Sunday, October 13, 2019

Best Man Wedding Speech (Roast) -- Wedding Toasts Roasts Speeches

Best Man Wedding Speech Ladies and Gentlemen, It's time for me to make a speech now and quite frankly, there's not a lot you can do about that. Well, if there's anybody here this evening who feels strangely nervous and apprehensive, it's probably because you just went and married Bill Meyers! Sorry Lacy - It's too late now. You're stuck with him. When it comes to Best Man's speeches there are some things in the interests of good taste, which are better left unsaid.....well, I'm here to say them! Some people need no introduction....Bill Meyers needs all the introduction he can get. He could be described as charming, intelligent, witty...and perhaps one day he will be. Bill was born in October 1970. The Beatles had split up, Maggie May by Rod Stewart was no.1 and Liverpool Football Club, under Bill Shankly, was about to embark on a two decade journey of domestic a...

Saturday, October 12, 2019

Netflix competitive analysis Essay -- essays research papers

Competitive Analysis Blockbuster Inc. and Movie Gallery are currently the two strongest competitors in the market, and therefore pose the biggest threats to Netflix. Amazon, Intelliflicks, and Cleanfilms are all present in the market, but don’t possess enough force at this time to be considered a threat to Netflix. Blockbuster As of right now, Blockbuster is the biggest competitive threat to Netflix. Blockbuster was incorporated in 1989 in Delaware and is a major renter of home videocassettes, DVDs and video games throughout the Americas, as well as Europe, Asia and Australia. Blockbuster operated about 9,100 stores in the U.S. and 24 other countries, as of Dec. 2004. In the summer of 2004, Blockbuster launched an online rental program that provides a challenging competitive match for Netflix. Blockbuster’s online debut was in development for years. In 2002 Blockbuster purchased FilmCaddy, an online movie rental company that became Blockbusters internet channel. Blockbuster completed consumer research, both qualitative and quantitative, and found that online customers preferred a program that would give them both Internet convenience and in-store benefits. Blockbuster decided to incorporate its extensive network of stores to provide a powerful competitive edge. In addition, the chain has said it wil l invest $170 million this year alone in its online-rental operation. Financially, Blockbuster has revenues of 6.10 billion, with a gross profit of 3.61 billion, and a negative ne...

Friday, October 11, 2019

Expectations Charles Dickens Essay

In the first chapter of Great Expectations Charles Dickens creates a very intense image of the marshes. This is the first place he describes and he makes the marshes sound like a very creepy and bewildering place.  Ã¢â‚¬Å"Ours was the marsh country, down by the river, within, as the river wound, twenty miles of the sea†.  The words marsh and the river makes the marshes sound like a very damp, muddy and bleak place.  Also in the first chapter Charles Dickens describes the churchyard as  Ã¢â‚¬Å"Bleak place overgrown with nettles†. Dickens also describes the churchyard s a very † Overgrown and bleak place†.  A graveyard is supposed to be a happy place that revitalises and refreshes kind, happy memories. I think this implies that death is all around no matter where you look. I think this because everything is â€Å"overgrown† and not looked after and the â€Å"nettles† are killing all of the beautiful plants so death is also involved there as well.  Dickens also says about the marshes in the first chapter  Ã¢â‚¬  And that the dark flat wilderness beyond the churchyard, intersected with dykes and mounds and gates, with scattered cattle feeding on it, was the marshes: and that the low leaden line beyond was the river: and the distant savage liar from which the wind was rushing was the sea†. This quote represents a dark and unforgiving future for Pip and that there is no one out there in the wilderness to care for him. The words â€Å"leaden line† imply a low lead river that looks like it has bars on and to Pip this makes him feel imprisoned. Also the words â€Å"savage liar† represents to Pip that he thinks that there is like a savage monster out there in the sea. Furthermore in chapter one Dickens explains the marshes as a â€Å"long black, horizontal line and the sky was just a row of long, angry red lines and dense black lines intermixed. The words represent anger and danger and black utility, death and emptiness. Pip again feels like he is a prisoner to the marshes. At the start of the first chapter instead of Pip being one of the main characters he becomes the narrator of the story and starts talking about his family.  Ã¢â‚¬  So I called myself Pip, and came to be called Pip†.  When Pip goes to the churchyard to the graveyard to look at their graves and imagines what his family would of looked like this proves he has a very distinct and creative imagination.  Ã¢â‚¬  My first fancies regarding what they were like, were unreasonably derived from their tombstones†.  Also Pip proves that there was a high rate of infant mortality and he also proves that there was a universal struggle to die. † To five little stone lozenges, each about a foot and a half long, which were arranged in a neat row beside their grave, and were scared to the memory of five little brothers of mine who gave up trying to get a living exceedingly early in that universal struggle†.  Dickens in the first chapter changes from first person the narrator to third person and this s a very unnatural method to use.  Ã¢â‚¬  And that the small bundle of shivers growing afraid of it all and beginning to cry, was Pip†. Also Great Expectations was serialised which means that he novel was brought out in chapters and because the novel was successful people kept buying each chapter each time they were released.  When Pip goes into the churchyard to the graveyard so that he can go and visualise his brothers and his parents he meets a convict. The convict is starving and looking for food and basically anything and so he turns Pip upside town.  Ã¢â‚¬  The man after looking at me for a moment turned me upside-down†.  This is very strong and imaginative and you can clearly imagine it as he turns him upside down literally and metaphorically. After this the convict starts talking to Pip about his appearance. He talks about  Ã¢â‚¬Å"What fat cheeks you ha got:†Ã‚  After this Pip says  Ã¢â‚¬Å"I believe they were fat, though I was at that time undersized for my years, and not strong†.  This gives the impression that Pip has never been fed properly and this make Pip sound innocent and vulnerable.  Later on Pip makes a promise to the convict that he would bring some food and some wittles so that the convict could release himself from the chain around his ankles and the convict threatens Pip to make sure he does this.

Thursday, October 10, 2019

Climatic Determinism in Aristotle’s Idea of Natural Slavery Essay

One of the more influential texts in ancient literature is Aristotle’s seminal work on governance, â€Å"Politics: A Treatise on Government. † In â€Å"Politics,† Aristotle sought to establish the superiority of Greek social and political order; particularly the rigid segregation between master and slave, by invoking the patterns of organization observed in nature which he perceived to support the moral and natural correctness of Greek society and institutions. Arguably, Hippocrates’ earlier work, â€Å"On Airs, Waters, and Places,† which emphasized the central role of climatic and environmental factors in the development of human beings and societies, plays a huge influence on Aristotle’s treatise particularly in his defense of slavery. In â€Å"Airs, Waters, and Places,† Hippocrates posits that climatic factors are responsible for differences in the physical, mental, and psychological characteristics of human populations. (Hippocrates, Airs, Waters, and Places, 2. ln. 18-20; 13. ln. 7-15) Arguably, most of Aristotle’s assumptions on the nature of relationships between races, individuals, and societies are based on Hippocratic notions of inherent differences in human physical and psychological constitution that arises from differences in climate and the forces of nature. The role of climatic determinism in Aristotle’s ideas about natural slavery is evident in his belief on the decisive part of a nation or society’s location on earth in establishing racial superiority. Among the most obvious evidence of this is his reference to the differences between European, Asian, and Greek populations owing to the differences in geographic location and climate. Aristotle argues that Northern Europeans, on the one hand, were made courageous by the cold climate in their countries but the same climate also made them unintelligent and incapable of dominating others; the Asians, on the other hand, were intelligent but their cowardice made them easy to enslave. He then rationalizes that Greece’ position between Europe and Asia enabled the Greeks to possess a balanced capacity for intelligence and courage that is necessary of conquerors and masters. (Aristotle, Politics, ln. 1327b. 14-20) Thus, Aristotle’s justification of slavery carries with it strains of climatic determinism, which espouses the natural superiority of some races over others brought about by the superiority of the particular climate in their place of habitation. Conversely, the inferiority of the climate leads to the inferior development of human populations. It is worthy to note that in making these claims, Aristotle simply echoes Hippocrate’s earlier observation of the racial dissimilarities arising from regional and climatic disparities. Hippocrates argues, for instance, that Asians display a gentler and more peaceful nature than Europeans because of â€Å"the nature of the seasons, which do not undergo any great changes either to heat or cold, or the like. † (Hippocrates, Airs, Waters, and Places, 16. ln. 2-4) Accordingly, the relative uniformity of seasons in Asia, which causes â€Å"neither excitement of the understanding nor any strong change of the body† (Hippocrates, Airs, Waters, and Places, 16. ln. 5) conditions its inhabitants to a passive existence that predisposes them to slavery. Hippocrates’ ideas therefore serve as the basis used by Aristotle in rationalizing slavery as a natural order among races. Aristotle’s idea of the existence of natural differences between races and the natural superiority of the Greek race makes it easy for him to justify the distinction between Greeks and barbarians that, in his view, justifies the enslavement of the latter by the former. This is illustrated in how Aristotle considers non-Greek cultures and societies as being â€Å"more prone to slavery than the Greeks† (Aristotle, Politics, ln. 1285a. 13) by virtue of their outsider status relative to Greek civilization. This assumption is clearly based on Hippocrates’ survey of the diverse characteristics of populations of different countries with respect to their position relative to sunlight, winds, soil, and waters. In particular, Aristotle draws his assumption of Greek superiority from Hippocrates’ assertion that a country that is â€Å"blasted by the winter and scorched by the sun† produces individuals endowed not only with superior physical beauty and composition but also finer thinking skills that make them â€Å"acute and ingenious as regards the Arts, and excelling in military affairs. † (Hippocrates, Airs, Waters, and Places, 24. ln. 40-49) Aristotle’s climatic determinist thought extends to his idea of the qualities that differentiate a superior individual from the inferior one. For Aristotle, the existence of innate differences in human beings owing to the nature’s design justifies slavery as a natural and beneficial societal arrangement (Aristotle, Politics, ln. 1255a. 1-2) Underlying this claim is clearly the belief that nature creates hierarchies between the superior and the inferior, as shown by the fact that climatic forces shape individuals either into conquerors or slaves. He claims, for instance, that â€Å"those men therefore who are as much inferior to others as the body is to the soul†¦are slaves by nature, and it is advantageous to them to be always under government. † (Aristotle, Politics, ln. 1254b. 11-13) Aristotle attributes the innate inferiority and enslavement of some individuals to â€Å"the first principles of herile and political government† (Aristotle, Politics, ln. 1254b. 2) which shows that â€Å"it is both natural and advantageous that the body should be governed by the soul. † (Aristotle, Politics, ln. 1254b. 4-5) Thus, in the same way, it is proper that â€Å"the soul governs the body as the master governs his slave. † (Aristotle, Politics, ln. 1254b. 3)

Wednesday, October 9, 2019

How are gender relationships depicted in Chaucers “Wife of Bath”?

The Wife of Bath’s Prologue and Tale is one of the twenty-four stories which make up The Canterbury Tales written by Geoffrey Chaucer towards the end of the 14th century. The premise for The Tales is that of a group of pilgrims each telling stories in order to win the prize of a free meal, the primary narrator is a naà ¯ve pilgrim who is not described. The Canterbury Tales is written in Middle English, which bears a close visual resemblance to the English written and spoken today. The Tales were unfinished as Chaucer died before their completion and the order of the stories has been disputed due to the fragmented nature of his work. This essay will be looking at gender relationships in The Wife of Bath’s Prologue and Tale and in medieval Literature as a whole. Chaucer’s Wife of Bath is a middle-aged woman from the west country, who strides into The Canterbury Tales on a large horse with her spurs jangling and riding in the fashion of a man rather than the side saddle that was typical of women, ready to assert herself in the company of pilgrims made almost entirely of men. Rich and elaborate in design, the Wife’s clothes reek of extravagance, her stockings â€Å"weren of fyn scarlet reede† and â€Å"on hir feet a paire of spores sharpe† show how wealthy she has become from her conquests of men. In the General Prologue where each of the characters is described in terms of their profession she is clearly a ‘professional wife’ who has travelled more than almost all of the other pilgrims making her a bold, adventurous and sociable character. Men were the ones who travelled to distant lands in search of adventure, this challenges the accepted ideas about gender of the time. This portrait of a woman is very peculiar for a piece of medieval literature, men tend to have the starring role and women are usually featured as beautiful ladies in distress or as villainous old hags. The Wife of Bath is neither a helpless damsel in distress nor a typical old crone. She is the first of her kind in English literature. The Wife of Bath’s Prologue is the life story of Alison who has married five times, this in itself is unusual for a woman in medieval literature as it is usually the rogue male who has multiple lovers. Chaucer certainly informs us of Alison’s backstory to a higher degree than he does the other pilgrims. There are many pieces of literature which condemn women, from the highest class to the lowest, Chaucer does not ignore this with his characterisation of the Wife but rather embraces it to make her who she is. The Wife is noisy and bossy, she torments her husbands and has a large enough sexual appetite to compete with the most sexual of men. But Chaucer has also made her capable of love, vulnerable, optimistic and argumentative against medieval anti-woman ideas. It is not clear whether Chaucer wants us to sympathise with the Wife and see her as the first feminist and defender of women’s rights or if we are to view her as an elaborate joke of what would happen if a women were to ever have as much freedom as a man. The Wife of Bath’s Prologue is different from any literature which had been encountered, as is her Tale. The male lead is not a typical heroic knight but a rapist, the main female role is an ugly old woman and the force of good in the story is a court full of powerful women. All the standard ideas of gender relationships are both turned on their heads and brought into sharp focus. The Wife conforms to a number of anti-female stereotypes of the medieval period, stereotypes which were created by men for the purpose of a patriarchal society. She claims that she has a great sexual appetite whilst also boasting that she uses sex to gain wealth. The Wife also tells of how she controls her husbands through the use of her body, a fear which is common of villainous females in medieval literature and which males dread. The Wife points out that there are many husbands and wives in the Bible. Some of the greatest men in the Old Testament were not only married but had multiple wives. â€Å"Lo, heere the wise kyng, daun Salomon; I trowe he hadde wyves mo than oon. As wolde God it leveful were unto me To be refresshed half so ofte as he!† (35-38) This is a double standard in that these men have multiple lovers but that women apparently can’t. By calling King Solomon â€Å"wise† she is conveying that wise men have multiple marriages. The Wife successfully gives examples from the Bible of people whose marriages were blessed by God despite the polygamous nature of these marriages. The Pardoner who is shocked by the Wife’s revelations so far interrupts her story, he says that he was about to marry but is now not so sure that it is a good idea. â€Å"Now, dame,† quod he, â€Å"by God and by Seint John!†¦ I was aboute to wedde a wyf; allas!†¦ What sholde I bye it on my flessh so deere? Yet hadde I levere wedde no wyf to-yeere!† (164-168) The Wife then tells a short story about a medieval pardoner who worked for the Church collecting donations from those sorry for their sins and anxious to find forgiveness. His manhood is called into question throughout the canterbury tales and his talk of taking a wife is probably an empty boast. This is a continuation of Wife of Bath’s theme of male impotence, she regularly taunts her celibate male adversaries in this way throughout the prologue. It was unheard of for a woman to speak this way about such matters, even a man would think before directly insulting men of the Church. The first three husbands the Wife had were rich old men who were financially secure. The Wife treated each of these husbands badly and in a very dominating way. By being argumentative and eager to start trouble she ensured that they would be careful to please her. â€Å"What sholde I taken keep hem for to plese, But it were for my profit and myn ese?† (213-14) Here the Wife of Bath uses a rhetorical question, it is clear from the tone that she doesn’t think she needs to care about her husbands. The misogynists classed all women together as bad and all wives as nothing but trouble. Chaucer both confirms this stereotype here with the way the Wife treated her first three husbands but also turns it around so that the woman is in control for once and the men are indistinguishable without even a single name between them. Chaucer makes us pity the husbands but it also shows us how unfairly women are usually treated. Chaucer outlines the Wife’s general techniques on how she handles Marital trouble which are lying, cheating and accusing the opposite gender before they accuse you. Lying and cheating were the things that medieval literature always accused the villainous women in a story of doing. The Wife is therefore acting in a very stereotypically manipulative way, and comes very close to becoming the old villainous hag which was a staple of medieval literature. Chaucer makes it clear that the Wife is a complex character and that our response to her as readers should be one of uncertainty. He makes sure we see the good aswell as the bad. The Wife of Bath goes on to describe the lies she would use to keep her first three husbands in line. She’d accuse them of lecherous behaviour and of chasing after the neighbours or servants and then unfairly accusing her about her relationship with her ‘friend’. She uses powerful but offensive imagery towards woman in order to get her point across. â€Å"For as a spanyel she wol on hym lepe,†¦ But folk of wyves maken noon assay, Til they be wedded — olde dotard shrewe! And thanne, seistow, we wol oure vices shewe.† (267-292) The Wife of Bath uses simile’s to compare women first of all to animals, which should be tried by men before they are bought. They are then reduced even further being compared to ordinary objects such as basins, washbowls, spoons and stools. The men did not say these things and this paints the Wife of Bath in a very negative light for her deceit but at the same time other men during her period are guilty of thinking such things. The Wife boasts about how she lied to her husbands about what they said whilst drunk in order to make them feel guilty. This extract is some of the Wife’s most blatant deceit and if all women were to be like this in medieval times it would be surprising if men and women ever managed to live together at all. â€Å"Thou liknest eek wommenes love to helle, To bareyne lond, ther water may nat dwelle. Thou liknest it also to wilde fyr;† (371-372) The Wife doesn’t see the wickedness of her ways as is obvious when she states â€Å"Yet tikled I his herte, for that he Wende that I hadde of hym so greet chiertee!† The choice of verb is an interesting one because it is much lighter than the passage as a whole. The Wife claims that either her or her husband must give in if they are to live in peace, and she says â€Å"And sith a man is moore resonable† he should be the one to give in more easily. She then slyly puts in a comment about how she is his alone, implying that this could easily change at any moment. She is exploiting male and female stereotypes here, using a man’s image of themselves as reasonable and superior against them. She is manipulating by saying that if women are so stupid and emotional, clever men should just let them have their way in order for there to be peace. The Wife of Bath’s youth may have now passed her by but she has no regrets. Her fourth husband however was not a very happy memory for her. She even goes on to tell us about his unfaithfulness â€Å"This is to seyn, he hadde a paramour†. Her dominance and power over her first three husbands now gives way to the more melancholy story of her next husband. Old women in medieval literature quite often show bitterness and loathing when they remember their youth but the Wife has no regrets. Her optimism and her grace in the way that she accepts the passing of her youth shows a softer and more vulnerable side to this manipulative and domineering woman. With the death of her fourth husband The Wife then falls in love with a man named Jankyn who was half her age. Within a month she had married him and as an act of love she signed over all her property to him. However, Jankyn was typical of a medieval gender role. He was a dominant man who won’t be told what to do by a woman. He demands her to stop going on pilgrimages, stop gossiping and to generally stop all the mischievous behaviour from her past. He beats her for tearing pages out of a book and tells her of husbands who left their wives because the wives would not do as they were told. â€Å"And me of olde Romayn geestes teche; How he Symplicius Gallus lefte his wyf, And hire forsook for terme of al his lyf† (642-644) The Wife now has to be on the receiving end of the abuse that she has up until then caused, she is the one being dominated and controlled. She has previously been at a distance from the anti-women literature of the period, even used it to her advantage against her past husbands. Now she must endure the stereotypically male dominated household she has avoided for so long. The reason the Wife of Bath is deaf is because she was struck by Jankyn for tearing out a few pages from his favourite book. It consisted of stories by the best known authors of the middle ages which condemned women. â€Å"For trusteth wel, it is an impossible That any clerk wol speke good of wyves,† (688-689) She hated this book as Jankyn used it to cause her a great deal of grief, she stated that these men don’t understand women yet they are the ones writing these stories. What’s quite interesting is that all the literature she used to control her past husbands was now coming at her in a very real sense. The Wife of Bath asks the question â€Å"Who peyntede the leon, tel me who?† which points out that medieval women existed in a world where everything including art, religion, work, family life and literature was controlled by men. Chaucer pointing this out is well ahead of his time in terms of social gender commentary. The Wife’s ripping of the book could be seen as a symbolic gesture. The Wife used this literature against her past husbands, she had it used against her by her fifth husband. The tearing of the book is symbolic of the Wife moving away from medieval stereotypes. After finally finishing the prologue to her story the Wife of Bath moves onto her Tale. The story opens with the rape of a young maiden, the rape is described very casually as though it is somehow entirely natural that a woman is violently attacked this way. â€Å"He saugh a mayde walkynge hym biforn, Of which mayde anon, maugree hir heed, By verray force, he rafte hire maydenhed;† (886-888) The word ‘raft’ means he took her ‘maydenhead’ which is not a very violent verb but it still has powerful imagery because of how casual a word it is. This can be seen as an extreme example of the way in which women are regarded as mere property. The knight’s offence was against a woman so it is therefore ironic that women should step in to save his life. They don’t do this out of compassion or mercy though, he is to be placed in a powerless position in which the fate of his body is in the hands of another, similar to when a woman is raped. After a year of searching for the answer to the question of what women want the knight rides back to the court in despair, this is when he encounters an extremely ugly old woman who agrees to give him the answer to his question if he agrees to do something for her. After answering with â€Å"†Wommen desiren to have sovereynetee† the old hag asks the knight to marry her. Because our knight did not know what the condition would be he is placed in a far more vulnerable position. He is completely under the old woman’s dominance, a reversal of the normal male female relationship. The â€Å"lusty bacheler† from the start of the story now â€Å"hidde hym as an owle†, no longer dominant and in control or a stereotype of medieval man. The old woman then gives the knight an ultimatum, she can either be beautiful and unfaithful or faithful and ugly. The knight considers for a moment but decides in the end to let her make the decision which results in her being both beautiful and faithful. With the mastery handed over to the old lady, there is a switching of gender roles with the knight also getting what he wants. The knight is no longer the misogynist monster he was at the start of The Wife of Bath’s Tale. It could be argued that the Wife of Bath is giving a voice to the excluded women of medieval society. Through her voice we hear and see all the devaluation and oppression which is always silent in medieval literature due to the authors being almost entirely male. The Wife could also be interpreted as a representation of stereotypical medieval fear by men about women as cruel, emotional and sexually deviant. It is not clear in what way Chaucer meant for her to be conveyed, it is clear however that he wanted her to become a complicated character with many different layers whose gender was a driving force for the story.

California's sex offender registration Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

California's sex offender registration - Essay Example d a copy of the notification form processed in this stage is also sent to the DOJ. The sex offender tracking program is an expedient tool utilized for keeping track of the sex offenders in California since 1947; the state is also regarded as being the first ever to enact a sex offender registration law. This was major step towards public disclosure of criminals, for many states did not recognize such laws until the 1990s. These registration requirements are lifetime, and with an ever-increasing and current population of 35million people, California is respectively the holder of the largest database of sex offenders in the USA (Lockyer, 2002, 3). This lifelong obligation can only be reversed if the offender a ‘Certificate of Rehabilitation’ ten years after s/he has been released from custody or it can also be relieved if ‘Government’s pardon’ is attained. However, many serious offences are not even eligible to attain the aforementioned relieving docume nts (IPS, 2009, 1). There are certain conditions which must be met duly by the sex offenders, these are the requirements and the guidelines set by the DOJ. It is incumbent upon the registered offenders to update their whereabouts and necessary information per annum, within 5 working days of their birthday. This requirement is more stringent for some, the transients must update every month while the sexually violent predators are extended 90 days worth of time. Recently, they have also been imposed with the responsibility of submitting their vehicle license plate number along with a recent photograph. Since 2002, they have also been required to register themselves with the campus police department in case they plan to enroll in any courses, attend any specific programs or even as much as work. Furthermore, even for people who are sex offenders, if convicted by the military or federal court, of other states but they enter the jurisdiction of Californian state; they are required to reg ister within 5 working days of entering California. Those who fail to register and have been convicted of a felony would be convicted of a felony yet again in case of non-compliance. This tracking program requires regular updates, and if any offender violates the registration requirements, it would show the registrant to be in violation. It is necessary for the transients to update their status within five working days with a local agency, in case they change their address or is homeless; the local agency is then responsible for forwarding the information to the DOJ. The latter then updates the information in the database, on a regular daily basis. The website www.meganslaw.ca.gov is responsible for publishing the data online, however 25% of the offender’s records are kept confidential and are not publicly disclosed, this condition depends on the specific type of crime being committed. According to the information available on this government website, the sex offenders can ev ade public disclosure in the following conditions (Harris, 2009; Department of Justice, 2010): 1- Sexual battery by

Monday, October 7, 2019

How God Organizes People for Effective Action Essay

How God Organizes People for Effective Action - Essay Example Our assigned tasks fit together to complete His plan. God views each of us as a very important puzzle piece, existing to complete the whole. For instance, the Bible speaks of King David who greatly enhanced and extended the kingdom of Israel and established the Judean dynasty. This biblical figure was indeed a historical character. According to Daniel Hillel in his book The Natural History of the Bible, in 1993, excavations at Tel Dan, at the far northern-tip of the state of Israel, uncovered an inscription with an explicit mention of the "House of David". Dr. Michael Denton in his book Nature's Destiny, concluded that, "All the evidence available in the biological sciences supports the core proposition of traditional natural theology -that the cosmos is a specially designed whole with life and mankind as its fundamental goal and purpose, a whole in which all facets of reality, from the size of galaxies to the thermal capacity of water, have their meaning and explanation in this central fact." The world is custom-made for our essence. Daniel Hillel describes in his book, The Natural History of the Bible, the venture to the Promised Land.