The Effects Of Hiv On A Healthy Lifestyle - 1553 Words

which can cause the virus to spread. However, this issue has recently been solved by producing take-home tests like Oraquick so an individual can take the test in the privacy of their own home and get the results very quickly, rather than waiting for results at a doctor’s office. Although, even if these take-home tests can be effective, they can produce a false negative or a false positive because, for example, Oraquick uses an oral sample from the gums of a person’s mouth than a blood sample, which can cause a false result because there are many confounding variables that can mess with the test (O’Connell, 2003). Thus, it seems better to have a person’s blood drawn to get the most accurate results. Although, for individuals who have contracted HIV, there are certain steps a person can take to live a healthy lifestyle. Most people assume that after a person has contracted HIV, then it is over and there is nothing that person can do. It is true that the HI V virus does not have a cure, but it does not mean that people have to let the virus consume them by thinking there is nothing they can do. If the individual found out early the HIV virus was in their body, they can go to a HIV medical care and receive â€Å"antiretroviral† therapy (HIV/AIDS, 2014). This means the person would receive several antiretroviral medicines that would slow down the rate of the HIV cells(HIV/AIDS, 2014). This means this will slow down how fast the HIV cells take and replace the immune cells inShow MoreRelatedTreating Hiv : A Life Destroying Disease1297 Words   |  6 PagesStevie Riggs Essay 2 Amcult 365 What To Know About Treating HIV HIV has been a life destroying disease since the early 1980s. Originally discovered in gay men, it was once thought to only effect homosexuals. Thankfully to great efforts on research and outbreaks in hemophiliacs, it is now associated with other social groups outside of the gay community. The risks of contracting this disease are still high among gay men, highly sexually active individuals (hetero-, homo-, and bi- sexual), intravenousRead MoreThe Hiv Virus And Then Resources1318 Words   |  6 PagesMeasures which enhance quality of life 4. Effect on beloved ones 5. Two types of support for beloved ones 6. Appendix â€Æ' Introduction This report includes a brief introduction on the HIV virus and then resources that are available to the individuals that have been affected by HIV. It also includes measures that can enhance the quality of life of those affected and the effects this can have on the affected individual’s beloved ones. HIV stands for human immunodeficiency virus whichRead MoreThe Effects Of Alcohol On The Body1440 Words   |  6 Pagesis a good lifestyle choice to make for those suffering from HIV/AIDS, Alcohol can have negative effects on people living with HIV, both on their bodies and how they behave. On the body, alcohol can weaken the immune system and lower CD4 counts. The effects of alcohol on HIV infection depend on how much a person drinks. A number of studies have found that heavy drinkers and those with alcohol problems have lower CD4 counts than moderate drinkers and are likely to have more copies of the HIV in theirRead MoreThe Health Of The Modern Health Care968 Words   |  4 Pagesdisease, illness, and injury because it illustrates health dispositions on why some individual or population are in better health than another counterpart. HIV/AID is the population health issue I selected. About 1.2 million of people in the United States are living with HIV infection, and approximately 1 in 8 (12.8%) are unaware of their infection. HIV/AIDS disproportionately affects racial and ethnic minorities, many of whom are medically underserved. Our health status depends on how we live our dailyRead MoreThe Health Of The Population Health937 Words   |  4 Pagesdisease, illness, and injury because it illustrates health dispositions on why some individual or population are in better health than another counterpart. HIV/AID is the population health issue I selected. About 1.2 million of people in the United States are living with HIV infection, and approximately 1 in 8 (12.8%) are unaware of their infection. HIV/AIDS disproportionately affects racial and ethnic minorities, many of whom are medically underserved. Our health status depends on how we live our dailyRead MoreHealthy People 2020975 Words   |  4 PagesUniversity Trends and Issues in Health Care HLT-418v Georgeana Lass Drew, Instructor July 12, 2014 In 2010, Healthy People 2020 was started by the Department of Human Health Services. Health programs and research topics were instituted to help Americans live healthier and longer lives (CDC, 2014). The 42 topics presented are all very important in maintaining the goals set by Healthy People 2020. If these programs were to be cut or budget restraints imposed on them, the impact would be felt byRead MoreThe Importance Of A Womens Health1233 Words   |  5 Pagesmen. The HIV prevalence is approximately 14 times higher among females (Hinton Earnest, 2010). This is because most women are sex workers and are unable to stand for themselves. They are at a disadvantage in the their country due to gender equality and violence. Women are excluded from making their own decisions at all levels because all the dominance goes to the men. Women in this country are being underrepresented and it is also affecting their maternal health. Those who are pregnant, 42% doRead MoreCorporate Social Responsibilities And Contributions Of Johnson And Johnson1230 Words   |  5 Pagesprogram. Providing health services and educating pregnant mothers in rural areas. The organization provides free flu shot in fall for mother and their families. They are also promoting the healthy work place environment by conducting several health programs. Confidential support and treatment is provided to HIV/AIDS employees. Disaster response is another big challenge they took up. The organization takes serious measures for environment issues such as energy conservation, waste management and eco-friendlyRead MoreThe Change Of Unhealthy Lifestyle979 Words   |  4 PagesThe Change in Unhealthy Lifestyle Many children and adults these days live unhealthy lifestyles. They are eating more processed food and fast food. Lack of sleep and alcohol are also common in unhealthy lifestyles. Some people are even born into families that have unhealthy habits such as smoking. The most common causes of an unhealthy lifestyle are an unhealthy diet, substance abuse and sexual promiscuity. To improve life, those unhealthy ways should change to eat healthy, avoid substance abuseRead MoreCommunicable Disease934 Words   |  4 Pagesestimates that 1.1 million Americans are living with HIV and nearly one in five of those are not aware that they are infected (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention). Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) is the virus that causes AIDS (acquired immunodeficiency syndrome). Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) is an infection that slowly destroys the immune system, which makes it difficult for the body to fight off infections. Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) is a communicable disease transmitted through

Developmentally Appropriate Practices ( Dap ) - 960 Words

Developmentally Appropriate Practices (DAP) is a method of teaching that is based on the research about how young children grow and learn and includes standards for high quality care and education for young children. The National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC) established these guidelines more than 20 years ago. Authors Gordon and Browne state, â€Å"The DAP approach stresses the need for activity-based learning environments and is based on what we know about children through years of child development research and what we observe of their interests, abilities, and needs† (40). The three core components of DAP are: 1) what is known about child development and learning, 2) what is known about each child, and 3) what is known about social and cultural contexts in which children learn. A DAP classroom is a busy classroom where students are engaged and interacting physically with objects and persons. This classroom is full of materials, activities, and direct interactions that lead the student into active learning. The observations for this report were conducted at the Laredo Community College Camilo Prada Early Child Development Center in the blue classroom. OBSERVATION SUMMARY #1 – INDOOR SPACE . The blue classroom met DAP practices in that the furniture was sized appropriately to the ages of the children that were in that classroom (approx. 4-5yrs) and in the way classroom was arranged. The centers were easy to access and they were arranged soShow MoreRelatedEnhancing Children’s Potential Research Paper Draft Developmentally appropriate daycare centers are1100 Words   |  5 PagesEnhancing Children’s Potential Research Paper Draft Developmentally appropriate daycare centers are focused on the most important element: the children. Therefore these developmentally appropriate daycares exceed the needs of the children because they are being met physically, socially, emotionally, and cognitively. Some may argue that the risks of daycare can cause damage to children’s development. Developmentally appropriate daycare centers use intentional teaching strategies, support for the familiesRead MoreDevelopmentally Appropriate Practices ( Kostelnik )1502 Words   |  7 PagesIntroduction DAP stands for developmentally appropriate practices (Kostelnik). This means that the activities exposed to the children in the classroom are not overwhelming, or too difficult, for their skill level, but they are achievable, interesting, meaningful, and worth knowing for each individual child (Olsen). The resources I will use will be relevant to the children and appropriate according to the different families they come from and the community they live in (Olsen). My future DAP classroomRead MoreThe Importance Of Developmentally Appropriate Practices For Young Children2850 Words   |  12 Pages The Importance of Developmentally Appropriate Practices Introduction Every child deserves an environment that endorses developmentally appropriate practices, to promote joy, respect, autonomy, creativity, exploration, responsibility and choice. Within such environment, one may argue that, catering to young children can be very demanding. However, all early years facilitator, who possess certain qualities and display positive characteristics, can definitely create an environment where childrenRead MoreEssay on Past Present and Future895 Words   |  4 PagesMandated Curriculum vs. Developmentally Appropriate Practices Introduction As a parent I have become concerned about the new state-mandated, textbook-based curriculum for Kindergarten. I have decided to write a letter to the school board to protest the new policy. In the letter I will define DAP, the benefits with examples, why I believe the use of the textbook-based curriculum may be inappropriate. I will give reasons for the potential negative effects of the textbook-based curriculumRead MoreEvaluation Of A Checklist Assessment1538 Words   |  7 Pagesvariety of assessments, forms, and documentation to assess the child’s language. Assessments also play an important role in helping to diagnose and document developmental delays and specific language disorders. Assessments help teachers to plan appropriate learning activities, to respond to accountability concerns, and engage in periodic and on-going assessments. Purpose of Checklist â€Å"Checklists are composed of lists of characteristics or behaviors that are the focus of an observation† (Otto, 2014Read MorePhysical Development : Cognitive Development1110 Words   |  5 Pageswith her son to give him guidance on how to properly solve his homework. 3. Developmentally Appropriate Practices (DAP) refers to â€Å"applying child development knowledge in making thoughtful and appropriate decisions about early childhood programs—the understanding that â€Å"best practices is based on knowledge—not on assumptions—of how children learn and develop† (Gestwicki, 2013, p. 8). Developmentally Appropriate Practices (DAP) is utilized by some schools to better educate children through individualizedRead MoreQuestions On Behavior And Behavior997 Words   |  4 Pagesbehavior using appropriate techniques in which the child can learn from their mistake and not feel guilty. EXPLAIN THE VALUE IN HAVING AN UNDERSTANDING OF DEVELOPMENTALLY APPROPIATE PRACTICE: Developmentally appropriate practice, often shortened to DAP, is an approach to teaching grounded in the research on how young children develop and learn and in what is known about effective early education. Its framework is designed to promote young children’s optimal learning and development. DAP involves teachersRead MoreDevelopmentally Practices Essay842 Words   |  4 PagesDevelopmentally appropriate practice is based on knowledge about how children develop and learn, what is known about the needs of individual children in a particular group, and on knowledge of both the social and cultural contexts in which children live. (Bredekamp amp; Copple, 1997, pp. 8–9) Developmentally appropriate teaching means that we approach children from where they are and not from where we think they ought to be. Developmentally appropriate practice (DAP) suggests recognizing theRead MoreAssessment in the Ece Curriculum1250 Words   |  5 Pagesrunning records which are compiled in a portfolio. The Ministry of Education (2008), Singapore curriculum guide base their Child development and learning principles on Developmentally appropriate practice (Kindergarten Curriculum Guide, p. 9) Piaget has had a profound influence in the early childhood educational practice. Until recently our assessment techniques have been influenced by Piaget as we have focused on the individual child and what they can do in relation to their ages. AccordingRead MorePerception Of Behavior And Misbehavior846 Words   |  4 Pagestheir confidence. DAP, means Developmentally Appropriate Practice; and, helps teachers to implement guide into the classroom. Also, reduces mistaken behavior if the teacher takes in practice an appropriate practice. In a couraging DAP classroom, a professional teacher works to maximize children’s engagement in the learning process. Such methods as: Emergent/ integrated curriculum, creative arts and journals, manipulatives-based cognitive activities, developmentally appropriate opportunities with

The Decay of the English Language free essay sample

A look into the problem of over-used metaphors and James Joyces solution to the problem. This essay explores the problem of dying metaphors and the solution, which is to create new and fresh ones. Orwell and Joyce are used as examples. The author includes many quotes from both writers works. As painters put their trust in the canvass and brush, so writers must put their trust in their medium, language, to convey their message. Most of us take language for granted. Every day, in every situation, we encounter language. Yet often we use our language extremely carelessly. This inadvertent use of language is not only evident in spoken communication, but, perhaps more injuriously, in written transmission as well. Twentieth Century writers have become more antagonistic toward their artistic medium, and with good reason. The language that they have loved and used their entire lives is metamorphosing into something unfamiliar and unfriendly. We will write a custom essay sample on The Decay of the English Language or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page Writers like James Joyce uses this degradation of language to their advantage, writing in such a unique style with words unfamiliar to the average reader, thus compelling the reader to take a look at his or her own use or misuse of the same language. Other writers, such as Orwell, are disgusted with the way language has been butchered. He draws attention to the meaninglessness of language in the Twentieth Century. Orwell also attaches political ramifications to the misuse of the English language.

Racism in Disney Movies Essay Example

Racism in Disney Movies Essay The Mouse that Roared: Disney and the End of Innocence (Culture and Education Series) + The Mouse that Roared Student Edition: Disney and the End of Innocence [Kindle Edition]; Henri A. Giroux (Author) Giroux tackles Disneys theme parks, its recent forays into education and its movies in an attempt to expose how Uncle Walts legacy is eroding democracy and endangering our nations youth. He disparages Disneyland and Disney World for whitewashing history and casting Americas past in a nostalgic light, excluding any mention of slavery, civil unrest, racial tension or war. 2. Deconstructing Disney; Eleanor Byrne Are you an author? Learn about Author Central (Author), Martin McQuillan (Author) Eleanor Byrne and Martin McQuillan offer a critical encounter with Disney which alternates between readings of individual texts and wider thematic concerns such as race, gender and sexuality, the broader context of American contemporary culture, and the global ambitions and insularity of the last great superpower. . From Mouse to Mermaid: The Politics of Film, Gender, and Culture; Elizabeth Bell (Editor), Lynda Haas (Editor), Laura Sells (Edittor) The contributors treat a range of topics at issue in contemporary cultural studies: the performance of gender, race, and class; the engendered images of science, nature, technology, family, and business. The compilation of voices in From Mouse to Mermaid creates a persuasive cultural critique of Disneys ideology. . Multiculturalism and the Mouse: Race and Sex in Disney Entertainment Douglas Brode (Author) Brode emerges [as] a worthy proponent of Disneys democratic vision, wielding a powerful argument for Disney as a forerunner of multicultural values in America. The significance of his work cannot be overstated. 5. Mouse Morality: The Rhetoric of Disney Animated Film Annalee R. Ward (Author) We will write a custom essay sample on Racism in Disney Movies specifically for you for only $16.38 $13.9/page Order now We will write a custom essay sample on Racism in Disney Movies specifically for you FOR ONLY $16.38 $13.9/page Hire Writer We will write a custom essay sample on Racism in Disney Movies specifically for you FOR ONLY $16.38 $13.9/page Hire Writer Annalee uncovers the many mixed messages they purvey: for example, females can be leadersbut male leadership ought to be the norm; stereotyping is wrongbut black means evil; historical truth is valuedbut only tell what one can sell, etc. Adding these messages together, Ward raises important questions about the moral ambiguity of Disneys overall worldview and demonstrates the need for parents to be discerning in letting their children learn moral values and life lessons from Disney films. Racism in Disney Movies Essay Example Racism in Disney Movies Essay The Mouse that Roared: Disney and the End of Innocence (Culture and Education Series) + The Mouse that Roared Student Edition: Disney and the End of Innocence [Kindle Edition]; Henri A. Giroux (Author) Giroux tackles Disneys theme parks, its recent forays into education and its movies in an attempt to expose how Uncle Walts legacy is eroding democracy and endangering our nations youth. He disparages Disneyland and Disney World for whitewashing history and casting Americas past in a nostalgic light, excluding any mention of slavery, civil unrest, racial tension or war. 2. Deconstructing Disney; Eleanor Byrne Are you an author? Learn about Author Central (Author), Martin McQuillan (Author) Eleanor Byrne and Martin McQuillan offer a critical encounter with Disney which alternates between readings of individual texts and wider thematic concerns such as race, gender and sexuality, the broader context of American contemporary culture, and the global ambitions and insularity of the last great superpower. . From Mouse to Mermaid: The Politics of Film, Gender, and Culture; Elizabeth Bell (Editor), Lynda Haas (Editor), Laura Sells (Edittor) The contributors treat a range of topics at issue in contemporary cultural studies: the performance of gender, race, and class; the engendered images of science, nature, technology, family, and business. The compilation of voices in From Mouse to Mermaid creates a persuasive cultural critique of Disneys ideology. . Multiculturalism and the Mouse: Race and Sex in Disney Entertainment Douglas Brode (Author) Brode emerges [as] a worthy proponent of Disneys democratic vision, wielding a powerful argument for Disney as a forerunner of multicultural values in America. The significance of his work cannot be overstated. 5. Mouse Morality: The Rhetoric of Disney Animated Film Annalee R. Ward (Author) We will write a custom essay sample on Racism in Disney Movies specifically for you for only $16.38 $13.9/page Order now We will write a custom essay sample on Racism in Disney Movies specifically for you FOR ONLY $16.38 $13.9/page Hire Writer We will write a custom essay sample on Racism in Disney Movies specifically for you FOR ONLY $16.38 $13.9/page Hire Writer Annalee uncovers the many mixed messages they purvey: for example, females can be leadersbut male leadership ought to be the norm; stereotyping is wrongbut black means evil; historical truth is valuedbut only tell what one can sell, etc. Adding these messages together, Ward raises important questions about the moral ambiguity of Disneys overall worldview and demonstrates the need for parents to be discerning in letting their children learn moral values and life lessons from Disney films.

Free Essays on Manipulation In 1984

switched in a document so that it reads more suitably. This familiar condition is seen in America on many occasions. First, so many documents and missions are marked classified and referred as â€Å"big government secrets.† What could the government be hiding? Surfaced scandals, such as innocent civilians being killed and secret bombings during the Gulf War, having information on terrorist attacks before the event occurs, and hidden documents about flawed big business industries, have shown Americans that not only is our government not perfect, but that th... Free Essays on Manipulation In 1984 Free Essays on Manipulation In 1984 Manipulation in 1984 In the classic novel 1984, author George Orwell writes of a future country called Oceania in which there is nothing that the government doesn’t control. By limiting the country’s historical knowledge, manipulating their minds, and conditioning their bodies, Big Brother is able to undermine citizens and use them as puppets. Though American government isn’t as austere as the fictitious one in 1984, there are definite parallels between Orwell’s writings and today’s society. In 1984, The Party is in control of every source of information, including historical events occurring in the past and the present. One day at work, the main character of the novel, Winston Smith, has to â€Å"rewrite a paragraph of Big Brother’s speech in such a way as to make him predict the thing that had actually happened (pg. 35).† In other words, he must manipulate the words of an article in such a way as to not make the government appear as anything less than perfect. Winston writing in his journal daily automatically assumes that on discovering this secret diary, he will surely be put to death because it is not in favor of The Party and contradicts the very belief system of Oceania. Big Brother, so in control of his country and its citizens, is able to literally rewrite history. He is able to construct the way the world was, is, and always will be by simply having the words switched in a document so that it reads more suitably. This familiar condition is seen i n America on many occasions. First, so many documents and missions are marked classified and referred as â€Å"big government secrets.† What could the government be hiding? Surfaced scandals, such as innocent civilians being killed and secret bombings during the Gulf War, having information on terrorist attacks before the event occurs, and hidden documents about flawed big business industries, have shown Americans that not only is our government not perfect, but that th...

Effecting America One Scandal at a Time

Effecting America One Scandal at a Time Free Online Research Papers The idea of checks and balances was an idea that arose during the composition of the U.S. Constitution. Checks and balances were created so that no one single branch of government (which includes legislative, judiciary, and executive) would become too powerful. This concept prevents a tyranny from controlling the United States, or any illegal activities to take place within the government. One key example of the power the judiciary and legislative branches have over the executive branch is the Watergate Scandal. The Watergate Scandal is a prime example of how theses checks and balances come into play. Also, the events of Watergate show how even the president (executive branch) is answerable to the judicial and legislative branches. Though Nixon had many strong characteristics of a successful leader, â€Å"Nixon’s public actions were nothing compared to what he had done to ensure his re-election.† (Carnes, and Garraty 640) â€Å"In reaction to Daniel Ellsberg’s leak of the Pentagon Papers (papers that talked about how the American Government had misled the American people on the progress in Vietnam), Nixon set up a secret unit called â€Å"the plumbers†. This group was ordered to carry out various illegal activities in the name of â€Å"national security†Ã¢â‚¬ . On June 17, 1972 five men were arrested at 2:30a.m, Bernard Barker, Virgilio Gonzlez, Eugenio Martinez, James W. McCord Jr., and Frank Sturgis. These men were hired and or ordered to set up recording devices in the offices of the Democratic National Committee at the Watergate Hotel in Washington D.C. At their arrest â€Å"Police discovered walkie-talkies, 40 rolls of unexposed film, two 35-milimeter cameras, lock picks, tear gas, and bugging devices that apparently were capable of picking up both telephone and room conversations† (Bernstein, and Woodward ). When the hearing of these men finally took place, things began to unfold. When asked, each of the men revealed some connection to the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). The men were â€Å"hired hands, on call to take care of the agency’s â€Å"less tasteful work† †. This obviously raised some eyebrows in other areas of the government, but Nixon told the White House press secretary to dismiss the inciden t as a third-rate burglary. This, although did not stop reporters from investigating further, in fact, the statement only made reporters like Bob Woodward, and Carl Bernstein pursue the truth of the matter further. What was Watergate? That was the question reporters were asking. No one quite knew what it was. Some took the president’s word, and simply dismissed it as a third-rate burglary. Others, like the famous Woodward and Bernstein pursued the truth of the burglary. At the arrest, two of the five men involved in the break-in, had an address book that â€Å"contained the name and phone number of a Howard E. Hunt, with small notations â€Å"W. House† and â€Å"W.H† † (Bernstein, and Woodward ). Now the question had been raised; what business did members of the CIA, specializing in bugging, have with the Whitehouse? As the reporter’s investigation continued, they found, through FBI sources, that the Whitehouse had taken over possession of the Watergate investigation files. The whole scandal was falling apart, and the truth was becoming clearer in the eyes of the media and more importantly the eyes of the American people. The scandal had become so sh ocking, that the legislative and judiciary branches felt a pressing need to step in, and take control of the executive branch. As more revelations occurred, the other branches of the government became more and more involved in the investigative process. As the investigation continued, it was revealed that Nixon had installed a taping system in the Whitehouse, to record all conversations that took place. After this revelation, it became a certain urgency to get a hold of the tapes. After all, if Nixon or any other Whitehouse official was involved in the Watergate scandal, then their voices would be on the tape, if not then they would be free of conviction. The Nixon tapes were under fire, the prosecution needed to get their hands on it. The tapes were declared significant for the grand jury’s criminal investigation. This was the first time anyone had ever subpoenaed the president, and Nixon received two on the same day. He got one from the committee and one from the prosecutor, Archibald Cox (Emery 576). At this point, Nixon was claiming that neither Congress, nor Cox had the right to demand evidence from the executive branch, and said it was â€Å"vital to national security†. Nixon’s refusal to hand the tapes over, forced the Senate Committee to come up with a way of forcing Nixon to hand the tapes over. After all, Nixon controlled the Department of Justice, the FBI, and the Armed Forces. Nixon’s position as president started to cause problems, for the Senate. They had come to realize that they were at a stand still and Nixon had the upper hand. His apparent control over major parts of the government was becoming a hindrance. The committee was desperate for a plan to obtain the recorded tapes, and a solution was finally given by the prosecution. The plan was to â€Å"sue for the tapes in federal court†. The Senate Committee agreed to this solution and helped the prosecution follow through. The lawsuit went to the same judge as the one who was overseeing the Watergate trial. The judge â€Å"charged the president to turn over the tapes to the prosecutor† (Emery 576). The Whitehouse appealed to the Federal Court of appeals. The court ruled in favor of the judge, and demanded the tapes out of Nixon. This enraged Nixon; after all, Cox was an employee of the executive branch, and was challenging his authority. Thus, Nixon ordered the Attorney General Elliot Richardson to fire Cox. He refused and resigned. Nixon then asked the deputy to fire Cox. The deputy also resigned. Nixon finally asked a third-ranking Justice Department official to fire Cox, and become the new Attorney General. He agreed. This incident was called â€Å"The Saturday Massacre†. This brought a lot of pressure down on Nixon; he therefore agre ed to appoint a new prosecutor. The prosecutor was Leon Jaworski. The prosecutor agreed under the condition that Nixon could not fire him. So, as the trial continued, the tapes were examined and as a result an alarming discovery was made. There was an 18-minute gap in one of the tapes (Emery 576). â€Å"Prosecutor Jaworski demanded that the Whitehouse turn over 69 more tapes. Once again the Supreme Court ruled that Nixon had to supply the subpoenaed tapes† (Emery 576). On July 27th- 30th, the Judiciary Committee suggested that Nixon be impeached on three charges: obstruction of justice, abuse of presidential power, and trying to hinder the impeachment process by defying committee subpoenas. The committee voted on his impeachment, and the vote went against him. Therefore Nixon had to stand trial before the U.S Senate and was found guilty. In the aftermath, the Whitehouse released a transcript of the tapes. In it, there was a conversation between Nixon and Haldeman (Nixon’s chief of staff). Nixon told Haldeman to cease the FBI’s investigation of Watergate. This â€Å"made it clear that Nixon was involved in the cover-up from the beginning† (Emery 576). At nine-o’clock on August 8, 1974 Nixon made his last speech as president. He only admitted to losing the two branches’ support. At noon, the Vice-president, Gerald R. Ford, was inaugurated. He told the American people in his speech that â€Å"†¦our long national nightmare is over† (Emery 576) â€Å"President Ford insisted he had no intention of pardoning Nixon† (Brown Tindall, and Emory Shi 1264). But on September 1974, Ford issued the pardon to Nixon, explaining that this was necessary to end the national obsession (especially by the media) with Watergate. Following the Watergate Scandal, Congress legislature limited the actual input any president had in external affairs. The War Powers Act (1973) â€Å"requires a president to inform Congress within forty-eight hours if U.S. troops are deployed in combat abroad and to withdraw troops after sixty days unless Congress specifically approves their stay† (Brown Tindall, and Emory Shi 1264). Congress also had a reaction to Nixon’s â€Å"executive privileges† by strengthening the 1966 Freedom of Information Act. By the end of 1975, amendments to the Freedom of Information Act had become effective and the Privacy Act of 1974 also became effective. â€Å"The passage of these laws provided for broad access to FBI records which previously had been severely limited. In the past twenty plus years, the FBI has handled over 300,000 requests and over six million pages of FBI documents have been released to the public in paper format.† (Freedom of Information Act (USA)). The Watergate Scandal, and the parties involved played a key factor in the shaping of the executive branch that we have today. Limitations and guidelines have been set; there is no longer a threat of the pushing of boundaries by the president, his appointed cabinet, or the federal agencies that are in direct control of the executive branch. Although these acts of legislation have limited the executive branch, they have not hindered the job of the presidency in anyway. As you can see, checks and balances have been a key focal point from the creation of American democracy. Therefore we must trust the other branches of our government to do their jobs and look out for the safety of our country and exercise their power of maintaining the balance of powers. Research Papers on Effecting America One Scandal at a TimeThe Effects of Illegal ImmigrationQuebec and CanadaNever Been Kicked Out of a Place This NiceAnalysis of Ebay Expanding into Asia19 Century Society: A Deeply Divided EraThe Relationship Between Delinquency and Drug UsePETSTEL analysis of IndiaUnreasonable Searches and SeizuresAppeasement Policy Towards the Outbreak of World War 2Where Wild and West Meet

Disertation proposal, perception of nuclear power, associated risks, Dissertation

Disertation proposal, perception of nuclear power, associated risks, and communication strategy - Dissertation Example The cheap, safe and reliable energy sources could predetermine both a society’s functioning as a whole and any individual’s well-being in particular. Against the background of rapidly rising energy consumption worldwide and more or less dwindling reserves of fossil fuel, along with still unfolded potential and certain limitations concerning the electricity generation from renewable sources, nuclear power appears to become an increasingly reasonable option - at least according to many governments, scientists and professionals. In the case of the public opinion, however, the overall picture is alarmingly different. According to a selection of reputable opinion polls conducted in the UK between 2004 and 2007, there is low support for nuclear energy, especially compared with energy from renewable sources (Parliamentary Office of Science and Technology, 2007, p.3). In 2010, just 38 per cent of the respondents to a Cardiff University/Ipsos MORI poll ‘believed the benefi ts of nuclear power outweighed the risks and only 39 per cent trusted the industry to run the plants safely’ (Ecologist, 2010). ... Given the legacy of the Cold War thinking, reinforced by past and recent incidents in nuclear plants like those in Chernobyl and Fukushima, along with the usual mistrust towards the government, such a trend is not a complete surprise; moreover, most of the people as a whole, and perhaps a good deal of those polled in particular, either don’t fully realise the scale and consequences of the climate change, or do consider them a faraway future and therefore not an issue to worry about, as against the existing, yet greatly exaggerated, immediate risks for people’s health and lives, which appear to form the poor image of nuclear power. This issue is being repeatedly addressed by governmental and scientific reports, documents and writings, with varying, but definitely insufficient effect, as seen from the latest polls’ results. Though the set of intentions and recommendations contained in those writings, aimed at influencing the public opinion, is considered generally correct, namely well-targeted educational campaigns, nuclear waste solutions, continued focus on safety, etc., the result, or more precisely the faint result, implies two possibilities: These efforts would need much longer time to bear fruit; There is something wrong with the messages themselves – whether in terms of formulation and clarity, or in the way they are communicated to the general public; As in most of the cases, the truth might lie in somewhere between the two – whereas a daunting task, like gaining public support for something that full of misconceptions and therefore so badly understood by the average person in the street, as nuclear power, inevitably

Teamwork And Motivation Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Teamwork And Motivation - Essay Example The employers therefore face the uphill task that needs them to preserve the productivity and profitability that they have while trying their best to keep the employees that they have engaged and satisfied with their jobs. Researchers have been able to find that the social or cognitive construction view of job satisfaction deals with the effects of emotions on behavior of various kinds where the attitude that people have toward work can be associated with other perceptions about jobs such as the variety of tasks that constitute that job and the level of skills that are needed for one to be able to do that particular job. Therefore, it can be said that emotional responses may be of assistance in the determination of the reactions that the employees will have to the jobs that they are doing and the general theories of emotion might become useful in the effort to understand the attitudes that people have towards jobs (Furnham, 1992). Creating job satisfaction is therefore an endeavor that entails several steps so that in the end it can be achieved to make sure that the employees are motivated and this will be the first step in increasing the productivity. To start with, the working environment should be made to be positive where the factors that motivate the employees will be identified so that the working environment will cater for the needs of the workers. The employees of WooWoo will be entitled to discounts in the case that they need to purchase any thing that the company makes provided that they get it directly from the company. The company will also make sure that it organizes get-togethers were the management and the other employees can have the chance to interact and the views of the employees can be listened to and adjustments made if possible. The employees that have an exemplary performance at work and those that beat the deadlines that are set will be recognized through a program that will be aimed at identifying the employee of the

Super Size Me Analysis Essay Example for Free

Super Size Me Analysis Essay To some, eating solely off the McDonald’s menu for thirty days to see what the effects may be is looked down at as an attack on unhealthy and fast food corporations, but to many, Super Size Me is an incredible documentary that helps shine a light on the horrendous effects that fast food has on our society. Morgan Spurlock’s rules are simple: only food off of McDonald’s menu may be eaten, he must consume three meals a day, if asked to super size he must, and everything on the menu must be eaten at least once. On day one he goes and gets baseline measurements of his body from numerous health and medical experts to be able to gauge himself as the month progresses, and from there on out, it’s chow time. Morgan Spurlock’s Super Size Me digs beyond the obvious correlation between fast food and poor health. Spurlock exposes the flaws in our society’s choice of food, makes the point that personal responsibility is essential, and openly criticizes corporate and government deniability. By using an extremely personal setting, a plethora of unforgettable visuals, interesting dialogues, a steady change in tone, and incorporation of children, Spurlock effectively delivers his message that fast food is a fast way to deteriorate your state of health. Morgan Spurlock, unlike many other documentary producers, creates an extremely personal point of view. He does so by allowing the viewer to see over his own shoulder, and not a random test subject, to watch his month long McDonald’s binge. Spurlock immediately, and at times humorously, opens up completely to the audience. Before the viewer knows it, Spurlock is half naked at the doctor’s, throwing up on camera, and being torn apart by his wife about his in ability to perform in the bed. By having this more personal and open point of view, Spurlock is able to earn more of the audience’s trust making it easier for him to get his message across. Second to the personal setting, the visual effects utilized by Spurlock make the message of the documentary hard to forget. Without fail, every two to five minutes a McDonald’s â€Å"Golden Arches† appear somewhere on the screen, making it hard for the audience not to pair a negative denotation with it by the end of the film. Aside from all of the McDonald’s signs, the camera consistently zooms in, as close as one would ever want to be, to Spurlock’s super sized french fries and extra greasy Big Mac. Watching the repetitiveness of close ups on processed, fried, and poorly made food is enough for any viewer to not want to east fast food for quite sometime. Spurlock also uses simple charts, such as the ones to display his portrait as days pass, to allow the viewer to easily see the trend of negative health increasing directly with the amount of time spent on his McDonald’s diet. Another interesting visual Spurlock uses is the satanic drawings of what appears to be Ronald McDonald. The pictures are demonic and are supposed to depict Ronald as a ruthless clown and not someone a little kid would like to be around. And if all of these visuals weren’t enough, Spurlock goes even further when he shows a common body weight reduction surgery in action. The viewer first sees probes with cameras and tools inserted into the patient’s repulsively large belly, and then ends up inside the patient’s fat filled stomach watching the surgeons nip and tuck away. Spurlock makes it very hard for the viewer to forget what his message is with all of these images that stick in the back of your mind. From the head of McDonald’s to a middle school kid buying lunch, Spurlock carries out an assortment of dialogues throughout the documentary. Although many are significant, the most memorable and effective would have to be the conversations Spurlock has while visiting Madison Junior High School. He first confronts a girl with only cookies and french fries on her plate and asks her if she’s going to eat anything else. The girl simply says no. Spurlock moves on to the lunch line and asks a girl if she was going to get anything else other than french fries on her plate and she responds, â€Å"Well I’m getting milk†¦ its my calcium and my vegetables. † If you weren’t disgusted with the kid’s food choices alone, Spurlock moves on to the lunch ladies to get their two cents on the food being served at their school. The lunch ladies were content with the saying â€Å"ignorance is bliss. They serve the kids french fries, swiss rolls, and high sugar drinks, assuming that they had brought their own sandwich from home, but none of them ever checked to see. They all claim that they are setting up the kids to make the right choices yet most of the kids aren’t. All of these dialogues Spurlock has at the Junior High School in Illinois were very eye opening, and made the viewer feel obligated to see more of what is going on behind the scenes at their own local schools. Further on in the film, Spurlock calls McDonald’s  Headquarters trying to set up an appointment with someone high up in the corporation. Nearly every phone call he made he is promised either a message be delivered, a return phone call, or a good time to call back. Following close to twenty phone calls later, Spurlock gives up trying to schedule an appointment with the head of McDonald’s. After seeing Spurlock get shot down time and time again, it makes the viewer wonder if McDonald’s is trying to dodge a question that could damage their reputation, as well as contemplate how unprofessional their business is run. Another key strategy Spurlock uses throughout his month long McDonald’s stint is the gradual change in tone. From the beginning, Spurlock is very excited to kick off his McDonald’s exclusive diet and has a cheerful tone and positive attitude. After a couple of days turn into a couple of weeks, Spurlock’s tone changes drastically. Instead of optimistic and cheery, like from the beginning of the month, Spurlock now has a rather negative and dire one. Phone calls between him and his girlfriend that once were normal, turn in to him seriously questioning his will to continue with his experiment. Spurlock’s tone and attitude are easily noted as having a negative correlation with days spent on the McDonald’s diet. By showing this trend, Spurlock is able to emphasize the emotional, rather than just the physical, effects of his diet to the viewers. Throughout the documentary, Spurlock continuously incorporates children to capture the viewer’s attention and to show that the obesity problems start at a young age. â€Å"A Pizza Hut, a Pizza Hut, Kentucky Fried Chicken, and a Pizza Hut. McDonald’s, McDonald’s, Kentucky Fried Chicken, and a Pizza Hut† is sang by young children, some being obese, right at the start of the film. If this doesn’t raise a red flag in one’s head that children are being taught how to sing America’s most unhealthy fast food restaurants in school, I’m not sure what will. Spurlock also spends a decent portion of his documentary in schools. He examines the food choices available to the kids, asks them about what they eat, and observes their physical education class. The most effective use of incorporating children is the interviews he conducts by holding up pictures of famous Americans and famous fast food icons, then asking the children who they are and what they were. Some of the children could identify George Washington and what he did, but as soon as Spurlock showed them a picture of Jesus all were stumped, one boy even guessed he was George W. Bush. Then the pictures of Wendy and Ronald McDonald were shown, and to no surprise every kid there knew exactly who Ronald was and that he is associated with McDonald’s. By putting this emphasis on young children being led down the wrong path at an early age, makes the viewers compelled to believe that our society is going wrong with teaching healthy food choices. Whether it was the personal touch, visuals, dialogues, change in tone, real footage, or incorporation of children, Morgan Spurlock does an impeccable job provoking Americans to question their choice in food and influencing them to take action. When the final results of Spurlock’s experiment are posted (13% weight increase, cholesterol level of 230, and dysfunctional liver) it’s going to be very hard for me to walk into a McDonald’s. So, next time I’m faced with the choice of eating at fast food or taking a little time of my day to cook myself a meal, I definitely know which one I’ll be doing, but the real question is will everyone else?

COMPARATIVE :: essays papers

COMPARATIVE Homer Winslow and Jules Breton, two men painting the canvas of the nineteenth century. Comparing their art gives birth to numerous differences and unique qualities hidden within their work and lives. Dressing For The Carnival, Homer 1877, and The Weeders, Breton 1868, are fine examples of their careers as artists. "Beyond the aesthetic merits of his work, Breton is significant as the painter whose vision of French rural life best embodies a set of late nineteenth- century ideals: the charm and wholesomeness of rustic ways, the nobility of living close to the soil, the beauty of preindustrial landscape, and the social harmony of the agrarian community." ( Sturges) Breton’s work was unique in content, painting for himself, impressing his personal values to the viewer. Although he did not fit the mold, by producing classical and historical works, there were other artists struggling with expression and values of a newer mind, artists like Winslow Homer. "While he was at work in Petersburg, it became known to a group of fine young fire-eaters that he was consorting w ith the blacks, and they resolved to drive him out of town as a ‘d-d nigger-painter.’ Word had come to him that the place was to be made too hot for him, but he paid no attention to the warning." ( Hendricks) Both Breton and Homer were leaders for impressionism, however, the two works mentioned above vary greatly. Both artists focused on similar subject matter, figures in a scene or landscape. However a closer observation of specific images, narrative, symbols, sources, and process divide the two pieces to separate sides of late eighteen hundreds paintings. Physical elements such as composition, position of figures in space, brush work, color, viewpoint, and surface treatment all contribute to this separation of similar subject matter. The composition of The Weeders is un cropped, fairly balanced and symmetrical. The foreground is bold, the middle ground is expansive and the back ground strong and deep. Our view is that of perhaps a weeder on the field. Homer’s Carnival is cropped and less symmetrical with figures emerging from off the canvas. Less emphasis is placed on use of foreground, in turn creating less depth. Breton’s figures hold much movement and expression, women working the field are crouched close to the viewer. Farther back a woman stands alone, basket full, gaze and body positioned toward the setting sun. The women weeding are bent and tired.

Night World : Black Dawn Chapter 17

He stared at her for an instant, his golden eyeswide. â€Å"Don't you believe me?† â€Å"I wouldn't put it past Sylvia to try,† he said. â€Å"ButI don't think she's strong enough.† â€Å"She said she got special ingredients. And shesaid that nobody else could take the spell off.†When he still looked doubtful, although a bit more grim, Maggie added, â€Å"Why don't youtry it?† He reached down with long, strong fingers to pullat the fastenings of his brace. It came off easily,and Maggie's eyebrows went up. She blinked. He extended his arm, pointing it at the wall, anddrew a dagger from his belt. Maggie had forgotten about the blood part. Shebit the inside of her cheek and didn't say anythingashe opened a small cut on his wrist. Blood welled up red, then flowed in a trickle. â€Å"Just a little blast,† Delos said, and looked calmlyat the wall. Nothing happened. He frowned, his golden eyes flaring dangerously. Maggie could see the concentration in his face. Hespread his fingers. Still nothing happened. Maggie let out her breath. I guess spells are invisible, she thought. The brace was just for show.Delos was looking at his armasif it didn't belong to him. â€Å"We're in trouble,† Maggie said, trying not tomake it sound like I told you so. â€Å"While they thought they were alone in here, they were talkingabout all kinds of things. All Hunter cares about is getting you to help him destroy the humans. Butthere's been some big split in the Night World, and the witches have seceded from it.† Delos went very still, and his eyes were distant.†That means war. Open war between witches and vampires.† â€Å"Probably,† Maggie said, waving a hand vaguely.†But, listen, Delos, the witches sent somebody here,an ambassador, to talk to you. To try to get you on their side. Hunter said they've got one of the Wild Powers on their side already-the witches, I mean.Are you getting this?† â€Å"Of course,† Delos said. But now his voice wasoddly distant, too. He was looking at something Maggie couldn't see. â€Å"But one out of four doesn'tmatter. Two out of four, three out of four-it's notgood enough.† â€Å"What are you talkingabout?† Maggie didn't waitfor him to answer. â€Å"But, look. I know the girl whocame to talk to you. It's the girl I was with on therocks, the other one you saved from Bern. She'sAradia, and she's Maiden of all the witches. And,Delos, they're looking for her right now. They wantto kill her to stop her from getting to you. And she's my friend.† â€Å"That's too bad.† â€Å"We've got to stopthem,† Maggie said, exasperated. â€Å"Wecan't.† That brought Maggie up short. She stared at him.†What are you talking about?† â€Å"I'm saying we can't stop them. They're toostrong. Maggie, listen to me,† he said calmly and clearly, when she began an incoherent protest. That's the first time he's said my name out loud, she thought dizzily, and then she focused on hiswords. â€Å"It's not just the spell they've put on me. And it'snot just that they control the castle. Oh, yes, theydo,† he said with a bitter laugh, cutting her off again. â€Å"You haven't been here very long; you don'tunderstand. The nobles here are centuries old,most of them. They don't like being ruled by a precocious child with uncanny powers. As soon asHunter showed up, they transferred their loyalty to him.† ‘BUt-â€Å"‘ â€Å"He's everything they admire. The perfect vampire, the ultimate predator. He's ruthless andbloodthirsty and he wants to give them the wholeworldas their hunting grounds. Do you really thinkany of them can resist that? After years of huntingmindless, bewildered animals that have to be rationed out one at a time? With maybe the oddcreaky slave for a special treat? Do you think any of them won't follow him willingly?† Maggie was silent. There was nothing she couldsay. He was right, and it was scary. â€Å"And that isn't all,† he continued remorselessly.†Do you want to hear a prophecy?† â€Å"Not really,† Maggie said. She'd heard more thanenough of those for one lifetime. He ignored her. â€Å"My old teacher used to tell methis,† he said. â€Å"‘Four to stand between the light and theshadow, Four of blue fire, power in their blood. Born in the year of the blind Maiden's vision;Four less one and darkness triumphs.'† â€Å"Uh huh,† Maggie said. To her it sounded likejust more of the same thing. The only interestingthing about it was that it mentioned the blindMaiden. That had to be Aradia, didn't it? She wasone famous witch. â€Å"What's `born in the year of the blind Maiden'svision?†Ã¢â‚¬Ëœ she asked. â€Å"It means all the Wild Powers are the same age,born seventeen years ago,† Delos said impatiently. `But that's not the point. The point is the last line,`Four less one and darkness triumphs.' That meansthat the darkness is going to win, Maggie.† â€Å"What do you mean?† â€Å"It's inevitable. There's no way that the humansand the witches can get all four Wild Powers ontheir side. And if there's even one less than four,the darkness is going to win. All the vampires need to do is kill one of the Wild Powers, and it's allover. Don't you see?† Maggie stared at him. She did see what he wassaying, and it was even scarier than what he'd saidbefore. â€Å"But that doesn't mean we can just give up,†she said, trying to puzzle out his expression. â€Å"If we do that, it will be all over. We can't just surrender and letthem win.† â€Å"Of course not,† he said harshly. â€Å"We have tojoin them.† There was a long silence. Maggie realized that her mouth had fallen open. â€Å"†¦ what?† â€Å"We have to be on the winning side, and that'sthe vampire side.† He looked at her with yelloweyes that seemed as remote and deathly calm as apanther's. â€Å"I'm sorry about your friends, but there's no chance for them. And the only chance for youis to become a vampire.† Maggie's brain suddenly surged into overdrive. All at once, she saw exactly what he was saying.And furygave her energy. He was lightning-fast, but she jumped up and out of the way before he could close his hands on her. â€Å"Are you out of your mind?† â€Å"No â€Å"You're going to killme?† â€Å"I'm going to save your life, the only way I can.†He stood up, following her with that same eerie calm. I can't believe this. I †¦really †¦can't †¦ believe this, Maggie thought. She circled around the bed, then stopped. It was pointless; he was going to get her eventually. She looked into his face one more time, and saw that he was completely serious. She dropped herarms and relaxed her shoulders, trying to slow herbreathing, meeting his eyes directly. â€Å"Delos, this isn't just about me, and it's not justabout my friends. It's about all the slaves here, andall the humans on the Outside. Turning me into a vampire isn't going to help them.† â€Å"I'm sorry,† he said again. â€Å"But you're all that really matters.† â€Å"No, I'm not,†Maggie said, and this time the hottears didn't stop at her eyes, but overflowed and rolled down her cheeks. She shook them off angrily, and took one last deep breath. â€Å"I won't let you,† she said. â€Å"You can't stop me.† â€Å"I can fight. I can make you kill me before youturn me into a vampire. If you want to try it thatway, come and take your best shot.† Delos's yellow eyes bored into hers-and thensuddenly shifted and dropped. He stepped back, hisface cold. â€Å"Fine,† he said. â€Å"If you won't cooperate, I'll putyou in the dungeon until you see what's best foryou. Maggie felt her mouth drop open again.†You wouldn't,† she said. â€Å"Watch me.† The dungeon, like everything else in the castle,was heart-stoppingly authentic. It had something that Maggie had read about in books but hadn't seen in the rooms above: rushesand straw on the floor. It also had a stone benchcarved directly into the stone wall and a narrow,barred window-slit about fifteen feet above Mag gie's head. And that was all it had. Once Maggie had poked into the straw enoughto discover that she didn't really wantto know whatwas down there and shaken the iron bars that made up the door and examined the stone slabs in the wall and stood on the bench to try to climb to the window, therewas nothing else to do. She sat on the bench and felt the true enormity of the situation trickle in on her. She was really stuck here. Delos was really serious. And the world, the actual, real world out there, could be affected as a consequence. It wasn't that she didn't understand his motivation. She had been in his mind; she'd felt thestrength of his protectiveness for her. And she wanted to protect him, too. But it wasn't possible to forget about everyoneelse. Her parents, her friends, her teachers, thepaper girl. If she let Delos give up, what happenedto them? Even the people in the Dark Kingdom. Laundressand Old Mender and Soaker and Chamber-pot Emptier and all the other slaves. She caredabout them. She admired their gritty determination to goon living, whatever the circumstances-and theircourage in risking their lives to help her. That's what Delosdoesn't understand, shethought. He doesn't see them as people, so he can'tcare about them. All his life he's only cared abouthimself, and now about me. He can't look beyondthat. If only she could think of a way to makehimsee-but she couldn't. As the hours passed and thesilence began to wear on her, she kept trying. No inspiration came. And finally the light outsideher cell began to fade and the cold started to settle in. She was half asleep, huddled on her chilly bench,when she heard the rattle of a key in a door. She jumped up and went to peer through the bars, hoping to see Delos. The door at the end of the narrow stone corridoropened and someone came in with a flare. But itwasn't Delos. It was a guard, and behind him wasanother guard, and this one had a prisoner. â€Å"Jeanne!† Maggie said in dismay. And then her heart plummeted further. A third guard was half marching, half supporting Aradia. Maggie looked at them wordlessly. It wasn't like Jeanne not to fight, she thought, asthe guards opened the cell door and shoved theother girls in. The door clanged shut again, and the guardsmarched back out without speaking. Almost as an afterthought, one of them stuck a flare in an ironring to give the prisoners some light. And then they were gone. Jeanne picked herself up off the floor, and thenhelped Aradia get up. â€Å"They've got P.J. upstairs,†she said to Maggie, who was still staring. â€Å"Theysaid they wouldn't hurt her if we went quietly.† Maggie opened her mouth, shut it again, andtried to swallow her heart, which was in her throat.At last she managed to speak. â€Å"Delos said that?† â€Å"Delos and Hunter Redfern and that witch.They're all very chummy.† Maggie sat down on the cold bench.†I'm sorry,† she said. â€Å"Why? Because you're too stupidly trusting?†Jeanne said. â€Å"You're not responsible for him.† â€Å"I think she means because she's his soulmate,†Aradia said softly. Jeanne stared at her as if she'd started speaking a foreign language. Maggie stared, too, feeling hereyes getting wider, trying to study the beautiful features in the semidarkness. She felt oddly shy of this girl whom she'd calledCady and who had turned out to be something shecould never have imagined. â€Å"How did you know that?† she asked, trying notto sound tongue-tied. â€Å"Can you justtell?† Asmile curved the perfect lips in the shadows.†I could tell before,† Aradia said gently, backing upquite accurately to sit on the bench. â€Å"When youcame back from seeing him the first time, but Iwas too foggy to really focus on anything then. I'veseen a lot of it in the last few years, though. Peoplefinding their soulmates, I mean.† â€Å"You're better, aren't you?† Maggie said. â€Å"Yousound lots moreawake.† It wasn't just that. Aradia had always had a quiet dignity, but now therewas an authority and confidence about her thatwas new. â€Å"The healing women helped me. I'm still weak,though,† Aradia said softly, looking around the cell. â€Å"I can't use any of my powers-not that breakingthrough walls is among them, anyway.† Maggie let her breath out. â€Å"Oh, well. I'm gladyou're awake, anyway.† She added, feeling shy again, â€Å"Um, I know your real name, now. Sorry about the misunderstanding before.† Aradia put a hand-again perfectly accuratelyon Maggie's. â€Å"Listen, my dear friend,† she said,startling Maggie with both the word and the intensity of her voice, â€Å"nobody has ever helped me more than you did, or with less reason. If you'd been oneof my people, and you'd known who I was, it wouldhave been amazing enough. But from a human, who didn't know anything about me †¦Ã¢â‚¬ Shestopped and shook her head. â€Å"I don't know if we'll even live through tonight,† she said. `But if we do,and if there's ever anything the witches can do foryou, all you have to do is ask.† Maggie blinked hard. â€Å"Thanks,† she whispered. â€Å"I meanyou know. I couldn't just leave you.† â€Å"I do know,† Aradia said. â€Å"And that's the amazingthing.† She squeezed Maggie's hand. â€Å"Whatever happens, I'll never forget you. And neither will theother witches, if I have anything to say about it.† Maggie gulped. She didn't want to get startedcrying. She was afraid she wouldn't be able to stop. Fortunately Jeanne was looking back and forthbetween them like someone at a tennis match.†What's all this sappy stuff?† she demanded. â€Å"Whatare you guys talking about?† Maggie told her. Not just about Aradia being Maiden of the witches, but about everything she'dlearned from listening to Hunter Redfern andSylvia. â€Å"So the witches have left the Night World,† Aradia said quietly, when she was finished. â€Å"They wereabout ready to when I left.† â€Å"You were coming here to talk to Delos,† Maggie said. Aradia nodded. â€Å"We heard that Hunter had gotten some lead about the next Wild Power. And weknew he wasn't goingto take any chances on letting Circle Daybreak get hold of this one.† Jeanne was rubbing her forehead. â€Å"What's Circle Daybreak? ‘It's the last circle of witches-but it isn't justwitches. It's for humans, too, and for shapeshiftersand vampires who want to live in peace with humans. And now it's for everybody who opposes the darkness.† She thought a moment and added, â€Å"I used to belong to Circle Twilight, the †¦not-so wicked witches.† She smiled, then it faded. â€Å"Butnow there are really only two sides to choose from.It's the Daylightorthe Darkness, and that's all.† â€Å"Delos really isn't on the side of the Darkness,†Maggie said, feeling the ache in her chest tighten.†He's just-confused. He'd join you if he didn'tthink it meant me getting killed.† Aradia squeezed her hand again. â€Å"I believe you,†she said gently. â€Å"So, you're some kind of bigwig of the witches,huh?† Jeanne said. Aradia turned toward her and laughed. â€Å"I'm theirMaiden, the representative of the young witches. If I live long enough, I'll be their Mother one day, and then their Crone.† â€Å"What fun. But with all that, you still can't thinkof any way to get us out of here?† Aradia sobered. â€Å"I can't. I'm sorry. If-this isn'tmuch use, but if I can do anything, it's only to givea prophecy.† Maggie made an involuntary noise in her throat. â€Å"It came while I was asleep in the healers hut,†Aradia said apologetically. â€Å"And it was just athought, a concept. That if there was to be any helpin this valley, it was through appealing to people's true hearts.† Jeanne made a much louder and ruder noisethan Maggie's. â€Å"There is one more thing,† Aradia said, turningher wide unfocused eyes toward Maggie and speaking as gently asever. â€Å"I should have mentioned thisearlier. I can tell you about your brother.†

Competitive Advantage and Objectives Analysis Essay

Competitive advantage and objectives analysis go hand in hand in determining how marketers will determine product positioning. The main goal of a marketer is to create the image of the company or the product brand. Then the job becomes establishing or positioning the same image or brand into the target market. Positioning is putting the concept into the minds of the prospective consumer. It is important for a marketer to understand the different types of analysis and know how to compare the strengths and weaknesses of each type of analysis. In the following paper a comparison of this analysis will be introduced and explained. Different Types of Analysis Used Product Positioning Product positioning analysis is an important step in the marketing plan. Product positioning is when marketers design and image and value so that consumers in the target market understand how the product is important to them. The goal of marketers is to develop the image so it appeals to consumers and builds the competitive advantage. Product positioning is like the tactical factor or analysis that is part of the overall marketing strategy. It is important when developing the positioning strategy that each part of the mix is incorporated including price, how the product will be distributed, what type of advertising will be used, and most important how well will after – sell customer service be generated. Level Two Heading Replace the level two heading with the words for your heading. The heading must be in bold font. Read more about APA headings on the APA Style Blog. Conclusion The closing paragraph is designed to bring the reader to your way of thinking if you are writing a persuasive essay, to understand relationships if you are writing a comparison/contrast essay, or simply to value the information you provide in an informational essay. The closing paragraph summarizes the key points from the supporting paragraphs without introducing any new information. References This is a hanging indent. To keep the hanging indent format, triple click your mouse on this line of text and replace the information with your reference entry. You can use the Reference and Citation Examples (Center for Writing Excellence>Tutorials and Guides>Reference and Citation Examples) to help format your source information into a reference entry. The reference page always begins on the top of the next page after the conclusion.

Mars Curiosity Rover is Uncovering Martian History

Mars Curiosity Rover is Uncovering Martian History Every day a robotic rover about the size of a small car wakes up and makes its next move across the surface of Mars. Its called the Curiosity Mars Science Laboratory rover, exploring around Mount Sharp at the center of Gale Crater (an ancient impact site)  on the Red Planet. Its one of two working rovers on the Red Planet. The other is the Opportunity rover, perched on the west rim of Endeavour Crater. The Mars Exploration Rover Spirit stopped working and is now silent after several years of exploration on its own. Each year, Curiositys science team celebrates another full Martian year of exploration. A Mars year is longer than an Earth year, roughly 687 Earth days, and Curiosity has been doing its job since August 6, 2012. It has been a momentous time, revealing dazzling new information about Earths neighbor in the solar system. Planetary scientists and future Mars mission planners are  interested in conditions on the planet, particularly its ability to support life. The Search for Martian Water One of the most important questions the Curiosity (and other) missions wants to answer is: what is the history of water on Mars? Curiositys instruments and cameras were designed to help answer that. It was fitting then, that one of Curiositys first discoveries was an ancient riverbed running underneath the rovers landing site. Not far away, at an area known as Yellowknife Bay, the rover dug into two slabs of mudstone (rock formed from mud)  and studied samples. The idea was to look for habitable zones for simple life forms. The study gave a definite yes, this could have been a place hospitable to life answer. Analysis of the mudstone samples showed that they were once at the bottom of a lake filled with water rich in nutrients. Thats the kind of place where life could have formed and flourished on the early Earth. If Mars had living organisms, this would have been a good home for them, as well.   Where Did the Water Go? One question that keeps coming up is, If Mars had a lot of water in the past, where did it all go? The answers suggest a range of places, from frozen underground reservoirs to the ice caps. Studies by the MAVEN spacecraft orbiting the planet strongly support the idea that some episode of water loss to space  occurred. This changed the planets climate.  Curiosity has measured various gases in the Martian atmosphere  and has helped Mars scientists figure out that much of the early atmosphere (which was probably wetter than now) escaped to space. More recent studies have revealed underground ice on Mars, and possibly salty meltwater just beneath the surface in some areas.   Rocks tell a fascinating story of Mars water. Curiosity  has determined of the ages of Martian rocks, and how long a rock has been exposed to harmful radiation. Rocks in direct contact with water in the past tell scientists more details about waters role on Mars. The big question: when did water flow freely across Mars is still unanswered, but Curiosity is providing data to help answer it soon. Curiosity  has also returned important information about radiation levels on the Martian surface, which would be important for assuring the safety of future Mars colonists. Future trips range from  one-way missions  to long-term missions that send and return multiple crews to and from the Red Planet. Curiositys Future Curiosity  is still running strong, despite some damage to one its wheels. That has led team members and spacecraft controllers to devise new study routes to accommodate the problem.The mission is one more step to the eventual human exploration of Mars. As with our exploration of Earth over the past centuries - using advance scouts  - this mission and others, like the MAVENmission and Indias Mars Orbiter Mission are sending back valuable word about the territory ahead, and what our first explorers will find.

Writing with Speech Recognition Software

Writing with Speech Recognition Software Writing with Speech Recognition Software Writing with Speech Recognition Software By Michael A professional writer might add a thousand words a day to their rough draft. With speech recognition software, some writers can add several thousand. Thats one reason why more writers are choosing to dictate their books. Today the error rate of speech recognition software has improved to within a percentage point of a human being. According to IBM, even a human transcriptionist hears the wrong word 4 or 5 percent of the time. IBM reached 5.5 percent in 2017. Google claims even lower than that 4.9 percent in 2017. Speech recognition can be found in Google Docs, Windows 10, your smartphone and in various home devices. Dragon Naturally Speaking is the only commercially-available speech recognition software for consumers, mostly because they bought all their competitors. According to their website, Dragon is 3x faster than typing and its 99% accurate. For higher accuracy, Dragon can be trained to recognize your own voice and vocabulary. Tips for writing with speech recognition Dictate in complete phrases or sentences. Recent advances in accuracy have come not so much from speech recognition (thats a buh not a duh) as from language recognition (after the words eat or peel the sounds buh nah nuh are probably banana). I can sometimes see my software rewrite a sentence once Ive completed it, because it now has more of the context and so can recognize more of the words. Pause between phrases, not words. Thats mostly what I just said, but it bears repeating. Separating parts of speech with pauses (It was the best of times) can really confuse the software. It likes to sense the sentence structure as you speak. Pausing between phrases is also a good habit for public speaking, or for speaking in general, for that matter. Yes, you need to pause while you think, but you dont need to keep talking while you do it. Watch the screen. If there are any errors or omissions, you want to make sure theyre not so serious that you cant remember what you really meant to say. I can handle Dragon spelling to instead of too or member instead of remembering. But sometimes the software provides a perfectly spelled word that would make no sense later. In that case, I can usually dictate the correct word again, perhaps preceding it with or rather as a newscaster might. Or you may be able to train Dragon (and yourself) that you pronounce to as tu and too as te-yoo. Or restate your sentence in different words. Dont worry about polluting your masterpiece with synonyms its probably faster than hemming and hawing for the perfect word. You can perfect it when you edit it. Keep a consistent tone, speed, and volume. Shouting, whispering or pretending youre Robin Williams will make the software work harder. It doesnt appreciate or even recognize histronics. I did a stint as a professional voice transcriptionist, repeating the speech of another person more clearly so that Dragon could understand it better. We maintained a cheerful tone as we worked, but we werent dramatic. Dont stop for mistakes. Keep a consistent flow, where words come out of your mouth at approximately the same speed they come into your mind. Your mind will appreciate that. Dont stop to fix typos or punctuation errors. Talk around any blatant mistakes restate anything thats unclear but keep dictating. Your first transcription may not be smooth or free of mistakes. But mistakes inspire creativity, because they beg you to fix them. So dont worry about making mistakes when dictating. Dont try to speak the keyboard. Youre better off just dictating words and not trying to operate your computer with your voice. Yes, Dragon has many editing commands: Scratch that, Scratch that n times, Go back, Go to top, Stop listening, Search eBay for text (NOTE TO SELF: DO NOT TRY TO WRITE NOVEL AND SHOP ON EBAY AT THE SAME TIME.) But the main commands I use are Period and New line Im supposed to be writing not editing remember? and Ive turned off my internal editor. Dragons commands are great for people who cant use a keyboard they can say Open Google Chrome or Post to Facebook but the extra learning curve can sour other people on trying the software. Hands-free editing I keep Dragon in Dictation Mode, which ignores commands as long as Im dictating quickly. Otherwise, if one of my paranoid characters shouts, Stop listening, Dragon might take me literally and not transcribe anything else. So how do you edit without using editing commands? Dictate the section again, without the mistakes. Really. Its probably faster than using the commands. It may be faster than using a keyboard. Many writers with repetitive stress injuries say that what hurt their wrists was not the typing, it was the constant cutting, pasting and mousing. With dictation, the only movement is your mouth and your eyeballs. Dictation lets you hear your words again, which lets you decide if you really like them. It even lets you combine several versions. You could have both versions open on your computer and switch your eyes between them as you read your favorite paragraph with each. Or you could print out both versions, lay the pages all over the floor, rearrange them as you like, edit them with a fat marker pen, and then smoothly read them back into your microphone. When I first tried this technique, though, the new version wasnt much better than the old. I hoped that as I reread the passage, my mind would naturally find things to correct, as a storyteller does. But seeing the text in front of me made it harder to see areas of improvement. A better strategy might be to silently read both versions again, then close my eyes and retell the story into the microphone. Dictation software works better for some writers than others, and for some types of writing than others. At first you may miss the feel of the keyboard or the pen, or you may be distracted by the sound of your voice. But for many writers, speech recognition software can set their creative process free. Want to improve your English in five minutes a day? Get a subscription and start receiving our writing tips and exercises daily! Keep learning! Browse the Writing Basics category, check our popular posts, or choose a related post below:75 Contronyms (Words with Contradictory Meanings)Among vs. AmongstOppose and Opposed To

Organizational Theory Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Organizational Theory - Essay Example Leaders should only choose conflicts that are fruitful endeavors for the company in that it one, focus on the future; secondly it is material, and lastly, it has a noble purpose (Joni and Beyer, 2009, p. 50-52). The researchers also were able to come up with their own assessment tool. Since this is a qualitative research, they exhaustively defined the use of their terms. For instance, to ‘pursue a noble purpose’ means to â€Å"make your fight about improving the lives of the customers† (Joni and Beyer, 2009, p. 51), and relates to the principles of corporate values, respect, and urgency. Focusing on the future is quite self-explanatory but they still define it as the ability of an organization to forget about the past power struggles and to move on and focus on what is ahead. It answers the principles of possibility, uncertainty, and charisma. Making it material answers the principles of value, complexity, and change (Joni and Beyer, 2009, p. 52- 53). It is define d as â€Å"something that creates lasting value, leads to a noticeable and sustainable improvement, and addresses a complex challenge that has no easy answers† (Joni and Beyer, 2009, p. 50). Description of Procedures Because of the qualitative nature of the study, Joni and Beyer (2009) made use of primary sources from various companies—press releases, profiles, and case studies; and secondary sources—articles from newspaper and business journals. These are then used throughout the study as examples and basis for their arguments.

ANT 250I MOD 3 SLP Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

ANT 250I MOD 3 SLP - Essay Example The most common muscular dystrophy is Duchenne’s muscular dystrophy – a disease found predominantly in males and diagnosed in a period between 2 and 6 years. It afflicts as approximately 1 out of every 3, 500 births (Emery 687). DMD (abbreviation for Duchenne’s muscular dystrophy) is a result of muscle fibers degeneration and atrophy brought about by the absence/lack of dystrophin, a protein which is responsible for maintaining muscle fibers intact. Specifically, the loss-of-function mutations found in dystrophin are accountable for the disease. Dystrophin’s function is to encode a specific protein - 427-kD protein. The latter is located below the sarcolemma. Dystrophin, in alliance with the associated proteins, called dystroglycan and the sarcoglycans, takes part in a mechanically powerful link which can be traced from the extracellular matrix to the cytoskeleton that underlies it (Rybakova et al 1209). Total or partial deficiency of dystrophin ruins the dystrophin-glycoprotein complex (abbreviated as DGC), which means that cytoskeleton present in the muscle fibers is no longer linked to the matrix (Hoffman, Brown, and Kunkel, 919). Hence, no dystrophin leads to the DGC complex functional impairment, while the mechanical stress accompanying with contraction results in the degeneration or atrophy of skeletal muscle fibers, impairment of movements, plus muscle-wasting. It finally leads to the death of the afflicted male kids which is a result of respiratory or cardiac failure, or both (Rando 1575, Petrof et al 3710). According to Engwal & Wewer, the existing dystrophin deficiency found in skeletal, as well as cardiac muscles, leads to the fact that several secondary processes start activating. Among them one may find inflammation, interstitial fibrosis, and extracellular matrix degradation, which badly affect the DMD progression (Engwal & Wewer 1579). Boys diagnosed with

Measuring Performance Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2750 words

Measuring Performance - Essay Example This report is fundamentally structured in two parts such that first part of the report highlights financial analysis of FDP with the help of ratio analysis. Last part of the report evaluates the non-financial indicators through Balanced Scorecard. Conclusion is provided at the end of this report which summarizes the performance of FDP. Background Information Cut throat competition, shrinkage in profits and increasing redundancies turned out to be the prime factors that lead FDP to change its business strategy. The company’s streamline business used to have both non-urgent and urgent delivery system of the parcel from both mail order companies as well as from internet retailers. The normal non-urgent parcel delivery system used to take around 5 to 7 working days but due to excessively increasing and tightening situation of competition especially with the entrance of international players, it has become extremely difficult for FDP now to survive in such closed competitive envir onment of the non-urgent parcel delivery system. The board of directors of the company has realized all the situations and considered different options in order to boost the revenues of FDP. The final strategy that has been selected by the board is the discontinuance of the non-urgent parcel delivery system by replacing a fast urgent delivery system which would ensure that every parcel is delivered to its recipient within 2 hours of the order booking. Such adoption of the strategy requires significant amount of investment in the existing operations of the business as the company requires more infrastructure and advancements in its communication and information technology based machines. It is intended to provide the parcel delivery personnel a notebook computer along with a parcel scanner such that they are linked with the central database system of FDP. Through all this communication devices, the tracking, collection and delivery of parcels would be delivered with much more conveni ence as well as ensuring their delivery less than 2 hours. The board has also decided to charge the premium price in respect of the urgent delivery system from the customers. Impact of Implementation of New Strategy upon the Financial Performance of FDP This strategy would be implemented from 1 December, 2011. Therefore, the impact of the change in strategy would definitely change company’s financial performance for the upcoming year. The performance of the company in respect of its profitability, leverage, efficiency, liquidity and financing has been discussed as under: Profitability Profitability is the most highly concerned area of financial performance as it is the basis upon which every business decision is taken whether it is small as per company’s perspective or large. Whatever the decision the company takes, everyone is interested to know as what would be the impact of that decision upon the profitability position of the company. Generally there are few profita bility ratios that actually highlight the profitability in terms of various different perspectives. Some of those ratios are discussed as under: Net Profit Margin The company was struggling to maintain a steady growth rate in terms of its Net profit Margin in the past two years but with the implementation of the new strategy, the company can stabilize the growth rate of net profit margin

Become Legendary Essay Example for Free

Become Legendary Essay The Kobe and Lebron comparison is now probably the biggest and most controversial talk in today’s sports news. Lebron can go to the hoop with authority, while Kobe is a sleek and flashy all around shooter. Although being two of the best players in the world they are very different in the ways they play the game of basketball. Though both Kobe and Lebron went to the NBA straight out of high school, and being two of the league’s best all around players who are lethal threats which must take an extraordinary game plan to defend. With the association and contrast of the two legends, whether it is by trophies or championship titles, or all around stat freaks, these will be main contributing factors in crowning the best. Kobe Bryant is arguably one of the league’s best all around players of all time. He can drive, shoot, and his finish is one of a kind. His defense is shut down and plays with fouls as a defensive mechanism. Not only is he top class on the floor, but on the free throw line as well. Also being one of the league’s most consistent free throw shooters since entering the NBA. Kobe plays the game as if he invented it; he is one of the world’s most respected and popular players. Kobe has five NBA championships and is a twelve time NBA all star. Kobe Bryant age thirty-two is one of the most decorated players in the history of the NBA, and is a future hall -of -famer. Kobe also has had an unheard of eighty-one points in a single game. Kobe’s down side is that he is not consistently aggressive or hard going to the boards (getting rebounds or dunking). With all that said I feel like Kobe Bryant will ever be remembered as one of the elite players to ever play in the NB A. Lebron James aka â€Å"King James† is a one of a kind, straight out of high school player who took on the league with a head full of steam. One of the most athletic and young freaks the NBA has probably ever seen. He has matured from a young kid to a man in a matter of seasons, while adding a different edge to his game every year. Lebron who is seven years younger than Kobe is a seven time NBA all star, but has yet to win a single NBA championship. Coming out of high school Lebron was the first pick out of the first round  out of the NBA draft. Though Lebron the young hot shot he is seems to receive a lot of criticism because of the recent change in location to south beach. Even though Lebron is such an amazing player, the thing that hurts him the most is his shooting at times. Lebron isn’t just a basketball player; he’s a business man as well with endorsements from companies such as Nike and Sprite. Forbes magazine ranked James as the second most influential athletes in the past decade. This new kid on the block has produced points and shows what he can do every night; he puts points on the board and fans in the stands. Both of these iconic athletes are incredibly amazing in all their unique ways, whether on or off the court. Together they have won two gold medals in the Olympics for the United States. They are both the league’s present day top players who decided that college wasn’t for them. Lebron and Kobe were both first round picks in the NBA draft and the number one ranked player coming out of high school. They both are astonishingly efficient in every aspect of the offensive or defensive side of the ball. Blocking shots and playing hard noised defense is what they do best. With a shot and release like no other they are quick scorers and know how to score from anywhere and in any situation on the floor. They both bring more to the game than just skill but as leaders vocally and emotionally on their teams. Not only are they the leaders on their teams, but are the faces for basketball and the NBA everywhere in the world. In my opinion this is not even that close. James has better numbers across almost every statistical category. In clutch situations such as fourth quarter or overtime, less than five minutes left, neither team ahead by more than five points. Bryant actually has a higher field goal percentage and three-point percentage as well as more rebounds and assists per 48 minutes. James is a superior slasher, finisher, and defender as well as being stronger and more athletic. Bryant may have a killer instinct, but James has a mean streak of his own. With his unbelievable three point plays and up tempo offense. When all is said and done, Lebron James may go down as a better NBA basketball player than Kobe Bryant, but who knows, these guys are neck and neck.

My Personal Support Group (Cheerleading) :: essays research papers

My Personal Support Group Honors I am often sorry that my parents did not take it upon themselves to enroll me in any recreational activities in my preadolescent years. I believe that sports are an integral part of growing up. They provide an opportunity to meet and interact with peers. Numerous occasions I can recall feeling excluded from the group because of my lack of involvement. Although I have to admit, I am not a tough girl. Most likely I would not excel in any contact sport.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Cheerleading tryouts proved to be a revelation. I knew it was the activity for me. Although I was not confident in my coordination, I vowed that it would improve with practice. I had regularly admired those spirited girls, being that my sister had once traveled that path. I faithfully attended all high school games, not to watch the players, but the cheerleaders. I was convinced that this was my calling.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The week of tryouts was non-stop practice. I lived, ate, and breathed cheerleading. My mother began to worry that I would not have the energy by the end of the week to try out. When te big day finally arrived I was a tight ball of nerves. I could hardly contain myself. I was brimming with 100 watts of nervous energy. The kind that gives one piercing pains throughout their body at the least expected moments. Waiting for the results my anxiety turned into burning tears. When my name was announced as a member of the squad I thought I would burst.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  My freshman year of cheering was exceptional. I became fast friends with my entire squad. For the most part, we got along great. I imagine that we had more fun than the players, or fans. Faster than expected our season came to an end. It was time for tryouts once again.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Now that I knew the ropes, I was praying this tryout would be a breeze. I could not have been farther from the truth. I faithfully practiced every evening until the eagerly anticipated day. The same nervous energy overwhelmed my body as I walked onto the floor that afternoon. It seemed that within a second, the tryout was completed. Once again, I was forced to calmly wait for the crucial results. Finally the outcome was announced. â€Å"Varsity- Kristin Callaway, Jill Jackson, Katie Manley†¦Ã¢â‚¬  I had made the Varsity squad as a sophomore.

Cultivation Theory Essay

Cultivation theory was created by George Gerbner, founder of the cultural environment movement and dean of communications at the University of Pennsylvania. Cultivation theory deals with the content of television and how it affects and shapes society for television viewers. The theory suggests that the violence embedded in television causes regular viewers to form exaggerated beliefs of society as a meaner and scary world. This is known as mean world syndrome. Although less than one percent of the population are victims of violent crimes in any one year period, heavy exposure to violent crimes through television can lead to the belief that no one can be trusted in what appears to be a violent world. Television sets are slowly replacing schools and churches as the main storyteller for families. People are watching television religiously instead of going to church. It is more common to stay at home on Sundays and watch football or the newest reality show out. It’s the wenty-four seven real life drama that television offers that attracts people to become a regular TV viewer. In their devotion to watching television on a regular basis they are exposed to the violence that is embedded in most shows on the air. Gerbner provides his three-prong plug, which is his framework for understanding why more television consumption leads to a misled perception of a risky world filled with crime. The first prong for the plug represents the concern for why media chooses the messages they deliver. Violence is a stable message delivered by the media, because it is cheap and easy to sell globally. This is mainly because violence is a universal language that is understood by everyone. The second prong represents the concern for figuring out the exact messages that television delivers. In order to do so Gerbner uses what he calls, Message System Analysis, which ultimately supplies a numerical value for what for what messages television contains. The scope of what is considered a violent message consist of any show that portrays overt expression of physical force compelling action against ones will on pain of being hurt and killed, or threatened to be victimized as part of the plot. According to Gerbner’s studies before the average TV viewer graduates from high school they will have observed thirteen thousand traumatic deaths on television. The Third and final prong represents the concern for analyzing how television content affects viewers in particular, your typical couch potato who watches television all day. Television cultivates and shapes realities towards viewers; the more a person ingests messages of violence portrayed in television the more likely they are to view the real world as a mean and scary place. Personally I do not watch television with the exception of sports, but even then you can’t avoid seeing violent acts whether it’s in a commercial for a movie or video game violence has become prominent in our society. Cultivation theory is something that affects everyone one way or another; if you personally are not affected by it chances are you know someone who is. It was something that was very obvious to me even at a young age. I grew up going to school in Windsor but living in Hartford. I noticed the mean world effect at a young age because most of my friends from school weren’t allowed to come over my house because I lived in Hartford. Back then it wasn’t as clear to me as it is now, but even to this day it still happens. Not that my friends can’t Come over but they would rather I go to where they live instead. So even today I see the effect mean world syndrome can have on people. This day in age media is something everyone is familiar with from old to young. With technology advancing at the rate it is media will have more and ore influence on our every day lives. Growing up in a generation of constant advancements in technology I have witnessed first hand how the media has used technology it to its advantage. From being able to watch live news on your phone, to getting updates from an app media is at our disposal and very easy to access. In the next ten years, media will only get bigger and bigger because it is a non-stop, twenty-four hours a day business market. It will continue to change with the advancements in technology and expand with new way to broadcasts itself.

Superstition Speech

Superstitions To inform my audience about commonly practiced superstitions, their meaning, origins, and what affects they have on our lives and commonly practiced traditions. Hi! My name is Sarah & today I am going to talk to you about superstitions. According to blah blah superstition is defined as blah blah blah. How many of you have ever crossed your fingers for good luck, or got a little nervous about something bad happening on Friday the 13th? I would bet that all of you have said or have heard someone say â€Å"God Bless You† after a sneeze.Have any of you ever wondered where the traditions of Halloween came from? Or maybe why it is thought to be bad luck for the groom to see the bride before the wedding ceremony? Today I am going to enlighten you with the answer to these questions and much more. I. For the most part superstitions can be placed into 2 categories, good or bad luck, many of them also have deeply religious meaning and use symbolism. A. Good Luck 1. You must knock on wood 3 times after mentioning good fortune or the evil spirits will ruin things for you. )The tradition traces back to an ancient pagan belief that spirits resided in trees and that by knocking on the wood, you were paying a small tribute to them by acknowledging them, and could call on them for protection against ill-fortune. Also, you were thanking them for their continued blessings and good luck. 2. Crossing two fingers (the middle and pointing fingers) on one hand as a sign of hopefulness or desire for a particular outcome. a)This is probably the superstition that is most widely used today. By making the sign of the Christian faith with our fingers, evil spirits would be prevented from destroying our chances of good fortune.It is also used as an expression: â€Å"Cross your fingers† is often told to someone hoping for good luck or a particular outcome. Sometimes, when someone tells a lie, they will cross their fingers (usually behind their back). This somehow ab solves them from the consequences or makes the lie not count. See a penny pick it up, all day long you will have good luck. b)Finding a penny and picking it up is believed to bring a day of good luck. Finding a penny with heads up is considered luckier. It is believed that this penny should not be spent; keeping it safe can bring you fortune.Any metal was considered God's gift to mankind 3. Saying â€Å"God Bless You† when someone sneezes. (1)†The blessing of those who sneeze started when the great plague took hold of Europe. Sufferers began sneezing violently, and as such, were bound to die. The Pope passed a law requiring people to bless the sneezer. At the same time, it was expected that anybody sneezing would cover their mouth with a cloth or their hand. This was obviously to stop the spreading of the disease, but many believed that it was to keep the soul intact.Sneezing ‘into the air' would allow the soul to escape and death would be imminent. Humankind has long been equating the soul with breath. It was thought that when one sneezed, the soul briefly flew out of the body, and this might allow an evil spirit to take up residence within. On the other hand, it is also said that blessing someone who sneezes is necessary because their heart skips a beat when they sneeze; it is wishing them continued good health B. Bad Luck 1. Breaking a mirror will bring seven years of bad luck. a)Romans tagged the broken mirror a sign of bad luck.The length of the prescribed misfortune, 7 years, came from the Roman belief that man's body was physically rejuvenated every 7 years, and he became, in effect, a new man. One's reflection in a mirror is thought to be the representation of his or her soul or spiritual state. Breaking the mirror, and therefore the person's reflection, would bring damage to their soul and spiritual hardship. Taking the pieces outside and burying them in the moonlight could avoid this. 2. Open an umbrella indoors and bad luck will à ¢â‚¬Å"rain† on you. a)Origin can be traced back to when umbrellas were used as sun protection.Opening one indoors supposedly was offensive to the sun (or sun god) and would bring his wrath down upon the offender 3. Walking under a ladder will bring bad luck. a)Excluding the obvious – that something might fall on you from above – the belief that walking under a ladder will bring bad luck seems to stem from the ladder forming a triangle with the wall and the ground. This represents the â€Å"Holy Trinity†, and if you violate this by entering the space, it puts you in league with the devil, and you're likely to incur God's wrath. 4. Friday the 13thThe belief that thirteen brings bad luck is an extremely pervasive belief throughout many societies, and is strong enough that many major hotels and high rises traditionally either build only twelve floors, or, if they want to go higher, skip labeling the 13th floor entirely! Many people refuse to stay on the 13th f loor, or in room 13. People stay home from work, for fear of something bad happening. Most airports don't have a thirteenth gate. There are many theories as to why this belief is held. One is that Judas, known as â€Å"the Betrayer of Jesus†, was the 13th member present at the Last Supper.Paraskevidekatriaphobia is the official term for the fear of Friday the Thirteenth. Jesus was said to have been crucified on Friday and the number of guests at the party of the Last Supper was 13, with the 13th guest being Judas, the traitor. II. Superstition plays a role in several of our nationally celebrated Holidays and traditions. A. Halloween blah blah blah 1. Costumes- The people of Ireland at that time were pagans and spirits were a part of their religion. Their beliefs involved good and evil spirits and would strive to live in harmony with both.This is where the custom of dressing up in costumes came in. On All Hallows Eve the spirits of the dead, good and evil, were believed to wal k the streets until sunrise so anyone out might run into an evil spirit and become possessed. To keep from becoming possessed, the villagers would dress in animal skins and paint their faces to scare away the bad spirits. 2. Trick or treat- it began in Ireland as part of their end-of-summer festival. October 31st is the last day of the Celtic calendar and November 1st begins the new year.On this last day of the year it what a widely-held belief that on this one night the spirits of the dead could visit the living. Family members would leave a plate of food and a place set at the table to welcome their spiritual guests. People would also leave gifts of food out to keep from angering the evil spirits and causing them to do mischief. It was a preventative measure. The saying â€Å"trick or treat† was a question, because if you left no treat you may wake up the next morning to find you had been victim of a trick or some form of mischief B. Thanksgiving blah blah During Thanksgivi ng, it is traditional to roast a turkey.When it is served, it's also traditional for two people to take the wishbone (the bird's clavicle) each making a wish, they pull apart the bone to break it. The person ending up with the larger piece will supposedly get his or her wish. Although Thanksgiving is an American holiday, the wishbone custom was brought over to the new world by the Pilgrims from England, where it had long been in practice. The ritual of breaking apart the wishbone can be traced back to the ancient Romans, Etymologists claim that the expression ‘get a lucky break' initially applied to the person winning the larger half in a wishbone tug-of-war. III. There are many wedding traditions that may seem a little silly and far fetched, and even though most of us don’t know their origin or meaning, we still include them in our wedding day rituals. A. It’s bad luck for the groom to see the bride in her wedding dress before the ceremony. 1. During the time wh en arranged marriages were custom, the couple wasn’t allowed to see each other before the wedding at all. The wedding symbolized a business deal between two families and a father would have been pleased for his daughter to marry a man from a rich family.But he also feared that if the groom met the bride before the wedding and thought she wasn’t attractive, he’d call off the wedding, casting shame onto the bride and her family. Therefore, it became tradition that the bride and groom were only allowed to meet at the wedding ceremony so that the groom did not have the opportunity to change his mind. And that veil the bride wears? Its original purpose was also to keep the groom from finding out what the bride looked like until the last possible minute, when it was too late to back out of the transactionB. Ringer Finger 1. C. The person who catches the bride’s bouquet or garter when she tosses it over her head will be the next to get married. 1. The story behi nd this tradition is downright dirty. In medieval times, it was considered lucky to get a fragment of the bride’s clothing, so hordes of guests would follow the newlywed couple into their wedding chamber after the ceremony and stand around the bed, trying to rip pieces of the bride’s gown right off her body.Because dresses were often torn apart, brides searched for alternatives to preserve their gowns and began throwing their bouquets to distract guests while they made their getaway. When the bride and groom made it safely into their wedding chamber, the groom would then crack open the door and toss the bride’s garter to the throngs of people waiting outside as a way of saying that he was about to â€Å"seal the deal. † D.The groom must carry his new wife across the threshold of their new home to prevent bad luck. 1. In ancient cultures, the threshold of the home was considered to be a hotbed of lurking, unattached evil spirits, and since a new bride was particularly vulnerable to spirit intrusion, especially through the soles of her feet, the groom ensured that his wife would not bring any bad spirits into the house by carrying her inside. Conclusion