A Walk To Remember

What salient point struck you most regarding the meaning of true love? The point in the movie that struck me the most regarding the meaning of true love Is that when you love someone, you would do everything and anything Just to make sure that the person you love will be happy and loved always. It Is true In the movie when London did his best to show how much he loved Jamie although Jamie was not her Ideal girl and she was going to die soon and leave him forever.London changed for the better hen he came to love Jamie. He realized that the most important thing for him was their love for each other. 2. Cite situations in the film which reflects the element of true love. * London changed his bad behavior and habits. He believed that it would make him to be worthy of Jasmine's love. *London stood up for Jasmine's sake against his friends. Although he knew that some of them would criticize him, he still did it for her. *London tried to fulfill all of Jasmine's wishes which she could neve r do because of her illness.Although London did not have a good relationship with his father, he still asked for his help to cure Jamie. *London married Jamie despite the fact that she would die soon. *Although years has passed, London still hold on to his promise to love Jamie forever 3. What lesson can you derive from the movie? The movie teaches me that loving someone is not all about happiness. It is also about the sufferings and challenges that a couple should face together in order to let their love last forever.A person would not be afraid to suffer and feel pain because e/she knows that the joy and affection he/she gets from loving someone is greater than those. Also, once a person learns how to truly love, he/she would be more than willing to fully accept the other one despite of her/his shortcomings as a person and as a partner. He/she would understand and care for her/him until the end. A true love means that a person Is willing to do and sacrifice everything Just to let the other person be happy and feel cherished with all the moments that they are together. . Are there differences in society's expectation in one's partner and the qualities that really count? There are differences in society's expectation in one's partner and the qualities that really count. Most people would have an ideal partner, which they assume, who would make them happy and complete. But in reality, there are many instances that the person who is destined to be loved by someone is really different from his ideal partner and his ideal situation of his love story.It does not matter if one has a particular standard for his partner. Because once he experiences how to truly love someone, he would realize that loving Is not something that should be planned ahead. What really Important Is that he knows how to value and love the other person despite the circumstances which he does not expect to come. A Walk To Remember By Emplace in the movie that struck me the most regarding the mea ning of true love is that when person you love will be happy and loved always.It is true in the movie when London did his best to show how much he loved Jamie although Jamie was not her ideal girl e/she knows that the Joy and affection he/she gets from loving someone is greater love means that a person is willing to do and sacrifice everything Just to let the other 4. Are there differences in society expectation in one's partner and the qualities that really count? There are differences in society expectation in one's partner and the truly love someone, he would realize that loving is not something that should be planned ahead. A Walk to Remember IntroductionACME Financial is a fast growing company that owes part of its growth to several recent acquisitions. ACME Financial now wants to consolidate the companies’ information technology resources to eliminate redundancy and share information among the new companies. The Chief Information Officer (CIO) has oversight responsibility for the project and has hired Client/Servers R Us to develop the architecture for the new corporate information system. Joe Consultant of C/S R Us presented 3 client/server designs to the CIO and is requesting the CIO to select one. The CIO is not sure which middleware design is best for the company’s goals. The CIO has asked Chris Consultant to present the advantages and disadvantages for each of the alternatives.Background ACME Financial Incorporated (AF Inc.) is an investment banking company that provides an on-line service that allows their clients to access account and market information. ACME Financial Inc. recently acquired several small and medium sized companies throughout the country, each with their own financial and accounting systems. Almost all of the companies have developed their own application software for their analysts’ use in their daily jobs, but only a few provided on-line account service. The analytical tools rely on near-real time market data and historical market data.The CIO wants to consolidate the financial and accounting information into a corporate information system that can support decision support applications for corporate management. Naturally, since the computer hardware is different for different companies, the CIO expects to upgrade the hardware to accommodate the new Information Technology (IT) system. The CIO will select the best analytical software as the standard software used by all company analysts. Each local site will be expected to provide an on-line service for their customers.Customers will be given the necessary application software to access their account in formation. Finally, ACME Financial has developed special data mining software that gives them a competitive advantage. AF Inc. offers their customers investment advice based on the information derived by the data mining software. Each account manager receives the information and then provides tailored recommendations to each customer based on their portfolio.System RequirementsThe following list of system requirements reflects the system’s priorities (listed roughly in order of priority): 1. Availability: The CIO’s number one priority is high availability. AF Inc. markets their reliability and feels that most clients choose them for their dependability. The CIO wants to maximize the system’s availability. To achieve high availability, if a regional office cannot provide support then a customer must always have access to the on-line service through a different office. 2. Data Integrity: The requirement for data integrity varies within the system. The most importa nt data are customer’s transactions.It is essential that a customer’s transaction is never lost and the system must guarantee that each transaction is completed. In contrast, data lost from the high data rate inputs, such as Reuter’s and the NYSE, are easily recovered during the each broadcast so it is not critical if some data are lost during a broadcast. 3. Performance: Financial markets are highly volatile; time sensitivity of data is measured in minutes. Millions can be lost if information is delayed getting to the analysts. The system must be able to support information broadcast throughout the network.4. Security: The CIO is concerned about the security of the data mining software and the information produced by the data mining software. The Chief Executive Officer thinks the data mining information software provides a competitive advantage for the company. If an unauthorized user had access to the information they could steal the data mining applications or steal the information produced by the data mining software. In either case, the perpetrator could make the same investment recommendations as AF Inc. account managers. Therefore, if competitors had access to the information the results could be financially devastating to the company.The CIO is concerned that a competitor could pose as a customer and hack into the highly sensitive information through his on-line service account. 5. Growth: The CIO envisions an incremental migration process to install the new system due to the magnitude of the change. Also, he expects that AF Inc. will continue to grow and acquire more companies. The CIO wants to be able to develop more application software as new customer services are added. The CIO also wants to add more near-real time information sources to  the system.6. Backup and Recovery: The CIO understands that the system will encounter problems from time to time. A key factor in determining the system’s success is how quickly the system can recover from a failure. Backup and recovery must be smooth and non-disruptive. One way to ensure that the system can easily recover from a system crash is to make sure the data is duplicated elsewhere on the system. The corporate database is the primary back up for each of the regional offices.ConfigurationEach local office (Northeast, Northwest, Southeast, Southwest) has accesses a regional information hub. Local offices use client software to access the local application server. These application servers access the local databases for almost all of the information needed on a daily basis. For access to information needed less frequently the application software should access the central database at corporate headquarters. Each regional database has only the subset of information that is relevant for its area, whereas the corporate headquarters maintains all of the information from each region as well as data that is unique to corporate applications, such as additional accounting and company financial information.The corporate office is also responsible for the data mining software and information. Each of the regional databases is connected with high capacity links to the corporate database. Finally, the corporate office receives information from Reuter’s, NYSE, NASDAQ, and other financial markets. The information flow fluctuates daily from 30 – 40 KBps to 4 – 5 MBps. Twenty-five percent of the information is immediately broadcast to the regional offices to support the on-line account service. All the information is filtered and stored in the database.Architectural AlternativesAlternative I: The Database Management System This alternative takes advantage of the extended functionality provided by the popular relational database management companies, such as Oracle and Sybase. All information is delivered into the system where it is immediately stored into one of the databases. The relational database management software is res ponsible for the distribution of information throughout the system. Clients communicate  with the databases through Standard Query Language (SQL).Corporate and regional databases are kept synchronized using features supplied by the RDBMS software. Transactions are guaranteed by using special Transaction Processing Software. The vendor-supplied RDBMS software is responsible for back-up and recovery of all the databases. Data security is handled at the row level within each database. This means that clients can only receive records for which their user has permission. Existing application software may have to be modified to use SQL. Alternative II: Common Object Request Broker Architecture (CORBA) This solution depends on CORBA to tie together the clients and databases. CORBA is responsible for distributing data across the system. The RDBMS software is still responsible for the back-up and recovery, but the databases are kept synchronized using CORBA as the primary transport mechani sm for the data.Clients, application servers, and databases communicate to each other through CORBA’s transport mechanism. Existing application software would be wrapped in IDL to communicate with other applications. Special near-real time handling application software would send the information to each of the regional offices where it would be directed to clients that subscribe to the information. Alternative III: Message and Queuing (M&Q) The message and queuing design uses commercial M & Q software combined with a transaction processing product to ensure customer’s transactions are completed. Dec Message Queue and MQ Series are some of the leading products for messaging and queuing software. Clients communicate to other entities using messages. Messages are deposited in queues and the message and queuing middleware is responsible for message distribution to the appropriate clients. The software applications will be modified to send and receive messages from queues.Q uestions to Answer (Total 100 points)The case study must be discussed covering the designs and these questions with your teammates, but your final write-up should be your collaborative work. Doing research on specific products for the assignment should certainly be a team activity. The total length of the write-up should probably not exceed 5 pages. 1. Describe in more detail the architecture of each architectural alternative. To do this you will need to flesh out the specifics of the various parts. This will require some research on the  products indicated (or other comparable products that you locate).Note that some services are automatically provided when a particular product is purchased, while others must be developed to satisfy the system requirements. You should describe what services are automatically provided by the products, which services would need to be developed, and how services should be distributed across the network. (40 points) 2. Evaluate each of the alternativ es against the system requirements, discussing the advantages and disadvantages of each. (You may assume that the hardware will support all solutions.) In your analysis you might consider issues such as which alternative gives the system developers the most flexibility, which alternative provides easiest maintenance, and which alternative requires the least modification to the current system. Other hints for system comparison are listed below. (40 points)3. Prioritize each alternative or suggest a different solution if you think it superior to the presented alternatives. (20 points) Suggestions on how to proceed 1. There is not enough information to make an informed decision about each of the alternatives. As a team, allot a percentage of your time to discover which products offer what type of services. You do not have enough time to do a complete market survey so be selective. 2. If you depend only on marketing information you may find that the alternatives are equivalent. So you m ight want to go beyond the market literature in doing your research for this assignment.3. As you do your analysis, pay particular attention to some of the following kinds of issues: a. How well does the architecture support the basic system functionality requirements? b. How much run time performance overhead does the architecture impose? c. How well will specific products handle the high volume of data? d. How will each architecture handle occasional peak loads? e. How easy is it to customize the system to new requirements? 4. In your analysis, when you are considering costs, you do not need to consider the actual product cost. (It may be impossible to get actual product costs anyway.) Instead, evaluate cost with respect to the amount of customized software that will be necessary to implement each alternative, and how this might affect long-term maintenance costs, time to implement, flexibility, etc.

Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff, Christ’s Childhood Pal Chapter 17

Chapter 17 I've settled into some sort of droning routine here at the hotel, and in that way it reminds me of those times in China. My waking hours are filled with writing these pages, watching television, trying to irritate the angel, and sneaking off to the bathroom to read the Gospels. And I think it's the latter that's sent my sleeping hours into a landscape of nightmare that leaves me spent even when I wake. I've finished Mark, and again this fellow talks of a resurrection, of acts beyond the time of my and Joshua's death. It's a similar story to that told by the Matthew fellow, the events jumbled somewhat, but basically the story of Joshua's ministry, but it's the telling of the events of that last week of Passover that chills me. The angel hasn't been able to keep the secret that Joshua's teachings survived and grew to vast popularity. (He's stopped even changing the channel at the mention of Joshua on television, as he did when we first arrived.) But is this the book from which Joshua's teachings are drawn? I dream of blood, and suffering, and loneliness so empty that an echo can't survive, and I wake up screaming, soaked in my own sweat, and even after I'm awake the loneliness remains for a while. Last night when I awoke I thought I saw a woman standing at the end of my bed, and beside her, the angel, his black wings spread and touching the walls of the room on either side. Then, before I could get my wits about me, the angel wrapped his wings around the woman and she disappeared in the darkness of them and was gone. I think I really woke up then, because the angel was lying there on the other bed, staring into the dark, his eyes like black pearls, catching the red blinking aircraft lights that shone dimly through the window from the tops of the buildings across the street. No wings, no black robe, no woman. Just Raziel, staring. â€Å"Nightmare?† the angel asked. â€Å"Memory,† I said. Had I been asleep? I remember that same red blinking light, ever so dim, playing on the cheekbone and the bridge of the nose of the woman in my nightmare. (It was all I could see of her face.) And those elegant contours fit into the recesses of my memory like a key in the tumblers of a lock, releasing cinnamon and sandalwood and a laugh sweeter than the best day of childhood. Two days after I had walked away, I rang the gong outside the monastery and the little hatch opened to reveal the face of a newly shaven monk, the skin of his bald scalp still a dozen shades lighter in color than that of his face. â€Å"What?† he said. â€Å"The villagers ate our camels,† I said. â€Å"Go away. Your nostrils flare in an unpleasant manner and your soul is somewhat lumpy.† â€Å"Joshua, let me in. I don't have anywhere to go.† â€Å"I can't just let you in,† Josh whispered. â€Å"You have to wait three days like everyone else.† Then loudly, and obviously for someone inside's benefit, he said, â€Å"You appear to be infested by Bedouins! Now go away!† And he slammed the hatch. I stood there. And waited. In a few minutes he opened the hatch. â€Å"Infested by Bedouins?† I said. â€Å"Give me a break. I'm new. Did you bring food and water to last you?† â€Å"Yes, the toothless woman sold me some dried camel meat. There was a special.† â€Å"That's got to be unclean,† said Josh. â€Å"Bacon, Joshua, remember?† â€Å"Oh yeah. Sorry. I'll try to sneak some tea and a blanket out to you, but it won't be right away.† â€Å"Then Gaspar will let me back in?† â€Å"He was perplexed why you left in the first place. He said if anyone needed to learn some discipline, well, you know. There'll be punishment, I think.† â€Å"Sorry I left you.† â€Å"You didn't.† He grinned, looking sillier than normal with his two-toned head. â€Å"I'll tell you one thing I've learned here already.† â€Å"What's that?† â€Å"When I'm in charge, if someone knocks, they will be able to come in. Making someone who is seeking comfort stand out in the cold is a crock of rancid yak butter.† â€Å"Amen,† I said. Josh slammed the little hatch, obviously the prescribed way of closing it. I stood and wondered how Joshua, when he finally learned how to be the Messiah, would work the phrase â€Å"crock of rancid yak butter† into a sermon. Just what we Jews needed, I thought, more dietary restrictions. The monks stripped me naked and poured cold water over my head, then brushed me vigorously with brushes made from boar's hair, then poured hot water on me, then scrubbed, then cold water, until I screamed for them to stop. At that point they shaved my head, taking generous nicks out of my scalp as they did so, rinsed away the hair that stuck to my body, and handed me a fresh orange robe, a blanket, and a wooden rice bowl. Later I was given a pair of slippers, woven from some sort of grass, and I made myself some socks from woven yak hair, but this was the measure of my wealth for six years: a robe, a blanket, a bowl, some slippers, and some socks. As Monk Number Eight led me to meet with Gaspar, I thought of my old friend Bartholomew, and how much he would have loved the idea of my newfound austerity. He often told of how his Cynic patriarch Diogenes carried a bowl with him for years, but one day saw a man drinking from his cupped palm and declared, â€Å"I have been a fool, burdened all these years by the weight of a bowl when a perfectly good vessel lay at the end of my wrist.† Yeah, well, that's all well and good for Diogenes, but when it was all I had, if anyone had tried to take my bowl they would have lost the vessel at the end of their wrist. Gaspar sat on the floor in the same small room, eyes closed, hands folded on his knees before him. Joshua sat facing him in the same position. Number Eight Monk bowed out of the room and Gaspar opened his eyes. â€Å"Sit.† I did. â€Å"These are the four rules for which you may be expelled from the monastery: one, a monk will have no sexual intercourse with anyone, even down to an animal.† Joshua looked at me and cringed, as if he expected me to say something that would anger Gaspar. I said, â€Å"Right, no intercourse.† â€Å"Two: a monk, whether in the monastery or in the village, shall take no thing that is not given. Three: if a monk should intentionally take the life of a human or one like a human, either by his hand or by weapon, he will be expelled.† â€Å"One like a human?† I asked. â€Å"You shall see,† said Gaspar. â€Å"Four, a monk who claims to have reached superhuman states, or claims to have attained the wisdom of the saints, having not done so, will be expelled. Do you understand these four rules?† â€Å"Yes,† I said. Joshua nodded. â€Å"Understand that there are no mitigating circumstances. If you commit any of these offenses as judged by the other monks, you must leave the monastery.† Again I said yes and then Gaspar went into the thirteen rules for which a monk could be suspended from the monastery for a fortnight (the first of these was the heartbreaker, â€Å"no emission of semen except in a dream†) and then the ninety offenses for which one would receive an unfavorable rebirth if the sins were not repented (these ranged from destroying any kind of vegetation or deliberately depriving an animal of life to sitting in the open with a woman or claiming to a layman to have superhuman powers, even if you had them). Overall, there was an extraordinary number of rules, over a hundred on decorum, dozens for settling disputes, but remember, we were Jews, raised under the influence of the Pharisees, who judged virtually every event of day-to-day life against the Law of Moses. And with Balthasar we had studied Confucius, whose philosophy was little more than an extensive system of etiquette. I had no doubt Joshua could do this, and there was a chance I could handle it too, if Gaspar didn't use that bamboo rod too liberally and if I could conjure enough wet dreams. (Hey, I was eighteen years old and had just lived five years in a fortress full of available concubines, I had a habit, okay?) â€Å"Monk Number Twenty-two,† Gaspar said to Joshua, â€Å"you shall begin by learning how to sit.† â€Å"I can sit,† I said. â€Å"And you, Number Twenty-one, will shave the yak.† â€Å"That's just an expression, right?† It wasn't. A yak is an extremely large, extremely hairy, buffalolike animal with dangerous-looking black horns. If you've ever seen a water buffalo, imagine it wearing a full-body wig that drags the ground. Now sprinkle it with musk, manure, and sour milk: you've got yourself a yak. In a cavelike stable, the monks kept one female yak, which they let out during the day to wander the mountain paths to graze. On what, I don't know. There didn't seem to be enough living plant life to support an animal of that size (the yak's shoulder was higher than my head), but there didn't seem to be enough plant life in all of Judea for a herd of goats, either, and herding was one of the main occupations. What did I know? The yak provided just enough milk and cheese to remind the monks that they didn't get enough milk and cheese from one yak for twenty-two monks. The animal also provided a long, coarse wool which needed to be harvested twice a year. This venerated duty, along with combing the crap and grass and burrs out of the wool, fell to me. There's not much to know about yaks beyond that, except for one important fact that Gaspar felt I needed to learn through practice: yaks hate to be shaved. It fell to Monks Eight and Seven to bandage me, set my broken legs and arm, and clean off the yak dung that had been so thoroughly stomped into my body. I would tell you the distinction of those two solemn students if I could think of any, but I can't. The goal of all of the monks was to let go of the ego, the self, and but for a few more lines on the faces of the older men, they looked alike, dressed alike, and behaved alike. I, on the other hand, was quite distinct from the others, despite my shaved head and saffron robe, as I had bandages over half of my body and three out of four limbs splinted with bamboo. After the yak disaster, Joshua waited until the middle of the night to crawl down the hall to my cell. The soft snores of monks filled the halls, and the soft turbulence of the bats that entered their cave through the monastery echoed off the stone walls like the death panting of epileptic shadows. â€Å"Does it hurt?† Joshua said. Sweat streamed from my face despite the chilly temperature. â€Å"I can hardly breathe.† Seven and Eight had wrapped my broken ribs, but every breath was a knife in the side. Joshua put his hand on my forehead. â€Å"I'll be all right, Josh, you don't have to do that.† â€Å"Why wouldn't I?† he said. â€Å"Keep your voice down.† In seconds my pain was gone and I could breathe again. Then I fell asleep or passed out from gratitude, I don't know which. When I awoke with the dawn Joshua was still kneeling beside me, his hand still pressed against my forehead. He had fallen asleep there. I carried the combed yak wool to Gaspar, who was chanting in the great cavern temple. It amounted to a fairly large bundle and I set it on the floor behind the monk and backed away. â€Å"Wait,† Gaspar said, holding a single finger in the air. He finished his chant, then turned to me. â€Å"Tea,† he said. He led and I followed to the room where he had received Joshua and me when we had first arrived. â€Å"Sit,† he said. â€Å"Sit, don't wait.† I sat and watched him make a charcoal fire in a small stone brazier, using a bow and fire drill to start the flames first in some dried moss, then blowing it onto the charcoal. â€Å"I invented a stick that makes fire instantly,† I said. â€Å"I could teach – â€Å" Gaspar glared at me and held up the finger again to poke my words out of the air. â€Å"Sit,† he said. â€Å"Don't talk. Don't wait.† He heated water in a copper pot until it boiled, then poured it over some tea leaves in an earthenware bowl. He set two small cups on the table, then proceeded to pour tea from the bowl. â€Å"Hey, doofus!† I yelled. â€Å"You're spilling the fucking tea!† Gaspar smiled and set the bowl down on the table. â€Å"How can I give you tea if your cup is already full?† â€Å"Huh?† I said eloquently. Parables were never my strong suit. If you want to say something, say it. So, of course, Joshua and Buddhists were the perfect people to hang out with, straight talkers that they were. Gaspar poured himself some tea, then took a deep breath and closed his eyes. After perhaps a whole minute passed, he opened them again. â€Å"If you already know everything, then how will I be able to teach you? You must empty your cup before I can give you tea.† â€Å"Why didn't you say so?† I grabbed my cup, tossed the tea out the same window I'd tossed Gaspar's stick, then plopped the cup back on the table. â€Å"I'm ready,† I said. â€Å"Go to the temple and sit,† Gaspar said. No tea? He was obviously still not happy about my almost-threat on his life. I backed out of the door bowing (a courtesy Joy had taught me). â€Å"One more thing,† Gaspar said. I stopped and waited. â€Å"Number Seven said that you would not live through the night. Number Eight agreed. How is it that you are not only alive, but unhurt?† I thought about it for a second before I answered, something I seldom do, then I said, â€Å"Perhaps those monks value their own opinions too highly. I can only hope that they have not corrupted anyone else's thinking.† â€Å"Go sit,† Gaspar said. Sitting was what we did. To learn to sit, to be still and hear the music of the universe, was why we had come halfway around the world, evidently. To let go of ego, not individuality, but that which distinguishes us from all other beings. â€Å"When you sit, sit. When you breathe, breathe. When you eat, eat,† Gaspar would say, meaning that every bit of our being was to be in the moment, completely aware of the now, no past, no future, nothing dividing us from everything that is. It's hard for me, a Jew, to stay in the moment. Without the past, where is the guilt? And without the future, where is the dread? And without guilt and dread, who am I? â€Å"See your skin as what connects you to the universe, not what separates you from it,† Gaspar told me, trying to teach me the essence of what enlightenment meant, while admitting that it was not something that could be taught. Method he could teach. Gaspar could sit. The legend went (I pieced it together from bits dropped by the master and his monks) that Gaspar had built the monastery as a place to sit. Many years ago he had come to China from India, where he had been born a prince, to teach the emperor and his court the true meaning of Buddhism, which had been lost in years of dogma and overinterpretation of scripture. Upon arriving, the emperor asked Gaspar, â€Å"What have I attained for all of my good deeds?† â€Å"Nothing,† said Gaspar. The emperor was aghast, thinking now that he had been generous to his people all these years for nothing. He said, â€Å"Well then, what is the essence of Buddhism?† â€Å"Vast amphibians,† said Gaspar. The emperor had Gaspar thrown from the temple, at which time the young monk decided two things; one, that he would have a better answer the next time he was asked the question, and two, that he'd better learn to speak better Chinese before he talked to anyone of importance. He'd meant to say, â€Å"Vast emptiness,† but he'd gotten the words wrong. The legend went on to say that Gaspar then came to the cave where the monastery was now built and sat down to meditate, determined to stay there until enlightenment came to him. Nine years later, he came down from the mountain, and the people of the village were waiting for him with food and gifts. â€Å"Master, we seek your most holy guidance, what can you tell us?† they cried. â€Å"I really have to pee,† said the monk. And with that all of the villagers knew that he had indeed achieved the mind of all Buddhas, or â€Å"no mind,† as we called it. The villagers begged Gaspar to stay with them, and they helped him build the monastery at the site of the very cave where he had achieved his enlightenment. During the construction, the villagers were attacked many times by vicious bandits, and although he believed that no being should be killed, he also felt that these people should have a way to defend themselves, so he meditated on the subject until he devised a method of self-defense based on various movements he learned from the yogis in his native India, which he taught to the villagers, then to each of the monks as they joined the monastery. He called this discipline kung fu, which translates, â€Å"method by which short bald guys may kick the bejeezus out of you.† Our training in kung fu began with the hopping posts. After breakfast and morning meditation, Number Three Monk, who seemed to be the oldest of the monks, led us to the monastery courtyard where we found a stack of posts, perhaps two feet long and about a span's width in diameter. He had us set the posts on end in a straight line, about a half a stride away from each other. Then he told us to hop up on one of the posts and balance there. After both of us spent most of the morning picking ourselves up off the rough stone paving, we each found ourselves standing on one foot on the end of a pole. â€Å"Now what?† I asked. â€Å"Now nothing,† Number Three said. â€Å"Just stand.† So we stood. For hours. The sun crossed the sky and my legs and back began to ache and we fell again and again only to have Number Three bark at us and tell us to jump back up on the post. When darkness began to fall and we both had stood for several hours without falling, Number Three said, â€Å"Now hop to the next post.† I heard Joshua sigh heavily. I looked at the line of posts and could see the pain that lay ahead if we were going to have to hop this whole gauntlet. Joshua was next to me at the end of the line, so he would have to hop to the post I was standing on. Not only would I have to jump to the next post and land without falling, but I would have to make sure that my take-off didn't knock over the post I was leaving. â€Å"Now!† said Number Three. I leapt and missed the landing. The post tipped out from under me and I hit the stone headfirst, sending a white flash before my eyes and a bolt of fire down my neck. Before I could gather my wits Joshua tumbled over on top of me. â€Å"Thank you,† he said, grateful to have landed on a soft Jew rather than hard flagstone. â€Å"Back up,† Number Three said. We set up our posts again, then hopped up on them again. This time both of us made it on the first try. Then we waited for the command to take the next leap. The moon rose high and full and we both stared down the row of poles, wondering how long it would take us before we could hop the whole row, wondering how long Number Three would make us stay there, thinking about the story of how Gaspar had sat for nine years. I couldn't remember ever having felt so much pain, which is saying something if you've been yak-stomped. I was trying to imagine just how much fatigue and thirst I could bear before I fell when Number Three said, â€Å"Enough. Go sleep.† â€Å"That's it?† Joshua asked, as he hopped off his post and winced upon landing. â€Å"Why did we set up twenty posts if we were only going to use three?† â€Å"Why were you thinking of twenty when you can only stand on one?† answered Three. â€Å"I have to pee,† I said. â€Å"Exactly,† said the monk. So there you have it: Buddhism. Each day we went to the courtyard and arranged the posts differently, randomly. Number Three added posts of different heights and diameters. Sometimes we had to hop from one post to the other as quickly as possible, other times we stood in one place for hours, ready to move in an instant, should Number Three command it. The point, it seemed, was that we could not anticipate anything, nor could we develop a rhythm to the exercise. We were forced to be ready to move in any direction, without forethought. Number Three called this controlled spontaneity, and for the first six months in the monastery we spent as much time atop the posts as we did in sitting meditation. Joshua took to the kung fu training immediately, as he did to the meditation. I was, as the Buddhists say, more dense. In addition to the normal duties of tending the monastery, our gardens, and milking the yak (mercifully, a task I was never assigned), every ten days or so a group of six monks would go to the village with their bowls and collect alms from the villagers, usually rice and tea, sometimes dark sauces, yak butter, or cheese, and on rare occasions cotton fabric, from which new robes would be made. For the first year Joshua and I were not allowed to leave the monastery at all, but I started to notice a pattern of strange behavior. After each trip to the village for alms, four or five monks would disappear into the mountains for several days. Nothing was ever said of it, either when they left or when they returned, but it seemed that there was some sort of rotation, with each monk only leaving every third or fourth time, with the exception of Gaspar, who left more often. Finally I worked up the courage to ask Gaspar what was going on and he said, â€Å"It is a special meditation. You are not ready. Go sit.† Gaspar's answer to most of my questions was â€Å"Go sit,† and my resentment meant that I wasn't losing the attachment to my ego, and therefore I wasn't going anywhere in my meditation. Joshua, on the other hand, seemed completely at peace with what we were doing. He could sit for hours, not moving, and then perform the exercise on the posts as if he'd spent an hour limbering up. â€Å"How do you do it?† I asked him. â€Å"How do you think of nothing and not fall asleep?† That had been one of the major barriers to my enlightenment. If I sat still for too long, I fell asleep, and evidently, the sound of snoring echoing through the temple disturbed the meditations of the other monks. The recommended cure for this condition was to drink huge quantities of green tea, which did, indeed, keep me alert, but also replaced my â€Å"no mind† state with constant thoughts of my bladder. In fact, in less than a year, I attained total bladder conciousness. Joshua, on the other hand, was able to completely let go of his ego, as he had been instructed. It was in our ninth month at the monastery, in the midst of the most bitter winter I can even imagine, when Joshua, having let go of all constructions of self and vanity, became invisible.

Macbeth Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Macbeth - Essay Example When considering all of this, Hamlet’s contemplation and indecisiveness certainly seem justified. We are forced to think about death and the afterlife by the play. The actions of the play are forced by the death of Hamlet’s father and the ghost’s appearance, and Hamlet contemplates death and suicide throughout the play. Death plays a large part in the theme of uncertainty throughout the play. We have no idea what happens after we die, and so we can no idea as to what happens afterwards. Because we do not know what will happen, we do can not know if we are making the correct decision in regards to questions of suicide. Hamlet ponders this very question in his most famous soliloquy, â€Å"To be or not to be† (III.i.56-86). He comes to the conclusion that people would only deal with the pain and suffering of life precisely because the there is so much uncertainty in everything dealing with the afterlife. The ghost’s existence is another factor to consider when thinking about the afterlife. The ghost’s existence seems to confirm the existence of an afterlife in the world of the play, but it does not state what kid of afterlife actually exists. The ghost has apparently come to seek out vengeance for wrong doings from his life, but we have to consider that it might merely be an evil spirit that is just trying to create trouble. There are many cues throughout the play to suggest as much. Because we cannot know the nature of the afterlife until we are actually dead, we cannot know for certain what the intentions and goals of the ghost really were. The ghost simply adds to he uncertainties. Hamlet is certainly left with more of his fair share of questions to ask himself: â€Å"Was I deceived by the ghost? How am I to do the deed? When? Where? What will be the consequences of attempting it—success, my death, utter misunderstanding, mere mischief

Risk Management Case Study Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Risk Management - Case Study Example The server has been assigned an impact value of 100, and a control has been implemented that reduces the impact of the vulnerability by 75 percent. There is an 80 percent certainty of the assumptions and data. Operator use the MGMT45 control console to monitor operations is the server room. It has no password and is susceptible to unlogged misuse by the operator. Estimates show the likelihood of misuse is 0.1. There are no controls in place on this asset, which has an impact rating of 5. There is a 90 percent certainty of the assumptions and data. From the above data, the three assets for the company are extremely valuable. The following is how the organization will approach in evaluation and additional of more controls. Switch L47 has 2 vulnerability. Vulnerability 1 Switch L47 connects a network to the internet should be evaluated first, and additional controls put in place to secure the internal network from external attacks. This asset is extremely significant since there are many attackers constantly trying to access the company information. Therefore, securing switch L47 is important. It has percentage impact (90%) with high uncertainty of 25%. There is no any control in place to secure this asset hence it should be given priority. Server WebSrv6 Hosts should be the second one to be evaluated and additional measures put in place. It has high impact rate and 20% of uncertainty rate. It is second to be evaluated although it has 100 impact value because it has a control in place already. The MGMT45 control console to should be the last one to be evaluated since it has low impact value of 5 with a low rate of uncertainty (10%). It can be evaluated and secured last. There is only one source of risk which the operator hence it is easy to evaluate and provide appropriate measures. This is a very essential decision support tool with high capability to analyze and help users in making decisions. It was developed by Agena Limited. It is can

Apply one Leadership Theory to an organization's leadership failure Essay

Apply one Leadership Theory to an organization's leadership failure - Essay Example l leadership can be understood by an in depth study of a recent case of planned closure of Toyota operation in Australia by 2017 (Toyota to stop making cars in Australia, follows Ford and Holden). The unionized workforce was blamed for the issue raised in the organization. There existed a grievance between the labor union and management, not which again is a result of organizational leadership failure. The failure of self leadership among the employees of the firm irrespective of their position in the firm happens to be one of the major reasons of closure of a business (Yukl, 2007). An organizations rationale and goals can be explained in countless ways consisting a firm’s mission, vision, stratagem, goals, tactics and errands. The objective of this report is to carry out an in depth analysis of what are the reasons behind the failure of organizational leadership through a case study. Many successful organizations crash in presence of dysfunctional leaders in an organization. Moreover, the issue is not considered to be problematic. The people in position of leadership can be seen as risk managers other than leaders. When leaders turn to taskmasters and instead of surrendering they are yearning to become control freaks then they gradually fail to motivate and encourage their co workers. In addition they fail to lead their co workers (Bayode, 2008). The signs of leadership malfunction are quite effortless to find out if one has open eyes towards the arising problem of an organization. Employees have a perception that they are valued less and also are not considered to be trustworthy. The companies nowadays are engaged in methodically assassinating leadership by lime lighting towards the risk management other than leadership development. The process is considered to be much more imperative than the workforce of an organization. When performance is valued less and th e potential is considered to be superior and when independent thinking lays at the backseat

American culture Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words - 1

American culture - Essay Example Probing into the issue of the development of a new definition of American culture after the emergence of black culture will highlight the factors that gave African American culture a momentum. There is need to analyze the resistance that African American culture faced. At the end of the research, it will be possible to define the circumstances that propelled the growth of a vibrant African American culture irrespective of the resistance (Asante 67). As expected, many people are aware of the challenges that African Americans faced before they could get the opportunity to express and live a culture. Most of the African Americans who had the courage to express the uniqueness and richness of black cultural attributes faced an internal conflict of double consciousness. The events that transpired in the last decade of the 19th century and early 20th century redefined American culture. A culture that had predominantly represented the whites and Native Americans in the preceding centuries had to absorb aspects from African Americans. The slavery system accounts for the presence of African Americans in the American context. During the initial period, Africans withheld from expressing any of the cultural factors that had defined them as people before moving to America (Wolfram and Thomas 34). In order to establish the most relevant information, the research will focus on the changes that occurred in the early 1920s. geographically, research will consider all the states with African Americans. African Americans sought to build a unique culture that would define what they had become as a person. The African American culture would alter the homogenous nature of the American culture that had existed. African Americans managed to develop a unique culture that would transform American culture into a heterogeneous one. For some reasons that need identification, the African American culture that resulted was

Obesity Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3250 words

Obesity - Essay Example Consequently, the academic course has contributed in writing development, knowledge in course components such as; summary, critique synthesis, research proposal, sentence outline, final paper, commenting process; as well as impacting on performance, constraints, writing skills, future career, change in writing process and situational application. Foremost, the academic course has provided me with a new found level of knowledge and professionalism in writing from the course components covered. In particular, course components such as the summary, critique and synthesis provided immense knowledge on my formative writing skills. The knowledge gained on summary writing was very helpful in finding resourceful articles for reference in my essay topic on obesity. It offered the insight in judging the credibility and relevant articles, books and websites pertinent to my research topic. Furthermore, the component on critique was helpful in accessing counter articles that were useful in develo ping argumentative essays. The critique component provided insightful knowledge on how to properly cite counter arguments on the essay topics from literary works of other authors. I was able to employ the critique component on the obesity argumentative essay when presenting anti opponent views against obesity control proposals. In addition, the synthesis component was insightful in developing a general flow and connection to the paper. The synthesis component equips a student with the ability of combining the different ideas into one comprehensive essay. Consequently, I was able to synthesize both the proposal and counter proposal arguments in developing the paragraphs of the obesity argumentative essay. The knowledge gained from the course lectures and notes on research proposal was equally pertinent. It enabled me to develop a comprehensive research topic based on obesity. In recognition of the global epidemic and particularly the immense effect on the American society, obesity pr oved to be an intellectually stimulating research proposal for the argumentative essay. Furthermore, the knowledge gained in research proposal enabled me to formulate a raft of proposal options to curb obesity such as increase in taxes and health premiums in the thesis statement. In addition, the component on sentence outline provided sufficient skills on sentence structure. The basic tenets of sentence outline taught in class, dictated on my ability to cite evidence from various obesity articles, explain the reference cited, respond or offer a personal opinion on the proposal, and consequently connect to the thesis statement. Moreover, the final paper component was influential in determining the layout, format, paper outline, citation and reference criteria of an argumentative essay. The knowledge on final paper outlook such as the MLA format was aptly integrated in the obesity research paper complete with proper in text citation technique such as the author and page number. Lastly , the commenting process component in the course outline provided in depth intellectual skills in offering a personal, objective, standpoint in the argumentative essay. Consequently, in the obesity argumentative essay I was able to use it in justifying my objective belief of increasing the cost of living and premiums for obese people. The final paper grades achieved have provided me with much contentment since I was

Marketing mix elements of Starbuck and British airways Essay

Marketing mix elements of Starbuck and British airways - Essay Example The British Airways which is located London, UK provides transport services as their commodity of trade across the globe. The pricing of their services provides the customer with a choice to get what they can afford. This therefore enables them earn profits and beat competition in the market. The prices of British Airways also promote their business. This is backed up with promotional offers during Christmas. They have also expanded their persuasive communication to customers to enable them proof the existence. This airline also has an e-business which has then enabled them to access a very wide market all over the world.According to Ambler (2004), comparing Starbucks and British Airways businesses, one of their differences is that Starbucks is a product business while the British Airways is a services business. The pricing of the two businesses also differ. British Airways offers low prices for their services while Starbucks prices are relatively higher than those of their competito rs. The process of service provision used by the British Airways is that of direct access to the customers while Starbucks Corporation uses other business intermediaries to run their businesses in other countries that their coffee stores are located. Starbucks target market was university students while British market target is people from all over the world.McDonald and Keegan (2002) explain that Starbucks offers Wi-Fi to their customers while British Airways use their pricing and other online services to promote their business.

Critically appraise the contribution of Le Grand's knights, knaves, Essay - 1

Critically appraise the contribution of Le Grand's knights, knaves, pawns and queens framework to our understanding of r - Essay Example Those who were offered these services (and who were beneficiaries of welfare) became known as pawns, primarily because they were seen as passive participants in the whole process. They did not actively influence any happenings, and instead sat and waited for the knights to do everything for them. With time, however, (Le Grand mentions the period after 1979) this scenario changed after pawns realized that there were some knights who were not really knights at all (Le Grand 1995, pg. 151). They were more focused on their self-interests than the benefit of pawns, and, therefore, morphed into knaves. In addition to this, there was little that was knightly about paying taxes and supporting the less fortunate in the society. On the other hand, pawns came to be viewed as â€Å"queens†; they were supposed to be treated better, since in any market consumers are usually kings. In this paper, I will discuss and dissect Le Grand’s concept and weigh it against arguments which have b een against it by the likes of Welshman and others. I will also explore the influence that Le Grand’s framework has had on relationships between public authorities and organizations which provide public services paid for under contract or by vouchers. Key words: Knights, knaves, pawns, queens, Le Grand, Welshman. Analysis Welshman presented an argument that fell a little short of being labeled as an attack on Le Grand’s ideas. He (Welshman) argued that the concept of a cycle of deprivation (or transmitted deprivation) provided sufficient foundation for a demolition job on the knights, knave, pawns and queens notion. In his article, he presented important researches by Joseph, Coffield and others that supported his propositions. In truth, the whole point of Welshman’s argument was a firm grounding in the ability to provide viable alternate arguments against Le Grand’s ideas. For example, using Coffield’s research, a new concept of web deprivation wa s coined as a replacement for cycle of deprivation (Coffield, Robinson & Sarsby 1980, pg. 48). In essence, Welshman used the loopholes he identified in Le Grand’s arguments to develop an entirely new concept. A closer look at his article also reveals that he viewed Le Grand’s definition of people under welfare was too shallow and simplistic (although Le Grand had also suggested this in his proposition) (Welshman 2007, pg. 95) It is important to note that the knights, knaves, pawns and queens framework borrowed heavily from theories about public management (or organization studies, or political science, or indeed social science quite generally). In a traditional sense, public management was seen as more of calling than just a normal activity with the exception of being directly involved in public affairs. In the past, public servants were held in very high regard, and this is because they were considered to be custodians and trustees of public interests. This thought wa s supported by a reliance on the scholarly approaches to organizational studies, social science and political science. Over the years, this traditional perspective has been overtaken by other feasible approaches that have proved to be more than just alternatives (Berthoud 1976, pg. 103). These new approaches have supplanted the

Explain the main determinants of exchange rate behavior in the long Essay

Explain the main determinants of exchange rate behavior in the long run and in the short run. In the context of your analysis di - Essay Example The speculation concept in this market has made it hard for achievement of stability. Gains and losses can be made in the same breath in this market. This presents a challenge in both the macro and micro economics world. The factors that influence this behaviour in the foreign exchange market has been a topic of concern to many scholars and economists the world over. The aim of this paper is to evaluate the main determinants of exchange rate behaviour both in the short-run and long-run by illuminating a number of theories and explain why exchange rates tend to be volatile and notoriously hard to predict. To better understand the exchange rates, the paper will first discuss the foreign exchange market and then it will look at the exchange rate regimes. The The Purchasing Power Parity (PPP) and the asset market approach through the Uncovered Interest Rate Parity (UIRP) will also be analyzed here.   Overview of the Foreign Exchange Market As the name suggests, a foreign exchange marke t is a market where currencies are traded. Foreign exchange market is also known as forex market. In this market, money is traded for other money. This is the basic definition of the foreign exchange market but in broader terms, the foreign exchange market is not restricted to the exchange of currencies. ... Gains are made in the same breath as losses in this market. This is so because the price of the currency in the market is determined by forces of demand and supply (Carbaugh, 2011). The financial market like goods market obeys the laws of demand and supply; the demand for currency varies inversely with price (Williamson, 2009). If demand for a currency increases its price increases (appreciates) making it unattractive in the market. Buyers thus switch to buying products where value of currency is low leading to depreciation of the currency until equilibrium is reached. For example, in a market involving dollars and pounds whereby the dollar is the domestic currency and the pound is the foreign currency, an increase in demand for foreign currency (pound) results in depreciation of the domestic currency (dollar) while an increase in supply of foreign currency leads to appreciation of the dollar until equilibrium is reached (Sercu and Uppal, 1995). The demand and supply concept As shown in figure 1, Do represents the demand curve for pounds while So represents the supply curve. Equilibrium exchange rate is obtained at the point where demand curve intersects with supply curve (point E). At this point, the exchange rate of dollars per pound is stable hence the market is efficient (Carbaugh, 2011 p. 399). The demand curve in this case represents the desire of the Americans to purchase British goods, services and assets and by observing the law of demand; the US demand for pound varies inversely with price. If price increases, the demand for pounds decreases and if price decreases the demand for pound increases. This means that if the dollar price of pound increases, exports from

A look at the death rates in the united states according to race Essay Example for Free

A look at the death rates in the united states according to race Essay Death Rates, Many of the death rates in the United States may be explained, for example, why are the death rates of African Americans so high on homicide? Well, it is said that because most black people live in Urban areas or in what people call â€Å"guetos† (not necessarily all but a good amount) that means they usually live on these dangerous places where death rates are pretty high making their victimology pretty high. Now if we combine this with the fact that most black men kill other black men whether it is (usually because of gangs) then we can assume that the death rates of black men because of homicides is pretty high because they usually live on places that are very dangerous and controlled by gangs and most are killed by people of their own race (and some may argue too by police but thats another topic) which would explain these statistics and same could be explained for other races. Another example could be that many Americans (despite the different racial groups) are likely to die from heart disease, and that is because of the fast foods. In other words, if Americans would eat healthier instead of constantly going to fast foods and started to take care of themselves also by doing exercise then it wouldn’t have to worry so much of dying from heart disease and those death rates among Americans will most likely decrease. The differences in the death rates are because of culture and the way people live their lives, so if a race, for example, let’s maybe there’s a high death rate of Hispanics because of kidney failure (this is an example it may not be true) then maybe the reason could be because they drink a lot of alcohol or something same with other types of diseases or may be ways of thinking. Maybe whites can’t control their stress or are less likely to seek help when they have psychological problems which would explain the high deat h rates. I believe all of these differences in death rates are because of how each racial group decides to live and that is why in certain categories those death rates are high for the different racial groups.

Sleep Theories Essay Example for Free

Sleep Theories Essay Most people think that when we sleep, we can shut down our mind. However, with the power of advanced technique, scientist made a careful observation of human brain waves, body temperature, heart rate, breathing, and other physical functions. They received a new light on sleep. Our brain and body actually are active during sleep, sometimes even more active than we are awake. There are two type of sleep, making up a complete 90 to 100 minute cycle that can be repeated 4 to 5 times in an average eight hours sleep. NREM (nonrapid eye movement) sleep: also called quite sleep. Have four stages, from stage 1 to stage 4.REM (rapid eye movement) sleep: also called active sleep. Stage 5, in this stage you dreaming.( Cherry, K.2012) During sleep, we usually pass through five stages of sleep Stage1. Light stage of sleep.  Turn off the light, close your eyes, and find the most comfortable position to lying down on the bed .While, you may feel sleepy now. Your eyes start moving slowly, muscle activity slows and body feel more relaxed. You had already entered stage 1 sleep without noticing it. At this stage, you may be aware of noises. You can be easily awakened and may feel that you are not really sleeping. During stage 1, our brain activity slows down; brain produces waves from alpha waves enter to theta waves. (Rathus, S.pp.100). ï  ¬ 2. A light sleep but it is deeper than stage 1. Stage 2 may last for 20 minutes.Your brain starts producing more waves but activities become lower. Your eyes stop moving; breathing, heart rate slows and body temperature decreases. Right now, you are ready to enter deep sleep. During stage 2, the brain waves are interrupted by bursts of brain activity knows as sleep spindles.( Rathus, S) Stage 3 and 4. Transition period between light sleep to deep sleep. At stage 3, you deep sleep starts, your brain produce slower delta waves. There is no eye movement and you will not consciously trying to move your body. Moreover, your heart rate and blood pressure will drop down to the lowest level during the day. According to the repair and restoration Theory of Sleep, deep sleep is the stages for your body to repair damaged and rejuvenate itself. Growth could occurs in stage 4.( Walsh, K.). It will be difficult to wake you up during these two stages, you cannot adjust immediately, and you may feel dazed and exhausted for few minutes. Stage 5. a very light, active sleep  This stage also called rapid eye movement (REM) sleep. It is a miraculous stage that you hear rate, heart rate increases, blood pressure raised and breathing become shallower; your eyes move back; your brain become more active as you awake and you start dreaming. Incredibly, your muscles still maintains in a relaxed state. Stage 5 usually occurs about 70 to 90 minutes after we fall asleep. ( Brain basics: Understanding Sleep ). The functions of sleep Sleep is the most important thing for us to surviveï ¼Å'it can protect us from disease. Having enough sleep in a day will bring lots of benefits to us -a clear mind, a good mood and full of energy. Sleep may also have other benefits like improving physical and immune function. The following are the summarized functions of sleep. Sleep provides an opportunity for the body to repair and rejuvenate: remove fatigue, conserves the body energy Beneficial of skin care: good sleep can increase the activities of skin metabolism. Sleep provides growth and development: Deep sleep increases the release of growth hormone in human baby or animals.  Sleep protect our nervous systems: helps us recover from stress Sleep improves our study ability: can strengthen and improve our memory. Sleeping affects our immune systemï ¼Å¡increase resistant system Discusses one sleep disorder (i.e., explains the disorder, its causes, symptoms, and the treatment options available). Sleep is a natural process, but if you feel sleep is always difficult such as It is hard to fall asleep; although you have slept for eight hours you may still feel tired and have difficulty to memorize something. If these problems bothered you for ages, you may be suffering from a sleep disorder. Doctors discovered that there are more than 70 sleep disorders which can seriously interfere with our work, driving, and social activities. The most common sleep disorders include insomnia, narcolepsy, and sleep apnea. ( Brain basics.) Insomnia is a Latin word for â€Å"no sleep†, is â€Å"a symptom, not a stand-alone diagnosis or a disease† .People that is affected by insomnia has the inability to fall asleep or maintaining sleep. (Insomnia overview). Common symptoms of insomnia include difficulty falling asleep; feel awake for a whole night; only can sleep for few hours per day; waking up frequently, and could not get back to sleep. There are many causes of insomnia. It can be caused by stress, anxiety. It may be related to substance use, such as alcohol, and caffeine. Behavior therapy is often part of any treatment for insomnia. For example: A healthy lifestyle can help to improve sleep quality, doing exercise is helpful in reducing stress. Provides examples of how/if any of sleep theories, and/or disorders apply to your life. I found a part time job as a store manager in my final year of college. It was hard to study at school during the day and lead employees to work in the night. Worries and tenseness lead me to insomnia. I felt that it is difficult for me to fall asleep in late night, and sometimes when I awake, I still felt tired and dizzy. Lack of enough sleeps cause me became moody, such little things would fire me up. I have to take sleeping pills to get to sleep, but it would not take effect for long term use. Learning to relax helped me sleep better and feel better. It is simple, using scented candles at home to create a comfortable area, take a bath and listen to the music.

The Spanish Language

The Spanish Language Spanish is part of the Indo-European family of Romance languages and is closely related to Italian and Portuguese. It is a major language with approximately 400 million native speakers worldwide. Spanish is spoken in Spain; South America (except Brazil and Guianas); Central America; Mexico; Cuba; Puerto Rico and the Dominican Republic; Western Sahara; north Morocco; Equatorial Guinea; and some parts of America. (Swan, M. and Smith, B., 2001) In 2004, 71.3% of English Language Learners in Florida spoke Spanish. (MacDonald, V., 2004) II. Phonology (pronunciation) A. Native speakers of Spanish sometimes have a hard time producing initial consonant clusters without using an extra vowel at the beginning because there are no initial clusters in the Spanish language. For example, because there is no initial cluster of /sp/ in the Spanish language, native speakers would probably say, I espeak eSpanish. (Nasr, R.T., 1997) For the most part, all vowels have a shorter pronunciation in Spanish than in English. Spanish only has five pure vowels and their length, unlike English vowels, is not a distinctive feature. Typically, at least two English vowels share the phonetic space occupied by one Spanish vowel. This is seen in the difference between /i:/ and /I/ in English which correspond to the Spanish /i/, so meet and mitt, sheep and ship, etc. are easily confused. (Swan, M. and Smith, B., 2001) The letter /z/ does not exist in Spanish. English language learners use /s/ for /z/ therefore, lacy is said for both lacy and lazy, sip for both sip and zip, etc.. (Swan, M. and Smith, B., 2001) The Spanish language has a /b/ and /v/ allophone (two different versions of the same sound) and to an English speaking ear it sounds the same. The Spanish language adds friction to the /b/ sound which makes it sound similar to the /v/ sound. Therefore, the pronunciation of Por favor may sound like Por fabor. (B/V Confusion in Spanish, 2011) Spanish speakers also often pronounce a final d similar to an unvoiced th. Additional pronunciation problems at the end of words are d and t as well as thing/think and sometimes thing/thin or even ring and rim. This is because Spanish consonant sounds usually differ more by their position in a word than English consonants do. (Case, A., 2012) B. The sample recording I used was from a 34 year-old male from Veracruz, Mexico. He began learning English at the age of 29. In the sample recording, the use of an intrusive vowel at the beginning of initial consonant clusters was repeated. Words that were changed include: Stella eStella; spoons espoon; snow esnow; snack esnack; small esmall; snake esnake; station estation. C. For Spanish speaking students having the e before s-consonant cluster difficulty described above, create a passage for students to read aloud, in which each sentence starts with a word beginning in an s-consonant cluster. Prior to the students taking turns reading the passage aloud, help them practice for a minute by saying short words that start with an s-consonant cluster like spit, stick, and spell. Pronounce the words along with the student, exaggerating the beginning s sound. This will help to create a new muscle memory that doesnt leave room for students to include the beginning e sound. (How do you teach adult EL students English pronunciation?, n.d.) III. Morphology (word structure) A. Spanish EL students tend to make morphological errors in their speech when they over generalize a morpheme such as plural s. The Spanish speaker would say: The deers are brown, instead of, The deer are brown. Spanish EL students also often have confusion with pluralizing adjectives. This is because in Spanish adjectives and the nouns they modify must agree in number, while in English, plural nouns are not modified by adjectives in plural. For example, a statement in Spanish would be Carlos tiene los ojos azules., which translates to Carlos has got blues eyes. (Mingorance, Y, 2010) The Spanish language does not have contracted verb forms and this can be a problem for EL students. They have problems in understanding will or would in: Ill go to the store; theyd come with us and construe them to mean I go; they come, etc.. (Swan, M. and Smith, B., 2001) Spanish has high sound-to-spelling correspondence, so spelling in English is difficult for EL students. Spanish speakers often reduce double letters to single ones: aple, diferent, necesary, etc.. and since they do not distinguish English phoneme contrasts, words can be confused, like: hoping / hopping, this / these, etc.. (Swan, M. and Smith, B., 2001) In writing, Spanish EL students are likely to not use capital first letters for days of the week, months, or national adjectives since they are not used in the Spanish language. Examples of this would be and EL student writing: tuesday, february, or english. (Swan, M. and Smith, B., 2001) B. Instructional activities for Spanish EL students to teach them the proper use of contractions in the English language are very important and can be a challenge. Teachers should review the use of contractions and make sure that students understand the difference between general contractions, such as shes for she is as well as informal contractions like gonna for going to. Then explain the main exceptions to the rule like, you are unable to contract will not as willnt. It would be wont. Have students listen to audio recordings or a movie in English and have them write down all of the contractions they hear. Help students identify the words that are contracted and state the type of contractions used. (Latham, n.d.) IV. Syntax / Grammar (word order and sentence structure) In the Spanish language, subject-verb agreements do not always correspond to the statement. Due to this freer word order, EL students often put the emphasized word last in a sentence. For example: Yesterday played very well the children. 1. (Swan, M. and Smith, B., 2001) In Spanish, adjectives and nouns usually come after the head noun. An EL student may write I drive the car blue, instead of I drive the blue car. (Swan, M. and Smith, B., 2001) EL students often mix up the word order of questions such as Marta has cooked the food could be written as Cooked the food has Marta? This is because there is no set word order for questions in the Spanish language. (Swan, M. and Smith, B., 2001) EL students also commonly put a rising no at the end of questions or statements. This is done in the Spanish language to urge agreement to any positive statement. It is common for them to say or write sentences like: She has a job, no? or You are going home tomorrow, no? (Swan, M. and Smith, B., 2001) Double and even sometimes triple negatives are standard in the Spanish language as they are viewed as reinforcing, rather than contradicting each other. This leads to EL students making the common errors of sentences like: I dont have none or My son doesnt eat nothing. (Swan, M. and Smith, B., 2001) B. As they say, practice makes perfect. For Spanish EL students, I would recommend repeated practice of word order. This can be done through worksheets, interactive programs on SmartBoards where they can manually manipulate the word order by touch, or even with the words in a sentence written on separate cards where the student can line them up in the correct order. The more they practice the precise placement of words in the English language, the easier it will come to them. V. Conclusion A. As previously mentioned, Spanish EL students face many challenges in learning the English language. The biggest challenge facing them is not only learning basic interpersonal communication skills (BICS), but also cognitive academic language proficiency (CALP) so that they can proceed with content area learning. The longer it takes an EL student to master CALP, the further behind they will get in learning the required subjects in school, or if they are moved along in the school system, the less they will be able to retain and learn. B. The pedagogical value of understanding Spanish EL students predictable errors is that it provides educators with essential tools to help students learn. The more knowledgeable an educator is about the most common types of mistakes that EL students make, the more aware they are of the students actual comprehension levels, and the better able they are to provide differentiated instruction to ensure success of the EL students. (Rico, 2012)

The Face of Exploitation in Public Health Essay -- International Healt

The Face of Exploitation in Public Health International public health policies attempt to reform the social and political systems which influence the health and safety of all citizens of the world. In the past, these policies have been created through the strong reliance on and exploitation of socially constructed systems of classification such as gender, sexuality, nationality, and economic class. It has been a system of correlation between the behaviors which seem prevalent within social groupings and chances that those behaviors will lead to disease transmition or infestation. In January 2004, the World Health Organization announced a radical change in their policies surrounding public health study and prevention in the 2004 World Report on violence and health. Instead of focusing on larger global and national trends, the WHO called for an expansion of policies and increase of resources which focused more on the experiences and support of individuals rather than groups. This value of individual experience holds extreme pr omise in the expansion and effectiveness of public health initiatives as well has changes many societal systems of classifications. However, there may be detrimental effects of this change that exploit the very subjects that they attempt to help. It is a question of forcing the private experience of disease into a public domain. Where are the lines of public verses private drawn? Public health by its very definition emphasizes public classification over the individual body. Its basic goal is to establish effective general health services that meet the minimum health requirements for a majority of people. With this general goal in mind, there are two major assumptions made within the formation of public ... ...ing: Questions of Appropriation and Subversion." Bodies That Matter: On the Discursive Limits of "Sex." 121-156.New York: Routledge, 1993. Delany, Samuel. "Aversion/Perversion/Diversion." Longer Views: Extended Essays. Hanover, New Hampshire: University Press of New England, 1996 Foucault, Miachael. "We 'Other Victorians'" and "The Repressive Hypothesis."The History of Sexuality, Volume I: An Introduction.Trans. Robert Hurley. New York: Vintage, 1980. Hoole, Francis. Politic and Budgeting in the World Health Organization. 2 Indiana Unniverstity Press. 1997. Lakoff, George and Mark Johnson. Philosophy in the Flesh: The Embodied Mind and Its Challenge to Western Thought. 3-44.New York: Basic Books, 1999. Siddiqi, Javed. World Health and World Politics; the World Health Organization and the UN System. 194-195. University of South Carolina Press. 1995

Expatriation, Exile, Immigration, Repatriation :: Expository Essays

Expatriation, Exile, Immigration, Repatriation Expatriation. Exile. Immigration. Repatriation. These words seem so similar but have such different places in society. Whatever the reason for leaving one’s homeland, the way one lives in that place determines where he will fit into society. It is in this searching for a niche that clichà ©s often form and groups of people become stereotyped. From once small groups, a larger more defined population has grown in which all are intertwined creating what one may call diversity or the beginning of chaos. Although expatriation, exile, immigration, and repatriation all deal with the basis of leaving one’s homeland, the decisions each individual makes when embarking on his new life divides these four words into separate diverse categories. The act of expatriation abundantly differs from the act of repatriation. In expatriation the individual leaves his country in the hope of leaving all previous customs and traditions aside and taking on the new society’s entire lifestyle. Whatever the reason may be for this change, the individual functions completely free from his previous homeland. A person in exile may leave for a variety of reasons ranging from the banishment from one’s country to the sudden escaping from the same country. At times often pursuing glamorous lifestyles unattainable in his own country, the whereabouts of this individual may often be kept hushed. Although the person in exile may be welcomed by his new country, he may be carrying along suffering from his native land. Immigration is soon becoming a thing of the past. At a time when herds of civilized people often from one culture came in flocks to new homelands, small little communities formed keeping the strict customs of that foreign culture while establishing a new life. With areas known as Little Italy and the North End, these people grew together and began to adapt to the new culture. Stemming from these communities, an abundance of culture driven places are arising. Repatriation is the reclaiming of previously owned land. The culture taking control of the land, is in actuality regaining their land. At one point in history that society occupied the land such as part of present day California was once Mexico.