Comparing Platos Republic, Mores Utopia, and Gurneys Dinotopia Essay

Plato's Republic, More's Utopia, and Gurney's Dinotopia    Throughout history, mankind has struggled to lead better lives and improve their society for future generations. What do we continuously attempt to improve? What kind of changes are we trying to institute? In other words, what is an ideal society? Many people have very diversified views about a perfect civilization. In Plato's Republic, Sir Thomas More's Utopia, and James Gurney's Dinotopia, three imaginary societies are described, each with its own peculiarities and highlights. Various aspects of the nations described in these three novels, including their respective economies, governments, and social structures, will be compared and contrasted. A crucial aspect of any society would be its economy. In Utopia, business was conducted chiefly to import iron, and in many cases they traded on credit. The Utopians have no currency, though they trade their goods for gold in order to pay mercenaries in times of war. If one is in need of something, one merely has to inform the head of one's household and he will get it. Their society is arranged so that they reject many material things that our society would consider valuable, such as silver and diamonds. "The Utopians fail to understand why anyone should be so fascinated by the dull gleam of a tiny bit of stone, when he has all the stars in the sky to look at - or how anyone can be silly enough to think himself better than other people, because his clothes are made of finer woolen thread than theirs" (More 89). To minimize the importance of these materials, Utopians make everyday objects out of them, like chamber pots. In Dinotopia, people are given what they require, mu ch like Utopia, although the... ...h political and financial equality, forming the foundation for everlasting peace. This ideal society would be ruled by a government that truly represents the people and endeavors to direct its citizens on the route to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. As Sir Francis Bacon said, "Man seeketh in society comfort, use, and protection." Works Cited Ferguson, John. Utopias of the Classical World. Ithaca, NY: Cornell UP, 1975. Manuel, Frank E. and Fritzie P. Manuel. Utopian Thought in the Western World. Cambridge, MA: Belknap-Harvard Press, 1979. More, Thomas. Utopia. Trans. Paul Turner. New York: Penguin Books, 1965. Plato. Republic. Trans. G.M.A. Grube. Indianapolis: Hackett Publishing, 1974. Rice, Eugene E. and Anthony Grafton. The Foundations of Early Modern Europe, 1460-1559. 2nd. ed. New York: W. W. Norton and Co., 1994.

McDonald’s

McDonalds retail outlet resembles a machine in many ways. McDonald’s has many employees that were hired for a certain job position. Without those employees, there would be a missing part to the â€Å"machine†, therefore the business would not operate properly. The employees represent the parts to the machine that do one thing, over and over again. When you go to McDonalds, you place your order with the cashier, then the order is sent to the cooks, and then there is someone there who bags your food. Without any of those people how would McDonalds operate? If an employee calls out sick and doesn’t show up to work, they get someone to replace them. â€Å"Parts† are replaceable. In terms of Frederick Taylor's principles of scientific management, each task performed at McDonalds has one best method. It is the manager’s responsibility to find that best method. It is also the manager’s responsibility to hire and train the employee that is using that method. It is the employee’s responsibility to perform the task using that method in order for McDonalds to run properly. In terms of Max Weber's hierarchical structure, McDonalds is a major corporation for which it’s owner has the highest authority and responsibility that everyone below him are doing their job functions correctly in order to maintain a successful business. Then you have regional managers, district managers, store managers, assistant managers/ supervisors, and the employees. In terms of Henri Fayol's administrative principles of McDonalds, there is a chain of command from top to bottom. There are store owners, store managers, assistant managers, and the employees. There are organizational goals that must be met, and it is the responsibility of the managers to make sure that it’s employees are performing those tasks and following the rule that are applied to all. I believe McDonalds has been a successful franchise due to a consistent commitment to standards. McDonalds success thrives on adapting to consumer demands. McDonalds franchise restaurants became well known for the inspired and defining vision created by Kroc for his restaurant business. â€Å"Quality, Service, Cleanliness and Value† was the company’s motto, and customers knew that no matter where they travelled, they could rely on those qualities at every McDonalds they visited. Kroc’s brilliant marketing insights produced many winning strategies. He launched â€Å"Hamburger University† in 1961 in Elk Grove, Illinois, to train all franchisees in every aspect of McDonald’s management. Kroc also targeted families as his best market share. This resulted in the debut of the â€Å"Ronald McDonald† clown character on television in 1963. There are many similarities in organization between McDonalds and other successful franchise organizations, such as Burger King, who was founded by James McLamore, and Glen Bell, founder of Taco Bell. These two mean visited McDonalds just after Ray Kroc back in 1954. They all were very impressed with the speedy business operation that served so many people at once. Mechanistic organization of McDonald’s retail outlets is the best method for the franchise with the process of innovation so characteristic of the McDonald’s enterprise because they kept their beliefs and values throughout all these years which has made them very successful to this day.

The Ancient Maya and Human Sacrifice

For a long time, it was commonly held by Mayanist experts that the â€Å"pacific† Maya of Central America and southern Mexico did not practice human sacrifice. However, as more images and glyphs have come to light and been translated, it appears that the Maya frequently practiced human sacrifice in religious and political contexts. Maya Civilization The Maya civilization flourished in the rain forests and misty jungles of Central America and southern Mexico ca. B.C.E. 300 to 1520 C.E. The civilization peaked around 800 C.E. and mysteriously collapsed not long after. It survived into what is called the Maya Postclassic Period, and the center of Maya culture moved to the Yucatan Peninsula. Maya culture still existed when the Spanish arrived around 1524 C.E.; conquistador Pedro de Alvarado brought down the largest of the Maya city-states for the Spanish Crown. Even at its height, the Maya Empire was never unified politically. Instead, it was a series of powerful, warring city-states who shared language, religion, and other cultural characteristics. Modern Conception of the Maya Early scholars who studied the Maya believed them to be pacifists who rarely warred among themselves. These scholars were impressed by the intellectual achievements of the culture, which included extensive trade routes, a written language, advanced astronomy and mathematics, and an impressively accurate calendar. Recent research, however, shows that the Maya were, in fact, a tough, warlike people who frequently warred among themselves. It is quite likely that this constant warfare was an important factor in their sudden and mysterious decline. It is also now evident that, like their later neighbors the Aztecs, the Maya regularly practiced human sacrifice. Beheading and Disemboweling Far to the north, the Aztecs would become famous for holding their victims down on top of temples and cutting out their hearts, offering the still-beating organs to their gods. The Maya cut the hearts out of their victims, too, as can be seen in certain images surviving at the Piedras Negras historical site. However, it was much more common for them to decapitate or disembowel their sacrificial victims, or else tie them up and push them down the stone stairs of their temples. The methods had much to do with who was being sacrificed and for what purpose. Prisoners of war were usually disemboweled. When the sacrifice was religiously linked to the ball game, the prisoners were more likely to be decapitated or pushed down the stairs. Meaning of Human Sacrifice To the Maya, death and sacrifice were spiritually linked to the concepts of creation and rebirth. In the Popol Vuh, the sacred book of the Maya, the hero twins Hunahpà º and Xbalanque must journey to the underworld (i.e. die) before they can be reborn into the world above. In another section of the same book, the god Tohil asks for human sacrifice in exchange for fire. A series of glyphs deciphered at the Yaxchilà ¡n archaeological site links the concept of beheading to the notion of creation or awakening. Sacrifices often marked the beginning of a new era: this could be the ascension of a new king or the beginning of a new calendar cycle. These sacrifices, meant to aid in the rebirth and renewal of the harvest and life cycles, were often carried out by priests and/or nobles, especially the king. Children were sometimes used as sacrificial victims at such times. Sacrifice and the Ball Game For the Maya, human sacrifices were associated with the  ball game. The game, in which a hard rubber ball was knocked around by players mostly using their hips, often had religious, symbolic or spiritual meaning. Maya images show a clear connection between the ball and decapitated heads: the balls were even sometimes made from skulls. Sometimes, a ballgame would be a sort of continuation of a victorious battle. Captive warriors from the vanquished tribe or city-state would be forced to play and then sacrificed ​afterwards. A famous image carved in stone at Chichà ©n Itzà ¡ shows a victorious ballplayer holding aloft the decapitated head of the opposing team leader. Politics and Human Sacrifice Captive kings and rulers were often highly prized sacrifices. In another carving from Yaxchilà ¡n, a local ruler, â€Å"Bird Jaguar IV,† plays the ball game in full gear while â€Å"Black Deer,† a captured rival chieftain, bounces down a nearby stairway in the form of a ball. It is likely that the captive was sacrificed by being tied up and pushed down the stairs of a temple as part of a ceremony involving the ball game. In 738 C.E., a war party from Quiriguà ¡ captured the king of rival city-state Copà ¡n: the captive king was ritually sacrificed. Ritual Bloodletting Another aspect of Maya blood sacrifice involved ritual bloodletting. In the Popol Vuh, the first Maya pierced their skin to offer blood to the gods Tohil, Avilix, and Hacavitz. Maya kings and lords would pierce their flesh—generally genitals, lips, ears, or tongues—with sharp objects such as stingray spines. Such spines are often found in tombs of Maya royalty. Maya nobles were considered semi-divine, and the blood of kings was an important part of certain Maya rituals, often those involving agriculture. Not only male nobles but females as well took part in ritual bloodletting. Royal blood offerings were smeared on idols or dripped onto bark paper which was then burned: the rising smoke could open a gateway of sorts between the worlds. Resources and Further Reading McKillop, Heather. The Ancient Maya: New Perspectives. New York: Norton, 2004.Miller, Mary and Karl Taube. An Illustrated Dictionary of the Gods and Symbols of Ancient Mexico and the Maya. New York: Thames Hudson, 1993.Recinos, Adrian (translator). Popol Vuh: the Sacred Text of the Ancient Quichà © Maya. Norman: the University of Oklahoma Press, 1950.Stuart, David. (translated by Elisa Ramirez). La ideologà ­a del sacrificio entre los Mayas. Arqueologia Mexicana vol. XI, Num. 63 (Sept.-Oct. 2003) p. 24-29.

The Problem Of Space Research - 1329 Words

The government must continue to fund space research in order to colonize and contain the current overpopulation as well as other global issues on Earth. Space research involves scientific studies launched with specific equipment to outer space, and provides a broad category of research disciplines such as: Earth science, Materials science, Biology, Medicine etc. Many complain of how costly space research is, with missions that have a total cost of up to 1.6 billion dollars, many feel that it’s not worth such large amounts of money and the outcomes of space research provide little benefits. However, it’s quite the opposite. Space research mainly focuses on colonizing most of the 7.1 billion people that inhabit the Earth today, to other planets within the solar system and beyond. It’s very important to look for other planets to live on besides Earth because our population has grown drastically over the Earth’s calculated capacity, and if we don’t look to other planets, then where else do we look? Due to the overpopulation of humans on Earth, many of the Earth’s resources have been used on our species development. As a result, space research also focuses on retrieving more resources from the limitless supply Space has to offer, providing a vast majority of rare and essential materials for use. Another thing to note is thanks to Nasa’s space research humans now have a better understanding of Earth and its environment and because of that, humans are able to counter and endShow MoreRelatedNASA and Space: The Final Frontier967 Words   |  4 Pageshuman understanding of space treks out of the fantastical and into the scientific, the realities of traveling through and living in space are becoming clearer. 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(Beings not Made for Space, Kenneth Chang, 2014) Long-term space flight requests that astronauts have to be exposed to the real space environment, which includes microgravity, the significant increase in radiation, variation in temperature and space viewRead MoreThe Sheridan County Ymca And Its Lack Of Space For Its After School Program Essay1397 Words   |  6 PagesIntroduction This report will confront the issue at the Sheridan County YMCA and its lack of space for its After School Program. Over the last eight years since the program’s start it has become a wonderful opportunity for families in need of childcare in the hours between the children’s release from school and when they get off work. The program has gained a promising reputation, that being said, it has also gained a hefty waitlist of parents in hopes of their children being accepted into the program

Oil Sands in Canada - 540 Words

This affects local population settlements along the banks. The production of the oil sands is a human rights issue as it effects local drinking water , an environmental issue with the destruction of local wildlife and an first nations people issue. By and large the general public in Canada and the United States do not know what is going on in northern Alberta. The public still does not fully comprehend how First Nations communities are the most negatively affected. First Nation Canadians live very close to the oil sands , mostly along the Athabasca River basin area. These are the First Nations communities of Fort McMurray, Fort Chipewyan and Fort McKay. The oil sand production plants around Fort McMurray and Fort McKay are located north along the Athabasca river . Currently oil sands production and storage of toxic waste has completely changed the Athabasca river and surrounding wetlands. This production and storage has caused de-forestation , toxic contamination of rivers and wetla nds and disruption of wild life habitats. These changes to the environment have disturbed the way of life that people in these communities grew up on , currently the levels of mercury and lead in the Athabasca river are high enough that residents will not eat the fish in the river. For the last seven years Canada has become the top provider for oil to the united states edging out Saudi Arabia, its this need to produce oil on a large capacity that is fuelling the destruction of the surroundingShow MoreRelatedCanada ´s Oil Sands Essay1875 Words   |  8 Pages Introduction The statement ‘Canada oil sands are much more of a blessing rather than a curse’ is not true because the disadvantages of oil sands outweigh the advantages. For this reason, this paper aims at indicating points against the statement. 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Buying Behavior of Organizations

Question: Discuss about theBuying Behavior of Organizations. Answer: Introduction: Procurement is one of the most important functions of any organization. Traditionally, Procurement involves a lot of manual activity and use of paper however with time, the buying behaviors of the organizations is going under a drastic change and constantly reshaping itself in response to the needs of the Industry. There are lot of trends and buzzwords like Globalization, Total cost of ownership, Collaboration, Digitalization, e-procurement that helped organizations to reinvent their buying department to meet the current challenges (Hoyt, Huq, 2000). With increasing competition due to Globalization and margins under all-time low, high volatility in prices of raw materials and huge lead time as organizations are buying products from different corners of the world, there is huge pressures on management to cut the cost at every front and purchasing department is also not untouched by it. Buying behavior in the organizations are influenced by both internal and external factors. Internal factors like organizations goals, strategy, inventory policy, technology maturity and hedging strategy affect the buying behavior. At the same time, external factors like import and export policy, political environment, social environment, competition, availability of material, lead-time of buying the material, bargaining power over the supplier also affects the buying behavior of the organizations. Some of the latest trends are as follows in analyzing the buying behavior of the organizations: Supplier Collaboration and Early Supplier Involvement (ESI) Supplier collaboration is a new trend in buying industry especially in those cases when purchases are required for particular raw materials at a fixed time on a continuous basis. In such cases, buying team prefers to establish a strategic alliance with the suppliers and share its forecasts with suppliers also. Collaboration reduces transactional costs of placing the orders and inspecting the receipts. Organizations are also saving costs to inspect the incoming raw material by entering the accepted level of quality in agreements (Schoenherr, et. al., 2012). Once alliance is formed, it is win-win situation for both buyer as well as supplier. Both can share their best practices to arrive at a consensus demand. This also helps organizations in reducing the costs and tacking the volatility in a better way. Also, one of the benefits of entering into alliance is that suppliers can be involved in design activities also (Monczka, Handfield, Guinipero, Patterson, 2015). Increased use of Advanced Software like Spend Analysis and Analytics There is an increased use of analytics and advanced software to analyses the trends and thus make appropriate decisions. Spend management software have built in intelligence and can provide Supplier based categorization of spend, detailed analysis like fast moving, slow moving items, inventory turnover ratio for various items and suggests actions after analysis (Bowersox, Closs, Stank, 2000). ABB has implemented Spend management software with the help of SAS Institute (https://www.unspsc.org/) and achieve tremendous benefits. This software is taking input from 5 ERPs, legacy systems and excels files to provide the recommendation. More Focus on Automating the Entire Procure to Pay (P2P) Cycle With the increased use of software and focus on reducing the costs and manual effort, organizations are focusing on making the entire Procure to pay process automated at least for the items that enterprises buys on a regular basis. This happens that daily MRP engine runs which calculates which material is required by when to make the final customer order. For every raw material, there is list of approved supplier list. Appropriate supplier will be picked depending on the other factors, which are controlled by the systems like lead-time etc. and Purchase order will be created. After this, Buyer will have appropriate limits for items that are procured regularly. Once Purchase order is approved, it will be emailed to supplier directly who in turn will send the acknowledgement. Many ERPs like Oracle and SAP are supporting this automated process (Rich, Dibbhem, 2013) and many organizations like Agilent are using it. All this helps enterprises not only in achieving real costs saving in pl acing (https://eprocurement.agilent.com/ ) the order but also in saving the lead time of placing the order. This process manually could have taken 3-4 days can be executed in a moment with automation. Aggressive Key Performance Metrics for Purchasing Department Senior management are closely tracking the procurement dashboard that will report how much money is saved due to change in buying strategy, how much reduction in inventory is achieved without any stock outs, lead time reduction. Purchasing analysts are also measured based on their strategy to save the cost in buying the items having high volatility in prices, hedging strategy, number of times stock out occurs and its impact. More Involvement of End Users Presently, buying team coordinate with end users also so that right product is purchase first time and there will no wastage. For instance, Now Purchasing function plans to buy particular raw material after taking exact specifications and any special requirements of end users in account. All this is possible due to increased communication between purchasing team with end users (Kauppo, JOnes, Ronchi, Raaji, 2013). Earlier, sometimes organizations buys software that claims numerous benefits but end users find it very difficult to use and thus reject it and continue to use legacy and excel systems. All this happens because of communication gap between user and purchasing team but now there is effective coordination to prevent wastage and improve the efficiency. These are the latest trends in procurement. Procurement, which was once seen as a more transactional function is, now became a strategic function in any organization with full support of management as management began to understand the importance of these functions in influencing the supply chain management as a whole. Reference Bowersox, D. J., Closs, D. J., Stank, T. P. (2000). Ten mega-trends that will revolutionize supply chain logistics.Journal of business logistics,21(2), 1. Hoyt, J., Huq, F. (2000). From arms-length to collaborative relationships in the supply chain: An evolutionary process.International Journal of Physical Distribution Logistics Management,30(9), 750-764. Kauppi, K., Brandon-Jones, A., Ronchi, S., van Raaij, E. M. (2013). Tools without skills: Exploring the moderating effect of absorptive capacity on the relationship between e-purchasing tools and category performance.International Journal of Operations Production Management,33(7), 828-857. Monczka, R. M., Handfield, R. B., Giunipero, L. C., Patterson, J. L. (2015).Purchasing and supply chain management. Cengage Learning. Rich, D., Dibbern, J. (2013). A team-oriented investigation of ERP post-implementation integration projects: how cross-functional collaboration influences ERP benefits. InInnovation and Future of Enterprise Information Systems(pp. 115-127). Springer Berlin Heidelberg. Schoenherr, T., Modi, S. B., Benton, W. C., Carter, C. R., Choi, T. Y., Larson, P. D., ... Wagner, S. M. (2012). Research opportunities in purchasing and supply management.International Journal of Production Research,50(16), 4556-4579.

Piute Indians Essays - Paiute, Native American Tribes In California

Piute Indians The Paiutes, or Piutes (pronounced PIE-oot), included many different bands, spread out over a vast region. They are recognized as some of the North American Indian tribes. They are usually organized into two groups for study: the Northern Paiutes and the Southern Paiutes. The northern branch occupied territory that is now northwestern Nevada, southeastern Oregon, southwestern Idaho, and northeastern California. The southern branch lived in territory now part of western Utah, southern Nevada, northwestern Arizona, and southeastern California. The Northern and Southern Paiutes spoke varying dialects of the Uto-Aztecan language family, related to the Shoshone dialect. The name Paiute is thought to mean ?true Ute? or ?Water Ute,? also indicating and ancestral relationship with the Ute Indians of Utah. The Paiute, are one of the best-known peoples of the Intermountain Great Basin area. Some Paiutes were nomadic, moving from place to place in search of game and wild plant foods. For the Paiute bands, their activities and whereabouts in the course of a year were dictated by the availability of food. They traveled a great deal, constructing temporary huts of brush and reeds strewn over willow poles, known as wickiups, which were similar to Apache dwellings. The first plant food available in the springtime was the cattail growing in marsh ponds. The Indians ate the shoots raw. Other wild plant foods--roots and greens--soon followed. Spring was also a good time to hunt ducks in ponds on the birds' migration northward, and, in the highlands to the north the Great Basin, to fish the rivers and streams during annual spawning runs. In summertime, many more wild plant foods ripened, such as berries and rice grass. The Indians ground the seeds of the latter into meal. In the autumn, the primary food was pine nuts. The Indians collected them from pinon trees growing on the hills and plateaus rising above the Great Basin. In the late fall, the Indians returned to the desert lowlands to hunt game throughout the winter, especially rabbits. Year-round, Paiutes ate whatever else they could forage, such as lizards, grubs, and insects. The Paiutes, along with other Great Basin tribes, have been called Digger Indians by whites because they dug for many of their foods. The Northern Paiutes, who occupied areas of California, Nevada, and Oregon in the 19th century, were friendly with American settlers until the gold rush began in 1848. At first, in contacts with fur trappers and traders, such as Jedehiah Smith in 1825, Peter Skene Ogden in 1827, and Joseph Walker in 1833, the Northern Paiutes were friendly. With large numbers of prospectors entering their land and disrupting their way of life, the Indians turned hostile. They played a prominent role in wars such as the Coeur d' Alene war of 1858-59, the Snake War in 1866-67, and the Bannock War of 1878. They fought with the invaders a number of times until 1874, when the last Paiute lands were taken by the U.S. government. The Paiutes had great chiefs that led them through wars and conflicts. Some of the names include Paulina and Old Weawea. They were from two Northern Paiute bands called the Snake warriors. Chief Buffalo Horn, Chief Egan, a medicine man Oytes, Wovoka (also known as Jack Wilson), and Tavibo. The Southern Paiutes, who lived in parts of Utah, Arizona, Nevada, and California, had relatively little conflict with settlers and remained peaceful. The Southern Paiutes were indirectly involved in a conflict in 1888. In 1990, 11,142 people in the U.S., living mainly on reservations in Nevada and California, claimed Paiute ancestry. A Paiute from Nevada by the name of Wovoka founded a religion called the Ghost Dance. He was the son of another mystic, Tavibo, and was affected by his father's teachings. Wovoka experienced a vision during an eclipse of the sun and afterward began preaching that the earth would soon perish, then come alive again in a natural state with lush prairie grass and huge herds of buffalo. There would be more whites. The Indians, as well as their dead ancestors, would inherit this new world. Wovoka believed that in order to bring about this new existence, Indians had to purge themselves of the white man's ways, especially alcohol, and live together harmoniously. He also called