Cougar or Coyote Essay Example for Free

Cougar or Coyote Essay The trickster is an important archetype in any religion or myth because it provides an outlet for all of the chaotic and destructive emotions and tendencies of a people that are controlled by a larger social construct. It is through a trickster figure that people of a religion or society are able to explore the more untamed side of their nature while additionally presenting them with the consequences of those desires. The trickster is a figure that at once both mocks social morals and at the same time also reinforces those morals by showing the pandemonium and trouble that arises if the people do not follow the rules that are in place. The trickster also allows the people of a religion to express ideas and desires that might not ordinarily be acceptable in their society. In this way the trickster plays a very important and cathartic role in a religion or myth. Penelope, from Homers The Odyssey, is a woman of grit and spirit. Ellen Shull declares in her essay â€Å"Valuing Multiple Critical Approaches: Penelope, Again and Again† that Penelope is â€Å"the paragon of resilient womanhood† (32). However, a trickster god, like Monkey from Wu Cheng-ens novel Monkey, and a mortal woman like Penelope appear to have nothing in common. Their roles are so different and their apparent purposes are even more so. On the surface it may seem as though Penelope from The Odyssey shares very little resemblance with a trickster god. However, when one takes a closer look the similarities become more obvious. Penelope is at once a powerful figure that adheres to the social norms of her patriarchal society while still rebelliously challenging the acknowledged rules of how a woman should behave. This can be seen as how a trickster like Monkey is used in myth to subvert a society’s own beliefs. Penelope is the other side of the coin of what it means to be a trickster. She is the female version as it were. Penelope may not be male, amoral, animal, or supernatural but she is cunning, childish, inventive, and she also a subversive figure within her patriarchal society. The most obvious source of incompatibility of Penelope being a trickster is that she is female while the trickster is usually a male like Monkey. Now, unless Penelope was even more deceitful than anyone had ever imagined then it is safe to say that she is not a trickster god based on that one quality alone. Leeming states that the trickster is always male† (163). Obviously, Penelope is not male which means that she is, according to Leeming, not a trickster god, no exceptions. But if Leeming were to make an exception then Penelope would be one. Penelope is a woman who must work against all the restrictions and suffocating bounds that her society uses to leash women in order to trick the people surrounding her and she does. â€Å"She deceives the suitors and even her own husband† (Mueller, 337). Penelope even has long lasting deceptions that fool people for years. The sexual organs Penelope was born with seem to be of little importance when compared to the massive opposing powers and influences that she if forced to undermine and battle against. The next point of disparity between Penelope and a trickster figure like Monkey is that the trickster is seen as a philandering, unprincipled, hooligan. The trickster is considered to be an ethically neutral figure with a propensity for getting into humorous predicaments. Leeming calls the trickster â€Å"amoral†¦outrageous†¦ [and is] untamed by the larger social conscience). Monkey is a perfect example of this side of a trickster. Monkey is not exactly immoral he just has his own sense of what the right thing to do is and he is overwhelmingly selfish. Every action and quest he takes at the beginning of his story is motivated by his desire to be immortal and to gain power. Even when Monkey protects his other monkey subjects he does so because he wants to maintain his kingship more than out of a fear for their safety and wellbeing. One could even posit that the monkeys would be better off without him because he brings the wrath of heaven down upon them. Monkey has all these qualities that Leeming states a trickster is comprised of. Penelope, on the other hand, is none of these things. In fact, she is usually remembered for her faithfulness to her husband even though he was gone for twenty years. Penelope â€Å"waits in Ithaca for Odysseus. She looks after his home, his son and his estate. She weeps lonely tears but nothing induces her to betray her husband and to neglect her duties, not even under pressure from the suitors does she contemplate infidelity† (Smit, 393-394). Her unwavering loyalty to her husband and her devotion to the gods are not the sort of characteristics seen in the trickster who typically represents lower or baser instincts and functions. Penelope is a classy lady but again she also has that side to her that rebels at the rules of her culture. Some might even call her a vain tease for keeping her suitors around for so long while never picking one or giving in to their masculine power. Penelope, also, does not fit in the trickster category because she is only human while a trickster is usually an animal. Leeming states that a trickster â€Å"takes animal form† (163). Monkey obviously fits into this category. Not only is he a monkey but he has mystical origins. He was born from a stone. In fact Monkey’s animal form is a point of ire for him because he in Monkey he tries become more and more human-like. He starts wearing clothes and stands upright in an attempt to appear more human. This fight between animal and human characteristics is vital in a trickster figure because that animal quality is in part what allows them to get away with their mischief. Penelope is no dog. Or any animal for that matter. She is in fact a very desirable woman with scores of suitors fighting for her hand in marriage. This does not help her in the trickster category but it does, however, show how her beauty and desirability are in part what allow her to get away with her schemes. Her beauty can even be seen as her animal side because it basically serves the same function that the animal form serves the trickster. An animal form, or in the case of Penelope, her beauty, is a metaphor of who they are and it allows them to be more completely that character and it allows them to do things that would not ordinarily be acceptable within that society. Penelope’s beauty is what allows her to subvert her patriarchal culture because her beauty gives her power over her suitors. She is a woman but she uses that to her advantage. It could also been seen that being a woman in the time of The Odyssey was akin to being an animal because it was such a male dominant culture where woman were little more than chattel or bargaining pieces. Maybe Penelope has more trickster qualities than are first apparent. The last way that Penelope does not fit into the trickster category is that she has no supernatural powers. Leeming â€Å"† (). She has no magical powers which show even further how she is not like a trickster. The trickster is almost always a supernatural figure. This category obviously denotes that a trickster has otherworldly abilities with which to influence outcomes. Penelope works entirely in the realm of her intelligence to bring about the results and tricks that she has concocted. This can make Penelope seem as being more skilled than a god who needs magic to bring about the outcome that he so desires. When compared to Penelope supernatural powers might be viewed as cheating.

Catalytic Converters :: science

Catalytic Converters Introduction There are millions of cars on the road in the United States, and each one is a source of air pollution. Especially in large cities, the amount of pollution cars produce everyday is a lot. To solve those problems, many laws have been enacted restricting the amount of pollution that cars can produce. To make their cars as pollution-free as possible, automakers have made many refinements to car engines and fuel systems and have developed the catalytic converter. The catalytic converter treats the exhaust before it leaves the car, and removes a lot of the pollution. In this project, we will study catalytic converters to find out how they work, and what their effects on our planet and society are. We predict that catalytic converters can change the amounts of products that result from the burning of gasoline, and think that these devices do a good job of making cars as pollution-free as possible. How does a catalytic converter work? In order to reduce emissions, modern car engines carefully control the amount of fuel they burn. They try to keep the air-to-fuel ratio very close to the stoichiometric point, when all of the fuel will be burned using all of the oxygen in the air. For gasoline, the stoichiometric ratio is about 14.7:1. However, this fuel mixture actually varies from the ideal ratio quite a bit during driving. The main emmissions of a car engine are nitrogen gas, carbon dioxide, and water vapor. Nitrogen gas makes up about 78% of the air, and most of this gas just passes right through the car. Carbon dioxide is one of the products of combusion. The carbon in the fuel bonds with the oxygen in the air to form carbon dioxide. Water vapor is the other product of combusion. The hydrogen in the fuel bonds with the oxygen in the air to form water vapor. However, the combustion process is never perfect, so some smaller amounts of more harmful emissions are also produced in car engines. They include carbon monoxide, hydrocarbons or volatile organic compounds, and nitrogen oxides. These are the three main regulated emissions, and also the ones that catalytic converters are designed to reduce. Most modern cars are equipped with three-way catalytic converters. Three-way catalytic converters regulate the three harmful emmissions produced from car engines. The converter uses two different types of catalysts, a reduction catalyst and an oxidization catalyst. Both types consist of a ceramic structure coated with a metal catalyst.

Investors Gain New Clout Essay

From the many problems now being experienced by the US in their economy and the way they conduct their businesses, legislators and other groups are turning to new ways to improve the old system and pull America’s economy out of its slump. The latest among these moves is the move by the legislative to give shareholders more power and control in placing and ousting members of the board of directors. This move has become an issue due to the shift in power in terms of whose interest is favored by the ruling. There are several different interests that exist in a company especially when individuals and groups within it make decisions. There are shareholder interests, employee interests, management interests and stakeholder interests that conflict with each other. The current issue highlights the conflicts that arise between the interests of the management and the shareholders as well as the different interests of the shareholders themselves. This is where the clash begins. On the one hand, those who approve of the new ruling maintain that their interests are being upheld especially because they are the ones who invested in the business. This forwards their main interest of the organization succeeding in the long term because of the investments they have put into the business. While the previous ruling handicaps small shareholders, this new rule gives them voice through the process of â€Å"proxy access† as long as they have at least 3% of the controlling stock. This will enable them to express their dissent and dissatisfaction in the board members and oust them especially if they think that the actions of the board are not appropriate. On the other hand, the interests of the management, will be challenged by the new ruling and could result in problems in implementation and efficiency. While the constitutionality and the perceived negative effects of this ruling are contestable, one thing is clear: big business that angered their investors would go under pressure and could find themselves rethinking their strategies. A noticeable thing about this change is the apparent relativity on how democracy is perceived. Before the ruling, many directors served as the signing body for the chief executives and other high ranking officers they are tasked to oversee. This brings into light the apparent control of CEOs and other executives regardless of how the owners of the company feel about their decisions. With owners finally having a measure of control to a fair and impartial opportunity to elect independent directors, many things are going to change in corporations starting with both the board and top management focusing, instead, on serving the interests of the shareholders as their priority. With the democratization of the shareholders as they are given more power, many in management will see such democratic procedures as a bane rather than the boon they have always perceived it to be. Business roundtables, in order to veil their attempts at skewing the corporate election processes to favor the corporation over substantial shareholder interests, have tried to stop such democratization of power within their systems. However, their efforts have recently been trumped by the â€Å"proxy access† rule. The new ruling has made corporate directors directly accountable to the actions of the company. This will result in (at least speculatively) the improvement of performances of the directors unless they want to be voted out of office and replaced by independent candidates chosen by the shareholders who are against their performance. This power is, however, a double-edged sword. Advancing the interests of shareholders who, among themselves, have different interests could prove to be an overly bureaucratic and cumbersome process where all sides would need to be appeased in order to incur no one’s wrath and be dismissed from the position they have been holding. With as little as 3%holding shares, corporate directors will have many parties to appease, which will require them to be very dynamic and charismatic, as well as having an overall good performance, if they want to stay on the board.

The Artifacts And The Mummy Of King Tutankhamen s Tomb

Plan of Investigation What were the historical impacts that the artifacts and the mummy of King Tutankhamen had on archeology and society? This research is conducted over the impacts of the treasures in King Tutankhamun’s tomb, archeological findings on the walls that alter historical context and assumptions, a deeper understanding on the reign of Tut himself and his great excursions, and the autopsy of the mummified King. There will also be an overview of the effects this discovery had on culture and society soon after its discovery, and a brief discussion over the tomb. A primary source being evaluated for research is the book Egyptomania by Bob Brier which explained what sort of cultural impacts the discovery had on the tomb, the society craze towards it, and the industrial response set by corporations. A secondary source is the novel Tutankhamen: The Search For An Egyptian King by Joyce Tyldesley which analyzes all aspects on the discovery of King Tut including his life, his death, and his aut opsy. Summary of Evidence The year is 1922, and Howard Carter has just uncovered a small tomb leading into what he later discovered to be King Tutankhamen’s tomb. Little was known about the ‘boy king’ King Tutankhamun before the discovery of his tomb. He only had a 9 to 10 year reign at the end of the 13th century, which happened to be one of the greatest restoration periods in Egyptian history. Carter had been trying to locate the tomb since 1917, starting in the Valley of theShow MoreRelatedThe Curse Of The Pharaoh1618 Words   |  7 Pagesmost famous curses is the curse pharaohs. King Tutankhamen ruled Egypt as pharaoh for ten years until his death at age nineteen, around 1324 B.C. Although he was famous for reversing the tumultuous religious reforms of his father, Pharaoh Akhenaten. Tutankhamen’s legacy was largely negated by his heirs. He was hardly known to the modern world until 1922, when British archaeologist Howard Carter carved through a doorway an d entered the boy pharaoh’s tomb, which had remained sealed for more than 3Read MoreKing Tut s Curse, Real Or Fiction?1731 Words   |  7 PagesKing Tut’s Curse, Real or Fiction? Ancient Egypt was my favorite topic in social studies. As far back as I could remember. I have always been interested, especially since Egypt is a neighboring country to Libya, my second home. The world is still fascinated, and intrigued by its mysteries. Who build the pyramids? How were they built by? One of the most asked questions were. Who was King Tut? Was there really a curse? King Tutankhamen took reign at the very young age of nine, after his father Akhenaten’s