Poverty is not a choice essays

Poverty is not a choice essays Recently, I had read an article in The New City newspaper entitled, Poverty is really a matter of choice. I found the article to be quite deceptive. Actually, I was dazed at the editors justification concerning that poverty was a matter of choice. Solomon, in his brief anecdotes about his poor deprived friends was in fact, far from living in poverty. Also, in his next argument using the U.S and Canadas statistics, were found by me to be misleading to the reader. One last thing I would like to mention is on his statement that, Lifestyle choices dictate income levels, not the other way around. But we dont choose to be poor. Solomons explanations on choosing to live in poverty were very ludicrous and very unconvincing. His antidotes and statistics didnt help in convincing, but did a great job of trying to mislead the reader. We human beings, without a doubt, make decisions to our advantage, and never the other way around. So why would we want choose to live a life of poverty w hen we can live a pleasant life of wealth? Since I do not agree with Solomons theory, I would not believe that people would choose to live in poverty. Rather, I believe that poverty is in some way controlled by the persons living environment, education, or maybe perhaps its in their genes ever since the day they were born. Hillary, a hotel chambermaid, was described as middle aged woman living in poverty, in the opinion of editor Solomon. Hillary is a woman who desires a life of simplicity, although not earning much as a chambermaid; she does live a stable and enjoyable life in one of British Columbias picture book valleys. She may not have money for restaurants and VCRs. But despite of those facts, she is not living in poverty. The correct definition of someone living in poverty would be that one does not have enough money for their basic necessitie...

Three Fairly New British Language References

Three Fairly New British Language References Three Fairly New British Language References Three Fairly New British Language References By Maeve Maddox Motivated by the lively debates about where to put commas, and the controversy over â€Å"gone missing,† I’ve added some up-to-date British references to my print reference library. The three newcomers to my shelves are: Penguin Dictionary of English Grammar by R. L. Trask, 2000. As the title implies, this guide arranges topics and terms in alphabetical order. It includes every permutation of terminology from the traditional ones I grew up with to the innovations born of transformational grammar and Quirk Grammar. Here one can find definitions of subject raising, subjuncts, adjuncts and conjuncts, along with more immediately useful terms as double negative, paradigm, relative pronoun and usage. A lot of the terms are, however, a bit esoteric. While it’s a great resource for me in my line of work, there’s probably nothing here you can’t find online at OWL or any of the other free references mentioned in Online Style Guides. Penguin Guide to Punctuation by R. L. Trask, 1997. Trask does more than present rules and made-up textbook examples. His personality comes through as he discusses badly punctuated passages, often speculating as to why certain errors are made. It’s extremely readable, whatever page you open to. Of the ten chapters, seven deal with specific punctuation marks: 2: The Full Stop, the Question Mark and the Exclamation Mark 3: The Comma 4: The Colon and the Semicolon 5: The Apostrophe 6: The Hyphen and the Dash 7 Capital Letters and Abbreviations 8 Quotation Marks Chapter 1 explains the practical importance of punctuation. Chapter 7 gives rules for capitalizing and abbreviating. Chapter 9 deals with typographical considerations and Chapter 10 discusses the punctuation of essays and letters. I’m still in the process of getting acquainted with it, but this punctuation guide promises to be a treasure. Having British usage all in one place will be a great help as I write future posts. Penguin Writer’s Manual by Martin H. Manser and Stephen Curtis, 2002. As might be expected, there’s some overlap with the other two books. This one book has everything a writer needs in a basic reference. Part One deals with the mechanics of writing: 1 Grammar 2 Usage 3 Vocabulary 4 Spelling 5 Punctuation 6 Abbreviations. Part Two gets into the specifics of style, revision, and types of writing. There’s also a generous glossary of grammatical terms. In case youre wondering: Quirk grammars: A series of grammars of English written by Randolph Quirk and his colleagues. Though rather traditional in orientation, these grammars are informed by contemporary linguistic research. They introduce a certain amount of novel terminology. 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 Book Reviews category, check our popular posts, or choose a related post below:"Based in" and "based out of"75 Synonyms for â€Å"Talk†How to Style Titles of Print and Online Publications

Italianate Homes, Romantic and Picturesque

Italianate Homes, Romantic and Picturesque Of all the homes built in the United States during the Victorian era, the romantic Italianate style became the most popular for a short period of time. With their nearly-flat roofs, wide eaves, and massive brackets, these homes suggested the romantic villas of Renaissance Italy. The Italianate style is also known as Tuscan, Lombard, or bracketed. Italianate and the Picturesque Movement The historical roots of Italianate styles are in Italian Renaissance architecture. Some of the first Italian villas were designed by Renaissance architect Andrea Palladio in the 16th century. Palladio reinvented Classical architecture, melding the designs of a Roman temple into residential architecture. By the 19th century, English-speaking architects were reinventing Roman designs yet again, capturing the flavor of what they imagined to be the Italian villa look. The Italianate style began in England with the picturesque movement. For centuries English homes tended to be formal and classical in style. Neoclassical architecture was orderly and proportioned.  With the picturesque movement, however, the landscape gained importance. Architecture not only became integral to its surroundings, but also became a vehicle for experiencing the natural world and surrounding gardens. The pattern books of British-born landscape architect Calvert Vaux (1824-1895) and the American Andrew Jackson Downing (1815-1852) brought this concept to an American audience. Especially popular was A. J. Downings 1842 book Rural Cottages and Cottage-Villas and their Gardens and Grounds Adapted to North America. American architects and builders such as  Henry Austin (1804-1891) and Alexander Jackson Davis (1803-1892) began to design fanciful recreations of Italian Renaissance villas. Architects copied and reinterpreted the style for buildings in the United States, making Italianate architecture in the U.S. uniquely American in style. One of the finest examples of late Victorian Italianate architecture is owned by the National Park Service. The John Muir National Historic Site in Martinez, California lays claim to the 17-room John Muir Mansion, built in 1882, and inherited by the famous American naturalist. Queen Victoria ruled England for a long, long time - from 1837 until her death in 1901 - so Victorian architecture is more a time frame than a specific style. During the Victorian era, emerging styles captured a large audience by the widely-published house pattern books packed with building plans and home building advice. Prominent designers and illustrators published many plans for Italianate and Gothic Revival style homes. By the late 1860s, the fashion had swept through North America. Why Builders Loved the Italianate Style Italianate architecture knew no class boundaries. The high square towers made the style a natural choice for upscale homes of the newly rich. However the brackets and other architecture details, made affordable by new methods for machine production, were easily applied to simple cottages. Historians say that Italianate became the favored style for two reasons: (1) Italianate homes could be constructed with many different building materials, and the style could be adapted to modest budgets; and (2) new technologies of the Victorian era made it possible to quickly and affordably produce cast-iron and press-metal decorations. Many 19th century commercial buildings, including urban rooming houses, were constructed with this practical yet elegant design. Italianate remained the preferred house style in the U.S. until the 1870s, when the Civil War curbed the progress of construction. Italianate was also a common style for modest structures like barns and for larger public buildings such as town halls, libraries, and train stations. You will find Italianate buildings in nearly every part of the United States except for the deep South. There are fewer Italianate buildings in the southern states because the style reached its peak during the Civil War, a time when the south was economically devastated. Italianate was an early form of Victorian architecture. After the 1870s, architectural fashion turned toward late Victorian styles such as Queen Anne. Italianate Features Italianate homes can be wood-sided or brick, with commercial and public properties often being masonry. The most common Italianate styles will often have many of these characteristics: a low-pitched or flat roof; a balanced, symmetrical rectangular shape; a tall appearance, with two, three, or four stories; wide, overhanging eaves with large brackets and cornices; a square cupola; a porch topped with balustraded balconies; tall, narrow, paired windows, often arched with hood moldings projecting above the windows; a side bay window, often two stories tall; heavily molded double doors; Roman or segmented arches above windows and doors; and rusticated quoins on masonry buildings. Italianate house styles in America can seem like a mix of characteristics from different eras, and sometimes they are. The Italian-inspired Renaissance Revival homes are more palatial but still often confused with the Victorian Italianate style. The French-inspired Second Empire, like houses in the Italianate style, often feature a high, square tower. Beaux Arts buildings are grand and elaborate, often embracing Italianate ideas along with Classical. Even Neo-Mediterranean builders of the 20th century re-visited Italianate themes. Victorian architecture encompasses a variety of popular styles, but ask yourself how picturesque each is. Examples of Italianate Houses Italiante houses can be found across the United States. often tucked away in unexpected places. The Lewis House built in 1871, is on a side road outside Ballston Spa, New York. Not named for the original owner, the Lewis family converted historic home near Saratoga Springs into a Bed Breakfast business. Italianate Lewis House, 1871, Ballston Spa, New York. Jackie Craven In Bloomington, Illinois you can visit Clover Lawn, built in 1872. Also known as the David Davis Mansion, the architecture combines Italianate and Second Empire stylings. David Davis Mansion, 1872, Illinois. Teemu08 via Wikimedia Commons, own work, Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license (CC BY-SA 3.0) cropped The Andrew Low House in Savannah, Georgia was built in 1849. This historic house by New York architect John Norris has been described as Italianate, most notably because of its urban garden landscaping. To get the full sense of Italiante details, especially the roof, the observer must step back both physically and in time. Andrew Low House, 1849, Savannah, Georgia. Carol M. Highsmith/Getty Images (cropped) Sources Italianate Architecture and History, Old-House Journal, August 10, 2011, https://www.oldhouseonline.com/articles/all-about-italianates [accessed August 28, 2017]Italianate Villa/Italianate Style 1840 - 1885, Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission, phmc.state.pa.us/portal/communities/architecture/styles/italianate.html  [accessed August 28, 2017]A Field Guide to American Houses by Virginia and Lee McAlester, Knopf, 1984, 2013American Shelter: An Illustrated Encyclopedia of the American Home by Lester Walker, Overlook, 1998American House Styles: A Concise Guide by John Milnes Baker, AIA, Norton, 2002Photo Credits: Clover Lawn, Teemu08 via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 3.0) cropped; Andrew Low House, Carol M. Highsmith/Getty Images (cropped); Lewis House, Jackie CravenCOPYRIGHT: The articles you see on the pages of this website are copyrighted. You may link to them or print them for your own use, but do not copy them into a blog, web page, or print publication without permission.

Toy Watch Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Toy Watch - Essay Example As the discussion declares Toy Watch is basically a wrist watch company based in Italy. Its innovation lies in its plastic watchbands in bracelet style which gave stiff competition to luxury statement provided by Swatch watches. The company was founded in the year 2005 but in less than 2 years, it has reported mammoth profits because of its new product idea and a well-organized distribution and promotion policy intact with low prices that are affordable by any consumer group. Its heart throb features are its light weight, oversized dials and Italian designing marvel by Marco Mavilla, a Milan-based designer. The popularity and success of Toy Watch is also supplemented by its endorsements with celebrities like Oprah Winfrey, First Lady Michelle Obama, Katie Holmes and so on. This paper stresses that the strategies of a company are examined in terms of four features of namely the product, price, place and promotion. Also termed as four P’s model, the marketing mix determines how the strategy should be pursued in different markets with varying customer preferences, saturation and competition levels. Talking of Toy Watch product, its tactical features are its stylish designing and use of polycarbonate material which blends well with any kind of traditional watch material like steel, ceramic, plastic or crystal and gives the same Italian finish with light weight and unimaginable designs. Its color choices also reveal its product planning and development genius because wrist watches top the priority list of fashion accessories and every day a new design kicks off the older one. As such, with a plethora of color ranges, Toy Watch has targeted the teenage group very effectively when they go for individual dress matching with every single accessory. In te rms of pricing, this is again the competitive edge of Toy Watch whereby it uses penetration pricing to capture the new markets created and gained by this class of plastic band watches. Because of low pricing tactics, Toy Watch was able to garner more market share owing to the affordability its products offered to the various teenager and other groups. The luxury concept of Toy Watch products is applied in its distribution strategies too (Soller 2006). With endorsements from top notch celebs and presenting the watches in jewellery shops and exclusive retailers like Fifth Avenue, Selfridges and Harrods (Italia n.d). This keeps its quality and luxury image intact despite its low pricing. Promotion wise, Toy Watch makes use of not only charity shows but also female sizzling personalities and revolutionary technologies in advertising the distinctive factor of their products. For instance, it partnered with Keep A Child Alive Charity whereby half of the revenues coming from sale of its se lected watches would go towards this charity initiative. Such efforts link the social responsibility and ethical consciousness of the company with the customers and favor the brand image. With Miyota Quartz Movement (Howard n.d) and presentation of Toy watch products on Oprah Winfrey show (Green n.d), it has captured all segments of consumers ranging from most sought after personalities to common men. Factors adding to the customer value Theoretically, customer value propositions which aim to provide them the maximum returns on their investments and utilities of time, place

LCT Task 4 English Term Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

LCT Task 4 English - Term Paper Example The book focuses on the social and economic pressures that were rampant in England at the time it was written. The story is set in a fictitious industrial town called Coketown, which is based on Preston during the 19th century. One of the main focuses of this novel was utilitarianism which holds that the ultimate objective of every individual is to promote general social welfare. The social struggle depicted in this novel is mostly centered on industrialists and workers. The story revolves around various characters including Thomas Gradgrind who is a wealthy ex-merchant living in Coketown. Gradgrind has devoted his life to rationalism, fact and self-interest, and this philosophy is the one that he uses in bringing up Louisa and Tom, two of his children. Tom grows up to be a sadistic hedonist while his sister Louisa constantly struggles with confusion. She later marries her father’s friend, Josiah Bounderby, a rich banker and industrialist who is thirty years her senior. In the meantime, an impoverished Stephen Blackpool, is in love with a poor factory worker but he cannot marry her as he already ahs a wife who is drunk and not loyal to him. However, he learns from Bounderby that he cannot get a divorce from his horrible wife since it is only the wealthy who are allowed to get divorced. In the end, Bounderby dies alone in Coketown’s streets while Gridgrind abandons his philosophy and decides to devote his political position to help the poor (Dickens, 1854). Persuasion by Jane Austen Persuasion was the last novel completed by Jane Austen in 1816 (Faye, 2003). This is one of the author’s novels that reflects the changes occurring in England’s social order at the time (Faye, 2003). This period was marked by many members of the peerage group losing their high places in society. The book begins with a scenario where the Elliots, an upper class family, is considering moving to a smaller residence. They want to rent out their big mansion to a navy man named Admiral Croft. Baronets such as Anne’s father were finding it difficult to maintain their spendthrift lifestyles. Anne’s family refuses her to get married to Wentworth, who they consider to be poor. However, in the end, Wentworth is able to gain wealth and finally marries Anne (Austen, 1934). How Does Plot Reveal Characters’ Social Struggle? The plot of Hard Times is divided into three sections: sowing, reaping and garnering. Sowing focuses on Mr. Gradgrind and the way that he brings up his children, especially Louisa and Tom. His high-class life philosophy is inculcated in the upbringing of the two and this later is shown to have a serious impact on their lives. Mr. Gradgrind is a strong believer that ample education based on facts and calculations is the only way to live a good life. However, later on in the book, Louisa and Tom do not benefit at all from this philosophy of the wealthy. Tom becomes a hedonist and a thief and Louisa is confused with her life and ends up making the mistake of marrying a man more than twice her age. The second part of the book introduces workers who work at the mills. Stephen Blackpool is one of the poor workers and he is presented as a â€Å"man of perfect integrity†. It is through the development of Stephen’s character in the second part of Hard Times that the morality of the nobility is contrasted with the so called morality of the lower class. Through Stephen’s character some of the issues faced by the poor workers such as not being allowed

Light and Telescopes and Gravity Research Paper

Light and Telescopes and Gravity - Research Paper Example Optics is a common term used to refer to the study of light and its interactions with matter. Reflection is the bouncing back of light on a surface, in most cases resulting in image formation. Refraction on the other hand denotes the bending of the rays of light when passing through one medium to another (124). The speed of light in different transparent materials with ordinary matter is lower than that in a vacuum. For instance, the velocity of light in water is 75% the speed of light in a vacuum. The behavior of light is dependent on its wavelength and like other electromagnetic radiations high frequencies translate into lower wavelengths and vice-versa. Light is made up of photons/ quanta of lower energy levels which evoke excitations (electronic) in the molecules it interacts with resulting in variations in the chemistry/ bonding of the molecule. In the lower portion of the spectrum of light, the radiation (infrared) is no longer visible as the quanta of these radiation lack energy sufficient to elicit variation in molecule retinal of the eye retina, hence no visibility (at least not via quantum absorption) (Walker, 418). Over the limit of visible light, UV radiation is not visible to human eyes because it is absorbed by the internal lens below 400nm and the cornea below 360nm. In addition, the human retina’s cones and rods cannot detect radiation of wavelength below 360nm and are destroyed by such radiation. The main source of light on earth is the sun with approximately half of the EMR from the sun in the visible light region. However, there are a plethora of other light sources and mechanisms of producing light such as bioluminescence, electroluminescence, sonoluminescence, scintillation, radioactive decay, triboluminescence, particle-antiparticle annihilation, chenkov radiation, and so on. Light is either measured via photometry or radiometry. Light applies physical pressure on objects along its path with its

Tax Accounting Questions. Assignments Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3000 words

Tax Accounting Questions. Assignments - Essay Example For example, the collection of fees in advance will be recorded in GAAP when it earned while according to tax accounting it will be considered as rent taxable income automatically. Another example is the recording of depreciation of fixed assets. Under the GAAP it asset will depreciated using different methods such as straight-line while under the tax accounting only one method is allowed known as MACRS. Under both the depreciation methods, the effect is on the net income. The difference resulting from both the accounting methods may cause differed tax assets or liabilities which can be transferred from one accounting period to the other depending on the financial situation of the company. Another difference between GAAP and tax accounting is the recognition of other revenues or items. For example, the revenue earned from municipal bonds is recognized as interest earned in GAAP whereas such revenues are exempt from federal taxes accounting. The filing status depends on an individual’s marital status and his/her family situation. There are five possible filing statuses. These are married filing jointly, surviving spouse, head of household, single, and married filing separately. Although there are five filing statuses, only four rate schedules or tax tables are used because surviving spouse and married filing jointly usually use the same rate. The characteristics that distinguish each of the filing statuses are based on four factors which also determine how much tax rate is applied to each of them. These factors are maintenance of household, having any dependents, marital status, and citizenship. The characteristic of a surviving spouse is that he/she has to maintain a household, have dependents such as a daughter or a son, the marital status remains the same for atleast two years and is a citizen. The tax rate is that same as that of