Aldo Vallone :: The Divine Comedy

The Dante research of Aldo Vallone1 spans forty years, from the publication of his Prime noterelle dantesche (1947) and his bibliographic update of N. Zingarelli's Dante, to his recent annotated edition of the Commedia (1985-87)2. To retrace Vallone's Dantesque journey step by step would involve some 200 items, covering the whole spectrum of Dante scholarship and including interpretive studies of individual works as well as surveys of Dante criticism. We can here indicate only the salient moments of Vallone's critical contributions. The Vita nuova has frequently engaged Vallone's scholarly interest. His editions of the text appeared in 1954 and, with a critical anthology, in 1972 (the latter was expanded in 1975). His attention to Dante's poetic apprenticeship is documented by the analysis of the first nine chapters of the libello, the lectura of chapter XXV, and the study of the prose connectives in the libello.3 Analogous interest is shown in the studies on Dante's early prose: the essays on Dante's Latin and on the vocabulary, syntax, and style of the Convivio. In these studies Vallone analyzes not only Dante's rhetoric but his  «spiritual make-up » as well, underscoring the points of contact with the poetic language of the Commedia.4 In a revealing passage of his  «internal lectura » of Dante's lyric poetry, Vallone reflects on his own methodology:  «I propose a reading which aims to illuminate Dante's "lyrical substance". His poetry contains and offers from within all manner of interpretation. My approach is not simply "explaining Dante with Dante". It strives to locate and verify the internal coherence of the poetic text, in which each feature conforms to an internal necessity and has its rationally appointed place within the whole. My reading identifies in the text the subterranean echoes and hidden links between one verse and another; it undertakes to distinguish the vibration and "force of resistance" under the surface of the word. I intend to pinpoint Dante's intimate reasons for the choice of a given word: a choice that cannot be determined solely by personal taste, but always reflects the poet's experience of life, the rules of his art, and the social context. It is a multiform approach that o perates simultaneously on more than one level. It allows, encourages, even forces the reader to verify his reading at every step. One textual detail recalls and conditions another; and the sum total coincides with the meaning of the opus.

Impact of Ww1 on Canada

World War One had an impact on Canada both over seas and on the Canadian home front. It helped Canada develop a sense of national identity by gaining international status overseas. It gave women more jobs than working at home and but during the war there was the Conscription Crisis. These points impacted Canada greatly during and after WWI. In 1914 when World War One started, Canada was a legislative union, but Britain still controlled the foreign policy of all its dominions. So when Britain declared war on Germany the whole British empire was involved including Canada.As the war ended Canada met in Paris for the â€Å"Paris Peace Conference†. The conference was a big step towards Canada's independence. The main reason was, Prime minister Borden demanded that Canada have its own seat in the conference. Although there was great debate, in the end Canada acquired the seat. Fr the first time ever Canada was recognized as independent internationally. Before the war a woman's main job was to stay at home and look after the children as well as cook and clean. It was a while different story during the war.A mere 2800 woman served in the army as nurses in oversea hospitals. Other woman worked in Canada on jobs which would usually be called a â€Å"mans job†. For example woman where working in industrial sites since most of the men had left to war and there needed to be someone to supply and build arms as well as general items. Woman also worked operating fishing boats and working on farms. With this new era of woman working the government took notice that the woman weren't as fragile as they once believed. Woman seemed to be able to do a mans job good if not better.Then in 1918 women were granted the right to vote in federal elections, with the exception of aboriginal and immigrant woman. When war ended women stayed in the job force and worked alongside men. The conscription Crisis was a big deal off-seas as well as in Canada. This is because in 1917 thou sands of Canadians were killed or injured making the need to supply more soldiers immediate. Borden had promised there would be no conscription but as the war proceeded it became apparent they would need more soldiers if they wanted to win the war.Borden introduced the â€Å"Military Service Act†, which stated everyone able and fit under the guidelines of the act would have to fight in the war. There was outrage but unless the person hid there was no way of escaping going to war. World War One did have an impact on Canada both over seas and on the Canadian home front. It affected the woman and the men. The aboriginals and the immigrants. Almost everyone was affected by World War One one way or another.

Managing Knowledge and Learning Essay

Managing Knowledge and Learning at NASA and the Jet Propulsion Laboratory Summary National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) was established by Congress on October 1, 1958, in order for the United States to keep up with the technological advancements achieved from former Soviet Union’s successful launch of the Sputnik (1957). The Apollo Era-Mission had risen from the support of John F. Kennedy’s goal, which was â€Å"landing a man on the Moon and returning him safely to Earth. † Prioritization at NASA evolved into the center’s motto of â€Å"Faster, Better, Cheaper† (FBC), which was mandated in the Goldin Era beginning in 1992. NASA shifted priorities from: 1) performance, 2) schedule and 3) cost to 1) increase mission performance, 2) cut cost and 3) work force reduction. However, this reform was not as successful as planned. From 1992 and 2000, six of 16 FBC missions failed. To address concern of the impact of failed missions and impending retirements of many of the most experienced NASA employees, Congress enforced that the agency search for the solution to Knowledge Management (KM) and promoting learning initiatives at NASA-JPL. NASA’s KM tools were mainly IT systems of Internet-based databases and portals for ease of lessons. The NASA KM crisis was attributed to the organization’s inability to document experiences of failures and successes of missions or projects; ultimately incapable of capturing the â€Å"experiential knowledge† from expert engineers and scientists. In addition, this lack in KM was due to â€Å"privatizing knowledge† and promoting creativity, that stemmed from NASA’s culture where competition among centers for projects and funding was the norm. Several KM Initiatives were developed including project libraries for document and data management, developing standards, establishing databases to find experts, ask technical questions, and to capture history and legacy reviews. 1) What were the pros and cons of the â€Å"Faster, Better, Cheaper† model? How might outcomes (both positive and negative) of projects executed with this model impact NASA’s stakeholders, i. e. Congress and the general public? The â€Å"Faster, Better, and Cheaper (FBC)† objectives were to cut cost and maximize mission performance. There were several advantages of the FBC reform. FBC allowed compressed development and launch schedules that lead to an increase in the number of missions. Mission time could be reduced from decades to a few years. The number of NASA projects increased from four to 40 under the FBC model. An increase in mission projects was thought to lead to additional discoveries so that NASA could gain further wisdom and space knowledge. FBC missions were changed from one big project to multiple smaller projects. Dividing the program into smaller projects helped to minimize the pressure and stress on the team if a mission failed. Furthermore, one mission failure did not consequently lead to the failure of the entire program. FBC practice allowed senior managers more freedom to implement FBC the way they found fit which promoted creativity and autonomy among senior managers. FBC also reduced the cost of each mission and NASA’s overall budget. For example, the Mars program budget was reduced from one billion dollars to $260 million. There are numerous disadvantages of the FBC reform. Applying the FBC model could lead to more mission failures. During the FBC era, there were 6 failed missions out of 16 FBC missions. Cost and schedule constraints, insufficient risk assessment, planning, and testing, underestimation of complexity and technology maturity, inattention of quality and safety, inadequate review processes, engineering, under-trained staff, poor team communication, and design errors all attributed to NASA’s mission failures. Projects conducted â€Å"faster† does not allow for adequate documentation, time for redlining the project, and recording lessons learned from one mission to the next. This could result in repeated mistakes that could be avoided by future missions. Missions carried out faster do not allow time for mentorship and sharing of knowledge. Also, the term â€Å"better† was not properly defined and was open to interpretation, which may negatively impact maintaining standard procedures and processes. The results of the FBC vision could impact NASA’s stakeholders in several ways. The increase in smaller successful missions would alleviate the risk of one large failure, although any failures will have a negative impact on stakeholders. Congress could be discouraged to provide support and funding for major space programs if they fail but might be more likely to fund smaller missions. The public could either lose or gain confidence, support, and belief in the space program depending on the magnitude of success or failure. FBC mission are less expensive which would decrease NASA’s budget and help satisfy both Congress and the general public by reducing the need for extra taxation by Congress and collection of taxes from the general public. 2) Why was the Mars Pathfinder project so successful? Explain how Anthony Spears management style impacted future missions. Project management was the key to success of the Mars Pathfinder project. It began as an experiment to test the validity of the FBC reform mandated in 1992 when Daniel Goldin was assigned as the new administrator of NASA. A clear and specific plan for the Pathfinder mission was laid out in the beginning and followed through until the end. Analogous to the success of Cisco’s ERP implementation, Anthony Spears, an excellent manager and thought leader with years of experience at NASA, gained the support of top management and the JPL institution (Spears, 1999). Spears developed a unique balance of an advisory committee of experts to support and guide the difficult project, while he recruited talented, yet naive, energetic youngster’s to do what some more experienced people thought impossible. As Spears writes in his lessons learned report it was â€Å"†¦a blend of bright, ambitious youth and scarred old timers, each challenged and empowered, all working each issue together†¦ † (1999). Together, they created a team that bonded and worked together successfully. Spears’ goal was not only the success of the Pathfinder project, but of the FBC program success, unlike the vision of future project managers. The success of Pathfinder did not translate well in future FBC missions. Risk management and testing were important to the Mars Pathfinder success. While the Mars Pathfinder team worked together successfully, the younger players went on to think they were great project managers themselves, but still hadn’t learned enough to manage their next missions successfully. In future FBC projects, some reasons for failure were poor team communication, inadequate or under-trained staff or insufficient testing in 70% of missions and insufficient risk assessment and planning on 86% of missions (exhibit 4). 3) One of the major issues in this case is the retirements of experts. Why is this a problem for NASA? Would it be less of a problem in a different type of organization? Suggest immediate steps that NASA could take to mitigate the problem. Explain your choices. By 2006 half of NASA’s workforce was eligible for retirement which could lead to a major loss of knowledge, especially tacit information, diminishing the collective wisdom of the organization. A senior manager at NASA states, â€Å"we have no formal process for transferring knowledge† from thought leaders to new managers and IT systems had not yet been sufficient in transferring â€Å"experiential knowledge† to the younger generation. Unfortunately, this would be true in many organizations unless they had sufficient knowledge management systems in place and a culture where sharing knowledge was valued and encouraged. In order to mitigate the problem of losing their knowledge base, NASA not only needs to continue to implement their KM strategy, but truly change the culture. Experienced project leaders and Subject Matter Experts (SMEs), such as design engineers, should openly share their knowledge and not just when asked for it. I support several of the planned KM initiatives such as the capture of information by improving documentation, development of an enterprise web-based portal, and the Knowledge Sharing Initiative (KSI) aimed at changing the companies’ culture. In addition to these activities, an exit strategy could be developed for retiring employees where they must follow standard procedures for employing case-based reasoning in an online database employing a searchable classification system. Additional knowledge could be disseminated by those eligible through training sessions. A reward system should be coupled to these exit requirements and could be increased if the employee decides to be available in the Expert Connections directory of SME’s that could be contacted for support after they leave. New positions might need to be created for dedicated knowledge managers such as Chief knowledge officers. It’s also possible that NASA could obtain some replacement of lost experts by collaborating with space programs in other countries. Collecting the information from experts must be coupled with management support of a corporate wide schema to store the data, methods of dissemination, and apply the information to ultimately make better decisions on projects that involve risking people’s lives. 4) Jean Holm had two options she could choose from: 1) upgrade the IT systems or, 2) change the culture. Which would you choose and why? Is there a third option? Explain your answer. In order for Holm’s to truly have a successful knowledge management system in place, implementation of a hybrid system should be in place; enforcing both upgrade to IT systems occurring simultaneously with changing the private culture into a shared one. Integration of both, changing the culture and IT upgrades will be a lengthy process so it would be critical to first strategically plan for cultivating and managing formal processes for knowledge transfers. Implementing formal processes such as required protocols, reports, standard operating procedures (SOPs) and work instructions for each mission or project should be enforced from every high-level management as it might help with the KM transfer crisis. Once every item has been completed by the high-level management it would be placed into the appropriate IT systems database in conjunction with the integration of the required knowledge management video synopsis from experienced engineers and scientist who exit the centers. Curriculums would be in place with learning modules with specific need encapsulating these protocols, reports, SOPs, work instructions and video synopsis would then be posted on the intranet, ready for the potential novice engineers and scientists entering the NASA work force; making the system more enriched and meaningful. 5) President Obama is implementing changes to NASA’s charter, which will create new ways of funding/executing projects than NASA is used to. Do a little online research. Do you agree or disagree in this change of direction? Explain. Caution; this is not to be addressed as a political issue) The Obama administration’s new NASA charter includes a couple of key parts: A) In February 2010, the Obama administration canceled the Constellation Program, which was started by former President George W. Bush’s administration in 2004. This program aimed to put US astronauts back on the moon by 2020, for the first time since the final Apollo mission. B) In April 2010, Obama proposed increasing NASA’s overall budget by about $6 billion over five years and shifting NASA’s aim for manned space program to Mars (from the moon). By the mid 2030s, â€Å"I believe we can send humans to orbit Mars and return them safely to Earth. And landing on Mars will follow,† he said. C) He also challenged the commercial space industry to take up the routine tasks that NASA would abandon – such as ferrying astronauts to and from the space station. I do not agree with him on the part A and Part B of the new charter. The Constellation Program is already 5 year old, and has spent $9. 1 billion. It has already made significant progress and will help America maintaining its space leadership position over Russia and China. On the other hand, I think that it will set a foundation for manned space mission to Mars. Obama’s vision of manned mission to Mars by mid-2030 does not seem realistic to me as he has not talked about its technology feasibility. However, I do agree with his plan’s Part C. I think that it will significantly reduce the cost for transporting people and cargo to and from low-Earth orbit, and might induce the rise of a true space economy.

Proper Word Order to Enable Parallel Structure

Proper Word Order to Enable Parallel Structure Proper Word Order to Enable Parallel Structure Proper Word Order to Enable Parallel Structure By Mark Nichol Sometimes, word order in a sentence does not interfere significantly with comprehension of the sentence, but it does produce an awkward obstacle to clean reading. Here are several flawed sentences that require only a simple transposition of words to become syntactically valid. Each is followed by a discussion and a revision. 1. Foods on the list below should either go into the compost bin or the trash. When either precedes the operative verb go, the implication is that the counterpoint will lead from a second, distinct verb or verb phrase, such as in the version â€Å"Foods on the list below should either go into either the compost bin or be tossed into the trash.† (At the least, the original sentence should repeat into before â€Å"the trash.†) But if go is to apply to both choices, either should follow the verb: â€Å"Foods on the list below should go into either the compost bin or the trash.† 2. This publication is neither intended to be a legal analysis nor a detailed cookbook of steps to take in every situation. The same idea applies to use of either’s antonym, neither, which should follow, not precede, the verb â€Å"to be†: â€Å"This publication is intended to be neither a legal analysis nor a detailed cookbook of steps to take in every situation.† An alternative is to revise as follows, in which case not can come before â€Å"to be†: â€Å"This publication is not intended to be a legal analysis or a detailed cookbook of steps to take in every situation.† 3. They may not only give insight into what to expect, but also how to handle situations that may arise. Because give applies to both the point and the counterpoint, it should precede both components of the sentence, and into should be repeated: â€Å"They may give insight not only into what to expect but also into how to handle situations that may arise.† (Note, too, that the comma between the components is extraneous.) Want to improve your English in five minutes a day? Get a subscription and start receiving our writing tips and exercises daily! Keep learning! Browse the Style category, check our popular posts, or choose a related post below:Comma After i.e. and e.g.Telling a Good Poem from a Bad One55 "House" Idioms

Anti-Valentines Day Quotes and Sayings

Anti-Valentine's Day Quotes and Sayings Love is on sale. Look around you on Valentines Day. Every retailer is cashing in on the Valentines Day circus. Kitschy love cards, gigantic teddy bears, and stereotyped heart-shaped balloons fill the air. The only ones laughing, their way to the banks, are the ones who do not care about the warm feeling called love. They only know about cold, hard, cash. Enjoy these anti-Valentines Day sayings and mock the world on Valentines Day. W. Somerset Maugham, A Writers Notebook Love is only a dirty trick played on us to achieve continuation of the species. Jay Leno Today is Valentines Day. Or, as men like to call it, extortion day. Josà © Ortega y Gasset We fall in love when our imagination projects nonexistent perfection upon another person. One day, the fantasy evaporates and with it, love dies. Love is exclusivity, selection. Bonnie Raitt I cant make you love me, if you dont. J. Geils Band Love stinks. Laurell K. Hamilton Love sucks. Sometimes it feels good. Sometimes its just another way to bleed. William Shakespeare The course of true love never did run smooth Mother Teresa There is a terrible hunger for love. We all experience that in our lives- the pain, the loneliness. We must have the courage to recognize it. Lauren Hammond You, my dear, are a creature of the night, you are a vampire.

The Kyoto Protocol and climate change Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

The Kyoto Protocol and climate change - Essay Example Global warming and Political climate Global warming is a phenomenon that occurs as a result of greenhouse gases (GHGs) averting thermal radiations from being reflected back to the space. (Wang and Wiser 2002). Coppock (1998, p.2) defines it as the increase in average global temperatures as a result of pumping CO2 into the atmosphere thus changing its temperature levels which in turn affect the water bodies such as oceans and seas leading to alteration of the Earth’s hydrologic cycle. The global warming not only creates fear to the planet’s residents because of rising global temperatures, (currently above 1Â ° C higher than 5 centuries ago) but also an increase in intensity of hydrologic cycles. This causes storms which are responsible to flooding that leads to destruction of farmlands, life and property (Painuly and Rowlands 2001). Generally global warming has more immediate consequences such as floods, rising global temperatures and far-reaching environmental, economi c and social impact that does not chose whether one nation is the main producer of emissions or not (Carr and Thomas 1998). The ecosystem, a natural sink( the uptake of greenhouse gas by forests, soil etc) is of paramount importance as the changes in climates may cause organisms of fresh water and wetlands to face new conditions due to higher temperatures and altered precipitation thus may have trouble producing enough organic sediments and root material that enable them to adjust. Contentious issues According to Schiermeir (2012 p.3), for the planet Earth to get rid of dangerous climate change, countries should limit global emissions to less than 2Â ° C above preindustrial levels, the EU’s threshold likely to prevent dangerous climate change. Further, he assert that to contain a... The Kyoto Protocol is seen by some researchers as a remarkable achievement in international affairs. The first it has put the world on the right path by bringing in the issues of climate change to the table so as the nations can chose to join the work force to regulate the emissions. The second it will leave a valuable legacy since it developed methodologies for reporting and verifying national greenhouse-gas emissions and land-use changes that will act as guide for future climate treaty as with any agreement containing specific quantified and legally binding commitments, issues of monitoring and compliance are central. Third, it has come with a way of trading carbon emissions through the EU’s Emission Trading Scheme among countries that face limits. Also through the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) transactions, an establishment of market incentives is proposed for rich countries to get credits towards achieving their emissions’ targets by making cost-effective emissi ons cuts in poor. The CDM despite critics that it is plagued by bureaucracy, had an arm’s length investment worth almost U$100 billion supporting some 5000 CDM projects whose services range from provision of solar cookers to rural people, e.g. in China to supporting clean energy production projects such the 100-megawatt wind firm in Mexico.

Thesis amendments Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Amendments - Thesis Example nglish is focused primarily on just learning the language without any reference to or intention of learning cultures associated with English, even if some cultural scenarios are included in the textbooks analysed. There also appears to be an inconsistency in the objective of the KSA Department of Education pertinent to English teaching in Saudi Arabia. Finally, it has been found out that studying English does not affect the learners’ appreciation of the Arabic culture. These results have been arrived at via the application of discourse analysis, which is the research methodology used, to some of the books used in teaching English in Saudi Arabia. The books that have been subjected to discourse analysis are Say It In English Series (SIIE) and English for Saudi Arabia Series (EFS). No other person’s work has been used without due acknowledgement in the main text of the thesis. This thesis has not been submitted for the award of any degree or diploma in any other tertiary institution. I am heartily thankful to my supervisor, Dr. Howard Nicholas, whose continuous support and encouragement helped me a lot to acquire the basic skills of writing my thesis. Also I am grateful for his unlimited help even in weekends. This study examines the English cultural elements presented in two Saudi English learning textbook series. Chapter one introduces the general background to teaching and learning English in Saudi Arabia, the cultural challenges this presents. It then identifies the main problem involved and the states the purpose of the study as well. Chapter two develops and discusses some arguments using secondary research regarding the integration of English and its culture and general views of how the foreign culture can be introduced. The historical background gives an overview of the important relationship between language and culture, discusses the rationale for and measures taken for providing protection to the native culture, details the Saudi experience, and