Vampire Academy Chapter 21

TWENTY-ONE I'D NEVER BEEN COMPLETELY NAKED around a guy before. It scared the hell out of me – even though it excited me, too. Lying on the covers, we clung to each other and kept kissing – and kissing and kissing and kissing. His hands and lips took possession of my body, and every touch was like fire on my skin. After yearning for him for so long, I could barely believe this was happening. And while the physical stuff felt great, I also just liked being close to him. I liked the way he looked at me, like I was the sexiest, most wonderful thing in the world. I liked the way he would say my name in Russian, murmured like a prayer: Roza, Roza†¦ And somewhere, somewhere in all of this, was that same urging voice that had driven me up to his room, a voice that didn't sound like my own but that I was powerless to ignore. Stay with him, stay with him. Don't think about anything else except him. Keep touching him. Forget about everything else. I listened – not that I really needed any extra convincing. The burning in his eyes told me he wanted to do a lot more than we were, but he took things slow, maybe because he knew I was nervous. His pajama pants stayed on. At one point, I shifted so that I hovered over him, my hair hanging around him. He tilted his head slightly, and I just barely caught sight of the back of his neck. I brushed my fingertips over the six tiny marks tattooed there. â€Å"Did you really kill six Strigoi?† He nodded. â€Å"Wow.† He brought my own neck down to his mouth and kissed me. His teeth gently grazed my skin, different from a vampire but every bit as thrilling. â€Å"Don't worry. You'll have a lot more than me someday.† â€Å"Do you feel guilty about it?† â€Å"Hmm?† â€Å"Killing them. You said in the van that it was the right thing to do, but it still bothers you. It's why you go to church, isn't it? I see you there, but you aren't really into the services.† He smiled, surprised and amused I'd guessed another secret about him. â€Å"How do you know these things? I'm not guilty exactly†¦just sad sometimes. All of them used to be human or dhampir or Moroi. It's a waste, that's all, but as I said before, it's something I have to do. Something we all have to do. Sometimes it bothers me, and the chapel is a good place to think about those kinds of things. Sometimes I find peace there, but not often. I find more peace with you.† He rolled me off of him and moved on top of me again. The kissing picked up once more, harder this time. More urgent. Oh God, I thought. I'm finally going to do it. This is it. I can feel it. He must have seen the decision in my eyes. Smiling, he slid his hands behind my neck and unfastened Victor's necklace. He set it on the bedside table. As soon as the chain left his fingers, I felt like I'd been slapped in the face. I blinked in surprise. Dimitri must have felt the same way. â€Å"What happened?† he asked. â€Å"I-I don't know.† I felt like I was trying to wake up, like I'd been asleep for two days. I needed to remember something. Lissa. Something with Lissa. My head felt funny. Not pain or dizziness, but†¦the voice, I realized. The voice urging me toward Dimitri was gone. That wasn't to say I didn't want him anymore because hey, seeing him there in those sexy pajama bottoms, with that brown hair spilling over the side of face was pretty fine. But I no longer had that outside influence pushing me to him. Weird. He frowned, no longer turned on. After several moments of thought, he reached over and picked up the necklace. The instant his fingers touched it, I saw desire sweep over him again. He slid his other hand onto my hip, and suddenly, that burning lust slammed back into me. My stomach went queasy while my skin started to prickle and grow warm again. My breathing became heavy. His lips moved toward mine again. Some inner part of me fought through. â€Å"Lissa,† I whispered, squeezing my eyes shut. â€Å"I have to tell you something about Lissa. But I can't†¦remember†¦I feel so strange†¦Ã¢â‚¬  â€Å"I know.† Still holding onto me, he rested his cheek against my forehead. â€Å"There's something†¦something here†¦Ã¢â‚¬  He pulled his face away, and I opened my eyes. â€Å"This necklace. That's the one Prince Victor gave you?† I nodded and could see the sluggish thought process trying to wake up behind his eyes. Taking a deep breath, he removed his hand from my hip and pushed himself away. â€Å"What are you doing?† I exclaimed. â€Å"Come back†¦Ã¢â‚¬  He looked like he wanted to – very badly – but instead he climbed out of the bed. He and the necklace moved away from me. I felt like he'd ripped part of me away, but at the same time, I had that startling sensation of waking up, like I could think clearly once more without my body making all the decisions. On the other hand, Dimitri still wore a look of animal passion on him, and it seemed to take a great deal of effort for him to walk across the room. He reached the window and managed to open it one-handed. Cold air blasted in, and I rubbed my hands over my arms for warmth. â€Å"What are you going to – ?† The answer hit me, and I sprang out of bed, just as the necklace flew out the window. â€Å"No! Do you know how much that must have – ?† The necklace disappeared, and I no longer felt like I was waking up. I was awake. Painfully, startlingly so. I took in my surroundings. Dimitri's room. Me naked. The rumpled bed. But all that was nothing compared to what hit me next. â€Å"Lissa!† I gasped out. It all came back, the memories and the emotions. And, in fact, her held-back emotions suddenly poured into me – at staggering levels. More terror. Intense terror. Those feelings wanted to suck me back into her body, but I couldn't let them. Not quite yet. I fought against her, needing to stay here. With the words coming out in a rush, I told Dimitri everything that had happened. He was in motion before I finished, putting on clothes and looking every bit like a badass god. Ordering me to get dressed, he tossed me a sweatshirt with Cyrillic writing on it to wear over the skimpy dress. I had a hard time following him downstairs; he made no effort to slow for me this time. Calls were made when we got there. Orders shouted. Before long, I ended up in the guardians' main office with him. Kirova and other teachers were there. Most of the campus's guardians. Everyone seemed to speak at once. All the while, I felt Lissa's fear, felt her moving farther and farther away. I yelled at them to hurry up and do something, but no one except Dimitri would believe my story about her abduction until someone retrieved Christian from the chapel and then verified Lissa really wasn't on campus. Christian staggered in, supported by two guardians. Dr. Olendzki appeared shortly thereafter, checking him out and wiping blood away from the back of his head. Finally, I thought, something would happen. â€Å"How many Strigoi were there?† one of the guardians asked me. â€Å"How in the world did they get in?† muttered someone else. I stared. â€Å"Wh – ? There weren't any Strigoi.† Several sets of eyes stared at me. â€Å"Who else would have taken her?† asked Ms. Kirova primly. â€Å"You must have seen it wrong through the†¦vision.† â€Å"No. I'm positive. It was†¦they were†¦guardians.† â€Å"She's right,† mumbled Christian, still under the doctor's ministrations. He winced as she did something to the back of his head. â€Å"Guardians.† â€Å"That's impossible,† someone said. â€Å"They weren't school guardians.† I rubbed my forehead, fighting hard to keep from leaving the conversation and going back to Lissa. My irritation grew. â€Å"Will you guys get moving? She's getting farther away!† â€Å"You're saying a group of privately retained guardians came in and kidnapped her?† The tone in Kirova's voice implied I was playing some kind of joke. â€Å"Yes,† I replied through gritted teeth. â€Å"They†¦Ã¢â‚¬  Slowly, carefully, I slipped my mental restraint and flew into Lissa's body. I sat in a car, an expensive car with tinted windows to keep out most of the light. It might be â€Å"night† here, but it was full day for the rest of the world. One of the guardians from the chapel drove; another sat beside him in the front – one I recognized. Spiridon. In the back, Lissa sat with tied hands, another guardian beside her, and on the other side – â€Å"They work for Victor Dashkov,† I gasped out, focusing back on Kirova and the others. â€Å"They're his.† â€Å"Prince Victor Dashkov?† asked one of the guardians with a snort. Like there was any other freaking Victor Dashkov. â€Å"Please,† I moaned, hands clutching my head. â€Å"Do something. They're getting so far away. They're on†¦Ã¢â‚¬  A brief image, seen outside the car window, flared in my vision. â€Å"Eighty-three. Headed south.† â€Å"Eighty-three already? How long ago did they leave? Why didn't you come sooner?† My eyes turned anxiously to Dimitri. â€Å"A compulsion spell,† he said slowly. â€Å"A compulsion spell put into a necklace he gave her. It made her attack me.† â€Å"No one can use that kind of compulsion,† exclaimed Kirova. â€Å"No one's done that in ages.† â€Å"Well, someone did. By the time I'd restrained her and taken the necklace, a lot of time had passed,† Dimitri continued, face perfectly controlled. No one questioned the story. Finally, finally, the group moved into action. No one wanted to bring me, but Dimitri insisted when he realized I could lead them to her. Three details of guardians set out in sinister black SUVs. I rode in the first one, sitting in the passenger seat while Dimitri drove. Minutes passed. The only times we spoke was when I gave a report. â€Å"They're still on Eighty-three†¦but their turn is coming. They aren't speeding. They don't want to get pulled over.† He nodded, not looking at me. He most definitely was speeding. Giving him a sidelong glance, I replayed tonight's earlier events. In my mind's eye, I could see it all again, the way he'd looked at me and kissed me. But what had it been? An illusion? A trick? On the way to the car, he'd told me there really had been a compulsion spell in the necklace, a lust one. I had never heard of such a thing, but when I'd asked for more information, he just said it was a type of magic earth users once practiced but never did anymore. â€Å"They're turning,† I said suddenly. â€Å"I can't see the road name, but I'll know when we're close.† Dimitri grunted in acknowledgment, and I sank further into my seat. What had it all meant? Had it meant anything to him? It had definitely meant a lot to me. â€Å"There,† I said about twenty minutes later, indicating the rough road Victor's car had turned off on. It was unpaved gravel, and the SUV gave us an edge over his luxury car. We drove on in silence, the only sound coming from the crunching of the gravel under the tires. Dust kicked up outside the windows, swirling around us. â€Å"They're turning again.† Farther and farther off the main routes they went, and we followed the whole time, led by my instructions. Finally, I felt Victor's car come to a stop. â€Å"They're outside a small cabin,† I said. â€Å"They're taking her – â€Å" â€Å"Why are you doing this? What's going on?† Lissa. Cringing and scared. Her feelings had pulled me into her. â€Å"Come, child,† said Victor, moving into the cabin, unsteady on his cane. One of his guardians held the door open. Another pushed Lissa along and settled her into a chair near a small table inside. It was cold in here, especially in the pink dress. Victor sat across from her. When she started to get up, a guardian gave her a warning look. â€Å"Do you think I'd seriously hurt you?† â€Å"What did you do to Christian?† she cried, ignoring the question. â€Å"Is he dead? â€Å"The Ozera boy? I didn't mean for that to happen. We didn't expect him to be there. We'd hoped to catch you alone, to convince others you'd run away again. We'd made sure rumors already circulated about that.† We? I recalled how the stories had resurfaced this week†¦from Natalie. â€Å"Now?† He sighed, spreading his hands wide in a helpless gesture. â€Å"I don't know. I doubt anyone will connect it to us, even if they don't believe you ran away. Rose is the biggest liability. We'd intended to†¦dispatch her, letting others think she'd run away as well. The spectacle she created at your dance made that impossible, but I had another plan in place to make sure she stays occupied for some time†¦probably until tomorrow. We will have to contend with her later.† He hadn't counted on Dimitri figuring out the spell. He'd figured we'd be too busy getting it on all night. â€Å"Why?† asked Lissa. â€Å"Why are you doing all this?† His green eyes widened, reminding her of her father's. They might be distant relatives, but that jade-green color ran in both the Dragomirs and the Dashkovs. â€Å"I'm surprised you even have to ask, my dear. I need you. I need you to heal me.†

Learning Preferences Essay

Describe your strongest dimension on the personality spectrum. My strongest dimension on the personality spectrum was kinesthetic. I think that the results of this test best describes the way that I learn best. Kinesthetic learning style refers to a way of acquiring knowledge in which the learner uses sense of movement to gain information about the world. This learning style is sometimes referred to as kinesthetic-tactile. Kinesthetic learners tend to loose interests in activities that rely purely on listening and viewing. Kinesthetic learners work best in activities that incorporate physical activity. I think that I learn best by using my hands, because when I can do hands on activities I pick up very well. When I can learn things by doing them I also tend to retain the skill easier. Describe how each practice activity reinforced or contradicted something about yourself. The results of practice one really reinforced my learning preference. The results were visual 30 auditory 28 kinesthetic 34 and tactile 28. The results indicate that I learn best using the kinesthetic learning preference. This practice also indicated that I learn well using the visual learning preference. In practice three I learned I prefer to use the more abstract approach and make connections to what is being taught using hypothetical situations rather than real world situations. Also I would prefer to have a more random style of teaching than the linear style. The linear style of teaching most likely too much of one set learning preferences and is not a variety of different styles mixed together.

The Yellow Wallpaper 2 Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

The Yellow Wallpaper 2 - Essay Example The lady never questioned her husband’s decision and followed his instructions but only to experience a worst possible fate a human can ever imagine (Gilman, 1892). The story tells about how females are guided and literally ruled over by their husbands. The women have remained suppressed in all parts of the world as they were unable to take charge of the life that they had been blessed with by the God himself. Additionally, the choice made by the husband aggravated the issue because the wife fell into the belief that she was trapped into the room and her belief translated into a presence of woman who was trapped into the yellow wallpaper. The wife considered it as her duty to free the trapped woman as she cannot free herself. The will to help others had always remained a great motivational force for humans and the objective of freeing a woman in the wallpaper gave the sense of direction to the lady. Once she freed the woman in the picture then, she lost the purpose of life and therefore, she completely succumbed to her mental condition. The message of the story is simple and easy to understand, if only one is committed and willing to do that. The best way to help is to let the sufferer make his or her choices as freely as possible. The human is the most sophisticated piece of machinery ever built. People have a physical life and a psychological one as well. The apparent satisfaction does not mean that a person is contented from the inside. The meaningless compliance means that a pile of un-served needs and wants is gathering and it is usually the matter of time before a person becomes mentally impaired by carrying the burden in the inside. The wife was happy from the outside but she was sorrowful on the inside and finally, the sadness got better of the apparent happiness and she started doing what she wanted and what she can. The action was simple as it involved crawling around the room but it

Positive and negative effects of social networking Essay

Positive and negative effects of social networking - Essay Example Social networking sites are among the social media services that have tremendously received significant attention  in the society. There is no doubt that social networking has improved the day-to-day life of many people in the society such as making communication easier and  cheaper. However, the impact behind this cannot be underrated, as the society is moving into the technology age, the negative impacts of networking are increasing; thus outcompeting the benefits. Although, social networking makes communication easier and cheaper, it has led to increased social disorders, impacted personal privacy, cybercrimes related and destroyed relationships. Social networking sites have contributed to more harm than good in the contemporary society in varied ways. First, it has led to deterioration of health due to increased social disorders such as Facebook Addiction Disorder and other related diseases such as obesity, hypertension, obesity, depression, anxiety among others. Biswajit and Jyoti (2011, p.225) argue that in case the world is facing any new addiction disorder, then Facebook addiction should be the first one. This is a kind of disease that evolved recently due to addiction of social networking; thus, it has made some people mad while others had become drug addicts. This is because many Internet users especially teenagers use drugs and alcohols in order to hypertext or keep in touch with friends. This has made many of them forget the physical world surrounding them. The increased research on the impact of social networking indicates that the social media has currently exposed many users to varied consequences. For instance, many youths who are among the majority of social networking sites such as Face book, Twitter, You Tube, MySpace among others undergo varied problems such as depression, stress and loneliness that may lead to committing suicide (Feinstein, Bhatia, Hershenberg and Davila, 2012). For instance, the shocking news reported by the Florida Ti mes-Union revealed the scandalous act of an 18 years boy who was stabbed by his friend just because of an argument on Facebook. Secondly, the social networking has destroyed relationships and made life miserable to users. Social networking was thought to help users improve and build health or quality relationships, but instead it has damaged it. For instance, some spouses update their status on Facebook as single and yet they are married. Some comments posted on Facebook have led to breaking up relationships. The research survey by AAML (American Academy of Matrimonial Lawyers) revealed that Facebook is the main cause behind increased divorce case in America (Biswajit and Jyoti 2011, 226). Feinstein et al (2011) indicates that the social networking sites are avenue for problematic interpersonal behaviors. This is because the effect of depressive and anxiety symptoms are among the aspects that impact the health lifestyles. This may result due to relationship problems that impact the quality of life. Given that the social networking sites is perceived as the safer and effective means of communicating than the face-to-face method, the socially anxious individuals encounter varied problems across relationship types (Feinstein et al 2011, p 375). Lastly, it has also led to increased cybercrimes, affected work productivity and impacted personal privacy. Social networking offer cybercriminals a considerable advantage of conning, raping, murdering and involving in other related crimes to the targeted victims. The study reports

Analysis and Design Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Analysis and Design - Essay Example Guilty Driver inherits from the driver and has all the attributes for the driver. In addition it also has the fine details, payment process. Innocent driver also is inherited from the main driver but makes use of the guilty driver processes when required to pay. In addition to the attributes that the guilty has, this will also have court processing. Suspended driver in case of drivers who fail to pay the fine. Their license details are all maintained in this. InTrial driver has the trial date details. 3. Use Case Diagram 4. Use Case - Scheduling a Court Date Description Table: Source Actor Action Destination Actor Driver Sends request for court date Officer Officer Prepares a trial date questionnaire. Driver Prepares a ticket details report Court Driver Fills in the trial date questionnaire Court Court Fixes the trial date and sends the intimation report. Driver Officer Sequence Diagram 5. Structured Approach and Object Oriented Approach Structured Design The computer was expected to solve certain problems that are mathematical and / or processing of the information, compare or sort. In order to solve these problems, a top down approach was originally used in procedural approach to problem solving. The structured approach was one step ahead of the procedural approach. In both the approaches, the problem was visualized and the method to solve the problem was the one that was worked on. Problem to solve is to be identified and then a step by step process towards solution was worked out in the case of procedural approach. There were a number of hardships faced once the problem became complex. In order to overcome this problem the structured approach was adopted. The problem that needed a solution was broken down into smaller... Innocent driver also is inherited from the main driver but makes use of the guilty driver processes when required to pay. In addition to the attributes that the guilty has, this will also have court processing. The computer was expected to solve certain problems that are mathematical and / or processing of the information, compare or sort. In order to solve these problems, a top down approach was originally used in procedural approach to problem solving. The structured approach was one step ahead of the procedural approach. In both the approaches, the problem was visualized and the method to solve the problem was the one that was worked on. Problem to solve is to be identified and then a step by step process towards solution was worked out in the case of procedural approach. There were a number of hardships faced once the problem became complex. In order to overcome this problem the structured approach was adopted. The problem that needed a solution was broken down into smaller problems. This meant that we had multiple numbers of smaller problems to be solved. On these multiple smaller problems the original procedural approach is applied and solution is reached.

RN interview Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words - 1

RN interview - Essay Example Evidently, the humanistic aspects of nursing care can only be achieved via effective interpersonal communication. The shortlisted candidate is a registered male nurse. With respect to interpersonal power, a nurse is an authority who must exude expert power. These are the true feelings of the interviewee. He further explains that a good masterly of nursing knowledge in clinical practice instills confidence in the patient. Moreover, the patient relaxes and is more amenable to therapeutic interventions as s/he is fully trusting of the care received in the hospital. The interviewee also highlighted the need for self disclosure. A nurse needs to appreciate the emotional needs of the patient by establishing a rapport that is based on caring. The nurse needs to exhibit empathy, warmth and congruence in order to foster a trustworthy relationship that will foster self-disclosure (current nursing, 2012). The nurse should not reveal confidential relationship and whenever necessary, there is need to maintain patient anonymity in the discussion of such privileged information. The interviewee also cited the need to maintain assertive communication in the delega tion of duties to juniors and the delivery of instructions to patients. This is essential in the cultivation of a professional relationship with patients and personnel. Aggressive communication will create an uneasy environment that is laden with tension (Kinni & Kinni, n.d.). It is not the kind of environment that will nurture a caring attitude where patients can engage in self disclosure. The interviewee also indicated that all conflict in a hospital setting should be resolved via the cooperative style of managing conflict (Knapp & Daly, 2011). I aspire to be a teacher and in order to establish good teacher/student relationships; I should demonstrate good interpersonal communication skills (Roberts, 2012). A teacher needs to be assertive during the

Essay on Contemporary Comparison Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

On Contemporary Comparison - Essay Example The onset of Islam as a religion led to many getting and understanding its vision of establishing itself as a formidable spiritual ground alongside other religions. This began with the creation of Islamic based civilization in the Middle East, the Persian states and later in the Turkish states. The 13th century saw the joining of Africa and Asia as major forces of Islamic traditions. Unlike many other religions, Islam came up and provided a neutral ground for its followers. It did not discriminate in terms of race or color. This led to the creation of a strong, unshakable and one minded group of followers. It also gave all its believers the chance to further their knowledge in any field whatsoever just as long as this knowledge did not in any way interfere with the spiritual standpoint of Islam. It also allowed for those not incorporated into the Islamic religion to participate in any intellectual exercise so long as it benefited the whole community. Those who embraced Islam had a ch ance to further their civilization after the rise of Islam. Such groups such as the Persians who were advanced in their ways of living and trade advanced further after they embraced Islam. After the death of its founder Prophet Mohammed, Abu Bakr became the first caliph. He was the leader of Islamic religion for two years then Umar took over. Umar enabled Islamic religion to capture more grounds and get more followers in the east as well as the west therefore bringing the Persian region, Egypt and Syria under its fold. He advocated for the other religions as well. This was evident when he led the march of Muslim followers into Jerusalem to demand the security of Christian strongholds. He also saw the creation of a financial set up to cater of Muslims finances. Afterwards Uthman took over leadership and is highly credited to have made copies of the Holy Quran and distributed them across the world where Muslims were. During the Umayyad caliphate the capital of Islam was in Damascus bu t this was moved to Baghdad by the Abbasids. This saw the transformation of Baghdad into a strong political stronghold of the entire world. The Abbasids were in a leadership position for a little over 500 years whereby afterwards they began loosing the sense of authority they wielded thus remaining with only symbolic influence. The sultans wielded the military authority. During the reign of Abbasids several empires came into existence for instance the Fatimid’s and the Mamluks who had vast authority in Egypt and the Palestine. This reign saw the many crusades that the Pope advocated for and that got vast support from leaders in Europe. The Pope’s greatest motivation for such crusades was majorly to reclaim the holy land of Jerusalem that had transformed from a Christianity stronghold to an Islamic stronghold. This was possible in the beginning and some parts that had shifted to Islam were transformed to Christianity such as some regions in Syria, although this did not last under the reign of the decorated Muslim ruler Saladin who reclaimed these regions and saw to the downfall of the crusaders. During the time when the Abbasids came to power, one prince who belonged to the former leadership of Umayyad made a get away and went to Spain where he established Umayyad leadership. This became the onset of Islam in Spain for the next two centuries until the downfall of t

Staff Report on Special Permit Request Assignment

Staff Report on Special Permit Request - Assignment Example The money circulation, good infrastructures, supporting services has made the town to have the best suitable entrepreneurial environment for businesses and firms. According to the 2008 community survey of the city of East Lansing on satisfaction levels of city services showed that about 90% of the residents agree that there is better services and good quality of life in the town. Majority of people are in support that the town is the excellent place to bring-up children (City Center II pp. 1). The city of East Lansing does provide a number of economic development initiates to majority of business which includes: Brownfield redevelopment which is a tax increment financing, downtown development which is an initiative by the down town development authority which does support projects redevelopment in urban sites and create a mix use projects that is carried out using assistance like public infrastructure and direct support for projects, entrepreneurial support by giving a technological based incubators to business in down town. Other loan programs are also offered by down town development authority locations in the town (City Center II pp. 1). 2.1 Zoning and uses of properties. ... ain an attractive community appearance and providing desirable living environments for residents by preserving the owners’ characters in the neighbourhood. The zones in Lansing do exceed expectations of the majority of the people living in the community. Within the town, one will be able to find diverse cultures, talents which go hand in hand with affordability, diverse and quality of services. Proximity to Michigan University provides enough workforces to the town. The population in the Michigan capital city does provide enough demand for goods and services. The council provides other services to the people around; the town contains river trails, excellent hospitals and other institutions like Lansing community college. The town is strategically located with Chicago being 220 miles away. Majority of the properties are used only as one family residential area (City Center II pp. 1). 2.2 Suitability of property to restricted zone residents The properties were to support the res idents of the region in a number of ways: it would support the city councils management in setting or laying down comprehensive city plans, housing plans, and downtown development and strategic plans. It would support west plan by providing a 5 year parking master plan. In support of the housing and residential sectors, it would provide quality to home owners by helping in renovations of obsolete buildings and providing residential houses for the emerging growing urban populations. The set up will provide a vertical urban development which will portray a number of mix uses including: restaurants and hostels. Socially it would integrate arts and cultures of the diverse populations living in the down town urban environment. The project will be beneficial to the transport and infrastructure

The USA expansion after the year 1800, changes between the years 1820 Essay

The USA expansion after the year 1800, changes between the years 1820 and 1850. Hamilton's financial program and the growth of industrial manufacturing - Essay Example 4," 2010). America refused, reminding the government of Mexico that the terms that had already been agreed to in the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo made America responsible only for protection, not financial compensation for any losses that happened to people or territory belonging to Mexico ("Gadsden purchase, 1853-1854," 2010). Complicating matters was the fact that some developers desperately wanted a Southern transcontinental railroad to connect the West through a southerly route. The only available routes passed through portions of Mexican territory. Things came to a boil in 1853, when the Mexican government evicted Americans from their homes in the Mesilla Valley ("Gadsden purchase, 1853-1854," 2010). ... Though there were small outbreaks of tension from this point on between the United States and Mexico, this treaty did much to cool the foreign relations that had previously been tense between the two countries. The United States experienced many changes between the years 1820 and 1850, including economic, industrial, and socioeconomic changes, as well as the issue of slavery. Of these changes, which do you think had the greatest effect during this time? Explain your choice. I think that the industrial changes experienced in the United States during this time had the greatest effect on the country. Though the changes were fueled by an enormous population growth, with the American population expanding from four million in 1790 to ten million in 1820, and seventeen million in 1840, it was still industry that grew rapidly and influenced almost every other sector of American life (Brinkley 2004). The growth of industries influenced the growth of cities, which influenced the changes that c ame about due to the expanded number of people in those cities. The populations of cities accelerated quickly, as did the number of factories in New England, with water power being replaced by steam power and later coal power. What had begun as a â€Å"factory system† in New England for textile workers was quickly expanded into other industries, such as the shoe industry (Brinkley 2004). I also believe that industrial changes had the greatest impact on the country from 1820 to 1850 because the growth of industry fueled new inventions and gadgets that came into service for the first time. Perhaps the biggest was the railroad that would soon span the entire length of the United States. Before 1820, the main form of transportation

Porters Five Forces of Competition Essay Example for Free

Porters Five Forces of Competition Essay Porter’s Lesson: Michael E. Porter’s article, the five competitive forces that shape strategy, is an article that dissects the true underlying factors of competition and industrial structure. Throughout the context of the article, Porter thoroughly explains how competition and profitability does not only derive from production of goods and services or the level of sophistication of a firm. Instead, he claims that in order for an industry to be truly competitive and profitable, the industry as a whole must hold a solid structure. Porter educates the audience by introducing the five key forces of strategy that will essentially lead to a firm’s prevalence of competitiveness. He labels these forces as direct competition, customers, suppliers, potential entrants, and substitute products. Porter claims that each of these forces of competition plays their roles within any competitive and even temporarily non-competitive industry. Porter’s main lesson for his audience is that in order for an individual firm or an industry to succeed, it must strategically know how to react to any shift within the industry, whether its competitiveness, supply and demand, economical issues, potential entrants, or even natural issues. Porter also strives to explain how a company could or could not earn a return on investment based on the intensity of the competition within the industry. All in all, Porter explicitly explains each of the five forces that shape an industries competition with a breakdown of different factors for each force, as well as real life examples that make the topic very clear for the audience to understand his lesson. Analysis of the Lesson: Of the five forces, Porter clearly educated the reader about the importance of potential entrants and their threat to an industry. I felt that one of Porter’s greater lessons in this matter was when he described the seven major sources of entry barriers, and how an incumbent can strategize to react to the competitiveness of the industry if a desired entrant were to exist. One aspect that really sparked my interest was when Porter went about explaining the entrant’s hesitancy of entering into an industry based on the level of retaliation from the existing firms within the market. On the other hand, it was also interesting to know that the entrant could also alarm the incumbents, when the entrant has a large amount of capital to invest as they enter from another market which they succeeded in. Another force that Porter dissected is what most people would think of in reaction to the term competition, and that is direct competition of one firm and another, or for the lack of a better word, rivalry. Porter made a statement, and that was, â€Å"The degree to which rivalry drives down an industry’s profit potential depends, first, on the intensity with which companies compete and, second, on the basis on which they compete.† As Porter discussed the different factors that affect the intensity of a rivalry, he noted that intense rivalry tends to destruct profitability if the battle between two firms is focusing solely on price because at that point, price competition is simply transferring profits directly from an industry to its customers, which will ultimately result in the degradation of an industry. I couldn’t agree more with Porter about the fact that when it comes to rivalry between multiple firms, the industry can find an advantage when each competitor aims to serve the needs of different customer segments, by focusing on a variety of price, products, services, features, or brand identities. Most people would think of a rivalry in terms of competition, and not necessarily take the time to think of other factors that are just as important when it comes to an industry’s competitiveness. Many are so focused on what goes on within their own market that they forget to acknowledge the outside forces until it slaps a firm across the face. Porter used an example of the photographic industry as he explained the importance of substitute products. Here he argued that long time competitors such as Kodak Fuji, two large photographic film companies, were in a position to lose profitability if they didn’t focus on outside forces, such as the entry of digital cameras. Although they are not as profitable as before, both companies made large investments, along with large amounts of research and development, and both prevailed in continuing to be somewhat profitable and slightly competitive in their industry rather than falling off all together. After reading that example, I instantly thought of different firms that didn’t focus on innovating at times where substitute products came into play, and those companies are no longer around. A few examples of companies that fell or are bound to fall are Blockbuster, Circuit City, Best Buy, K-Mart, and Sears. Once Porter ended his presentation of the five forces of competition and profitability, he continued to approach his final lesson, and that is the value created if a strategist accurately analyzes the five forces of competition within an industry. He enlightened the audience that if a strategist understands the competition within the industry, he will not only prevail beyond existing rivals, but could also uncover new opportunities such as differences in customers, suppliers, substitutes, potential entrants, and rivals that can become the basis for distinct strategies leading to superior performance. The only minor detail I felt that should have been added to this section on value is the possibility of losing value based on time devoted towards each force. Porter most definitely stated the facts when explaining the potential for new opportunities if understanding the industry as a whole. One thing he didn’t explain is what could also happen if a strategist possibly focuses on one aspect for too long, or fails to devote enough time to one competitive force versus another. I would imagine that this could possibly cause problems to arise rather than opportunity if a firm were to not manage its strategic time wisely. My Takeaways: I am fortunate that I am currently involved in a family business that allows me to relate to so many aspects of this article. My family currently owns and operates a five-store, soon to be six, supermarket chain in several parts of southern California. Like many other businesses, the everyday operation of a supermarket is exposed to countless aspects of business and its overall environment. I myself am within the world of supermarkets six out of the seven days in the week, and I can most definitely admit that this article completely enhanced my understanding of the terms competition and profitability. The amount of connections I could make with topics in this article to my everyday work is countless. For this paper, I’ll simply discuss what stood out most. First, I’ll have to give my takeaway on price competition and bargaining power. Item prices throughout the stores are what I’d consider to be the bullets in a gunfight between two competing supermarkets. There was a topic I discussed in my analysis that stated, â€Å"Firms that solely focus on price competition ultimately gives industry profitability to the customer.† In the supermarket industry, buyers constantly negotiate with suppliers for the lowest costs to provide customers with the most aggressive prices. This also relates to the section on buying power that Porter touches on. Here I learned, any store can simply raise prices or drop prices at store level, but the company that will prevail is that who is dominant in getting the lowest cost from the supplier, resulting in more aggressive margins verse the competitor. If both you and your competitor have the same price on one item, allow the competitor to give its profit to the customers by you being the one to pay less for the supply. The second factor that I can relate to which I will discuss is threat of new entrants and retaliation. If someone pulls up a map of supermarkets in a specific area, they will find seven to ten different supermarkets in a five mile radius. Competition from one company to another usually occurs within each region. At times, successful independent supermarket chains will raise awareness of other supermarket chains in a specific region by preparing to open a new store or buying out a current store that is not profitable. This is when the incumbents will do everything in their power to keep their customers from going to the new store that is most likely going to enter with highly aggressive pricing. At this time, you will see incumbent’s prices dropping, promotions increasing, advertisements become incredibly aggressive, prizes being given out, and any other form of retaliation a company can perform to keep its market share. As stated before, the connections are countless, and I could truthfully admit that I could write a twenty page paper on all the topics I can relate to in this article. I discussed a few relations above, but I must also state that this does not limit what I took away from Porter’s article that I can apply to my family’s business today. All in all, it was a highly educational read and a great tool for any business who seeks to increase competitiveness and profitability, let alone a great tool for any individual who plans to one day be a successful businessman.

Challenges to HR Managers at British Gas

Challenges to HR Managers at British Gas Challenges to HR Managers at British Gas 1.0 Q 1 . Business Environment is changing everyday and bringing new challenges to the HR Managers. What are the challenges forces by HR Managers at British Gas in the UK? Ans.: With the increase in business competition locally and globally, organizations must become customer-focused to succeed. Therefore HR professional has to work out to become a strategic partner and a change mentor within the organization. In order to succeed, Human Resource must be a business driven function with a thorough understanding of the organizations big picture and be able to influence key decision and policies. In general the focus of todays HR Manager is on strategic personnel retention and talents development. And they will also promote and fight for values, ethics, norms and beliefs within the organization. In a 2004 Deloitte Research Study, Athey (2004. p1) noted that, organizations in recent days have to deal with many external forces which influences the way they do business and how they develop and implement a business plan. Some of the external influences that impact an organizations business planning are: government, natural disasters, terrorist threats, local and community, vendor, competitors, transportation etc. Therefore it is important for British Gas to have their business continuity plan. If British Gas able to do so then they can reduce their small and large unknown affect in their daily operations. That is why HR Manager of British Gas should evolve with the change in competitive market environment and realize that they must play a more strategic role in the success of an organization. So, in this global business environment crisis what kinds of challenges are faced by the British Gass HR managers? In UKs market the companies like: EDF energy, EON energy, N power, Scottish Hydrogen are consistently competing with British Gas. If these companies reduce their prices to attract more customers then it will be a challenging issue for British Gas. If this happens then, British Gas can reduce their prices at the same time manage their customers with quality services and make them happy with offering some bonus facilities. For doing this British Gas has to hire skilled employee and place them in a challenging position, Otherwise they might face the retention challenges. Secondly, looking at some political challenges like: regulation of counter policies country tax; Since the whole world economy is unstable and to make some positive changes in UKs economy govt. might impose some extra taxes to the big companies like British Gas. And if this is happen then British Gas management might think about to reduce their workers salary or layoff some workers. Thus how to plan the HR competency towards British Gas employee then? Then again some social factors like: attitude of workers towards the management is a problem. Example: workers are not giving their best effort, may be they are emotional or not satisfied with their job. Sometimes the workers bring their family problem in work. So how the HR manager will handle these issues? Then again, when British Gas hire employee from different culture sometimes the hired people dont know the English very well but they have the competency of holding the offered position. So its a kind of challenge for HR manager tha t which trainings are given to the employee and how that employee will be fitted to the specific position. A part of that, every single day new technologies are coming up. So how the British Gas HR will fit the workers with their new technologies, which training they can provide to the workers then? Then the late ages workers are not that skilled of using the technical staffs but they are well efficient towards their manual works. Thus how HR will fix this problem. According to Cox, (1993) suggests that a HR Manager needs to change from an ethnocentric view (our way is the best way) to a culturally relative perspective (lets take the best of a variety of ways). This shift in philosophy has to be ingrained in the managerial framework of the HR Manager in his/her planning, organizing, leading and controlling of organizational resources. Now we should look forward to how globalization changes the HR policies and a part of that, what kind of challenges are facing by the HR Managers. So globalization can be defined based on ongoing political, economical, social and technological issues and with the help of these issues business environments have been greatly changing from last few decades. Thus organizations are required to respond in a strategic manner to the changes in order to survive and progress in this competitive world. And for surviving well into the market the HR manager should be integrated with the strategy and strategic need of the firm. Then HR policies should adjust, accepted and used by line managers and employee as part of their daily work. According to the above statement, the British Gas has already focused on macro based oriented, productive, and long term goals. Nowadays Human Resource function faces many challenges during the globalization process, including creating global mind-set within the HR g roup, creating practices that will be consistently applied in different locations while also maintaining the various local cultures and practices and communicating consistent corporate culture across the entire organization. In this circumstance British Gas Managers should meet these challenges and the whole organization should consider the HR personnel not as just the administrative service but as a strategic business. As an expanding business of British Gas, HR managers will face some problems like: Health Safety policies, EU regulations, huge demand for quality service to the customers. Therefore British Gas can developing health safety policies by conducting risk assessments which indentify hazards, carrying out health safety audits and inspections, implementing occupational health programs, managing stress, preventing accidents, communicating with employee about the health safety practices etc. And for fulfilling the customer demand, those who are working for British Gas needed more technical training, people skills training. And the HRD of British Gas also can come up with some global training programs like: Cross cultural technology transfer, international protocol and presentation, Language training etc. If British Gas trains their employee with a global perspective then the trained employee shall be improving job satisfaction and retention of overseas staff and enabling a newly assigned employee to communicate with colleagues abroad. These kinds of training will not only help them to develop their skills and knowledge but also work as motivational and building block to organizational success. Q2. Comment on how HR activities contribute to the success of British Gas. Use any 2 HRM Models to explain your answer. Ans.: Nowadays effective and efficient HRM is a big challenge to all HR professionals. And the sole purpose of HR is to help humans via mediator between employees and employer. Thus British Gas has to determine what benefits they are willing to offer to their employees and what portions the company is willing to pay for those benefits vs. what they may mandate their employees to share costs in those same benefits. Since HR professionals are playing a very vital role for British Gas therefore its important to know that how the HR strategies align with British Gas business strategies. Since British Gas is a huge company and lots of technical workers are working with them thus in this company there is a need to attract, retain and motivate employee because it is heavily dependent on the knowledge base and expertise of the employee and such there is a need for building a kind of high performance culture based on a strategic mission. HR activities contribute to the success of British Gas in the following way: Recruiting both skilled and unskilled employee which have to go through the training and development called traineeship, which provides a way the new employee/recruit learns about the gas industry, gain relevant skills and qualification to ensure that organization objective to meet consumers high demand for quality services and competitive price for products and services. HR train their engineers throughout that career which ensure that its employees are kept up to date with new information and technology to enable them provide the best possible service. HR has strategy of retaining its people by offering a mix of financial and nonfinancial benefits. This is in line with the organization strategy. As well as the good pay and pension scheme also providing each employee the opportunity of buying shares in Centrica. From the analysis above, it is clear that we can say British Gas adopts two models, namely: Fit model Holistic/dialogue model. Fit Model: represent recognition of the importance of the people in the achievement of organizational strategy. Employees are seen as key in the implementation of organizational and HR strategy is designed to fit the requirements of the organizational strategy. British Gas uses this method to align their HR strategy with organization strategy also it aligns the interest of the workers (pension scheme, investment opportunity, development and training, salary interest)with the interest of the organizations (to maintain the competitive position the company has within the energy market, ensure returns on investment by making profit by share holders) end goal. Harvard Framework for HRM: Harvard model (Beer et al) of HRM developed by Michel Beer, Richard Walton, Quinn Mills, they argues that human resource policies are to be influenced by two significant consideration, first, situational factors, second, shareholders interest. And Harvard framework also explains the significance of the HR policies in the organization which recognize external environment and refers that if its properly used would lead to organizational effectiveness. It also can be used a good fit between organization environment and HR policies and it would lead to various element like employee commitment, cost effectiveness in product and services and congruence which are all covered by the Harvard model and the British Gas holds firmly these elements in dealing with its employee as one of its organizational; objectives. The following elements will give us the idea that how the HR in British Gas apply this to the organization. Competence: The HRM of British Gas has a policy that reflects to the organisational objective in selection of their workforce. HR department not only concern about recruiting skilled engineers but also give attention to go through its assessment centre before appointing an employee for his/her job, which can determine the core competence and life skill of that employee. Personal skills that are created an impact on the customers experience when someone is to work on the field. Core competencies involves team working, leadership skills, listening skills, problem solving skills, interpersonal skills(such as properly dealing with customers), motivation skills, innovation skills and responding to changes. These are crucial skills that can affect the way an individual fits in and works within an organisation and also important because these skills can determine the companys lose or gain more customers. And if British Gas loses then the customers will be shifted to their rivals. Commitment: according to Bratton, John and Gold, Jeffrey (Beer et al: Human resource management Theory and Practice second edition: page 19). Refers, one way HR of British Gas can contributes to the company is that the employee are made to invest high interest to their work within the organization, which will give up two aspects: First, it will enhance self respect and value, at British gas the HRM has a policy that counter on employees, for those offered a job, With Human resource strategy British Gas provides the job benefits including a market competitive starting salary and van from outset. And with British Gas development offers technical comprehensive training for all its engineers throughout their career by their training academy. And the training ensures that employees are kept up to date with new information and technologies and provide best services possible. Second, it will accelerate the employee loyalty and performance towards their work. When British Gas offers employee to invest in the company with having to their own shares in its Parent company (Centrica), also offering good pension scheme after retirement which increase the commitment of the job and good sense of responsibilities. And its the plus point of promotion to management level, which is a strategy of the HR in retaining its suitable people for promotion to higher role, because it needs managers to plan, organise and co-ordinate the teams of engineers. Congruence: here it states that there must be agreement between and amongst various HRM policies and practises in operation. At British Gas HR need to keep in mind the fact that having a company policies of recruiting people from different background and sex as is seen in the case, the company in trying to meet with a recruitment process that is all embarrassing (being recognised by operation now, wining the prestigious award for inspiring the work force of the future, an award for women into science and engineering etc) must consider not just overall employee numbers but ensuring that it attracts and retain the skills that will be required within the business. British Gas managers articulate a programme of forecasting to assume how much the UK market for domestic gas service will grow and this helps the company to decide how many additional engineer they will require in the near future. Cost effectiveness: At the same time HR policies must be evaluated in terms of wages, benefits, turnover etc. In this segment British Gas HR implements its strategy that confront to the organisational strategy in developing and recruiting their employees to become capable and competent employees. And future managers can ensure the organisation turnover remains increasingly high and implement in their salary policy that is highly competitive. Thus, HRM knows it is much more cost effective to retain trained staff than recruit and train up new people therefore this strategy which is in line with the organisations strategy of minimising cost and maximising quality staff retain ship through offering a mix of both financial and non financial benefits helps the organisation achieve its goals. Lastly, looking at long term scenario, the organisation tries to differentiate between three levels: social, organizational and individual. In organisational level increased effectiveness and ensure the survival of the organisation. By providing top-class service at lower price to its customers and ensuring for a well define working environment, and also developing job training and a good pension scheme for it employee at the British Gas. At individual employee level the long term output comprises the reward receive by the workers for their efforts. In the societal level some of British Gas societal goals (employment and growth) are attained, offering exciting career paths for people of all backgrounds. This is how HRM at British Gas can achieve the success. Q3. Describe Recruitment Selection Strategies that have been taking by British Gas to enhance organization performance? Ans.: For British Gas workforce planning is essential because it analyze an organizations future needs for people in terms of numbers, skills and locations. It allows the organization to plan how those needs can be met through recruitment, selection and give them proper training. It is vital for British Gas to plan ahead because the company wants to satisfy their diversity customers by recruiting socially inclusive workforce. It seems that their HR personnel are little too much busy with the recruitment and selection process to meet its future demands for staff. It allows a business time to train existing staff to take on new responsibilities and to recruit new staff to fill vacancies or to meet skill shortages. But due to the recession, many organizations including British Gas not willing to expect so much on recruitment. Thus is this circumstance what are the strategies they are following in their recruitment and selection process. Recruitment strategies: British Gas recruitment involves attracting the right of applicant to apply for vacancies. They follow some ways of recruiting people. They first looks at its internal talent plan to fill a vacancy. This is a process that lists current employees looking for a move within the same level or gets a promotion to the next level. Since they need to make happy diversify customers thus they need to search people from the different regions peoples. So they can help their customers by offering different language, cultural value, norms ethics. They also emphasis on recruiting female engineers so that they can handle the female customers. This is just because sometime some female customers do feel comfortable to talk to the male one. And for some other external recruitment, British Gas advertises vacancies (like: apprenticeship) via their specialist Sky channels like parliamentary project TV, radio, newspapers, DVD for schools and British gas website. Selection Strategies: involves choosing the most suitable people from those that apply for a vacancy, while keeping to employment laws and regulation. For British Gas screening candidates is a very important part of the selection process. This ensures that those selected for interview have the best fit with the job requirements. Ref: The Challenges of Human Resource Management..:The Challenges of Human Resource Management. 25th November, 2009

Racial Profiling is a Valuable Policing Tool Essay -- Racial Profiling

Former President Clinton called for a national crackdown on racial profiling and ordered federal law enforcement authorities to begin an investigation. (1) Vice President Al Gore promised the NAACP that should he become president eliminating the practice of racial profiling by the nation's police departments would be a top priority. (2) New Jersey Governor Christy Whitman fired Police Superintendent Carl Williams after the 35-year veteran trooper said in an interview that minorities are more likely to be involved in drug trafficking. (3) In the case of State of New Jersey v. Pedro Soto, et. al., the attorney for the black defendants moved to suppress evidence from traffic stops deemed to be discriminatory enforcement of the traffic laws. (4) On March 4, 1996, New Jersey Superior Court judge, Robert E. Francis, in granting the motion, held that "unrebutted statistical evidence of disproportionate traffic stops against African-American motorists established de facto policy of targeting blacks for investigation and arrest and thus established selective enforcement violating the equal protection and due process clauses. The motion to suppress evidence, resulted in criminal charges being dismissed against all 19 defendants. (5) What is racial profiling? Does it serve any purpose? In the most general terms, racial profiling is a process whereby people employ a cheap-to-observe physical characteristic, such as race, sex, height, weight and accent, as a proxy for a more costly-to-observe characteristic. It is prejudice, in the sense of the word's Latin root - the act of pre-judging. Another way to define pre-judging is that it is the practice of making decisions on the basis of incomplete information. Since the acquisition of i... ...ficially sanctioned or de facto policy of targeting minorities for investigation and arrest, any evidence seized will be suppressed to deter future insolence in office by those charged with enforcement of the law and to maintain judicial integrity. U.S.C.A. Const. Amend. 14. 6. The age-adjusted incidence of prostate cancer is higher in black males (142.0 per 100,000) compared with white males (108.3 per 100,000). 7. Approximately 80,000 Americans have sickle-cell disease. About 9% of blacks have the trait, and an estimated one in 500 blacks. One in every 1,000 to 1,400 American Hispanic children are born with sickle-cell disease itself. The high incidence of the sickle-cell gene in these and other specific populations is due to its ability to make red blood cells resistant to the malaria parasite. 8. In this group, the incidence is 1 out of 2,500 people.

Huck Finn :: essays research papers

Chapter 33 Huck meets Tom Sawyer on the road and stops his carriage. Tom is frightened and thinks he is seeing a ghost, but Huck reassures him and they settle down. Huck then tells Tom what has happened at the Phelps's and Tom thinks about what they should do. He then tells Huck to return to the farm with his suitcase while he returns to the town and starts the trip over. Huck gets back and soon thereafter Tom arrives. The family is excited because they do not get very many visitors so they make Tom welcome. Tom makes up a whole story about his hometown and then impudently kisses Aunt Sally right on the mouth. She is so shocked that she nearly hits him over the head with her spinning stick until Tom tells her that he is Sid Sawyer. Silas then explains that Jim revealed to him what a scandal the Royal Nonesuch really was. Silas says that he told the rest of the town, and he figures they will ride the two cheats out of town that night. Huck and Tom climb out of their windows in a last minute attempt to warn the Duke and King, but they are too late. They see the two men being paraded through the street all covered in tar and feathers. Huck remarks that human beings can be awfully cruel to one another. Chapter 34 Tom and Huck think about ways to break Jim out of his prison. Huck plans to get the raft, steal the key to the padlock, unlock the door and then float down the river some more. Tom tells him that plan is too simple and would work too well. Tom's plan is much more elaborate and stylish, and takes a great deal longer to implement. The boys go to the hut where Jim is being kept and search around. Finally Tom decides that the best way, or at least the way that will take the longest, is to dig a hole for Jim to climb out of. The next day he and Huck follow the black man who is delivering Jim's food. Jim recognizes them and calls them by name, but both boys pretend not to have heard anything. When he has a chance, Tom tells Jim that they are going to dig him out. Jim is so happy he grabs Tom's hand and shakes it.

Troublemaking Interpretations of Horation Ode Essay -- Horation Ode

Troublemaking Interpretations of Horation Ode   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   There exists debate of how one is to read Marvell's "Horation Ode," One of the most unexamined issues in the three essays, yet one which seems to be a presupposition for most of the argumentation that goes on between both parties, is Brooks's careful caveat early in his essay that his project is not to "reveal triumphantly that what it [Marvell's poem] really says is something quite opposed to what we have supposed it to be saying" ("Ode" 323). For Bush, what the poem is supposed to have said is key, for his argument will rest around such suppositions and commonalities, or unprejudiced readings as he might call it; and among his final arguments will be that "Marvell's poem means what it says" (348), which will be arrived at by looking at the poem in "its common and natural sense"(341). But Brooks is not necessarily strict in sticking to traditional interpretation, so it is intriguing he would begin with what we might call at this point an interpretational warning label to insure that the reader does not misinterpret him and think that he is trying to merely find a new interpretation for an old poem. While he will later argue that the New Critic is indeed in debt to the historicist, and we might accept this initial warning as a part of that debt to "proper norms" (326), it is with other interests in mind that Brooks ends his "Notes on the Limits of'History' and the Limits of 'Criticism."' Invoking Matthew Arnold, Brooks concludes his essay dealing with Leslie Fielder's call to "interpret literature in relation to the rest of man's concerns" (qtd. in "Limits" 354). To this, Brooks is "in hearty agreement" ("Limits" 354), and with this ending it is clear that there are ... ...es so many of his criticisms of Brooks in terms of how he looks for "desperate solutions" that stray from a common sense reading of the poem. This idea that the type of critic that Brooks advocates makes trouble for the type of interpretation established by a historical reading of the poem raises such questions as the role of the critic in a society, and whether this critic is obliged to make trouble or not, and who is to be the focus of his troublemaking energies.    Works Cited Brooks, Cleanth. "Criticism and Literary History: Marvell's Horation Ode." Class Handout ENG 415. April 9th, 1996. "Notes on the Limits of'History' and the Limits of ‘Criticism’." Class Handout ENG 415 April 9th, 1996. Bush, Douglas. "Marvell's 'Horation Ode'." Class Handout ENG 415. April 9th, 1996. Butler, Judith. Gender Trouble. New York: Routledge, 1990.   

New Productive Forms of Atomic Theory

Human understanding to the world of the minuscule atoms had changed over the passing of time. Several scientist physicists had almost devoted their entire life in order to achieve a better view to the building blocks of matter. Numerous persons had attained to be acknowledged by the Nobel Peace Price for Physics about this matter. Two of them were Erwin Schrà ¶dinger of Austria and Paul Adrien Maurice Dirac of the United Kindom. Their contributions, The Fundamental Idea of Wave Mechanics and the Theory of Electrons and Positrons respectively were accounted for the discovery of new productive forms of atomic theory.To know how atomic theory is related with wave mechanics, Schrà ¶dinger explained the different phenomenon attributed with waves. Mechanics of waves has a topic concerned with the change in the direction of light as it passes through several kinds of mediums or barriers. Schrà ¶dinger emphasized that the path of light rays can be predicted if we will consider two simple laws, they were the law of refraction by Snellius a few centuries ago and the law of reflection by Archimedes dated back 2,000 years ago. The two laws can simply be viewed with the use of convex and concave lenses which were present in the mechanism of a telescope and a camera. The occurrence of refraction was cited by Schrà ¶dinger as a result of Fermat’s principle.Fermat’s principle states that light propagates with different velocities in different mediums and the path of light visible to the human eye is the path that could quickly fetch the light particles to its destination (Schrà ¶dinger, 1933). If there is a need to refract and suppose the light intends not to refract, it would mean of a delay. Refraction happens when there is gradual change in the nature of medium. Schrà ¶dinger gave an example.The path that sunlight takes is earthward rather than the shorter straight path because light particles tend to take the â€Å"higher faster layers† to reach its destination more quickly. Refraction of the sun is observed when it is deep down in the horizon and it appears flattened. Refraction is commonly observed when viewing a straight object that is half part in one medium, say water and half part into another medium, say air. Schrà ¶dinger further explained it by comparing the phenomenon to a travel of soldiers in an unleveled terrain. The soldiers tend to take the not up hilled part so as they can travel at the least time possible.Fermat’s principle was then compared to the discovery of Hamilton that true mass point’s (components of matter) movement in forces field is governed by the same said principle. Hamilton principle does not suggestively states that the mass point chooses the quickest way, example would be in a planet revolving around the sun or a stone thrown in a body of water.   But the analogy of matter with the light’s tendency for shortest traveling time would still arise. After this observation, the proposition that matter has a wave property had then been revived since the time of Christiaan Huygens.The theory of Electrons and Positrons on the other hand supports the claim that matter is a particle. It states that matter is composed of various kinds of particles, the particle of the same kind exhibiting almost the same properties (Dirac, 1933). The classification of elementary particles present is still on debate. But a classification of the simpler kinds of particles was enumerated by Dirac. They were the photons or light-quanta, of which light is composed, the electrons and the positrons (which appear to be a sort of mirror image of the electrons, differing from them only in the sign of their electric charge), and the heavier particles – protons and neutrons.Dirac focused on the study of electrons and positrons because of various reasons. He emphasized that we must first consider how theory can give any data on the properties of elementary particles. General quan tum mechanics is used to describe the motion of a particle. However, it is only applicable to particles having small velocities.It is in here that the theory of relativity comes in with regards to particles having velocities comparable to the speed of light. As of today, introduction of relativistic quantum mechanics had yet pushed through (Pfeifer, 2004) which, according to Dirac, is needed to be applied in the observation of particles with arbitrary properties. That procedure would be successful in the case of electrons and positrons such as observing their spin properties (Dirac, 1933).To have a background about electron, it is a fundamental subatomic particle that carries a negative charge. It is found that an electron must actually have a high frequency oscillatory motion of small amplitude rather than the slow movement that have been thought of for the past. This oscillatory motion results to the velocity of an electron to be equal at any time to the velocity of light. This pr ediction cannot be proved by experiment as of Dirac’s time since the frequency of the oscillatory motion is said to be high while its amplitude is said to be so small. But one must still believe this matter since related topics such as the scattering of light by an electron are confirmed by an experiment that time.The positron, on the contrary, is the antimatter or antiparticle counterpart of electrons, as theorized by Dirac. It has the same mass but the opposite charge and spin as compared to electrons. Annihilation occurs when a low energy positron collides with a low energy electron, resulting in the production of two gamma ray photons (Dirac, 1933). This phenomenon about positron makes it prone to use in fictional stories of today.A proposal, coming from the said discoverer of positron, Carl D. Anderson suggested to change the name of electron to negatron and then later on change the use of electron as the generic term for both the positively and negatively charge subatom ic particles. But the move did not prosper.ImplicationsThe study about the minute atoms brought many beneficial effects to the human society. Going even deeper to the world of subatomic particles gave the modern society an edge to various fields.In industry, most common uses of Electron beams are in cathode ray tubes in television sets and computer monitors. Some other less known uses are in welding, lithography (practice of using beams to generate patterns on a surface), scanning electron microscopes (SEM) and transmission electron microscopes (TEM). Low energy Electron Diffraction (LEED) and Reflection High Energy Diffraction (RHEED) are also the most current innovations man had discovered to gain benefits to Electron Beams (Wikipedia, the free Encyclopedia).In the laboratory, electron and scanning tunneling microscopes are used to study objects in the atomic scale. In medicine, radiation therapy makes use of electron beams for treatment of superficial tumors.There is a wide range of benefits subatomic particles give to us as of today. But the doubt of discovering something about them that could harm not only the humans but the whole living things in the world is still there. Positron, having the negative name of being antimatter, is now being fictionalized as something that could be used for mass destruction. Nonetheless, it is still in man’s judgment if he will use it or not against him and unto others.References:Pfeifer (2004). Relativistic Quantum Mechanics, an IntroductionRetrieved June 4, 2007, fromhttp://www.walterpfeifer.ch/relqm/index.htmlDirac (1933). Theory of electrons and positrons  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Retrieved June 4, 2007, from  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/physics/laureates/1933/dirac-lecture.pdfSchrà ¶dinger (1933). The fundamental idea of wave mechanics.  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Retrieved June 4, 2007, from  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚     Ã‚   http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/physics/laureates/1933/schrodinger-lecture.pdfElectron. Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Retrieved June 4, 2007, from  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electron#_ref-griffiths_0Positron. Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Retrieved June 4, 2007, from  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Positron New Productive Forms of Atomic Theory Human understanding to the world of the minuscule atoms had changed over the passing of time. Several scientist physicists had almost devoted their entire life in order to achieve a better view to the building blocks of matter. Numerous persons had attained to be acknowledged by the Nobel Peace Price for Physics about this matter. Two of them were Erwin Schrà ¶dinger of Austria and Paul Adrien Maurice Dirac of the United Kindom. Their contributions, The Fundamental Idea of Wave Mechanics and the Theory of Electrons and Positrons respectively were accounted for the discovery of new productive forms of atomic theory.  To know how atomic theory is related with wave mechanics, Schrà ¶dinger explained the different phenomenon attributed with waves. Mechanics of waves has a topic concerned with the change in the direction of light as it passes through several kinds of mediums or barriers. Schrà ¶dinger emphasized that the path of light rays can be predicted if we will consider two sim ple laws, they were the law of refraction by Snellius a few centuries ago and the law of reflection by Archimedes dated back 2,000 years ago. The two laws can simply be viewed with the use of convex and concave lenses which were present in the mechanism of a telescope and a camera. The occurrence of refraction was cited by Schrà ¶dinger as a result of Fermat’s principle.Fermat’s principle states that light propagates with different velocities in different mediums and the path of light visible to the human eye is the path that could quickly fetch the light particles to its destination (Schrà ¶dinger, 1933). If there is a need to refract and suppose the light intends not to refract, it would mean of a delay. Refraction happens when there is gradual change in the nature of medium. Schrà ¶dinger gave an example. The path that sunlight takes is earthward rather than the shorter straight path because light particles tend to take the â€Å"higher faster layers† to r each its destination more quickly.Refraction of the sun is observed when it is deep down in the horizon and it appears flattened. Refraction is commonly observed when viewing a straight object that is half part in one medium, say water and half part into another medium, say air. Schrà ¶dinger further explained it by comparing the phenomenon to a travel of soldiers in an unleveled terrain. The soldiers tend to take the not up hilled part so as they can travel at the least time possible.Fermat’s principle was then compared to the discovery of Hamilton that true mass point’s (components of matter) movement in forces field is governed by the same said principle. Hamilton principle does not suggestively states that the mass point chooses the quickest way, example would be in a planet revolving around the sun or a stone thrown in a body of water.   But the analogy of matter with the light’s tendency for shortest traveling time would still arise. After this observat ion, the proposition that matter has a wave property had then been revived since the time of Christiaan Huygens.The theory of Electrons and Positrons on the other hand supports the claim that matter is a particle. It states that matter is composed of various kinds of particles, the particle of the same kind exhibiting almost the same properties (Dirac, 1933). The classification of elementary particles present is still on debate. But a classification of the simpler kinds of particles was enumerated by Dirac. They were the photons or light-quanta, of which light is composed, the electrons and the positrons (which appear to be a sort of mirror image of the electrons, differing from them only in the sign of their electric charge), and the heavier particles – protons and neutrons.Dirac focused on the study of electrons and positrons because of various reasons. He emphasized that we must first consider how theory can give any data on the properties of elementary particles. General quantum mechanics is used to describe the motion of a particle. However, it is only applicable to particles having small velocities. It is in here that the theory of relativity comes in with regards to particles having velocities comparable to the speed of light. As of today, introduction of relativistic quantum mechanics had yet pushed through (Pfeifer, 2004) which, according to Dirac, is needed to be applied in the observation of particles with arbitrary properties. That procedure would be successful in the case of electrons and positrons such as observing their spin properties (Dirac, 1933).To have a background about electron, it is a fundamental subatomic particle that carries a negative charge. It is found that an electron must actually have a high frequency oscillatory motion of small amplitude rather than the slow movement that have been thought of for the past. This oscillatory motion results to the velocity of an electron to be equal at any time to the velocity of light. Th is prediction cannot be proved by experiment as of Dirac’s time since the frequency of the oscillatory motion is said to be high while its amplitude is said to be so small. But one must still believe this matter since related topics such as the scattering of light by an electron are confirmed by an experiment that time.The positron, on the contrary, is the antimatter or antiparticle counterpart of electrons, as theorized by Dirac. It has the same mass but the opposite charge and spin as compared to electrons. Annihilation occurs when a low energy positron collides with a low energy electron, resulting in the production of two gamma ray photons (Dirac, 1933). This phenomenon about positron makes it prone to use in fictional stories of today.A proposal, coming from the said discoverer of positron, Carl D. Anderson suggested to change the name of electron to negatron and then later on change the use of electron as the generic term for both the positively and negatively charge su batomic particles. But the move did not prosper.ImplicationsThe study about the minute atoms brought many beneficial effects to the human society. Going even deeper to the world of subatomic particles gave the modern society an edge to various fields.In industry, most common uses of Electron beams are in cathode ray tubes in television sets and computer monitors. Some other less known uses are in welding, lithography (practice of using beams to generate patterns on a surface), scanning electron microscopes (SEM) and transmission electron microscopes (TEM). Low energy Electron Diffraction (LEED) and Reflection High Energy Diffraction (RHEED) are also the most current innovations man had discovered to gain benefits to Electron Beams (Wikipedia, the free Encyclopedia).In the laboratory, electron and scanning tunneling microscopes are used to study objects in the atomic scale. In medicine, radiation therapy makes use of electron beams for treatment of superficial tumors.There is a wide range of benefits subatomic particles give to us as of today. But the doubt of discovering something about them that could harm not only the humans but the whole living things in the world is still there. Positron, having the negative name of being antimatter, is now being fictionalized as something that could be used for mass destruction. Nonetheless, it is still in man’s judgment if he will use it or not against him and unto others.References:Pfeifer (2004). Relativistic Quantum Mechanics, an Introduction  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Retrieved June 4, 2007, from  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   http://www.walterpfeifer.ch/relqm/index.htmlDirac (1933). Theory of electrons and positrons  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Retrieved June 4, 2007, from  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/physics/laureates/1933/dirac-lecture.pdfSchrà ¶dinger (1933). The fundamental idea of wave mechanics.  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Retrieved June 4, 2007, from  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/physics/laureates/1933/schrodinger-lecture.pdfElectron. Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Retrieved June 4, 2007, from  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electron#_ref-griffiths_0Positron. Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Retrieved June 4, 2007, from  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Positron

Mattel’s Toy Recalls and Supply Chain Management Essay

This case talks focuses on the event in the year of 2007 when Mattel – the leading global toymaker – voluntarily recalled its toys from worldwide stores. Mattel’s name is synonymous worldwide for its most famous product – the Barbie Doll. The recall was initially for 83 toys which had excessive lead paint and soon after 6 more products we recalled which had a design problem of small magnets coming off the toys in addition to the use of lead paints. The lead that was used could potentially be toxic for children and the magnetic parts that could come off the toys could potentially be fatal for the digestive systems of children if ingested. All the toys recalled were manufactured in China and in total more than 1.5 million toys were called back. The initial diagnosis was that the main cause of the problem was â€Å"Made in China† however the case explores that the root causes for the default were defective designs. Background – Mattel & China * China had become the leading manufacturer of toys by 2000 * 80 % of toys coming to US were manufactured in China * 65% of Mattel toys were produced in China * Most Chinese toys were made in about 5000 factories located in Guangdon province in China. These factories were majorly owned by Hong Kong Mattel’s Supply Chain Mattel’s product fell into two broad buckets. First was the core products like Barbie dolls which sold through longer periods and the second bucket comprised of the non-core products which comprised of seasonal toys like movie characters. By 2007, more than half of the revenues for Mattel came from core products that were manufactured in Mattel – owned plants in china. The remaining products which were procured from local Chinese licensed vendors. Mattel had an inspection program in place for its products. Off the 5000 products that it used to develop each year, it would randomly check products by taking them off the production line. In order to supply paint to Mattel’s supply chain a vendor had to be a certified one. The complication with this arrangement was that on many occasions Mattel’s direct vendors contracted down to other suppliers who in turn contracted to other suppliers and thus the origin of certain products were difficult to trace – for example the lead paint. Even though Mattel had not allowed its vendors to sub contract to other vendors without its permission, it was not sure how well Mattel’s suppliers were adhering to this. Ironically, 200 of Mattel quality and vendor assurance employees were located far away from the production facilities in Hong Kong. As a good HR practice Mattel had hired a professor with international reputation for being a critic of worker treatment to report independently of any malpractices in Mattel. Reasons leading to the event * Pressures on Chinese toy manufactures. Most toy sales were coming from big box stores like Walmart, Target etc. The business model of these big retailers revolves around extreme cost pressures. This led to a lot of bargaining with Chinese manufacturers to cut down their costs. At the similar time, the Yuan had appreciated and increasing costs of raw materials (such as fuel costs) left little room for Chinese manufactures to invest in significantly progressive quality programs. * Manufacturing Problems Lead in paint was a frequently occurring problem for toy manufacturers. Even though Chinese manufacturers had put processes in place that had checks to avoid having lead in the paints, it was increasingly difficult to monitor the quality of paints * Design Problems In 2007 many toy products had small magnetic parts attached to them which could potentially get detached from the toys and then they could be accidently be ingested by the children. These magnets, once inside the digestive system were toxic and could potentially stick together and harm the intestines. Another design problem was that some of the toys were susceptible to being broken. Most of the designs were made outside China and thus this was not a manufacturing problem. * Product Misuse Some recalls of Mattel’s products were because of the potential misuse by children. There were choking or strangling hazards associated with some of the products that made the products dangerous. Mattel’s Response The expected impact of Mattel’s recalls was to the tune of $30 million dollars which was about half of the operating income of that quarter. The media coverage and global attention aggravated the issue. In order to deal with this Mattel’s response was as follows. * Three point check system As the first point check – for the lead paint every batch of paint could only be acquired from certified vendors. Second, the controls for vendors and contractors were made more stricter and random checks were constituted. Thirdly, the finished products would be subjected to final checks before they reach the customers * Sub contracting policies Mattel reviewed it’s subcontracting policies to control excessive subcontracting * Purchase of new equipment to detect lead Mattel incorporated a plan to purchase more lead detectors * PR & Communications The company followed a proactive communication strategy to address the issue. Conclusion The consumers reacted strongly to Mattel’s response. The case elaborates how systemic failures can almost cripple a global leader. Most importantly, the ‘made in china’ brand lost significant reputation because of this episode. However, better measures and corporate controls resulted from this event and they eventually transformed the manufacturing world for the better.

The Conviction of George Burroughs

The reading by Johnson starts out with a married lady by the name of Katherine Watkins complaining of rape by a black slave. Throughout the remainder of this section, depositions are given by other black slaves and people who claim to have witnessed the occurrence. Most of the accounts indicate that Mrs. Watkins seduced the slave into a sexual act and then blamed it on him in order to stay out of the trouble that her Quaker husband†s beliefs would have brought on her. The other section in this book is the sermon by John Winthrop entitled, A Model of Christianity. Two rules by which all men should abide, he says, are to show mercy and do justice. Among many other good deeds, he preaches love among Christians, performing service for the Lord, having unity and conformity in the community, and strict obedience to God†s word lest some punishment befall you. The handout given in class deals with the issue of homosexuality and the punishments for sodomy and buggery. The reading by Marcus was solely concentrated on the Salem Witch Trials. A former minister, George Burroughs, is accused of witchcraft and much of the section deals with people who claimed to have been bewitched by him. There are a couple of letters by Cotton Mather explaining the difficulty of the witchcraft trials and his defense of the conviction of George Burroughs. The rest of this reading is letters of confession by the accused and more letters relating to the trials. The role of Colonial women in society is given an in depth look in the segment by Graebner. In these days, the husband was seen as the supreme head of the family and women were basically domestic. Women were basically known only as the wife of their husbands and often helped them with their business affairs. Eventually, a minimal level of trade arose among women in the village, but nothing big enough to trigger a large outbreak of feminism at that time. A women†s role in society can basically be summed up in this quote, â€Å"The economic roles of married women were based upon two potentially conflicting values – gender specialization and identity of interest. A wife was expected to become expert in the management of a household and the care of children, but she was also asked to assist in the economic affairs of her husband, becoming his representative and even his surrogate if circumstances demanded it. Three concepts that were all tied together in Colonial America were sin, legality, and community. Their definitions of sin were taken before a jury for the proper punishment, and thus their sense of community was being broken down by the fact that so many people were being sentenced and punished for the sins that the legal system found them guilty of.

Post Traumatic Stress Disorder

He himself also suffers from OPTS, and has chapters about his thoughts, feelings, and family intervention when he was writing his memoir. â€Å"Speaking of Courage,† tells the story of another member of Tim O'Brien platoon, Norman Booker, following his return to his hometown In Iowa. Booker feels responsible for the death of Kiowa, who literally drowned In human excrement during a firefight when the platoon was encamped in what turned out to be a field of sewage. Frozen in panic, Booker could not bring himself to move and pull the wounded Kiowa out of the stinking sewage.Now, back in Iowa, he simply drives In circles around town, feeling aimless and out of place. ‘How to Tell a True War Story Is a collection of small stones Interspersed with instructions about â€Å"true† war stories. The narrator tells the story of his friend Rat Killed, who writes a letter to the sister of his buddy who had been killed a week earlier. It is a long, heartfelt letter. He waits for two months for a reply to the letter, but the sister never writes back. The story then shifts to commentary. A true war story Is never moral† (O'Brien 65) the narrator Instructs. These two stories contain read examples of different symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder, in a way that can further explain them to the reader. The Vietnam War was fought by an ideology against an Ideology, and ultimately solved very little while hurting so many. OPTS is a mental Illness that Is cause by a traumatic event that has happened In ones life and can be easily triggered by a daily activity. Pony close evaluation, Tim O'Brien collection, The Things They Carried, explores the effects of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder in relation to Vietnam, since characters possess prone to angry outburst, elapse, and suicidal tendencies. The tragic events that are witnessed during the war in â€Å"How to Tell a True War Story' can cause immediate cases of anger outbursts. Anger is said to be a cover for other emotions such as fear or hurt, and can also be a way of pushing people away in order to protect oneself. However, tendencies for sudden outbursts of anger are Like a manifestation of hyper-vigilance and fear of loss of control.In â€Å"How to Tell a True War Story,† Rat Killed looses his best friend, Curt Lemon, after being blown up while playing a game of catch. This has caused some sadness and anger to build up inside him. Later that day, the troops come across a baby buffalo that the end up bringing with them to s deserted village. After the failed attempt of Rat trying to feed the baby buffalo, â€Å"he stepped back and shot it through the right front knee. It went down hard, 1 OFF to hurt†¦ There wasn't a great deal of pity for the baby water buffalo. Curt Lemon was dead† (O'Brien 75).In the article â€Å"Anger, Hostility, and OPTS,† written by Roth and Wielded, they say that â€Å"as a consequence, hostility causes an increase frequency of anger and aggression. Thus, anger and hostility may reciprocally activate each other and motivate the individual to aggressive behavior against others†(699). Rat Killed tortures a baby water buffalo because he cannot sit with his emotions about Curt Lemon's death. Skills method of abuse to this animal was very strategic due to the way he stepped back; shot the buffalo in the ear and then the right knee.The shots were not random, but were very specific and thought through. What O'Brien meant by not wanting to kill the animal, but to hurt it, was that the pain that Killed was leaning he wanted to see someone else feel it to. Rotor's thought of reciprocal activity is shown through Skills obsession of seeing this living thing suffer, Just as he was suffering from the loss of his dear friend. Skills angry outburst was Just the start of his OPTS that was caused from this traumatic event that he had witnessed, since anger can motivate to lash out with aggressive behavior.While one ca n reduce the severe-news of OPTS, there's always a possibility for a relapse, which is the case for Norman Booker in â€Å"Speaking of Courage. † In the case of OPTS, relapse is the worsening of symptoms or the recurrence of unhealthy behaviors. As a way of marking time, Norman Booker repeatedly drives a loop around the local lake remembering old girlfriends, hoping one day to track down high-school buddies who have moved to Des Monies or Sioux, and how he would explain Kiosk's death in the field.When Booker was in â€Å"high school, at night, he had driven around and around it with Sally Kramer†¦ Or other times with friends, talking about urgent matters†¦ Then, there had not been war†(O'Brien 132). Booker came home to find hat Sally was married, his friends were gone, and his father was at home watching TV. He made it seem like it wasn't a problem, but that was when he went â€Å"he took [his dad's] Chevy on another seven-mile turn around the lake (O'Brien 133). According to John H.Attainment, author of Twentieth Century Literature, Norman Bookers' â€Å"aimless circling works then to demonstrate his inability to settle back into the routine of the world and exemplifies the psychological distance between his former and present selves† (108). O'Brien shows Booker's relapse by circling the lake before ND after the war, as the relapse is encapsulated by his trip around the lake back in high school with Sally and doing it again after the war, with out her this time.Booker aimlessly circling the lake shows that he is unable to break free from its pull, since lake triggers a relapse by his inability to settle back into civilization. Booker portrays Attainment's psychological distancing when he talks about the time before the war. So, the fact that Norman Booker circles the same lake as he did before the war, and constantly is thinking about what he has lost from being at war, shows that Booker is experiencing a relapse as a side effe ct of his OPTS. Thoughts of suicide are a major symptom of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder and are explored in the short story â€Å"Speaking of Courage†.War Veterans experience so much when in combat that their lives can hardly ever be normal and having to adjust to being back home can be a struggle. Booker had two friend, Max and Kiowa, both who which drowned in lakes, which had a major impact on Booker. Norman Booker a time he got out, walked down to the beach, and waded into the lake without undressing. The water felt warm against his skin. He put his head under. He opened his lips, very slightly, for the taste, then he stood up and folded his arms and watch the 148).In an interview with Tim O'Brien, he mentions that this story â€Å"came from a letter [he] received from a guy name Norman Booker, a real guy, who committed suicide after [he] received his letter. He was talking to [O'Brien] in his letter about how he Just couldn't adjust to coming home. It wasn't bad memori es; it was that he couldn't talk to any about it (Unapparent 7). That was when O'Brien followed that story with the essay â€Å"Notes,† to inform that â€Å"three years later hanged myself in the locker room of a YMCA in his hometown of Iowa† (O'Brien 149).In â€Å"Speaking of Courage†, Booker didn't go into the lake to watch the fireworks; instead it was a mere thought of suicide, indicated by how Norman was fully dressed, submerging his entire body under water, and opening his mouth. Folding of his arms may hint that Booker is content with ending his life the way his buddies did. O'Brien point on Booker not being able to adjust to coming home, and attempt of suicide could have been a foreshadow of his actual suicide that happen a few years later.Booker was suffering many symptoms of OPTS, but it is evident that his suicidal thoughts had taken what was left of him, as it does to many war veterans. Angry outbursts, relapse, and suicidal thoughts are only a few o f the Post- Traumatic Stress Disorder symptoms that are discussed through out Tim O'Brien The Things They Carried, but they are not the only ones that these characters possess. Norman Booker and Rat Killed are two characters that suffer from OPTS. Booker experiences relapse and suicidal thoughts as his symptoms; where as, Killed suffers from angry outburst.O'Brien is a credible source for authenticating what fines a true story due to the fact he was part of the Vietnam war and he also suffers from OPTS. From the research gathered about OPTS symptoms, it is clear over the struggles that some go through dealing with this disorder. OPTS is a fracture' in your experience of life, caused by a traumatic event. You and no one else cause this fracture in your mind because it is response for attempting to cope with what happened. But unfortunately, it's an ill-informed response. So the next time a song is on repeat in your mind, Just imagine it's a repeat of your most horrific memories. Post Traumatic Stress Disorder Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder is a very serious psychological disorder many ordinary people can develop. It causes large scale depression and can severely damage relationships and lives. Its main causes are from a person experiencing or witnessing an event involving death or serious injury. A person’s response to the trauma usually involves fear, helplessness or horror. In children evidence of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) can be exhibited in disorganized or agitated behaviors.One of the most common side effects of PTSD in adults is the recurring thoughts, images and perceptions about the specific trauma they endured. Consistent, frightening dreams of the event are also signs of developing PTSD. For children, they may also experience frightening dreams but with unrecognizable content they might not understand too well. Adults can also exhibit signs by acting as if they were reliving the events over and over again. Another sign of PTSD is the avoidance of thoughts, feelings and conversations with others about what happened, and the restricted range of affections and emotions exhibited by the individual.Many people feel like they are unable to have loving feelings and can have a sense of a foreshortened future where they can’t picture themselves having a career, marriage, children or even a normal life span. In most cases, the symptoms of PTSD begin to surface around 3 months after the specific event, but can be seen or experienced earlier as well. The symptoms generally tend to stay around for not too long of a time but for some people it can become chronic and never go away for as long as they live. Victims can begin to feel detached from society and estranged by their peers and others, as if they were all alone with no one there for them.Victims can also have difficulties concentrating, become hyper vigilant, which means a person has an increased state of anxiety and is constantly scanning their surrounding s for threats, and exaggerated startled responses which is a side effect of all the anxiety they’re putting their minds through. Along with high states of anxiety, difficulty sleeping, extreme irritability, outbursts of anger for non-important reasons and severe depression are seen in many PTSD patients. Symptoms have been known to be worse when the trauma experienced is from intentional human actions rather than something like a natural disaster.Also, when something involves mass casualties like war, someone who survives can experience something known as survivor’s guilt where they feel guilty for getting through it meanwhile they lost loved ones and friends. The most vivid, disturbing way to experience PTSD is through a flashback. A flashback is when a person has recurring images flash before him when looking at normal things and cause the victim to be transported back to where the trauma took place and even begin to make the person feel, see, and smell the things he might’ve on that day or time period.This is especially common with war veterans like Vietnam War veterans. Vietnam War veterans can and have been known to be upset by war movies, hot humid weather, and even Asian cooking as it brings them back to the times when they were overseas and where they lost a lot of friends. PTSD has always been closely tied to the history of human warfare, not just the Vietnam War. PTSD is also known to soldiers and veterans as soldier’s heart, combat neurosis, and battle fatigue, meaning a soldier can lose their will to live and fight and just want to give up.Combat veterans who have witnessed or committed violent acts are more likely to develop PTSD. The men who liberated the Nazi war camps in the 1940’s could have been Severely distressed by the things they saw were being done to people. And through to today in the prisons the United States has where they keep war criminals and suspected terrorists like Abu Ghraib. Soldiers who wer e stationed there had seen some horrific things done to people, and those images could stick with them for a very long time.However, it was not until after the Vietnam War that PTSD became a well-known and serious mental health condition and captured the interest of doctors and psychiatrists. A study done on Vietnam War veterans showed that at least 1. 7 million veterans had experienced a serious case of PTSD when their tour was over or after the war. The attention received by the Vietnam War veterans also helped shed a light onto victims of other wars and events and allowed the still living Holocaust survivors to seek help if they wished.Another study showed that 55% of women were victims of a violent crime and that one in four of these women suffered from PTSD. It can affect everyone for an unlimited amount of reason ranging from natural disasters like a hurricane or earthquake to something more recent like the terrorist attack of September 11, 2001. Many civilians who escaped New York City that day saw and experienced some of the worst things imaginable, and one of the largest groups of people who suffered from that event was the members of the FDNY, NYPD, and PAPD.With the FDNY losing 343 firemen, the NYPD losing 23 police officers and the PAPD losing 7 officers, the first responders to the World Trade Center suffered heavy casualties. A lot of people lost fellow brothers and sisters going into the buildings attempting to save innocent civilians and lost their lives. A horrific event like 9/11 affects a larger amount of people and hits them harder than other things due to the severity, lives lost, and pointlessness of the attack. People who already may have underlying or prior mental health problems are more likely to develop PTSD.Genetics also play a role in making some people susceptible to PTSD and two people who are experiencing the same trauma can have two different outcomes. One person might be able to get through it and the other might be completely mentally exhausted and suffer the worst of the symptoms. People may not even know they have PTSD until the death of a close friend or relative or a divorce or something life changing brings them to an emotional low and can make them recall what they may have gone through.PTSD is a serious mental condition that affects more people than anyone might know. Some people are good at hiding feelings while others are not. Sadly some sufferers resort to using heavy quantities of alcohol and tranquilizers to numb their pain and make them able to cope with the disturbing recollections, nightmares and sleep problems and sadly many end up dependent on the drugs they’re using. PTSD can also lead to suicide if the victim experiences sever amounts of survivor’s guilt or feels as if they can’t take it anymore. Works Cited: . Vrana, Scott. â€Å"Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder. † Salem Health Psychology & Mental Health. First edition. Editor: Nancy Piotrowski. Volume 4 Pas adena, CA: Salem Press, 2010. Print. 2. Miller, Allen, â€Å"Living With Anxiety Disorders† New York, Facts on File, 2008. Print 3. Jan Fawcett, â€Å"Post Traumatic Stress Disorder† The Encyclopedia of Mental Health Ada Kahn. First Edition. Volume 1 New York. Facts on File. 1993. Print. 4. nymag. com/news/articles/wtc/1year/numbers, New York Magazine, 11 September 2011. Web. 20 November 2011 Post Traumatic Stress Disorder Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder is a very serious psychological disorder many ordinary people can develop. It causes large scale depression and can severely damage relationships and lives. Its main causes are from a person experiencing or witnessing an event involving death or serious injury. A person’s response to the trauma usually involves fear, helplessness or horror. In children evidence of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) can be exhibited in disorganized or agitated behaviors.One of the most common side effects of PTSD in adults is the recurring thoughts, images and perceptions about the specific trauma they endured. Consistent, frightening dreams of the event are also signs of developing PTSD. For children, they may also experience frightening dreams but with unrecognizable content they might not understand too well. Adults can also exhibit signs by acting as if they were reliving the events over and over again. Another sign of PTSD is the avoidance of thoughts, feelings and conversations with others about what happened, and the restricted range of affections and emotions exhibited by the individual.Many people feel like they are unable to have loving feelings and can have a sense of a foreshortened future where they can’t picture themselves having a career, marriage, children or even a normal life span. In most cases, the symptoms of PTSD begin to surface around 3 months after the specific event, but can be seen or experienced earlier as well. The symptoms generally tend to stay around for not too long of a time but for some people it can become chronic and never go away for as long as they live. Victims can begin to feel detached from society and estranged by their peers and others, as if they were all alone with no one there for them.Victims can also have difficulties concentrating, become hyper vigilant, which means a person has an increased state of anxiety and is constantly scanning their surrounding s for threats, and exaggerated startled responses which is a side effect of all the anxiety they’re putting their minds through. Along with high states of anxiety, difficulty sleeping, extreme irritability, outbursts of anger for non-important reasons and severe depression are seen in many PTSD patients. Symptoms have been known to be worse when the trauma experienced is from intentional human actions rather than something like a natural disaster.Also, when something involves mass casualties like war, someone who survives can experience something known as survivor’s guilt where they feel guilty for getting through it meanwhile they lost loved ones and friends. The most vivid, disturbing way to experience PTSD is through a flashback. A flashback is when a person has recurring images flash before him when looking at normal things and cause the victim to be transported back to where the trauma took place and even begin to make the person feel, see, and smell the things he might’ve on that day or time period.This is especially common with war veterans like Vietnam War veterans. Vietnam War veterans can and have been known to be upset by war movies, hot humid weather, and even Asian cooking as it brings them back to the times when they were overseas and where they lost a lot of friends. PTSD has always been closely tied to the history of human warfare, not just the Vietnam War. PTSD is also known to soldiers and veterans as soldier’s heart, combat neurosis, and battle fatigue, meaning a soldier can lose their will to live and fight and just want to give up.Combat veterans who have witnessed or committed violent acts are more likely to develop PTSD. The men who liberated the Nazi war camps in the 1940’s could have been Severely distressed by the things they saw were being done to people. And through to today in the prisons the United States has where they keep war criminals and suspected terrorists like Abu Ghraib. Soldiers who wer e stationed there had seen some horrific things done to people, and those images could stick with them for a very long time.However, it was not until after the Vietnam War that PTSD became a well-known and serious mental health condition and captured the interest of doctors and psychiatrists. A study done on Vietnam War veterans showed that at least 1. 7 million veterans had experienced a serious case of PTSD when their tour was over or after the war. The attention received by the Vietnam War veterans also helped shed a light onto victims of other wars and events and allowed the still living Holocaust survivors to seek help if they wished.Another study showed that 55% of women were victims of a violent crime and that one in four of these women suffered from PTSD. It can affect everyone for an unlimited amount of reason ranging from natural disasters like a hurricane or earthquake to something more recent like the terrorist attack of September 11, 2001. Many civilians who escaped New York City that day saw and experienced some of the worst things imaginable, and one of the largest groups of people who suffered from that event was the members of the FDNY, NYPD, and PAPD.With the FDNY losing 343 firemen, the NYPD losing 23 police officers and the PAPD losing 7 officers, the first responders to the World Trade Center suffered heavy casualties. A lot of people lost fellow brothers and sisters going into the buildings attempting to save innocent civilians and lost their lives. A horrific event like 9/11 affects a larger amount of people and hits them harder than other things due to the severity, lives lost, and pointlessness of the attack. People who already may have underlying or prior mental health problems are more likely to develop PTSD.Genetics also play a role in making some people susceptible to PTSD and two people who are experiencing the same trauma can have two different outcomes. One person might be able to get through it and the other might be completely mentally exhausted and suffer the worst of the symptoms. People may not even know they have PTSD until the death of a close friend or relative or a divorce or something life changing brings them to an emotional low and can make them recall what they may have gone through.PTSD is a serious mental condition that affects more people than anyone might know. Some people are good at hiding feelings while others are not. Sadly some sufferers resort to using heavy quantities of alcohol and tranquilizers to numb their pain and make them able to cope with the disturbing recollections, nightmares and sleep problems and sadly many end up dependent on the drugs they’re using. PTSD can also lead to suicide if the victim experiences sever amounts of survivor’s guilt or feels as if they can’t take it anymore. Works Cited: . Vrana, Scott. â€Å"Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder. † Salem Health Psychology & Mental Health. First edition. Editor: Nancy Piotrowski. Volume 4 Pas adena, CA: Salem Press, 2010. Print. 2. Miller, Allen, â€Å"Living With Anxiety Disorders† New York, Facts on File, 2008. Print 3. Jan Fawcett, â€Å"Post Traumatic Stress Disorder† The Encyclopedia of Mental Health Ada Kahn. First Edition. Volume 1 New York. Facts on File. 1993. Print. 4. nymag. com/news/articles/wtc/1year/numbers, New York Magazine, 11 September 2011. Web. 20 November 2011 Post Traumatic Stress Disorder Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder is a very serious psychological disorder many ordinary people can develop. It causes large scale depression and can severely damage relationships and lives. Its main causes are from a person experiencing or witnessing an event involving death or serious injury. A person’s response to the trauma usually involves fear, helplessness or horror. In children evidence of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) can be exhibited in disorganized or agitated behaviors.One of the most common side effects of PTSD in adults is the recurring thoughts, images and perceptions about the specific trauma they endured. Consistent, frightening dreams of the event are also signs of developing PTSD. For children, they may also experience frightening dreams but with unrecognizable content they might not understand too well. Adults can also exhibit signs by acting as if they were reliving the events over and over again. Another sign of PTSD is the avoidance of thoughts, feelings and conversations with others about what happened, and the restricted range of affections and emotions exhibited by the individual.Many people feel like they are unable to have loving feelings and can have a sense of a foreshortened future where they can’t picture themselves having a career, marriage, children or even a normal life span. In most cases, the symptoms of PTSD begin to surface around 3 months after the specific event, but can be seen or experienced earlier as well. The symptoms generally tend to stay around for not too long of a time but for some people it can become chronic and never go away for as long as they live. Victims can begin to feel detached from society and estranged by their peers and others, as if they were all alone with no one there for them.Victims can also have difficulties concentrating, become hyper vigilant, which means a person has an increased state of anxiety and is constantly scanning their surrounding s for threats, and exaggerated startled responses which is a side effect of all the anxiety they’re putting their minds through. Along with high states of anxiety, difficulty sleeping, extreme irritability, outbursts of anger for non-important reasons and severe depression are seen in many PTSD patients. Symptoms have been known to be worse when the trauma experienced is from intentional human actions rather than something like a natural disaster.Also, when something involves mass casualties like war, someone who survives can experience something known as survivor’s guilt where they feel guilty for getting through it meanwhile they lost loved ones and friends. The most vivid, disturbing way to experience PTSD is through a flashback. A flashback is when a person has recurring images flash before him when looking at normal things and cause the victim to be transported back to where the trauma took place and even begin to make the person feel, see, and smell the things he might’ve on that day or time period.This is especially common with war veterans like Vietnam War veterans. Vietnam War veterans can and have been known to be upset by war movies, hot humid weather, and even Asian cooking as it brings them back to the times when they were overseas and where they lost a lot of friends. PTSD has always been closely tied to the history of human warfare, not just the Vietnam War. PTSD is also known to soldiers and veterans as soldier’s heart, combat neurosis, and battle fatigue, meaning a soldier can lose their will to live and fight and just want to give up.Combat veterans who have witnessed or committed violent acts are more likely to develop PTSD. The men who liberated the Nazi war camps in the 1940’s could have been Severely distressed by the things they saw were being done to people. And through to today in the prisons the United States has where they keep war criminals and suspected terrorists like Abu Ghraib. Soldiers who wer e stationed there had seen some horrific things done to people, and those images could stick with them for a very long time.However, it was not until after the Vietnam War that PTSD became a well-known and serious mental health condition and captured the interest of doctors and psychiatrists. A study done on Vietnam War veterans showed that at least 1. 7 million veterans had experienced a serious case of PTSD when their tour was over or after the war. The attention received by the Vietnam War veterans also helped shed a light onto victims of other wars and events and allowed the still living Holocaust survivors to seek help if they wished.Another study showed that 55% of women were victims of a violent crime and that one in four of these women suffered from PTSD. It can affect everyone for an unlimited amount of reason ranging from natural disasters like a hurricane or earthquake to something more recent like the terrorist attack of September 11, 2001. Many civilians who escaped New York City that day saw and experienced some of the worst things imaginable, and one of the largest groups of people who suffered from that event was the members of the FDNY, NYPD, and PAPD.With the FDNY losing 343 firemen, the NYPD losing 23 police officers and the PAPD losing 7 officers, the first responders to the World Trade Center suffered heavy casualties. A lot of people lost fellow brothers and sisters going into the buildings attempting to save innocent civilians and lost their lives. A horrific event like 9/11 affects a larger amount of people and hits them harder than other things due to the severity, lives lost, and pointlessness of the attack. People who already may have underlying or prior mental health problems are more likely to develop PTSD.Genetics also play a role in making some people susceptible to PTSD and two people who are experiencing the same trauma can have two different outcomes. One person might be able to get through it and the other might be completely mentally exhausted and suffer the worst of the symptoms. People may not even know they have PTSD until the death of a close friend or relative or a divorce or something life changing brings them to an emotional low and can make them recall what they may have gone through.PTSD is a serious mental condition that affects more people than anyone might know. Some people are good at hiding feelings while others are not. Sadly some sufferers resort to using heavy quantities of alcohol and tranquilizers to numb their pain and make them able to cope with the disturbing recollections, nightmares and sleep problems and sadly many end up dependent on the drugs they’re using. PTSD can also lead to suicide if the victim experiences sever amounts of survivor’s guilt or feels as if they can’t take it anymore. Works Cited: . Vrana, Scott. â€Å"Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder. † Salem Health Psychology & Mental Health. First edition. Editor: Nancy Piotrowski. Volume 4 Pas adena, CA: Salem Press, 2010. Print. 2. Miller, Allen, â€Å"Living With Anxiety Disorders† New York, Facts on File, 2008. Print 3. Jan Fawcett, â€Å"Post Traumatic Stress Disorder† The Encyclopedia of Mental Health Ada Kahn. First Edition. Volume 1 New York. Facts on File. 1993. Print. 4. nymag. com/news/articles/wtc/1year/numbers, New York Magazine, 11 September 2011. Web. 20 November 2011