Benjamin Franklin: Americas Model for Servant Leadership :: American History

Benjamin Franklin: Americas Model for Servant Leadership In Benjamin Franklin's civic pride and his projects for the improvement of Philadelphia, we see another aspect of the philosophy of doing good. At the same time we may recognize the zeal for reform that has long been a characteristic of American life. In his attention to the details of daily living, Franklin shows himself as the observant empiricist. As the successful engineer of ways to make the city he loved cleaner, safer and more attractive he continually sponsored new institutions that were proof that the applications of reason to experience were fruitful in the real world. "Human felicity," he wrote, "is produced not so much by great pieces of good fortune that seldom happen, as by little advantages that occur every day." Franklin typifies that aspect of the American character that is attentive to small details as well as over-all great plans. The practical idealism of America lies in our capacity to work for our ideals step by step, to recognize that the perfect world is never achieved but that we may approach it gradually by a creative attentiveness to each aspect of life around us. BENJAMIN FRANKLIN'S religious creed held that the best service to God is to be good to man. He leaned to the views of the "Dissenters" of his day, notably Joseph Priestley and Richard Price, who preached a doctrine somewhat like present Unitarianism. A moralist, he taught that man's soul is immortal and that man's conduct in this world will determine his condition in the next; so he made a creed of virtue, based on integrity and good deeds-man must help himself and others. In the American tradition Franklin stands as a man who preached thrift, frugality, industry and enterprise as the "way to wealth." He grew to maturity in an American tradition that was older than he was, according to which such virtues as thrift and industry were not enough to bring a man success; he had also to practice charity and help his neighbor. Wealth was a token of esteem of the Divine Providence that governs men's affairs, and thus the accumulation of riches was not sought for its own sake alone. Furthermore, wealth and position, being marks of the divine favor, conferred an obligation; a successful man was a "steward," holding the world's goods in trust for the less fortunate. This "Protestant ethic" was a common denominator of Calvinistic Boston where Franklin spent his boyhood and of Quaker Philadelphia where he grew to young manhood. Benjamin Franklin: Americas Model for Servant Leadership :: American History Benjamin Franklin: Americas Model for Servant Leadership In Benjamin Franklin's civic pride and his projects for the improvement of Philadelphia, we see another aspect of the philosophy of doing good. At the same time we may recognize the zeal for reform that has long been a characteristic of American life. In his attention to the details of daily living, Franklin shows himself as the observant empiricist. As the successful engineer of ways to make the city he loved cleaner, safer and more attractive he continually sponsored new institutions that were proof that the applications of reason to experience were fruitful in the real world. "Human felicity," he wrote, "is produced not so much by great pieces of good fortune that seldom happen, as by little advantages that occur every day." Franklin typifies that aspect of the American character that is attentive to small details as well as over-all great plans. The practical idealism of America lies in our capacity to work for our ideals step by step, to recognize that the perfect world is never achieved but that we may approach it gradually by a creative attentiveness to each aspect of life around us. BENJAMIN FRANKLIN'S religious creed held that the best service to God is to be good to man. He leaned to the views of the "Dissenters" of his day, notably Joseph Priestley and Richard Price, who preached a doctrine somewhat like present Unitarianism. A moralist, he taught that man's soul is immortal and that man's conduct in this world will determine his condition in the next; so he made a creed of virtue, based on integrity and good deeds-man must help himself and others. In the American tradition Franklin stands as a man who preached thrift, frugality, industry and enterprise as the "way to wealth." He grew to maturity in an American tradition that was older than he was, according to which such virtues as thrift and industry were not enough to bring a man success; he had also to practice charity and help his neighbor. Wealth was a token of esteem of the Divine Providence that governs men's affairs, and thus the accumulation of riches was not sought for its own sake alone. Furthermore, wealth and position, being marks of the divine favor, conferred an obligation; a successful man was a "steward," holding the world's goods in trust for the less fortunate. This "Protestant ethic" was a common denominator of Calvinistic Boston where Franklin spent his boyhood and of Quaker Philadelphia where he grew to young manhood.

Technologies Not Only Influence but Actually Determine

The advance of technologies is attributed to the further and deeper perception that humans rationally and logically explore the nature. Such advancement leads to the change of social customs and ethics that used to be accord with the former human understanding; after all social customs and ethics, by nature, are changeable. However, whether the influence of technologies over social customs and ethics are determining is still a question worth pondering and arguing. Since human stared using tools to create things, technology has been penetrating into almost every aspect of people’s daily lives. In the contemporary world, with respect to technologies, computing technologies quickly come to mind. As a professor once said, I quote: â€Å"Electronic computation is the first to significantly amplify our mental abilities and furnish radical insights into the complexities and inner workings of our world. It is not just the ability to collect, store and process data on a massive scale, or even communication, but the opening of our minds to new and often hidden possibilities—that is real power. There is no denying that the growth and spread of computing technology have been significant things that we witness and indeed experience personally. Cell phones, for example, have been through from rarity to ubiquity. They change lives without people’s notice. For instance, billions of people enjoy digital messages from phone to phone, yet it never occurs to people to think of the microprocessors and computer power required behind just a message. Nevertheless, texting has already become a part of our daily life and expanded another of way daily communication. Moreover, it renders long-distance calling much easier and more convenient. Lives are replete with hundreds of technologies. Despite technologies do have influence over social customs and ethics, it is, however, unjustifiable to say that social customs and ethics are determined by technologies, because the impact of influence is much less forced than that of determination. From time immemorial, society has been a system that is organized with social norms and ethical standards followed by all people who live in, and these traditions that are deeply rooted in people’s mind and heart have been passed down from generation to generation in culture. For instance, Chinese people value lunar calendar a lot and celebrate many traditional festivals by lunar calendar, and one of the most well-known festivals is Chinese New Year. When it comes to the Spring Festival, Chinese people significantly weigh the festival than other festivals, and the traditions of Spring Festival dating back to the old times are still preserved by people in modern times, such as making dumplings, and clipping paper cutting etcetera. Technologies bring us convenience that any of those can be reached anytime and that we do not have to make them ourselves for lack of time, but technologies can never be influential and powerful to the extent that people stop celebrating this festival. Chinese people would consistently maintain these festival traditions annually from generation to generation instead of letting them be determined by technologies. To sum up, technology advances as humans’ understanding about nature goes deeper and further. It does have influence over social customs and ethics undoubtedly. It is, however, not able to supersede cultural traditions in people’s lives, because social customs and ethics bring us the sense of belonging and security, while technologies just give us ease and satisfy our curiosity which just comes from people’s evolving perception towards nature.

Catechol Oxidase Lab

Catechol oxidase is an enzyme that speeds up the oxidation reaction when catechol is exposed to oxygen. When the reaction occurs, benzoquinone is produced turning the oxidized substance brown. It was hypothesized that the higher the concentration of catechol oxidase, the browner the substance will turn, and the faster it will achieve the color. In the present lab, different concentrations of catechol oxidase were mixed with pure catechol and the rate at which each solution browned was measured using a colorimeter.The results showed that the solution with the high concentration of catechol oxidase had the fastest rate at which it turned brown. However, it did not turn the brownest, the solution with the medium concentration of enzyme did. These results show that our hypothesis was both supported and not supported and it was concluded that increase in catechol oxidase concentration increases rate of turning brown but does not increase the level of brownness a substance becomes.Introduc tionHave you ever wondered why the inside of your apple turns brown if you leave it on the counter after taking a bite? This is because there is a compound within the apple called catechol which, when exposed to the air, becomes oxidized by the oxygen in the air and produces benzoquinone, which makes the apple appear brown (Andrew Clapper’s Online Journal, 2007). This chemical reaction is catalyzed by the enzyme catechol oxidase (Figure A.1). Enzymes are proteins in cells that speed up chemical reactions (Enzyme Procedure Guide, 2013). The catechol oxidase lowers the amount of energy needed in order for the catechol to be oxidized, which speeds the process up.Fig. A.1: The oxidation process of catechol with the help of catechol oxidase produces benzoquinone. (Enzyme Procedure PowerPoint, 2013)If you frequently eat apples you may have also noticed that different types apples brown at different rates. This is because each kind of apple has a different concentration of catechol oxidase (Daniela Finkel, 2013). Therefore, each apple has a unique speed at which it will produce benzoquinone, and turn brown.This experiment was designed to investigate the following hypothesis: The higher the concentration of catechol oxidase, the browner the substance will be, and the faster it will achieve the color (Enzyme Procedure Guide, 2013).Within the experiment, pure catechol was mixed with different concentrations of catechol oxidase and the rate at which each solution produced benzoquinone was measured. The amount of benzoquinone made throughout the trials was measured by using a colorimeter to measure the level of â€Å"brownness† of the liquid. The colorimeter worked by shining a light through the liquid and then measuring that light on the other side to see how much of it was absorbed.In this experiment, absorbance of blue light was measured because blue light is absorbed by the color brown. The amount of blue light absorbance was measured every 15 seconds fo r five minutes. Because enzymes speed up reactions, more enzymes would cause the reaction to be even faster.1Procedure/Materials and MethodsThe lab leaders and the Punk Rock Warlord prepared three different concentrations of catechol oxidase by extracting potato juice (because it contains lots of catechol oxidase). Pure catechol, a 5mL test tube, 1mL/5mL syringes, a colorimeter and water were also used. 4mL of pure catechol and 1mL of the highly concentrated catechol oxidase were measured with the syringes. Both liquids were then injected into the 5mL test tube. The 5mL tube was placed into the opening in the colorimeter and the lid of the  colorimeter was closed.The measure of absorbance of blue light displayed on the screen of the colorimeter was recorded every 15 seconds for five minutes. This procedure was repeated for two more trials, each with 4mL of pure catechol; one used 1mL of medium concentrated catechol oxidase and one used 1mL of low concentrated catechol oxidase.The independent variable was the concentration of catechol oxidase, the dependent variable was the rate of turning brown, there were no controls, there were three replications and the sample sizes were 11 (for high concentration) and 10 (for medium and low concentrations).Results SectionFigure 1 shows that before the rates began to plateau, the high enzyme concentration solution was turning brown the fastest. Table 1 shows that the high enzyme concentration had the fastest rate and that on average, it deviated from the mean more than the medium and low concentrations. Figure 2 shows that the high enzyme concentration solution was turning brown the fastest. Table 2 shows that the different rates each solution turned brown are statistically significant.Table 1: Average Rates of for High, Medium and Low Concentrations of Catechol Oxidase and the Absolute Average Deviations. Three different concentrations of catechol oxidase were added to pure catechol and the rate of change in the absorpti on of blue light (production of benzoquinone) was measured every 15 seconds using a colorimeter. Data shown as mean of % of absorption per minute. N=11 for the high concentration and n=10 for the medium and low concentrations. Concentration of CatecholAverage Slope (Rate) Abs. Ave. Dev. High 0.818 0.174 Medium 0.569 0.081 Low 0.196 0.120Table 2: T-Test Results When Comparing the Rates at Which Different Solutions Browned Three different concentrations of catechol oxidase were added to pure catechol and the rate of change in the absorption of blue light (because production of benzoquinone makes a substance brown) was measured every 15 seconds using a colorimeter. N=11 for high concentration and n=10 for medium and low concentrations. Enzyme ConcentrationsP-Value Low vs. Medium

Meaning of Life and Greatness Essay

â€Å"We are very near to greatness: one step and we are safe ; can we not make that leap? † – Ralph Waldo Emerson Emerson speaks of a greatness that I believe is inherent in every human being. It may sometimes feel like it is jus beyond the reach of your fingers; just outside the bounds of your imagination. You may feel like you are on the verge of some monumental breakthrough, but for some reason that change doesn’t occur. Greatness is not something that you try to attain through some specific avenue, or any specialized field of work, but rather a quality within yourself that you need only become aware of. It cannot be measured by possessions, financial status, or even certain achievements that society deems to be great. I can only attempt to convey the meaning of greatness by describing the effects of its presence in your life. Each day is met with a sense of purpose, as is each action within that day. Joy and hapiness are your predominant emotions, and are produced from a sense of peace within. You have the ability to manifest your desires, and the direction of your life is dictated by your imagination, rather than what appears to be going on around you. Thinking abundantly, you are more focused on giving rather than receiving, for you know that it is in giving you receive. You see greatness in everyone, because to see it within yourself, you must recognize it in others. We live in a world where people expect things outside of themselves to bring them fulfillment. This can only lead to a feeling of emptiness, and constant striving. You must affirm your greatness to yourself. This is not an affirmation from the standpoint that you are superior to others, but from the recogntion of a power that runs through all existence. See yourself as great , and great things will begin to appear in your life.

Hands by Sherwood Anderson Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Hands by Sherwood Anderson - Essay Example The story is about Wing Biddlebaum, a fat little old man from Winesburg, Ohio. Wing Biddlebaum was driven out of Pennsylvania, his original hometown, after he was falsely accused of molesting a young boy in a school where he used to teach. This happened because of his habit of caressing the boys’ hairs and shoulders whenever he talked to them. Wing’s seemingly uncontrollable hands manifest his grotesqueness. The central symbol of this story is hands, which figure as agents of conflicting aims of different characters and demonstrate Wing’s helplessness and vulnerability. Discussion We are told that ‘Winesburg was proud of the hands of Wing Biddlebaum in the same spirit in which it was proud of Banker White's new stone house and Wesley Moyer's bay stallion’ (Anderson 16). His hands are a distinguished feature which amazes the citizens of Winesburg, but he seems not to notice and instead is afraid of them. Many citizens, including George Willard, have m any times wanted to ask him about his hands and why he seemed frightened by their power. This fear of his hands shows his grotesque nature. Wing hides his hands in fear that he might repeat the incident at the school. This is despite the fact that he had pure intentions in everything he did. ‘In a way, the voice and hands, the stroking of the shoulders and the touching of the hair was a part of the schoolmaster's efforts to carry a dream into the young minds.

Answer Questions Coursework Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Answer Questions - Coursework Example It will also position the firm in the market place to capitalize on attractive growth opportunities (Cornett). The firms strategy has to change to fit the firms current position. Strategies have to change to meet the changing economic conditions in the industry. It will enable the firm to determine better ways of ensuring customer satisfaction. In addition, the changing strategies enable the firm to capitalize on attractive growth opportunities. In addition, strategies have to change to enable the firm to achieve its performance targets. The Board should have courage to take actions of the management if they are of the opinion that it is inappropriate. In addition, the Board of Directors ensures to shareholders that the CEO is performing as expected by the board (Cornett). They all explain all about a company or individual preferences in terms of what they want their potential clients to know by letting them understand some of the policies to be followed while in the business. Companies need financial objectives to present financial performance of the management‘s goals. In addition, financial objectives are lagging pointers that portray the outcome of organizational activities and past decisions. However, strategic objectives precede financial objectives since it focuses on the firm’s past, current and future performance when a financial objective looks only upon past and current performance of the company. The balanced scorecard is a method of putting together into use both financial and strategic objectives, tracing their goals and ensuring that the management obtains a fully and stable view of how well the company is doing. Companies have a cooperate strategy which involves the blueprint of managing the business. Strengthening one’s market position comes as the business strategy. In addition, functional are strategies delivers on the implementation plan to achieve set goals; it provides the game plan. In pinning down a