasdaq, 2014). The Coca Cola Bottlers Consolidated operates under the consumable goods industry under the soft drink sector. This industry is filled with several competitors; some produce consumables that are not actually soft drinks; hence are in different sectors but within the same industry. At the

Sunday, October 27, 2019

The Role Of Communicative Language Teaching

The Role Of Communicative Language Teaching Introduction Foreign languages play a very important role in our system of knowledge. They are not only an effective tool for us to exploit information to acquire scientific technology, to share experiences with or to learn experiences from others in specialized fields but also a useful means of improving peoples material and spiritual lives. In the sixteenth century English became known as a communication language for people around the world. Its popularity as a foreign language has been increasing since then and been developing into the second language of many countries (Richards and Rodgers, 2002). English is now the most popular foreign language in Vietnam and English competence is considered one of the most necessary characteristics for anyone who would like to integrate themslves into the global society and access the worlds knowlege to be sucessful in life. English gradually becoming the main communication language in parts of education, business, entertainment and culture exchanges with o ther cultures excitingly taking place in daily life in Vietnam require appropriate recognition of English speaking from Vietnamese learners, especially teachers and those who are working in education. Language teaching profession has experienced many changes and a number of different language teaching methods and approaches have been proposed and applied for the sake of teachers and learners benefits in their teaching and learning so far. However, which one is the most appropriate for teachers and their learners depending a lot in their teaching and learning context. Therefore, Communicative Language Teaching has been employed in most of Vietnamese classrooms, especially in PVMTC, for its advantages in improving the speaking skills though it is not the latest one. HISTORICAL BACKGROUND THE MAJOR TRENDS OF LANGUAGE TEACHING METHODS AND APPROACHES. Since the begining of the twentieth century, communication between people of different cultures in differrent parts of the world has became urgent request. Teaching and learning a foreign language became more and more popular. However, to teach a foreign language effectively requires a lot of effort from the teachers who have direct and significant impact on their students achievement which is controled by the methodology they choose to apply to their language teaching in different learning and teaching contexts. Understanding the importance of the matter , linguists and teachers themselves have been done a large number of studies on language teaching in order to find out and introduce more practical and effective language teaching methods and approaches that help teachers in performing well their job. The two recent centuries have witnessed ceaseless changes and innovation in language teaching in terms of teaching methods and approaches. These decide how the language is taught and what materials and activities are used in the classroom to help learners get the best achievement in their language learning. Thus, each approach shows its own view of the nature of the language and how the language is learnt. According to Richards and Rodgers (2002, p. 3), Latin was the dominant language of education, commerce, religion and government in the Western world until the sixteenth century when French, Italian and English gradually replaced it to become the languages of communication. However, the tremendous impact of Latin teaching and learning principles and procedures on the way of teaching and learning the newly emerging languages was still occuring until the nineteenth century. This language teaching method has been known as Grammar Translation Method (GMT). As the result, the language lessons occured mostly in students first language, heavily focused on grammar rules which were deductively taught to students in order to guide them to decoding written texts and producing correct writing in target languages (Prator Celce-Murcia, 1979). Translation activities with the assistant of billingual dictionaries were conducted to achieve the accuracy. Students were expected to memorize a number of w ords and their meanings and all grammar rules and then apply them to make sentences. They were also expected to read, comprehend literature and write sentences without errors. Listening skill and speaking skill were completely ignored (Larsen-Freeman, 1986) in GMT classrooms. However, the changes in the society at the time resulted in the change of learners goal of learning languages: learning languages to communicate. The Grammar Traditional Method then couldnt meet the requiement since it appeared to fail to equip learners with interaction and communication skills in the target language (Larsen-Freeman, 2000, p. 23). In 1880 Francois Gouin, a teacher of Latin in France introduced a famous book called Art of teaching and learning of languages to the public. His assumptions of how a foreign language could be taught together with those of Henry Sweet, an English philologist, came together on encouraging students to think in the target language in learning process (Nagaraj, 1996, p. 71-72). This shaped the early version of the Direct method, a revolution in foreign language teaching, which went against the current traditional one. The Direct Method (known as Natural Method) was first introduced in Germany and France and it was the strong response to the dra wbacks of the Grammar Translation Method. It then became popular in The United States in the late of nineteenth century. At the time, Lambert Sauveur, an extraordinary man and his colleage, Gottlied Henness, first applied object lesson technique to teach German and French in their classrooms and they enjoyed great success. Sauveur after that developed this teaching method to the one known as Natural Method and used it widely in his language schools (Howatt, 2004, p. 217). At the same time, Maximilian D Berlitz also used this teaching method in his language schools in the US but in another name: Berlitz Method. Basically, the Direct Method based on the assumption of using the target language to teach itself and that oral practice could help students assess the target language in terms of forms and meanings. It was also the advocacy for the natural language learning principles and teaching of oral skill. So all instructions in the classroom were in the target language. Pronunciation a nd speaking skill were strongly emphasized by conducting question-and-answer activities to motivate and encourage students in using the language confidently (Larsen-Freeman, 1986). Interaction between teacher and students in the target language was considerd a way to present it. Grammar, vocabulary and translation skills which were very important under the Grammar Translation method was now marginalized to guaratee the acquisition of oral proficiency because the proponents of the method had a strong belief that everyday vocabulary used in the classroom could be learnt effectively through visual presentations and that grammar rules could be worked out by students through the teachers inductive grammar teaching. By means of its innovation in language teaching, the Direct method, which negated the effectiveness of the Grammar Translation method, became the first and the most concerned language teaching method that marked the begining of the method era (Richards Rodgers, 2002, p. 14). However, apart from being a breakthrough in teaching interactive speaking skills, the Direct Method also showed its weaknesses in terms of applied linguistics which made the method not take well in public education where the constraints of budget, classroom size, time, and teacher background made such a method difficult to use (Brown, 1994, p. 54) or to Richards and Rodgers it was a dramatic alteration in language teaching which firmly focused on oral skill but lacked a systematic basic in applied linguistic theory and practice (2002, p. 38). In the 1920s and 1930s in Britain, British applied linguists led by Harole Palmer and A. S. Hornby exerted themselves to establish an approach called Oral Approach (or Situation Language Teaching) to language teaching based on more scientific foundation, in which sponken language was important, only general and useful vocabulary was introduced, grammar was graded strictly and all practice took place in situations. The approach also enjoyed the popularity in English for decades there and many textbooks and courses were designed under it principles (Richards and Rodgers, 2002, p. 36-41). Another method became known as the Army method fisrt and then Audio Lingual Method (ALM) as we know it now was a new creative trend in language teaching methodology in The US in the second World War. It was first applied in a special language training programs of Military of the United States. It was devised by an American linguist, Leonart Bloomfield for the servicemen who were going to work as translators, interpreters and quickly needed to have perfect communicative proficiency to perform their jobs in different parts of the world. The method was the combination of language teaching through intensive practice of speaking skills to develop communicative competence with the language learning method based on the disciplines of descriptive linguistics and behaviuor pychology (which considers language learning is a set of language). In this method, immitation, repetition, memorization and reinforcement were impressed within speaking practice with variety of drills. Limited vocabulary w as introduced. Grammar was important but was taught inductively and inexplicitly throughout the conversational dialogues that learners practised orally but no errors were accepted because according to them errors could become bad habits. It was Charles Fries, another American linguist advocating Audio Lingual Method applied the method widely in his English language center, who deserved credit for making this method popular in foreign language teaching in the United States particularly in the 1950s and 1960s (Wong, 2006) and the world. However, the effectiveness of Audio Lingual Method on oral proficiency got questioned in the 1960s. Many experiments were done and according to Scherer and Wertheimer (1964), this effectiveness was not significant. In the 1970s, the new method based on the wiew of language learning as active mental processes, which was advocated J.B. Carroll and K. Chastain in the 1960s, Cognitive-code-Method was born. As Carrol stated, this deductivist method was a modified, up- to-date grammar-translation theory (1966 cited in Stern, 1987, p. 469). It adopted generativist grammatial theory (Danesi, 2003) and focused on grammar structures and all four skills. Clear examples and grammar structure explanation to learners came first. Learners were then asked to pracise them in meaningful contexts. Despite the fact that the method did not win the teachers and linguists favour for long, it deserved merit in leaving contexttualized gramar tranning and the technique of Error Analysis to language teaching ( Danesi, 2003, p. 11). In the early 1980s, the Natural Approach was developed by Tracy Terrell and Stephen Krashen based on Krashens theory about second language acquisition. It looks at language as a set of messages which can be understood. Vocabulary and meaning are primary (Terrell Krashen, 1983 cited in Richards and Rodgers, 2002) and the principles for teaching a language are based on the five hypotheses in Krashens second language acquisition theory. The approach was widely welcomed in the US and around the world for its positive influence on forming more overall principles for effective language teaching that have been considered in the later approaches. In the 1970s, the need for communicative competence continued to increase in line with the changes of economic and political situation in Europe. But teachers and linguists did not satisfy with the current language teaching methods and approaches which were not effective in helping learners use the target language to interact or communicate in real life situations. Communicative Language Teaching (CLT) or Communicative Approach to the teaching of foreign languages then emerged as the answer to the problem. It has didfferent features from those of the other approaches since one of the most characteristic features of Communicative Language Teaching is that it pays basic attention to functional as well as structural aspects of language (Littlewood, 1992, p. 1). To serve communicative goal of language learning, the Communicative Approach is based on the premise that what we do in the classroom should have some real life communicative values or it looks at what people do with language and how they responde to what they hear (Flowerdew Miller, 2005, p. 12). Therefore, all activities used in a CLT classroom are appropriately designed based on these principles. Teachers measures language learnerssuccess by looking at their development in communicative competence which is implied in their making use of any means of communication, verbal or nonverbal, within the limited knowledge of the language they have to. To some extent, CLT makes use of presenting and practising speaking and listening in real life situations to help students complete tasks and build their fluency and confidence. The last approach I would like to mention is Task-Based Approach popularized by Prabhu. The method has attracted teachers and linguists in recent years. It impresses on using authentic language in real life, classrooms are managed to take place in real world communicative context in form of tasks and the tasks outcome, not the accuracy of language forms, is used to evaluate students progress and competence. The activities in the classroom mainly focus on speaking and students are required to be highly active and cooperative. The approach is rather new and not very familiar to teachers and students in some Southeast Asian countries. However, nobody who concerns linguistics negates its state of the art in the field and it is considered the development of CLT. ENGLISH LANGUAGE TEACHING IN VIETNAM: STATE OF THE ART In the last twenty years, the demand for communicating between people of different cultures has pushed English to its recent status as a popular global language. English has become an official languge in Singarpore, India, the Philipines, Hongkong and a popular foreign language in most Asian nations for economic and political reasons. English teaching profession in the region, as the result, receives more concern of teachers, educators and linguists. In line with the current language teaching trends of the world, English language teaching in Asia has also been inspired by a more effective alternative, Communicative approach which emerged in the ash of less effective approachs and methods of language teaching that had big impact on English language learning and teaching for a long time. The wind of changes prevails and results in a lot of other changes related to English language teaching. Teachers have been encouraged to employ CLT in their English classrooms to improve students spea king skill. However, in some Asian countries of ESL where CLT and other later approaches have been imployed in English classrooms and claimed for some success whilst in Asian EFL classrooms whether CLT has been really applied or not, and if it has, how effective it has been, is still questioned. So, what has been the problems? In his study, Hird (1995, cited in Lewis McCook, 2002) stated that the differences in cultures led to the differences in interpreting CLT. The Asian traditionally appreciate the perfection such as acurracy in learning, CLT to their understanding, however, emphasizes more on fluency, appropriateness and spontaneity, not acurracy. Therefore, teachers as well as students were dubious about the effectiveness of CLT. A study of Musthafa Personal author, compiler, or editor name(s); click on any author to run a new search on that name. (2001, p. 1-10) on CLT in Indonesian argued that the communicative approach has failed to help students become any more competent in the use of the English language for real-life purposes. Or Manajitt (2008, p. 83-87) pointed out, although most of the Thai EFL school teachers in Bangkok were very intersted in CLT, learnt about it in many ways and had clear CLT conceptualization, their teaching and their students learning was still a combination between trad itional and communicative approach or still stayed traditional because of difficulties they faced while organizing a CLT classroom. In Vietnam, English became one of the subjects at school in 1987 after Vietnam started Doi Moi in 1986. English appeared in classrooms in some parts of the country. The course books at the time focused on reading skills and grammar and the Grammar Translation Method was applied widely in English teaching in Vietnam (Denham, 1992) beacause the new approaches and methods of teaching English did not reach the country yet and the teachers who were trained before 1986 felt most confident using it (Pham, 1999). Speaking skills were overlooked. Students had to work very hard with grammar rules to past the examinations. Teachers taught to test and students studied to do tests. In 1996, English proficiency at different levels was required to high chool and university students when they finished their study. English joined the rank of major subjects at education institutions. However, teacher-centred or teacher-fronted classrooms remained typical ones in Vietnam (Sullivan, 2000). Students cont inued with their rote learning in teacher-centred classrooms and the English teaching methods of the teachers in Vietnam in the late of 1990s were out-of-date (Kennett Knight,1999). The fact that teaching and learning English in Vietnam for over a dacade was staying the same. Yet the social demands for English for communication purposes were increasing because more and more activities in different fields needing poeple with good communicative English competence urgently required a significient change in language teaching profession. In an attempt to improve the quality of teaching and learning English especially the speaking skill, a movement to transform curriculum, text books, and teaching methodologies (Kim, 2001, p.140) was launched. Now, CLT has been announced to be the best choice to replace Grammar Translation approach in Vietnam. Teachers are annually invited to attend workshops about CLT. The new versions of English text books for students at secondary and high schools have replaced the old ones. The new text books, however, include more every day dialogues as the only evidence for the change since long reading texts and grammar exercies which promise to be the most in typical tests that students are going to take still predominent these books. As a result, speaking skills are skipped in class. Teachers spend most of the time on explaining grammar rules and translating reading texts to students. Students have to work with reading and grammar even harder than ever to survive the exams which mainly compri se long reading texts and extremely complicated grammar points. So, CLT although is officially prefered in Vietnam but whether it is really applied in classrooms to enhance students communitive competence or not is still a big question to anyone who has ever taught English in Vietnam. These lead to far-reaching consequence. At universities and colleges, Communicative course books are also chosen for students like the Lifelines set (Hutchinson, 2001), International Express set (Taylor Lane, 2007). The course books cover four macro skills. However, no oral or listening tests but reading and writing tests are carried out during the course. Inconsistencies between teaching and examinations lead to serious consequence like speaking skills are inorged in such these test-oriented tertiary EFL classrooms, students dont even have oppotunities to use the language verbally inside their classrooms because Vietnamese is used by teachers and students most of the time (Bui, 2006). Under these con ditions, students suffer from the failure in communicating or interacting. In terms of applying effectively new methods to teach English to students to help them use English communicatively, teachers fail to teach their students how to speak or listen but read and write in the target language. According to Pham (1999), there are socio-cultural factors against success in tertiary English language training programs in Vietnam. He emphasizes the fact that not only students but also teachers who lack ability of communicating in the target language get so scared to be in CLT classrooms where speaking skills are focused. The new method required both teachers and students really work actively in class. However, they got used to learning and teaching passively with Grammar Translation Method and they have to struggle to overcome their inherent passiveness, shyness, inferiority and fear to deal with the lesson in the new method. To these teachers and students, their English class put them in a state of panic. These have resulted in the quality of teaching speaking skills at university in Vietnam is still poor. And the explanation of the poor quality speaking teaching in English language tertiary education in Vietnam which results in a large number of graduates who have difficulty with communicating English (Bui, 2006) must take into account the concrete factors such as teachers and students conceptualization and practice of CLT, teachers ability and enthusiasm for their badly paid jobs, budget for language education, syllabus design, material and assessment which are the same in most developing countries (Gorlach, 1995). PetroVietnam Manpower Traning College (PVMTC) belongs to the system of vocational schools in Vietnam but mainly funded by Petrovietnam. For nearly fifteen years, the Streamlines set was used as the main course books and Grammar Translation Method was applied in teaching English in our college. But since 2007, we have replaced the course books with the Lifelines and International Express set. CLT has hardly received any warm welcome from the senior teachers beause they do not want to change the method that they have used for such a long time and as for them, they do not believe in the effectiveness of the new method and they even do not exactly know what CLT is and how to apply it. However, it has enjoyed the popularity among the younger teachers like me. We have been sent to have training courses on CLT together with our colleagues from other schools and colleges. We have excitingly discorvered it and applied or adapted it to our classes when we teach thousands of both types of stude nts studying English there: regular students and project students. Most of the students in PVMTC now are project students who are recent graduates or experienced technicians and engineers from different parts of Vietnam recruited to work for projects of Petrovietnam. They are paid to take a special intensive English course at PVMTC to improve their English skills, especially speaking skills, to perform their job together with foreign experts in their field at industrial facilities or in offices. They are highly motivated because they are given test of four skills and they are expected to achieve at least 650 marks on TOIEC when they finish the training course. They already took a placement test before doing the course and their English proficiency is Pre-intermediate. These are also advantages to us to apply CLT in these classrooms. International Express set is chosen for the course for its characteristics which support teachers and students a lot in conducting a communicative approach classroom. Inductive approach to grammar employed to guide stude nts to work out rules and usage which is usually a foreseen failure to many regular classes for regular students can be acceptable in these classes although both teachers and students have to work extremely hard when dealing with complicated grammar points and occasional failures are inevitable. Students are offered oppotunities speak, to discuss to complete all the task given by the teacher or to solve the problems emerging in the lessons. They are encouraged to use their own experiences, limited language they have learnt and appropriate learning strategies to deal with the English language in particular situations together in pair and group work activities. They are encouraged to keep speaking English with their classmates and teachers as much as they can without caring much about making mistakes when speaking. Authentic materials such as video clips or articles from the internet or newspapers, or any sourses relating to the topics of the lessons can be taken into the classroom to link the language they learn in the cousre book and those in real life. Although English is used by teachers and students most of the time in class, most of the students, especially more advanced and senior ones, generally appear to be successful and get progressed in their learning in terms of using the language communicatively, fluently and confidently. With regard to applying CLT in teaching English speaking effectively in these kinds of classrooms, we proudly claim that both the teachers and students in PVMTC have worked increadibly hard to make it success. We, however, confess our less successful outcome when applying CLT to most of the classes for regular students who are young adults at college and are being trained as workers to work for PetroVietnams subsidiaries. Most of them have been studying English for at least three years at high school but their English proficiency level is still beginner only. They are required to pass an English reading and writing test after finishing 90 hours of learning English in the first semester. Then they are offered a free optional 200 hour course of English to get the A level certificate as the education policy of PetroVietnam. The impacts of the different learning context on English teaching and learning are obvious in this situation. Therefore, as motivated language teachers, we have been doing our best to adapt the most appropriate teaching methods we have known to teach our students to get them improved and to these classrooms, an adapted combination of Audio Lingual Method and CLT has appear ed to be the most appropriate. To a large extent, CLT has enjoyed the popularity in PVMTC for proving itself a more effective method in teaching and learning English speaking skills in PVMTC context in this stage. CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATION FOR FUTURE DIRECTIONS In conclusion, language teaching profession has undergone great changes. Teaching approaches and methods ranging from Grammar Translation to Task-based were born in different stages in teachers, linguists tireless attempts to improve quality of teaching and learning languages. The later coming into the world does not completely exclude of the previous ones but it maintains the quintessence and condemns the drawbacks of them and contributes innovation to the field ensuring its appropriateness for teaching and learning contexts in a particular period. A number of studies have been done for centeries on teaching approaches and methods reflecting increasingly concerns about speaking skills and the recognition of the importance of the the skills in teaching, learning and using the target language. Improving the quality of teaching and learning English are the main chalenges facing Vietnam educators and government beacause it has been considered part of its social, economic and political development strategies. The first step as access to expected success has been made. In Vietnam, CLT has just really been popularized and used in English classrooms to ameliorate learners English competence. A lot of objective and subjective factors impacting on the effectiveness of this communicative method are still existing in Vietnam education system. So CLT will be the most appropriate one to use in the next years in Vietnamese teaching and learning context before trying to exploit the later ones. PVMTC have become aware of the neccessary of choosing and applying CLT in teaching English to acheive the proposed objective of any English courses to satisfy our students need, to prepare them for their future jobs by getting students involved in using English communicatively effectively, And as I mentioned early, we have enjoyed remarkable success but sometimes our teaching ends in falures. In spite of those, I believe that no teaching methos or approaches are perfect to all types of learners and that depending on object of the courses, as asthusiastic language teachers and if we are creative enough in teaching art, we will know how to adapt the methods we have known for use in each of our particular teaching and learning contexts and we will be successful in preparing our students with communicative competence.