Cynic

1. What makes a good leader and why? The making of a good leader is a subject that has been explored, researched worldwide for thousands of years. As a result, there is a plethora of information available to scholars studying the topic of what makes a good leader. Some of which research is rather subjective, however there is a common denominator of intrinsic characteristics that make a good leader. The authors of our required reading have done a fantastic job gathering and placing them into ten…

The Society’s Viewpoint. Gun control generally refers to laws or policies that regulate the manufacture, sale, transfer, possession, modification, or use of firearms in order to control crime and reduce the harmful effects of violence. This topic has been a widely controversial topic throughout the United States for quite some time now, whether it should be considered illegal or not. There are many articles either for against, and neutral about this topic. The articles are different in many…

Richard T. Wright and Scott Decker attempt to explain the motivations and decision-making processes of residential burglars. Their research is focused on current burglars in the St. Louis area. This study attempted to do what had not been done before, which is to study the criminal in his/her own environment. By using a snowball sampling method they were able to gather 105 residential burglars (henceforth referred to as “hustlers” as they preferred to be called) that encompassed different races,…

Love, A Subject Revisited. "All, everything that I understand, I understand because love is." (Leo Tolstoy, War and Peace) What is love? Webster's Dictionary defines love as: "a feeling of strong or constant affection for a person." Although the definition widely capsulated the feelings of the billions of people on this planet, the word 'love' is defined in a countless multitude of ways. The definition seems to change throughout the course of history developing as mankind does. Our definitions…

Knowledge is one of the most powerful qualities known to man. People around the world desire to be smarter than the next due to their thirst for intelligence. As a proud nation, America is no exception. From the revolutionary war to the ongoing international affairs, they have had a strong will to be the absolute best at everything. Space exploration is one of the many possible routes that can be taken to reach that desire. Substantial funding for NASA would allow them to create space…

René Descartes and John Locke, both seventeenth century rationalists, are regularly seen as two of the main early cutting edge logicians. Both Descartes and Locke endeavor to discover responses to the same inquiries in mysticism and epistemology; among these: What is information? Is there conviction in information? What parts do the psyche and body play in the securing of learning? Descartes and Locke don't give the same responses to these inquiries. In this paper I will consider the…

Monsters have been involved in society since the beginning of time. A monster is the physical embodiment of everything that humans are afraid of. Monsters are featured in both Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein and Oscar Wilde’s The Picture of Dorian Gray. There is a discrepancy, however, in what makes a man a monster. In both Shelley and Wilde’s novels, it is the creators, not the creations, who are the real monsters. Frankenstein is the culprit of his creation’s evil deeds because he abandoned him at…

Let's get one thing straight. We are not the Breakfast Club. We did not meet by chance, and we did not leave whether or not we would always be friends a mystery to those who were watching us. As far as I know, we will always be friends, and if we are not, I’ll always try to remember what made us, us. But in terms of the Breakfast Club, I believe we have helped each other quite a bit, and we all are extremely different. It was right before the summer, so the day was warm but also wet and…

Think about the last movie you have seen. Was it a gritty action film? Perhaps a dreamy flick with starry-eyed lovers? No matter what the genre, media typically, consciously or not, embodies a specific ideology or two. Andy Tennant’s romantic comedy film, Hitch (2005), is certainly not exempt from this. The film portrays the career-life of Alex “Hitch” Hitchens. Hitch works as a professional “date doctor,” coaching men in the art of wooing the women they are interested in. As the movie…

What made people start recycling? And start carrying reusable grocery bags to the store? And start driving lower emissions vehicles? What makes climate change deniers not change? The cynic in me believes that’s motivated by financial gain. They’re saying “I’ve made a bunch of money from living unsustainably and I’d like to continue making money so that I’ll be very rich and powerful. The future be damned.” Years ago, there was a small…