Trench Warfare Essays - Trench Warfare, Military Science

Trench Warfare World War I was a military conflict that lasted from 1914 to 1918. It was a modern war with airplanes, machine guns, and tanks. However, the commanders often fought World War I as if it were a 19th Century war. They would march their troops across open land into the face of machine guns and often slaughter. As a result of this action, a tactic known as trench warfare was implemented. The most recent use of use of trench warfare, before World War I, took place during the Russo-Japanese War (1904-1905). This war attracted worldwide attention among military authorities that were interested in studying the latest technology used in war. Many viewed trench warfare to be an effective tactic against enemy advancement. Because of this view, trench warfare proved to be, in World War I, an ineffective and traumatizing experience for all. In September 1914, the German commander, General Erich von Falkenhayn ordered his troops to dig trenched that would provide protection from the allied troops. When the allies reached the trench, they soon realized that they could not break through the line that the trench provided. They also realized that the trench provided the Germans with shelter from their fire. Soon after, the allies began to dig their own trenches and, therefore, trench warfare began. Not very long, after the first trenches of the war were dug, a network of trenches arose. This network spread across France and Belgium for many miles. Within the network, there were three different types of trenches: front line trenches, support trenches, and reserve trenches. The first line of trenches was called front line trenches. These were usually two meters deep and had a zigzag pattern to prevent enemy fire from sweeping the entire length of the trench. In order to prevent the trench form caving in, sandbags were stacked against the trench walls. Between the trenches of opposing forces laid no man's land. This area between the opposing front line trenches was filled with barbwire and mines to prevent enemy crossing. If a soldier was ever injured in no man's land, he usually was killed because of his vulnerability to enemy fire. The second and third types of trenches were the support and reserve trenches, respectively. These trenches were constructed to easily move supplies and troops to the front trenches. All of the trenches were linked to each other by other trenches, underground tunnels, or telephone communications networks. Barbwire was also stretched across the line to protect from enemy attack. While the design of the trenches and the network of trenches seemed like a great tactic, the reality of the life in the trenches was a different story. Life in the trenches took its toll on the soldiers involved in the war. The soldiers in the front line trenches often stayed there for at least 10 days at a time, usually with very little sleep. Katczinsky is right when he says it would not be such a bad war if only one could get more sleep. In the line we have next to none, and fourteen days is a long time at one stretch(p.2). The main reason that soldiers on the front line could not sleep was to be on guard against enemy sneak attacks. Another reason that the soldiers were very tired is that night was used as a time for preparation and maintenance of the trenches. The trenches were constantly being destroyed, either by enemy shellfire, or water damage. Many times, soldiers would be buried alive by the collapsing trench walls. Paul, in All Quiet on the Western Front, states Our trench is almost gone. At many places, it is only eighteen inches high, it is broken by holes, and craters, and mountains of earth.(p.107). Along with very little sleep and the destruction of trenches, soldiers also had to worry about contracting trench foot. Trench foot is an infection of the feet caused by wet and insanitary conditions. Soldiers stood for hours on end in waterlogged trenches without being able to remove wet socks or boots. This caused their feet to gradually go numb and their skin to turn red or blue. If these conditions went untreated, they would turn gangrenous and result in amputation. Another major concern for

Dark Romanticism Essays

Dark Romanticism Essays Dark Romanticism Paper Dark Romanticism Paper 4. Define â€Å"Dark Romanticism† as you understand it by discussing two works by different authors. Account for the rise of this kind of writing in America and evaluate its appeal and significance then and now. The Dark Side of Romanticism Romantic literary texts focus on the expression of emotion. Authors during the Romantic period developed and integrated the idea of the individual being the main focus in life. Romantic authors focused on the individual being at the center of their own happiness and destiny and evil dwelling outside mankind. Dark Romantics believed that evil is not only found in nature and in other people but evil also dwells inside every human being. Dark Romantics argued that earlier writers had ignored the darker side of humanity. The Dark Romantics’ focus was to illustrate to readers what really makes up mankind. They present individuals as self destructive as opposed to writers in the past such as Puritans that focused on mankind prevailing over evil through the grace of God. Individuals in Dark Romanticism literature are often portrayed failing when they are trying to make themselves better people. Instead of focusing on the good of mankind, Dark Romantics wrote about the tragic and demented side of human life. This pessimistic and skeptic attitude makes way for murky, horrid, and inexplicable thoughts. But these demented thoughts are what make Dark Romantic literature so out of the ordinary and thrilling compared to literature of the past. Dark Romanticism is just that, very dark. Nature is deeply rooted in Dark Romanticism literature but in shady, sinister ways. Evil is found in the literary images of ghouls and ghosts and other creepy beings. For Dark Romantics, the world is cold and mysterious. Gothic fiction helped to inspire many Dark Romantic works. Gothic fiction can be described as a subgenre of Dark Romanticism. It shares many similar characteristics with Dark Romantic literature. Both include themes of darkness and mystery but Gothic fiction was more aimed to tell tales of horror instead of stories of mankind failing to make change for the better. Charles Brockden-Brown’s, â€Å"Somnambulism† conveys the inexplicable and horrific qualities of Gothic and Dark Romanticism literature through his features and styles of writing. The literary works of William Godwin and the suggestion of feminism inspired Brockden-Brown. Constantia personifies this in â€Å"Somnambulism†. She is not a weak and nervous character. Brockden-Brown portrays her as independent and strong by having her confidently journey home with her father at night in the dark and weary woods. This story is told from first person point of view, which really puts readers inside the sick mind of Althrope. This gives a first hand account of the events. This makes it easier for readers to understand the thoughts going through Althrope’s head and adds intensity and mystery to the story: And after all what is this groundless and ridiculous persuasion that governed me? Had I profited nothing by experience of the effects of similar follies? Was I never to attend to the lesson of sobriety and truth? How ignominious to be thus the slave of a fortuitous and inexplicable impulse! To be the victim of terrors more chimerical than those which haunt the dreams of idiots and children! They  can describe clearly, and attribute a real existence to the object of their terrors. Not so can I. The quick pace of the sentences in this story creates the feeling of paranoia. Althrope’s questioning of himself supports the Dark Romantic’s idea that this genre of literature focuses on the demented and unfortunate side of human life and mankind’s inability to change for the better. The main character of the story is not a vampire or ghost or ghoul often seen in Dark Romantic and Gothic literature. The killer is a regular member of society who snaps. Althrope is used to living within the constraints of society but he struggles with this. As a sleepwalker, he acts unconsciously on the obsessive thoughts filling his mind day after day. This is a clear image of the dark side of mankind. In â€Å"The Tell-Tale Heart,† Edgar Allen Poe depicts a gruesome tale. His use of dark imagery and harsh words make this story an unmistakable product of the Dark Romantic period. Poe’s use of the first person narrator adds an important dimension to the story. The narrator’s thoughts are eating him alive and Poe clearly portrays this to readers by repeating words and having  the narrator constantly question himself: I paced the floor to and fro with heavy strides, as if excited to fury by the observations of the men but the noise steadily increased. Oh God! what could I do? I foamed I raved I swore! I swung the chair upon which I had been sitting, and grated it upon the boards, but the noise arose over all and continually increased. It grew louder louder louder! And still the men chatted pleasantly, and smiled. Was it possible they heard not? Almighty God! no, no! They heard! they suspected! they knew! they were making a mockery of my horror! -this I thought, and this I think. But anything was better than this agony! This makes the narrator untrustworthy and unreliable. This also helps to illustrate Dark Romanticism’s questioning of mankind. Poe focuses on how unstable the narrator is and how the unconscious mind can destroy a man. The narrator drove himself absolutely crazy over the old man’s mysterious eyeball. He was obsessed with the eye and this caused the narrator to have extreme paranoia. The reader never finds out exactly why the creepy eyeball haunts the narrator. He explains that he does not know why he feels this anger towards the old man because the old man has never wronged him but he has built up hostility towards the old man and his eerie eye. This adds the element of distress and obscurity to the story. The narrator remarks, â€Å"And have I not told you that what you mistake for madness is but over acuteness of the senses? † Eventually the eyeball haunts the narrator to the point that his disturbed thoughts cause him to murder the old man. He believes that this will help him escape the terror of the eyeball but in reality it does the exact opposite. The eyeball is no longer staring at him but his guilty conscious is shining a bright spotlight on him. This portrays the Dark Romantic idea that every human has a dark side. The dark side of a person can cause them to do things for no apparent reason. Dark Romanticism was quite different from the literature that emerged from the Transcendentalist and Puritanism period. Dark Romantics often concentrated on the tragic dimension of life. Instead of reading about characters that were one with nature, God and themselves, readers were hearing tales of corrupted individuals at war with their thoughts. Dark Romantics focused on the menacing side of mankind. They pointed out that humans have their flaws and things will not always go as planned. Dark Romanticism helped to illustrate the idea that evil not only exists in external forms but it also exists inside the mind of mankind. Unlike Puritans, Dark Romantics saw evil living inside of human beings, not something that God presented individuals with to help restore their grace with God. This suggestion was not explored until Dark Romantics took the reigns of literature and put a whole different spin on the way readers think about mankind and human nature. Dark Romanticism was a rejection of Transcendentalism’s sanguine outlook on life. The beliefs of the Transcendentalists were far too confident and narcissistic for Dark Romantics to identify with. The Dark Romantics did not believe that humans had perfection running through their veins at all times. They instead believed that individuals possess the ability to sin. They stressed the fact that no man is perfect. Many Dark Romantics understood that evil and terror lived inside the minds of people. People like Althrope and the delusional narrator from â€Å"The Tell-Tale Heart† personify the weakness and paranoia corrupting the thoughts of individuals that seem innocent on the outside. Dark Romantics looked past the beauty of things. They painted the portrait of darkness living in people’s unconscious thoughts. Evil takes shape in many shady and mysterious ways in Dark Romantic poetry and prose. For this reason, the literature of this period can definitely claim its sinister name.

In what ways can Hyundai increase profitability in the UK car market Essay

In what ways can Hyundai increase profitability in the UK car market - Essay Example Eventually, the researcher will conduct a literature review as a way of examining whether or not mergers and acquisitions contribute to the increase in Hyundai’s profitability in the UK car market despite the tight global competition. Also, the researcher will discuss the importance of organizational restructuring in Hyundai Motor right after its merger with Kia Motor and Asia Motor. Prior to the conclusion, the researcher will discuss the practical and ethical issues behind the success of Hyundai Motor Company. The fact that a total of ten automobile manufacturers are competing in the global market makes it even more difficult for any car manufacturer to implement a proper management in handling the company’s resources. Considering that Hyundai is a Korean-based company, issues related to the cultural differences in handling the business should be carefully studies. Aside from proper management and product strategy, the protection law on labor management should be considered in order to avoid operational damages caused by organizational conflicts with the labor unions. Merger – combination of two or more business entities into one via purchase acquisition or a pooling of interests (InvestorWords, 2008); A corporate law on joinging togather of two corporations wherein one corporation transfers all of its In line with globalization, Hyundai Motor won the acquisition contract with Kia Motors via public bidding. Prior to signing a contract with the Korean Development Bank, Hyundai Motor took over Kia group in November 1998. (Lee and Cho, 2008) In the process, Hyundai had to pay a total of 1.18 trillion won for the 51% shares of both Kia Motor as well as the Asia Motor. In general, a company is able to expand its business operations either through acquisitions or merger. The short-term effect of the merger and

Head & Shoulders shampoo SWOT Analysis Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Head & Shoulders shampoo SWOT Analysis - Essay Example This is making the brand to miss a large client base, which plays a major role in boosting the revenues of the company. In the rural areas, especially in India, most people lack of sufficient education in about the product. They are unaware of what the product is meant for and the company has not taken sufficient measures to introduce the brand to them. As such, the company is losing potential clients in the rural areas to competitors who have introduced the product in the rural areas. Furthermore, a large number of products are prevalent in the market, challenging clients on the best brands to choose (Rahman & Kazi, 2012). Due to this, the clients may end up missing the Head & Shoulder brand, which may address their needs effectively unlike the case of other brands. Opportunities: The major opportunities for Hair & Shoulders brand include the untapped rural market, growing income levels for the clients, huge domestic market in the entire country, massive export potential for the company, and considerable investment in clients towards consumer goods. In this case, the brand needs to focus its attention on the rural and domestic market, particularly because the income levels of consumers are rising at a rapid base. As such, the brand will attain a considerable market share in the economy, allowing it to boost its competitive advantage significantly. In addition, most countries around the world are introducing favourable FDI policies. In this case, the company is capable of investing its operations globally, allowing it to review the equity of its brand. Moreover, the brand focuses on individuals of all age groups, particularly middle-aged women. Here, the brand has managed to acquire a considerable market share, which has played a major role in r aising its revenue and profitability, allowing the company to become highly competitive in the global market (Rahman & Kazi, 2012). Threats: In terms of threats, the elimination of import

Management and change Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

Management and change - Essay Example Since other workers are part of the organisation, their views are also important in the change process (Marglin, 1974). However, the management may decide to use an approach that does not involve other workers in the decision-making process. Consequently, other workers may feel short-changed, and this affects negatively on employee involvement. In essence, the approach that the change agent uses in implementing new ideas in an organisation also has an impact on the overall performance. Most organisations tend to fail in terms of implementing new changes due to applying an unpopular approach. On the other hand, an ideal approach for implementing changes in an organisation should consider all issues that are pertinent to an organisation (Marglin, 1974). In this regard, a rational or technical approach is ideal for situations where the decision-making process involves consideration of different alternatives. A rational approach entails a systematic process where the management in additi on to relying on their skills and experience, considers various issues prior to implementing organisational change (Marglin, 1974). This paper explores the strengths and limitations of a rational-technical approach towards managing change. In a rational-technical approach to managing change in an organisation, the change agent considers a number of factors that can influence the change process (Knights & McCabe, 2003). Such factors include skills and experience of the manager or leader, the demands by followers and the prevailing situation in an organisation. With regard to skills and experience of a manager or a leader, a rational-technical approach requires the change agent to have knowledge of how an organisation operates. For instance, the manager needs to understand the environment that the organisation operates, vision and goals of the organisation, systems in the organisation, the change plan and

Comparing Old And New Technologies And Their Impact On The World Business Essay

Comparing Old And New Technologies And Their Impact On The World Business Essay Technology is a broad concept that deals with human as well as other animal species usage and knowledge of tools and crafts, and how it affects a species ability to control and adapt to its environment. [1] Technological change has become the driving force of innovation, productivity, growth and development of the economy.[1] Technology is all about using the technical and scientific knowledge we have to help solve problems (or) to make life better. Now a days technology that is already available and being used for example the internet, mobile phones and computers (or) you can also develop new technology. Developing new technology may be more difficult to do, but if you have an idea for this and it can be used to make public services also. [1] Examples to compare the Old and New technology: Laser printers vs. inkjet printers, landline services vs. cell phones etc. Our study analyzes industry equilibrium in a model with an incumbent and an entrant that have heterogeneous product offering capabilities: the incumbent can offer either or both types of products, while the entrant can only offer new products. Firms make capacity, pricing, or quantity decisions that maximize their ex-ante profit. Within this framework, we analyze deterministic games with perfect information and stochastic games with uncertain valuation of the disruptive technology.[2] New technology separates into two types: Sustaining technology Disruptive technology Sustaining Technology: Sustaining technologies tend to maintain a rate of improvement; that is, they give customers something more (or) better in the attributes they already value. It also relies on incremental improvements to an already established technology.[2] Disruptive technology: Disruptive technology means a new technology that unexpectedly displaces an established technology and lacks refinement and performance problem because its new technology.[3] A new technology that has a serious impact on the status quo and changes the way people have been dealing with something. The most disruptive technologies in history have been the telephone, computer and the Internet. [3] First, disruptive products are simpler and cheaper; they generally promise lower margins, not greater profits. Second, disruptive technologies typically are first commercialized in emerging or insignificant markets. And third, leading firms most profitable customers generally dont want, and indeed initially cant use, products based on disruptive technologies.[3] Theory: New technology which radically changes the way things have been done in the past is commonly referred to as disruptive technology. Whilst disruption has negative connotations, if understood and evaluated early on, such innovations can also provide tremendous breakthrough opportunities to invest in paradigm shifting technology, to drive growth and the Establishment a powerful future position.[4] Disruptive technology and disruptive innovation are terms used in business and technology literature to describe innovation that improve a product or service in ways that the market does not expect, typically by being lower priced or designed for a different set of consumers.[4] Disruptive innovations can be broadly classified into low-end and new-market disruptive innovations. A new-market disruptive innovation is often aimed at non-consumption, [4] whereas a lower-end disruptive innovation is aimed at mainstream customers for whom price is more important than quality.[4] Disruptive technologies are particularly threatening to the leaders of an existing market, because they are competition coming from an unexpected direction. A disruptive technology can come to dominate an existing market by either filling a role in a new market that the older technology could not fill or by successively moving up-market through performance improvements until finally displacing the market incumbents.[4] Disruptive technology Introduce a very different package of attributes from the one mainstream customer historically value, and they often perform far worse along one or two dimensions that are particularly important to those customers. As a rule, mainstream customers are unwilling to use a disruptive product in applications they know and understand. At first, then, disruptive technologies tend to be used and valued only in new markets or new applications; in fact, they generally make possible the emergence of new markets.[4] In general, old products based on sustaining technology are perceived to be superior to the new ones based on disruptive technology. However, the latter have distinctive features that allow them to attract an exclusive set of customers.[4] Examples: 1. UPS is example of how new technologies can help a company to improve its operating performance. However it is using advanced technology to improve the way it operates its primary business and to leverage those skills and infrastructure to move into other related lines of business. UPS has developed software applications and mobile devices with the support of wireless networks for shipping and tracking services. Its software applications work on a common platform with a single database, enabling it to optimise the route and load plans faster in order to surpass its competitors. [5] UPS software applications generate reports for managers that allow them to better plan and control the delivery routes. Better planning and route control result in time saving and more efficient use of resources. 2. A team of robotics engineers have developed a system that makes pneumatic artificial muscles much quieter than those used in labs today.[6] Annoying noise produced by air pumps or electric motors in human-like robots is among the factors hampering their entry into consumer market. Researchers at the University of Nevada in Reno came up with an idea how to make artificial muscles work silently.[6] Instead of an air compressor the pressure is supplied by a sealed capsule with a metal hydride powder. The material can absorb and release large amounts hydrogen gas if heated and cooled down. The property makes them of much interest for hydrogen motor researchers, since safe storage of the explosive gas is one of the biggest challenges for the industry.[6] These are the examples for the Impact of Disruptive Technologies for Technology Businesses. Disruptive technology is significantly cheaper than current and is much higher performing, greater functionality and more convenient to use.[7] Disruptive technologies are scientific discoveries that break through the usual product (or) technology capabilities and provide a basis for new competitive paradigm Discontinuous innovations are products, processes, and services that provide exponential improvements in the value received by the customer much in the same vein. The definitions used by different authors to describe the business strategy focus they used to define disruptive technologies. These definitions are classified by a number of business strategy parameters used to describe disruptive technologies.[7] Disruptive technologies and discontinuous innovations present a unique challenge and opportunity for RD organizations seeking to decide on their RD investments and for Manufacturing organizations devising plans for their commercialization efforts and meeting the challenge to reinvent the corporation. These technologies do not have a proven path from scientific discovery to mass production and, therefore, require novel approaches although they are the wellspring of wealth creation and new competency generation for the firms that introduce such innovations. Many firms, especially the larger ones, seem reluctant to familiarize themselves with these technologies quickly. The trend seems to be that these firms prefer to react to a proven disruptive technology that has changed the Product market paradigm. As a result, the community of corporate customers does not readily accept them until they are proven, an event that usually means corporate customers are late entries into the market.[7] Sometimes, advocates of a new technology make grandiose claims about the new technology it will double productivity, save lives, cure cancer, end war, and eliminate spam and telemarketing. They produce all sorts of literature enumerating the advantages of the new technology. Invariably, the new technology is immature often available in prototype form, However, that doesnt matter, because:[8] Look at all the cool things the new technology can do. The current immaturity, instability, unreliability and other drawbacks of the new technology are mere implementation details that need to be worked out, whereas the drawbacks of the old technology are fundamental limitations which cannot be designed out or designed around. [8] What really happens is one of several things: 1. New technology becomes irrelevant. 2. New technologys features are subsumed by old technology. New technology may become a player in the market, or maybe not. 3. New technology really is a Disruptive Technology. All technology was once new technology. New technology has extended our life spans, raised our standard of living, augmented our understanding of the universe, etc. New technology has saved many of us.

never say never :: essays research papers

"Ok, so let me see if I've got this straight." I was on the phone with my friend Bob. I've known Bob for years. He's a former Navy guy who now does electrician work at Disneyworld. He's seriously bright, but doesn't know squat about computers. And he was trying, once again, to figure out what the heck I was doing with my life. "You're starting another Notes publication?" He stretched out the word "another" so it seemed that he was entirely incredulous of my actions. "Well, yeah," I responded with some enthusiasm. "But this one's on both Notes and Domino." "I think I understand Notes. It's this kinda email, database, group-think thing from IBM, right?" I hadn't heard it described exactly like that, but he was certainly in the ballpark. "But what the heck is Domino? Didn't Kim Basinger play Domino in Never Say Never Again? You're writing about a Bond girl?" I shook my head. Of course, he couldn't see that through the phone. "Uh, no Bob. We're not doing a journal on James Bond, as cool as that might seem. We're doing a journal on Lotus Domino, a very cool server technology, and on Notes. They work together." "So you're not writing about Claudine Auger, who plays Domino Derval in Thunderball. And you're not writing about Kim Basinger, who pretty much remakes the character as Domino Petachi in Never Say Never Again," Bob was spouting Bond flick facts with a scary degree of finesse. "You're just doing another techy journal on this Lotus Domino thing?" "Yep." "But haven't you done this before?" Bob was right. We had done this before. In fact, we'd created no less than four Lotus journals, and a book. Back in 1993, I wrote a book called Lotus Notes 3 Revealed! It was the second book ever on Notes and was quite popular. Based on the success of the book, we did our first journal, Workspace for Lotus Notes. Since we were new to the whole journal publishing business, we partnered with The Cobb Group division of Ziff Davis. Ziff, as you probably know, is the largest independent publisher of computer magazines, and Cobb is their division that produces journals and newsletters. The other part of the "we" in this, by the way, is Managing Editor and Vice President of Publishing, Denise Amrich. While I've been responsible for the overall direction and technical vision of the publications (the editor-in-chief), Denise has been responsible for making it all happen.