roseanne And The Kiss :: essays research papers

Roseanne and The Kiss   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  This past winter break, myself and one of my best friends were driving down one of the main roads in our home town of Elmira, New York. I happened to look up at a billboard that was on the side of the road, and saw a sign that read something like: â€Å"Be safe, be smart, be protected.† I thought to myself (immediately) â€Å"well, that's a big improvement from a few years ago when condom ads weren't even allowed on television.† Then I noticed, it had the gay symbols of the upside down pink triangle, and the symbols of two men and two women together. My first thought was â€Å"why is this necessary† then I mentioned that to my friend. He didn't notice, but we both kind of laughed and agreed that why does it have to be gay people that need to protect themselves? We (straight people) are just as much at risk--what was the point? The point is, that it has become mainstream and accepted to be gay in this society now, so they can do that. Only three years ago, however, it was a bit different.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã¢â‚¬Å"Roseanne† helped to set a trend in society that has made it more acceptable to be gay in the media. From the billboard I saw, to Roseanne's now (in)famous kiss with another woman. Roseanne has contributed to this trend immensely with her television sitcom.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  To begin with, the series Roseanne has had gay characters on it for a long time. Roseanne's boss Leon was gay, and after â€Å"the kiss† his role on the show became more outspoken as he got married to his lover in the season after Roseanne kissed another woman.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  In the 1994, Roseanne had a homosexual encounter with another woman played by Mariel Hemingway in a gay bar. The episode was entitled â€Å"Don't ask, Don't tell† seemingly making light of Bill Clinton's policy of gays in the military. The plot of this episode is, that Roseanne goes into a gay bar with her bisexual friend Nancy, played by outspoken bisexual actress Sandra Bernhard. Roseanne dances with Nancy's new girlfriend Sharon (Hemmingway). The situation is uncomfortable to Roseanne's sister Jackie who also went with them, but Roseanne has a great time. After dancing with Sharon, the two sit down to chat, one thing leads to another and Roseanne makes a joke which is misinterpreted by Sharon, and she kisses Roseanne. The rest of the episode deals with Roseanne's discomfort with the kiss.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The episode was finally aired, but it went through a lot of trouble to do so.

Fuzzy Topsis Method

Fuzzy TOPSIS method This is an approach based on the TOPSIS technique (Technique for Order Preference by Similarity to Ideal Solution) and the fuzzy set theory. The TOPSIS method is based on the concept that the optimum option has the least distance from the positive ideal solution. It is a linear weighting technique, which was first proposed, in its crisp version by Chen and Hwang(1992), with reference to Hwang and Yoon(1981).Since then, this method has been widely adopted to solve MCDM problems in many different fields. Because decision information is uncertain instead of certain in most environments, further extension for group decision making problems under fuzzy environment was published by Cheng(2000),known as Fuzzy TOPSIS. The selection of the third-party provider is a typical MCDM problem. In this method firstly we screen out providers that have not minimal qualifications by the selection criteria.Then closeness coefficient of contractors to each proposal will be computed by Fuzzy TOPSIS method and finally these coefficients as successful indicators for each provider will be fed in to a linear programming to select most profitable projects and providers with respect to the constraints. The stages are described blow: Stage1: Eliminate contractors that haven't minimal qualifications. For the purpose of analysis, selection criteria need to be rationally selected at first. There are a lot of researches with respect to the decision criteria for evaluating the supplier.Such as the study of Dickson(1966), Ellram (1990),Weber et al. (1991), ,Grupe (1997), and Akomode et al. (1998). According to an empirical survey, the top four selection criteria are responsiveness to service requirements, quality of management, track record of ethical importance, and ability to provide value-added services. The less important selection criteria are listed in a descending order as below: low cost, specific channel expertise, knowledge of market, personal relationship with key c ontacts, willingness to assume risk, investment in state-of- art technologies, size of firm, and national market coverage.Keeping the outcomes of the supplier selection literature review as a guideline, we derived the relevant factors to evaluate in the provider selection process based on the outsourcing view. However selection of criteria is totally industry specific and based on each case and the criteria are changed and replaced. Then opinions of decision makers on criteria were aggregated and weights of all criteria have been calculated by organizing the expert meeting. Meanwhile, the outcomes of the supplier selection literature review should be kept as a guideline.Stage2: Computing closeness coefficient (CC) for each project by fuzzy TOPSIS method So after we have obtained the important evaluation criteria and the qualified provider candidates to form the MCDM problem,the ranking of the shortlisted vendor providers will be done using the fuzzy TOPSIS approach. First,choose the appropriate linguistic variables for the importance weight of the criteria ,asses the importance of each contractor in each project with respect to each criterion by DM, using linguistic variables.Convert these evaluation into triangular fuzzy numbers with fuzzy weight for each criterion. Fuzzy weight wj of criterion C j are obtained with regard to DM’s opinions. Then the importance of the criteria and the rating of alternatives with respect to each criterion and the aggregated rating Xij under criteria C j can be calculated as: Wj=1K[Wj1+Wj2+†¦+Wjk] xij=1K[xij1+xij2+†¦+xijk] Wjk is the importance weight of the kth decision maker. xijk is the rating of the kth decision maker. Construct the normalized fuzzy decision matrix.If we describe the linguistic variables by triangular fuzzy numbers, xij=(aij,bij,cij) and wij=(wj1,wj2,wj3)then we can get the fuzzy decision matrix denoted by R, and R= R=[rij]m? n. rij=(aijcj,bijcj,cijcj) rij=(aj-aij,aj-bij,aj-cij) Next, the we ighted normalized fuzzy decision matrix is constructed by : V=[vij]m? n, i=1,2,†¦,m j=1,2,†¦,n Where vij=rij(. )wj After all of these analysis and calculation ,a positive-ideal solution (PIS, A+) and a fuzzy negative-ideal solution (NIS,A-) as the criterion are chosen.The best alternative solution should be the closest to the Positive Ideal Solution (PIS) and the farthest from the Negative Ideal Solution (NIS). A+=(v1*,v2*,†¦,vn*) A-=(v1-,v2-,†¦,vn-) vj*=1,1,1 vj-=0,0,0 Calculate the total distance of each components from the fuzzy positive ideal and negative ideal: ? If A and B are two fuzzy numbers as follows, distance between these fuzzy numbers is calculated by equation below: A=(a1,b1,c1) B=(a2,b2,c2) Equation : DA,B=13[a2-a12+b2-b12+c2-c12]Given the above description on how to calculate the distance between fuzzy numbers, the distance of components from positive and negative ideas can be derived respectively as: di*=j=1nd(vij,vj*), i=1,2,†¦,m di-=j=1nd (vij,vj-), i=1,2,†¦,m In the end,the relative closeness coefficient (CC)of each contractor-project in each criterion can be calculated as: CCi=di*di-+di+, i=1,2,†¦,m Stage3: Selecting the best projects and related contractors Select the best projects and related contractors by ranking options based on the descending cci.An alternative with index cci approaching 1 indicates that the alternative is close to the fuzzy positive ideal reference point and far from the fuzzy negative ideal reference point. A large value of closeness index indicates a good performance of the alternative. A case study: The proposed methodology for supplier selection problem, composed of TOPSIS method, consists of three Steps: (1) Identify the criteria to be used in the model; (2) weigh the criteria by using expert views; (3) evaluation of alternatives with TOPSIS and determination of the final rank.The case is that of a major company operating in the dairy products field. In the first phase, the pr oject team operated mainly through roundtable discussions on developing their main selection criteria. After identity the criteria attributed under consideration, five alternatives suppliers are written in the list. There are several criteria need to be considered, and each vendor’s information under each criteria are collected, calculating each vendor’s overall rating weight, shown in Table 2. (Mohammad Saeed Zaeri,2010) Finally, the closeness coefficient was calculated to rank alternatives.The results obtained are shown in Table 4: (Mohammad Saeed Zaeri,2010) The order of rating among those vendors is Supplier3;gt; Supplier 4;gt; Supplier 1;gt; Supplier2;gt;Supplier5, the best vendor would be Supplier3. To conclude, the TOPSIS method had several advantages. First, TOPSIS makes it possible to appraise the distances of each candidate from the positive and negative ideal solutions. Second, it allows the straight linguistic definition of weights and ratings under each cr iterion, without the need of cumbersome pairwise comparisons and the risk of inconsistencies.It evaluates the projects and each provider more precisely by expert decision makers in each stage of the whole process. Moreover, the method is very easy to understand and to implement. All these issues are of fundamental importance for a direct field implementation of the methodology by logistics practitioners. However TOPSIS is proved to be insensitive to the number of alternatives and has its worst performance only in case of very limited number of criteria. In order to apply fuzzy TOPSIS to a MCDM problem, selection criteria have to be monotonic.

Sir Walter Raleighs First Journey to El Dorado

El Dorado, the legendary lost city of gold rumored to be somewhere in the unexplored interior of South America, claimed many victims as thousands of Europeans braved flooded rivers, frosty highlands, endless plains and steamy jungles in the vain search for gold. The most well-known of the obsessed men who searched for it, however, must be Sir Walter Raleigh, the legendary Elizabethan courtier who made two trips to South America to search for it. The Myth of El Dorado There is a grain of truth in the El Dorado myth. The Muisca culture of Colombia had a tradition where their king would cover himself in gold dust and dive into Lake Guatavità ¡: Spanish conquistadors heard the story and began searching for the Kingdom of El Dorado, â€Å"the Gilded One.† Lake Guatavita was dredged and some gold was found, but not very much, so the legend persisted. The supposed location of the lost city changed frequently as dozens of expeditions failed to find it. By 1580 or so the lost city of gold was thought to be in the mountains of present-day Guyana, a harsh and inaccessible place. The city of gold was referred to as El Dorado or Manoa, after a city told of by a Spaniard who had been captive of natives for ten years. Sir Walter Raleigh Sir Walter Raleigh was a famous member of the court of Queen Elizabeth I of England, whose favor he enjoyed. He was a true Renaissance man: he wrote history and poems, was a decorated sailor and dedicated explorer and settler. He fell out of favor with the Queen when he secretly married one of her maids in 1592: he was even imprisoned in the Tower of London for a time. He talked his way out of the Tower, however, and convinced the Queen to allow him to mount an expedition to the New World to conquer El Dorado before the Spanish found it. Never one to miss the chance to out-do the Spanish, the Queen agreed to send Raleigh on his quest. The Capture of Trinidad Raleigh and his brother Sir John Gilbert rounded up investors, soldiers, ships, and supplies: on February 6, 1595, they set out from England with five small ships. His expedition was an act of open hostility to Spain, which jealously guarded its New World possessions. They reached the Island of Trinidad, where they cautiously checked out the Spanish forces. The Englishmen attacked and captured the town of San Jose. They took an important prisoner on the raid: Antonio de Berrio, a high-ranking Spaniard who had spent years searching for El Dorado himself. Berrio told Raliegh what he knew about Manoa and El Dorado, trying to discourage the Englishman from continuing on his quest, but his warnings were in vain. The Search for Manoa Raleigh left his ships anchored at Trinidad and took only 100 men to the mainland to begin his search. His plan was to go up the Orinoco River to the Caroni River and then follow it until he reached a legendary lake where he would find the city of Manoa. Raleigh had caught wind of a massive Spanish expedition to the area, so he was in a hurry to get underway. He and his men headed up the Orinoco on a collection of rafts, ship’s boats and even a modified galley. Although they were aided by natives who knew the river, the going was very tough as they had to fight the current of the mighty Orinoco River. The men, a collection of desperate sailors and cut-throats from England, were unruly and difficult to manage. Topiawari Laboriously, Raleigh and his men made their way upriver. They found a friendly village, ruled by an aged chieftain named Topiawari. As he had been doing since arriving on the continent, Raleigh made friends by announcing that he was an enemy of the Spanish, who were widely detested by the natives. Topiawari told Raleigh of a rich culture living in the mountains. Raliegh easily convinced himself that the culture was an offshoot of the rich Inca culture of Peru and that it must be the fabled city of Manoa. The Spanish set out up the Caroni River, sending out scouts to look for gold and mines, all the while making friends with any natives they encountered. His scouts brought back rocks, hoping that further analysis would reveal gold ore. Return to the Coast Although Raleigh thought he was close, he decided to turn around. The rains were increasing, making the rivers even more treacherous, and he also feared being caught by the rumored Spanish expedition. He felt he had enough â€Å"evidence† with his rock samples to drum up much enthusiasm back in England for a return venture. He made an alliance with Topiawari, promising mutual aid when he returned. The English would help fight the Spanish, and the natives would help Raleigh find and conquer Manoa. As part of the deal, Raleigh left two men behind and took Topiawari’s son back go England. The return journey was much easier, as they were traveling downstream: the Englishmen were joyful at seeing their ships still anchored off of Trinidad. Return to England Raleigh paused on his way back to England for a bit of privateering, attacking the Island of Margarita and then the port of Cumanà ¡, where he dropped off Berrio, who had remained a prisoner on board Raleigh’s ships while he looked for Manoa. He returned to England in August of 1595 and was disappointed to learn that news of his expedition had preceded him and that it was already considered a failure. Queen Elizabeth had little interest in the rocks he had brought back. His enemies seized upon his journey as an opportunity to slander him, claiming that the rocks were either fake or worthless. Raleigh defended himself ably but was surprised to find very little enthusiasm for a return trip in his home country. The Legacy of Raleigh’s First Search for El Dorado Raleigh would get his return trip to Guyana, but not until 1617 — more than twenty years later. This second journey was a complete failure and directly led to Raleighs execution back in England. In between, Raleigh financed and supported other English expeditions to Guyana, which brought him more proof, but the search for El Dorado was becoming a hard sell. Raleighs greatest accomplishment may have been in creating good relations between the English and the natives of South America: although Topiawari passed away not long after Raleighs first voyage, the goodwill remained and future English explorers benefitted from it. Today, Sir Walter Raleigh is remembered for many things, including his writings and his participation in the 1596 attack on the Spanish port of Cadiz, but he will forever be associated with the vain quest for El Dorado. Source Silverberg, Robert. The Golden Dream: Seekers of El Dorado. Athens: the Ohio University Press, 1985.