Saturday, November 30, 2019

Why Some Student Cheat Essays - Misconduct, Cheating, Morality

Why Some Student Cheat Why Some Students Cheat Nowadays, there are many popular ways for students to cheat in exams. Some students take their notes into the examination rooms. Some students ask their friends the answers by whispering while taking the exams. And some students just try to copy the answers of students who sit in front of them without caring how similar to giraffes they are. It is interesting to focus on the question that why some students still keep cheating in exams even though they know that the punishments of university are getting so tougher and tougher that every single semester many students have to drop their education. There are three main reasons why some students cheat in exams; being afraid of failure, having no ability, and wanting to take risks. Being afraid of failure is the most important reason for some students to cheat in exams. Some students think that if they fail the exams, they will have a lot of the following problems. For example, their parents will complain them about bad grades, their friends will look down and laugh at them, and they guess that the light of their educational futures will be darker too. They will get stressed if they cannot do the exams as well as they hope. And those factors will lead them to cheat in exams. In short, some students are afraid that they will have many problems if they fail the exams, so they start to cheat. Having no ability to do exams is the next reason that causes some students cheating. There are a few cases for this reason. Some students do not have their own self-confidences. Some students cannot do the exams because they are too difficult. And some students unreasonably judge themselves that they are not smart enough to pass the exams. Instead of studying hard, paying attention to classes, reviewing lessons, and doing exercises, they try to cheat in exams. In fine, some students do not try hard enough to pass the exams and it is terrible that their solution is cheating. The final reason why some students cheat the exams is because they want to take risks. It sounds unbelievable and crazy but it truly happens. Some students just want to show-off to their friends. To show their abilities is looked like fun activity for teenagers. Without thinking thoroughly, they try to show their dishonest tricks in the examination rooms. These students probably think that cheating the exams is challenging and makes them cooler. Besides, they will get incredibly good grades if they succeed their cheating plans too. Therefore, to dare the punishments, some students cheat in exams for their pleasures. In conclusion, there are many reasons for students to cheat in exams, being afraid of failure, having no ability, and wanting to take risks, including the reasons which I did not state. And until today, we still cannot guarantee that there are ways to help students stop cheating. However, to those who are thinking to cheat the exams, you should think about the punishments. No matter what your reason is. Does it worth for being caught and got punished from both university and society? You all know the answer. Although you are not smart enough to have excellent grades, you should be proud of yourself that you try to get good grades by your own abilities, not cheating.

Tuesday, November 26, 2019

Current Ethical issue essays

Current Ethical issue essays The newspaper article read, Iraq prisoner abuse detailed. At least one Iraqi prisoner died after interrogation, some were threatened with attack dogs and others were kept naked in tiny cells without running water or ventilation, according to an account written by military police sergeant who supervised a group o U.S. soldiers charged in a growing scandal over prisoner abuse in Iraq. The account of Staff Sgt. Ivan Chip Frederick portrayed a prison that spun out of control last fall as thousands of captured Iraqis poured into razor-wire confines (Honolulu Advertiser, Sunday May 2, 2004). The Geneva Convention relative to the Treatment of Prisoners of war, 75 U.N.T.S. 135, entered into force October 21, 1950. Article 13 states, Prisoners of war must at all times be humanely treated. Any unlawful act or omission by the Detaining Power causing death or seriously endangering the health of a prisoner of war in its custody is prohibited, and will be regarded as a serious breach of the present Convention. In particular, no prisoner of war may be subjected to physical mutilation or to medical or scientific experiments of any kind, which are not justified by the medical, dental, or hospital treatment of the prisoner concerned and carried out in his interest. Likewise, prisoners of war must at all times be protected, particularly against acts of violence or intimidation, and against insults and public curiosity. Measures of reprisal against prisoners of war are prohibited (University of Minnesota Human Rights Library, May 4, 2004). What would cause a military police sergeant in the United States Armed Forces to make such an obvious breach of the Geneva Convention? I think many Americans are quick to judge, without taking all the facts into account, or for that matter ever being in a wartime situation, such as Ivan Frederick. The article in the Honolulu Advertiser stated, In some cases, as few as a dozen U.S. ...

Friday, November 22, 2019

A Dirty Job Chapter 6

He’d worked up a furious appetite because breakfast was running late today. The Emperor had slept on a bench by the Maritime Museum, and during the night his arthritic knee had snaked out of his wool overcoat into the damp cold, making the walk to North Beach and the Italian bakery that gave them free day-old a slow and painful ordeal. The Emperor groaned and sat down on an empty milk crate. He was a great rolling bear of a man, his shoulders broad but a little broken from carrying the weight of the city. A white tangle of hair and beard wreathed his face like a storm cloud. As far as he could remember, he and the troops had patrolled the city streets forever, but upon further consideration, it might have just been since Wednesday. He wasn’t entirely sure. The Emperor decided to make a proclamation to the troops about the importance of compassion in the face of the rising tide of heinous fuckery and political weaselocity in the nearby kingdom of the United States. (He found his audience was most attentive to his proclamations when the meat-laced focaccia were still nuzzled in the larder of his overcoat pockets, and presently a pepperoni and Parmesan reposed fragrant in the woolly depths, so the royal hounds were rapt.) But just as he cleared his throat to begin, a cargo van came screeching around the corner, went up on two wheels as it plowed through a row of garbage cans, and slid to a stop not fifty feet away. The driver’s-side door flew open and a thin man in a suit leapt out, carrying a cane and a woman’s fur coat, and made a beeline for the back door of Asher’s. But before he got two steps the man fell to the concrete as if hit from behind, then rolled on his back and began flailing at the air with the cane an d the coat. The Emperor, who knew most everyone, recognized Charlie Asher. Bummer erupted into a fit of yapping, but the more levelheaded Lazarus growled once and took off toward Charlie. â€Å"Lazarus!† the Emperor shouted, but the retriever charged on, followed now by his bug-eyed brother in arms. Charlie was back on his feet and swinging the cane as if he was fencing with some phantom, using the coat like a shield. Living on the street, the Emperor had seen a lot of people battling with unseen demons, but Charlie Asher was apparently scoring some hits. The cane was making a thwacking noise against what appeared to be thin air – but no, there was something there, a shadow of some sort? The Emperor climbed to his feet and limped into the fray, but before he got two steps Lazarus had leapt and appeared to be attacking Charlie, but he soared over the shopkeeper and snapped at a spot above his head – then hung there, his jaws sunk into the substantial neck of thin air. Charlie took advantage of the distraction, stepped back, and swung the cane above the levitating golden retriever. There was a smack, and Lazarus let go, but now Bummer launched himself at the invisible foe. He missed whatever was there, and ended up performing a doggy swish shot into a garbage can. Charlie made for the steel door of Asher’s again, but found it locked, and as he reached for his keys, something caught him from behind. â€Å"Let go, fuckface,† the shade screeched. The fur coat Charlie was holding appeared to be swept out of his hand and was pulled straight up, over the four-story building and out of sight. Charlie turned and held the cane at ready, but whatever had been there seemed to be gone now. â€Å"Aren’t you just supposed to sit above the door and nevermore and be poetic and stuff?!† he shouted at the sky. Then, for good measure, added, â€Å"You evil fuck!† Lazarus barked, then whined. A sharp and metallic yapping rose from Bummer’s garbage can. â€Å"Well, you don’t see that every day,† said the Emperor as he limped up to Charlie. â€Å"You could see that?† â€Å"Well, no, not really. Merely a shadow, but I could see that something was there. There was something there, wasn’t there, Charlie?† Charlie nodded, trying to catch his breath. â€Å"It will be back. It followed me across the city.† He dug into his pocket for his keys. â€Å"You guys should duck into the store with me, Your Majesty.† Of course Charlie knew the Emperor. Every San Franciscan knew the Emperor. The Emperor smiled. â€Å"That’s very kind of you, but we will be perfectly safe. For now I need to free my charge from his galvanized prison.† The big man tipped the garbage can and Bummer emerged snorting and tossing his head as if ready to tear the ass out of any man or beast foolhardy enough to cross him (and he would have, as long as they were knee-high or shorter). Charlie was still having trouble with the key. He knew he should have had the lock replaced, but it worked, if you finessed it a little, so he’d never made it a priority. Who the hell thought you’d ever have to get in quick to escape a giant bird? Then he heard a screech and turned to see not one, but two huge ravens coming over the roof and diving into the alley. The dogs arfed a frantic barking salvo at the avian intruders and Charlie put so much body English into wiggling the key in the lock that he felt an atrophied dancing muscle tear in his hip. â€Å"They’re back. Cover me.† Charlie threw the cane to the Emperor and braced himself for the impact, but as soon as the cane touched the old man’s hand the birds were gone. You could almost hear the pop of the air replacing the space they had taken up. The dogs caught themselves in mid-ruff; Bummer whimpered. â€Å"What?† the Emperor said. â€Å"What?† â€Å"They’re gone.† The Emperor looked at the sky. â€Å"You’re sure?† â€Å"For now.† â€Å"I saw two shadows. Really saw them this time,† the Emperor said. â€Å"Yes, there were two this time.† â€Å"What are they?† â€Å"I have no idea, but when you took the cane they – well, they disappeared. You really saw them?† â€Å"I’m sure of it. Like smoke with a purpose.† Finally the key turned in the lock and the door to Asher’s back room swung open. â€Å"You should come in. Rest. I’ll order something to eat.† â€Å"No, no, the men and I must be on our rounds. I’ve decided to make a proclamation this morning and we need to see the printer. You’ll be needing this.† The Emperor presented the cane to Charlie like he was turning over a sword of the realm. Charlie started to take it, then thought better of it. â€Å"Your Majesty, I think you’d better keep that. It looks as if you might be able to use it.† Charlie nodded toward the Emperor’s creaky knee. The Emperor held the cane steady. â€Å"I am not a worshiper of the material, you know?† â€Å"I understand that.† â€Å"I am a firm believer that desire is the source of most of human suffering, you’re aware, and no culprit is more heinous than desire for material gain.† â€Å"I run my business based on those very principles. Still, I insist you keep the cane – as a favor to me, if you would?† Charlie found himself affecting the Emperor’s formal speech patterns, as if somehow he had been transported to a royal court where a nobleman was distinguished by bread crumbs in his beard and the royal guard were not above licking their balls. â€Å"Well, as a favor, I will accept. It is a fine piece of craftsmanship.† â€Å"But more importantly, it will permit you to make your rounds in good time.† The Emperor now betrayed the desire in his heart as he let fly a wide grin and hugged the cane to his chest. â€Å"It is fine, indeed. Charlie, I must confess something to you, but I ask you to grant me the credulity due a man who has just shared witness, with a friend, of two giant, raven-shaped shades.† â€Å"Of course.† Charlie smiled, when even a moment before he would have thought his smile lost somewhere in the months past. â€Å"I hope you won’t think me base, but the second I touched this, I felt as if I had been waiting for it my whole life.† Then, for no reason that he could think of, Charlie said, â€Å"I know.† A few minutes before, inside the store, Lily had been brooding. It wasn’t her general brood, the reaction to a world where everyone was stupid and life was meaningless and the mere act of living was futile, especially if your mother forgot to get coffee at the store. This one was a more specific brood, that had started out when she arrived at work and Ray had pointed out that it was her turn to wear the vacuuming tiara, and insisted that if she wore the tiara, she actually vacuum the store. (In fact, she liked wearing the rhinestone tiara that Charlie, in a move of blatant bourgeois sneakiness, had designated be worn by whoever did the vacuuming and sweeping each day, and no other time. It was the vacuuming and sweeping she objected to. She felt manipulated, used, and generally taken advantage of, and not in the fun way.) But today, after she’d put the tiara and the vacuum away and had finally gotten a couple of cups of coffee in her system, the brooding had gone on, bu ilding to full-scale angst, when it began to dawn on her that she was going to have to figure out this college-career thing, because despite what The Great Big Book of Death said, she had not been chosen as a dark minion of destruction. Fuck! She stood in the back room looking at all the items that Charlie had piled there the day before: shoes, lamps, umbrellas, porcelain figures, toys, a couple of books, and an old black-and-white television and a painting of a clown on black velvet. â€Å"He said this stuff was glowing?† she asked Ray, who stood in the doorway to the store. â€Å"Yes. He made me check it all with my Geiger counter.† â€Å"Ray, why the fuck do you have a Geiger counter?† â€Å"Lily, why do you have a nose stud shaped like a bat?† Lily ignored the question and picked up the ceramic frog from the night before, which now had a note taped to it that read DO NOT SELL OR DISPLAY in Charlie’s meticulous block-letter printing. â€Å"This was one of the things? This?† â€Å"That was the first one he freaked out about,† said Ray matter-of-factly. â€Å"The truant officer tried to buy it. That started it all.† Lily was shaken. She backed over to Charlie’s desk and sat in the squeaky oak swivel chair. â€Å"Do you see anything glowing or pulsating, Ray? Have you ever?† Ray shook his head. â€Å"He’s under a lot of stress, losing Rachel and taking care of the baby. I think maybe he needs to get some help. I know after I had to leave the force – † Ray paused. There was a commotion going on out in the alley, dogs barking and people shouting, then someone was working a key in the lock of the back door. A second later, Charlie came in, a little breathless, his clothes smudged here and there with grime, one sleeve of his jacket torn and bloodstained. â€Å"Asher,† Lily said. â€Å"You’re hurt.† She quickly vacated his chair while Ray took Charlie by the shoulders and sat him down. â€Å"I’m fine,† Charlie said. â€Å"No big deal.† â€Å"I’ll get the first-aid kit,† Ray said. â€Å"Get that jacket off of him, Lily.† â€Å"I’m fine,† Charlie said. â€Å"Quit talking about me like I’m not here.† â€Å"He’s delirious,† Lily said, trying to pry Charlie out of his jacket. â€Å"Do you have any painkillers, Ray?† â€Å"I don’t need painkillers,† Charlie said. â€Å"Shut up, Asher, they’re not for you,† Lily said, automatically, then she considered the book, Ray’s story, the notes on all the items in the back room, and she shuddered. It appeared that Charlie Asher might not be the hapless geek she always thought him to be. â€Å"Sorry, boss. Let us help you.† Ray came back from the front with a small plastic first-aid kit. He peeled back Charlie’s sleeve and began to clean the wounds with gauze and peroxide. â€Å"What happened?† â€Å"Nothing,† Charlie said. â€Å"I slipped and fell in some gravel.† â€Å"The wound’s pretty clean – no gravel in it. That must have been some fall.† â€Å"Long story.† Charlie sighed. â€Å"Ouch!† â€Å"What was all the noise in the alley?† Lily asked, needing badly to go smoke, but unable to pull herself away. She just couldn’t imagine that Charlie Asher was the one. How could it be him? He was so, so, unworthy. He didn’t understand the dark underbelly of life the way she did. Yet he was the one seeing the glowing objects. He was it. She was crestfallen. â€Å"Just the Emperor’s dogs after a seagull in the Dumpster. No big deal. I fell off a porch in Pacific Heights.† â€Å"The estate,† Ray said. â€Å"How’d that go?† â€Å"Not well. The husband was grief-stricken and had a heart attack while I was there.† â€Å"You’re kidding.† â€Å"No, he just sort of became overwhelmed thinking about his wife and collapsed. I gave him CPR until the EMTs came and took him off to the hospital.† â€Å"So,† Lily said, â€Å"did you get the – uh – did you get anything special?† â€Å"What?† Charlie’s eyes went wide. â€Å"What do you mean, special? There was nothing special.† â€Å"Chill, boss, I just meant will we get the grandma’s clothes?† He’s it, Lily thought. The fucker. Charlie shook his head. â€Å"I don’t know, it’s so strange. The whole thing is so strange.† He shuddered when he said it. â€Å"Strange how?† Lily said. â€Å"Strange in a cool and dark way, or strange because you’re Asher and you’re out of it most of the time?† â€Å"Lily!† Ray snapped. â€Å"Go out front. Dust something.† â€Å"You’re not the boss of me, Ray. I’m just showing my concern.† â€Å"It’s okay, Ray.† Charlie looked like he was considering how, exactly, to define strange, and not coming up with anything that was working. Finally he said, â€Å"Well, for one thing, this woman’s estate is way out of our league. The husband said he called me because we were the first secondhand store in the phone book, but he doesn’t seem like the kind of man to do something like that.† â€Å"That’s not that strange,† Lily said. Just confess, she thought. â€Å"You said that he was grief-stricken,† Ray said, dabbing antibiotic ointment on Charlie’s cuts. â€Å"Maybe he’s doing things differently.† â€Å"Yes, and he was angry at his wife, too, for the way she died.† â€Å"How?† Lily asked. â€Å"She ate silica gel,† Charlie said. Lily looked at Ray for an explanation, because silica gel sounded techno-geeky, which was Ray’s particular field of geekdom. Ray said, â€Å"It’s the antidesiccant that they pack with electronics and other things that are sensitive to humidity.† â€Å"The ‘Do Not Eat’ stuff?!† Lily said. â€Å"Oh my God, that’s so stupid. Everyone knows you don’t eat the ‘Do Not Eat’ stuff.† Charlie said, â€Å"Mr. Mainheart was pretty broken up.† â€Å"Well, I guess so,† Lily said. â€Å"He married a complete fucktard.† Charlie cringed. â€Å"Lily, that’s not appropriate.† Lily shrugged and rolled her eyes. She hated it when Charlie dropped into Dad mode. â€Å"Okay, okay. I’m going outside to smoke.† â€Å"No!† Charlie jumped out of the chair and put himself between Lily and the back door. â€Å"Out front. From now on if you have to smoke you go out front.† â€Å"But you said that I look like a child hooker when I smoke out front.† â€Å"I’ve reassessed. You’ve matured.† Lily closed one eye to see if she could better glimpse into his soul and thus figure out his true agenda. She smoothed over her black vinyl skirt, which made a tortured, squeaking noise at the touch. â€Å"You’re trying to say I have a big butt, aren’t you?† â€Å"I absolutely am saying no such thing,† Charlie insisted. â€Å"I am simply saying that your presence in front of the store is an asset and will probably attract business from the tourists on the cable car.† â€Å"Oh. Okay.† Lily snatched her box of cloves off the desk and headed out past the counter and outside to brood, grieve really, because as much as she had hoped, she was not Death. The book was Charlie’s. That evening Charlie was watching the store, wondering why he had lied to his employees, when he saw a flash of red passing by the front window. A second later, a strikingly pale redhead came through the door. She was wearing a short, black cocktail dress and black fuck-me pumps. She strode up the aisle like she was auditioning for a music video. Her hair cascaded in long curls around her shoulders and down her back like a great auburn veil. Her eyes were emerald green, and when she saw him looking, she smiled, and stopped, some ten feet away. Charlie felt an almost painful jolt that seemed to emanate from somewhere in the area of his groin, and after a second he recognized it as an autonomic lust response. He hadn’t felt anything like that since Rachel had passed, and he felt vaguely ashamed. She was examining him, looking him over like you would examine a used car. He was sure he must be blushing. â€Å"Hi,† Charlie said. â€Å"Can I help you?† The redhead smiled again, just a little, and reached into a small black bag that he hadn’t noticed she’d been carrying. â€Å"I found this,† she said, holding up a silver cigarette case. Something Charlie didn’t see very often anymore, even in the secondhand business. It was glowing, pulsating like the objects in the back room. â€Å"I was in the neighborhood and something made me think that this belonged here.† She moved to the counter opposite Charlie and set the cigarette case down in front of him. Charlie could barely move. He stared at her, not even conscious that to avoid her eyes he was staring at her cleavage, and she appeared to be looking around his head and shoulders as if following the path of insects that were buzzing around him. â€Å"Touch me,† she said. â€Å"Huh?† He looked up, saw she was serious. She held out her hand; her nails were manicured and painted the same deep red as her lipstick. He took her hand. As soon as she touched him she pulled away. â€Å"You’re warm.† â€Å"Thanks.† In that moment he realized that she wasn’t. Her fingers had been ice-cold. â€Å"Then you’re not one of us?† He tried to think of what â€Å"us† might be? Irish? Low blood pressure? Nymphomaniac? Why did he even think that? â€Å"Us? What do you mean, ‘us’?† She backed away a step. â€Å"No. You don’t just take the weak and the sick, do you? You take anyone.† â€Å"Take? What do you mean, ‘take’?† â€Å"You don’t even know, do you?† â€Å"Know what?† Charlie was getting very nervous. As a Beta Male, he found it difficult enough to function under the attention of a beautiful woman, but she was just plain spooky. â€Å"Wait. Can you see this thing glowing?† He held out the cigarette case. â€Å"No glow. It just felt like it belonged here,† she said. â€Å"What’s your name?† â€Å"Charlie Asher. This is Asher’s.† â€Å"Well, Charlie, you seem like a nice guy, and I don’t know exactly what you are, and it doesn’t seem like you know. You don’t, do you?† â€Å"I’ve been going through some changes,† Charlie said, wondering why he felt compelled to share this at all. The redhead nodded, as if confirming something to herself. â€Å"Okay. I know what it’s like to, uh, to find yourself thrown into a situation where forces beyond your control are changing you into someone, something you don’t have an owner’s manual for. I understand what it is to not know. But someone, somewhere, does know. Someone can tell you what’s going on.† â€Å"What are you talking about?† But he knew what she was talking about. What he didn’t know was how she could possibly know. â€Å"You make people die, don’t you, Charlie?† She said it like she had worked up the courage to tell him that he had some spinach in his teeth. More of a service to him than an accusation. â€Å"How do you – ?† How did she – â€Å"Because it’s what I do. Not like you, but it’s what I do. Find them, Charlie. Backtrack and find whoever was there when your world changed.† Charlie looked at her, then at the cigarette case, then at the redhead again, who was no longer smiling, but was stepping backward toward the door. Trying to stay in touch with normal, he focused on the cigarette case and said, â€Å"I suppose I can do an appraisal – â€Å" He heard the bell over the door jingle, and when he looked up she was gone. He didn’t see her moving by the windows on either side of the door; she was just gone. He ran to the front of the store and out the door onto the sidewalk. The Mason Street cable car was just topping the hill up by California Street and he could hear the bell, there was a thin fog coming up from the Bay that threw colorful halos around the neon signs of the other businesses, but there was no striking redhead on the street. He went to the corner and looked down Vallejo, but again no redhead, just the Emperor, sitting against the building with his dogs. â€Å"Good evening, Charlie.† â€Å"Your Majesty, did you see a redhead go by here just now?† â€Å"Oh yes. Spoke to her. I’m not sure you have a chance there, Charlie, I believe she’s spoken for. And she did warn me to stay away from you.† â€Å"Why? Did she say why?† â€Å"She said that you were Death.† â€Å"I am?† Charlie said. â€Å"Am I?† His breath caught in his throat as the day played back in his head. â€Å"What if I am?† â€Å"You know, son,† the Emperor said, â€Å"I am not an expert in dealing with the fairer sex, but you might want to save that bit of information until the third date or so, after they’ve gotten to know you a little.† A Dirty Job Chapter 6 He’d worked up a furious appetite because breakfast was running late today. The Emperor had slept on a bench by the Maritime Museum, and during the night his arthritic knee had snaked out of his wool overcoat into the damp cold, making the walk to North Beach and the Italian bakery that gave them free day-old a slow and painful ordeal. The Emperor groaned and sat down on an empty milk crate. He was a great rolling bear of a man, his shoulders broad but a little broken from carrying the weight of the city. A white tangle of hair and beard wreathed his face like a storm cloud. As far as he could remember, he and the troops had patrolled the city streets forever, but upon further consideration, it might have just been since Wednesday. He wasn’t entirely sure. The Emperor decided to make a proclamation to the troops about the importance of compassion in the face of the rising tide of heinous fuckery and political weaselocity in the nearby kingdom of the United States. (He found his audience was most attentive to his proclamations when the meat-laced focaccia were still nuzzled in the larder of his overcoat pockets, and presently a pepperoni and Parmesan reposed fragrant in the woolly depths, so the royal hounds were rapt.) But just as he cleared his throat to begin, a cargo van came screeching around the corner, went up on two wheels as it plowed through a row of garbage cans, and slid to a stop not fifty feet away. The driver’s-side door flew open and a thin man in a suit leapt out, carrying a cane and a woman’s fur coat, and made a beeline for the back door of Asher’s. But before he got two steps the man fell to the concrete as if hit from behind, then rolled on his back and began flailing at the air with the cane an d the coat. The Emperor, who knew most everyone, recognized Charlie Asher. Bummer erupted into a fit of yapping, but the more levelheaded Lazarus growled once and took off toward Charlie. â€Å"Lazarus!† the Emperor shouted, but the retriever charged on, followed now by his bug-eyed brother in arms. Charlie was back on his feet and swinging the cane as if he was fencing with some phantom, using the coat like a shield. Living on the street, the Emperor had seen a lot of people battling with unseen demons, but Charlie Asher was apparently scoring some hits. The cane was making a thwacking noise against what appeared to be thin air – but no, there was something there, a shadow of some sort? The Emperor climbed to his feet and limped into the fray, but before he got two steps Lazarus had leapt and appeared to be attacking Charlie, but he soared over the shopkeeper and snapped at a spot above his head – then hung there, his jaws sunk into the substantial neck of thin air. Charlie took advantage of the distraction, stepped back, and swung the cane above the levitating golden retriever. There was a smack, and Lazarus let go, but now Bummer launched himself at the invisible foe. He missed whatever was there, and ended up performing a doggy swish shot into a garbage can. Charlie made for the steel door of Asher’s again, but found it locked, and as he reached for his keys, something caught him from behind. â€Å"Let go, fuckface,† the shade screeched. The fur coat Charlie was holding appeared to be swept out of his hand and was pulled straight up, over the four-story building and out of sight. Charlie turned and held the cane at ready, but whatever had been there seemed to be gone now. â€Å"Aren’t you just supposed to sit above the door and nevermore and be poetic and stuff?!† he shouted at the sky. Then, for good measure, added, â€Å"You evil fuck!† Lazarus barked, then whined. A sharp and metallic yapping rose from Bummer’s garbage can. â€Å"Well, you don’t see that every day,† said the Emperor as he limped up to Charlie. â€Å"You could see that?† â€Å"Well, no, not really. Merely a shadow, but I could see that something was there. There was something there, wasn’t there, Charlie?† Charlie nodded, trying to catch his breath. â€Å"It will be back. It followed me across the city.† He dug into his pocket for his keys. â€Å"You guys should duck into the store with me, Your Majesty.† Of course Charlie knew the Emperor. Every San Franciscan knew the Emperor. The Emperor smiled. â€Å"That’s very kind of you, but we will be perfectly safe. For now I need to free my charge from his galvanized prison.† The big man tipped the garbage can and Bummer emerged snorting and tossing his head as if ready to tear the ass out of any man or beast foolhardy enough to cross him (and he would have, as long as they were knee-high or shorter). Charlie was still having trouble with the key. He knew he should have had the lock replaced, but it worked, if you finessed it a little, so he’d never made it a priority. Who the hell thought you’d ever have to get in quick to escape a giant bird? Then he heard a screech and turned to see not one, but two huge ravens coming over the roof and diving into the alley. The dogs arfed a frantic barking salvo at the avian intruders and Charlie put so much body English into wiggling the key in the lock that he felt an atrophied dancing muscle tear in his hip. â€Å"They’re back. Cover me.† Charlie threw the cane to the Emperor and braced himself for the impact, but as soon as the cane touched the old man’s hand the birds were gone. You could almost hear the pop of the air replacing the space they had taken up. The dogs caught themselves in mid-ruff; Bummer whimpered. â€Å"What?† the Emperor said. â€Å"What?† â€Å"They’re gone.† The Emperor looked at the sky. â€Å"You’re sure?† â€Å"For now.† â€Å"I saw two shadows. Really saw them this time,† the Emperor said. â€Å"Yes, there were two this time.† â€Å"What are they?† â€Å"I have no idea, but when you took the cane they – well, they disappeared. You really saw them?† â€Å"I’m sure of it. Like smoke with a purpose.† Finally the key turned in the lock and the door to Asher’s back room swung open. â€Å"You should come in. Rest. I’ll order something to eat.† â€Å"No, no, the men and I must be on our rounds. I’ve decided to make a proclamation this morning and we need to see the printer. You’ll be needing this.† The Emperor presented the cane to Charlie like he was turning over a sword of the realm. Charlie started to take it, then thought better of it. â€Å"Your Majesty, I think you’d better keep that. It looks as if you might be able to use it.† Charlie nodded toward the Emperor’s creaky knee. The Emperor held the cane steady. â€Å"I am not a worshiper of the material, you know?† â€Å"I understand that.† â€Å"I am a firm believer that desire is the source of most of human suffering, you’re aware, and no culprit is more heinous than desire for material gain.† â€Å"I run my business based on those very principles. Still, I insist you keep the cane – as a favor to me, if you would?† Charlie found himself affecting the Emperor’s formal speech patterns, as if somehow he had been transported to a royal court where a nobleman was distinguished by bread crumbs in his beard and the royal guard were not above licking their balls. â€Å"Well, as a favor, I will accept. It is a fine piece of craftsmanship.† â€Å"But more importantly, it will permit you to make your rounds in good time.† The Emperor now betrayed the desire in his heart as he let fly a wide grin and hugged the cane to his chest. â€Å"It is fine, indeed. Charlie, I must confess something to you, but I ask you to grant me the credulity due a man who has just shared witness, with a friend, of two giant, raven-shaped shades.† â€Å"Of course.† Charlie smiled, when even a moment before he would have thought his smile lost somewhere in the months past. â€Å"I hope you won’t think me base, but the second I touched this, I felt as if I had been waiting for it my whole life.† Then, for no reason that he could think of, Charlie said, â€Å"I know.† A few minutes before, inside the store, Lily had been brooding. It wasn’t her general brood, the reaction to a world where everyone was stupid and life was meaningless and the mere act of living was futile, especially if your mother forgot to get coffee at the store. This one was a more specific brood, that had started out when she arrived at work and Ray had pointed out that it was her turn to wear the vacuuming tiara, and insisted that if she wore the tiara, she actually vacuum the store. (In fact, she liked wearing the rhinestone tiara that Charlie, in a move of blatant bourgeois sneakiness, had designated be worn by whoever did the vacuuming and sweeping each day, and no other time. It was the vacuuming and sweeping she objected to. She felt manipulated, used, and generally taken advantage of, and not in the fun way.) But today, after she’d put the tiara and the vacuum away and had finally gotten a couple of cups of coffee in her system, the brooding had gone on, bu ilding to full-scale angst, when it began to dawn on her that she was going to have to figure out this college-career thing, because despite what The Great Big Book of Death said, she had not been chosen as a dark minion of destruction. Fuck! She stood in the back room looking at all the items that Charlie had piled there the day before: shoes, lamps, umbrellas, porcelain figures, toys, a couple of books, and an old black-and-white television and a painting of a clown on black velvet. â€Å"He said this stuff was glowing?† she asked Ray, who stood in the doorway to the store. â€Å"Yes. He made me check it all with my Geiger counter.† â€Å"Ray, why the fuck do you have a Geiger counter?† â€Å"Lily, why do you have a nose stud shaped like a bat?† Lily ignored the question and picked up the ceramic frog from the night before, which now had a note taped to it that read DO NOT SELL OR DISPLAY in Charlie’s meticulous block-letter printing. â€Å"This was one of the things? This?† â€Å"That was the first one he freaked out about,† said Ray matter-of-factly. â€Å"The truant officer tried to buy it. That started it all.† Lily was shaken. She backed over to Charlie’s desk and sat in the squeaky oak swivel chair. â€Å"Do you see anything glowing or pulsating, Ray? Have you ever?† Ray shook his head. â€Å"He’s under a lot of stress, losing Rachel and taking care of the baby. I think maybe he needs to get some help. I know after I had to leave the force – † Ray paused. There was a commotion going on out in the alley, dogs barking and people shouting, then someone was working a key in the lock of the back door. A second later, Charlie came in, a little breathless, his clothes smudged here and there with grime, one sleeve of his jacket torn and bloodstained. â€Å"Asher,† Lily said. â€Å"You’re hurt.† She quickly vacated his chair while Ray took Charlie by the shoulders and sat him down. â€Å"I’m fine,† Charlie said. â€Å"No big deal.† â€Å"I’ll get the first-aid kit,† Ray said. â€Å"Get that jacket off of him, Lily.† â€Å"I’m fine,† Charlie said. â€Å"Quit talking about me like I’m not here.† â€Å"He’s delirious,† Lily said, trying to pry Charlie out of his jacket. â€Å"Do you have any painkillers, Ray?† â€Å"I don’t need painkillers,† Charlie said. â€Å"Shut up, Asher, they’re not for you,† Lily said, automatically, then she considered the book, Ray’s story, the notes on all the items in the back room, and she shuddered. It appeared that Charlie Asher might not be the hapless geek she always thought him to be. â€Å"Sorry, boss. Let us help you.† Ray came back from the front with a small plastic first-aid kit. He peeled back Charlie’s sleeve and began to clean the wounds with gauze and peroxide. â€Å"What happened?† â€Å"Nothing,† Charlie said. â€Å"I slipped and fell in some gravel.† â€Å"The wound’s pretty clean – no gravel in it. That must have been some fall.† â€Å"Long story.† Charlie sighed. â€Å"Ouch!† â€Å"What was all the noise in the alley?† Lily asked, needing badly to go smoke, but unable to pull herself away. She just couldn’t imagine that Charlie Asher was the one. How could it be him? He was so, so, unworthy. He didn’t understand the dark underbelly of life the way she did. Yet he was the one seeing the glowing objects. He was it. She was crestfallen. â€Å"Just the Emperor’s dogs after a seagull in the Dumpster. No big deal. I fell off a porch in Pacific Heights.† â€Å"The estate,† Ray said. â€Å"How’d that go?† â€Å"Not well. The husband was grief-stricken and had a heart attack while I was there.† â€Å"You’re kidding.† â€Å"No, he just sort of became overwhelmed thinking about his wife and collapsed. I gave him CPR until the EMTs came and took him off to the hospital.† â€Å"So,† Lily said, â€Å"did you get the – uh – did you get anything special?† â€Å"What?† Charlie’s eyes went wide. â€Å"What do you mean, special? There was nothing special.† â€Å"Chill, boss, I just meant will we get the grandma’s clothes?† He’s it, Lily thought. The fucker. Charlie shook his head. â€Å"I don’t know, it’s so strange. The whole thing is so strange.† He shuddered when he said it. â€Å"Strange how?† Lily said. â€Å"Strange in a cool and dark way, or strange because you’re Asher and you’re out of it most of the time?† â€Å"Lily!† Ray snapped. â€Å"Go out front. Dust something.† â€Å"You’re not the boss of me, Ray. I’m just showing my concern.† â€Å"It’s okay, Ray.† Charlie looked like he was considering how, exactly, to define strange, and not coming up with anything that was working. Finally he said, â€Å"Well, for one thing, this woman’s estate is way out of our league. The husband said he called me because we were the first secondhand store in the phone book, but he doesn’t seem like the kind of man to do something like that.† â€Å"That’s not that strange,† Lily said. Just confess, she thought. â€Å"You said that he was grief-stricken,† Ray said, dabbing antibiotic ointment on Charlie’s cuts. â€Å"Maybe he’s doing things differently.† â€Å"Yes, and he was angry at his wife, too, for the way she died.† â€Å"How?† Lily asked. â€Å"She ate silica gel,† Charlie said. Lily looked at Ray for an explanation, because silica gel sounded techno-geeky, which was Ray’s particular field of geekdom. Ray said, â€Å"It’s the antidesiccant that they pack with electronics and other things that are sensitive to humidity.† â€Å"The ‘Do Not Eat’ stuff?!† Lily said. â€Å"Oh my God, that’s so stupid. Everyone knows you don’t eat the ‘Do Not Eat’ stuff.† Charlie said, â€Å"Mr. Mainheart was pretty broken up.† â€Å"Well, I guess so,† Lily said. â€Å"He married a complete fucktard.† Charlie cringed. â€Å"Lily, that’s not appropriate.† Lily shrugged and rolled her eyes. She hated it when Charlie dropped into Dad mode. â€Å"Okay, okay. I’m going outside to smoke.† â€Å"No!† Charlie jumped out of the chair and put himself between Lily and the back door. â€Å"Out front. From now on if you have to smoke you go out front.† â€Å"But you said that I look like a child hooker when I smoke out front.† â€Å"I’ve reassessed. You’ve matured.† Lily closed one eye to see if she could better glimpse into his soul and thus figure out his true agenda. She smoothed over her black vinyl skirt, which made a tortured, squeaking noise at the touch. â€Å"You’re trying to say I have a big butt, aren’t you?† â€Å"I absolutely am saying no such thing,† Charlie insisted. â€Å"I am simply saying that your presence in front of the store is an asset and will probably attract business from the tourists on the cable car.† â€Å"Oh. Okay.† Lily snatched her box of cloves off the desk and headed out past the counter and outside to brood, grieve really, because as much as she had hoped, she was not Death. The book was Charlie’s. That evening Charlie was watching the store, wondering why he had lied to his employees, when he saw a flash of red passing by the front window. A second later, a strikingly pale redhead came through the door. She was wearing a short, black cocktail dress and black fuck-me pumps. She strode up the aisle like she was auditioning for a music video. Her hair cascaded in long curls around her shoulders and down her back like a great auburn veil. Her eyes were emerald green, and when she saw him looking, she smiled, and stopped, some ten feet away. Charlie felt an almost painful jolt that seemed to emanate from somewhere in the area of his groin, and after a second he recognized it as an autonomic lust response. He hadn’t felt anything like that since Rachel had passed, and he felt vaguely ashamed. She was examining him, looking him over like you would examine a used car. He was sure he must be blushing. â€Å"Hi,† Charlie said. â€Å"Can I help you?† The redhead smiled again, just a little, and reached into a small black bag that he hadn’t noticed she’d been carrying. â€Å"I found this,† she said, holding up a silver cigarette case. Something Charlie didn’t see very often anymore, even in the secondhand business. It was glowing, pulsating like the objects in the back room. â€Å"I was in the neighborhood and something made me think that this belonged here.† She moved to the counter opposite Charlie and set the cigarette case down in front of him. Charlie could barely move. He stared at her, not even conscious that to avoid her eyes he was staring at her cleavage, and she appeared to be looking around his head and shoulders as if following the path of insects that were buzzing around him. â€Å"Touch me,† she said. â€Å"Huh?† He looked up, saw she was serious. She held out her hand; her nails were manicured and painted the same deep red as her lipstick. He took her hand. As soon as she touched him she pulled away. â€Å"You’re warm.† â€Å"Thanks.† In that moment he realized that she wasn’t. Her fingers had been ice-cold. â€Å"Then you’re not one of us?† He tried to think of what â€Å"us† might be? Irish? Low blood pressure? Nymphomaniac? Why did he even think that? â€Å"Us? What do you mean, ‘us’?† She backed away a step. â€Å"No. You don’t just take the weak and the sick, do you? You take anyone.† â€Å"Take? What do you mean, ‘take’?† â€Å"You don’t even know, do you?† â€Å"Know what?† Charlie was getting very nervous. As a Beta Male, he found it difficult enough to function under the attention of a beautiful woman, but she was just plain spooky. â€Å"Wait. Can you see this thing glowing?† He held out the cigarette case. â€Å"No glow. It just felt like it belonged here,† she said. â€Å"What’s your name?† â€Å"Charlie Asher. This is Asher’s.† â€Å"Well, Charlie, you seem like a nice guy, and I don’t know exactly what you are, and it doesn’t seem like you know. You don’t, do you?† â€Å"I’ve been going through some changes,† Charlie said, wondering why he felt compelled to share this at all. The redhead nodded, as if confirming something to herself. â€Å"Okay. I know what it’s like to, uh, to find yourself thrown into a situation where forces beyond your control are changing you into someone, something you don’t have an owner’s manual for. I understand what it is to not know. But someone, somewhere, does know. Someone can tell you what’s going on.† â€Å"What are you talking about?† But he knew what she was talking about. What he didn’t know was how she could possibly know. â€Å"You make people die, don’t you, Charlie?† She said it like she had worked up the courage to tell him that he had some spinach in his teeth. More of a service to him than an accusation. â€Å"How do you – ?† How did she – â€Å"Because it’s what I do. Not like you, but it’s what I do. Find them, Charlie. Backtrack and find whoever was there when your world changed.† Charlie looked at her, then at the cigarette case, then at the redhead again, who was no longer smiling, but was stepping backward toward the door. Trying to stay in touch with normal, he focused on the cigarette case and said, â€Å"I suppose I can do an appraisal – â€Å" He heard the bell over the door jingle, and when he looked up she was gone. He didn’t see her moving by the windows on either side of the door; she was just gone. He ran to the front of the store and out the door onto the sidewalk. The Mason Street cable car was just topping the hill up by California Street and he could hear the bell, there was a thin fog coming up from the Bay that threw colorful halos around the neon signs of the other businesses, but there was no striking redhead on the street. He went to the corner and looked down Vallejo, but again no redhead, just the Emperor, sitting against the building with his dogs. â€Å"Good evening, Charlie.† â€Å"Your Majesty, did you see a redhead go by here just now?† â€Å"Oh yes. Spoke to her. I’m not sure you have a chance there, Charlie, I believe she’s spoken for. And she did warn me to stay away from you.† â€Å"Why? Did she say why?† â€Å"She said that you were Death.† â€Å"I am?† Charlie said. â€Å"Am I?† His breath caught in his throat as the day played back in his head. â€Å"What if I am?† â€Å"You know, son,† the Emperor said, â€Å"I am not an expert in dealing with the fairer sex, but you might want to save that bit of information until the third date or so, after they’ve gotten to know you a little.†

Wednesday, November 20, 2019

Project Management in Safety, Security and Emergency Management Assignment

Project Management in Safety, Security and Emergency Management - Assignment Example Although, organizations fall into different industries, there are specific standards that define the operations, management, and control of reference organizations (Nollau, 2009). The National Fire protection Association (NFPA) 1600 is a standard that seeks to influence Business Continuity Plan development in different organizations. This paper defines, summarizes, and derives the impact of the NFPA 1600 standard on its impact on building a business Continuity Planning to restore stopped business operations at a warehouse. The 2013 edition of the NFPA 1600 is a standard on Disaster/Emergency Management and Business Continuity Programs produced by the National Fire protection Association that can have an impact on Business Continuity Plan development (National Fire Protection Association, 2014). The NFPA 1600 standard enjoys the recognition of the National Commission on Terrorist Attacks upon the United States where it assumes the role of a National Preparedness Standard (National Fire Protection Association, 2014). Subject to its effectiveness, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security adopts the NFPA 1600 standard as a voluntary consensus standard for emergency preparedness. The National Fire protection Association produces different editions of the NFPA 1600 standard with an aim of addressing different issues. The 2013 edition addresses Disaster/Emergency Management and Business Continuity Programs (National Fire Protection Association, 2014). As such, the public, governments, private companies, non- profitable associations, and nongovernmental organizations rely on this standard to address local, national, regional, and global issues (Lindstrà ¶m, Samuelsson & Hà ¤gerfors, 2010). As such, the NFPA 1600 standard seeks to inform the audience or users of NFPA, standards, codes, guidelines, and recommended actions that the issuance of Tentative Interim

Tuesday, November 19, 2019

Are you ready for the Big Data Coursework Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Are you ready for the Big Data - Coursework Example The competitor company had used this ability to carry out myriad of experiments in the real world giving it a competitive advantage. The main point the authors put across is that big data collection is the game changer in the 21st century corporate world. Big data has the potential to revolutionalize the management practices. The authors pose a challenge to the companies to decide whether they are ready to exploit the potential of big data and to manage the threats it could pose effectively. The rest of the article explores the important ways in which big data could transform the competition in the corporate world, alter the corporate ecosystems and improve innovation. One of the major elements of organization development is effective communication across all organizational sectors and also extending to external stakeholders such as the suppliers. This article lays emphasis on the importance of sharing data across the different lines of business such as finance, management, productio n and sales and marketing. It further calls for integration of the organizations data system with suppliers, data systems in order to accrue benefits such as instant stock replenishment and real-time price adjustment. It argues that the tendency of many companies to accumulate huge volumes of data in their silos and other forms of information hoarding impedes timely exploitation of this data. This is not in line with essentials for organization development. Organizations need to open these data enclaves and integrate data from various systems.

Saturday, November 16, 2019

Solution Exercise Essay Example for Free

Solution Exercise Essay AM by submitting on blackboard Guideline This homework is an â€Å"individual† data mining experiment. Plagiary is definitely not allowed. If any classmate or other person helps you on doing this homework, you need to specify who and which portion you got help from. You credit will be given to the helper (it is fair, right). The helper should also mention who get your assistant on this homework. Zero point will be given if your homework is found to be the same with others without any mention. You are required to use computer language (C, C++, or Java) or computer software (matlab or Weka) to do the data mining experiment and analysis. Other software or language is allowed based on the approval of the instructor. You need to specify which software or program you are using for this homework. If you use other person’s program or any program downloaded from internet, you need to address where you get it, and who is the author. If you decide to write your own program, please submit your source code. Extra credit will be given if you write your own program on any portion of this homework. No matter which kind of method you choose for this homework, you need to be careful on adjusting the parameter, if there is. Please do an experiment on how to obtain the better parameters and write down you analysis on this homework. You need to submit your homework written by MS Word through blackboard system. The homework should not longer than 10-page limit (source code should put in the appendix). No late homework is allowed! I. Congressional Voting Records (50%) http://archive.ics.uci.edu/ml/datasets/Congressional+Voting+Records Go to the UCI Machine Learning Repository to download the â€Å"Congressional Voting Records Data Set† or download house-votes-84.csv file from blackboard. Then, chose at least two different classification methods (decision tree, rule-based, Bayesian, ANN, SVM, Ensemble) to predict party affiliation (democrat or republican). You can use any kind of statistical software (such as mintab) or Excel to show the data exploration. Please PLOT it! How do you handle the missing values? The reasons of choosing classification methods Classification method implementation or software usage Specify how you do the experiment? Which software package you are using? Or, you write your own program? Also, you need to specify all the parameters you are using for the chosen methods, and explain how you make the adjustment. Result of 10-fold cross validation for each method Show your best result! Model comparison II. Wisconsin Diagnostic Breast Cancer (WDBC) (50%) http://archive.ics.uci.edu/ml/datasets/Breast+Cancer+Wisconsin+(Diagnostic) Go to the UCI Machine Learning Repository to download â€Å"Wisconsin Diagnostic Breast Cancer (WDBC)† dataset or download wdbc-data.csv file from blackboard. Please make sure you download wdbc.data not wpbc.data. Then, chose at least two different classification methods (decision tree, rule-based, Bayesian, ANN, SVM, Ensemble) to predict diagnostic result (malignant or benign). You homework should contains following sections. 1. Data exploration You can use any kind of statistical software (such as mintab) or Excel to show the data exploration. Please PLOT it! 2. The reasons of choosing classification methods 3. Apply one dimension reduction technique on the dataset 4. Classification method implementation or software usage Specify how you do the experiment? Which software package you are using? Or, you write your own program? Also, you need to specify all the parameters you are using for the chosen methods, and explain how you make the adjustment. 5. Result of 10-fold cross validation for each method Show your best result! 6. Model Comparison III. Extra credit (20%) Review some classification papers (at least one paper for each dataset) which use these two dataset for their experiment. Compare your result with them. Summarize what you found.

Thursday, November 14, 2019

Parallels Between The Causes Of The 1929 Wall Street Crash And The Curr

The purpose of this essay is to explore the parallels between the underlying factors which led to the 1929 Wall Street Crash and the present Credit Crunch. The 1929 Wall Street crash was caused by weaknesses in the US economy. After WW1 the USA experienced a decade of economic growth generated by the levels of mass production and industrial growth during the war years. This along with the popular culture of success (the Jazz and party scene) made America appear a hugely prosperous country. However, the glitz and glamour of USA was superficial as very few reaped the benefits of this wealth. There were also many weaknesses to this economic growth as it was not achieved in a wholly sustainable way. This can be compared to the USA of the last decade. The economy has appeared to be healthy and prosperous; however, like the economy of the 1920s, there have been many underlying weaknesses. The Republican party of the 1920s believed in low taxation on businesses and protectionism, marking a clear break with the Wilson ideas of ‘free trade’. They introduced acts such as the 1922 Fordney-McCumber Tariff, which raised import duties on chemical and farming products and the 1925 Revenue Act which abolished gift tax, halved estate tax and cut maximum surtax from 40% to 20%. Both presidents of the 20s, Harding and Coolidge, very much believed in ‘minimal government’, believing that the government’s role was to balance the budget, reduce taxes and reduce debt. This Republican view was the essential basis of the economic prosperity seen during the period. They allowed businesses to operate within a wall of economic protection. Profits were increasing and pushing the economy and the feeling of ’prosperity’ yet due to the lack of government r... ...wnward spiral towards a downturn. In the last decade the same thing has happened in regards to securitization and over lending by banks to individuals. The parallels that can be drawn between the two eras can give us a clearer understanding of our current economic crisis. It can also help economists in coming up with solutions as the eras share vital characteristics. However it is just as important to take into account the differences between the two eras, as it would be a mistake to see the eras as an analogy of one another. US society has changed a lot since the 1920s, and the 1920s certainly never witnessed the levels of consumerism that we witness today. However it is perhaps globalization which makes the crisis we face now more complicated to deal with as this has had one of the most profound effects on markets and worldwide trade over the past seventy years.

Monday, November 11, 2019

Captain My Captain by Walt Whitman Essay

This poem filled my mind with great memories snd make think of my loved ones who are now Angels. I am still feeling the connection. In my opinion, I can say that peopleare physically dead be we can keep them in our mind alive as long as we want them to be part of our lives. Father and I had different character. We had the same interest such as reading, watching news, assisting on conference-debates. We had the same taste but we were hardly shared our opinion. This was because of me, I was very shy when I was a teenager. That makes our relationship† very special† and I miss it deeply. We did many things together that help us to become good friend such as driving. When I was 19 year old, my captain taught to drive and new situations always make me bit nervous, and my first drive was no exception. Things were not quite easy for me, but my captain was very patient. This driving session brought us very close to each other because I could not avoid him like I used to do before. I had at least 6 hours a week for my driving lesson. My late father there for me every time I needed him. When I started the University, he was driving me to school like a little girl who starts a kindergarden. I was not the only child in the house but I was so special. Life then was stress free because everything has been taking care of me. My only sadness is that my son will never meet his grandfather spending time together, playing around, but I know even from Heaven he is watching over us. He is now my angel and he is very proud of me because I am following his paths.

Saturday, November 9, 2019

Western Heritage 8th Edition

Brittney Henley Pd. 2A Chapter 12: Age of Religious Wars Key Topics; -War between Calvinists and Catholics in France. -The Spanish occupation of the Netherlands. -Struggle for supremacy between England and Spain. -The devastation of Central Europe during the Thirty Years’ War. Vocabulary |Notes | | | | |Counter Reformation- A movement within the Rome |Renewed Religious Struggle | |Catholic Church that sought to revitalize the |Peace of Augsburg (1555)- A regions rule would determine its religion, However it | |church and oppose Protestantism. did not recognize Non Lutheran Protestants | | |Geneva became a refuge for persecuted protestants and an international school for | |Baroque Art- 3 dimensional display of life and |protestant leaders | |energy. | | | | |Politiques- Ruler who urged tolerance and |French Wars of Religion | |moderation and compromise on religious matters |Anti-Protestant Measures and the struggle for political power | | |French Protestants are known as Hu guenots. | |They were persecuted by the French, when King Charles of Germany / Spain captured | |Huguenots- French Protestants. |Frances King’. To pacify King Charles, France persecutes the Huguenots in the | | |hopes of gaining the freedom of the King of France. | | | | |Edict of Fontainebleau—Subjected French Protestants to the inquisition | | |France remain hostile to the protestants until King Henry of Navarre gains the | | |throne | | | | | |3 competing fraction for the Kings (Francis II) ear in France | | |Bourbons- power in the south and west | | |Montmorency-Chatillons- controlled the center of France | | |Guises- dominate in eastern France / Strongest power and had more influence over | | |the king due to family connection | | |Bourbons and Montmorency-Chatillons developed strong Huguenot sympathies | | | | | |Conspiracy of Amboise (1560) – Bourbons and Montmorency-Chatillons plotted to | | |kidnap the king of France (Frances II) | | | | | |Appeal of Calvinism | | |Huguenots were in important geographic areas and were heavily represented among | | |the more powerful segments of French society. They wanted to establish sovereignty| | |with in France. | | | | | |Catherine De Medici and the Guises | | |Catherine mother to 15 year old Frances II becomes the regent of France upon the | | |death of her husband Henry II. | |On the death of Frances II her younger son Charles IX becomes king where she | | |resides as regent. Catherine fears the power of the Guiles family and sought | | |alliances with the Protestants. | | |She issues the January Edict which allows protestants freedom to worship publicly | | |outside of towns. | | |Duke of Guise surprised a protestant congregation at Vassy, Champagne and | | |massacred the worshipers.This is the beginning of the French wars of Religion | | |March 1562 | | | | | | | | |Peace of Saint-Germain-en-Laye (1570) | | |Ended the thirty year war, the crown acknowledging the power of the Protest ant | | |nobility, granted Huguenots religious freedoms within their territory. | | |Catherine fearing the mounting power of the other two families and Protestants she| |Coligny: leader of the Huguenots, Charles IX most|cultivates the support of the Guise. | |trusted advisor. | | | |The Saint Bartholomew’s Day Massacre | | |Catherine tried to have Coligny assassinated by a bullet.Fearing the fallout from| | |the attempt, she convinces King Charles that the Huguenots were attempting to | | |attack Paris | | |On Saint Bartholomew’s Day August 24, 1572, Coligny and 3000 Huguenots were | | |massacred in Paris. Within 3days another 20,000 were executed | | | | | |The Rise to Power of Henry Navarre | | |Henry III sought the middle ground and gained support from a growing body of | |Protestant Resistance Theory: |neutral Catholics and Huguenots. | | | |John Knox- wrote First Blast of the Trumpet |Peace of Beaulieu (May 1576)- granted the Huguenots almost complete religio us and | |against the Terrible Regiment of Women |civil freedom. It was later recanted because of political pressure of the Catholic| |-He declared removal of a heathen tyrant was |League. Both religious orders pick up arms. | |permissible | | | |Henry Navarre led the Protestant army. Henry III brother-in-law) | |Francois Hotman- wrote Franco-Gallia | | |-Humanist argument that representative Estate |Day of the Barricades –Henry III surprise attack on the Catholic League (Spain | |General held more authority then the French king |Supported) and failed. Henry then assassinated the Duke and Cardinal of Guise. | | |Reprisal from the League was fierce causing Henry III to join forces with Henry | |Theodore Beza- wrote On the Right of Magistrates |Navarre. Henry III was killed; Henry IV (Navarre) is the next successor to the | |Over their Subjects |throne. |-Permissible for lower authorities to overthrow | | |tyrannical rulers |Protestant as king, the League wants France to be Catholic but politically weak so| | |Spain sends in troops to help achieve this goal in hopes of putting his daughter | |Philippe du Plessis Mornay- Defense of Liberty |on the throne. | |Against Tyrants |The French rallied behind their king disbanding the League and outing the Spanish. | |-Princes, Nobles and magistrates are guardians |Henry IV turns Catholic.Ending the war of religion in France | |and to take up arms against tyranny in other land| | | | | | | | | |Edict of Nantes | | |Proclaimed a formal religious settlement it recognized minor religions in an | | |official Catholic country | | | | | |Treaty of Vervins -ended hostility between France and Spain | | | | | |Imperial Spain and the Reign of Philip II | | |Gold Silver and bullion were being imported from Spain’s colonies in the New | | |World. | | |The increased wealth and population in large cities in Europe triggered inflation. | | | | | |Fewer jobs, less food, wages stagnated and greater coinage in circul ation while | | |prices increased. | | | | |The Revolt in the Netherlands- | | |Antoine Perrenot- Cardinal Granvelle. | | |Perrenot hoped to break the local autonomy of the Netherlands providences and | | |establish a centralized royal government directed from Madrid, and religious | | |conformity to Catholic. | | |Granvelle proceeded to reorganize the Netherlands. | |William of Nassau (Prince of Orange) & Count of Egmont organized the Dutch | | |nobility in opposition, which had Granvelle removed from office | | | | | |The Compromise- | | |Margaret (Regent of Spain) spurned the protesters. Leads them to call for aid and | | |rebel against Spain; however the nobility does not support the rebellion. | | |Duke of Alba-sent to the Netherlands to gain control back. | | |He had several thousand suspected heretics publicly executed. | | |He then taxed the people of Netherlands to pay for the suppressing of the revolt. | | | | |Pacification of Ghent- | | |November 4 1576: Spanish mercen aries ran amok in Antwerp killing 7000 people in | | |the streets known as the Spanish fury. | | | | | |Pacification of Ghent (November 8, 1575)- Catholic regions and Protestant regions | | |in the Netherlands unified to oppose Spain. | | | | | |Perpetual Edict- provided for removal of all Spanish troops from the Netherlands | | |within 20 days. | | | | | | | |Netherlands Independence- | | |King of Spain Phillip II declared William of Orange an outlaw. | | |December 1580 William of Orange publicly denounced Phillip as a Heathen and tyrant| | |and should not be obeyed. | | |Known as The Apology. | | |Peace of Westphalia in 1648 – Netherlands is fully recognized | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |England and Spain 1553-1603 | | |[pic] | | | | | |Jane Grey (granddaughter to Henry), 3rd Queen | | | | | | | | | | | |Mary I – reign lasted 5 years | | |Edward VI died. | | |Lady Jane Grey tried to ascend to throne. | | |Mary Tudor was the rightful heir. Grey-9 days Queen then beheaded. | | |Mary marries Prince Philip II of Spain. Mary | | |Had Parliament repeal the Protestant laws.Mary | | |Decreed all of England Catholic, burned Protestant leaders at the stake. | | |Dies 1558 | | | | |The Compromise: A solemn pledge to resist the |Elizabeth I – takes throne 1558 | |decrees of Trent and the Inquisition. |Daughter of Henry and half sister to Mary. | | |Advisor William Cecil. | |Passed laws for religious toleration | | | | | |Act of Supremacy 1559- Repealing all anti-Protestant legislation of Mary Tudor. | | | | | |Phillip II seeks marriage with Elizabeth. | | |Mary Stuart, Queen of Scots seeks England throne. | | |Supporters claim Elizabeth is illegitimate. | | |Queen of Scots is the granddaughter to Henry the VIII’s sister Margaret. | |Raised French and Catholic. | | | | | |Deterioration of Relation with Spain | | |Spanish Duke of Alba (1547)- marched troops into the Netherlands; England sees | | |this as a threat du e its close proximity to England. | | |Elizabeth allows pirating of Spanish vessels. | | | | |Mary Queen of Scots | | |Elizabeth executes Mary Queen of Scotts (second cousin) for plotting against the | | |crown. | | |Mary’s husband is killed by her lover, who is acquitted, and then marries Mary. | | |This causes outrage from her people. | | |Mary surrenders her throne to her one year old son James VI, who later becomes | | |Elizabeth’s heir to throne. | |The pope authorize Spain to invade England for the killing of Mary who was their | | |hope to turn England Catholic | | | | | |The Armanda | | |May 30 1587 -130 ships with 25,000 sailors sent to invade England. | | |Spain wanted the ships to dock in France before continuing the invasion. | | |France prohibits the ships from leaving and a fog roles in around the channel. | | |England has advantage and wins. | | | | |Thirty Year War | | |Preconditions for War | | |Germany = Holly Rome | | |Germany consists of 360 a utonomous entities. | | |Each had its own tolls, taxes, coins and religion, making it difficult to travel | | |and do business | | | | |Four Periods of War- | | |Bohemian (1618-1625) Swedish (1630-1635) | | |Danish (1625-1629) Swedish-French (1635-1648) | | | | | |Bohemian Period- | | |Ferdinand ascends to the throne and wants to return the region to Catholicism. | | |He revokes the religious freedoms of the Bohemian Protestants. | | | | | |Defenestration of Prague- Protestant nobility in Prague throw Ferdinand III’s | | |regents out of window in reaction to the revoke of religious freedoms. They did | | |not die, landed on manure which cushioned their fall. | | | | |Ferdinand was managed to subdue the Protestants and re-Catholicize Bohemian | | | | | |Danish Period- (1625-1629) | | |Lutheran King Christian IV of Demark picks up Protestant banner-invades Germany | | |and loses. | | |Ferdinand attacks Demark and breaks Protestant resistance. | | |Causes fear among all Protestants. | | | | | |Edict of Restitution in 1629- Calvinism is illegal and orders the return of all | | |church lands acquired by the Lutherans. | | | | | | | |The Swedish Periods (1630-1635) | | |Gustavus Adolphus king of Sweden | | |Was a unified Lutheran nation, bankrolled by France, an wished to keep the | | |Habsburg armies tied down in Germany. | | |Adolphus won several battles due to a lighter army and better weapons. | | |Adolphus is killed on the battlefield. | | | | |Peace of Prague in 1635- majority of the Protestants states reached a compromise | | |with Ferdinand, barring the Swedes | | | | | |Peace of Prague plunged them into the fourth war. | | | | | |The Swedish-French Period (1635-1648) | | |The French join the war in 1635. | | |Dragged on for 13 years with Spanish, French and Swedish soldiers looting Germany. | | | | |About 1/3 of the German population died as a direct result of the war. | | | | | |Treaty of Westphalia- | | | | | |The Treaty of Westph alia 1648 -brought all hostilities within the Holy Roman | | |Empire to an end.Ended Edict of Restitution and reasserted the Peace of Augsburg,| | |which allows each ruler to determine its religion. | | | | | |German princes become supreme over their principalities. | Summary: From Martin Luther’s death in 1546 until the middle of the seventeenth century, European life was dominated by religiously and politically inspired violence. France descended into nearly 50 years of civil war before emerging with a united monarchy under the terms of the Edict of Nantes in 1598. Spain escaped civil strife and remained firmly Catholic.Spain’s American empire provided immense wealth, but Spain failed to subdue Protestant nationalism in the Netherlands and suffered defeat of its Armada naval fleet at the hands of the English. As a result, Spain’s position in international affairs declined. Unlike the French, the English managed to avoid civil war under the inspired leadership of Queen Elizabeth I. In Germany, the original center of the Reformation, Lutherans and Catholics had come to tolerate each other. But in the early seventeenth century the temporary compromises collapsed. The resulting free-for-all, known as the Thirty Years’ War (1618–1648), consumed much of Europe’s energies until it was resolved in the Peace of Westphalia. ———————– Elizabeth I 4th, Queen Mary I 2nd, Queen Edward VI 1st, King Henry VIII King

Thursday, November 7, 2019

3 Secrets That Will Maximize Your SEO Success With Lydia Gilberston

3 Secrets That Will Maximize Your SEO Success With Lydia Gilberston Search engine optimization, or SEO, gets a lot of attention. While everyone knows it’s important, not everyone knows how to do it. You can get a lot of surface-level advice on SEO, but today we’re going to dig a little deeper by talking to a true expert in the field. Lydia Gilbertson is from Distilled in Seattle, Washington, She has a lot of knowledge and experience working with large clients where organic rankings are important to the bottom line. We’re going to talk about how to write content with SEO in mind, how to structure a sitemap, and some ideas for increasing site speed. Some of the highlights of the show include: What Lydia does at Distilled and what types of problems she helps solve. Searcher intent: What it is and why it’s important for SEO. Where marketers should start if they want to optimize their current content. What sitemaps are and why they’re important, as well as where many sitemaps go wrong. The importance of site speed for SEO and why it matters. Lydia also shares her best tips for improving site speed. Lydia’s top advice for increasing your organic search rankings. Powered by PodcastMotor Actionable Content Marketing powered by By AMP055: 3 Secrets That Will Maximize Your SEO Success With Lydia Gilbertson From Distilled 00:00/00:00 1x 100 > Download file Subscribe on iTunes Leave Review Share Links: Distilled Screaming Frog Page Speed Insights If you liked today’s show, please subscribe on iTunes to The Actionable Content Marketing Podcast! The podcast is also available on SoundCloud, Stitcher, and Google Play. Quotes by Lydia: â€Å"A good portion of [getting into the searcher’s mind] is just basic empathy towards trying to put yourself in the user’s situation.† â€Å"A good way to keep your sitemap organized is to just remember that it’s there.† â€Å"Optimize your website for just being a good user-friendly website. It’s generally the most important thing that you could focus on.†

Monday, November 4, 2019

The Federalist Number Ten Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

The Federalist Number Ten - Essay Example First strategy proposed by Madison is eliminating the causes of factions. Second, Madison provides a proposal involving controlling the effects of factions in a democratic society. Eliminating the formation of factions in the society may be in two ways. The first viable option is eliminating liberty that permits factions to form or developing similar interest. The second option is to discourage the passions and opinions in people to control the effects of factions (Hamilton, 2006). According to Madison, the causes to factions are impracticable to eliminate. Therefore, the most-feasible strategy is controlling the effects of factions in a democratic society. A minority faction in a pure democracy poses insignificant threat since it is easy to outvote and suppress it. On the contrary, the majority faction has power to control the government completely. Therefore, modification is necessary to any democracy to protect the minority from oppression by minority. According to Madison, allowing citizens to make their laws promotes the risk of promoting self-interest at the expense of public interests. In such situations, majority society members oppress the minority to their advantage (Hamilton, 2006). James Madison asserts that citizens have different self-interests, and every society forms factions that sometimes harm fellow citizens. The Articles of Confederation never controlled the adverse effects of factions on the nations effectively prompting the necessity for a new government. Madison concludes that a diverse nation ruled by the majority can thrive if it factors a fair consideration for all. Madison, J. (November 23, 1787). The Same Subject Continued: The Union as a Safeguard Against Domestic Faction and Insurrection. The Federalist Papers No. 10. Retrieved from

Saturday, November 2, 2019

Mitosis Lab Report Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Mitosis - Lab Report Example The prepared and preserved slides were observed under the microscope. The different stages of the mitosis such as interphase, prophase, meta phase, anaphase and telophase of the cell along with the cytokinesis were identified and the stages were differentiated. Introduction: All the living things are made of cells. In a multi-cellular organism, two types of cell division occur: they are mitosis and meiosis. Mitosis or Somatic cell division is the process in which one cell divides into two equal cells with genetic identity. The cell division is necessary for the growth and development of the cells. The transformation of information from one generation to another is called heredity and the genes which are the fundamental part of the chromosome are responsible for the transformation. The chromosomes are present in pairs. Each pair is responsible for a specific part or function in the cell. These chromosomes are distributed equally in new cells during mitosis. Mitosis is thus described a s the chromosomal division. This chromosomal division is accompanied by the cytoplasmic division called as cytokinesis. The mitosis along with cytokinesis results in the formation of two daughter cells. This is also called as cell cycle. Cell cycle is the period in which the cell divides and becomes two daughter cells. ... There are four stages in mitosis. They are prophase, metaphase, anaphase and telophase. (Allen and Harper 2011). Prophase is the first stage of mitosis which is visible. The chromosomes, which are randomly distributed in the cytoplasm condense to form the distinct part. They are held in a single line. Metaphase is the stage in which the chromosome is attached to the centromere through the spindle fibril. The centromeres are connected to the centrioles and the centrioles pulls the chromatids to the opposite directions. This step initiates the cell division. Anaphase is the stage where the chromosomes move to the position of centriole. The chromosomes are seen as complete sets in the opposite side of the cell. Telophase is the last stage of mitosis in which the chromosomes begins to loosen itself from the thicker rigid structure into thin filaments. The division of the cytoplasm starts at this particular point. Materials required: Prepared slide of Allium root tip Prepared slide of whi te fish blastula. Microscope. Method: 1. The prepared slide of allium (onion) root tip was mounted on the microscope. 2. The 4x objective lenswas used to focus the centre of the slide. 3. The cells undergoing the four stages of mitosis such as prophase, metaphase , anaphase and telophase were identified in the slide using the 10x magnification. 4. Using the 40x magnification in the microscope, the distinct chromosomes and the other cell structures were identified. 5. Similarly, the whitefish blastula slide was mounted on the microscope and the blastula sections were observed using the 4x magnification. 6. Then 40 x magnification was chosen to examine the chromosomes. The cells in each phase of mitosis were identified. Result: For the Onion Root tip: 1. In the interphase stage, nucleus,