Monday, March 30, 2020

10+ Essential SEO Settings for New WordPress Blogs

In this post, Ill explore 11 essential SEO settings every new blog should consider. This is your intro to WordPress blog SEO!Why? you ask. Your sites content is its most important asset, but its useless if it doesnt attract visitors! SEO search engine optimization is a tool every website owner should use to make sure their content is optimized for search engine consumption, which will bring in more and more visitors.And it just so happens that setting up your WordPress blog correctly is the first step to good SEO, so this is where the following tutorial on your essential SEO settings comes into play. always be switched off otherwise.Head on over to Settings / Reading and look for the Search Engine Visibility setting. Make sure it is switched off and everything will be dandy!This is probably the most important of all essential SEO settings for WordPress.2. Fine-tune permalinksIn case youre not sure what this is about; heres the permalink for this very post, the underlined part, ess ential SEO settings WordPress:However, by default, your blog doesnt allow you to set permalinks in this custom way. To enable pretty permalinks, go to your WordPress dashboard → Settings → Permalinks. Select the structure labeled Post name, like so:At this point, you can assign custom permalinks to each of your blog posts and pages. Furthermore, WordPress will predict what the best permalink for any given post is and assign it automatically.Lately WordPress has become smarter and is filtering out unnecessary words from default permalinks. Until not long ago a post titled, say, Ten essential plugins for ecommerce websites would have used ten-essential-plugins-for-ecommerce-websites. Depending on how you want to target your article you might want to use essential-plugins-ecommerce-websites, or even essential-ecommerce-plugins. Either way, the word for is completely unnecessary there.You can fine-tune permalinks under the post title. If you dont see a permalink, make sure to save a draft, it should pop up after the page reloads.The main idea here is to put the main keyword for the post in the permalink.Speaking of posts and their impact on your WordPress blog SEO:3. Write good content and write oftenGranted, this might not sound that intuitive when talking about essential SEO settings, but we think this is an absolutely crucial SEO tactic. Good content alone is not enough to propel your site to the top of Google, but goes a long-long way. Google has become pretty good at determining what constitutes good content.If youre writing about motorcycling helmet cleaners youll probably want to put that phrase in your article a couple of times, but dont overdo it. Just because you have your key phrase eight times in a paragraph wont do anything to budge your ranking on the contrary, it may send you further down.Write naturally, but be smart. If you have a good opportunity to drop in a keyword or two do so, but dont go overboard. It might be an essential SEO setting, but too much of it and youve done more harm than good.A regularly updated site will also help you in your SEO efforts. Not just because Google will see that your site is active, but because there will be more content to base your rank on. In addition, this helps with user engagement and retention as well a double win.As before, dont go overboard, thats one of the main rules of SEO. Updating your site ten times a day with similar content will just lower your rank. If you have the option to post unique and valuable content 3-4 times a day, by all means do so. Otherwise a site updated once a week with an extremely good article is way more valuable that one updated every day with fluff.4. Optimize your site for speedWebsite speed is a crucial factor. Google takes it into account as well. Moreover, site speed has a number of other effects which will add together to grind all your efforts to a halt.Site speed is a critical factor in early exits, bounce rates, page view times be cause it directly affects user experience. As such, you will retain fewer visitors, your SEO rank will drop which will lead to even fewer visitors and many of those who stay will become increasingly frustrated.Speed times can be helped a LOT in the WordPress arena with managed WordPress hosts. We can highly recommend:Kinsta starts at $30 / month, 1 WordPress install, up to 20,000 visits / monthFlywheel starts at $23 / month, 1 WordPress install, up to 25,000 visits / monthWPEngine starts at $31.5 / month, 1 WordPress install, up to 25,000 visits / monthEither of these hosts will handle the essential SEO settings on their end so that you dont even have to look under the hood.To perform basic speed tests on your site, use either of these tools.And make sure to check out this post for some additional tips and tactics on how to speed up your WordPress site.5. Set your categories and tags correctlyWordPress uses categories and tags to help you organize the content on your blog.The ge neral idea with categories and tags is to:use categories to group your posts under a common topicuse tags to single out individual aspects or sub-topics of your postsTo make this a bit more clear, consider the following example:If youre blogging about the hottest topic of them all food(!), heres how you might organize three example blog posts:Spanish Paella Recipe category: recipes, tags: dinner, rice, spanishHow to Make Scrambled Eggs category: recipes, tags: breakfast, eggsHow to Pair Wine With Food category: drink, tags: wineThats just an example, but you get the idea. Categories are more general and are sort of one level above tags.The main SEO benefit of this way of organizing content is that WordPress creates separate archive pages for your categories and tags. If you create a good category and tag structure, those automatic category and tag archive pages become valuable resources on their own.If you want to see what this looks like in practice, just hop over to the WordPr ess tutorials category on this blog.6. Use an SEO pluginOne of the best SEO plugins for WordPress is Yoast SEO (though there are viable alternatives, too). It is updated continuously to keep up with search engine changes and contains everything youll need to make your site an SEO powerhouse, effectively taking care of all your essential SEO settings.The good thing about Yoast is that it basically works right out the box and doesnt require any difficult configuration. For the most part, youre good with factory settings.That being said, fine tunning some things will only take a couple of minutes and can pay off.Heres what you can do:Go to SEO → General → Webmaster Tools. Provide your verification code for Google Search Console. Follow the highlighted link to get your code:Go to SEO → Search Appearance and go through the individual tabs.Start with Content Types:Make sure you have all options enabled for both your posts and pages.Next, Media. Just one thing there:En able the option to have the attachment URLs redirected to the attachments themselves.Next tab, Taxonomies. This is where you can decide how you want to handle the category and tag listings on your WordPress blog.Generally speaking, if your blog features a lot of categories and tags then you should choose to show them in search results. If you have only a few categories or just one category then disable it from search. This helps you avoid the issue of duplicate content an important factor for your basic WordPress blog SEO.Next tab, Archives.Apart from your categories and tags, WordPress also creates separate archives for author accounts and sets up date-based archives.For single-author blogs, disable the author archives. The date archives are up to you, but many people advise disabling them too.This sums up your essential SEO settings inside Yoast.7. Optimize your imagesManaging your media properly is a great way to get an SEO edge, thus making it one of the essential SEO settings. Many website owners overlook image captions, alt text and file names. All of these are important and can be added so easily. The reason they are often skipped is that images are added after the post has been written. It took the author three hours to write the post, adding bits of text to 20 images is soooo tiring and will add another 20 minutes of work.Fair enough, but is this worth losing rank over? Providing information to Google about what the images is about by filling out the name, making sure the file name itself is readable, typing up a caption and an alt text will add that much more information about your content.Now, with that taken care of, the other aspect of image optimization is handling the image files properly in the first place. Heres the thing with images; they take up a lot of disk space on your server, and thus also take a lot of time to load in your readers web browser.The problem with that is two-fold:Again, Google now actively penalizes sites that take a lot of time to load read: you will lose rankingspeople will generally not wait any longer than 2 seconds for your site to load; anything above that and theyll leaveLuckily, fixing this issue is rather simple. All you need is an image optimization plugin that will take good care of your image files all on its own working on autopilot. Check out Optimole, its the top solution in the market. Image optimization Lazy Load by Optimole Author(s): OptimoleCurrent Version: 2.1.2Last Updated: September 25, 2019optimole-wp.zip 96%Ratings 211,971Downloads WP 4.7+Requires 8. Give your post titles extra attentionTitles are the most important part of your page. This is what search engines see first and this is also what users see first. For users it has to be catchy, for search engines it has to be keyword targeted. Try to find a good balance between the two.While Id be a little hesitant to say this in front of an SEO crowd, I would lean toward the user if push comes to shove. As youll see below you can set the meta title of your page which gives search engines information about the page. The actual title is more for user-consumption in my opinion.9. Use essential SEO settings for your postsIf you use the Yoast SEO plugin, youll see a Yoast SEO box under each post. Use the snippet editor to control how your result will look on Google. Set the focus keyword as well to get an assessment of how your post conforms to current SEO guidelines.This is a great way to write content better targeted to search engines and gain extra visitors through the process.I like to edit the snippet of every post, even though an automatic one is generated. These little touches are what can separate the serious websites from the floundering ones.10. Test your site for mobile friendlinessAnother thing that Google likes to see with websites when it comes to essential SEO settings is an optimized design that looks good on mobile devices. The reason? Simple; there are more people accessing the web via mobiles these days than there are doing so via desktop computers and laptops combined.The deal is simple, if your site fails to load on mobile, youll lose your rank. Not a great sounding deal, right, but a clear one nonetheless!Okay, so how to make sure youre in the clear? Luckily, Google provides us with a tool where we can test our sites and make sure everything is okay. Its simply called the Mobile-Friendly Test. You can access it here.Test your site with it thoroughly. Make sure there are no issues with your homepage, your blog posts and pages.If you can see anything worrying, follow Googles tips to fix the issues.11. Make friendsOne part of this is social media. Make sure you have an active presence, engage with visitors and potential visitors (i.e.: your target group) as much as you can. Getting people to talk about you is one of the best ways to get incoming links which Google will take into account. The larger the website linking to you, the more weight it receives.Anot her part of this is talking to website owners who write about your sector and making friends. Dont just contact people if you want something from them. Offer to give advice or other means of help you can give. This will make you friends quickly who will want to write about you again, valuable SEO fodder.Ive found that being nice has awesome far-reaching consequences and opens a lot of doors. Even if you need to go out of your way now, it may come back to give you a boost when you really need it.When in doubt, be smartDont know if naming image files properly should be one of your essential SEO settings for WordPress? Then take the time and name them properly, the worst that can happen is nothing, the best that can happen is that Google appreciates the effort and uses this in some small way to increase your ranking. It might not mean much, but a few minor things like this could give you the edge you need.The image file example is a good one because many website use screenshots and ar e too lazy to rename them. It is so much easier to just take the screenshot, drag drop and be done with it. Taking the time to rename the file seems like a waste of time.Also, Google does take file naming into account, so there!Remember the most important rule: Google is, and always has, attempted to figure out what your content is about by mimicking the behavior of humans. Humans are much better at figuring out what is valuable and what isnt than computers. Therefore the more naturally good your content is, the better.While there are certain tips and tricks you can use, these will quickly become obsolete. For example: In the olden days, people used to litter their pages with keywords and then hide them from view, gaining SEO ranking quickly. Google then figured out how to deal with these and punished offending websites with significant rank cuts.Write good content, write targeted content, be sensible and utilize the tools at your disposal to tell Google as much about your content as possible. Those are your essential SEO settings. All search engines will reward you with a good ranking if you do things right.Struggling with essential SEO settings on your WordPress blog? Share your story in the comments section below. Maybe we can help. Original text by Daniel Pataki and Karol K.* This post contains affiliate links, which means that if you click on one of the product links and then purchase the product, well receive a small fee. No worries though, youll still pay the standard amount so theres no cost on your part.

Saturday, March 7, 2020

The Critical Evaluation Essay Leo Szilards Argument

The Critical Evaluation Essay Leo Szilards Argument Even those people who do not know the details of the â€Å"Manhattan Project† have strong negative associations while focusing on the notion. The explanation to this phenomenon is in the fact that the â€Å"Manhattan Project† is the assignment developed by a group of the US scientists who worked out the atomic bomb to prevent the Nazi attacks during World War II.Advertising We will write a custom essay sample on The Critical Evaluation Essay: Leo Szilard’s Argument specifically for you for only $16.05 $11/page Learn More However, the history of using the first American atomic bombs is associated with Japanese cities Hiroshima and Nagasaki the population of which suffered significantly from the dangerous effects of atom (Bernstein). The group of scientists who created the weapon of mass destruction tried to prevent the usage of atomic bombs with the help of providing the petition to the President. Although the petition was developed by th e head of the project Leo Szilard and signed by the scientists who participated in creating the bomb, the argument presented by Szilard cannot be discussed as effective to persuade the audience to change the decision. In â€Å"A Petition to the President of the United States†, Szilard follows the definite structure, accentuating the introductory part and concluding statements. However, the main part of the petition does not include the factual information to support the claims presented in the introductory part. Thus, the author uses the effective hook to draw the audience’s attention to the petition and appeal to the readers’ emotions. Szilard states, â€Å"Discoveries of which the people of the United States are not aware may affect the welfare of this nation in the near future† (Szilard). This statement makes people continue the reading of the petition. The audience of the petition is the President of the USA. That is why, the direct appeal to the Pres ident is presented in the further sentence, â€Å"It places in your hands, as Commander-in-Chief, the fateful decision whether or not to sanction the use of such bombs in the present phase of the war against Japan† (Szilard). The next paragraphs are expected to provide the arguments for the President to make the right decision and not to use the atomic bombs in the war against Japan. However, the body paragraphs include only vague considerations which are not supported by any evidences or data and developed only to evoke the definite emotions (Gest).Advertising Looking for essay on international relations? Let's see if we can help you! Get your first paper with 15% OFF Learn More The tone of the petition can be discussed as emotional rather than convincing. The author uses general sentences in which there are a lot of words with different connotative meanings, but there is the lack of factual arguments to support the main ideas presented by Szilard. Fo r instance, stating â€Å"We feel, however, that such an attack on Japan could not be justified in the present circumstances†, Szilard does not present any reasons why the attack on Japan cannot be justified (Szilard). In spite of the fact the author appeals to the morality and ethical principles, there are no arguments associated with morality in the petition’s text in order to state strictly that the usage of atomic bombs is impossible or to accentuate the impossibility of the annihilation of cities and people with references to moral laws. That is why, it is necessary to note that the author uses the convincing tone ineffectively because it is based only on the emotional aspect. To support the view on the effectiveness of Szilard’s usage of the tone which is rather unconvincing in the context of the petition and the problem discussed, it is important to pay attention to the modes of persuasion used by the author. The petition is developed by the scientists wh o created the atomic bombs. That is why, it is possible to speak about the authors’ authority. Szilard uses the ethos, stating â€Å"We, the undersigned scientists, have been working in the field of atomic power for a number of years† (Szilard). From this point, the participation of the author in creating the atomic bomb can be discussed as the reason to take Szilard’s arguments into consideration and pay much attention to their discussion. Nevertheless, the author does not provide the necessary arguments to support his authoritative position in discussing the question. However, the author concentrates on using the pathos in his text. The petition can be considered as rather emotional. Szilard is inclined to use emotionally vivid comparisons to present the idea, for instance, â€Å"a nation †¦ may have to bear the responsibility of opening the door to an era of devastation on an unimaginable scale† (Szilard). The focus on appealing to the audienceâ⠂¬â„¢s emotions cannot be used as the effective method to organize the petition. The next fallacy of the argument is the lack of the factual information and data which can be used to support the author’s ideas. Szilard presents ambiguous sentences which can be interpreted not in favor of the author and contribute to developing contradictions in understanding the vision. Moreover, providing the key ideas, Szilard does not concentrate on their support with evidences and facts to build the logical argument. For instance, the statement â€Å"atomic bombs are primarily a means for the ruthless annihilation of cities† has no any supporting facts after it (Szilard).Advertising We will write a custom essay sample on The Critical Evaluation Essay: Leo Szilard’s Argument specifically for you for only $16.05 $11/page Learn More To conclude, Leo Szilard’s argument cannot be discussed as successful because it has weaknesses in structure, and the tone of the author is not convincing. Furthermore, the modes of persuasion are not used effectively to make the audience change the view. The text lacks the logical arguments and factual information to make the petition credible and persuasive. Bernstein, Barton. â€Å"An Analysis of â€Å"Two Cultures†: Writing about the Making and the Using of the Atomic Bombs†. The Public Historian 12.1 (1990): 83-107. Print. Gest, Howard. The July 1945 Szilard Petition on the Atomic Bomb. n.d. Web. Szilard, Leo. A Petition to the President of the United States (July 3, 1945). n.d. Web. atomicarchive.com/Docs/ManhattanProject/SzilardPetition.shtml.

Thursday, February 20, 2020

Legal implications and risks of the errors on the website Essay

Legal implications and risks of the errors on the website - Essay Example This essay discusses that before you consider this type of loan, you may want to look into whether you really need a second mortgage. If you decide to go for it, make sure that your house is appraised to know its market value. This is because the amount that will be offered in your loan will be dependent on the equity of the house. You should also search for the rates that are the best and that are available by seeking free quotes from several lenders. You will compare and have the capability to choose the best of the rates. Secondly, your monthly payments need to be worked out for both the first and the second loans. Finally, you need to check the terms of the loan, the penalties, and the costs. It is necessary that you understand what deal you are signing and whether you are required to pay for more processing fees or even closing costs. In some companies, there are pre-payment penalties which apply for a second mortgage. When you understand the terms of the loan, you should commit towards proceeding with it.In conclusion, Cosy Couches is obligated to take irreparable measures to alleviate any future anomalies in its website to ensure that no legal implications arise with its customers. Regarding the anomaly that arose, it should be tackled well as discussed above and ensure that the case is settled. On the case of acquiring the loan, the company is in the best line of expansion but it calls for Mr. Martin, the Managing Director, to come up with decisive measures to ensure that the personal guarantee is workable and effective. ... Nevertheless, the company has to offer to make it worthwhile and negotiate with the customer; since the said party has the right to sue for misinforming them.4 It is only right legally, to allow the customers purchase at the price that they placed their orders, despite the fact that this will lead to a loss. Making them change the order may lead to a number of lawsuits that will not only tarnish the name of the company, but that will also be costly.5 However, the customer may take advantage of these circumstances to try and reap from the company by mode of blackmailing, buying more at the same price or even tainting the image of the company. It is in the capacity of the director of the company to bar any more order regarding the old advertisement and still decline sale of the â€Å"sweet dreams† sofa-bed under the claim that the customer manipulated the website for their own gain. The manipulation could have been in the form of hacking into the website or by the use of an insi de man.6 This should only be applied if the customer has tried to divert from the purchasing of the â€Å"sweet dreams† sofa-beds at the price that they made the purchase at. In any case the customer agrees to purchase at the price that is normal, â€Å"?799†, it is important that a gesture of appreciation is shown to them and to also convince them to sign a letter of confidentiality concerning the said matter regardless of which price the said customer bought the â€Å"sweet dreams† sofa-beds at. In the case of intending to expand your business it is important to note that legally, that is only possible if Mr. Martin has a clean record of at least three years and that includes court cases.7 As long as no one sues you in regards to the errors on the website, the

Tuesday, February 4, 2020

HOW USEFUL IS A HUMAM RIGHTS DISCOURSE TO THE STUDY OF GENDER AND Essay

HOW USEFUL IS A HUMAM RIGHTS DISCOURSE TO THE STUDY OF GENDER AND CRIMEDRAW ON EXAMPLES TO SUPPORT YOUR AGUMENT - Essay Example person is always seen to be more aggressive than his female counterpart (Bess, 2005), and thus according to a stereotyped mindset, it is very natural to associate violent crimes exclusively with male criminals. Criminologists from times immemorial have been dealing the issue of crimes without keeping the gender perspective in focus. There is no doubt that there have always been women who committed crimes, but no importance was relegated to them, marking them as just as an aberration. The general feeling was what Wootton more than 50 years earlier, had expressed, â€Å"If men behaved like women, the courts would be idle and the prisons empty† (1959, 32). However, in modern times, specially starting from the 1990s, perspectives have changed and many recent studies pertaining to crime have been made, keeping the gender differences in mind. More than thirty years ago Carol Smart had published her book Women, Crime and Criminology, where she had mentioned that criminology is Ã¢â‚¬Ë œgender blind’, and therefore as a subject, the study of criminology remained incomplete and unconsummated (Smart, 1976). In fact, before the second wave of feminism came in around 1960, the argument put forward by the poststructuralists that the sociology study till then had been predisposed to generalise the male forbearance, is correct to some extent. A look at the past legal records will reveal that the number of women who came to the court as a defendant, or a witness, or an overseer, is surprisingly ambiguous (Beattie, 1974-5), the exception being for cases that were looked upon as typical feminine ones. Such a mindset arose mainly from the cultural and social stereotypes that were prevalent during the nineteenth, and a greater part of the twentieth century, which led to the court records being interpreted and maintained according to these pre conceived assumptions. This article will take a look at this topic of the deviances in gender crimes and their varying patterns, and will explore

Monday, January 27, 2020

Sen’s Theorem: Overview and Analysis

Sen’s Theorem: Overview and Analysis Table of Contents (Jump to) 1. Introduction 2. A Review of Sen’s Theorem 3. The Rise of New Interpretation 4. Merits of the New Interpretation 5. Conclusion References 1. Introduction The Sen’s theorem has an important impact on the decision and social choice theory. In the Nobel Prize lecture of 1998, Sen said that discovering the societal decision rules will be the main objective of the choice theory. However, Sen found it is difficult to achieve this objective in his paper of â€Å"Impossibility of a Paretian Liberal† (Sen, 1970a, b, 1976c). Sen’s theorem states that it is impossible to achieve the minimal aspect of liberalism when it is combined with the Pareto condition. According to the theorem of Sen, it seems that there is a fundamental conflict between the Pareto welfare concepts and the liberalism. After this argument, there is a pooling of studies that focus on the individual rights and there are also studies that find new interpretation for the theorem of Sen. According to Saari and his collaborators, the cyclic decision outcomes established by Sens theorem describe a transitional, dysfunctional state of society. This essay will mainly explain how this interpretation arises and discuss its merits relative to the original interpretation offered by Sen. The essay will be structured as follow: in the second session, the essay will briefly introduce the Sen’s Theorem regarding to the conflicting results between Pareto Optimal and Liberalism. Examples will also be used to better illustrate the choice decisions. In the third session, the essay will how and why there will be new interpretations of the theorem of Sen. Particularly, the essay will base its argument on the research results of Saari and his collaborators. In the fourth session, the essay will discuss the merits of the new interpretation compared with the interpretation by Sen himself. In the last session, a brief conclusion will be made based on the analysis in the previous se ssion. 2. A Review of Sen’s Theorem The Sens impossibility of a paretian libertarian theorem or Sens paradox Paratian liberal states that weak Pareto criterion and liberalism may have conflicts on the fundamental level, which indicated that the Pareto criterion is flawed. On one hand, it shows that the Pareto criteria only consider aspects of difference in efficiency among relevant states while ignoring the individual utility conflicts arising because of these states. On the other hand, the theorem also shows the in addition to considering some reasonable internal conditions, one also needs to consider issues such as liberalism for social order decision making. According to Sen, there are some choices that are purely of personal nature, such as the state (x) means everything else in the society as ÃŽ ©, when A is sleeping supine, state (y) means everything else in society as ÃŽ ©, when A is sleeping prostrate. If A has a preference of y than x, while many others in the society prefer the opposite, then it can be consid ered that social choice between x and y is a purely personal thing, because A is the only a real person that is related to the choice while other people are just nosy person. It can also be considered that one can choose one such a collective choice rule where As preference should be accurately reflected by social preferences in this purely personal nature choices (Sen, 1970). Based on this point, Sen emphasizes that people should pay attention to the study of individual rights and other issues affecting the social choice order and decision making. The new welfare economics and welfare economics research before the new welfare economics are consciously or unconsciously avoid these problems. Sen (1970) found that the Pareto criterion is incompatible with liberalism. Pareto optimality is used by the economists and other social scientists to measure the efficiency of society, which is also the the most common and widespread, even the only indicator. It refers to such a state that we are good as it gets, no one can make an additional welfare without compromising the welfare of others. And the principles of individual freedom are the relentless pursuit of mankind, both of which are on the intuition that people can fully accept and understand. However, Sens theorem shows that these two attractive standards are contradictory and cannot be simultaneously true. 3. The Rise of New Interpretation There are three assumptions that Sen’s theorem is based on and the realistic of these assumptions will be one reason why there will be new interpretations for the Sen’s theorem. First, the essay will briefly introduce the assumptions related to the Sen’s theorem. An unrestricted area principle; The Pareto principle; The minimum principles of liberalism (ML), which states society should give at least two people the right to choose between at least a pair of social status. If one thinks that A better than B, then society should not interfere and should agree with the preference. With Sens words, if you want sleeping supine and did not want to sleep prostrate, the society should agree with it. However, Sen also prove that for two or more people in the society, there exist no social choice functions that simultaneously satisfy these above three conditions because there will be the similar results of cyclical Condorcet voting paradox revealed by Arrow Impossibility Theorem when Pareto optimal is in combination with a minimum principle of liberalism. Sen’s theorem on freedom of the Pareto impossibility can be accurately described as: there does not exist the collective decision rule that meets the following conditions. The first condition is a sort of rational conditions. The sort is reflexive, relevance, and the preference relation is not circulating. Reflexive means for any choice x has xRx, which indicates that any choice is at least as good as its own. Relevance means for any two options, there must be xRy or yRx or both. The second condition is weak Pareto criterion. For any choice of x and y, if everyone i think xPiy, then the society also thinks that xPy. The third condition is the minimal liberalism. In this condition, there are two non-empty, disjoint subsets L1 and L2, two different options for the (a, b) and (c, d), if everyone in L1 considers a is better than b, then the society also thinks that a is better than b; if everyone in L1 thinks that b is better than a, then b is also better than a for the society. Similarly, if everyone in L2 believes that c is better than d, then the society also thinks that c is better than d; if everyone in L2 thinks d is better than c, then the society t hinks also that d is better than c. The two groups were decisive on the choice between the two groups. Anyone is free to do what he likes to do, which means there are some choices that are entirely personal, personal preferences should not be affected by some other people. How to walk out of Sens paradox? Mueller has proposed two solutions in the â€Å"public choice theory . One is to let the Pareto principle in some cases to comply with the right to liberalism. The other is through Pareto transactions. As Mueller noted, the matrix is similar to game theory, for example a state in the famous prisoners dilemma, and the Pareto inferior results are due to the independent exercise of each person in his own right, regardless of the damage to others such externalities. The results of Sen’s theorem are established mainly through examples. There are no rigorous proofs on the results why there will be inconsistency of minimal liberalism and Pareto conditions. The results are basically based on the assumption that there are conflicts between the Pareto Conditions and the Minimal Liberalism. There are questions keep asking whether the assumption is true and what if the cyclic societal rankings are not due to these conditions? In fact, in 1998 and 2001, Saari argues that the real reason of the seminal result of Sen’s theorem is not related to the nature of the Pareto condition and the Minimal Liberalism. The reason is that Pareto conditions and Minimal Liberalism needs the societal rankings to be made over pairs, which dismiss the transitivity of individual preferences. Therefore, it is not the conflicts between societal need and individual rights that undermine the assumption of individual rationality; it is the concentration of pairs that leads to the ignorance of individual rationality. And Saari also made geometric proof on this argument, which provides a new interpretation for the Sen’s theorem. 4. Merits of the New Interpretation There are several advantages of the new interpretation compared to the one that Sen present in the original version. First of all, the theorem carried out by Saari and his collaborates are proved using geometric proof, instead of using only examples and assumptions to derive the final results. In addition, the new interpretation can explain all the examples used by Sen in his prior papers and the new interpretation also supports Sen’s own interpretation that the three conditions in Sen’s theorem force the decisions to be made by ignoring the individual rationality. The new interpretation also thinks that the decision rule also wants to meet the demand in the cyclic preference (Saari 2001; Saari and Petron, 2004). Secondly, the geometric proof of the new interpretations has identified all possible profiles that support any examples of Sen’s model. In addition, Saari and his collaborates have also significantly expanded on earlier observations by providing a new statistical interpretation for Sen’s Theorem. And they also conclude that the cyclic decision outcomes established by Sens theorem describe a transitional, dysfunctional state of society. Thirdly, the new interpretation has pointed a new direction for the movements of individual rights. Compared with the interpretation by Sen, the new interpretation focus more on the intensity minimal liberalism, which will leads to social decision procedures without cyclic outcomes and at the same time satisfy weak Pareto conditions. They pointed out the deeper reason of the ignorance of individual rationality instead of concluding that the reason is because of the inconsistency of the Pareto condition and the Minimal Liberalism. 5. Conclusion As discussed in the previous session, the Sen’s theorem provides a good direction for the research of individual rights. And there are many researchers working on the topic to find new interpretation for the seminal results of Sen’s theory. Saari and his collaborates find that Minimal Liberalism makes some of the information in the society irrelevant. However, depending on that information, individual preferences may or may not be transitive. Therefore, they conclude that Minimal Liberalism makes transitivity information irrelevant and this happens for any possible example of Sen’s cycles. They find a way to solve this problem and the response to this is to modify Minimal Liberalism in a way that is sensitive to transitivity information. They use the Intensity Minimal Liberalism (IML), which is a decisive that agent can impose his preferences only when the choice does not create a strong negative externality for some other agent. And they finally find that there are social decision procedures without cyclic outcomes that satisfy weak Pareto and IML, which provides a new interpretation for the Sen’s theorem. The new interpretation finds a more appropriate way to proof Sen’s theorem and expends Sen’s theorem in several aspects. References Li, I. and D.G. Saari 2008. ‘Sen’s theorem: geometric proof, new interpretations’, Social Choice and Welfare 31: 393-413. Focus especially on pages 393-401. Petron, A and D.G. Saari 2006. `Negative externalities and Sens liberalism theorem, Economic Theory 28: 265-281. Read Sections 1 to 4. Saari, D. G. (1995). Basic Geometry of Voting, Springer-Verlag, New York Saari, D. G. (1998). Connecting and resolving Sen’s and Arrow’s Theorems, Social Choice Welfare 15, 239-261 Saari, D. G. (2001). Decisions and Elections; Explaining the Unexpected, Cambridge University Press, New York Saari, D. G., and Petron, A. (2004). (April), Negative Externalities and Sen’s Liberalism Theorem, IMBS working papers, University of California, Irvine, to appear in Economic Theory,June, 2006. Saari, D. G. and Sieberg, K. (2001). The sum of the parts can violate the whole, American Political Science Review 95, 415-433. Salles, M. (1997). On Modelling Individual Rights: Some Conceptual Issues: Discussion; p 129-133 in Social Choice Re-examined, Vol. 2; Ed. by K. J. Arrow, A. K. Sen, and K. Suzumura,St Martin’s Press New York. Sen, A. K. (1966). A Possibility Theorem on Majority Decisions, Econometrica, 34(2), 491-09. Sen, A. K. (1970a). Collective Choice and Social Welfare, Holden-Day, San Francisco. Sen, A. K. (1970b). The Impossibility of a Paretian Liberal, The journal of Political Economy, 78(1), 152-57. Sen, A. K. (1976). Liberty, Unanimity and Rights, Economica 43(171), 217-45. Sen, A. K., Liberty and Social Choice, Journal of Philosophy, 80(1), 5-28. Sen, A. K. (1992) Minimal Liberty, Economica, 59 (234), 139-60. Sen, A. K. (1999) The possibility of social choice. The American Economic Review 89 (3), 349-378

Sunday, January 19, 2020

Cosmetic Surgery on Teenagers

Cosmetic surgery on teenagers Both texts, Valerie Ulene, â€Å"Plastic surgery for teens†, an article from Los Angeles Times website, January 12, 2009 and Camille Sweeney, â€Å"Seeking Self-Esteem Through Surgery†, an article from New York Times website, January 15, 2009, agree on the view on cosmetic surgery and query the idea of increased self-esteem to a certain point. Text 1, â€Å"Plastic surgery for teens†, focuses more on the surgery itself whereas text 2, Seeking Self-Esteem Through Surgery†, focuses more on the psychological part of cosmetic surgery.Even though they show two different sides of plastic surgery they still share some of the same statements of problems such as: which consequences surgery can lead to and which image issues teenagers’ face today. The fact that Diana Zuckerman, The president of the National Research center for Women and Families, appears in both articles makes them look alike in some cases, due to the similar chos en subjects. In text 1 Valerie Ulene emphasizes the issues of the modern world’s view on beauty and unrealistic ideals.These are some the primary problems that she discusses. In her discussion she actually refers to a study that shows no evidence of improved self-esteem after undergoing surgery. Valerie Ulene questions the surgeons, and that is where Dr. John Canedy, president of the American Society of Plastic Surgeons, comes in. Dr. John Canedy himself seems to have a critical view on cosmetic procedures among teens as well. He doesn’t exclude improved self-esteem, but he thinks that the surgeons should select the patients carefully and after long consideration.As I mentioned before text 2, â€Å"Seeking Self-Esteem Through Surgery†, focuses a lot on the beauty and psychological issues such as: celebrity obsession and makeover TV shows. Another person who shares some of the same views is Jean Kilbourne, the co-author of â€Å"So Sexy, So Soon†. He talks about the impossibilities of meeting the standards and values of beauty. Ann Kearney-Cooke, likes to characterize this phenomena as â€Å"an epidemic of low self-esteem among girls†.Diana Zuckerman, which appears in both articles, says that teens often forget or ignore the fact that they aren’t guaranteed a better life afterwards and that’s a big problem. Valerie Ulene engages the readers in several ways. One of the methods she uses in the text is to personalize it by referring to herself and her beauty problems, more specifically her nose. This is something that appears throughout the text. She even mentions her teen daughter: â€Å"With a 14-year-old daughter of my own, I recognize how difficult it can be†.By this she also refers to parents banning teen plastic surgery, and that engages the readers personally. Most people could probably relate to most of the problems Valerie Ulene talks about and has experienced. By choosing such a big issue she gets a lot of readers who are more likely to find the article interesting. Another method of engaging the readers is to strengthen the reliability. She does this by including several experts, who uses facts and creates different views: â€Å"there is really no data to suggest that it improves their overall body image or self-esteem†, as Diana Zuckerman comments.The data doesn’t only support the experts but it also supports the importance of these issues. The debate of banning plastic surgery for teens is an all time debate that keeps reappearing, maybe not much here in Denmark, but other places like Brazil, USA, UK etc. The arguments are mostly the same when it comes to issues like this: on one side banning it would be necessary in some cases; on the other side we live in a modern world where people can be held responsible for their actions.This is also the general view in this case. On one side we’ve got the Australian state of Queensland which finds it necessary to ban plastic surgeries for teens, like Dr. Pete Constantino says: â€Å"If they aren’t old enough to sign their own surgical consent for a medically necessary procedure, then they shouldn’t be able to induce their parent to do for cosmetic surgery†. Teenagers are incapable of making such a big decision at that age.On the other side: is that limiting teenagers’ needs both psychologically and physically? The question is whether the government should decide which values, morals and norms are correct. In this case the best thing is to bane cosmetic surgeries for teenagers. Your body is still developing, and most teenagers aren’t responsible enough to make such big decisions. ——————————————– [ 1 ]. Page 3, line 58. [ 2 ]. Page 2, line 26-17. [ 3 ]. Page 6, line 23-24.

Saturday, January 11, 2020

English Poetry Essay

Part A 2. What are the symbolic significances of the candy store in Lawrence Ferlinghetti’s â€Å"The Pennycandystore Beyond the El† (Geddes, 318)? The candy store in â€Å"The Pennycandystore Beyond the El† is symbolic of a child’s youth. This poem is referring to the fact that our childhood passes by too soon and the candy store is a reminder that we need to seize every moment to enjoy it. The pennycandystore offers as a retreat or refuge to the bad weather outside and the stresses of everyday life. It takes on the characteristics of an enchanted environment full of magic and wonder, where a child has the opportunity to enjoy their youth without any distractions. When â€Å"A girl ran in Her hair was rainy Her breasts were breathless in the little room† (Geddes 319), the safe haven of youth is invaded. The innocence of youth is lost and teenage adolescence is not far away. 3. After reviewing the entry on rhyme in Abram’s Glossary, identify three different types of end-rhyme in Theodore Roethke’s â€Å"Prayer† (Geddes, 140). What effects do the rhymes produce? In â€Å"Prayer† there are several examples of end rhyme that add to the overall structure of the poem. These examples of end-rhyme are lose/choose, dead/head, and preserve/serve. The person praying is using the rhymes to give the poem a light and sarcastic feel. â€Å"Therefore, O Lord, let me preserve The Sense that does so fitly serve; Take Tongue and Ear-all else I have-Let light attend me to the grave† (Geddes 140)! This passage suggests that the person praying wants light to attend them to the grave, but they believe it to be such a lofty request that they are offering their tongue, ear, and everything else on their body. The rhymes produce the notion that the prayer should not be taken too seriously. 4. What is the chief symbol in Lorna Crozier’s poem â€Å"Forms of Innocence† (Geddes, 675)? What does the symbol suggest beyond its literal meaning? The main symbol in the poem â€Å"Forms of Innocence† is the black swan, which represents the girl’s innocence. â€Å"A strange shape for innocence when you think of Leda but the girl insists it was a swan, black not white as you might expect† (Geddes 675). Black swans are a rare occurrence in nature and so is a girl’s innocence in life. The swan â€Å"took flight, how it soared from the window beating its wings high above the stubble field† (Geddes 675) is a representation of the girl losing her virginity. The girl losing her virginity is the final step to losing the innocence that she once had as a child. 5. In â€Å"Epithalamium† (Geddes, 600) Louise Gluck uses alliteration, assonance and consonance. Identify an example of each and comment on the effect of these devices in Gluck’s poem. In â€Å"Epithalamium† an example of alliteration is â€Å"Here is my hand that will not harm you† (Geddes 601). Here the poet is utilizing softer sounds. â€Å"There were others; their bodies were a preparation† (Geddes 600) is an example of assonance. An example of consonance is â€Å"the terrible charity of marriage† (Geddes 600). Both the example of assonance and consonance use harder sounds to convey a message. One could conclude that higher-pitched sounds aggravate the ear, while softer-pitched sounds appease the ear. The wife in the poem is describing her marriage to an abusive husband and uses sound to get her message across more clearly. However, it is ironic that the wife starts the poem with hard sounds and ends the attack on her husband with soft sounds. 6. How do any three of the plant/vegetation images function, or what do they convey, in Ezra Pound’s translation-poem â€Å"The River Merchant’s Wife: A Letter† (Geddes, 2526)? The plants and vegetation in the poem communicate a message about a wife’s love for her husband. In the beginning of the poem we are presented with the image of a little girl â€Å"pulling flowers† (Geddes 25). The flowers symbolize a budding or growing relationship between the little boy and girl. Then at the end of the poem the plants and vegetation take on a completely different meaning. â€Å"You dragged your feet when you went out. By the gate now, the moss is grown, the different mosses† (Geddes 26). When the husband left the house he dragged his feet and cleared the moss away, but he has been gone so long that it has grown back. Though the wife says the moss is too deep to clear away, she really just doesn’t want to let go of this last memory of her husband. â€Å"The leaves fall early this autumn, in wind† (Geddes 26), is a representation of a husband and wife whose relationship is falling apart and becoming more and more distanced. Part B â€Å"Bushed† by Earle Birney In the following essay I intend to use the linear method of explication to examine the poem â€Å"Bushed†. The title â€Å"Bushed† refers to someone that is lost in the bush and is made volatile by living in the bush too long. In the following explication I will analyze and dissect each stanza, gaining some insight on the different stages that a man goes through living in the bush. The first of seven stanzas begins with the creation of a â€Å"rainbow† that is â€Å"shattered† (Geddes 161) by lightning. When referring to the â€Å"inventor† of the rainbow it is God. The rainbow is so big and overwhelming that â€Å"his mind slowed when he looked at it† (Geddes 161). The man in the poem is in awe of his natural surroundings. In the second stanza the man â€Å"learned to roast porcupine belly† (Geddes 161). This shows us that the man is learning how to use the resources around him to survive in the wilderness. In stanza three we are told the man is out at â€Å"dawn† regardless if it is â€Å"yellowed bright† or like a â€Å"fuzzed moth in a flannel storm† (Geddes 161). Here we become aware that the man is up at dawn regardless of the circumstances. The fourth stanza opens with, â€Å"But he found the mountain was clearly alive† (Geddes 161). This is where we begin to see the signs of paranoia and isolation setting into the man’s mind. The man gives the mountain human qualities such as â€Å"feet† and the ability to fall â€Å"asleep† (Geddes 161) that further suggest he is slowly losing his mind. In stanza five the man mistakes ospreys for valkyries, â€Å"When he tried his eyes on the lake ospreys would fall like valkyries† (Geddes 161). This is a sign that the man is beginning to panic being in the bush alone and fear is taking its toll. The â€Å"valkyries† as the man sees them are â€Å"choosing the cut-throat† (Geddes 161). The man is becoming delusional and believes birds want to cut his throat. Stanza six shows us the man succumbing to the intimidating force of nature. The â€Å"moosehorned cedars circled his swamps and tossed their antlers up to the stars† (Geddes 162). The man truly believes that the wilderness around him is coming alive. He seems to think, â€Å"the winds were shaping its peak to an arrowhead† (Geddes 162), â€Å"it† meaning the mountain. The isolation the man is experiencing is enhancing his fear, which is depressing his mind, and leading to insanity. The final stanza is the man totally giving up and surrendering to nature. He is waiting â€Å"for the great flint to come singing into his heart† (Geddes 161). The â€Å"flint† meaning the peak of the arrowhead from the mountain to come and end his life. This poem is a commanding examination of one man’s struggle to survive in the bush. We see that the human mind cannot fully comprehend what nature is trying to say, but we should make every effort to listen nonetheless. Works Cited Geddes, Gary. 20th Century Poetry & Poetics: Fourth Edition. Ontario: Oxford University Press Canada, 1996.