The eNotes Blog Our Calendar of Literary Facts is NowLive!

Our Calendar of Literary Facts is NowLive! At weve been working on a special addition, not only to our own  website but to thousands of pages across the web. Presenting our Calendar of Literary Facts, now available to be published on your own site or blog with the code that weve created! See how it works on below, then read on to find out how you can bring this engaging calendar to your homepage. Calendar of Literary Facts collates a huge array of important dates in literary history. 365 days of the year, brings you interesting literary events (births, deaths, publications) that took place on that day, right on your dashboard. Alternatively, you can search our calendar  to see what took place on a particular day. Beside these facts, the calendar also directs you to relevant pages to discover more about the people and events mentioned on that day of literary history. This makes it not only fun for those with literary interests, but a great teaching tool as well. Which is precisely why weve created the coding to share this platform with the world. How to add the calendar to your web page: Head to our API page at  www./help/api  to find the code necessary to bring the Calendar of Literary Facts to your site. At weve made our  calendar  available through a public API. This means that schools and other organizations (along with individual developers) can retrieve significant literary events for a particular day and month, along with links to related content for deeper exploration. Literature teachers with their own websites should consider this  addition, as it keeps visiting students engaged while also directing them on to instructive material. To insert the code you will require an API key. For more on information on API keys, what they are and how to use them, you may want to visit stackoverflow.com, a site that has a large database of questions and answers on the topic. Or  feel free to email us at dev@! Wed be happy to help you bring the calendar to your site. We hope you have fun with the new addition! Check it out at  www./lit-fact-calendar.

Human Resource Development-- Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Human Resource Development-- - Assignment Example As Coates (2010) explains, acquiring new knowledge, attitudes and skill sets in one environment and applying them in another may be affected by several factors. Effective and the experience of the trainer is a very essential factor in influencing the training transfer to job places. Any trainer must be a fluent and effective communicator (Coates, 2010). This facilitates the conversations and ensures the learners’ needs are met, a clear and effective presentation of the material that makes the information interesting. Another factor is the in-class and out-class practice. More of this practice ensures the learner gains enough experience of handling cases, and it is easier to transfer the training to workplaces in case a similar case appears as to that tackled during the practices (Coates, 2010). An organization should also mount some quality pressure on the trained employees to work as of their acquired knowledge and towards the set goal of the organization. This will ensure th at the employees apply their learnt skills at their workplaces effectively. Needs assessment are usually conducted so as to facilitate the growth of employees of a company in terms of the knowledge and skills they possess. This helps the organization to know the type of employees in the organization, how to train them and what they need to be motivated. According to Barbazette (2004), a needs assessment is conducted to link a deficiency in performance to a desired result and ensure that appropriate training is formulated and conducted to combat the problems caused by the deficiency. To do this, an organization needs to analyze their needs and wants by conducting a performance analysis to identify which skill shortcomings can be bridged through training. To conduct a training needs assessment, an organization will have to first gather information for aiding in appropriate

An interpretive study of the failure of SMEs in the kingdom of the Essay

An interpretive study of the failure of SMEs in the kingdom of the Saudi Arabia - Essay Example Findings indicate that that main problems impacting growth and success of SMEs in the KSA are regulatory difficulties, credit and funding options, human capital, marketing and operational factors. Human capital (resource management), regulatory constraints and credit/funding options appear to be the main factors impacting SME success and growth in the KSA. Data released by the Riyadh Chamber of Commerce and Industry reveals that approximately 96% of Saudi businesses employ below 100 workers (Hertog, 2010). According to the Jeddah Chamber of Commerce and Industry, 95% of commercially registered businesses in the KSA are owned by SMEs and 71% of industrial businesses are SMEs (Hertog, 2010). Moreover, Hertog (2010) reports that SMEs account for 28% of the KSA’s overall economic activities. 7 The latest figures release demonstrate that as of 2008, there were over 700,000 SMEs actively in business in the SDI primarily owned by a sole proprietor. A further breakdown demonstrated that 47% of the KSA’s SMEs were attached to commercial and hotel industries; 27% were attached to construction; 12% were engaged in social services; and 8% were involved in â€Å"sundry other sectors† (Hertog, 2010, p. 17). Be that as it may, SMEs in the KSA only contribute to about 10% of the employment rate in the KSA and only contribute 14% of the entire production in industries and 8% â€Å"of the value of industrial goods exported† (Hertog, 2010, p.19). 7 Despite the growing interests in SMEs in the KSA, all indications are that SMEs have faced significant challenges in moving forward successfully and economically. SMEs in the KSA are said to have difficulties in terms of funding and credit; the function in a business climat that is decidedly â€Å"unfriendly†; they face regulatory challenges; and they operate â€Å"without the availability of basic statistics and data needed to ensure sound business decisions† (Bundagji, 2005, p. 1). It is

Business Strategy and Decision Making Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Business Strategy and Decision Making - Essay Example The practice of an effective strategic management approach helps to conserve continuous refurbishment and expansion of the organisations to proactively deal with a number of potential challenges. Moreover, it also provides adequate support to the leaders to enhance their potentials in decision making process and improve organisations’ credibility within a competitive business market (Hill & Jones, 2011). Emphasising the emerging trend of strategic management processes, the study intends to focus on critically discussing different competitive strategic approaches that enable the organisations to maintain long-term sustainability. In this regard, the discussion of this study represents widely accepted strategic approaches of the modern organisations along with their roles and significance towards helping the leaders to improve their decision making processes. Moreover, the discussion would also incorporate real-world examples of major organisations from different business industry perspectives. In relation to the unconventional trends currently witnessed in the business environment, it has been observed that modern organisations commonly seek to develop advanced strategies and focus on the effective adoption of rational and integrated business steps with the intention to remain sustainable in their respective field of operations for a long-term period. With regard to the changing scenario along with fierce competitive trend currently witnessed in today’s global business environment, the notion of intended and emergent business strategies has evolved as a commonly debated issue (Mintzberg & Waters, 1985). According to the modern phenomenon of the global business environment, there are a number of strategic management approaches that are highly practiced by the organisations to gain competitive advantage over their rivals. In

Synthesis and Characterization of Magnetite Ferrofluid

Synthesis and Characterization of Magnetite Ferrofluid Abstract A Fe3O4 water-based ferrofluid was prepared by chemical co-precipitation technique, the magnetic particles were characterized using x-ray diffraction(XRD),transmission electron microscopy(TEM) and vibrating sample magnetometer)VSM)techniques.the results show that the shape of the nanoparticles is approximately spherical and they are superparamagnetic at room temperature. 1. Introduction Ferrofluids are stable colloidal suspensions that consist of magnetic nanoparticles dispersed in base liquid such as water or oil [1]. A ferrofluid is a colloidal dispersion of monodomain magnetic particles (size of about 10 nm) of superparamagnetic nature. Superparamagnetic iron oxide nanoparticles are small synthetic Fe 3 O 4 or ÃŽ ³-Fe 2 O 3 particles with a core size of o10 nm and an organic or inorganic coating. The particles are well dispersed in a liquid, for medical application normally in water. Superparamagnetic magnetization is, compared to normal paramagnetic materials, much higher and can reach nearly the magnetization saturation (M s ) of ferromagnetic iron oxide. This behavior allows the tracking of such particles in a magnetic field gradient without loosing the advantage of a stable colloidal suspension.[S2] Ferrofluids are stable suspensions of magnetic nanoparticles and include Fe 3 O 4 , CoFe 2 O 4 , Mn–Zn , Co–Zn and lithium ferrite in a base liquid. The liquid can be polar or nonpolar . To avoid nanoparticles agglomeration, the magnetic particles have to be coated with an appropriate surfactant .This coating makes the ferrofluid stable even under intense magneticfields . ferrofluids are widely used in industry and clinical applications .[w2] Magnetic fluids (ferrofluids) with a combined fluidic and magnetic properties have wide applications inindustry and biomedicine. Magnetic Nanoparticles ,such as magnetite(Fe 3 O 4 ),iron(Fe),nickel(Ni),andcobalt(Co),can be applied in magnetic fluid preparing.Among these magnetic NPs Fe 3 O 4 has been extensively adopted in magnetic fluids for its tunable magnetic properties.so far many synthetic strategies are proposed to prepare magnetic fluids of Fe 3 O 4 nanoparticles.Hereinto ,co-precipitation method in oil or water with the presence surfactants is traditional route to prepare magnetic fluids.[A1] Magnetic nanofluids, also called ferrofluids, are stable colloidal solutions consisting of magnetic nanoparticles dispersed in a based fluid. The magnetic nanofluid behaves as a smart or functional fluid due to some of its unique features. They have some applications in a variety of fields such as electronic packing, mechanical engineering, aerospace, and bioengineering. [i1] Water-based magnetic nanofluids are a special category of polar magnetic nanofluids with particular features of particle interactions and agglomerate formation processes. The interest in water-based magnetic nanofluids in the selected bioengineering and biomedical systems has been growing exponentially in the last decades .Surface coating of nanoparticles and colloidal stability of biocompatible water-based magnetic nanofluids are particularly important for biomedical applications such as magnetic cell separation, drug delivery, hyperthermia, and contrast enhancement in magnetic resonance imaging. They have been extensively applied to audio voice coil-damping, intertia-damping apparatuses,bearings, stepping motors, and vacuum seals.[i1] Ferrofluids, which are magnetic colloids, can be synthesized by dispersing nanosized subdomain magnetic particles of ∠¼10 nm in diameter in a carrier liquid. Such fluids have physical properties that can be modified by an external magnetic field and are widely used as functional materials in engineering and technology applications.[j1] In general, magnetic nanoparticles in ferrofluids are coated with a surfactant to prevent aggregation.In the 1980s, Massart proposed a method for chemical synthesis of aqueous ferrofluids with no surfactant .In this method, an appropriate surface treatment leads to adsorption of H+ or OH−ions on the surface of the particles, so stable aqueous ferrofluids can be obtained. These ferrofluids are known as ionic ferrofluids or electrical double-layered magnetic fluids .Ionic ferrofluids have attracted considerable attention because of their special behavior and this has led to new cross-disciplinary activities inchemistry, biomedicine and physics.[j1] Ferrofluids of Fe3 O4 and ÃŽ ³-Fe2 O3 have attracted considerable attention for various biomedical applications including therapeutic magnetic hyperthermia,targeted drug delivery,and magnetic resonance imaging due to their bio-compatibility and desirable superparamagnetic properties with high saturation magnetization.[M1] Transition metal oxide nanoparticles (NPs) such as magnetite (Fe 3 O 4) and maghemite (ÃŽ ³ -Fe 2 O 3 ) are of general interest, due to their interesting magnetic, electrical, mechanical, catalytical and optical properties.[Q1] Iron oxide nanoparticles can also be dispersed in specific carrier liquids, giving rise to the so called ferrofluids (FFs0. In particular, FFs are colloidal suspensions of magnetic NPs (usually magnetite or maghemite) with average size in the range from 8 to 20 nm and dispersed in organic/inorganic solvents or different oils(hydrocarbons, syntetics esters, etc). They combine the fluid related properties of the dispersing liquid with the magnetic properties of the solid NPs.[Q1] FFs have proved to be useful for a wide variety of engineering applications such as: (i) ironless loudspeakers (ii) specific components for magnetic recording ,(iii) biomagnetics (e.g. hyperthermia ,tissue repairing ,target drug delivery ,cell separation ,magnetic resonance imaging, sensing )(iv) rotating seals and so on. Most of the applications of FFs are related to both their overall thermo/hydrodynamic properties and the magnetic properties of the constituent NPs.[Q1] Fe3O4 nanoparticles are most frequently chosen because of following reasons:(i) Fe3O4 is biocompatible,(ii) Fe3O4 nanoparticles can be synthesized at large scale,(iii)the magnetization of Fe3O4 nanoparticles is significantly high,thus allowing these particles to be easily controlled by an external magnetic field.[R1] Colloidal suspensions of magnetic nanoparticles dispersed in an organic or inorganic carrier liquid,so-called ferrofluids ,are being increasingly studied because of their peculiar physical properties and applications .Because of their small size (5–20 nm) the particles exhibit single magnetic domains and the magnetic fluid displays superparamagnetic behavior .Without external magnetic field the orientation of the magnetic moments of the particles is at random resulting in a vanishing macroscopic magnetization. An external field, however, easily orients the particle magnetic moment leading to large saturation values of the magnetization. Ferrofluids are classified into two groups ,ionic (IFF) and surfacted (SFF) ferrofluids, depending on the method used to avoid the aggregation of magnetic particles.[T1] Ferrofluids are actually superparamagnetic, meaning that a ferrofluid reacts to a magnetic field in the same way as a ferromagnetic or ferrimagnetic solid, but magnetizes and demagnetizes more rapidly because in a ferrofluid the magnetic domains are the same size as the actual particles.[v1] Ferrofluids are colloidal dispersions of small single domain magnetic particles suspended in a carrier fluid.Ferrofluids characteristically have both magnetic and fluid properties and have found a diverse range of applications,such as in audio devices, inertia dampers, stepper motors,sensors, vacuum seals, electromagnetic shielding, and high density digital storage.[W1] Namely, besides the customary superparamagnetism a strong reduction of the magnetization of nanoparticles with respect to bulk value is observed. By both implicit and explicit tests, this reduction was proven to be due to a noncollinear spin structure.[s1] Ferrofluids containing magnetic nanoparticles with single domains and superparamagnetic at room Temperature and well-dispersed in a carrier fluid are both of fundamental and applied interest in biomedicine,mechanical and sensor technologies,and room temperature magnetic refrigerators.[y1] (In this research),(in the present work),(in this study) the magnetic Fe3O4 nanoparticles were synthesized by co-precipation method.the XRD,TEM and TEM techniques were used to characterize the structure and the size of the nanoparticles.the magnetic properties were evaluated by vibrating sample magnetometer.the Fe3O4 nanoparticles were dispersed into water to obtain the desired nanofluids.tetramethyl ammonium hydroxide was used as dispersant. 2. Experimental Details: or 2. Synthesis and characterization 2.1 Materials The starting materials used in this work were ferric chloride hexahydrate(Fe Cl3.6 H2O),ferrous chloride tetrahydrate(Fe Cl2.4H2O) aqueous ammonia and tetramethyl ammonium hydroxide(N(CH3)4OH). 2.2 Synthesis procedure An acqeous ferrofluid material was prepared by a co-precipitation method . The synthesis is based on the reaction of iron ions in an aqueous ammonia solution to form magnetite Fe3O4 in the following form: 2Fe3++Fe2++8NH3.H2O=Fe3O4+8NH4+ +4H2O To synthesis Fe3O4 nanoparticles, Fe Cl3.6 H2O (1M) and Fe Cl2.4H2O (2M) were prepared by dissolving iron salts in HCl (2M) solution.typically , 4ml of Fe Cl3 and 1ml of Fe Cl2 were mixed in a molar ratio of 2:1.then 50ml of ammonia aqueous solution was added into the solution with vigorous stirring at room temperature.a black precipitate was obtained.the precipitate was separated by applying a magnet and washing with distilled water several times until the PH decrease to7. tetramethyl ammonium hydroxide was used as dispersant.the nanoparticles are coated with hydroxyl ions of the tetramethyl ammonium hydroxide ,which themselves attract a sheath of strong positive ions.this surface structure creates electrostatic interparticle repulsion that can overcome coagulation forces of magnetic and van der waals attractions. 2.3 Characterization X-ray powder diffraction(XRD)patterns were obtained by an X-ray diffractometer using KÃŽ ± radiation(ÃŽ »=1.54060Ã…) (  ´Ã‚ ®Ã‚ µÃ‚ ª  ´Ã‚ ªÃ‚ ± „ ²  ³Ã‚ ªÃ… ¸) The shape,size distribution and morphology of the particles were examined by using transmission electron microscope(TEM).( )(The nanoparticles are characterized in detail by TEM). TEM experiment was performed on a Philips CM30 electron microscope with an acceleration voltage of 150 kV. Magnetization versus applied field were carried out withVSM (Lake shore 7404). 3. Result and Discussion Fig. 1 shows the X-rays powder diffraction pattern of iron oxide nanoparicles in the ferrofluid sample.the spectral lines are broad because the grain are small.()relatively wide peaks are related to small size of nanoparticles. all the observed peaks can be indexed to the Fe3O4 crystal structure .the peaks are characteristic of cubic system with Fd-3m space group.()the considered profile can be suitably fitted by considering the crystalline structure of either magnetite(cubic structure,Fd-3m group,ICSD reference code 98-011-1284)or maghemite(cubic structure P4132 group,ICSD reference code 00-39-1346).beacuse of overlapping reflections in the XRD pattern,it was not possible to obtain a good fit by taking simultaneously into account both phases. using the Debye-scherer equation,the crystallite size was determined to be around 10 nm. Fig .1. XRD spectra of the particle Fig .2. TEM image of Fe3O4 nanoparticles TEM image(Fig. 2)show that the particles are roughly spherical and polydispersed))(approximately spherical in shape).The particle sizes, by considering about 115 particle, range from 8to30nm. the average size of the particles observed in the TEM image is in the range of 13nm, which is good agreement with that estimated by Debye-Scherrer formula from the XRD pattern.( )This is larger than the crystallite size determined by XRD,perhaps due to the presence of an amorphous surface layer. (the difference between XRD and TEM may come from the surface coating layer). fig .3. Magentic hysteresis of Fe3O4 Fig. 3 displays the magnetic hysteresis curve of the ferrofluid evaluated by VSM at room temperature,which is obtained from the magnetization cycle.we can see that the saturation magnetization(Ms)of the Fe3O4 nanoparticles was about 35 emu/g which is lower than that of the bulk Fe3O4 (92 emu/g).the Ms value decrease with decrease in crystallite size for mono-domain particles due to the surface spin canting (disorder) and thermal fluctuations.[i1]. ( Komada et al. have attributed the reduction of magnetization in magnetic oxide nanoparticles to the existence of canted spins and /or a spin-glass-like behavior of the surface spins.[M1]). The saturation magnetion might decrease on Fe3O4 →Î ³ Fe2O3 transformation because the magnetization of ÃŽ ³ Fe2O3 is slightly less than that of Fe3O4 in bulk materials.[j1] It is well known that the Fe3O4 nanoparticles show a superparamagnetic property. When a magnetic field was applied, the dipolar particles aligned themselves with the applied magnetic field, and resulted in a measurable magnetization. The saturation magnetization of theferrofluid was about 35 emu/g in the ferrofluid, which was lower than the saturation magnetization of pure Fe3O4 nanoparticles (50 emu/g), due to the fact that the saturation magnetization reduced significantly when the particle size was smaller than 10 nm. Also, the saturation magnetization of Fe2O3 nanoparticles was lower than that of Fe3O4 nanoparticles .So the saturation magnetization of nanoparticles in the ferrofluid, which consisted of a small amount of Fe2O3 nanoparticles, was lower than that of pure Fe3O4 nanoparticles.[w1] Furthermore, zero remenance and nearly zero coercivity can be observed for the nanoparticles on the hysteresis curve, which indicates that the particles are superparamagnetism.this is related to the fine crystallite size of Fe3O4 particles,which are in the nanometer range. 4. Conclusion In this study, superparamagnetic magnetite ferrofluid were successfully synthesized. The XRD,TEM and VSM techniques were used to characterized the structure size and magnetic properties of nanoparticles. It was concluded that the spherical nanoparticles synthesized in this work were superparamagnetic

Compare and Contrast Utilitarianism with Christian Ethics

Compare and Contrast Utilitarianism with Christian Ethics The ethical teachings and values of utilitarianism and Christian ethics are similar in some aspects, yet however are diverse in others. Utilitarianism is a generally teleological ethical system, where the outcome is said to justify the act. The act is considered ‘good’ if it brings about the greatest good for the greatest number. Christian Ethics, however, can be quite different. Many aspects of its ethics are deontological, for example, the Decalogue and Natural Law. There are other differences and indeed some similarities which will be considered throughout this essay. Christian ethics has many aspects which do not agree with the fundamental doctrine of Utilitarianism. Firstly, the 10 Commandments in the Old Testament are deontological, as it is law based and the action is considered good or bad intrinsically. Jeremy Bentham, the founder of Utilitarianism, states that an action cannot be right or wrong in itself, and it can only be evaluated when the consequences are taken into account. The Bible implies that none of these laws should be broken, yet Bentham thought that any rules can be rejected should the person determine that the means can justify the ends. Bentham held that no one should take actions as right or wrong as a given, but should use empirical evidence to work out their effect and subsequently conclude on its appropriateness. Bentham’s empirical method of finding out whether the action is worthwhile was to use the Hedonic Calculus, a process of assessment which gauges the act’s outcome in several categories, such as its certainty, purity or extent. Natural Law is another example of the diversity between Utilitarian and Christian ethical attitudes. Although it teaches that humans should use reason to realise morality (which is similar to Bentham’s attitude), it fundamentally states that there are God given laws of the universe which eternally and constantly exist in nature. It is a Christian principle to live one’s life in such a way they strive to be like Jesus, and are motivated to follow Christian principles and rules in order to do this. This however fundamentally goes against Utilitarianism, which states that humans are merely motivated by the pursuit of pleasure and the avoidance of pain. This is how an action is considered good or bad in the Hedonic Calculus, if it brings pleasure for the most people or works to avoid pain. Furthermore, Christian ethics implies that one will find happiness by modelling themselves on Jesus and adhering to the teachings of the Bible. However, in Utilitarianism it is stated that one will find the most happiness when individuals are free to pursue their own ends. The process of using the Hedonic Calculus aspect of Utilitarianism can also be likened to the Christian ethical principle of using one’s Conscience. For this point, it is important to note that this is not in reference to the specific detail in the Hedonic Calculus, but is about the underlying reason for its use. In the New Testament, Paul advocated that the Conscience should be used when one needs moral guidance, which is linked to the will of God. Even though in Utilitarianism the ‘God’ aspect is not included in terms of justifying an action, the principle of mentally judging a deed is similar. John Stuart Mill developed his own approach to Utilitarianism called ‘Rule Utilitarianism’. There are some similarities with Christian ethics which lie in his doctrine. Firstly, Mill says that there should be general rules which people should follow in order to bring about the greatest communal good. This has two similarities with Christian ethics; first of all is the principle of law-making and secondly, the concept of the ‘greatest communal good’ can be traced back to the teachings of Paul in the New Testament, where he says that ‘a good should not be god for the individual, but for everyone’. Mill’s proposed laws would be those based on general Utilitarian principles. Mill likened this principle to the Golden Rule of Jesus, which is the teaching that Christians consider to be of the highest importance. The rule states to ‘do unto others as you would have them do to you’. Although this is essentially deontological, it is based on the principle of generating the most agape. Mill, like Jesus, held that general laws should be in place to help lead a good life. Situation ethics has also been pointed out as having similar principles o Utilitarianism. Firstly, both theories are examples of relativism, meaning that there are no absolute standard which apply to the rightness and wrongness of actions. Secondly Joseph Fletcher, the founder, argued that the Christian ethic of love can be labelled as ‘justice distributed’. ‘Justice’ is in reference to determining what the most loving thing is to do for everyone. This can be likened to Util itarianism, which replaces the word ‘justice’ with ‘goodness’, meaning goodness distributed (greatest good for greatest number).

Does Malcolm X deserve the honor of an American Stamp?

Introduction – Before the electronic means of communication reached the hands of everyone equipped enough to access and use such technology for correspondence and even until now that electronic mail or email is as common as the early morning coffee for everyone, the US postal office holds a significant role as an institution in the American way of life. Among the most important aspects of the postal service is the existence of postal stamp and how it has become more than an ornament in the envelope of domestic and international mails that Americans send to friends, relatives and business contacts. It has managed to find a niche outside its utilitarian purposes as it metamorphosed into a collectible item as well as an instrument that helped illustrate the shifting social policies in place inside the United States as time went by, particularly with its role in helping make the country a place wherein equal social rights is in place and improving and that institutions that recognize notable icons and personalities does not consider ethnicity and racial background. Whites, as well as African Americans, are all featured in the different issues of US postal stamps. But is everyone who have earned a status as a social personality have a sufficient enough reason to claim a seat in the list of other icons who are featured in the US stamps or is there a defining line that separates America’s exercise of a system free from racial discrimination from the nomination of every individual who might be a personal favorite but not entirely iconic in the progress of the American way of life as it is today? There are those who will agree that a person such as Malcolm X – born Malcolm Little – achieved a sufficient degree of social importance that earned him the right to have his name and face featured in the US postal stamps, while there are those who may think otherwise. To ascertain the validity of the claims that would stem from those who supports this proposition as well as from those who disagrees with the idea of creating Malcolm X stamps, it is important to put forward first who Malcolm X is and what characteristics and accomplishments he has that made him qualified to be included in the list of African Americans who graced the different issues of the US postal stamp. Who is Malcolm X? – Malcolm X was an Omaha-Nebraska native. Malcolm was the son of Earl and Louise and their fourth child as a couple (since Malcolm X's father also had children prior to his marriage with Louise). Malcolm X's young life was characterized by violence, seeing their house burned by white men and seeing his father physically assault her mother, while her mother was just as abusive towards him physically, which he thought was because of his color (Harvey, p3). Historians claim that the turning point of Malcolm X’s life that led him towards his newfound responsibility towards social and civil rights is during his important transition from being a non-believer to becoming a faithful. He was hardly a religious man during his earlier life, and that is putting it nicely since Malcolm X actually confessed to having ‘very little respect for most people who represented religion’ (Harvey, p5). But when Malcolm X converted to Islam, he adopted the name El-Hajj Malik El-Shabazz and he became more active in not just religious preaching but as well as political sermons that advocated human and equal rights and consistently encouraged fellow African Americans to not be intimidated by actions of hate from white people. Sadly, religion, the institution that empowered him, is also rumored to be the one responsible for his death also, mainly because of Malcolm X’s leaning too much towards radicalism and his actions and words that nurture the atmosphere of civil disobedience and activism. Malcolm X in the American Stamp: Does he deserve the ‘Post’? – A United States Postal Service article stressed about its strong commitment in the effort to honor African Americans who made positive and significant contributions to the way of life in the country, even commenting about how the series featuring African American icons are amongst the popular US stamps in circulation. One of the areas wherein civil rights, equality and the absence of racism manages to display its self is in the selection of the icons and personalities that have adorned and will be featured in the postal stamps used in the United States for US mail. Civil and equal rights proponents will be glad to know that the US stamps accommodate notable African American icons – as a matter of fact, there are already some popular and iconic African American personalities that have made their way towards immortality via their presence in US stamps, and these personalities include Malcolm X as well as contemporary and fellow civil rights advocate Martin Luther King Jr., Booker T. Washington ( who is the first African American that was featured in a US postal stamp), Sojourner Truth, Harriet Tubman (the first African American woman who appeared in the U.S. postal stamp), Jackie Robinson, Scott Joplin and most recently, Thurgood Marshall. One of the noticeable characteristics among the African Americans who were selected to be featured in the postal stamps aside from Malcolm X is that they are not inclined to senseless and overt acts of violence and the outright disregard for laws and rules. King was contrasted with Malcolm X during their time because he was generally a pacifist, and Washington was known for using education as his main thrust to empower his fellow African American. As for Marshall, he was a civil rights advocate like Malcolm X during his time, but Marshall did not break or went around the law to have his way – he affected social change through the dispensing of morally correct and unbiased justice through the halls of the Supreme Court Justice. He assimilated himself with the system and made positive contribution towards his advocacy not by the distortion of the system but by helping create a just society bereft of crime. Thurgood was an icon because he believed that ultimately, the never ending social struggle is free from the color of one's skin and ethnicity, like the pursuit of fair and consistent justice by all. This particular characteristic – the ability to win an advocacy without the use of violation and without sowing more seeds of hatred among people of different races, the removal of violence as a means to achieve the victory of an advocacy, to effect social change in a positive manner – is an important characteristic and a significant consideration that the US post office makes every time they select a new icon from the civil rights movement group the act of immortalizing a person via a postal stamp design is a way of supporting everything that the person stands for and represent, and no modern day social institution will deify a person who is synonymous to violence, social disorder and criminal acts. Yes, it is true that not everyone can be saints, but if persons like Mother Theresa and Mahatma Gandhi can live a life without the use of violence, then why should the US postal service consider the criteria of moral soundness be overly high in their selection of the next new face in the US postal stamp? Yes, there are those who achieved their goals by the use of violence and force, like generals who won important wars and ruthless rulers who helped civilized nations and societies – but for those that can be achieved without violence, why would the best man (or woman) in that category be that which utilized violence and showed disregard and disrespect for the law? What message would it send to the public – whose taxes are making sure that federal offices like the US Postal Services operate so that they serve the best interest of the majority, and not the petty qualms of the few whose idolatry towards Malcolm X failed to comprehend the fact that Malcolm X and his acts of violence made him no better than the person and the institution he fought during his lifetime and aimed at changing. Conclusion – Malcolm X was an inspiration to many, mainly because he represents the rebel that every one wanted to become even just for once in their lives, against one act or experience that created the feeling of indignation. And while there are those who staunchly believes that he was instrumental in how the civil rights movement shaped in America during the late 1950’s and before he died halfway the following decade, the position of this paper in this particular issue is that Malcolm X’s violent and law-breaking past have placed him many points below in ranking along with other civil rights advocates – living or dead – in the US history who deserves to be honored with his/her own version of the US postal stamp. Reference: Haley, A. (1995). Autobiography of Malcolm X. Ballantine Books, N.Y.