The Problems of Lima City

The problems of Lima city Lima city is full of charm and scenic beauty, so visitors from around the world come to enjoy its typical dishes, museums,countless beaches and scenic wonders. Although Lima seems like a paradise,Not all what we find there is as as good as we think. Believe it or not, but Lima has several serious problems such as the poor public transportation,crime-violence and the bad infrastructure due to the lots of suburbs and places that have lack of lots of services. The first and most important problem in lima is its inadequate public transportation system. Thousand of residents rely on the city’s buses and minibuses to travel throughout this large city, however the bus routes are poorly planned wich cause rush hours and traffic. For example: a person who should take the bus at 7:45 am may not take it until eight o’clock or even later. Sometimes three or more buses or minibuses arrive in bunches at time that people are waiting, but they can’t the buses because they are full. That’s why, passengers frequently become unhappy become this problem causes them to be late for work or to miss important appointments. THE TRANSPORTATION,2010 ISABEL GUERRA The second serious problem that Lima faces is crime and violence. The security in Lima has declined in the last years because police corruption have increased in line with rising level of poverty. Besides the profileration of low-income settlements wich are known as â€Å"barriadas† that have as members young people that steal.. Nowadays, we can see lots of people who are complaining about the security in this city. According to some city polls, 82% of people who live in Lima say that they were robbed at least once while they were walking around the streets of this â€Å"insecure† city. Not only that, but people are also concerned about leaving home alone. To illustrate it, more than 50% houses were robbed during the last holydays. So to wrap out this, people are not secure neigher on the streets nor at home. BULLETIN OF LATIN AMERICAN RESEARCH VOL. 27, NO. 2 The final problem is the lack of good infrastructure of housing and services in Lima. This is an interesting city that offers a good lifestyle for young, ambitious business and professional people. Also, immigrants are attracted to this city because is has tourist attractions and offers variety of typical dishes. All of these tourists or immigrants would need rental units that are in good conditions like apartments, flats and single family houses. But, unfortunately, Lima’s rental units have an old infrastructure. That’s why most of the buildings of Lima downtown are declarated in danger. Even though this, we insist on living in those old buildings. That is not secure for all the people who live, work or go to those places at all. â€Å"LIMA:BIG CITY AND BIG PROBLEM†, 2000 GILBERT A. In conclusion, Lima city must improve its public transit system for avoiding the traffic, develop a project to become places safe and housing in good conditions. In others words, Lima city must improve its image, or it will soon become just mediocre city due to the lack of administrative responsability to solve these problems. .

Advanced Target Marketing: Wound Care

Citrus Memorial Wound Care facility provides comprehensive healing of chronic and acute non-healing wounds and offers hyperbaric oxygen therapy in an outpatient setting. The center utilizes a multidisciplinary approach to wound care. A team approach is used to provide patients with the most optimal wound treatment possible. The clinic optimizes its ability to provide patients with the best care possible by using advanced wound healing products including bioengineered skin products, total contact casting, and comprehensive compression wraps. The wound care center offers complete coordination of care including scheduling appointment for patients that require services that are provided outside of the clinic. Budget constraints on the marketing department has created a great need for market segmentation. Treating the surrounding population as a homogenous group is not cost effective or efficient. There is many benefits that can be obtained from a more selective target marketing approach than what is already currently used. Therefore Citrus Memorial Wound Care has recently adopted an new marketing outreach program that will be discussed in greater detail later in this summary. Lifestyle Profile Importance Costumer needs and preferences differ based on their lifestyles. It is important to research and utilize this information to produce the best marketing stagey possible. Eric Berkowitz (Berkowitz 2006, p. 111) wrote in the book Essentials of Health Care Marketing that, â€Å"Lifestyle is an important aspect affecting a consumer’s decision-making process. † The term lifestyle incorporates the way individuals perceive events, prioritize their interests, and how they spend their time. Obtaining knowledge about the surrounding demographic’s life style will greatly improve Citrus Memorials ability to develop appropriate strategies to market to specific consumers. To better the companies ability to market to the most beneficial market in the surrounding area the facility has established which market is the most likely to seek wound care treatment. Wound care patients are predominately patients 55 to 85 years of age with diabetes, venous or arterial insufficiencies, or post surgical patients. The optimal demographic for the wound care center to market to are insured patients that are highly motivated in maintaining their health and quality of life. The marketing department has selected the most promising and cost beneficial demographic groups to focus our marketing programs based on the previously stated information. Citrus county is predominately caucasian. According to the U. S Census Bureau (2009) persons 65 years make up greater than 30% of the total population. Specific locations in Citrus County have been targeted which contain the largest population of the target market. Exclusively 55 and older communities are frequent and will be targeted directly. Income levels are not significantly predictive of the most likely economical demographic that seeks wound care treatment. Both males and females utilize the services equally. In their annual report Wellflorida (Wellflorida 2010), states that Citrus County has a high percentage, 21%, of non-elderly uninsured individuals. This statistical data re-enforces the decision not to target this demographic. The statistical data has proven to be vary reliable and correlates directly with the observations of the author. Target Market Services for chronic non healing ulcers will be marketed to diabetic elderly adults ages 55 to 85 as well as disabled individuals. These services will also marketed to skilled nursing facilities as well as family practitioners in the area due to the large incidence of the selected demographic housed within the facilities. Specific areas in the community will be targeted that contain higher than average percentages of the target market. Hyperbaric treatments will be marketed to radiation therapy patients, diabetic ulcer patients, osteomyolitis patients, post surgical patients, as well as patients with osteoradionecrosis. Health professionals that will be marketed to for the hyperbaric therapy services include oncologist, cancer treatment centers, as well as reconstructive surgeons. Much care has been taken in deciding how the the marketing schemes will be positioned throughout the community. It is important to distinguish Citrus Memorial Wound Care from competitors and become local health professionals and consumers preferred location to prescribe services to or receive service at. Citrus Memorial Wound Care is a hospital based outpatient facility however there are significantly small rates of referrals from within the hospital itself. Significant marketing will be done within the hospital to encourage physicians and staff to utilize the wound care facility as a valuable resource. Educational lunches and promotional seminars will be offered to surround facilities that have been targeted as having a high likelihood of utilizing the wound care services Citrus Memorial provides. Social indicators are key to locating the appropriate location to advertise to. Selecting appropriate mediums to advertise through greatly improve responses from marketing. Citrus Memorial has adopted a direct marketing approach to target the best prospective consumers. Utilizing the database from the local chamber of commerce 26 health facilities have been selected that fit the desired target market profile. Representatives from each facility attended an educational dinner. The event showcased detailed information on how Citrus Memorial Wound Care can help each facility successfully treat patients. Each representative who attended the program was provided a box of Citrus Memorial Wound Care business cards. Patient education pamphlets, referral templates, as well as other promotional items were also distributed amongst the attendees. To stimulate patient awareness of the wound care facility throughout the community lifestyle profiles questionnaires have been distributed via newspaper inserts in select locations previously selected by the marketing department. The lifestyle questionnaires stimulate patients to become aware of their health status. The questionnaires are provided with free postage to the patient to increase the response rate. The questions asked in the marketing tools allows the marketing department locate potential patients as well as provides insight in to how the community perceives the facility. Conclusion Citrus Memorial Wound Care facility provides comprehensive healing of chronic and acute non-healing wounds and offers hyperbaric oxygen therapy in an outpatient setting. In order to improve patient visitations rates the center has adapted multiple techniques to improve its marketing ability. The center utilizes a multidisciplinary approach that provides patients with the most optimal wound treatment possible. Reaching the appropriate demographic through statistical analyzation of the communities lifestyle profile has proved to be successful and effective. The wound care center offers complete coordination of care that can benefit many individuals. It is the duty of the Citrus Memorial Marketing team to create the opportunities necessary for individuals to choose to peruse wound care at Citrus Memorial Heath Systems.

Web site design Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Web site design - Essay Example Customers engage personally with the company through making their orders online. As such, they can specify the exact requirements of their order, i.e. the color, flavor, taste and type of the Pizzas they want through the online platform, just as simply as making an order at a brick and mortar restaurant. This web site enabled PizzaHut to transform significantly from operating as a Quick Serve Restaurant (QSR) to an elevated online retailer providing convenience and efficiency to its customers. Once the customers make an order through the PizzaHut.com website, the company takes upon the duty of delivering their orders at their preferred premises within the stipulated times (Butler, 2012). Several elements of website design exist that a company should incorporate in order to make its website a success. As such, PizzaHut.com also had to engage these in developing its site. These include the website context, the website content, the website customization, the website communications, the website commerce, website communities on site, and the website connection designs elements. PizzaHut.com incorporates all these elements in a great deal. For instance, the website context provides its customers with the ability to make online purchases and order without necessarily having to go to the restaurants. The website content is rich enough to enable the customers make an informed purchase, i.e. includes offers of the day, special deals and promotional campaigns hosted by the company. Website customization enables clients to customize their orders according to their tastes and preferences, such as express checkout and movie night offers. In addition, website communications come with ease of using the site, i.e. its color, style and appearance, thereby enabling shoppers to do easy shopping. Website commerce supports the business wing of the company enabling shoppers to make purchases through various applications such as on Facebook, on twitter, on iPhones and

The importance of car designing Case Study Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

The importance of car designing - Case Study Example The key problem underlying the dilemma that is facing the company is the possibility of being sued for not assuring the quality of its product, which subsequently led to the death of one of the users and the serious injury of two others in the accident. The stakeholders, in this case scenario, the CEO (Chief Executive Officer), owner of company, the mangers, Mr. I. M. Good, the Vice President of Car Engineering, and Mrs. Lovely. All these stakeholders are responsible for all the events leading to the accident that caused the death of the customer and the injury of her or his young boy. This means that a decision processes was missed or ignorantly assumed at a certain point through the production stage of the car, Zinger. I believe the utmost and dire sole responsibility of the company is to keep the customers satisfied and ensure their safety while using the product. All the information about the flaws of the car was kept under secrecy due to the need to earn revenue fast due to the increased competition kin the market. The stakeholders in the firm have a great social responsibility of maintain the company’s image regarding their professionalism and provision of quality products in the market. Their esteemed customers need to be well informed about the goods they use and be cautioned on any flaws that might hurt them physically. They should make this resolution even if the decision making would mean the recalling back of all the flawed cars from the car dealerships around the whole market. This will go a long way in ensuring and restoring their clients trust in the product. Otherwise, subsequent accidents would see the firm receiving multiple law suits for their flawed products, thus they would lose their esteemed clients, subsequently resulting to a lot of money spent in settling cases. The company should maintain a positive image with their clients. Advisable, the one ethical decision to be made would be to halt the selling of the Zinger car till a fur ther time after improvisation and repairs on the flaws. The sole and most viable decision that company should make is to halt the production of the car and work on its improvisation to prevent any further accidents that have led to fatalities. One would consider it moral to keep clients informed about the goods they use. They should do this even if it means that this will reduce their profit margin over some period of time. Earning customer trust is essential in maintaining a client base for future of the company. The effective management of the control process supports the system for the production of quality goods. The top managers in the organization, that is the CEO and the other board of governors and stakeholders need to be informed all the tasks carried out in the company. Essential information like the assumption made for the Zinger car should not have been ignored since the wrong decision made not to convey information appropriately led to the death of an individual. The ha stiness for the firm to seek approval of the car’s introduction to the market might cause a bad reputation for the company due to the faults that were not addressed during the production stage. The consequences of all these decisions are for the betterment of the firm’s reputation on the market. Well, if word gets out to its competitors about this flaw, then this would mean that their competitive edge is doomed since their rivals in the market would use this information for marketing and promotional market share competition. If they lost customers their profit margins might fall to even losses. Ultimately this leads to company fallout due to negligence of prior events that would have been prevented before product launch. Closing from

Give an argument for legalizing active euthanasia and an argument Essay

Give an argument for legalizing active euthanasia and an argument against it - Essay Example To start with, euthanasia denies the basic right of a human for the appropriate treatment and life and therefore, weakens the respect for it. Regardless of the type of euthanasia, whether it is passive or active, its essence lies in performing action that leads to either letting one die or to killing a person rather than offering healthcare, providing medical and emotional support, of which patients are in need. (Ebrahimi, 2012) As a result, the sanctity and respect of human life becomes devaluated and human ethics – challenged as far as people no longer question the personal capacity to make decisions concerning patients’ lives. Furthermore, the procedure of euthanasia should be regarded as a violation of duties of medical professionals, who are aimed at saving lives, not depriving of them. According to the International Code of Medical Ethics, doctors are expected to â€Å"always bear in mind the obligation of preserving human life from the time of conception until death.† ("Twelwe reasons why," 2015) Similarly, adhering to the Hippocratic Oath specialists promise not to give â€Å"deadly medicine to anyone if asked, nor suggest such counsel†¦Ã¢â‚¬  (Yin Au, 2010) Thereof, doctors are obliged to apply efforts to prolong the life of a patient possibly long rather than choosing the easier path – euthanasia. Taking it into consideration, the right of medical specialists to be engaged in this procedure remains doubtful. In addition, it is obvious that the legalization of euthanasia can place pressure on terminally ill and the elderly to resort to it for the sake of not being a burden for others. Facing a deadly illness or entering particular age when the end of life seems to be approaching, a person may feel like being obliged to resort to euthanasia in order not to feel guilty for creating inconveniences for the family, even though being morally opposed to and, in fact, not wanting euthanasia. (Ebrahimi, 2012) By this, patients with similar diagnosis

Are good Team Players good Human Beings too Essay

Are good Team Players good Human Beings too - Essay Example in Greenwood & Kanters, 2009, p.299). This paper contends that team sports can potentially improve the players' character, but some conditions have to exist, particularly the existence of a â€Å"properly structured team sports program† that integrates character development. It is based on the belief that in order for team players to be â€Å"good† people, their coaches should also provide specific instructions that train and reward the former for â€Å"good† behavior too. This paper argues that a properly structured team sports program can develop good character by honing discipline, confidence, self-esteem, and teamwork attitudes and behaviors. A â€Å"properly structured team sports program† is not focused on winning alone, but includes a shift in thinking about sports, where character development takes a central seat. Greenwood and Kanters (2009) defined the shift of team sports toward positive youth development (PYD). Positive youth development uses f ive development indicators, also known as 5 C's: connection, character, competence, confidence, caring or compassion, where these indicators are based from the studies of Lerner, Fisher, and Weinberg (2000) and Pittman et al., (2001) (as cited in Greenwood & Kanters, 2009, p.299). ... that sports can build good character, although some studies already indicate that it can be structured to improve several attitudes and behaviors (Greenwood & Kanters, 2009; Camire & Trudel, 2010). This paper argues that PYD is only one of the many ways that team sports can be structured to develop good character, especially since it actively connects sports with good character. It is important that sports is structured to enhance character so that it can impact character. Being a sports achiever can develop intrinsic and extrinsic motivation, as well as improve discipline. Participating in team sports can enhance discipline, because it is a structured game with definite goals. Team sports is about end goals that can be attained through relentless practice. Coaches encourage players to work hard by enhancing their mental, physical, and emotional abilities. These abilities cannot be improved over night and so the players practice numerous times, so that they can physically improve the ir bodies to fit their respective team positions and its demands. This embeds discipline ethic among players, which they can use also in other aspects of other life. For example, in school, they will also be motivated to study harder for subjects they have difficulty with. Furthermore, team sports enhances the mind because of the visualization needed to win the game. The players should also â€Å"think† to win so that they can win. This can be quite useful in thinking about other endeavors also, such as in doing exams and being a better son, daughter, or Christian. In addition, team sports enhances the players' emotional abilities, such as the ability to accept failures and victories (Austin, 2010). Players also learn perseverance, because when they lose, it does not mean that they should

Leadership assessment 4 Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Leadership assessment 4 - Essay Example As the name of the business suggests, our Unique Selling Point is competitive pricing where we try to offer products to our customers at lowest possible rates. Retaining this price advantage in the long run is unfeasible as operating costs have to be maintained at the lowest level at all times. Expansion has increased the operating costs which renders the business unprofitable with the current low profit margin. Also competing on price is unhealthy as we remain vulnerable to new entrants that can offer better prices and customer service. Hence, as the CEO of Cheap as Chips, I will raise the current profit margin by 10% and provide extra to the customers in terms of utility and customer care through investing in our human resource capital. This will also help us to improve our reputation in the competitive market as customers are not just looking for a place to buy products of their need but a complete shopping experience where convenience and long term customer relationships is the w inning factor. In order to elevate our image, we will move from being price-centric to being customer centric. The first step towards customer satisfaction is a staff force that is ever ready to assist the customer, anticipate their problems beforehand and come up with solutions in minimum time. Performance criteria will be developed for each job description so that every employee knows what is expected of him. Performance appraisals will be done monthly in the beginning, especially for the sales force as they are the company’s face for the customers. For the sales staff, performance will not only be judged by the sales made in a department but also the ability of the salesperson to maintain favorable customer relationships. Any gap between threshold performance and current performance of personnel will be filled by training sessions which will be an on-going

Bait and Switch Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Bait and Switch - Research Paper Example She was not expecting to take such a risk and effort then be frustrated by not getting what she had struggled for. Secondly, the advertised deal was too good and, therefore, she was quite aware that many buyers would bid for it and the first come, first served bases would be applied. Her stating of her traveling tribulations and undying effort to ensure she gets the deal, was assertive to the fact that there was no way she could imagine failing to secure the advertised pickup truck. Betty must have been aware of these advertisements and, to clear the doubt, she carried the copy of a magazine on which the advert was published. However, as the conversation goes on, she realizes that the advert was bait, and she had already been baited. She was undoubtedly in the stage of being switched to another substitute truck which was more costly. Her travel efforts, therefore, had no bearing that the dealer would be honest to the advert. In fact, it would be useful when switching Betty because th e journey had costed her. The goal of bait and switch advertising is to have buyers buy substitute goods as a way of avoiding disappointment over not getting the bait (Johar, 1996). Moreover, this trick is used as a way to recover the costs expended in trying to obtain the bait (Dingell, 1996). In this case, Tony has no intention of producing the advertised pickup track but instead will produce an expensive pickup track if not a similar one with a higher price margin. When Tony said over the phone â€Å"three thousand dollars firm,† explain whether or not he was making an offer that, if accepted, would bind the dealership in contract It would be futile to think that what Tony promised to Betty, over the phone, was what he meant. Since he was I a calculated mission of baiting his client, it means he could do anything pleasant to ensure that Betty gets into the dealership and buy a substitute truck (Johar, 1996). It seems that Tony just said it for formality and he cannot have the contract bidding for two reasons. First, Betty was not initially on her way to consummate this promise. She was rather going to buy a pickup track advertised by the dealership and whose deal was attractive. Secondly, Tony had not seen the old Ford pickup and he can prove that he never meant to buy something he had not seen. That is, probably, why Tony responded, by stating that they would have to look at it first. Considering that Betty just joked that the old Ford pickup, with its original parts all rattling is a nuisance to his journey, Tony could have also joked that he would buy it at three thousand dollars. Therefore, his offer, whether accepted or not cannot in any way bid the dealership in contract (Lee, 2000). Finally, Tony’s promise on the phone cannot be presumed binding in law and intentions. Explain whether or not advertised specials can be taken advantage of by employees of the advertiser In advertising, it is not speculative that employees of advertisers hav e colluded with companies to mislead and exploit consumers (Johar, 1996). For example, in this particular advertisement, the advertisement quoted in reduced print font that it was only one at that particular offer. These details were so small that interested buyers would have needed a magnifying glass or a microscope to see it. Without the collusion of the advertiser’s employees and the company, these particular details would have been made visible. Since this fact is well known, some jurisdictions, like the United States have held that using bait and switch operations may be sued in a court of law by affected customers for false advertising

Examine the changing priorities of the United States in the Middle Essay

Examine the changing priorities of the United States in the Middle East - Essay Example Under hidden are the crude facts that are associated with the sole interests and benefits of United States of America. The region of Middle East holds its significance toward Americans because of its important different myths that are discussed below; The Population of Middle East is synonymous to that of Arab world, but to a limited extent as not all the countries are Arab, there are non Arabs as well in the Middle East. There are about 80% of the population that is Muslim, thus the Middle East basically comprise of the Muslim world countries. The Arab nations of Middle East are mostly rich in mineral oil. The countries like Saudi Arabia, Iraq, United Arab Emirates, Iran and Libya all are major oil producing countries. The role for war of terrorism by the Middle East; This has been in fact the greatest struggle that has been faced the members of these Middle East countries. It is not actually the war that has been imposed for these countries but in fact it is actually a problem of w rong perception-it is in fact the war against Islam rather than terrorism. There are many ways to misinterpret, mis-characterize or flatly misrepresent the various issues across the boundaries of the Middle East. The importance of Middle East towards America is not anything new to relate with the foreign policy of America. ... The various nations’s related concerns of United States along with their levels of impacts have been discussed over here which will ultimately help us to conclude some information about the changing priorities of United States towards Middle East along with their national and international reasons. US and Egypt: The current crises that have flown through the Egyptian states have been of vast importance to the United States due to its wide levels of oil related concerns with the country. The disruption of the supplies of oil due to the raised protests ultimately resulted in the raising of the prices of the oil in the world market. This also resulted in the increased threats to the US citizen survival in Egypt as well as the journalists of US. This has really created a dilemma for the US nation to be highly volatile about changing its policies and concerns. Military advantages: The termination of the Husni Mubarak Era has also turned over the benefits of US from the long standin g middle-East Ally. The US had been reaping over these benefits from the last two decades, and it military forces were being fed for the annual income of $1 billion for the access to Seuz Canal. Now the situation has changed and among the various dimensions that are being predicted one is that now the Americans would have to pull their hands from the great amount that was already coming their way against Military friendship or support. It is seemingly that the Muslim Brotherhood group is going to occupy an important position in the country soon and therefore America is wondering to know that after this whether the Africans Ally will cut those hands which have fed their army for so many years. It is also unpredictable to guess any idea about the impacts for Israel as

Cross Cultural Perspectives Essay Example for Free

Cross Cultural Perspectives Essay The Microsoft Corporation is a fortune 500 company that ranked # 35 on the fortune 500 list in 2013 (Fortune 500, 2013) and is one of the largest business corporations in the world. It was founded in 1975 by two guys named Paul Allen and Bill Gates, the business developed very rapidly as the years went by and reached a marker of 89,000 employees, with a revenue of $62 billion dollars and had offices located all over the world (Fortune 500, 2011). From the initial headquarters that is held in Albuquerque New Mexico, the Microsoft Company steadily increased the offices held within the United States and expanded that to include more than 100 countries abroad. This expansion into different countries became a challenge because of having to deal with new lifestyles, new cultures, people, and languages. Proper research needed to be conducted not to mention the implementation of a proper working strategy to help the integration of these new ethics and cultures into those of the Microsoft Corporation. The homepage of the Microsoft Corporation shares a summarized version of its culture and says â€Å"We as individuals and as a company value honesty, integrity, constructive self criticism, openness, mutual respect, and continual self improvement† (Microsoft Corporation, 2011). The Microsoft Corporation also presents their official responsibilities as part of their ethical obligation. â€Å"We at the Microsoft Corporation hold ourselves accountable to our shareholders, customers, employees, and partners, and we do this by honoring our commitment, providing results, and striving for the highest quality possible† (Microsoft Corporation, 2011). When making a move into new cultures and countries, it becomes very important for employees old and new to not only understand but also accept the Microsoft Corporations ethics and culture. As we all know Microsoft products are used all over the world in both businesses and homes. When they first made the decision to open an office in Lebanon, a majority of the computers ran on the Microsoft Windows operating system and the Windows Office program was the most popular word processing and spreadsheet program. However, there was a problem and that problem was the fact that there was a bunch of versions of this system that had been pirated and distributed in that country. In a country where buying a five dollar pirated software program from a local computer store made it a little hard in terms of convincing some people that it was not only unethical but also illegal. This brings about the question of, â€Å"How is The Microsoft Corporation going to sell authentic versions of their software when there are pirated versions being distributed at such a cheaper price not to mention a lack of government control involved†? Because of this, Microsoft proceeded to send letters to these major organizations warning them against using this pirated software. They also offered to visit these businesses in order to conduct a site survey so that assessments could be made in terms of what software would fit the company the best and at what the cost would be. The Microsoft Corporation also provided the organization that behaved ethically and invited Microsoft in for the survey assessment; Microsoft turned around and gave them a very good price deal on the software. Microsoft also introduced to them a payment facility for the companies that had to make large purchases of the software in order to get licenses for the pirated software they already had in place. Everyone knows that not all organizations and businesses operate within ethical boundaries. Lebanon, just like the U. S. , is similar in the fact that it is an individualist culture. However, bribery is common throughout this country. Microsoft has an ethical standard that is against these types of acts and it is totally against their integrity. It was however, improbable to sell these authentic copies to many of these businesses without presenting these managers with some type of gift in exchange. Some of these organizations proceeded to offer gifts to the Microsoft Corporation’s employees. They in return were hoping for some type of special discount, or a deal would not work out. The Microsoft Corporation has an ethical obligation to their shareholders and that obligation is to protect and increase the value of the shares. The Microsoft Corporation has to be able to earn a said profit in order for the share values to increase. On a bad note, Microsoft cannot legitimately sell software copies in a country that has corruption and bribery within its ethics and culture. According to Transparency International â€Å"The transparency in Lebanon ranked 2. 5 out of 10 in the world in 2010† (Corruption Perception Index 2010 Results, 2010). When comparing that score to 8. 9 out of 10 in Canada and 7. 1 out of 10 in the United States, the difference is quite staggering. Microsoft has to be able to find a way to adapt their approach in order to conclude some type of successful business in the country of Lebanon. According to the text book â€Å"The biggest source of anxiety for business people in America who operate abroad is the expectations of bribes and payoffs† (Trevino Nelson, 2007). When the Microsoft management team was faced with bribes or offerings in order to sell their software to the organizations who where operating on pirated copies, they in return chose to use an ethical model in order to make a decision in regards of choosing which course of action would be best to take. The judicial systems of these countries that have a low transparency, that are similar to those in Lebanon, are very weak. So filing a lawsuit against the businesses that are running the pirated versions of the Microsoft software programs would turn out to be very costly, time consuming and may end up yielding no type of results in the end. Management teams that are faced with different types of ethical situations can apply different types of ethical models in order to help assist in the process of decision making. In the case of bribing a manager of an organization in order to purchase software that is legal, it is possible that they could apply the utilitarianism ethical model. By looking at the result, it might be easy to try and make a decision on whether or not the employees at the Microsoft Corporation may try and bribe a business into purchasing Microsoft software that is legal. On a positive note, Microsoft selling more software to organizations and businesses that need it or may already be using it may help in the reduction of software being pirated within the country. The share prices at Microsoft are being maintained by the revenue and the employees receiving a commission. On the negative side, if a bribe is being paid to an employee or a member of the business or an organization who is purchasing the Microsoft software. The Utilitarianism’s ethical model shows approval of this as a decision that is ethical. Being able to apply different ethical models, such as the deontological model may end up having different ending results. The question that this raises is â€Å"Should all businesses or organizations pay some type of bribe or bribes in order to help sell their products? † The answer to this naturally is, â€Å"no†. Global businesses are faced with many different challenges everyday as they expand into different foreign organizations. Ethical challenges will always arise for an organization as they expand. The ethical decisions made in regards to different business matters can usually be solved by applying the different ethical models that are available. There are plenty of tools available for helping solve arising ethical problems and they need to be used so they may be helpful in making solutions. With the launch of Microsoft in the country of Lebanon they need to confront these ethical issues of bribery so that they can enter the market. The Microsoft Corporation must learn to adapt their policies in order to comply with the ethical standards they have in the country of Lebanon. References Corruption Perception Index, 2010 results (2010). Transparency International Retrieved August 11, 2013 from https://www. transparency. org/policy_research/surveys Fortune Global 500 (2011) CNN Money, Retrieved August 11, 2013 from https://money. cnn. com/magazines/fortune/global500/2011 Microsoft Corporation (2011) About Microsoft, Retrieved August 10, 2013 from https://www. microsoft. com/about/en/us/default. aspx Trevino. L. K Nelson. K. L (2007) Retrieved August 9, 2013 from Managing Business Ethics (4th Ed). Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley Sons.

Issue of Illegal Drugs in Music Lyrics

Issue of Illegal Drugs in Music Lyrics Julia Dugger Music is and always has been an integral part of society. It is, according to Glowacka Pitet, 2004, one of the longest celebrated traditions of humankind that enables the exchange of feelings and experiences that cannot be articulated by the use of common language. Moreover, its strength is based on the fact that it can provide us with meaning, without saying anything at all (Hormigos-Ruiz, 2010). Daily life does not exist without music and since every age group within a society is exposed to it, it comes to no surprise that each age group evaluate its importance differently. For example, studies conducted by various researchers (e.g. Arnett, 1996; North Hargreaves, 2008; Schwartz Fouts, 2003) uncovered that American adolescents did not just listen to music approximately two and a half hours per day, rather than also how they vigorously employ music to satisfy social, emotional and developmental requirements. However, according to Walker Kennedy (2010), the impact of popular music has sparked many debates. Particularly over the past decade, numerous news stories have claimed that bands like Marilyn Manson or Slipknot have negatively influenced the shooters at Columbine (US)/Erfurt (Germany) or that suicidal connotations in rock/metal music has led to an increase in adolescence taking/trying to take their lives (Walker Kennedy, 2010). It therefore comes to no surprise that North and Hargreaves (2006) have argued that music genres like heavy metal/hard rock, hip hop/ rap, and alternative/punk should be described as â€Å"problem music.† But labeling particular genres as â€Å"problem music† and denoting that adolescent listening to it are automatically negatively influenced, seems like generalization of a very complex issue. According to Walker Kennedy (2010), much research has been conducted on why adolescents listen to music and in short two main reasons can be noted: to explore identity issues including self-identity and peer relationships as well as regulation of emotional impulses. And although various themes of different music genres heavy metal lyrics often deal with hostility or vengeance and may contain sex, drug use, suicide, and alienation references (Arnett, 1996); rap lyrics are full of offensive language combined with subjects like sex, drug use, misogyny, violence (Epstein, Pratto, Sk ipper, 1990); pop music lyrics deal with a multitude of themes and typically reach a larger audience; and country music often tells a story that either deals with love; sadness; rebellious behavior, promiscuity, or betrayal (Ballard, Bazzini, Dodson, 1999) – can, according to Ter Bogt (2012), encourage listeners to interpreted these themes, particularly the negative ones, as cool, socially acceptable, satisfying, and not particularly destructive, it should be recognized that lyrics are merely one aspect of a song’s overall message. Unfortunately many studies limit themselves by only looking at one characteristics of a specific song, rather than also addressing that others, like the â€Å"sound† of the music or the associated broader cultural factors, can have obvious and powerful effects on how one interprets its meaning (Ter Bogt et al., 2012). For example, listeners preferring a particular genre often do not just listen to the music itself, rather than also have an understanding for the reputation of those genres and show familiarity regarding the lifestyles of musicians within them. As Ter Bogt et al. (2012) noted, given that an individual’s development is shaped by the observation of others, relevant behaviors portrayed by high-status people such as rock stars, may encourage adolescents to mimic it. However, due to the fact that numerous musicians have had encounters with the law over their drug/alcohol use and many even have died because of it, claiming that specific music genres only glamori ze or encourage drug us/abuse seems like a biased representation. How true this is can be seen when taking a closer look at the history of music lyrics, particular those of rock/hard rock/metal/heavy metal bands. According to Dodge (2004), rock songs of the 80s were party anthems with a positive attitude towards the motto sex, drugs, and rock n roll. However, during the 90s rock music lyrics became more critical. Exaggeratedly spoken, most of the music sounded whinny/moaning and the lyrics contained messages about how bad everything was (Dodge, 2004). Today, according to Dodge (2004), the dark elements still exist, but a new wave of album oriented/melodic rock and heavy metal bands has emerged. On the other hand, heavy metal emerged during the late 60s, yet, according to Hjelm, Kahn-Harris, and LeVine (2012), did not establish itself as a separate genre until the late 70s/early 80s when bands like Judas Priest and Iron Maiden set forth basic metal characteristics (distorted guitars, aggressive vocals, dark clothing, etc.) that are present to this day. Throughout the following decades (90s until today), metal has followed increasingly diverse musical pathways and has created numerous influential bands. And although the central concept for producing rock/hard rock/metal/heavy metal songs remains the same, a shift of song themes and in which kind of way they are communicated to the listener can be seen. According to Dodge (2009), drug reference in rock/metal songs have always been numerous and recurrent. However, according to Markert (2001), this does not mean that such songs praise or encourage the exploitation of drugs. Most drug representations, particularly those of more r ecent rock/metal tracks, are rather negative and these songs often do not instruct, lecture or admonish the listener, according to Dodge (2009), rather than they inform about possible results, rely on personal responsibility, and leave it up to the individual to make their own decisions. Moreover, since songs about drug use/abuse are again and again associated with a particular time frame and/or social group, they do not just reflect the principles of that group rather than also operate as a socializing instrument by suggesting how listeners should interpret their social surroundings (Markert, 2001). The truthfulness of this view can be seen when either rock/hard rock/metal/heavy metal songs of different decades are compared with each or when the lyrics/themes of the more recent ones are compared with other genres. Many themes of the older rock/metal songs (l960s – 1990s), with all sub- and hybrid genres considered, concentrated on the usage and the effects of drugs, while notions of caution or resulting negative consequences were rarely mentioned. For example, during the 60s songs like â€Å"Heroin† by The Velvet Underground (1967) or â€Å"Mothers little Helper† by The Rolling Stones (1966), told the listener how drugs alter emotional states and claimed that the end result – with an overall positive notion was to either be able to not care about anything anymore: â€Å"Cause it makes me feel like Im a man/when I put a spike into my vein†¦Cause when the smack begins to flow/And I really dont care anymore/Ah, when that heroin is in my blood/And that blood is in my head/Then thank God that Im as good as dead/And thank your God that Im not aware/And thank God that I just dont care†¦Ã¢â‚¬  or manage everyday’s tasks: â€Å"Mother needs something today to calm her down/And though shes not really ill/Theres a little yellow pill/She goes running for the shelter of a mothers little helper/And it helps her on her way, gets her through her busy day.† In the 70s, a similar trend could be seen, where songs about drugs yet again mainly describe the addictive properties of drugs or even glorify them. In his song â€Å"For Your Life† Led Zeppelin (1976), for example, illustrates how a drug user surrenders to his/her addiction: â€Å"You said I was the only†¦/Exhibition is your habit, Emotion second hand/Had to pull away to save me, Maybe next time around/And she said, dont you want it?/Dont you want coca-coca-cocaine?/Hadnt planned to, could not stand to try it†¦Ã¢â‚¬  and in their song â€Å"Snowblind† the Band Black Sabbath goes even further in glorifying the use of cocaine: â€Å"Feeling happy in my vein/Icicles within my brain (cocaine)/†¦Makes me happy, makes me cold†¦Dont you think I know what Im doing/Dont tell me that its doing me wrong/Youre the one whos really a loser/This is where I feel I belong.† In the 80s, however, some bands began to question In the past decade, most singer/songwriters in the rock/hard rock/metal/heavy metal genre have shifted their attention to not just on expressing how bad the usage of harmful/illegal substances is, rather than also their negative consequences. For example, in their song â€Å"Adios,† the band Rammstein (2009) did not just describe how a person injects a substance in their veins (â€Å"He lays the needle in the vein, asks the music to come inside†) and how this person feels while the substance travels through his entire body (â€Å"a battle rages in his blood, an army marches through his bowel†), rather than also address their often fatal attributes by closing the song with the words: â€Å"He takes the needle from the vein, the melody travels out of the skin, violins burn with shrieking, harps cut the flesh, he has opened his eyes, but he did not wake up.† A similar, yet less obvious approach to remind the listener about the highly destructive attributes of illegal substances, has been taken by the band Slipknot, who in their 2014 released song â€Å"Killpop† describe how a women injects something into her skin (â€Å"she is sticking needles in her skin†)  recently the song Habits (Stay High) has topped the charts, where the singer Tove Lo (2012) argues that dealing with emotional pain can only be achieved via a continuing high to not be missing a lost love (→ â€Å"Spend my days locked in a haze, trying to forget you babe†¦Got to stay high all my life, to forget Im missing you†). Other examples include: â€Å"We can’t stop† by Miley Cyrus (2013), where she sings → â€Å"we like to party, dancing with Molly (which is a reference to the drug MDMA), doing whatever we want;† â€Å"Rehab† by Amy Winehouse (2007), in which she states that → â€Å"they tried to mak e me go to rehab but I said: no, no, no, yes, Ive been black but when I come back youll know, know, know,†¦, hes tried to make me go to rehab but I wont go, go, go;† or â€Å"Diamonds† by Rihanna (2012), where she clearly downplays the destructive properties of alcohol (moonshine) and drugs (molly, which is a street name for MDMA and ecstasy) when she sings â€Å"we’ll never die† → â€Å"you’re a shooting star I see, a vision of ecstasy†Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬  Palms rise to the universe, as we moonshine and molly, feel the warmth, we’ll never die, we’re like diamonds in the sky.† References Dodge, A. I. (2004). Sex, drugs, and rock roll: A Libertarian view [Pamphlet]. London, United Kingdom: Libertarian Alliance. Hormigos-Ruiz, J. (2010). Music distribution in the consumer society: The creation of cultural identities through sound. Comunicar, 17(34), 91-98. doi:10.3916/C34-2010-02-09 Markert, J. (2001). Sing a song of drug use-abuse: Four decades of drug lyrics in popular music—from the sixties through the nineties. Sociological Inquiry, 71(2), 194-220. Arnett, J. J. (1996). Metal heads, heavy metal music and adolescent alienation. New York, NY: Westview Press, Inc. North, A. C., Hargreaves, D. J. (2008). The social and applied psychology of music. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press. Schwartz, K. D., Fouts, G. T. (2003). Music preferences, personality style, and developmental issues of adolescents. Journal of Youth and Adolescence, 32, 205-211. North, A. C., Hargreaves, D. J. (2006). Problem music and self-harming. Suicide and Life-Threatening Behavior, 36(5), 582-590. DOI: 10.1521/suli.2006.36.5.582 Hjelm, T., Kahn-Harris, K., LeVine, M. (2011). Heavy metal as controversy and counterculture. Popular Music History, 6(1-2), 5-18. doi:10.1558/pomh.v6i1/2.5 Ahmadi, F. (2009). Hard and heavy music: Can it make a difference in the young cancer patients life?. Voices: A World Forum For Music Therapy, 9(2). doi:10.15845/voices.v9i2.345. Retrieved from: https://normt.uib.no/index.php/voices/article/view/345/269 Epstein, J. S., Pratto, D. J., Skipper Jr., J. R. (1990). Teenagers, behavioral problems, and preferences for heavy metal and rap music: A case study of a southern middle school. Deviant Behavior, 11, 381-394. Ballard, M. E., Dodson, A. R., Bazzini, D. G. (1999). Genre of music and lyrical content: Expectation effects. The Journal of Genetic Psychology, 160(4), 476-487. Primack, B. A., Dalton, M. A., Carroll, M. V., Agarwal, A. A., Fine, M. J. (2008). Content analysis of tobacco, alcohol, and other drugs in popular music. Archives of Pediatrics Adolescent Medicine, 162(2), 169–175. Ter Bogt, T.F.M., Nic Gabhainn, S., Simons-Morton, B.G.,Ferreira, M., Hublet, A., Godeau, E., Kuntsche, E. Richter, M. (2012). Dance is the new metal: adolescent music preferences and substance use across Europe. Substance Use and Misuse, 47(2), 130-142.

Reproductive Fantasy is Burning :: Fire Novels Literature Fantasy Essays

Reproductive Fantasy is Burning Of fire, what can be written that would not be better off singed, immolated, baked, or outright burnt? Flame of the match lights a watch. Dancing embers of destruction hide records, burn bodies and papers. Glistening radiance of torches light the way through the night of Victorian horror and fantasy. Fire is lively (it breathers, it takes in, it puts out, it moves, it grows, and it makes more) yet takes away life (defined by the same characteristics.) Everywhere it is fire. Suddenly, away on our left I saw a faint flickering blue flame. The driver saw it at the same moment. He at once checked the horses, and, jumping to the ground, disappeared into the darkness. I did not know what to do, the less as the howling of the wolves grew closer. But while I wondered, the driver suddenly appeared again, and without a word took his seat, and we resumed our journey. I think I must have fallen asleep and kept dreaming of the incident, for it seemed to be repeated endlessly, and now looking back, it is like a sort of awful nightmare. Once the flame appeared so near the road, that even in the darkness around us I could watch the driver's motions. He went rapidly to where the blue flame arose, it must have been very faint, for it did not seem to illumine the place around it at all, and gathering a few stones, formed them into some device. Once there appeared a strange optical effect. When he stood between me and the flame he did not obstruct it, for I could see its ghostly flicker all the same. This startled me, but as the effect was only momentary, I took it that my eyes deceived me straining through the darkness. Then for a time there were no blue flames, and we sped onwards through the gloom, with the howling of the wolves around us, as though they were following in a moving circle. Deception from the eyes, hoarding of the light by the intensity of a blue flame, repetition of unqualified flickering fire. The undead Dracula is fiercely alive, in his metabolism, reproduction and movement. Making his rules and carving his possibilities for life, inasmuch as he has agency to begin with, it is one which forms and informs its own possibility.

The City of Tucson vs. Robert D. Kaplan :: Essays Papers

The City of Tucson vs. Robert D. Kaplan Robert D. Kaplan’s articles â€Å"Travels into America’s Future† present a description of Tucson, Arizona as it stood in 1998. His articles are based entirely on his personal experiences with the city and with it’s Mexican neighbors to the south, and while somewhat entertaining, contain vast oversights and discrepancies that make his outsider standing obvious to any native reader. The article begins with Kaplan’s trek northward from Mexico City and describes many of the sights he sees along the way. He describes dirt roads lined with trash, and cinder-block houses with corrugated roofs. Then he goes into great detail about the economic divisions between social classes and the booming America-bound drug industry that causes the division. Kaplan spends a great deal of time discussing the local historical significance of Coronado, Cortez and Compostela. He speaks of the hero worship the Mexican citizens display for these men in each city he visits, and then calls these men â€Å"crude zealots [who] massacred Indians, built Christian altars where they had smashed idols, and went mad at the sight of gold,† while he calls the white protestant settlers on America’s east coast â€Å"children of European Enlightenment.† While somewhat interesting [and slightly strange], this information seems to have little bearing on the rest of the article. If he understood what the significance of this information was, he failed to make the connection apparent to his audience. He does not discuss any historical figures with connection to the American Southwest and therefore any relevance is lost. It almost appears as though he was sidetracked for three or four paragraphs. When Kaplan enters the United States at the Nogales port of entry, what he calls the â€Å"Rusty Iron Curtain,† he speaks of a transformation in socioeconomic structure, which he basically summarizes by comparing to hotels. A Mexican one, only two years old where the doors don’t close properly and the walls are cracking, and an American one, which after more than a quarter century is still in â€Å"excellent condition, from the fresh paint to the latest-model fixtures.

Reality TV Essay -- essays research papers

Reality TV: The Rise of a New Show â€Å"The Contender†   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  One of the newest shows to hit the vast majority of reality TV shows that already exist is The Contender. The Contender is a show that focuses on all the hardships, training, pain, and dilemmas that a boxer, who is preparing to fight, must endure. The Contender will be a very successful show, because it has the attributes of raw emotion that can’t be found when a director is yelling ‘action,’ and ‘cut.’ By raw emotion I mean that the viewer has reason to watch the television show due to an emotional attachment, besides the mere entertainment value, or for the love of the sport of boxing. Viewers fall in love, but instead of characters, they are able to fall in love with actual people. Reality television is something that has become a major part of the television industry. The motivation and success of these shows is based on the fact that none of the shows are ever scripted. Many critics labeled the reality television show as a fad, or as something that would not last. However, reality TV has shown to be quite the opposite. Reality TV will not go away, but instead continues to evolve and over take time slots of other scripted shows. Viewers can relate to the people who are apart of these shows because the viewers know that the people that they are beginning to enjoy, and in essence, love, are real. I do not mean that actors are essentially machines, but the characters they love are the same cha...

Angels Demons Chapter 102-105

102 Piazza Navona. Fountain of the Four Rivers. Nights in Rome, like those in the desert, can be surprisingly cool, even after a warm day. Langdon was huddled now on the fringes of Piazza Navona, pulling his jacket around him. Like the distant white noise of traffic, a cacophony of news reports echoed across the city. He checked his watch. Fifteen minutes. He was grateful for a few moments of rest. The piazza was deserted. Bernini's masterful fountain sizzled before him with a fearful sorcery. The foaming pool sent a magical mist upward, lit from beneath by underwater floodlights. Langdon sensed a cool electricity in the air. The fountain's most arresting quality was its height. The central core alone was over twenty feet tall – a rugged mountain of travertine marble riddled with caves and grottoes through which the water churned. The entire mound was draped with pagan figures. Atop this stood an obelisk that climbed another forty feet. Langdon let his eyes climb. On the obelisk's tip, a faint shadow blotted the sky, a lone pigeon perched silently. A cross, Langdon thought, still amazed by the arrangement of the markers across Rome. Bernini's Fountain of the Four Rivers was the last altar of science. Only hours ago Langdon had been standing in the Pantheon convinced the Path of Illumination had been broken and he would never get this far. It had been a foolish blunder. In fact, the entire path was intact. Earth, Air, Fire, Water. And Langdon had followed it†¦ from beginning to end. Not quite to the end, he reminded himself. The path had five stops, not four. This fourth marker fountain somehow pointed to the ultimate destiny – the Illuminati's sacred lair – the Church of Illumination. Langdon wondered if the lair were still standing. He wondered if that was where the Hassassin had taken Vittoria. Langdon found his eyes probing the figures in the fountain, looking for any clue as to the direction of the lair. Let angels guide you on your lofty quest. Almost immediately, though, he was overcome by an unsettling awareness. This fountain contained no angels whatsoever. It certainly contained none Langdon could see from where he was standing†¦ and none he had ever seen in the past. The Fountain of the Four Rivers was a pagan work. The carvings were all profane – humans, animals, even an awkward armadillo. An angel here would stick out like a sore thumb. Is this the wrong place? He considered the cruciform arrangement of the four obelisks. He clenched his fists. This fountain is perfect. It was only 10:46 P.M. when a black van emerged from the alleyway on the far side of the piazza. Langdon would not have given it a second look except that the van drove with no headlights. Like a shark patrolling a moonlit bay, the vehicle circled the perimeter of the piazza. Langdon hunkered lower, crouched in the shadows beside the huge stairway leading up to the Church of St. Agnes in Agony. He gazed out at the piazza, his pulse climbing. After making two complete circuits, the van banked inward toward Bernini's fountain. It pulled abreast of the basin, moving laterally along the rim until its side was flush with the fountain. Then it parked, its sliding door positioned only inches above the churning water. Mist billowed. Langdon felt an uneasy premonition. Had the Hassassin arrived early? Had he come in a van? Langdon had imagined the killer escorting his last victim across the piazza on foot, like he had at St. Peter's, giving Langdon an open shot. But if the Hassassin had arrived in a van, the rules had just changed. Suddenly, the van's side door slid open. On the floor of the van, contorted in agony, lay a naked man. The man was wrapped in yards of heavy chains. He thrashed against the iron links, but the chains were too heavy. One of the links bisected the man's mouth like a horse's bit, stifling his cries for help. It was then that Langdon saw the second figure, moving around behind the prisoner in the dark, as though making final preparations. Langdon knew he had only seconds to act. Taking the gun, he slipped off his jacket and dropped it on the ground. He didn't want the added encumbrance of a tweed jacket, nor did he have any intention of taking Galileo's Diagramma anywhere near the water. The document would stay here where it was safe and dry. Langdon scrambled to his right. Circling the perimeter of the fountain, he positioned himself directly opposite the van. The fountain's massive centerpiece obscured his view. Standing, he ran directly toward the basin. He hoped the thundering water was drowning his footsteps. When he reached the fountain, he climbed over the rim and dropped into the foaming pool. The water was waist deep and like ice. Langdon grit his teeth and plowed through the water. The bottom was slippery, made doubly treacherous by a stratum of coins thrown for good luck. Langdon sensed he would need more than good luck. As the mist rose all around him, he wondered if it was the cold or the fear that was causing the gun in his hand to shake. He reached the interior of the fountain and circled back to his left. He waded hard, clinging to the cover of the marble forms. Hiding himself behind the huge carved form of a horse, Langdon peered out. The van was only fifteen feet away. The Hassassin was crouched on the floor of the van, hands planted on the cardinal's chain-clad body, preparing to roll him out the open door into the fountain. Waist-deep in water, Robert Langdon raised his gun and stepped out of the mist, feeling like some sort of aquatic cowboy making a final stand. â€Å"Don't move.† His voice was steadier than the gun. The Hassassin looked up. For a moment he seemed confused, as though he had seen a ghost. Then his lips curled into an evil smile. He raised his arms in submission. â€Å"And so it goes.† â€Å"Get out of the van.† â€Å"You look wet.† â€Å"You're early.† â€Å"I am eager to return to my prize.† Langdon leveled the gun. â€Å"I won't hesitate to shoot.† â€Å"You've already hesitated.† Langdon felt his finger tighten on the trigger. The cardinal lay motionless now. He looked exhausted, moribund. â€Å"Untie him.† â€Å"Forget him. You've come for the woman. Do not pretend otherwise.† Langdon fought the urge to end it right there. â€Å"Where is she?† â€Å"Somewhere safe. Awaiting my return.† She's alive. Langdon felt a ray of hope. â€Å"At the Church of Illumination?† The killer smiled. â€Å"You will never find its location.† Langdon was incredulous. The lair is still standing. He aimed the gun. â€Å"Where?† â€Å"The location has remained secret for centuries. Even to me it was only revealed recently. I would die before I break that trust.† â€Å"I can find it without you.† â€Å"An arrogant thought.† Langdon motioned to the fountain. â€Å"I've come this far.† â€Å"So have many. The final step is the hardest.† Langdon stepped closer, his footing tentative beneath the water. The Hassassin looked remarkably calm, squatting there in the back of the van with his arms raised over his head. Langdon aimed at his chest, wondering if he should simply shoot and be done with it. No. He knows where Vittoria is. He knows where the antimatter is. I need information! From the darkness of the van the Hassassin gazed out at his aggressor and couldn't help but feel an amused pity. The American was brave, that he had proven. But he was also untrained. That he had also proven. Valor without expertise was suicide. There were rules of survival. Ancient rules. And the American was breaking all of them. You had the advantage – the element of surprise. You squandered it. The American was indecisive†¦ hoping for backup most likely†¦ or perhaps a slip of the tongue that would reveal critical information. Never interrogate before you disable your prey. A cornered enemy is a deadly enemy. The American was talking again. Probing. Maneuvering. The killer almost laughed aloud. This is not one of your Hollywood movies†¦ there will be no long discussions at gunpoint before the final shoot-out. This is the end. Now. Without breaking eye contact, the killer inched his hands across the ceiling of the van until he found what he was looking for. Staring dead ahead, he grasped it. Then he made his play. The motion was utterly unexpected. For an instant, Langdon thought the laws of physics had ceased to exist. The killer seemed to hang weightless in the air as his legs shot out from beneath him, his boots driving into the cardinal's side and launching the chain-laden body out the door. The cardinal splashed down, sending up a sheet of spray. Water dousing his face, Langdon realized too late what had happened. The killer had grasped one of the van's roll bars and used it to swing outward. Now the Hassassin was sailing toward him, feet-first through the spray. Langdon pulled the trigger, and the silencer spat. The bullet exploded through the toe of the Hassassin's left boot. Instantly Langdon felt the soles of the Hassassin's boots connect with his chest, driving him back with a crushing kick. The two men splashed down in a spray of blood and water. As the icy liquid engulfed Langdon's body, his first cognition was pain. Survival instinct came next. He realized he was no longer holding his weapon. It had been knocked away. Diving deep, he groped along the slimy bottom. His hand gripped metal. A handful of coins. He dropped them. Opening his eyes, Langdon scanned the glowing basin. The water churned around him like a frigid Jacuzzi. Despite the instinct to breathe, fear kept him on the bottom. Always moving. He did not know from where the next assault would come. He needed to find the gun! His hands groped desperately in front of him. You have the advantage, he told himself. You are in your element. Even in a soaked turtleneck Langdon was an agile swimmer. Water is your element. When Langdon's fingers found metal a second time, he was certain his luck had changed. The object in his hand was no handful of coins. He gripped it and tried to pull it toward him, but when he did, he found himself gliding through the water. The object was stationary. Langdon realized even before he coasted over the cardinal's writhing body that he had grasped part of the metal chain that was weighing the man down. Langdon hovered a moment, immobilized by the sight of the terrified face staring up at him from the floor of the fountain. Jolted by the life in the man's eyes, Langdon reached down and grabbed the chains, trying to heave him toward the surface. The body came slowly†¦ like an anchor. Langdon pulled harder. When the cardinal's head broke the surface, the old man gasped a few sucking, desperate breaths. Then, violently, his body rolled, causing Langdon to lose his grip on the slippery chains. Like a stone, Baggia went down again and disappeared beneath the foaming water. Langdon dove, eyes wide in the liquid murkiness. He found the cardinal. This time, when Langdon grabbed on, the chains across Baggia's chest shifted†¦ parting to reveal a further wickedness†¦ a word stamped in seared flesh. Angels & Demons An instant later, two boots strode into view. One was gushing blood. 103 As a water polo player, Robert Langdon had endured more than his fair share of underwater battles. The competitive savagery that raged beneath the surface of a water polo pool, away from the eyes of the referees, could rival even the ugliest wrestling match. Langdon had been kicked, scratched, held, and even bitten once by a frustrated defenseman from whom Langdon had continuously twisted away. Now, though, thrashing in the frigid water of Bernini's fountain, Langdon knew he was a long way from the Harvard pool. He was fighting not for a game, but for his life. This was the second time they had battled. No referees here. No rematches. The arms driving his face toward the bottom of the basin thrust with a force that left no doubt that it intended to kill. Langdon instinctively spun like a torpedo. Break the hold! But the grip torqued him back, his attacker enjoying an advantage no water polo defenseman ever had – two feet on solid ground. Langdon contorted, trying to get his own feet beneath him. The Hassassin seemed to be favoring one arm†¦ but nonetheless, his grip held firm. It was then that Langdon knew he was not coming up. He did the only thing he could think of to do. He stopped trying to surface. If you can't go north, go east. Marshalling the last of his strength, Langdon dolphin-kicked his legs and pulled his arms beneath him in an awkward butterfly stroke. His body lurched forward. The sudden switch in direction seemed to take the Hassassin off guard. Langdon's lateral motion dragged his captor's arms sideways, compromising his balance. The man's grip faltered, and Langdon kicked again. The sensation felt like a towline had snapped. Suddenly Langdon was free. Blowing the stale air from his lungs, Langdon clawed for the surface. A single breath was all he got. With crashing force the Hassassin was on top of him again, palms on his shoulders, all of his weight bearing down. Langdon scrambled to plant his feet beneath him but the Hassassin's leg swung out, cutting Langdon down. He went under again. Langdon's muscles burned as he twisted beneath the water. This time his maneuvers were in vain. Through the bubbling water, Langdon scanned the bottom, looking for the gun. Everything was blurred. The bubbles were denser here. A blinding light flashed in his face as the killer wrestled him deeper, toward a submerged spotlight bolted on the floor of the fountain. Langdon reached out, grabbing the canister. It was hot. Langdon tried to pull himself free, but the contraption was mounted on hinges and pivoted in his hand. His leverage was instantly lost. The Hassassin drove him deeper still. It was then Langdon saw it. Poking out from under the coins directly beneath his face. A narrow, black cylinder. The silencer of Olivetti's gun! Langdon reached out, but as his fingers wrapped around the cylinder, he did not feel metal, he felt plastic. When he pulled, the flexible rubber hose came flopping toward him like a flimsy snake. It was about two feet long with a jet of bubbles surging from the end. Langdon had not found the gun at all. It was one of the fountain's many harmless spumanti†¦ bubble makers. Only a few feet away, Cardinal Baggia felt his soul straining to leave his body. Although he had prepared for this moment his entire life, he had never imagined the end would be like this. His physical shell was in agony†¦ burned, bruised, and held underwater by an immovable weight. He reminded himself that this suffering was nothing compared to what Jesus had endured. He died for my sins†¦ Baggia could hear the thrashing of a battle raging nearby. He could not bear the thought of it. His captor was about to extinguish yet another life†¦ the man with kind eyes, the man who had tried to help. As the pain mounted, Baggia lay on his back and stared up through the water at the black sky above him. For a moment he thought he saw stars. It was time. Releasing all fear and doubt, Baggia opened his mouth and expelled what he knew would be his final breath. He watched his spirit gurgle heavenward in a burst of transparent bubbles. Then, reflexively, he gasped. The water poured in like icy daggers to his sides. The pain lasted only a few seconds. Then†¦ peace. The Hassassin ignored the burning in his foot and focused on the drowning American, whom he now held pinned beneath him in the churning water. Finish it fully. He tightened his grip, knowing this time Robert Langdon would not survive. As he predicted, his victim's struggling became weaker and weaker. Suddenly Langdon's body went rigid. He began to shake wildly. Yes, the Hassassin mused. The rigors. When the water first hits the lungs. The rigors, he knew, would last about five seconds. They lasted six. Then, exactly as the Hassassin expected, his victim went suddenly flaccid. Like a great deflating balloon, Robert Langdon fell limp. It was over. The Hassassin held him down for another thirty seconds to let the water flood all of his pulmonary tissue. Gradually, he felt Langdon's body sink, on its own accord, to the bottom. Finally, the Hassassin let go. The media would find a double surprise in the Fountain of the Four Rivers. â€Å"Tabban!† the Hassassin swore, clambering out of the fountain and looking at his bleeding toe. The tip of his boot was shredded, and the front of his big toe had been sheared off. Angry at his own carelessness, he tore the cuff from his pant leg and rammed the fabric into the toe of his boot. Pain shot up his leg. â€Å"Ibn al-kalb!† He clenched his fists and rammed the cloth deeper. The bleeding slowed until it was only a trickle. Turning his thoughts from pain to pleasure, the Hassassin got into his van. His work in Rome was done. He knew exactly what would soothe his discomfort. Vittoria Vetra was bound and waiting. The Hassassin, even cold and wet, felt himself stiffen. I have earned my reward. Across town Vittoria awoke in pain. She was on her back. All of her muscles felt like stone. Tight. Brittle. Her arms hurt. When she tried to move, she felt spasms in her shoulders. It took her a moment to comprehend her hands were tied behind her back. Her initial reaction was confusion. Am I dreaming? But when she tried to lift her head, the pain at the base of her skull informed her of her wakefulness. Confusion transforming to fear, she scanned her surroundings. She was in a crude, stone room – large and well-furnished, lit by torches. Some kind of ancient meeting hall. Old-fashioned benches sat in a circle nearby. Vittoria felt a breeze, cold now on her skin. Nearby, a set of double doors stood open, beyond them a balcony. Through the slits in the balustrade, Vittoria could have sworn she saw the Vatican. 104 Robert Langdon lay on a bed of coins at the bottom of the Fountain of the Four Rivers. His mouth was still wrapped around the plastic hose. The air being pumped through the spumanti tube to froth the fountain had been polluted by the pump, and his throat burned. He was not complaining, though. He was alive. He was not sure how accurate his imitation of a drowning man had been, but having been around water his entire life, Langdon had certainly heard accounts. He had done his best. Near the end, he had even blown all the air from his lungs and stopped breathing so that his muscle mass would carry his body to the floor. Thankfully, the Hassassin had bought it and let go. Now, resting on the bottom of the fountain, Langdon had waited as long as he could wait. He was about to start choking. He wondered if the Hassassin was still out there. Taking an acrid breath from the tube, Langdon let go and swam across the bottom of the fountain until he found the smooth swell of the central core. Silently, he followed it upward, surfacing out of sight, in the shadows beneath the huge marble figures. The van was gone. That was all Langdon needed to see. Pulling a long breath of fresh air back into his lungs, he scrambled back toward where Cardinal Baggia had gone down. Langdon knew the man would be unconscious now, and chances of revival were slim, but he had to try. When Langdon found the body, he planted his feet on either side, reached down, and grabbed the chains wrapped around the cardinal. Then Langdon pulled. When the cardinal broke water, Langdon could see the eyes were already rolled upward, bulging. Not a good sign. There was no breath or pulse. Knowing he could never get the body up and over the fountain rim, Langdon lugged Cardinal Baggia through the water and into the hollow beneath the central mound of marble. Here the water became shallow, and there was an inclined ledge. Langdon dragged the naked body up onto the ledge as far as he could. Not far. Then he went to work. Compressing the cardinal's chain-clad chest, Langdon pumped the water from his lungs. Then he began CPR. Counting carefully. Deliberately. Resisting the instinct to blow too hard and too fast. For three minutes Langdon tried to revive the old man. After five minutes, Langdon knew it was over. Il preferito. The man who would be Pope. Lying dead before him. Somehow, even now, prostrate in the shadows on the semisubmerged ledge, Cardinal Baggia retained an air of quiet dignity. The water lapped softly across his chest, seeming almost remorseful†¦ as if asking forgiveness for being the man's ultimate killer†¦ as if trying to cleanse the scalded wound that bore its name. Gently, Langdon ran a hand across the man's face and closed his upturned eyes. As he did, he felt an exhausted shudder of tears well from within. It startled him. Then, for the first time in years, Langdon cried. 105 The fog of weary emotion lifted slowly as Langdon waded away from the dead cardinal, back into deep water. Depleted and alone in the fountain, Langdon half-expected to collapse. But instead, he felt a new compulsion rising within him. Undeniable. Frantic. He sensed his muscles hardening with an unexpected grit. His mind, as though ignoring the pain in his heart, forced aside the past and brought into focus the single, desperate task ahead. Find the Illuminati lair. Help Vittoria. Turning now to the mountainous core of Bernini's fountain, Langdon summoned hope and launched himself into his quest for the final Illuminati marker. He knew somewhere on this gnarled mass of figures was a clue that pointed to the lair. As Langdon scanned the fountain, though, his hope withered quickly. The words of the segno seemed to gurgle mockingly all around him. Let angels guide you on your lofty quest. Langdon glared at the carved forms before him. The fountain is pagan! It has no damn angels anywhere! When Langdon completed his fruitless search of the core, his eyes instinctively climbed the towering stone pillar. Four markers, he thought, spread across Rome in a giant cross. Scanning the hieroglyphics covering the obelisk, he wondered if perhaps there were a clue hidden in the Egyptian symbology. He immediately dismissed the idea. The hieroglyphs predated Bernini by centuries, and hieroglyphs had not even been decipherable until the Rosetta Stone was discovered. Still, Langdon ventured, maybe Bernini had carved an additional symbol? One that would go unnoticed among all the hieroglyphs? Feeling a shimmer of hope, Langdon circumnavigated the fountain one more time and studied all four fa;ades of the obelisk. It took him two minutes, and when he reached the end of the final face, his hopes sank. Nothing in the hieroglyphs stood out as any kind of addition. Certainly no angels. Langdon checked his watch. It was eleven on the dot. He couldn't tell whether time was flying or crawling. Images of Vittoria and the Hassassin started to swirl hauntingly as Langdon clambered his way around the fountain, the frustration mounting as he frantically completed yet another fruitless circle. Beaten and exhausted, Langdon felt ready to collapse. He threw back his head to scream into the night. The sound jammed in his throat. Langdon was staring straight up the obelisk. The object perched at the very top was one he had seen earlier and ignored. Now, however, it stopped him short. It was not an angel. Far from it. In fact, he had not even perceived it as part of Bernini's fountain. He thought it was a living creature, another one of the city's scavengers perched on a lofty tower. A pigeon. Langdon squinted skyward at the object, his vision blurred by the glowing mist around him. It was a pigeon, wasn't it? He could clearly see the head and beak silhouetted against a cluster of stars. And yet the bird had not budged since Langdon's arrival, even with the battle below. The bird sat now exactly as it had been when Langdon entered the square. It was perched high atop the obelisk, gazing calmly westward. Langdon stared at it a moment and then plunged his hand into the fountain and grabbed a fistful of coins. He hurled the coins skyward. They clattered across the upper levels of the granite obelisk. The bird did not budge. He tried again. This time, one of the coins hit the mark. A faint sound of metal on metal clanged across the square. The damned pigeon was bronze. You're looking for an angel, not a pigeon, a voice reminded him. But it was too late. Langdon had made the connection. He realized the bird was not a pigeon at all. It was a dove. Barely aware of his own actions, Langdon splashed toward the center of the fountain and began scrambling up the travertine mountain, clambering over huge arms and heads, pulling himself higher. Halfway to the base of the obelisk, he emerged from the mist and could see the head of the bird more clearly. There was no doubt. It was a dove. The bird's deceptively dark color was the result of Rome's pollution tarnishing the original bronze. Then the significance hit him. He had seen a pair of doves earlier today at the Pantheon. A pair of doves carried no meaning. This dove, however, was alone. The lone dove is the pagan symbol for the Angel of Peace. The truth almost lifted Langdon the rest of the way to the obelisk. Bernini had chosen the pagan symbol for the angel so he could disguise it in a pagan fountain. Let angels guide you on your lofty quest. The dove is the angel! Langdon could think of no more lofty perch for the Illuminati's final marker than atop this obelisk. The bird was looking west. Langdon tried to follow its gaze, but he could not see over the buildings. He climbed higher. A quote from St. Gregory of Nyssa emerged from his memory most unexpectedly. As the soul becomes enlightened†¦ it takes the beautiful shape of the dove. Langdon rose heavenward. Toward the dove. He was almost flying now. He reached the platform from which the obelisk rose and could climb no higher. With one look around, though, he knew he didn't have to. All of Rome spread out before him. The view was stunning. To his left, the chaotic media lights surrounding St. Peter's. To his right, the smoking cupola of Santa Maria della Vittoria. In front of him in the distance, Piazza del Popolo. Beneath him, the fourth and final point. A giant cross of obelisks. Trembling, Langdon looked to the dove overhead. He turned and faced the proper direction, and then he lowered his eyes to the skyline. In an instant he saw it. So obvious. So clear. So deviously simple. Staring at it now, Langdon could not believe the Illuminati lair had stayed hidden for so many years. The entire city seemed to fade away as he looked out at the monstrous stone structure across the river in front of him. The building was as famous as any in Rome. It stood on the banks of the Tiber River diagonally adjacent to the Vatican. The building's geometry was stark – a circular castle, within a square fortress, and then, outside its walls, surrounding the entire structure, a park in the shape of a pentagram. The ancient stone ramparts before him were dramatically lit by soft floodlights. High atop the castle stood the mammoth bronze angel. The angel pointed his sword downward at the exact center of the castle. And as if that were not enough, leading solely and directly to the castle's main entrance stood the famous Bridge of Angels†¦ a dramatic approachway adorned by twelve towering angels carved by none other than Bernini himself. In a final breathtaking revelation, Langdon realized Bernini's city-wide cross of obelisks marked the fortress in perfect Illuminati fashion; the cross's central arm passed directly through the center of the castle's bridge, dividing it into two equal halves. Langdon retrieved his tweed coat, holding it away from his dripping body. Then he jumped into the stolen sedan and rammed his soggy shoe into the accelerator, speeding off into the night.

Family Meal Essay

In her essay, â€Å"The Magic of the Family Meal,† Nancy Gibbs, explains the important role of having meals plays on children. Gibbs begins her essay by telling us how valuable having a family meal is and the positive outcome. She believes that having a family meal, more than three times a week, with no interruptions, can have a great power over a family’s communication skills. Gibbs then explains that children who eat meals with their families, are less likely to get into trouble and eat healthier. She writes, â€Å"Studies show that the more often families eat together, the less likely kids are to smoke, drink, do drugs, get depressed, develop eating disorders, and consider suicide, and the more likely they are to do well in school, delay having sex, eat their vegetables, learn big words, and know which fork to use†(209-210). Gibbs then starts explore the negative effects of not having family meals. She writes that 45 percent of all family dinners have the TV running at the same time as the meal is being eaten. This is part of the reason kids feel like their parents aren’t proud of them as well as why there is tension among that particular family Gibbs states. She then concludes that back in the day dinner was a very precious event for most U. S. families. Overtime however, Gibbs believes this has dissipated due to social, economic, and technological factors. As a result, families became busier with these factors, which made it harder for families to sit down. Meanwhile, the message embedded in the microwave was that time spent standing in front of a stove was time wasted,† (211) Says Gibbs. She explores the effects of the fast food business and what role it played in destroying family meals and its importance. Overall Gibbs concludes that every family needs to have an uninterrupted family meal time, whether it be breakfast, lunch, or dinner, family meals are important, and writes, â€Å"So pull up a chair. Lose the TV. Let the phone go unanswered. And see where the moment takes you† (213). After reading Nancy Gibbs Essay, I looked back at my life and all the family dinners I have had. My parents got divorced when I was really young. Even though I lived with my mother and my sister, we stopped eating as a family every night. My mother got a job as a banker, where she left at 7 am and didn’t come home until around 7 pm. Thus, all of our meals were at the babysitter’s house, sitting by ourselves. After my father moved to Lincoln city and got married, we went to his house to visit every weekend. We sat down as a family to have a meal every night. We did not have phones, TV’s, or any other interruptions. At the dinner table we always had pretty in depth conversations which brought us closer as a family. It always made my sister and me feel like we were important and our dad was proud of us. After my father and his wife had their second child, my father cut us off and he didn’t have us come over very much anymore. My sister and I both started acting out in the beginning of middle school year getting into trouble, experimenting with drugs and hanging with the wrong crowds. Regardless of what we had been told, we didn’t care. Soon my mother got married to my step dad. We started having family dinners again, and my sister and I straightened up. Now that I look back, I do see how important it was for my sister and I to have family meals. These days, it is hard with the world moving so quickly, with jobs and school to sit down and have family dinner. However, we manage to make an effort successful or not, it brings us closer together and we know how important it really is now.

Immanuel Kant Essay

A 19 year old college student and addicted gambler was pulled over for erratic driving on the Long Island Expressway. He pulled out a toy pistol and pointed it at the officer, he was then shot and killed. Another incident involving a 45 year old cancer patient had the same ending in new Jersey. He walked into a Pizza Shop and pointed a gun at the officers inside eating. Experts believe that they force the cops to kill them as a form of suicide. Suicide is difficult to commit and forcing an officer to kill you takes away the pressure of completing the task. Some insurance companies don’t cover suicide and religions forbid it so it is away of taking the guilt and shame away from common suicide. 10% of fatal police shootings are brought on by people seeking to die. -Evaluate the moral permissibility of â€Å"suicide by cop† -To what extent is a police officer morally obligated to assess whether a person he or she shoots actually wants to be killed? Virtue Ethics Aristotle’s theory of moral virtue categorizes the pursuit of happiness as a process that is achieved by pursuing real goods in a morally correct way. It is a mean between two vices (excess & defect). Our actions are voluntary and the product of choice. In these cases they seem to have self delusion defects. They are rationalizing conduct (suicide) and making excuses in an effort to justify their morally impermissible actions(carried out by cops vs. self). A person is giving up on their pursuit of happiness and there for, from the victims standpoint nothing is morally permissible about their actions. The officer doesn’t have time to assess the motives of suspects that pull firearms on them. They have to make a quick decision at the drop of a hat. Kill or be killed. Their own pursuit of happiness and life is protected. Formalizism Emmanuel Kant developed formalizes theory. It focuses on carrying out your duties without thinking about the consequences. Categorical and Practical imperative are the two main components. Categorical imperative is the idea that the moral obligation is valid only if it applies universally to everything. Practical imperative states that a person should treat humanity as an end and not as a mean. When you apply this to suicide by cop it is never right to go point a gun at someone in order for them to kill you. The officer does apply those situations universally to everyone though. You are met with the same type of force that you bring. Their first priority is protecting themselves. Utilitarianism John Mill’s theory of utility expanded from the viewpoint of motivations of pleasure and pain. The goodness of an act is determined by the consequences of the act and how much happiness is promoted. Using this theory the victim is still not morally correct with their choice of suicide by cop though the pleasure of death may outweigh the pain of life. They don’t promote any happiness by getting themselves killed. Their loved ones all get hurt. From the officers eyes they have an armed person pointing a gun at them and they don’t have the time to weigh the pros and cons they can only react. They aren’t going to be happy about killing someone they still wouldn’t be happy if they did stop and think and ended up shot themselves. Suicide is a selfish act and even more selfish when you force someone else to do your dirty work. No one wants to take a life but most people don’t want to lose theirs either. I do not believe that officers should be morally obligated to assess weather a person is violate or just wants to die. It is too dangerous to try and play psychologist is what could possibly mean a life or death situation for a police officer. My step dad has a grading company and hit a man on a motorcycle that was dying of cancer. He left the house that day and told his family he was going to kill himself I guess his dump truck looked like the best option in completing his mission and he drove head on right into him. Even though the man wanted to die my step dad never wanted to kill someone and it is a pretty emotional topic. The selfishness that it takes to take your life at someone else’s expense is beyond me and something I really don’t understand.

Analysis of Martin Luther King’s “I Have a Dream” Essay

The Speech I have chosen to do is â€Å"I have a dream† by Martin Luther King. â€Å"I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: â€Å"We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal.† I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners will be able to sit down together at the table of brotherhood. I have a dream that one day even the state of Mississippi, a state sweltering with the heat of injustice, sweltering with the heat of oppression, will be transformed into an oasis of freedom and justice. I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character. I have a dream today.† This is a particularly inspirational speech because he was saying exactly what he felt and it came straight from his heart, and it was exactly what the people that were listening were thinking about the how they were being treated. The speech shows how angry he is with all the racism in the United States of America, and he tells everyone how things should be, this worked particularly well because all the black people in America were treated poorer than white people and it summed up all the hatred and anger that was inside them. Martin Luther king used very cleverly thought out sentence structure to make more impact on the listeners. He used the quick and snappy sentences to grab their attention and then he would use the longer sentences to explain his deeper feelings. Luther king also uses the word freedom a lot because it shows that is what they didn’t have, which also again makes the listeners feel that they don’t have a lot of freedom. The definition of inspiration is â€Å"the process of being mentally stimulated to do or feel something, especially to do something creative.† This is exactly what Dr King got people that listened to his speech to feel, inspired to do something to help themselves. Thank you for listening.

Neural Networks Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Neural Networks - Research Paper Example This paper presents an overview of the Artificial Neural Networks (ANNs). This paper will outline the basic idea, some history and uses of ANN. Basically an artificial neural network is a collection of programs of data structures that is almost capable of the process of the human brain. In this scenario, a neural network encompasses a wide variety of processors that work collaboratively, each with its own small sphere of facts and makes use of the data in its local memory. In addition, an ANN can be considered as a computer program or simulation that is built through a wide variety of clear-cut and extremely unified processing components that are capable of managing information by means of their active state reaction to inputs. In fact, artificial neural networks have the capability to solve those problems that are difficult to resolve using traditional processes and techniques, as well as sometime a lot of them have been tackled through neural networks, for instance forecasting gras sland community, analysis of seismic signals or solar radiation, control of chaotic dynamical systems, data and air quality control and categorization of remotely sensed information (Benvenuto & Marani, 2000; Giles, 1998; Laudon & Laudon, 1999). According to (Stergiou & Siganos, 2010), an artificial neural network is a data processing model that is inspired by the method of biological nervous systems information processing. Neural Network is also a renowned and heavily researched area of the AI. Stergiou & Siganos (2010) described that in the neural network field the working of human neuron is copied into the computer based systems. In addition, the neural network is an AI based computer program which imitates the human nervous systems’ working. It is based on neural net which has weights on each node that can be adjusted to make suitable decisions. Such systems are typically seen in automatic driving systems that are under-research and at the early stages of development (Ste rgiou & Siganos, 2010; Laudon & Laudon, 1999). The history of the artificial neural networks can be traced back to the 1940's with the introduction of the first neural network computing model, which was presented by McCulloch and Pitts. In the 1950's, Rosenblatt's work got a considerable attention of researchers. Additionally, this work was further resulted in a two-layer network, the perceptron, which was able to learn various classifications by making changes to connection weights. Without a doubt, the

Antarctic sea ice melt and its implications Essay

Antarctic sea ice melt and its implications - Essay Example mosphere and polar oceans; and changes the force of ocean buoyancy by redistributing fresh water through transportation and subsequent melting of comparatively fresh sea ice. Thesis Statement: The purpose of this essay is to investigate Antarctica sea ice melt, examine the ocean-atmosphere interaction, and evaluate the environmental and societal impact of rising sea levels and other impacts of the sea ice melt. Globally, there is a decline of snow and ice over the past several years, particularly since 1980, with an increasing downturn during the last decade. In the South Pole, the east and west Antarctic Ice Sheets are â€Å"two unequal parts, with different histories and characteristics† (Mercer 1978: 323), Figure 1 below. Unlike the vast, older and mostly land-based ice sheet in East Antarctica, the Western Antarctic ice sheet is younger, much smaller and marine-based, anchored to a distance of 2,500 meters below sea level. Further, West Antarctica is not a single continent, but is a series of islands covered by ice, touching the ocean floor, and not based on land (NASA 2010). Two-thirds of the continent is East Antarctica, a high, frozen desert. If all the ice melted, it would increase the global sea level by about 60 meters or 197 feet. The results from a recent National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA)/ German Aerospace Center’s Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE) study, indicate that since 2006 there has been greater ice loss from interior East Antarctica than earlier believed (Chen et al 2009). In the Southern Ocean, sea ice forms a fringe around the entire Antarctic continent (Figure 2. below) which is surrounded by the waters of different seas. The Antarctica is subdivided into 5 sectors by researchers, each impacted by diverse geography and weather conditions. This results in greater yearly variations in Antarctic sea ice, as compared to Arctic sea ice (Nasa.Gov 2010). â€Å"Across the Antarctic Peninsula lies one of the