Miscellaneous Critics on Waiting for Godot :: Waiting Godot Essays

Nothingness â€Å"Accordingly, any interpretation that purports to know who Godot is (or is not), whether he exists whether he will ever come, whether he has ever come, or even whether he may have come without being recognized (or possibly in disguise) is, if not demonstrably wrong, at least not demonstrably right† (Hutchings 27). â€Å"Although works of the theater of the absurd, particularly Beckett’s, are often comical, their underlying premises are wholly serious: the epistemological principle of uncertainty and the inability in the modern age to find a coherent system of meaning, order, or purpose by which to understand our existence and by which to live† (Hutchings 28). Godot’s characters do not despair in the face of their situation, and this â€Å"perseverance remains constant throughout a body of work that, in the words of the citation awarding Beckett the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1969 had ‘transmuted the destitution of modern man into his exaltation’ (qtd. in Bair 606)† (Hutchings 30). â€Å"Many relate the play to existentialism†¦:God is dead, life is absurd, existence precedes essence, ennui is endemic to the human condition†¦In many ways, such a reading is an evasion of the play’s complexity, a way of putting to rest the uncertainty of one’s response to it† (Collins 33). The reader, like modern man, must not give into â€Å"the arrogant presumption of certitude or the debilitating despair of skepticism,† but instead must â€Å"live in uncertainty, poised, by the conditions of our humanity and of the world in which we live, between certitude and skepticism, between presumption and despair â€Å"(Collins 36). Tragicomedy is life enhancing because it tries to â€Å"remind the audience of the real need to face existence ‘knowing the worst,’ which ultimately is liberation, with courage and humility of not taking oneself or one’s own pain too seriously, and to bear all life’s mysteries and uncertainties; and thus to make the most of what we have rather than to hanker after illusory certainties and rewards† (Esslin, Theater 47). â€Å"Act II. The next day. But is it really the next day? Or after? Or before?† (Esslin, Presence 109). Many details point out the absence of (meaninglessness of) traditional time, which is just one of many ways that the play resists interpretation and meaning: â€Å"People misunderstand it on all sides, just as everyone does his own sorrow. Explanations flow in from all quarters, each more pointless than the last† (Esslin, Presence 110). Some of the many attempts to impose meaning on the play include

Citizens United V. Federal Election Comission

Resolved: On balance, the Supreme Court decision in Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission harms the election process. My partner and I stand in firm negation of today’s resolution. If my partner and I uphold that the Citizens United decision does not directly harm our election process, then we win today’s round. Contention 1: Citizens United has negligible effect on public participation in elections. In fact, the decision actually supports voter turnout. Many would argue that a bombardment of ads and excessive spending discourage voters, but this is not the case.In fact, there aren’t any studies that back up this claim sufficiently. There are many studies however, that say that ads pique the interest of voters and encourage them to educate themselves about the candidates. The Journal of Politics reports that respondents in 2000 were as much as 10 percentage points more likely to vote if they watched much television (particularly daily news shows) in medi a markets that were bombarded with presidential ads. Exposure to the ads increased intentions to vote by 18 percentage points.Clearly, campaign ads are very helpful when it comes to voter turnout, and after the case, there was a major increase in the amount of ads aired during a campaign according to a Wesleyan study. We have seen a 40% increase in ads since 2008. In addition, the number of ads only increased by 10,000 from 2004-2008 compared to the 300,000 increase from 2008-2012. Allowing corporations to fund ads and Political Action Committees raises awareness for elections, and potentially increase voter turnout. Contention 2: The decision by the court actually prevents corruption.Matthew Melone, a professor from Depaul University, notes that, â€Å"To believe that corporate advocacy will distort the political process and lead to public lack of confidence in the system is to miss the point that influence will continue to be sought by other means. As long as elected officials of fer themselves up for sale there will be buyers. Even if one believes that corporate express advocacy will become a currency for influence peddling, it is less objectionable than other forms of currying political favors: at least corporate advocacy is transparent. Indeed, the type of fairly easily monitored campaign contributions that Citizens United has legalized are the most transparent, least corrupt way for corporations to exert their influence. As a result, according to the Sustainable Investment Institute, 84 percent of large corporations now acknowledge and report their campaign contribution (up from 78 percent before Citizens United). In short, corporations have been given a legitimate, non-corrupt means of contributing to political campaigns and they are taking that opportunity instead of relying on back-door deals and other illegal methods.In fact, transparency after Citizens United was increased. The New York Times says, â€Å"An often-overlooked part of the Citizens Uni ted decision actually upheld disclosure requirements, saying that ‘transparency enables the electorate to make informed decisions and give proper weight to different speakers and messages. ’ Lower courts have embraced the ruling, relying on Citizens United to reject challenges to disclosure laws, often in cases involving political spending related to social issues. † So Citizens United actually made it easier for courts to reject challenges to disclosure laws, and thus creates more transparency.The New York Times also said, â€Å"None of this means that existing disclosure laws are necessarily adequate. But if they are not, the fault lies with Congress and state legislatures, not the Supreme Court. † What many people fail to realize, is that these transparency issues we currently have were around long before the Citizens United decision. Citizens United is not to blame when it comes to corruption, because it actually helps keep corruption out of the electio n process. Contention 3: Our democratic approach in elections is upheld through the decision.The court decision also better upholds the democratic ideals our election process is based on. Our 1st amendment rights give us the freedom of speech. This right does not only apply to individuals, but corporations as well. This is supported by the Supreme Court in such cases as Santa Clara County v. Southern Pacific Railroad Company which dictates that the term person, in the equal protection clause of the 14th amendment, applies to corporations as well as people. In addition, the Supreme Court also ruled in Buckley v.Valeo that money to influence elections is a form of constitutionally protected free speech. So BCRA denying corporations their constitutional rights to donate and spend on elections harms democracy, and goes against our election process. Further, government regulation would inhibit the flow of information from corporations. Justice Kennedy upheld in the decision that â€Å"b y definition, an independent expenditure is political speech presented to the electorate that is not coordinated with a candidate. † It is for the aforementioned reasons that my partner and I urge a con ballot. Thank you.

Famous Events, Birthdays, and Inventions in July

With both the first-ever U.S. patent and the first numbered patent issued in the month of July, the seventh month of the Gregorian calendar is full of historically significant inventions, patents, trademarks, and copyrights as well as a handful of famous birthdays and events. From the trademark registration of Silly Putty to Model T inventor Henry Fords birthday, find out what historical events took place on this day in the month of July. July Inventions, Trademarks, and Patents More than seven million patents have been registered out of the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) since the Patent Act of 1836 was passed on July 20 of that year (Patent X1). However, there were a great many that were registered even before that, starting with the patent issued to Samuel Hopkins on July 31, 1790, for a method of producing pot and pearl ash. July 1 1952 - The trademark for  Silly Putty was officially registered, though originally filed on March 31, 1950. A trademark protects words, names, symbols, sounds, or colors that distinguish goods and services. The roar of the MGM lion and the shape of a Coca-Cola bottle are also trademarked. July 2 1907 - Emil Haefely obtained a patent for a machine that wraps electrical conductors in insulating tubes. This method is still used for a large number of electronic devices today. July 3 1979 - The phrase Radio City Music Hall was trademark registered. July 4 1933 -  William Coolidge obtained a patent for the X-ray tube, popularly called the Coolidge tube. July 5 1988 - The Bugs Bunny phrase Whats Up, Doc? was trademark registered. July 6 1904 - Patent #764,166 was granted to Albert Gonzales for a railway switch thats still used today on railroads across America. July 7 1989 - Warner Brothers copyright registered Batman, a movie based on a popular cartoon character. July 8 1873 - Anna Nichols became the first female patent examiner. July 9 1968 - US patent #3,392,261 for the Portable Beam Generator, also known as a hand-held laser ray gun, was granted to inventor  Frederick R. Schellhammer. July 10 1847 - The rotary printing press was patented by Richard Hoe. July 11 1893 - Hoods  Sarsaparilla CIH CO Compound Extract was trademark registered, which was used as a medicine to purify the blood and treat heart disease, rheumatism, scrofula, and dropsy.1990 - Bill Atkinson, the inventor of HyperCard software, left Apple Computers along with Andy Hertzfeld, co-inventor of the Apple Macintosh, and started a new company called General Magic. July 12 1927 - Green Giant Great Big Tender Peas were trademark registered. July 13 1836 - Patents were first numbered, changing the way the system of patents and trademarks was organized. July 14 1885 -  Sarah Goode became the first black woman to receive a U.S. patent for her invention of a folding cabinet bed. July 15 1975 - The Detroit Tigers name was trademark registered.1985 - Aldus PageMaker, the first desktop publishing program, was first shipped for sale to consumers, invented by Paul Brainard. July 16 1878 - Thaddeus Hyatt was granted a patent for reinforced concrete. July 17 1888 -  Granville Woods received a patent for the tunnel construction for electric railways. July 18 1950 - The patent for producing terramycin, an  antibiotic, was issued to its inventors Sobin, Finlay, and Kane. July 19 1921 - The name Breyers Ice Cream was trademark registered. July 20 1865 - The Patent Act of 1865 directed the Commissioner of Patents to turn over patent fees to the Treasury and meet expenses through congressional appropriations, restructuring the department again. July 21 1875 - Mark Twains novel The Adventure of Tom Sawyer was copyright registered.1984 - The first robot-related fatality in the United States occurred when a factory robot in Jackson, Michigan, crushed a 34-year-old worker against a safety bar. July 22 1873 - Louis Pasteur received a patent for the manufacture of beer and treatment of yeast, which would later influence his discovery of the process known as pasteurization. July 23 1906 - The song America the Beautiful was copyright registered by Katharine Lee Bates.1872 - Jonathan Hoyt patented an improved lamp. July 24 1956 - A patent for an oral form of the antibiotic Penicillin was granted to Ernst Brandl and Hans Margreiter. July 25 1876 - Emily Tassey was granted a patent for an apparatus for raising sunken vessels. July 26 1994 -  Design patent #349,137 for a toy teddy bear was granted to Josef Gottstein. July 27 1960 - The first episode of The Andy Griffith Show was copyright registered.1921 - Canadian scientists Frederick Banting and Charles Best first isolated insulin, and within a year, the first human sufferers of diabetes were receiving insulin treatments. July 28 1885 - The ready light or taper was patented by John Mitchell. July 29 1997 - Design patent #381,781 for a swimming pool leaf and debris removal net was granted to Ross Clay. July 30 1933 - The Monopoly board game was copyright registered, and Carles Darrow, the inventor, became the first millionaire game designer after he sold his patent to Parker Brothers. July 31 1790 - Samuel Hopkins was issued the first U.S. patent for manufacturing potash. July Birthdays From the birthday of Georg Christoph Lichtenberg, the German physicist who discovered branching electric discharges inside electricity insulating materials, to the birthday of John Ericsson, who invented the screw propeller for ships, a number of great inventors and idea-makers were born in the month of July. Find out who shares your July birthday below: July 1 1742 - German  physicist  and  educator Georg Christoph Lichtenberg was known for discovering treelike patterns called Lichtenberg figures. He was known for what he called waste books, which were the detailed  notebooks  that he kept full of quotes, sketches,  and  stories.1818 -  Ignaz Semmelweis, a Hungarian  physician, was made famous for realizing that many diseases were contagious and could be drastically reduced by enforcing appropriate hand-washing behavior by medical  caregivers.1872 - Louis Bleriot was  a French aviator, inventor, and engineer; the first man to fly  an airplane  across the English  Channel, and the first to invent a working monoplane.1904 - Mary Calderone was a physician and the founder of Planned Parenthood.1908 - Estee Lauder is famous for founding Estee Lauder cosmetics, one of the most popular brands of makeup in the world. July 2 1847 - Marcel Bertrand was a French mine engineer who founded tectonic geology and formulated the orogenic wave theory of mountain-building.1888 -  Selman Waksman  was an American biochemist and microbiologist who researched organic substances and their decomposition that led to his discovery of Streptomycin and other antibiotics, for which he received the Nobel Prize in 1951.1905 - Jean Rene Lacoste was a French  designer who used  a crocodile  logo on his Lacoste shirts when he introduced them in 1929. Also a tennis player, Jean Rene Lacoste won the U.S. Open in 1926.1906 -  Hans Bethe  was a physicist  who contributed to quantum electrodynamics, nuclear physics, solid-state physics, and particle astrophysics. He was the director of the theoretical division at the Los Alamos laboratory and helped invent the first  atomic bombs, receiving  a Nobel Prize in 1967.1932 - Dave Thomas was the founder of Wendys  Restaurants chain of fast-food restaurants. July 3 1883 - Alfred Korzybski was a Polish  scientist who formulated the theory of semantics. July 4 1753 - Jean Pierre Francois Blanchard was a French balloonist who made the first aerial crossing of the English Channel and made the first balloon flight in North America1776 - The birth of the United States. The Declaration of Independence was signed, officially separating the United States from the United Kingdom.1847 - James Anthony Bailey was a circus promoter who co-started the  Barnum and Bailey Circus.1883 -  Rube Goldberg  was an American inventor, engineer, and a Pulitzer  Prize-winning  political cartoonist famous for the Rube Goldberg machine, which uses a series of moving parts to perform simple tasks.1885 - Louis B. Mayer was a motion-picture executive who founded the Hollywood film studio  Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM) and invented the star system of actors. July 5 1794 -  Sylvester Graham  invented the graham cracker.1810 - Phineas Taylor Barnum was a circus promoter who co-started the  Barnum Bailey Circus.1867 - Andrew Ellicott Douglass invented the  dendrochronology method thats used for tree-ring dating.1891 - John Northrop was an American biochemist who crystallized several enzymes and won the Nobel Prize in 1946.1904 - Ernst Mayr was a German  biologist who formulated the biological species concept. July 6 1884 - Harold Vanderbilt was known for inventing the game of contract bridge. July 7 1752 - Joseph Marie Jacquard invented the  Jacquard loom  that weaved complex designs.1922 - Pierre Cardin was a French fashion designer who invented the unisex look. July 8 1838  -  Ferdinand von Zeppelin  invented the  rigid airship.1893 - Fritz Perls invented Gestalt therapy. July 9 1802 -  Thomas Davenport  invented the first completely electric motor.1819 -  Elias Howe  invented the first American-patented sewing machine.1856 -  Nikola Tesla  was a  Croatian electrical engineer who invented the radio, X-rays, vacuum tube amplifier, alternating current,  Tesla Coil, and more, completely reshaping the world of electrical engineering, even to this day.1911 - John Archibald Wheeler was born in Florida, a theoretical physicist who coined the terms black hole and wormhole. July 10 1879 -  Harry Nicholls Holmes  was  a chemist  who crystallized vitamin A.1902 - Kurt Alder was a German chemist who formulated the Diels-Alder reaction and won a Nobel Prize in 1950.1917 - Don Herbert was an American television personality who was Mr. Wizard on a science show called Mr. Wizards World (1983–1990).1920 - Owen Chamberlain was an American physicist who discovered antiprotons and a subatomic antiparticle, and won the Nobel Prize in 1959. July 11 1838  -  John Wanamaker  invented one of the first (if not the first) true department store, the first White Sale, the first modern price tags, and the first in-store restaurant. He also pioneered the use of money-back guarantees and newspaper ads to advertise his retail goods. July 12 1730 - Josiah Wedgwood, an England pottery designer, and manufacturer, invented the technique for making Wedgwood china and industrialized the manufacturing of pottery.1849 - William Osler was a Canada physician who is considered a father of modern medicine and wrote about the circulatory system.1854 -  George Eastman  was an American inventor who invented the Kodak camera and rolled photographic film.1895 -  Buckminster Fuller  was an American  architect who invented the geodesic dome.1913 - Willis Lamb was an American physicist who discovered how electrons behave in the hydrogen atom and who won the Nobel Prize in 1955. July 13 1826 - Stanislao Cannizzaro was an Italian  chemist who formulated the reaction of Cannizzaro.1944 -  Erno Rubik  was a Hungarian inventor who invented the Rubiks cube. July 14 1857 -  Frederick Maytag  invented the Maytag washing machine.1874 - Andre Debierne was a French chemist who discovered the element actinium.1918  -  Jay Forrester  was a digital  computer pioneer who invented core memory.1921 - Geoffrey Wilkinson was an English chemist who pioneered inorganic chemistry, invented Wilkinsons catalyst, discovered the structure of ferrocene, and won a Nobel Prize in 1973.1924 - James Whyte Black was a Scottish doctor and pharmacologist who invented propranolol, synthesized cimetidine, and won a Nobel Prize in 1988. July 15 1817 - John Fowler was an English engineer who built the London Metropolitan Railway. July 16 1704 -  John Kay  was an English machinist who invented the flying shuttle that improved looms.1801 -  Julius Plucker  was a German mathematician and physicist who formulated Plucker formulas and was the first person to identify Cathode rays.1888  -  Frits Zernike  invented the phase-contrast microscope that allowed for the study of colorless and transparent biological materials; he won the Nobel Prize in 1953.1907 - Orville Redenbacher invented and sold Orville Redenbachers Gourmet Popcorn.   July 17 1920 -  Gordon Gould  was an American physicist made famous for inventing the laser. July 18 1635 -  Robert Hooke  was an English physicist and the first person to see micrographia by using a microscope.1853 - Hendrik Lorentz was a Dutch physicist who discovered and explained the Zeeman effect and derived the transformation equations used by  Albert Einstein  to describe space and time. Lorentz won the Nobel Prize in 1902. July 19 1814 -  Samuel Colt  was an American gunmaker who invented the Colt revolver.1865 - Charles Horace Mayo was an American  surgeon who started the Mayo  Clinic. July 20 1897 -  Tadeusz Reichstein  won the Nobel Prize in 1950 and was a Swiss  chemist who invented a method to artificially synthesize vitamin C.1947  -  Gerd Binnig  was a 1986 Nobel Prize winner and German physicist who invented the scanning tunneling microscope that could view individual atoms. July 21 1620 - Jean Picard was a French astronomer who first accurately measured the length of a degree of a meridian (longitude line) and from that computed the size of the Earth.1810 - Henri Victor Regnault was a French physicist and chemist  known  for his research on the thermal properties of gasses as well as a photographer who invented the use of pyrogallic acid as a developing agent.1923 - Rudolph Marcus was a Canadian chemist who formulated the Marcus theory of electron-transfer reactions in chemical systems and who won a Nobel Prize in 1992. July 22 1822 - Gregor Mendel was the geneticist  who discovered the laws of heredity through experimentation in his garden.1844 - William Archibald Spooner invented spoonerisms, a play on words wherein the first letters of two words are  switched, often to humorous effect.1887 - Gustav Hertz was a German quantum physicist who experimented with inelastic electron collisions in gasses known as the Franck–Hertz experiments and who won a Nobel Prize in 1925.1908 - Amy Vanderbilt might be the inventor of etiquette and wrote the Complete Book of Etiquette. July 23 1827 - Pieter Caland was a Dutch hydraulic engineer who built the New Waterway of Rotterdam.1828 - Jonathan Hutchinson was an English surgeon who was the first to describe the medical signs  of  congenital syphilis. July 24 1898  -  Amelia Earhart  was an American aviator who was the first woman to pilot across the Atlantic; she disappeared during one of her trans-Atlantic flights. July 25 1795 - James Barry was a female disguised as a man who became the surgeon general of the British army.1866 - Frederick Frost Blackman was an English plant physiologist who wrote the 1905 paper Optima and Limiting Factors, in which he demonstrated that where a process depends on a number of independent factors, the rate at which it can take place is limited by the rate of the slowest factor. July 26 1799 - Isaac Babbitt invented babbitts metal used in engine bearings.1860 - Philippe Jean Bunau-Varilla was a French  engineer who helped build the Panama Canal.1875 - Carl Jung was a Swiss  psychologist who invented analytical psychology, known as Jungian psychology, who greatly influenced later works of many psychologists around the world.1894 - Aldous Huxley was the English science fiction author who wrote Brave New World.1919 - James Ephraim Lovelock was an English scientist and futurist known for proposing the Gaia hypothesis, in which he postulates that the Earth functions as a kind of superorganism. July 27 1848 - Roland Baron von Eà ¶tvà ¶s  was a Hungarian  physicist who formulated the concept of molecular surface tension and the Eà ¶tvà ¶s torsion balance.1938 - Gary Gygax was an American game designer who co-invented the Dungeons Dragons role-playing game. July 28 1907 - Earl Silas Tupper invented Tupperware. July 29 1891 - Bernhard Zondek was a German  gynecologist who invented the first reliable pregnancy test in 1928. July 30 1863 -  Henry Ford  was an American automaker who invented the Model T Ford.1887 - Felix Andries Vening Meinesz was a Dutch geophysicist who invented a precise method for measuring gravity called the gravimeter. The gravimeter allowed for a precise  measure  of gravity at sea, which led Meinesz to discover gravity anomalies above the ocean floor due to continental drift.1889 -  Vladimir Zworykin  was a Russian electronics engineer who invented an electronic television system. July 31 1803  -  John Ericsson  was an American inventor of the screw propeller for ships.1918 - Paul D. Boyer was an American biochemist and Nobel Prize winner in 1997.1919 - Primo Levi was an Italian chemist turned writer best known for his autobiography, Survival in Auschwitz.