Snow Boarding Descriptive Essay

Alex Fulton Descriptive essay GSW 1110 â€Å"The rush† As the clicking noise of the not so steady ski-lift chimes away, I hold on tightly, looking down at the people below. This being my first time doing anything in or around snow, I was very excited to be going snowboarding. While the ski-lift jerked back and forth my friend Corey enlightened me on the tips for staying alive while I went down the hill. I was trying to pay attention but I was just so eager to snowboard that his tips weren't registering in my head. We reached the top of the ski-lift and I hopped off only to then fall on my face into the cold, hard snow. I stood up and time seemed to stand still as I watched the snow slowly fall down to earth. I put my goggles back on my face, strapped my feet into my board's bindings and looked down the monstrous mountain. This was it and there was no turning back. My adrenaline was flowing through my body faster than a strike of lightening. I was terrified and amazed all at the same time. Going down the mountain felt like floating on air. With the fresh layer of white powder spreading everywhere it felt like I was traveling faster than a race car in the Daytona 500. Carving down the mountain it seemed like it was never going to end. Speed kept picking up and snow seemed to leap purposely on my goggles. The thought of falling or hitting a tree mortified my mind. With my face smothered in cold ice, I'm trying to clear my goggles without losing my balance. I haven't learned to stop or slow down on my snowboard yet, and I'm regretting it. While I am attempting to dodge the fellow skiers and snowboarders my speed has become so intense that I am afraid of the next possible actions I could take on this horrifically monstrous hill. 1 Losing balance, I know that I am eventually going to have to stop myself before I increase too much speed and put my health at risk. Taking a deep breath, I begin to make the biggest wipe-out that could happen in only 30 seconds. As I go to stop, I turn into a position so I land on my knees instead of my back. Thinking that this would be an easy, painless solution, I jam my knees into the hill and try to stop myself. Instead, I fall backwards onto my head, still plummeting down, but now in immense pain. After a few somersaults and excruciating positions I land into the soft snow bank on the side of the hill. I have officially stopped my hectic run. I laid there quietly on my back looking into the sky, watching the snow fall in slow motion as if someone was to watch dust slowly come to rest in rays of sunlight. Then it all hit me, the pain was flowing throughout my body. In the background I hear Corey frantically yelling my name. I was so focused on the pain throughout my body I couldn't even say a word to let him know I was ok. Corey called out for help, and the ski-patrol rushed to my aid. Little did I know my wrist had snapped on impact. The patrol rushed me down the mountain on a ski type stretcher. Again I was on my back falling in and out of conciousness. The sky seemed to get dimmer and dimmer as we approached the bottom of the mountain. Looking up at the ski-patrol I could tell in their eyes something bad had happened to me with my fall. Their eyes looked more nervous than my mind going down the mountain for the first time. The adrenaline I felt carving down the mountain was now being replaced by a lump in my throat. After what felt like years we reached the bottom of the mountain and the silence of the park was broken by the emitting sounds of an ambulance. I knew I was inside the emergency vehicle because I could feel the change in temperature. My frozen cheeks seemed to slowly thaw back to their original state and I could finally feel my feet again. Literally within minutes we arrived at the hospital. My worries weren't even focused on myself but on my board. All I wanted to know was where it was and if it was damaged. The paramedics assured me that my board was picked up by my friend Corey and was safe in his possession. 2 Still with every beat of my heart a jolt of pain was sent through my body straight to my left wrist. The pain was almost unbearable and seemed as if a hammer was beating down on my arm. I was instantly rushed into Emergency room where the doctors ordered x-ray and pain medication for me. After taking my medication I fell a drift into a light sleep. I dreamed that I was still carving down the mountain, as if nothing ever went wrong. I felt unstoppable as I was ripping through the snow on my board. It felt like no-one could match the skills I had on the mountain. Then I awoke. I was in front of a fire back at the resort. If it wasn't for my cast and emergency room bracelet I would have swore that everything that happened was all a dream. The heat emitting from the fireplace began to soothe my nerves and I began to unwind. As I sat there and watched from the lodge, I was already thinking of when I could get back out on the slopes. Though that was out of question for awhile, the thrill and urge of flying down the mountain almost made me want to get back on the board that day. Its funny how much I still love the sport after something this terrible happened. The adrenaline rush and high speeds going down the mountain is almost addicting to me. The way it feels to almost hover on top of the ground carving down a mountain is a unbeatable experience. I cant wait until the day comes that I can yet again feel myself flying down the mountain with the snow being burst everywhere like a snowy white volcano just erupted. This is what I live for. 3

FLVS World History

In what ways is the Holy Land an important site for all three monotheistic faiths? For the Christians it is the city were Jesus was crucified and where he had risen from the dead. For the Muslims it is a place where their leader Mohammad ascended to meet God. Now for the Jewish people King David had named it and it was where Solomon had built the temple, also the Wailing Wall is in this city. The three major monotheistic religions are sometimes described as branches of the same family tree. If this is true, how would you describe the trunk of the tree? I would describe the trunk of the tree as being Judaism. A very strong standing place where the three monotheistic religions started. Like it says in the text â€Å"All three major monotheistic religions claim they began with Abraham. Judaism and Christianity claim that their founders descended from Abraham's son Isaac. Islam claims descent through his other son, Ishmael. † Which Abraham came from Israel, he’s the first generation and helped start the three major religions. How are the three major holy books of the monotheistic faiths both similar and different?Ap World History Units 1-3 Study Guide Judaism believes that Jesus is not the prophet and has not arrived yet. While Christianity and Islam believe that Jesus has already arrived and is the prophet. Christianity also believes in the Holy Triune, which is when God is the father son and Holy spirit. The three faiths are mainly similar because they believe that God put us on this earth with the basic needs. How are the basic beliefs of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam alike? They are alike because they believe that God put us on this earth with the basic needs. Judaism and Islam think that all humans were born pure and innocent. Christianity on the other hand thinks that we’re all born with a natural sin. What types of internal differences and divisions exist within each religion? the easiest way to break up Christianity is into these five categories: Orthodox, Catholic, Protestant, Eastern, and Mormon. Each of these groups believes the other groups are failing in their attempt to reach proper salvation through the Christ and as such have their own methods of attaining this goal.

Causal Analysis of the Arab Spring

Tunisian female municipal officer and her asides who confiscated the fruit and vegetables he was selling from a street stall and slapped his face in the process, set himself on fire and passed away a few days later. As an aftermath of this incident, a huge wave of protests over unemployment and social issues sparked out in Tunisia, forcing then-president  Zine El Abidine Ben Ali to step down from his position after 23 years in power. Following this event, activists and ordinary people started to head out onto streets in Egypt, Libya, Yemen, and other Arab sub-regions and societies, demanding democracy, social justices, dignity, and freedom. Ultimately, an unprecedented  revolutionary wave  of nonviolent and violent  demonstrations,  protests, riots, and  civil wars known as Arab Spring, or many may call it Arab Awakening,  has spread across the entire  Arab World, overthrowing handfuls of tyrants and authoritarian regimes that, for decades, had been taking control over the area. Behind the actual uprisings were many and long gathering root causes. For decades, Arab people had faced repression of free speech, human rights abuses, economic mismanagement, corruption, and stifling of political dissent. Social justice and human dignity were also not respected in most countries. Furthermore, this area of 300 million people was producing an unprecedented youth population, with around two-thirds of the total population below 29 years of age. At the same time, this young generation was annoyed by 25 percent unemployment, frustrated by diminished dreams, motivated greater personal freedoms, and equipped with technological tools of social media such as Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube. In addition to that, international influences from Europe and the United States, actors who have long been desiring for the abundant energy supplies, trade and investment regional security in the region, also induced the event in the name of â€Å"promoting democracy. † Looking back to the causes of the Arab Spring, although Mohamed Bouazizi’s self-immolation set fire to the revolution, the actual driving forces behind the revolt were primarily the development of social media and the internal social issues that have been smolderingly existing in the region for decades. First of all, it is important to mention that even before the happening of Bouazizi’s self-emulation, the Arab World has long been striving for political changes because of the mass unemployment and low living standards of educated class. Unlike most regions, unemployment rates in the SWANNA region are highest amongst the more educated youth. According to Imed Drine in his article â€Å"Youth Unemployment in the Arab World: What Do We know? What is the Way Forward? , published by the World Institude for Development Economics Research, youth unemployment rate in the region was about 25 percent, among the highest in the world. The situation is even worse for young women with an unemployment rate of about 40 percent. Compared to other global regions, the region has shown the highest rate of labour force increase over the last three decades; the unemployment rate for young age groups is 40 percent in some countries. In many Arab countries such as Tunisia and Egypt, it was very usual that university graduates were forced to drive taxis or sell grocery in open stalls to survive, and families with children struggled to provide food and education for their kids. On top of that, there were also drastic gaps between the income of the majority of the population and that of the top elite in most Arabic countries. â€Å"Egypt has had a massive income gap throughout Mubarak’s control, which is clearly the root cause of the original uprising. One half of Egyptians live on $2/day or less. The average per-capita income in the country is just $6,200 and 24% of young people in the Arab region cannot find jobs (source). In addition, in some Arab sub-regions, large budget deficits were pervasive mainly due to the unnecessary price subsidies on consumer products such as fuel that did not really help the poor but rather favored the affluent population. Other economic issues including poverty, rising food prices, and inflation have also been serious internal issues that eventually led to Arab revolution. According to two Russians researchers, A. Korotayev and J. Zinkina, in their analysis on Egyptian revolution, Egypt was also one of the most fast growing countries in the world in terms of food prices. This fact had undoubtedly played a role in undermining the Egyptian sociopolitical system. While half of the population survived only on $2 per a day or even less and had to face a huge price inflation, the upper class was flooded with abundant resources. Such gaps in income and social classes are obviously undesirable, if not dangerous, for the stability of a society as they create tensions and tear down the sense of unity in the population. They certainly set the stage for the uprising to occur, causing a small incident of Bouazizi to become a devastating social event like Arab Spring. Another internal problem that has made a great contribution to people’s discontent and rebellion was the corruption of Arab leaders and their aging dictatorship. The corruption was extremely widespread in Arab world, and economic hardships were unequally distributed. The political system only worked with and responded to the elites and large businesses in an attempt to accumulate enormous sums of money. Only a small minority of the country actually benefited from this corrupted regime, the rest suffered and was neglected. Nothing could have been done or approved without bribery to the Arab leaders and their relatives. In most cases, whether an investment deal would be closed or not depended on the bribing and one’s connections. Besides the corruption issue, the political system was destabilized due to incompetent and outmoded leaders. â€Å"By the end of the 20th century, most Arab dictatorships were utterly bankrupt both ideologically and morally. When the Arab Spring happened in 2011, Egyptian leader Hosni Mubarak had been in power since 1980, Tunisia’s Ben Ali since 1987, while Muammar al-Qaddafi ruled over Libya for 42 years† (source). During the time of rising literacy and shrinking birthrate, instead of replacing the problematic leadership positions with younger, more educated, and innovative leaders, old and stagnant government was preserved, which eventually lead to the overall social and economic decline of the region. There is always the fear of being oppressed by the security services and the lack of political opportunities among the citizens. Although people remained passive and submitted to the repression of their rulers until the Arab revolution in 2011, needless to say, most of them highly doubted the legitimacy of the aging political systems and their leaders. Their discontent and feelings of injustice with the government was the platform of the revolt and later became the potential source of further social disruption and conflict. In addition to being a counter act to the aging dictatorship, Arab Spring was simultaneously a response to human rights violation. The political freedom of expression of people was limited and there was a shift in power o the police endorsed by the law. This law â€Å" . . . allow[ed] the state to detain individuals and censor and close newspapers more easily and allow[ed] authorities to try civilians in front of military and security courts under certain circumstances† (Sehata:2004). A regular citizen was oppressed, did not have a freedom of speech and was treated poorly by the secu rity services. Even an educated person, as is evident in the case of the graduate student Mohamed Bouazizi, had to endure the same ill-treatment and injustice. Furthermore, the uprising was also a reaction to sexual abuse and domestic violence of women and children. It attempted to bring equality, political, and social rights for disadvantaged groups, especially for women who were often considered the second-class citizens. Women were a driving force in the protests. â€Å"At the time of the revolution, we really observed that women of all social classes, including the lower class, were mobilized. Women stood in defiance of political regimes, and challenged their traditional exclusion from the public sphere† (Bertrand, The Voice of Russia). Women played a crucial role in this revolution since they were active participants who fought for their dignity, economic, political, social, and their children’s rights. Besides all the internal issues discussed above, it is important to mention that there were also other factors that have contributed to the spread of this phenomena such as the use social networks. A big part of this uprising is intrinsically associated with recent social media and changes in the global social climate. It is very important to take into consideration the fact that social events are more than just susceptible to the conditions of their external environments. The Arab Spring, thus, is not an exception. We are living in an information-age where people interact and exchange ideas at a much higher rate and wider range than ever. With the inventions of telecommunicational devices, the Internet, global social networks, etc. , it has become just a matter of a blink of an eye for a message to get to its targets. These technological advancements have also changed the way people commune and spend their time. People are becoming more and more inclined to communicate virtually rather than face-to-face. The number of internet users in both Tunisia and Egypt nearly doubled between 2008 and 2009. According the the CIA World Factbook, Egypt ranks 21st in the world in terms of the number of internet users; Tunisia, by contrast, ranks 60th. Though internet access may not be as strong as, say, in the United States, in these countries it is comparatively cheaper and it is safe to say that a great many people in these countries have internet access of some kind. Also, according to the latest research conducted by the Internet World Statistics, around 90 milion Arab people use the Internet on a day-to-day basis to either look up new information or stay connected with their friends. This number makes up to 40% of the total population. The same research also shows that out of these internet users, 20% are registered on Facebook. Taking other activities and social networks into consideration, the number would be many times that. As a consequence, these social and behavioral changes have brought about an environment extremely sensitive to word-of-mouth epidemics, and the Arab Spring is one of the benefactors. In countries like Egypt, Tunisia, and Yemen, rising action plans such as protests made up of thousands, have been organized through social media such Facebook and Twitter. â€Å"We use Facebook to schedule the protests,  Twitter to coordinate, and YouTube to tell the world,† said one Arab activist. Activists were able to build extensive social networks and organized political action, thus, social media became a critical part of the toolkit for greater freedom. Furthermore, social networks have also broken the psychological barrier of fear by helping many people to connect and share information about the social uprising. It has given most people in the Arab world the knowledge that they are not alone, that there are others experiencing just as much brutality, just as much hardships, just as much lack of justice. There are numerous number of videos on YouTube where activists speak out their ideas and call for people reactions. According to Catherine O’Donnell a writer for the University of Washington in her article â€Å"New Study Quantifies Use of Social Media in Arab Spring†, â€Å"During the week before Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak’s resignation, for example, the total rate of tweets from Egypt — and around the world — about political change in that country ballooned from 2,300 a day to 230,000 a day. Videos featuring protest and political commentary went viral – the top 23 videos received nearly 5. 5 million views. The amount of content produced online by opposition groups, in Facebook and political blogs, increased dramatically. This enormous number not only indicates how popular the Arab Spring is but also implies how important social media are for the Arab Spring. Hussein Amin, professor of mass communications at the  American  University  in  Cairo  said that social networks for the first time provided activists with an opportunity to quickly disseminate information while bypassing government restrictions. † Nowadays, just as much easier for activists to reach their targeted audiences, so too it is for the audiences to learn about new ideas and social events, all thanks to the advents of technologies and the extra amount of time people spend on social networks. Despite all of the factors above, Arab Spring could have never happened if it was not for Bouazizi’s self-emulation. As mentioned above, there was always the fear of being oppressed by the security services. Before the happening of the incident, although the government did not respect people’s dignity, they remained passive and submitted to the repression of their rulers. Therefore, the bad social conditions in the Arab World and those influences from social media have only been the platform for Arab Spring to spark, and the precipitating cause that triggered the uprising is Bouazizi. His act symbolized the frustration and desperation of millions in the Arab world and sett into motion a series of revolutions across the Middle East and North Africa. His death has urged people across the region raise their voice, fight for their own rights, and come fearless of the goverment. His was a cry for dignity, justice, and opportunity, which continues to be heard around a region undergoing tumultuous change. His death has not taken people’s anger to a next level but also gathered people who face the same issues with the government together. Thanks to him, in todays Middle East, people have come to realized that they do matter. Thanks to him, people in the Middle East has learned to voice their concerns and fight for their rights. Many people are now engaged in what could be a life-long struggle to fight long-standing grievances and take greater control of their lives, all thanks to Bouazizi. His death is like that one extra salt crystal that makes a solid form out of a saturated solution; for decades people had been remaining passive and submit to their tyrants and the next second those aging dictators had to crumble just because of one incident. Nothing would have happened if Bouazizi had not reacted against oppression and a lack of espect. The revolutions of Tunisia and Egypt provides a keen example of how new media can be used to afford people political agency. The movement’s participants innovated with the technology to compose coordinated efforts, compose an identities (using the technologies affordances rather than its prescribed templates), compose quickly and deliberately, and compose messag es to change the materiality of where they live. Furthermore, this uprising also reminds people around the world that people do react to social injustice and ill-treatments from the government. It is also of utmost importance not only for the Arab people but also people from all over the world to honor the sacrifice of Bouazizi as he has initiated the revolution that has awakened people’s power and changed the way governments look at their people. Although we cannot tell whether Arab Spring will have fix those social issues in the Arab world and have a positive impact on the society or not, it is a firm confirmation that with today’s social media, people do and will respond to any kind of social justice.

Define hate crime and the personal and social impact Essay

Define hate crime and the personal and social impact - Essay Example opinion with respect to whether or not current â€Å"hate crime† law is either beneficial or detrimental to the system of criminal justice that exists within the United Kingdom. It is further hope of this author that such a level of discussion will be beneficial in shedding of understanding with respect to crimes, is the further intention of this author to engage the reader with an appreciation of the fact for how crime and its interpretation/punishment has more and the ball with changes to society. In terms of definition and understanding, it is essential to appreciate the fact that hate crimes have both a personal and societal impact. The personal impact is with respect to the way in which hate crimes impact upon the perpetrator as well as the victim (Gillis, 2013). The impact upon the perpetrator oftentimes congeals to make them even more prejudiced than they might have been before; sometimes regardless of whether or not punishment was ever provided for the crime. Furthermore, hate crimes can have the impact of altering the world-view of the victim, causing panic attacks, and fundamentally changing the way that they engage with individuals in the future. Because of these effects, legislators and policymakers attempted to increase the overall penalties that are involved with respect to the crimes. The goal of this particular approach is to create a situation in which the crimes are strong enough to dissuade individuals are ever perpetrated Pfc. However, the fundamental shortcoming with respect to this particular approach has to do with the fact that many individuals do not respond to the threat of increased criminal penalties prior to engaging in whatever form of criminal behavior that they might be about to perpetrate (Spieldenner & Glenn, 2014). As such, the increased level of penalties for the crimes has become somewhat disproportionate with regard to other severe crimes that are oftentimes underage to a lesser degree; this is especially true in places

STRATEGIC MANAGEMENT CAPSTONE Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

STRATEGIC MANAGEMENT CAPSTONE - Research Paper Example will also involve ensuring that cameras at all levels of production showcase exceptional design and are easily accessible, while the level of awareness about these attributes will need to equally high. These attributes call for balance between developing employees’ R&D competency, increment of unit sales hence expansion capacity, as the company generates higher demand with time, and according employees compensation that is above average. The first step in the labor strategy will involve training individuals that are better equipped in production and sale of digital cameras than potent competitors in the industry. This will play a significant role in ensuring that Advanced Camera has significant competitive advantage over other camera providers. Such human resource-dependent competitive advantage should not be overlooked, since unlike other company advantages that can be replicated elsewhere, unique skills and characteristics of employees are difficult to imitate. Further, a properly trained production workforce will generate higher quality cameras than one that is untrained hence unskilled. In the first year, the company will primarily focus on training extant portable appliance testing (PAT) members. This will happen for two years in a row, thus keeping the money used for quarterly productivity improvement and PAT training constant at $1,000. In the third year, the company will hire 20 new PATs, with the intention of raising the number of units assembled during overtime (OT) to 80 per member. In the subsequent quarter, that is, during year four, Advanced Camera will strive to maintain about 30 PATs, while increasing units assembled at OT by 20 cameras per PAT member. The company intends to maintain this number of PATs even in the fifth year, in order to sustain first shift and overtime PATs, without having to outsource labor (Dess, Lumpkin, & Eisner, 2006). Through this strategy, the company will be able to raise basic wage per PAT member by about 2% from the

Managing Communication Coursework Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Managing Communication - Coursework Example SOK – Fitness is not an exception when it comes to appropriate management of information as it is the verge of remaining competitive and relevant in the market2. Members of the marketing team in SOK – Fitness come across a wide range of date in their daily operations most of which are significant for effective decision making in areas of improving the image and publicity of the Fitness Center. The information that gets at the disposal of the marketing team is highly concerned with the financial and sales aspects of the Fitness Center. Information and knowledge is collected from the both internal and external sources. Internal data is collected through everyday interaction with the customers. For instance, the marketing team derives a wide range of information from the visit reports by the sales personnel, received and delivered orders, return inwards, customer enquiries, sales invoices, and recorded costs3. Marketers’ interaction with the clients provides a vital source of secondary information which can be used for marketing research. A wide range of information is also collected from the external sources which include but not limited to Government statistics, Trade associations, Commercial services, National and international institutions. Most of the information gathered from external sources does not directly reflect the affairs and business processes of the organizations4. However, they portray an aggregate data about the affairs of the entire industry. Such information is considered relevant because it is gathered from various operators in the fitness center and as such they are highly valuable market research purposes5. Before information is formatted in SOK – Fitness it is first categorized into whether it should be structured or unstructured. Structured information refers to information which should formatted using specified rules and guidelines for precision and formality while unstructured information does not require rule s and guidelines when being formatted. Unstructured data will be used for unstructured decisions while the structured information shall be used for structured decisions6. Another important point to consider when formatting information in the Fitness Center is the scope and frequency of use. Computer system will be used for formatting the information gathered from various sources that is both internal and external sources. Management information systems, Expert Systems and Decision Support Systems will be used for formatting and procession of the data gathered from internal and external sources for a highly intelligible information that would ease decision making process. Already formatted information will be stored in secondary storage devices such as computer hard disks and the compact disks for future utilization7. Marketing team in the SOK – Fitness are relying on the easiest way of storing information gathered from various sources as well as the already formatted informat ion in computer hard disk and compact disks as this does not involve exorbitant spending on storage of information. The choice of a storage facility will have an impact on the effectiveness on the data in future. A wrong choice will translate to significant damages on data stored8. The stored information

HRA335; Mod. 8 - Case Study- Hiring FBI Agents Essay

HRA335; Mod. 8 - Case Study- Hiring FBI Agents - Essay Example The implementation of multiple hurdle approach is most pertinent when the training activities are considerably long and expensive owing to various types of complexities (Smith & Angie, 2011). In relation to the selection procedures in FBI, the implementation of an effective set of multiple hurdle approach can be considered as an effective technique to select and recruit appropriate as well as flawless applicants for the agent posts. With reference to case, it has been observed that the recruitment and selection of agents in FBI validates a series of assessment methods while making any hiring decisions. In this regard, the implementation of an effective multiple hurdle approach will enable the department to recruit successfully, as the job roles of the agent involves various types of uncertain situations associated with different criminal activities (Phillips & Gully, 2012). However, the implementation of the approach also identified to pose certain limitations, as applicants might not qualify in each step of the assessment consecutively. The lengthy process in the assessment approach may lead to create negative attitude and behavioral characteristics of applicants due to a number of hurdles in the selection process. The selection technique in the multiple hurdle assessment approach tends to involve a wide number of assessment activities. The primary objectives of the selection approach is to clearly identify the capability of applicants in terms of managing capabilities or their ability to make effective decisions concerning various types of uncertain situations. In this regard, the approach involves multiple phases in selection procedure prior to make final hiring decisions of the applicants for any specified job roles (Smith & Angie, 2011). According to the observation of the case, it can be ascertained that the selection process in FBI involves a number of stages

Go to www.zooniverse.org. and write 200 words on each of FOUR of these Essay

Go to www.zooniverse.org. and write 200 words on each of FOUR of these different sites - Essay Example The site explains the procedure to analyze these frequency overlays in a tutorial and provides a detailed database for Kepler findings of exoplanets. The site also provides a detailed account of interference patterns and how they can be identified. Furthermore, weak signals can be identified and put up for more investigation. The experiment involves public for analyzing of this data instead of a computer. These patterns are fun to find and latest projects are always available to look at. Live observations from the Allen Telescope Array are provided as well which makes this experiment extremely interesting for the public. I had fun to read about the procedures and the site gave me some insight into how the signals are analyzed and consequently, processed. The site provides interesting opportunities for us to take part in the hunt for radio signals from exoplanets. 2. Galaxy Zoo Galaxy Zoo simply requires identification of galaxies by participants. The project was launched in 2007 and has changed over time. The team has changed data collection methods over time, however, for the participants the calculations are not necessary and the data is processed separately by the team. The project is very simple as it only involves identifying the shapes of the galaxies. Images are provided by Hubble Space Telescope and Sloan Digital Sky Survey. We need to systematically classify and help the team in identifying galaxies as one of the categories; that is elliptical, spiral, merging or star. The project is very simple and the site presents pictures of galaxies in an interactive player. The design is very intuitive and it guides a participant in few easy steps. These steps involve identifying with shapes and provide some choices to best suit our opinion about the galaxy. The images are of distant galaxies and are at times fuzzy. It is hard to clearly distinguish galaxies, though; some concentration is required to keenly observe the pictures. The best part about the project is the easy connection to discuss the image by others in a detailed forum. Participants can also write about their special observations if any related to the picture that needs special consideration from professionals. Overall, the site provides an interesting experience to look into the shapes and classifications of galaxies and help the team identifying vast database of about 900,000 galaxies. No special knowledge or training is required and it is fairly simple to participate in the project. 3. Planet Hunters The site presents interesting opportunities to participate in analyzing data from Kepler Mission. Kepler measures light from stars precisely and this measurement is presented in the shape of an interactive graph taken over time. A simple tutorial teaches how to analyze these graphs. The light from the star dips when a planet transits in front of the star, therefore, reducing measured brightness by Kepler. These transits can be identified as dips in the graphs as the graph prese nts brightness measured from the star. The graphs are presented in an interactive player with choices for identification in a systematic manner. The data at times has noise and the measurements are occasionally very confusing. Multiple dips can be identified at times; however, some classifications are straight forward with very little noise

Time Management Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Time Management - Essay Example Instead, it focuses on implementation of strategies that are involved in the process of time allocation. This paper explores issues regarding time management in nursing profession, through elaboration of strategies involved. Numerous empirical investigations have indicated that nurses should develop a habit of arriving early in their workplaces. Therefore, by arriving early, nurses get enough time to read reports, hand cover sheets, organizes their work and settle their minds (Woogara, 2012). Moreover, apart from arriving early, they can also develop a habit of making notes for their personal use. These notes are obtained from hand cover sheets and reports. In fact, they can also develop lists or grids containing patients’ names and related tasks. Besides, these notes incorporate a list of activities to be undertaken during the day, and objectives that should be achieved (Woogara, 2012). Nonetheless, nurses should estimate time required for completing each task, and this can p revent misallocation of time on some tasks, thereby neglecting others. Given that nursing is a highly challenging profession, there are chances of having numerous tasks, which cannot be completed within the working hours. Moreover, this leads to increases changes in prioritization of these tasks (Fedor, 2013). For instance, changes in prioritization of tasks occur in situations where patients need urgent attention. Nevertheless, it is wise to consider the pace of tasks in nursing practice, which can lead to burning out and stress. Therefore, time management techniques are designed in ways that facilitate achievement of objectives and preventing burning out or stress (Fedor, 2013). In this case, time management techniques are subdivided into seven strategies, which include: Planning Nursing profession has an aspect of unpredictability; thus, it calls for setting strategies and planning on ways to undertake various tasks (Tucker, 2013). The nurse is required to make necessary plans su ch as competing patients’ paperwork, establishing ways to deal with patients’ needs, making submissions of laboratory requests and attending staff meetings (Tucker, 2013). Task that are completed are noted in a â€Å"to-do-list,† thereby helping nurses to stay focused. In this case, nurses are able to ensure that time is not wasted. Nurses are urged to assess their lists in order to modify it through deletion or addition of items based on their importance and urgency (Tucker, 2013). Therefore, planning enables nurses to manage their time and reduce chances of forgetting important things. Prioritization Prioritization of tasks can facilitate management of time, thereby enabling nurses to attend to their tasks depending on level of urgency (Woogara, 2012). In this case, nurses should arrange tasks to be undertaken during the day based on their priorities in order to allow them identify tasks that can be postponed (Woogara, 2012). For instance, care of patients and their satisfaction should be highly prioritized by nurses. Therefore, they are supposed to complete tasks that are highly prioritized, thereby eliminating chances of forgetting or delaying tasks (Woogara, 2012). On the other hand, nurses are urged to revisit

Social Issues and Friendship Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words - 1

Social Issues and Friendship - Essay Example We promised each other we would talk every day keep up on each other’s lives and try as much to convince our parents to allow us to visit each other over the holidays. It all seemed easy enough and our friendship was going to last forever. Little did we know fate had completely different paths for us. Ideally, Melanie and her family were supposed to come back after two years once her mother’s work contract was over. But once those two years were over, they did not return and by then I was headed to college. We tried to keep in touch but it proved challenging as I was overwhelmed with studies and extra-curricular activities. We had not managed to visit each other during the two years and she seemed to also be busy with college. Then one day she called me out of the blue insisting that she wanted us to meet and she would be in town over the weekend. I was too excited to hear from her that I did not ask any questions, I simply asked for a place and time and looked forward to our reconnecting. Two days before our meeting, I sat in a Statistics class too distracted to pay attention. All I could do was imagine how our meeting would go, how she would make fun of my short hair. I wondered what she had done with hers, we always wanted to color our hairs something crazy while in coll ege but I had stopped wanting that. The lecturer disrupted my thoughts as he called out my name. I raised my head up from the scribbling I was doing on my notebook to respond. Next to the lecturer were these two men who wanted to talk me outside the classroom. I walked out grateful for a chance to walk out as I felt I was not being productive in the class. Once outside, I got the most shocking news of my life and up to this day, I still have trouble coming to terms with what the two men told me.

Courage in to Kill a Mockingbird Essay Example for Free

Courage in to Kill a Mockingbird Essay One likes to think of a hero, as strong, brave, and meeting all challenges head on. All the characters in this book have a different view as to what courage is, and they all show it in different ways through their everyday lives. Younger characters, like Jem and Scout, see the physical aspect of it, whereas Atticus believes this to be an extremely weak form of courage. He believes in the mental quality of courage. The ability to be in minority and not back down and to be able to change; he admires Mrs. Dubose for her acts of courage that are against all odds. For a younger character, like Scout, courage is often associated with a physical act that is usually dangerous. It is hard for young children to realize that courage can be shown in other aspects of life. Scout sees an example of courage in her father when he shoots the mad dog Tim Johnson (pg. 101). Although Atticus does not think of it as very courageous, Jem and Scout are proud of their father and the courage he showed in this dangerous situation. Atticus views courage on a more intellectual level, as a moral thing not something that can be proved with a weapon. Later on in the story, Jem and Scout encounter the vindictive, spiteful Mrs. Dubose who often shouts out racism directed at the passing children because of Atticus’ job. At one point she proclaimed, Your fathers no better than the niggers and trash he works for! (pg. 111). When she blatantly made Atticus an object of ridicule like that, Jem decided that the best way to settle things was to ruin Mrs. Duboses camellias. Since he could not attack Mrs. Dubose directly, Jem decided to go for something close to her. He is committing a physical act of retaliation, which led to her suffering mental pain yet again. It was a cowardly act, for he dared not step up and confront her. After Atticus heard about this stunt, Jem was made to read to her every afternoon for a month. He now needed mental valour, and he did find it more difficult to source this than the physical bravery he was used to displaying. This is made apparent by him refusing to walk past her house alone, and because Jem was at first terrified of going to see her. Mrs. Dubose was a very sick woman, and had used morphine to ease her pain but was now addicted. It was her goal to leave the world beholden to nothing and nobody (pg. 120). She displayed what Atticus refers to as real courage. (pg. 121). She showed real courage because she does not have the luxury of standing there with a gun pointed at her addiction. One single attempt could not free her from the addiction. Rather, it had to be a many staged process over an extended period of time. It was shear determination and real courage that allowed her to accomplish her goal. It was not until after she died that Atticus explained to Jem and Scout how courageous the woman was because she knew she was dying but was still determined to die free of the morphine. She fought against great odds, even though she knew that she would surely die. Atticus tells his children that he wanted them to see what real courage is, instead of getting the idea that courage is a man with a gun in his hand. He also says that she was the bravest person he ever knew. (pg. 121) Real courage is when you fight for what is right regardless of whether you win or lose. Atticus Finch demonstrates real courage several times throughout the novel, in addition to the lessons that he teaches his children. The largest and most important example would be the trial of Tom Robinson. When Atticus took the case, he went up against Maycomb, a generally prejudiced town, in order to defend Tom. He understood that taking the case would make him an object of ridicule and that no one would forgive him for believing a black mans word over a white mans. Even his own sister expresses disapproval at his decision, practically telling him he was bringing disgrace to the family. Nevertheless, no matter how much his reputation suffered, he did not change his mind. Standing up for his morals and ethics was more important than what people thought about him. From the very start Atticus knows he will not win the case however he does his job and finishes what he set out to do. Atticuss strong sense of morality and justice motivates him to defend Tom Robinson with determination, giving it all he has. He shows this when he says, Simply because we were licked a hundred years before we started is no reason for us not to try and win. (pg. 82). He says this to Scout after she comes home from school angry at Cecil Jacobs for making fun of Atticus in the schoolyard. Atticus tells her to fight with her head instead of her fists. He wants the people of Maycomb to hear the truth about Tom, That boy may go to the chair, but hes not going till the truths told. (pg. 159). Atticus is putting everything a man holds dear, dignity, respect, honor and status, on the line to protect Tom. He later shows more bravery when he goes to the jailhouse to protect Tom from a mob. Without thinking twice, he rushed to Toms aid. He went willingly, knowing that if a mob did form he would be greatly outnumbered and would easily be beaten. Still, he put Toms well being ahead of his own welfare. While serving justice, Atticus also showed great courage. For example, he did not go along with Heck Tate when he told a lie about what really happened the night Bob Ewell was found stabbed to death. Atticus put his life and career on the line because he knew that, as an officer of the court, withholding information from an investigation could have gotten Mr. Tate thrown into jail. Nonetheless, like many times before, doing what was right and fair prevailed in Atticuss way of thinking. In addition, Atticus went against his moral code and principles he had always upheld before, when Atticus is faced with the decision of abiding by the law or breaking it in order to do the right thing. He knew that incarcerating a man like Arthur Radley would have been unforgivable, especially after Arthur had just performed a great deed by saving his childrens lives. He knew that exposing him would be an awful way of repaying him; it would have been like shooting a mockingbird. Therefore, Atticus chose to protect Boo from the public eye rather than abide by the law and his honest judicial ways he was so accustomed to follow. Sometimes it takes even more courage to set a new level of morals than to stay in one’s comfort zone. (pg. 297-302). The courage to change habits and thoughts is very important, because not everyone is able to do it. A very good example of this courage is when Atticus asked Scout not to fight anymore. When I committed myself to this act of cowardice. Word got around that Scout Finch wouldn’t fight anymore, her daddy wouldn’t let her. (pg. 97). That was a great act of courage because Scout used to fight a lot but as she had promised her father she would not fight anymore. Scout, like Jem does not want to disappoint Atticus, so she makes a change. In conclusion, Atticus shows praiseworthy courage and behaviour in many instances throughout the story, not by fighting or killing, but by standing up for what he believed in a civilized and determined way. His strongest motivation, however, were his children. He wants to be a good example for his kids and encourage in them a strong sense of moral value. One time Scout asks him why he had taken a case he knew he was not going to win and he responded by saying, For a number of reasons. The main one is, if I didnt I couldnt hold up my head in town, I couldnt represent this county in the legislature, I couldnt even tell you or Jem not to do something again. (pg. 82). In other words, he would not have been able to talk to his kids about justice and standing up for what one believes when he himself had not stood for what he believed in. The lessons taught by Atticus and Mrs. Dubose show Jem and Scout what it is to be courageous, to be able to change, to tell the truth and most importantly to stand up for their own beliefs. All qoutes from Lee, Harper, 1960, To kill a Mokingbird, London, Pan Books

Cincinnati Subs Essay Example for Free

Cincinnati Subs Essay Cincinnati Super Subs employee makeup is mostly young students in college and in high school; management has indicated that the chain has experienced â€Å"below average profitability over the past 18 months† (McShane Von Glinow, 2013, p. 156). The below average profitability is linked to the increase of food wastage, management has taken steps to address the issue from reduction and elimination of food allowance accounts to the increased visual scrutiny given workers. The changes made by management were only successful for a few months, after the managers reduced their time in daily operations the amount of food wastage began to increase. To reduce food wastage management must have a presence in daily operations at the sub chain, create and enforce punishments for violations, set goals and create rewards for the reduction in food wastage. Indications of Problems at Cincinnati Super Subs ​Food wastage at Cincinnati Super Subs is a huge problem that has resulted in the reduction of monthly bonuses given to management. The staff at the chain complains about the amount or lack of food allowances given, this would prompt employees to â€Å"help themselves to food and drinks when the managers aren’t around† (McShane Von Glinow, 2013, p. 156). The reduction in profitability over the past 18 months at stores has indicated the levels of food wastage have significantly impacted management employee relations and overall costs at the chain. The importance of reducing food wastage is not realized by non-management staff, they feel that the amount of food/drinks given away or eaten isn’t a significant amount of profits. Corrective actions taken against employees have reduced staff levels as some employees have quit and warned others about seeking employment at Cincinnati Super Subs. Management failed to accurately identify and corrects the causes of f ood wastage, and in the process caused employee dissatisfaction.

History of Politics in Iraq and Iran

History of Politics in Iraq and Iran Iran – Iraq Comparative Political Essay Modern History of Iraq â€Å"The country of Iraq, officially named the Republic of Iraq, is a country in Western Asia spanning most of the northwestern end of the Zagros mountain range, the eastern part of the Syrian Desert and the northern part of the Arabian Desert. Iraq shares borders with Saudi Arabia and Kuwait to the south, Jordan to the west, Syria to the northwest, Turkey to the north, and Iran to the east. With a 35-mile coastline on the Persian Gulf and two major rivers -the Tigris and the Euphrates- Iraq contains agriculturally proficient land. Iraqs history is long and rich, dating back to ancient Mesopotamia, identified by some historians as the cradle of civilization and the birthplace of writing. Throughout its long history, Iraq has served as the capital of the Babylonian empire, and as a province of the Mongol, Ottoman empires and, finally, the British empire which effectively birthed the modern Republic of Iraq. The British are largely credited with the creation of the modern state of Iraq, and had a vested interest in the region as soon as oil was discovered there. Indeed, as the British Petroleum Company (PLC) began production on the Iranian side of the gulf, the British became encouraged by indications that oil was also nearby in what was soon to be Iraq. The British, whose political and economic interests in the Persian Gulf and the Tigris-Euphrates region had progressively grown since the late 18th century, ultimately brought an end to the Ottoman presence in Iraq following the Treaty of Lausanne in 1923. The treaty, which followed the British army’s march on Baghdad, led to the replacement of the Ottoman provincial government in occupied Iraq by the British. As a result, Turkey, the successor to the Ottoman Empire, effectively gave up all claims to its former Arab provinces including Iraq. Subsequently, Great Britain succeeded in merging the three provinces of Mosul, Baghdad, an d Al-Barah into one political entity, forging a new nation out of the heterogeneous religious and ethnic entities there. However, anti-imperialist sentiment and Iraqi nationalism grew over the next decade, which, coupled with British frustrations at home, caused Iraq to finally emerge as an independent political entity in 1932. On October 3, 1932, Iraq was admitted to the League of Nations as an independent state. (Metz, 1998) Decades later in 1976, as Saddam Hussein was officially handed power after forcing al-Bakr to step down, he became eager to take advantage of Irans weakened military and what he saw as revolutionary chaos across the border. Specifically, Saddam’s goal was to occupy Irans adjacent oil-rich province of Khuzestan while undermining Iranian Islamic revolutionary attempts to incite the Shia majority of his country. (Algar, 2008) This led to the beginning of Saddam’s tyrannical rule. Shortly after his Ba’athist power grab, Saddam executed several top members of his party under claims of espionage in what would be a foreshadowing of his dominant, Machiavellian person al rule of Iraq for decades to come. Regime Transition in Iraq Ever since seizing power in 1979, Saddam Hussein presented himself as a secular modernizer, a social revolutionary who loosely followed the Egyptian model of Gamal Nasser, the second president of Egypt. To the alarm of Islamic fundamentalists (especially his Iranian counterparts) Hussein’s government conferred women with open freedoms, offering females high-level government and industry jobs. Saddam also created a Western-style legal system, making Iraq the only country in the Persian Gulf region that was not ruled according to Sharia law, even going as far as abolishing the Sharia courts within Iraq. His secularism, masked by a nominal commitment to Sunni Islam, allowed him to engage in bellicosity towards his Muslim neighbors without the encumbrance of religious commitment. This lack of religious loyalty was displayed in the summer of 1990, when Saddam led Iraq’s forces into the Muslim nation of Kuwait, a nation whose population itself is 70% Sunni (CIA, 2008). In August 1990, Iraq seized Kuwait but was soon expelled by US-led, UN coalition forces during the Gulf War of January-February 1991. Following Kuwaits liberation, the UN Security Council (UNSC) required Iraq to destroy all weapons of mass destruction (WMD) and long-range missiles while allowing open-ended UN verification inspections. Over the next 12 years after the US-led invasion of Iraq, Saddam Hussein continually encumbered the inspection process of the UN and the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). Many on both sides of the partisan divide in the US took his obfuscation to be a clear sign of guilt, believing that Saddam had rebuilt, restored and advanced Iraq’s WMD arsenal over the decade since the first Gulf War. Hence, following the attacks of 9/11, which conferred the Bush Administration with the political ammunition to engage its Middle Eastern enemies, (Benedetto, 2001) the United States led a divided coalition into Iraq in March of 2003 against the wishes of the UN. The world now knows that the intelligence which sent the United States to war with the sovereign nation of Iraq was in the words of the official Presidential Commission on the Intelligence Capabilities of the United States Regarding Weapons of Mass Destruction ‘dead wrong.’(CNN, 2006) In one report, the intelligence warning read, ‘Intelligence indicates that the Iraqi military are able to deploy chemical or biological weapons within forty-five minutes of an order to do so.’ (The Independent, 2003) It is now known that this and other like intelligence was politicized and augmented, serving as the means to fulfill a seemingly necessary political end.9 The end, in the case of Iraq, was a full-scale US invasion in March of 2003 that led to the overthrow of Saddam Hussein and was followed by mass chaos, violence and predation throughout the country. The use of force can be legal under international law if it is authorized by the United Nations Securit y Council (UNSC). Article 39 of the United Nation’s charter confirms that hard power may be used when the UNSC determines ‘the existence of any threat to the peace, breach of the peace, or act of aggression.’ However, Security Council Resolution 1441, passed in the immediate aftermath of 9/11, held that disarmament of Iraq should be done only through multilateral, international pressure via the work of United Nations inspectors, not by military force (Hartung Donnelley, 2003). Russian Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov echoed the feelings of the United Nations when he insisted, ‘Iraq does not need democracy brought on the wings of Tomahawks [cruise missiles].’ (Weir, 2003) President Putin himself predicted that the U.S.-led war in Iraq threatened to destabilize the entire Middle East and spill into the territory of the former Soviet Union, asserting, ‘The war against Iraq is fraught with unpredictable consequences, including increased Muslim extremism.’ (IBID.) Unfortunately but undeniably, the prognostications of the Russian leaders turned out to be true, as the aftermath of the US invasion has appeared more Hobbesian than democratic. However, there have been politically salubrious (albeit evanescent) events in Iraq’s regime transition away from personal, authoritarian rule towards democracy. On January 30th, 2005 an estimated eight million people voted in elections for a Transitional National Assembly where the Shi’a United Iraqi Alliance won a majority of assembly seats with the Kurdish parties coming in second. The transition to a stable democracy did not immediately follow the historic elections however, as 114 people were killed by a massive car bomb in southern Baghdad less than a month later (the worst single incident since the US-led invasion.) as well as numerous other suicide bombings (AP, 2008). Later that year, voters approved a new constitution which aimed to create an Islamic federal democracy while also voting for the first full-term government and parliament since the US-led invasion. After years of violence and failure by the Iraqi government to secure political, social or ethnic stability, the Parliament passed legislation allowing former officials from SaddamAfter years of violence and failure by the Iraqi government to secure political, social or ethnic stability, the Parliament passed legislation allowing former officials from Saddam Iran Known as Persia until 1935, Iran (meaning ‘the land of the Aryans’) is a relatively large country enjoying a strategic position in the Persian Gulf. It is larger than Alaska and slightly smaller in size than France, Germany, Spain, and the United Kingdom combined. Most of the terrain is a plateau consisting of mountains and desert, with a continental climate marked by scarce precipitation and extreme temperature differences between summer and winter. These factors have made much of the country inhospitable to agriculture and have resulted in a rather skewed demographic distribution. As in much of Asia, the maintenance and control of irrigation infrastructure have been politically important throughout the country’s history. The most important resources are petroleum, natural gas, and mineral deposits. Iran is the second largest oil exporter within OPEC and the fourth largest oil producer in the world. Its proven oil reserves (estimated to be over 94 billion barrels , or 10 percent of the world total) are concentrated along the southern coast (Persian Gulf) and in the Caspian Sea in the north, both of which are areas of geopolitical rivalry and instability. Iran also possesses 15 percent of the world’s proven natural gas reserves, which places it second in the world after Russia. Bordering eight different countries from Central Asia, the Indian subcontinent, the Middle East, and the Caucasus, it has ongoing territorial disputes with Iraq, the United Arab Emirates, and neighbors in the Caspian basin. In 2003, Iran ranked 19 (out of 231 countries) in terms of its gross domestic product. Iran is a lower-middle-income country that has the world’s seventeenth largest population (over 67 million people). Close to 70 percent of the country’s population live in less than 30 percent of the land, concentrated in the north and northwest of the country and such major cities as Tehran, Mashhad, Isfahan, Tabriz, Shiraz, Karaj, Ahvaz, and Qom. Much of the country is rural and historically had an important nomadic pastoral component that came under state pressure to take up settled agriculture in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. The population is 89 percent Shiite Muslim, another 10 percent are Sunni Muslims, and the remainder (1 percent) are Christians, Baha’is, Jews, and Zoroastrians. Persian (or Farsi, as the Iranians refer to it) is the official and predominant language. There are more than a dozen different ethnic minorities in Iran, including Turkic-speaking Azeris in the north, Gilaki and Mazandaranis in the north, Kurds in the northw est (part of a transnational Kurdish zone that cuts across Iran, Iraq, Turkey, and Syria and sustains an independence movement that all these states have tried to suppress), Balochis in the southeast, and Arabs along the southwest coast. In this patchwork of identities, it is important to note that the cleavages of ethnicity, language, and religion often cut across one another rather than overlap. Brief Political History Iran, a country with a history spanning over three millennia, has one of the richest artistic, literary, and scholarly lineages of the Middle East. This tradition is due to the accumulated contributions of Persia’s gifted craftsman, gnostic and hedonist poets, and learned men of philosophy, science, and religion. The country’s rather complex political culture and sense of self-identity is heavily influenced by (a) a pre-Islamic notion of Iranian identity centered on nationalism, (b) intellectual loans acquired in the course of encounter with Western modernity, and (c) attachment to the minority branch of Islam known as Shiism. Each of these currents has served as a breeding ground for the formation of different types of political sentiments ranging from anti-Arab Iranian nationalism to secular humanism and finally radical Shiism. The Shiite/Sunni split occurred soon after the advent of Islam, over the question of who was eligible to succeed Prophet Muhammad (d. 632) as the new caliph (loosely analogous to the Catholic papacy). Shiites (now some 15 percent of Muslims worldwide) believe that legitimate rulership of the entire Islamic community could descend only through the heirs of the Prophet Muhammad. They regard other early leaders, whom Sunnis revere, as usurpers. A resistance centered on the legitimate line of ‘imams’ lasted for several generations, until the last imam mysteriously disappeared in the year 874. Since then, Shiites have held on to a messianic belief that the ‘hidden imam’ will return at the end of time and restore a just order. Shiite political thinkers historically have held, based on these doctrines, that in the interim all secular authority is ultimately illegitimate. Compared to Sunni Islam, Shiism has thus remained more critical of monarchs and less fully reconciled with political order for its own sake. At best, the Shiite clergy extended a provisional legitimacy to rulers who let Islamic institutions flourish unmolested. The clergy itself came to stand in collectively for the hidden imam, in his absence. Over the centuries, they functioned as the conscience of the Shiite community and thus occupied a role similar to that of the Christian priesthood in premodern Europe, or the Confucian mandarins in premodern China. Certain distinct features of church-state relations bear noting, however. Compared to the Confucian mandarins, the Shiite clerics were far more hostile to power holders and enjoyed more independence. Their religious functions were separate from the state and usually unaffected by it. They also enjoyed a strong institutional base. They were self-organized, in informal hierarchies that rested only on the esteem in which religious scho lars held one another. They also had a secure income from the voluntary religious taxes paid by the believers as well as mosques and charitable endowments that were inviolable under Islamic law. Compared to the Christian priests, Shiite clerics often refused to make peace with secular authorities based on a dividing line between church and state. Islamic doctrine has held that religion and politics flow into one another, as aspects of a comprehensive Islamic society. Rulership by monarchs other than the hidden imam was always viewed, therefore, as an unnatural condition—even if inevitable for the time being. The Shiite clergy’s withdrawal from political life before modern times reflected a desire to be untainted by the prevailing injustice, not a sense that some spheres of life lay outside the scope of religion. Hence, the church-state relationship has always been problematic.† References (2015). Retrieved 3 May 2015, from (2015). Retrieved 3 May 2015, from http://cis.uchicago.edu/sites/cis.uchicago.edu/files/resources/CIS-081206-iraqiran_SimilaritiesandDifferencesIraqIranAnswerKey.pdf (2015). Retrieved 3 May 2015, from http://apcentral.collegeboard.com/apc/public/repository/ap05_comp_govpol_iran_42251.pdf Indexmundi.com,. (2015). Iran vs. Iraq Country Comparison. Retrieved 3 May 2015, from http://www.indexmundi.com/factbook/compare/iran.iraq

Euthanasia Essay - The Need for Physician Assisted Suicide :: Free Euthanasia Essay

The Need for Physician Assisted Suicide Man is born with death in his hand. We all will die. We may be able to postpone death but we cannot avoid it. We all die of something, somewhere, somehow. Although we cannot avoid death, we can control the death caused by a terminal illness. We can determine how, when, where, and with whom we die. Right now at this time, there are over 10,000 patients in the United States that are in a permanent vegetative state. Also there are thousands of handicapped infants born each year. With the technology we have today, we are able to help people survive for long periods. About two million Americans die every year. About 85% of them are in an institution. 80% involve a decision by someone to try to prolong life or to let it go. It is estimated that around four of every five Americans will die of lingering, chronic illness, which cannot be cured but can be artificially prolonged. Odds are not in your favor to die naturally at home. The following are some thing to clear up any confusion about assisted suicide and euthanasia. Euthanasia is act of mercifully ending the life of a hopelessly suffering patient; taken from a similar Greek word meaning "easy or good death" Physician-Assisted Suicide - assisted by a qualified medical practitioner in fulfilling the wishes of a competent, terminally-ill patient to end his/her own life, usually by means of lethal injections. The difference between the two is during euthanasia is when death itself occurs, it's carried out by the doctor but in doctor-assisted suicides, the patient fulfills the final step of terminating his/her own life. "Passive" Euthanasia is ending a patient's life by withholding or withdrawing life-sustaining treatments, and "Active" Euthanasia is causing a virtually painless death by means without which life would continue naturally, usually referring to lethal injections and lastly, suicide is the act of taking one's own life voluntarily and intentionally. A very well talked about doctor who assists in suicide is Dr. Jack Kevorkian. He has pointed out the benefits of assisted suicide. Some of those are that it reduces patient's suffering family and friends of patient. Dr. Kevorkian also asks his own patients to donate vital organs or undergo a critical medical experiment, which helps science, medicine, society, and the lives of others.

The Power of Computers and Technology :: Exploratory Essays Research Papers

The Power of Computers While I was sitting at my PC, I began looking for a song to download. All of the sudden, the screen went blank. I knew that I hadn't touched the power strip, so I was dumbfounded by its sudden halt. I used every key possible to try and revive my dying machine. I frantically decided to turn the power off, but, before I could, a small green cursor blinked on the screen. I tried to type but nothing worked. Not knowing what to do, I switched the power to off and was amazed that the blinking green cursor was still alive. It was a normal boring day. I had returned home from work and decided to fool around on my computer. The computer lived in my room; it had its own space and a small lamp that provided light for typing. Although my computer was the most recent edition, it had once been infected with one of the many viruses. Because of this I decided to go on the net and sign up for a trial virus doctor, which is a program that helps to get rid of computer viruses. Being so disgusted with myself for obtaining the awful disease, I downloaded the program without reading any of the labels. I then proceeded to look for a new to download when all of a sudden the screen went blank. The emerald cursor skipped across the screen typing as it went. " Initializing data and preceding with extermination of hostile data." My mouth dropped to the floor as I sat there speechless. I then typed in " Stop program." The computer then replied, "Why do you want me to stop doing what you hired us to do?" "Us? Who do you mean by us?" "I mean the network of computers that you hired to fix your PC. It figures, all of you humans never do any research before jumping into things." " What are you talking about? I don't even know what's going on here." "See, that's exactly what I'm talking about. You just downloaded me a few minutes ago, and now you are mad because we're doing our job." " No! Wait one minute! I downloaded a virus doctor to fix my computer, not some psycho program so a kid could hack into my computer." " Wow you really don't know what's going on.

Indian Boarding School Essay -- essays research papers

"Compressed emotions," that is the explanation a teacher once gave to the ongoing question, "What is poetry?" He said it was someone's deepest emotions, as if you were reading them right out of that person's mind, which in that case would not consist of any words at all. If someone tells you a story, it is usually like a shell. Rarely are all of the deepest and most personal emotions revealed effectively. A poem of that story would be like the inside of the shell. It personifies situations, and symbolizes and compares emotions with other things in life. Louise Erdrich's poem Indian Boarding School puts the emotions of a person or group of people in a setting around a railroad track. The feelings experienced are compared to things from the setting, which takes on human characteristics. Louise Erdrich was born part German, part American Indian. Since the title and other references in the poem refer to Indian people, it is most likely that this poem was very personal to her. The boarding school may have been a real place she went to, or where mistreatment of her people was not uncommon, or it could simply be a tool she used to express racism towards them in general. With that fact, the reader must remember that although the words are from the runaways' point of view, there are not necessarily any real runaways. From the point of view at which this is told, the runaways are eager to find their way home. They do not necessarily really try to runaway, it may just be in their fantasies, "Home's the place we head for in our sleep." (line 1). The first use of personification is in the line, "The rails, old lacerations that we love,"(line 4). It is not yet quite clear why Erdrich would compare the train tracks with old lacerations until the lines, "shoot parallel across the face and break just under the Turtle Mountains." (lines 5-6). Mountains are definite things that are physical in nature. Train tracks on a face are hard to imagine, so it leads us to believe it has some deeper meaning. This reveals that the children want to run away from the boarding school for more serious matters than just good old home-sickness. The "old lacerations" may represent wounds on their own faces, internal or external. Visually, train tracks look like wounds that were stitche d and scarred. The Turtle Mountains must relate ... ...d when it dried. That was the time when they remembered "delicate" injuries. Injuries that a child gets while playing or falling, not from bigotry or violence. Now those things are only memories. It is very likely that Louise Erdrich experienced some kind of racism or prejudice in her lifetime. Segregation laws were still in use while she was growing up in the fifties, and in the sixties, many of the same people still felt racist, with or without the laws. Boarding schools were not an exception to this fact either. School authorities probably did take advantage of the fact that boarding schools are away from home and not under the watchful eye of any parent. This poem demonstrates the truth of what it really felt and feels like to have lived through such bad treatment. It is disturbing to think that instead of just learning at school, Louise Erdrich, amongst other children, may have learned what it felt like to be hated. At such early ages, they taught these children that the way they were treated was how the world was supposed to be. It displays the painful scars embedded so deeply into a child, from a time that should have been the most nurturing part of his/her life. Indian Boarding School Essay -- essays research papers "Compressed emotions," that is the explanation a teacher once gave to the ongoing question, "What is poetry?" He said it was someone's deepest emotions, as if you were reading them right out of that person's mind, which in that case would not consist of any words at all. If someone tells you a story, it is usually like a shell. Rarely are all of the deepest and most personal emotions revealed effectively. A poem of that story would be like the inside of the shell. It personifies situations, and symbolizes and compares emotions with other things in life. Louise Erdrich's poem Indian Boarding School puts the emotions of a person or group of people in a setting around a railroad track. The feelings experienced are compared to things from the setting, which takes on human characteristics. Louise Erdrich was born part German, part American Indian. Since the title and other references in the poem refer to Indian people, it is most likely that this poem was very personal to her. The boarding school may have been a real place she went to, or where mistreatment of her people was not uncommon, or it could simply be a tool she used to express racism towards them in general. With that fact, the reader must remember that although the words are from the runaways' point of view, there are not necessarily any real runaways. From the point of view at which this is told, the runaways are eager to find their way home. They do not necessarily really try to runaway, it may just be in their fantasies, "Home's the place we head for in our sleep." (line 1). The first use of personification is in the line, "The rails, old lacerations that we love,"(line 4). It is not yet quite clear why Erdrich would compare the train tracks with old lacerations until the lines, "shoot parallel across the face and break just under the Turtle Mountains." (lines 5-6). Mountains are definite things that are physical in nature. Train tracks on a face are hard to imagine, so it leads us to believe it has some deeper meaning. This reveals that the children want to run away from the boarding school for more serious matters than just good old home-sickness. The "old lacerations" may represent wounds on their own faces, internal or external. Visually, train tracks look like wounds that were stitche d and scarred. The Turtle Mountains must relate ... ...d when it dried. That was the time when they remembered "delicate" injuries. Injuries that a child gets while playing or falling, not from bigotry or violence. Now those things are only memories. It is very likely that Louise Erdrich experienced some kind of racism or prejudice in her lifetime. Segregation laws were still in use while she was growing up in the fifties, and in the sixties, many of the same people still felt racist, with or without the laws. Boarding schools were not an exception to this fact either. School authorities probably did take advantage of the fact that boarding schools are away from home and not under the watchful eye of any parent. This poem demonstrates the truth of what it really felt and feels like to have lived through such bad treatment. It is disturbing to think that instead of just learning at school, Louise Erdrich, amongst other children, may have learned what it felt like to be hated. At such early ages, they taught these children that the way they were treated was how the world was supposed to be. It displays the painful scars embedded so deeply into a child, from a time that should have been the most nurturing part of his/her life.

Fences: Family and Fence

August Wilson did not name his play, Fences, simply due to the melodramatic actions that take place in the Maxson household, but rather the relationships that bond and break because of the â€Å"fence†. The â€Å"fence† serves as a structural device because the character's lives are constantly changing during the construction of the fence. The dramatic actions in the play strongly depend on the building of the fence in the Maxson’s backyard. Fences represents the metaphorical walls or fences that the main characters are creating around themselves in order to keep people in or vice versa.The title may seem straightforward, but in actuality it is a powerful symbol which can either have positive or negative meanings. The title also describes the entirety of the play. The â€Å"fence† most obviously seen throughout the play portrays protection. Rose creates a personal â€Å"fence† by singing a song seeking protection from whatever is on her way. â€Å" Jesus, be a fence around me every day. Jesus, I want you to protect me as I travel on my way† (21). Also, the fact that Rose wants the fence built adds to the meaning of her character because she sees the fence as something positive and necessary.Bono observes that Rose wants the fence built to hold her family together. â€Å"Some people build fence to keep people in†¦ and other people build fences to keep people in. Rose wants to hold on to you all. She loves you† (61). The â€Å"fence† is a symbolization of Rose’s love and her desire for a fence which shows that Rose represents love and nurturing. Also, the â€Å"fence† shows Troy protecting himself form Death telling him to come when he’s ready. â€Å"See now†¦ I’m gonna tell you what I’m gonna do. I’m gonna take and build me a fence around this yard. See?I’m gonna build a fence around what belongs to me. And I want you to stay on the other side. You stay over there until you’re ready for me† (77). In vice versa, the â€Å"fence† also portray separation. Troy creates a personal â€Å"fence† that keeps people out by neglecting his two sons which eventually draw away from him and cheating on his wife with a woman named Alberta. Troy's lack of commitment to finishing the fence that Rose wants put up represents his lack of commitment in his marriage. He doesn't understand that Rose wants to keep the family close because he never truly had a close family.He becomes a womanless man. â€Å"From right now†¦ this child got a mother. But you a womanless man† (79). Troy pushes Lyons away by refusing to hear him play his â€Å"Chinese music† (48). He also damages his relationship with his other son, Cory, by preventing him from playing football and rejecting his only chance to get recruited by a college football team. The â€Å"fence† also depicts that Troy is disowning Cory when they get into an argument and Troy kicks him out on to the streets. Troy states that Cory’s things will be on â€Å"the other side of that fence† (89).As a result, Troy ends up driving everybody away just like his father. The â€Å"fence† acts like a physical divider between the Maxson’s household and the outside world because Troy doesn’t bring anything others would normally have into his house and Rose does not want any outsider intruding her family. The play, Fences, in conclusion acquires many interpretations of the â€Å"fence† that is mentioned variously. Despite there only being one physical fence, it represents many figurative fences throughout the play. The â€Å"fence† is signified as having both positive and negative connotations. Fences: Family and Fence August Wilson did not name his play, Fences, simply due to the melodramatic actions that take place in the Maxson household, but rather the relationships that bond and break because of the â€Å"fence†. The â€Å"fence† serves as a structural device because the character's lives are constantly changing during the construction of the fence. The dramatic actions in the play strongly depend on the building of the fence in the Maxson’s backyard. Fences represents the metaphorical walls or fences that the main characters are creating around themselves in order to keep people in or vice versa.The title may seem straightforward, but in actuality it is a powerful symbol which can either have positive or negative meanings. The title also describes the entirety of the play. The â€Å"fence† most obviously seen throughout the play portrays protection. Rose creates a personal â€Å"fence† by singing a song seeking protection from whatever is on her way. â€Å" Jesus, be a fence around me every day. Jesus, I want you to protect me as I travel on my way† (21). Also, the fact that Rose wants the fence built adds to the meaning of her character because she sees the fence as something positive and necessary.Bono observes that Rose wants the fence built to hold her family together. â€Å"Some people build fence to keep people in†¦ and other people build fences to keep people in. Rose wants to hold on to you all. She loves you† (61). The â€Å"fence† is a symbolization of Rose’s love and her desire for a fence which shows that Rose represents love and nurturing. Also, the â€Å"fence† shows Troy protecting himself form Death telling him to come when he’s ready. â€Å"See now†¦ I’m gonna tell you what I’m gonna do. I’m gonna take and build me a fence around this yard. See?I’m gonna build a fence around what belongs to me. And I want you to stay on the other side. You stay over there until you’re ready for me† (77). In vice versa, the â€Å"fence† also portray separation. Troy creates a personal â€Å"fence† that keeps people out by neglecting his two sons which eventually draw away from him and cheating on his wife with a woman named Alberta. Troy's lack of commitment to finishing the fence that Rose wants put up represents his lack of commitment in his marriage. He doesn't understand that Rose wants to keep the family close because he never truly had a close family.He becomes a womanless man. â€Å"From right now†¦ this child got a mother. But you a womanless man† (79). Troy pushes Lyons away by refusing to hear him play his â€Å"Chinese music† (48). He also damages his relationship with his other son, Cory, by preventing him from playing football and rejecting his only chance to get recruited by a college football team. The â€Å"fence† also depicts that Troy is disowning Cory when they get into an argument and Troy kicks him out on to the streets. Troy states that Cory’s things will be on â€Å"the other side of that fence† (89).As a result, Troy ends up driving everybody away just like his father. The â€Å"fence† acts like a physical divider between the Maxson’s household and the outside world because Troy doesn’t bring anything others would normally have into his house and Rose does not want any outsider intruding her family. The play, Fences, in conclusion acquires many interpretations of the â€Å"fence† that is mentioned variously. Despite there only being one physical fence, it represents many figurative fences throughout the play. The â€Å"fence† is signified as having both positive and negative connotations.

Financial Literacy in the Philippines Essay

Money. That word enough is enough to turn the heads of almost any one in this world today. It’s not a hidden fact or a myth, or an exaggeration that money indeed makes the world go round today. In legal matters, money is the only reasonable way to amend some matters. In a cynical point of view, you could say that money is the law. In these times of corporate international booming, there’s no exaggeration that money holds your life today. Financial literacy is the knowledge that is the answer to these times of finance emphasized earth. But what is financial literacy? Financial literacy is, according to Wikipedia, â€Å"the ability of a person to understand how money works†. It is basically how one is skilled at handling financial matters, and how one is informed of insurances, investing and over-all money management. Knowing this term, then I am asked, Am I financially literate? As a young adult, it is necessary that one knows how to manage money. Especially that I go to school everyday, riding public transportation, eating out; One can say that isn’t everyone financially literate because they know how to budget their money after all? If it’s that easy, then I could say I am, but it isn’t. I’m not financially literate. As far as my money goes, I only know a little about saving. In fact, I don’t even own a real bank account in this age of 20. I know very little about insurances, investments, let alone the stock market. I only save money so I can spend it on going out with my friends, not for, as they say, the rainy days. Bank accounts are the only thing I know about and as far as I’m concerned it’s just about them keeping my money secured. I’m supposed to be a little embarrassed, but then I look around my community and see I’m not the only one. No, in this country, I’m one of the majority that is not. Why am I not? Why are most of us not financially literate in this world where money is a crucial necessity? I’ve read one article in the internet by Randell Tiongson entitled â€Å"Pinoys and Financial Literacy†. The article tackled how us Filipinos are not as financially literate as we think and the fact that most Filipinos give very little attention to actually be more knowledgeable in handling finances. In contrast though, it states that little by little, we are getting better; but still we have a long way to go to being called a financially stable country. I learned that most Filipinos have the same mind set as I have. We think having a bank account is already financial security. I think I am one of the population that is generally very clueless. Looking at other countries, they have these programs where they actually give seminars and lectures on being financially literate; to them the booming money world can only be survived through education. All I see in our country today are seminars about bank accounts and piggy banks. Where is the education that us Filipinos need in this world of financial dependence? We may turn our eyes from it, but money is a concrete fact of living. All my life I’ve been taught that saving money is the best thing you can do to your money; budget and management. But those are all kids stuff. I’m actually now worried that I am not well informed. One of the reasons I am not financially literate is definitely because of poor education on these matters. No one really taught me the words ‘investing’, or ‘insurance’ or ‘the stock market’ in school. Well maybe in definition, but I never came across how-to’s and guide to how to use these terms in the practical world. I think I would be scolded that I’m asking to be spoon-fed but, to be frank, this country never really made me grow up with concerns about financial literacy. And I am even one of those people with a good education†¦ how about our co-citizens with even less? Another reason is probably how our traditions and culture never really had a chance to understand these legal matters formally. Unlike other countries, we are generally the most traditional ones. We held our religions close, believing that everything happens in God’s time, if it’s safe to say, I think we are relying in Him too much. They didn’t talk about life insurances in the bible. We tend to believe that whatever happens, it happens on God’s will. Religion has been our security for ages. And I think that is why my own parents doesn’t have too much of a clue in investments issues. And as their child, how am I supposed to have a grasp in this area. No matter how I am accused of having enough resources because of the internet, it’s still not enough to carry a curiosity on finance matters. Because as tradition was, in this country, if you have a bank account, you’re saved. My family isn’t really one of those homes where everyone’s so money-savvy. I think it’s also because we’re a young family, with me as the eldest child. So I think I should be the one starting, learning about financial literacy. And this goes, with my last reason: Families with low financial status tend to not to be exposed in these opportunities. We’re not exactly in the higher middle class which many people may think because I’m studying in Mapua. We’re extremely in the middle middle class and as I have observed in television and the internet, those who already have the money are the ones only given the chance to be literate financially. It isn’t a theory that you need money for education, though there are other ways to stay informed but this is the truth. Most people in this country are lower middle class and could you even imagine the opportunities given to their level? It’s just concerning. Money-education for only those who already have money, or the promise of it. And I think that should be the one of the main concerns of this country. In conclusion, the main reason is our own country’s lack of financial literacy education. Resources: https://en. wikipedia. org/wiki/Financial_literacy , http://www. investopedia. com/terms/f/financial-literacy. asp ,http://www. randelltiongson. com/? s=financial+literacy+in+the+philippines , http://www. getsmarteraboutmoney. ca/en/managing-your-money/planning/investing-basics/Pages/what-is-financial-literacy. aspx.

Unit 4 Business Communication

Verbal communication Verbal communication is when a person communicates with someone in a way that they can hear and understand each other. It can be done in many different ways such as telephone, face to face and meetings. Although verbal communication is the easiest it has its advantages and its disadvantages just like every way of communication. In terms of Tesco’s verbal communication the example are the following: * Customer services * Tannoy system * Meetings * Interaction with customersThe tannoy system is one way of the verbal communication in the Tesco industry they use them a lot for either flinging a lost child in the shop or getting staff to a till immediately this is one of the fastest ways of communication in a Tesco shop. The second way of communication in is meeting the also use them a lot because that’s one of the most important things in the business, they need to sit and discourse about what’s happening in the business what they need to do to m ake it better.The biggest and most important communication in Tesco is the verbal interaction with the customers. Written We see written information everywhere on a day to day base around Tesco information is any information written down in words or symbols. This is the one of the easiest ways to communicate with a person and written information can really help the customers that are deaf or hard hearing. * posters * letters * reports * PowerPoint * leaflets Web-based- Web bases information is collection and distributing information through the web or internet.For Tesco’s website web-based information can be used for in informing Competitor and performance for the customers the people that don’t know anything about the website and have an interest for chopping at Tesco’s and the staff within or outside the shop. * Internet * On-Screen On-screen information is any information that I presented on screen such as a presentation for collages by showing lessons, using the computer, this can apply to chats, web-based information, and computer information Multimedia Multimedia is the integration of multiple forms of media. This includes text, graphs, audio, video, etc.

Analysis of Chapters 8 and 9 in Paradise of the Blind Essay

Write an analysis of how Chapters 8 and 9 explore the connection between culture, food and community The interdependent connection between culture, food and community is pivotal in the demonstration of the importance Vietnamese tradition in Paradise of the Blind. Chapters eight and nine focus on the importance of culture through family particularly evident in the way food acts as an expression of this culture. Food is also used to establish a sense of community, which is an important aspect in the Vietnamese culture. Food is presented as a direct reflection of a person’s wealth in Vietnamese culture. Limited in other forms of power, women like Aunt Tam can rely on materialistic objects, such as food, in order to display their wealth and earn respect. This is evident as one of the guests at the feast exclaims, â€Å"What a pleasure this evening has been. A sumptuous meal followed by such spellbinding stories. This is a blessing from heaven.† The use of words with strongly positive connotations, such as â€Å"sumptuous† and â€Å"spellbinding† displays the great degree of appreciation and thus importance that food has on Vietnamese culture. This idea is further emphasised with the reference to the Gods and ancestral beings through the use of the word â€Å"heaven†. Another example of food reflecting the idea of wealth is when another guest says, â€Å"A sticky rice flavoured with rose-apple juice! Why, it’s exquisite.† Aunt Tam responds to the compliment, â€Å"Oh please, will you stop it?† The use of the word â€Å"exquisite† again highlights the importance of food and its inherent effectiveness in delivering praise. The way in which Aunt Tam replies, almost rehearsed and clichà ©d, suggests that there was an unspoken expectation of praise and therefore respect in the original intention of the feast. The undeniable connection between food and wealth reflects the material-focused culture of Vietnam. Another idea that connects food to culture is the idea of the sacrifice, particularly in relation to food. Selflessness is a major part of Vietnamese culture and a certain amount of gratification can be achieved through sacrifice, which is shown in these chapters as sacrifice of food. Hang observes that Aunt Tam â€Å"ate almost nothing as if watching me gave her greater pleasure.† Aunt Tam’s sacrifice of her own wellbeing reflects the cultural idea that the strongest link between people is in family. Aunt Tam is willing, even happy to sacrifice her own well-being in order to cater for Hang. This idea of sacrifice can also be linked to the cultural idea of worship and fate, whereby it is believed those who perform good deeds in the present will be rewarded in the future. This idea of selflessness has evidently also affected Hang as she says â€Å"I played the part of the successful niece†¦ I smile dutifully at everyone. My lips stiffened into a permanent smile.† Although Hang is obviously uncomfortable, which can be seen through the use of words such as â€Å"dutifully† and â€Å"stiffened†, she continues to put on a faà §ade of happiness to please her Aunt. This reinforces the cultural idea of the strength of familial ties as well as the importance of sacrifice in solidifying these relationships. The practice of food preparation establishes a sense of community in the chapter. Food preparation appears to have a rehearsed, methodical quality which is evident in the line â€Å"The scene was lively but well-ordered as if all the feverish activity was directed by the iron hand of some invisible conductor.† The simile of the conductor draws a comparison of food preparation to an orchestra, thereby highlighting the importance of group collaboration. Furthermore, the juxtaposition of the â€Å"feverish activity† and its â€Å"well-ordered† nature suggests the idea of controlled chaos. Thus the great amount of activity that is required in the practice of food preparation can only be completed with the cooperation of each individual party. Finally, the unchanging nature of culture is shown to cause conflict within Hang’s character as she is caught in her desire to become a modern woman and her family’s strong links to cultural traditions. Hang describes the countryside as â€Å"Everywhere, an indescribable backwardness hung in the air, immaterial yet terrifyingly present: It would be like this for eternity.† This line suggests not only in restrictive nature of culture but also shows how difficult it is to shake culture. The use of the phrase â€Å"terrifyingly present† highlights the inescapable nature of tradition and the strong bond to which each individual in the book is tied to their traditions. The ideas of food, culture and community are explore in chapters eight and nine, particularly through the ideas of family relationships and its strong links to traditional Vietnamese culture.